The guillotine choke is a submission hold that you have undoubtedly seen before if you have spent any time training mixed martial arts or Brazilian Jujitsu. You most likely have seen it in many televised MMA events also. In fact, it’s one of the most common submissions you will see when you tune in to watch a MMA event, such as the UFC, on the old boobtube.
So why is it that you constantly see it? Well, it basically comes down to the fact that during the course of a mixed martial arts fight most MMA fighters will put themselves into a position to be guillotined many times throughout a fight. Every time someone goes for a takedown and places their head to the outside of the opponents body they put themselves right into position. So if you are going to be stepping into the ring with someone that will most likely be putting themselves into position for a certain technique many time through out a fight, don’t you think it would be a good idea to learn it? Good, then let’s get started.
The guillotine is a choke hold that can cause the tap by being either a blood choke or air choke depending on how it is performed. If the pressure from the forearm is placed against the wind pipe then of course you are going to get an air choke but if the pressure is on the arteries of the neck then you will get a blood choke.
In addition to there being two ways that this submission hold can cause the tap. There are also two primary positions that it can be applied from. Standing and on the ground. when applying it in the most commonly see way, on the ground from the guard, you should try to get the opponent into your full guard. If not it will be very hard to finish the choke and get him to tap.
As for instructions, I will leave it up to these well done videos by the members on the Gracie Family.
Renzo Gracie Demonstrates the Guillotine Choke
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The Guillotine Choke On the Ground and Standing
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An added bonus of learning how to apply this submission is that you are going to get a better idea of how to defend it also. And if you will be putting yourself in position to be guillotined everytime you go for a takedown with the head on the outside, then it would be a good idea to get used to defending it.
