Guillotine Choke

The guillotine is one of the best chokes in BJJ. The simple and quick, the guillotine choke is also versatile; it can be applied in gi BJJ or no-gi BJJ, MMA, street fights, and really anytime you need to submit someone with a choke.

The standing guillotine is a great Brazilian Jiu Jitsu move because it is an attack that you can use at the beginning if your opponent is a better wrestler than you and you can’t take them down. The standing guillotine can end a BJJ match as soon as it starts and what’s even better is that it doesn’t sacrifice position for the submission (like a flying triangle would).

In this video, Stasis Jiu Jitsu breaks down the standing guillotine with common mistakes, tips, and a painful variation at the end.

Start: Standing

Step 1: Get collar tie by grabbing the back of opponent’s neck where their head meets the neck, locking elbow in tight

Step 2: Pull opponent’s head down and toward your armpit, giving up collar tie

Step 3: Hook armpit over opponent’s head

Step 4: Slide hand all the way through past opponent’s chin with your palm towards opponent’s chin

Step 5: Grip the back of your choking hand with your free hand, collapse your elbows in toward the choke, and block opponent’s escape with your chin on their back.

Step 6: Step in and pull hands up towards neck

Finish: Submission via guillotine choke

The guillotine choke is an incredibly powerful choke that is both easy to do and hard to escape, making it one of the most popular choke submissions in BJJ, MMA, and real world street fighting. The high elbow guillotine is one of the many different guillotine variations for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu that is available when you have access to your opponent’s head and neck but have not secured control of their arm. For variations with the arm secured, see the arm in guillotine or D’Arce choke.

This great video by John Danaher has a lot of details for getting the guillotine from half guard, but the high elbow guillotine can be reached from several positions.

Start: headlock position with opponent’s neck exposed

Step 1: Grip opponent’s chin with strangle hand (non-high elbow side hand) over their head and neck

Step 2: Slide support hand in between opponent’s shoulder and head alongside their neck and grip your strangle hand with your support hand palm on the back of your strangle hand

Step 3: Push your strangle side shoulder forward into your opponent’s creating space for the guillotine submission

Step 4: Bring your support side elbow back to your body to prevent opponent from securing control over it while shifting your head over toward strangle side

Step 5: Drag both hand up and to support side inside opponent’s clavicle, then turn support side elbow forward and onto opponent’s back

Step 6: Secure opponent’s body and rotate towards strangle side, raising support side elbow towards sky

End: Submission via guillotine

Tag: Guillotine Choke

How To Do a Standing Guillotine in BJJ

How To Do a High Elbow Guillotine in BJJ