Guillotine defense

Tonight was a tough night, got submitted so many times, didn't get any submissions and ran out of gas quickly. Anyways, learnt a few things tonight about Guillotine defense.

Basic guillotine defense from standing

When your opponent attempts to get a guillotine on you when standing and they have their hands around your neck, with your arm closest to their body, throw it over their opposite shoulder as far as you can with the inside of your arm against their body. When they try to raise their hips and lock the choke in, your arm over their shoulder should raise you up and foil the choke. However, you obviously want to get out of this position as soon as possible.

As a follow on from this, if step around their body towards your arm around their shoulder, buckle their knee and with your other arm, pull their far leg up to take them down. This is likely to end up with you in side control and if they're trying to keep the guillotine, a good position to transition into one of a few moves.

From Guillotine side control
There are several transitions you can seek from being in a guillotine from side control. Generally someone trying to keep you in guillotine does not have much leverage and ability to close off the choke.

Arm bar
First way to deal with it is to walk your legs around to front control. They are likely to be on their side at this point and if you bring your leg around behind their shoulder, snag their arm and leave your other leg on the original side of their head, you can lean back and get the arm bar. Make sure to pinch your knees.

Kimura Lock v1
Second option is to walk around like before to front control. As you reach front control, pass their arm over your head with the arm that was lower on their body, grabbing the wrist. Put your knee on their arm closest to the floor to pin their shoulder to the floor. With your free hand, snake it under their arm that you are grabbing and grab your wrist in the Kimura lock. Rotate their arm towards their back, maintaining the 90 degree angle for the lock.

Kimura Lock v2 - Loosening guillotine
A third option is that if they are realising they can't get the Kimura lock and are starting to loosen it, you can slip their arm over your head with the arm that is lower on their body, snake your upper arm under their arm pit and throw your upper leg over their head to get a Kimura.

Shoulder crush - Loosening guillotine
Another option if they are starting to loosen their guillotine grip is to reach around their head with your upper arm like in side control. Withyour lower arm, reach it back and then bring it back around their back, trapping their attacking guillotine arm. From here, clasp both of your hands together in a gable grip. Shuffle your shoulder under their neck and tripod on your legs with your weight going into your shoulder and into their neck. Raise your other shoulder so your weight is going through your shoulder. Even if they have their hands in place and chin down, it can still be a pretty nasty submission and can crush their jaw. Our instructor called it the shoulder crush choke and it was a pretty nasty one.

Anyways, will try to keep updating regularly!

On Saturday we worked a couple of combinations and things in MMA. I haven't updated in a while...not sure why. I guess I've been pretty busy, things have been hectic and though there have been things learnt, I didn't really feel like writing about them. Anyways, will be trying to get back into it!

Guard combination – Arm bar to triangle choke to arm bar

From guard position, set up for an arm bar, if they pull their arm out, switch your leg onto the other side of their head and set up the triangle. If they post off your chest and look up at the ceiling, swing your leg around for an arm bar on the other arm. Both of your legs will be on the same side of their head to get the final arm bar.

A really good video breakdown of it.

Guard combination – Triangle to Kimura

If they try to defend the triangle by pushing their arm around the other side, switch the triangle with your legs to the opposite side in order to reach that arm and put on the Kimura lock.

Guard Guillotine

From Guard, reach up and over your opponent’s opposite shoulder like when reaching for an Omo Plata. Instead of grabbing over their arm, bring your tricep down back against your opponent’s neck. If the opponent sits back, use the arm on their neck to lift you up (so they are doing all the work). Create space between your chests, then bring the same arm’s forearm around their neck, keeping it tight. Creating the space is integral to ensuring that your forearm gets under their chin. Bring your other hand underneath the fist in a cup and saucer sort of gesture and tighten. Pull your legs and straighten them out with their head on the floor to tighten the guillotine. Another way to think about tightening this choke is to uppercut with the choking arm.

If they try to fight the choking arm, loop your other arm in under their neck and close like in a rear naked choke.

Mount combination – Side Mount, Kimura, cutting arm bar, Figure 4 and Head arm choke

From mount, swim your hand inside your opponents arm and put your hand on your opponents shoulder, leverage with your elbow so their arm moves away from their body. Squirrel their forearm so it’s behind you and around your body. Bring your knee up under their arm pit and hop up to side mount, catching their wrist and reaching underneath with the other arm to get the Kimura lock. Your thigh can be used to bend their arm or even get the Kimura. The following video is a pretty good breakdown and though isn’t exactly the same, is pretty close.

If the Kimura lock doesn’t work and they straighten their arm, slide it up to your neck and close the cutting arm bar. If that doesn’t work, pass it past your neck to your opposite hand and reach your other arm around to your wrist to get the Figure 4 lock. If the Figure 4 lock doesn’t work and they bring their arm across, lean down (your chest on their tricep) and close off a head arm choke.

Headlock Control combination – Kimura, cutting arm bar and Figure 4

Similar combos to the above except from headlock control. A huge factor to getting the lock is to bring your top thigh up as the bracing. If their arm is around your body, you can reach around and push it down and bring your knee up to get a Kimura lock. If it’s straight, you can push the arm down to get the cutting arm bar on your knee. If that doesn’t work and they raise their arm up, you can get the Figure 4 lock from behind their head.

Passing an Open Guard

One way to pass the guard is to under hook one of their legs and with the other arm, keep their other leg pinned down so they can’t complete a triangle choke. Stand up, then cross step over their pinned leg and you can go straight into knee ride or side control.

Key thing is to ensure that their leg is pinned down, or they will be able to lock down the triangle.

Some of this is off the top of my head from the other day...so yeah, they may not be 100% correct, but they should be pretty close.

Couple of new things tonight

A few new things tonight, but nothing really requiring a long post.

1. From knee ride, trap their arm closest to you at the bicep if possible, put your foot over their head and sit back for arm bar.
2. When attempting the sweep in which you push their knee back, make sure their weight is forward by controlling their arm or they will be able to post with that arm.
3. When trying for the scissor sweep, make sure the bottom leg is low enough to catch their leg.
4. When in someones guard, if you decide to stand up, make sure your legs are out of reach. This may mean that you are bent at a 90 degree angle, but it means you're less likely to be swept. From there, if you control their knees, you can step back and out of their guard and slide into knee ride or side control.


Triangle choke from Guard
From guard, punch one of their hands so you trap one arm and their head between your legs. From there, close your legs like in closed guard. Simple breakdown.
1. From the guard in which you have one arm and their head in, lift your hips up and push their trapped arm across your body. Make sure you lift your hips.
2. Pull their head down towards you whilst you push off their hip. Change your angle with the hip push to allow for a better angle to get your other leg across the back of their neck.
3. Hook the leg on the back of their neck with your other leg. Make sure it goes across the back of their neck. Pull that leg from the shin or the foot so your foot sits in the crook of your knee.
4. Raise your hips and pull their head down to get the triangle. You should only see their arm and their head from where you are. If you can see more, angle away a bit more to tighten it.

So from the right side, punch their left hand (on your right side) through your legs and close your guard so you trap their right arm and their head. Lift your hips and push their right arm across to your right (across your hips). Pull down on their head, push with your left leg off their hip and bring your right leg down behind their head. Keep hold of the head so they don't escape. Once you've pushed off their hip and angle to your right, hook your right foot into the crook of your left knee and tighten. Lift your hips, pull their head down and if it's not finishing, angle more to your right to try and get the 90 degree angle.

An alternative as well to this is if they have your lapel, attack their left hand to release the grip, put it to the ground and over hook it. Grab their lapel with your over hooked hand to keep them down. From there, grab their other hand at the knuckle to loosen their grip and punch it through your legs to set it up as above.

Mount and side control

From Mount position, there are several attacks you can try for. This is from last week


Cross collar choke. This obviously only works with gi.
From mount, grab their lapel across from you, so not directly opposite, diagonally opposite (in my case, right hand). From there, punch it through to create some more material for you to grab. At this point, you can post on your head to stop them from bridging and rolling you. Move to the opposite side (so to the left posting on your head and with your left arm. Grab their collar with your left hand, thumb in,  and swing your left forearm arm around their head, keeping the grip and across their neck. From there, post on your head, and tighten for the choke. The following video explains it pretty well

Arm bar
Another potential move is to set them up for an arm bar after getting into S mount. From mount, bring your left arm behind their head and push your shoulder into their head to turn their head. Grip their shoulder with your left arm and keep it tight. From there, hook your right arm under their elbow and spider crawl it up over their head, keep your hands close to the floor and use your fingers to bring it up. Once above their head, bring your knee up to keep it pinned against their head. Proceed to do the same on the opposite side. You end up in a high mount with their arms pinned high. Keep your right knee against their head whilst your left leg shifts so the outside of your foot is on the ground. Keep it tight. From S mount, grab hold of their arm, push your left leg over their head and sit back into an arm bar. If done very tightly, it doesn't give your opponent much of an opportunity to escape.

Submissions 101 has a great breakdown.

Gotta try and keep updating!
Tonight we learnt about side control. Points included:

• Keep your weight on the side of the body which you're on. Putting it too far forward is prone to sweep.
• Hips down to keep the weight on.
• Shoulder into their face to push it across and stop them from hip escaping away. 
• Push their elbow up with your knee closest to their head and trap it between your shin and the floor to allow for Figure 4, Cutting arm bar or Kimura.
• Kimura requires the leg closest to their head over their head, so from the above, you need to switch your feet that is locking their arm down to allow you to put your leg over their head to finish it. Bring them up on their side once the arms are locked in to complete the lock.
• Cutting arm bar has a similar hand position to the Kimura. The left arm threads under their arm, grips the right wrist. Left arm needs to be just above the elbow. Right arm gripping the wrist. Keep the weight on their opposite arm and push your head against the arm to complete the cutting arm bar. Their thumb should be pointing to the ceiling.

Running a bit behind!

Things have been pretty busy lately and though I've managed to actually write a couple of posts, I haven't actually gotten around to putting them up. Anyways, from the last week or so...

On Saturday, we worked some back control stuff.

There were a lot of good points which came up in terms of how to handle back control on top of what was covered the other day in one of my posts. Some of these are repeated.

1. Protect the neck at all costs, it doesn’t take long for them to tighten and complete that submission.

2. Roll onto the side of the non attacking arm. Hang onto their attacking arm to stop the choke. This stops them from tightening and completing the choke.

3. Put all your weight onto their bottom leg and shoulder crawl your way back over their head.

4. Once you’ve moved over them, twist towards them, putting your opposite hand on their hip to stop them from moving straight into mount.

5. This should end up with you in their guard, a significantly improved position from being back controlled.







On Monday, we worked from the mount position and trying to maintain a good mount.

A good mount consists of a good balanced position on top of your opponent. Knees should be as high as their armpits if possible. Your feet should be tucked close to their body, top of the foot against their butt, knees pinching the top of their body.

Body should be leaning over with arms posted out wide. You can use your shoulder to push their head to the side and start setting up for a submission.

From mount, you can seek a figure 4 submission and multiple transitions from there.

First transition – Figure 4 from Mount to Arm bar
If they bridge and attempt to shift to their side when attempting figure 4, hop up to a side mount position, one foot in front of their stomach, other behind with knee behind their head. Control your opponent like from side control, one arm behind their head, one under their arm (except in this case, under the closer arm). From there, push your opponents face across away from you, grab your own lapel (trapping their top arm), throw the leg over (the one with the knee behind their head) and fall back with their arm for the arm bar.

Second Transition – Figure 4 from Mount to choke

Similar to the set up from before, from the side mount position it begins to vary. From there, the top arm pulls open their lapel, grab inside with your lower arm (thumb in) and pull around their neck. So if they bridge to their left, pull open their lapel with your right hand, grab with thumb in with the left hand and pull around the neck. With your right hand, push on the back of their neck and tighten with the left hand to finish the choke.

Next post will also be Mount position centric as we seem to have been drilling that the most out of all of them.
I hurt my knee on Wednesday :( The same one that's been operated on...Hopefully it isn't something too serious.

Hip Bump Sweep and Back control defense

Wow, it's been a while since I last updated...haha...Not Diablo 3 related...I swear!

The other night we learnt the hip bump sweep. I must admit, I found it quite difficult to pull off, and I suppose it’s most likely due to being unfamiliar with it. There were alot of aspects to consider with it and though it seems fairly simple, pulling it off in wrestling seems like it’d be difficult unless done incredibly quickly.

Hip Bump Sweep

1. From a closed guard position, break down your opponent’s posture bringing them down with your legs and a grip on the lapel.
2. As your opponent tries to posture up, follow him and cross grab his arm in an overhook opening your guard. So with your right arm, sit up, going up on your left hand and reach over his right arm (diagonally opposite). Your left arm will be supporting from the hand (not the elbow).
3. Control their arm with the overhook, keeping your body close, and bump your hip (pushing hard with your leg) into their torso to sweep and reverse the position into you in Mount.

You need to control their arm to stop them from posting out and to assist in the sweep.
Submissions 101 breakdown. He makes it look so easy...

 

The main thing is to control that arm and push hard with that leg to get the momentum.

The alternative to this is if your opponent pushes you down, sensing you were going for the sweep, you can scoot your butt away a bit so you’re sitting, push the overhooking arm down over their neck (like a guillotine) and under their opposite arm. Clasp your hands together and if you can get a leg hook in, you should be able to sweep them over you.

Back control defence

Someone also gave me some tips for defending when someone has you in back control.

1. If with back to floor, push your legs off the floor and try to work your head higher than the person controlling you from behind. This will allow you to relieve the pressure of an attempted choke and make it harder for them to finish.
2. Roll to the opposite side that they are attempting to choke you from. So if they are trying to choke with their right, roll onto the left. This can trap their other arm and stop it from completing the choke.
3. From point 2 above, making small incremental shifts of their leg with a grip on their pants to remove the hook and under your body can improve your position and allow you to turn around.
4. Always defend your neck.

Important point, From back control, never lock your feet in front of your opponent as you’re just asking for an ankle lock.

Cross collar choke from knee ride

Today we worked with the cross collar choke from knee ride.
This is one of those which works as a good strategy to lure an opponent into moving the way that you want them to.

Starting from knee ride, using the same arm as knee, grab their lapel on the opposite side. So right knee ride, grab their right lapel (on your left) with your right hand, fingers in. Elbow should be down on the same level as your knee. Don't put it too high or they'll know you're going for the cross collar choke. From there, if they hip escape away from you (so facing you), lean forward to stop them from escaping and at the same time, punch your hand gripping their lapel through towards their far ear. This is integral or you won't create a grip point for your other hand. Also, they are not likely to hip escape towards you as this will expose their back and a potential arm bar. As you lean down, reach behind their head, grab with your thumb in the lapel and bring that arm down around their head and below the jaw. Pull back with both hands whilst pushing your knee forward and them flat onto their back. Most of the time, you'll get the choke here.
If you don't get the choke, you can transition to mount, tripod with your head above their head and tighten the choke. This should usually get it, even for those with really thick necks.

I had a lot of trouble finding anything from knee ride, but the concept is the same from mount as it is from knee ride. In this video, he actually gets the opposite grip in first, but this is a consequence of starting it from mount.

The alternative to this is if you can't get the 2nd grip behind their head, you don't even need it. As long as you control his shoulder, you can still get your wrist across his neck and complete the choke. A general rule of thumb here is to maintain a 90 degree angle with your wrists. From here, we worked with rolling them into your half guard and trapping them there. If they don't want to move, you can always push them onto their back and finish it from mount as above.

From guard, you can also execute this move. If you control their opposite lapel like before (deep is best), break their posture with your legs and reach around and grab their opposite lat or shoulder with the free arm (like you're climbing to back mount). This breaks their posture and brings them down towards you. Though it's not a cross collar choke like before, their priority is to regain their posture. They do this by pushing across and under the arm holding onto their lat. From there, it's just a matter of controlling their shoulder and completing the choke again. There should be almost no escape for them from this position as if they pull back, push forward or try to stand up, they will have to tap out.

So Cross collar choke...another choke to play around with!