I managed to film three submissions a few weeks ago in advanced class – the armbar, the reverse key lock and the guillotine. Today, I got around to editing the videos for the guillotine.
The idea behind this video is the same as it has been for the other two videos: to look at the same submission from at least two angles in hopes that students will gain a broader understanding of the move and thus be able to “fit in” the move more often during a live rolling session.
The three submissions we tried the guillotine from were the guard, the mount and the cross body. Two rules apply for securing the choke from all these positions: get the arm deep and take away your partner’s hips. Getting the arm deep from the guard means pulling your partner towards you as you simultaneously lift yourself up towards them. It’s also often helpful to use the not choking arm to pull the choking arm in deeper. Getting the arm deep from the mount means getting your partner to lift up their head (perhaps in reaction to some other attack you are making) and then sliding your arm underneath. It’s usually difficult to get assistance from your free arm to secure the choke from the mount but it can be helpful to grab your own shirt with your choking arm and use that grip to help deepen the move. Securing a deep lock from the cross body often involves going for (or pretending to go for) the key lock, getting your partner to lift their head up to try and fight you off and then giving up the key lock to slide an arm behind their neck.
To take away your partner’s hips when you’ve got them in the guard, try bringing your legs as far up their torso as you can. The higher up you are, the more difficult it is for them to posture up and resist the submission. For the mount (or the cross body, after you move to the mount position to finish), loop your feet on the inside of your partner’s legs and then push away with your leg strength (it’s called the grapevine). This will pull the lower half of their body away from being able to fight against the choke.
No doubt there are countless other positions to get this choke from and equally many ways to secure it. Keep looking!
