How do you get out of side control? The correct answer is – hard. If the top person knows what they’re doing, you’ll be stuck in between different side control variations until they see fit to submit you or go to the next checkpoint which is knee on belly, mount, or back control (in most cases). Unless you have a few tricks up your sleeve which will make escaping side control seem easy and effortless. And since you’re doing tricks, why not throw in a submission threat along the way?

Escaping Vs. Countering Bad Positions

As a small grappler (size, not age) I often had to figure out ways to get out of tight spots in manners that are not considered usual per see. There are plenty of different options out there and the realm of escapes is a huge and extremely interesting one. However, what I quickly learned while being crushed by people quite a lot bigger and stronger than me was that it is the mindset that mattes most when you’re in a tight spot (pun intended) in BJJ.

In most cases, escaping side control is a process that goes something like this; first, you panic, and claustrophobia sets in, while you’re unaware of what is being done to you. As you get more experienced in BJJ, you’ll run into the bridge/hip escape combination for escaping, and you’ll be bucking like a stallion every chance you get. Then comes peace, which was when escaping side control can actually take place. All of your previous efforts were panicky ways of providing experienced grapples with traditional and submission options.

Escaping bad spots like side control should become fun. Yeah, you read that right. When you embrace the suffering and pressure and stop sweating the fact that someone got a better position than you, you’ll suddenly start seeing escaping options everywhere. Not just that but you’ll start seeing intricate ways in which you can counter the position completely forcing people to get up off of you on their own, under the threat of submissions. Or, better yet, you’ll actually get the tap from there.

The Challenges Of Escaping Side Control

Before I give you a simple way of escaping side control into an armlock, let’s see the few challenges you’ll surely encounter against an experienced top player. First up, weight distribution. It is not just the fact that someone is going to be heavy on top of you. They will also know where to project at pressure for maximum efficiency i.e. your chest, neck, jaw, etc.

Moreover, experienced grapplers will try and keep your body divided in order to prevent it from working together for an escape. That means that you’ll either end up with pinned head and shoulders, or hips. Even more so, they’ll try to pin arms to the ground, or cradle your legs in order to further twist you up into accepting defeat.

The biggest challenge in escaping side control, though, is the sheer number of sid control variations and their interconnectivity. Wrestlers’ side control, 100 kilos, Judo side control, twister side control, North-South, and everything you can think of in-between are all side control variations. they’re not just difficult to escape on their own but are also easy to transition in between while keeping the bottom person (in our example, you) under constant pressure.

Finally, there’s gravity. When you’re on the bottom it is working against you, keeping the top person on top, and preventing you from sneaking away, regardless of your method of escape. If you anticipate all these challenges, you’ll find it very easy to deal with anyone and escape side control without much effort.

A Sneaky Armlock To The Rescue

Escaping side control starts with your arms in a way that an opponent can’t isolate them over your head or pin them on the ground to your sides. In other words, you keep them tight to your body, in a frame structure. Try and keep your elbows to your ribs and you’ll be safe enough to start looking for escapes, or better yet, counters.

With the arms in place, you will make space by bridging, and looking to hip escape, However, and an experienced opponent will let you bridge but will follow you when you hip escape, most likely transitioning into another version of side control to keep you there. That’s where sneakiness and countering come in. Instead of thinking escape, you’ll think armlock

The moment you bridge, look to use the palms of your arms to grip behind the nearside shoulder. The bridge will get you access to this, as we las opening up space on the other end, diagonally, for your near side knee to sneak in. From there, use the shoulder grips as an anchor, and the arm as a pivot point as you threaten to head into guard.

If the opponent heads into you looking to transition, you’ll be waiting for them with a straight armlock. Simply extending your spine will get your grip down to their elbow, and their wrist on your shoulder where you can trap it with your head. Boom, you get a tap.

If the opponent decides to back away afraid of the submission, you’re now in guard, without having to hip escape, drag across the floor and attempt o keep your frames in as an opponent transitions to kill your escapes.

In Summary

Escaping side control doesn’t have to be difficult and excruciating, In fact, you don’t need to escape it at all. What if you could force an opponent off you by threatening to tap them out? This easy and sneaky armlock only requires you to slightly bridge so that you get the grips and the knee in. Form here on, you’re asking for their money or their life, and whatever the choice, you’ll emerge the winner.

The post Escaping Side Control Like A Boss With A Surprise Armlock appeared first on BJJ World.

Back when I was a white and blue belt, the BJJ guard pull was my main go-to match starter. Coming from a Judo background, I was always comfortable on my feet., However, the notion of playing guard was always very attractive to me, so I wanted to learn the ways in which can get me there. As I discovered different guards, I found further options that allowed me to get into them straight from standing. And no, it is not a move that should be frowned upon. In fact, the fact that people complain about how “unfair” and “unattractive” it only proves how efficient the BJJ guard pull can be. To that extent, if you compete in BJJ. Particularly with the Gi, you simply have to know how to deal with people pulling guard. And your best bet to achieve it is counters.

The Unique Aspects Of The BJJ Guard Pull

What exactly is the BJJ Guard Pull? In short, it is a safe way of pulling an opponent to the ground, directly into your guard. The fact that you’re pulling someone down, rather than trying to throw them or take them down makes people see it as something lesser than a takedown. IN essence, ti is not. The only difference is, you land on your back. However, in BJJ, and particularly when it comes to the guard, this is precisely what you’re after.

Form a basic sleeve and collar grip position, the idea behind the fundamental guard pull is to create distance first. To do that, you place one leg on the hip of your opponent. In most cases, it is the leg on the side where you have the sleeve grip so that your opponent can’t reach it. This is your backup, in case anything goes wrong. From there on, you sit down to the ground, pulling the opponent over you. However, how you sit down is also very important. Namely, you need to go to the side, in order to make the most of the leg you have on the hip. There are a lot more details but they’re not the subject today.

Apart from pulling the closed guard, you could also go for just about any other guard out there, While pulling an inverted guard is not a very smart or effective thing to do, other guards work perfectly well. Some examples of great BJJ Guard Pull options are the half guard and the butterfly guard. Moreover, instead of pulling you could even go and jump into guard if you desire so. And every one of these pulls can actually be prevented with timely counters. Now that is something we’ll be looking into today.

Counters Are Better Than Defense

When it comes to standing, it is best that you forget about defending. Trying to defend takedowns, throws, or even the Guard Pull, for that matter is not really effective. Instead, you need to be focusing on counters and timing them to perfection. Once you have this down, you’ll be unstoppable standing. Then you can go for some guard pulling of your own to annoy everybody.

In terms of countering you have to remember that timing is the absolute key here. That means that whenever you see/feel an opponent going for a BJJ Guard Pull, you need to be expecting a counter without overthinking. Luckily, defense always takes much less time than attack., In that sense, all you need to do is understand where the opponent is trying to get to, and how they’re going to go about it. That is the basic concept of countering guard pulls in BJJ.

If you’re looking to master further takedown defense scenarios, look intoHenry Cejudo’s brand new DVD. The four-part instructional labeled “High-Level Takedowns And Mat Control” covers defense in great depth, as well as explaining how takedowns work in the first place.

A Few BJJ Guard Pull Centers For Any Occasion

On to the counters then. The best way to be ready for a kind of BJJ Guard Pull is to master a few yourself. We’ll look into several different ways of countering the guard pull in BJJ. moreover, we’ll explore different stages of the attack, and how you can prevent each of them separately. Just as a bonus, we’ll look into preventing the jump guard as well, since it can be really common, particularly at lower belt level.

Countering The Basic BJJ Guard Pull

In terms of the basic BJJ Guard Pull, the first thing you need to be thinking about is grip fighting. If you actually manage to establish dominant grips, you’ll prevent a BJJ Guard Pull altogether. If you’re late though, or the opponent has some trick up their sleeve, your focus needs to shift on the leg that’s on your hip. So, if you manage to remove it, your opponent will actually pull you in a guard pass rather than their closed guard. Since you can’t really reach with the nearside arm, you can use your other arm (that’s gripping the collar) to reach across for the opponent’s pants. All it takes from there is to pop your hips back as they go to the ground and pin their leg. You can now pass with a variety of passes.

Late Counters

In certain situations, you’ll be caught with a quick or unexpected guard pull. The moment that happens, and you’re too late with grip fighting or dealing with the leg, you still have options. At this point though, you need timing more than ever. One thing to focus on is weight distribution. Since your opponent wants to pull you with a spin, you can use that against them. To counter, you simply get your legs off the ground, putting all your weight on their foot. That’ll make it hard to get the leg out from beneath you. IN turn, it’ll allow you to surf to the opposite side and straight into side control.

Jump Guard Counter

The reason why I left the Jump Guard counter last is that it is a move that works against any kind of BJJ Guard Pull. The only drawback is that hs is a Gi Specific move. Still, given that pulling guard in No-Gi equates to simply sitting down, you won’t be using it anyway. The only way to make sure you react on time to a jump guard is to make sure you have distance between your hips and your opponent’s. With a jumping guard, the opponent is most likely going to look for an angle. As soon as you see that, or even if you’re simply uncertain, just release the sleeve grip and grab their belt, right around the knot area. That’s it. The moment they jump guard it is you that has a frame inside now, and the upper hand to pass.

Closing Thoughts

There’s no need to fear and demonize the BJJ Guard Pull. IN fact, learn how to do it yourself, as it will definitely come in handy sometimes. However, when it comes to preventing it, there are several easy options. All you need to do is recognize what stage you’re in so that you can use the appropriate response. That way, you’ll never be pulled into someone’s guard against your will ever again!

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The post BJJ Guard Pull Counters For Any Occasion appeared first on BJJ World.

The first time I came across the wrestling spladle, I didn’t think too much of it. It is like a move that wouldn’t really work in BJJ. Plus there was the question of its legality under IBJJF rules. However, after revisiting it later on I got hooked and never looked back. The wrestling spladle is a move that stretches your opponent’s crotch similar to a banana split, while also putting pressure on their neck. In wrestling, it is a pin, but in BJJ it offers much more than just a way to hold your opponent down. Plus it works as the ultimate counter to some of the most annoying moves in the whole of Jiu-Jitsu!

The best wrestling variety for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is by far Catch Wrestling. On top of your “basic” wrestling takedowns, pins, and pressure it also offers unique submission threats. One of the most complete grapplers of today, and a Catch Wrestler by trait, Neil Melanson has the ultimate guide on how to integrate it into your BJJ game. Check out the “Catch Wrestling Formula” 4 DVD set and bring a whole new world of pain to your opponents!

The Wrestling Spladle

As a move, wrestlers use the wrestling spladle mostly to counter the single leg takedown. However, it works more than just a counter as it is a great way to achieve a pin in wrestling, which is a match-winning move. For a wrestling pin, you need to keep the opponent’s shoulders on the ground for a certain amount of time. A great way to achieve this is to lift the opponent’s legs and hips in the air. An even better moment is to put a wedge behind their neck. And the ultimate way to make sure an opponent can’t wiggle out is to make sure their legs are as far apart as possible, on top of everything else.

To try and explain the wrestling spladle as best as I can, we’ll start at the turtle position. Imagine that your opponent is gunning for a single leg from the turtle position. They have a tight grip that’s preventing you from sprawling efficiently. However, that also means that they’re pulling you towards them. The key moment to focus on is trapping the head with your hips. Once you have that, you can focus on establishing grips.

If the opponent has your right leg, you should use the right arm to grab their right leg. When you’re grabbing, the goal is to reach your arm from the inside of their thigh towards the outside. That’s where your other arm should come in, establishing a palm to a palm grip, or an S-grip. From there, all you need to do is sit down to your right side and pull with your arms. This is going to bring the bottom leg in reach, and you’re going to trap that one with both your legs. The wrestling spladle is on.

Single Leg Counters

The one key use of the wrestling spladle is to counter the single leg takedown. We already saw how you can use the spladle against an opponent attempting a single leg from the knees. With a standing single-leg takedown, the mechanics are somewhat different. However, from standing, you end up directly in a deep spladle position that’s more uncomfortable than the previous one.

When an opponent shoots for a single leg, the first thing to focus on is to keep the opponent’s head down. Put your chest over the back of their head to force their head down. From there, think about reaching for a Kimura trap. However, this time you’re going to go for the leg instead of the arm. Use your right arm to grab the right leg of the opponent, inside-out, same as before. As you get a grip on the leg, make sure your trapped leg hooks the near side leg by doing a leg curl.

This is where the most fun part takes place. Once everything is set up, simply roll over your left shoulder, maintaining the position you have over the back of the opponent’s head. This is going to land you in a deep wrestling spladle. From there, you can proceed to hold the opponent down or go for neck cranks, leg locks, or chokes.

Preventing The Berimbolo

This is one very useful application of the wrestling spladle. Grapplers really skilled in the Berimbolo are almost impossible to stop. Unless you know how to time your move exactly. And of course, that move is the wrestling spladle.

From the basic De La Riva guard, as the opponent tries to Berimbolo, you’ll need to make sure you put your hip to the ground. This should be done on the side in which your opponent rolls for the Berimbolo. This is going to stop the Beimbolo at least momentarily. The goal is to use this pause and force your opponent on their back, inserting your bottom leg under their head at the same time. Once there, get the grip on the near side leg and you’re all set for the wrestling spladle. The other leg is already in place thanks to the opponent’s De La Riva hook.

Attacking With The Wrestling Spladle

From a more offensive aspect, you can go for the wrestling spladle off of back attacks. You might even go for it directly from the top turtle position. However, off the back, it works unbelievably well, especially when the opponent goes for a specific defense.

Very often when you have back control, opponents that manage to get on all fours are going to attempt to shrug you off. This is actually a legitimate defense that lands them in top position. Once an opponent starts shrugging you off, simply transition your hooks to the outside, so you can sneak one leg in for a wrestling spladle. Since their legs are straight and apart, you can achieve this quite easily. The trick is not to let go of the seatbelt control as you’re doing it. From there, you just get the grips on the far leg as you roll as you do against a single leg takedown. The rest is up to you.

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The post Wrestling Spladle – The Ultimate Single Leg Counter appeared first on BJJ World.

The standing guillotine offers a very unique problem. Unlike on the ground, there are no legs to impede motion in lateral directions. This means you can move to each side. However, the problem you face is one of very very strong posture control. Alongside that, the opponent has a lot of space to finish the choke. Since you’re far off the ground, gravity is going to be working against you here. This makes standing guillotine defense something that you need to pay specific attention to. Why? Because believing your ground guillotine defense strategy will work on the feet is a great way to get you napping fast.

Tom DeBlass is the most “unsubmittable” grappler in the world at the moment. okay, he does tap but it is so rare that decades might pass between two taps. This sal due to his successful submission defense. His DVD set “Submission Escapes” has everything you need to master counters to all submissions, including all kinds of guillotines.

Deconstructing The Standing Guillotine 

The standing guillotine choke works much like the guillotine choke on the ground. One thing you need to know is that arm-in guillotine from the feet is rarely successful. This is the reason almost nobody looks o use them. Furthermore, if someone tries to set up an arm-in guillotine on the feet, except that they’re trying to get eth fight to the ground rather than finish directly.

The standing guillotine is basically a Marcelotine done on the feet. While the grips might differentiate between a Marcelotine, high elbow guillotine, and a power guillotine, the configuration remains the same. the opponent is going to have your head under their armpit, with a tight lock around your neck. The advantage for your opponent si that their whole weight is behind you, so posturing up is impossible. On top of that, they have a lot of leverage available to get the choke in. This means they can switch between air and blood chokes, making life a real hell for you. Unless you can defend properly.

The standing guillotine choke is quite easy to prevent – keep your head higher than your opponents. This theory, however, does not translate into a successful standing guillotine defense. Staying upright is just going to open you up to all kinds of takedowns. So, this is definitely not an option. The truth is, you’ll find yourself in a standing guillotine at one point or another during your BJJ career.

Standing Guillotine Defense

Standing guillotine defense options all revolve around one main principle – creating space. The real issue here is that creating the space you need to keep breathing until you mount a defense is really hard to obtain. Unsurprisingly, most guillotine defense techniques are based on the fact that you can move laterally without any restriction. This makes lateral movement your only way of creating space to get out of a tight-standing guillotine choke.

While standing and grounded guillotine defenses do differ, there are still some main traits to both. One such example is the fact that you must have control over the wrist of the choking arm. without it, no defense, standing, or on the ground has any hope of working. The following three defense options all include a common thread – grabbing the choking arm. Since they all work off the same principle,  you can combine them between each other, until you manage to make one of them work. Just remember, not getting choke is problem number one. Getting out of the guillotine position comes in second.

Hopping Defense 

As funny as this may seem, hopping around like a bunny is actually our best bet. Why should you ho? Well, if you’re caught in a standing guillotine, every hop is going to achieve two things. First, it’s going to help you create space. Next, it is going to provide make your opponent’s arms tired over time. However, not just any kind of hopping is going to help you here.

The moment you’re caught in a standing guillotine your first reaction needs to be to get one of your arms over the opponent’s shoulder. This should be the arm that’s on the side opposite of where your head is placed. This is going to provide a hook that you can use as a power source to create space. Furthermore, the other arm should build a frame on the opponent’s thigh on the other side. this means you can create space in a diagonal pattern, and even use it to take the opponent down.

Once you have your arms in place you can start hopping, aiming to get both your legs to the side of your opponent’s far side leg. this is the side opposite of where your head is. Once you have it, a simple pull and push with your arms is going to get the opponent down. WEHiel you can go for a Von Flue choke, a better bet is to skip over and go straight into an arm-triangle choke.

Guillotine Defense To Takedown

You could also use a similar approach to go straight into a takedown, thus completely rendering the guillotine ineffective. The one main thing to remember here is posture. Despite the fact you might not be able to truly regain full posture, you must make an effort to raise as far up as you can. Of course, you’ll need to keep an arm on the choking arm at all times. From there on, you can focus on changing the angle. Just like with the hopping guillotine defense, you’ll want to get out toward the side opposite of the choking arm.

This angle creates an opening for you to go into a few different takedowns. You could pick up the near side leg for a single-leg takedown, for example. Or, you could go for a body lock and get the opponent to the ground that way. Of course, there’s the option of a double leg as well, but that might get you too square to your opponent, meaning they can finish the choke. Personally, I like to stick to the single-leg takedown from there.

Braulio Estima Escape 

The final guillotine defense is actually one that’s the highest percentage of them all. It is also the mechanically simplest one. Still, it requires you to go against everything you know about guillotine defenses, so it may not be the best one to start with. It is, however, one that works at the highest levels of the sport.

Braulio Estima calls this defense the Anti Guillotine. When you’re in a standing guillotine, the goal is to place both hands on the opponent’s hips. When you do this, you’ll be looking to go back with your legs as far as possible. this creates the space you need, despite looking like it is going to choke you. The reason for this is that the escape actually goes in the other direction. Once you manage to straighten your arms you just need to circle your head out of the opponent’s grips. This means you’ll be stepping towards the choking side. The direction of the circle is toward the side opposite of the choke, of course. it is a very simple one, yet it may be uncomfortable until you get the hang of it.

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The post Standing Guillotine Defense Techniques You Must Know appeared first on BJJ World.

Submissions can be really fun and attractive, but they also carry risk with them. No matter how good your positioning is, once you go for a  finish, you risk an opening. it can be an extremely small one, but it is still going to be there. All submissions offer your opponent a chance to utilize counters and surprise you. Or, if you are the one stuck in submission, offer you submission counters. Going for a submission counter to submission is never a smart first strategy. You need to try and keep submission attempts as far away from you as possible. Prevention is the best cure, but sometimes it is just not available.

When this is the case, you need to make sure you have a silver bullet ready. Do all submissions have submission counters? Probably. Can we learn them all? Probably not. However, there are a few that have proven to work over the years. We’ll present four such concepts in this article, offering you a real life get out of jail free card. Some of the counters are so common you’ve probably heard of them, like the Von Flue choke. Some, however, are so sneaky and obscure you’ve never even thought of them, And, when you see how easy and simple they are, you’ll never forgive yourself for not discovering them earlier.

The Submission Game

The submission game in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is why BJJ is called the game of human chess. Looking to get a submission takes as much effort and focus as it does to avoid it. Despite other grappling martial arts having submission games of their own, none is as deep as the one Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu has. The number of positions you can get a submission from alone makes it impossible to have a defense ready for everything.

The trouble with submission counters in BJJ is that they usually run in a circular fashion. That means that every counter has a re-counter, and so on and so forth. For now, some moves do not have counters yet. However, that’s sure to change as the game tirelessly evolves at a great speed. In our selection today, we focused on submission counters that are, at the moment, the finishing point of a submission exchange sequence.

The one thing you need to remember about submissions in BJJ is that they’re not as secure as you might think. Despite the best positioning possible, each individual is different, which leaves space for resistance. Setting successful submissions up relies much more on deception and hiding in plain sight than it does in the correct positioning. To that extent, when you’re looking for submission counters, the same logic applies – you need to be sneaky and deceptive.

Simple And Sneaky Submission Counters 

The thing with counter submissions is that you have only two ways of getting them. One is to have perfect timing, which is in BJJ, next to impossible. The other one is to anticipate what’s going to happen and allow it to happen instead of blocking it. This is going to lure your opponent in a false sense of security. For example, if you decide to allow your opponent Kimura grips, they’ll think they can submit you with ease. Instead, your goal is to hit a sneaky submission counter using the structure they’ve established.

There another issue that arises when you’re focusing on submission counters. If you try and use overly elaborate moves to counter submissions, you’ll most likely fail. In order to have efficient counters, they need to be as simple as possible. When you’re caught in a submission, there’s no place for inversions or crazy jumps. Simple movements and a few sneaky techniques are all you need.

Dean Lister can help you become unsubmittable while you counter each and every submission thrown your way. He has an awesome instructional, the “Worry Free Escapes” DVD set, that can solve every position you get in. Yes, it includes heel hook escapes and counters as well! 

Von Flue Choke 2.0

We’ll start with the mother of all submission counters to a submission – the Von Flue choke. This is the top choice for people when they’re facing a guillotine from the bottom. For the choke to work, you’ll need to be deep in a guillotine though, which is anything but comfortable.

The key thing to remember is to relieve pressure as much as you can straight away. Once you feel the guillotine grips are closed, you need to get an arm on the wrist of the choking arm and pull down. Your other arm needs to go over the opponent’s shoulder and reach down their back. This is the crucial arm for the executing the Von Flue choke.

Let’s say that you’re caught in a guillotine from the half guard. For the classic Von Flue choke, once you get your grips, you’ll need to get your head on the mats and pass to the opposite side of the choke. This will get you in a position to get a choke yourself. However, you can also hit this submission counter from the top half guard as well. All you need to do is switch your hips back and forth, while you place all your weight in their neck, via your shoulder. If you can’t quite get it, passing to side control where you’re guaranteed to finish is much easier now.

Kneebar Arm Triangle 

In today’s BJJ game, it is quite common for someone to look to get a kneebar from the half guard. The usual setup involves them grabbing your free leg and inverting, thus getting it in between their legs. Form there kneebar finishing options are plentiful for your opponent. What you must do to avoid allowing them that is react fast. Once they invert, use your leg to hook their inside leg. This will prevent the roll and trap your opponent in an inverted position.

Once you have that position, you can look to get into a sort of seatbelt control. The goal here is not getting the back, though, but going for submission of your own instead. The easiest thing to get is an arm triangle. All you need to do is open up your opponent towards the initial position they came from. Now, however, because of the hook, you’ll end up in the side control getting both pass points and a tight arm triangle finish.

Answering Machine

AS you should know by now, the common defense to an arm triangle choke is called answering the telephone. Instead of allowing you to finish the choke, the opponent looks to get their forearm in between you and their head. This creates breathing space because it keeps their shoulder away from their neck. The defense is known as “answering the telephone”. All the squeezing in the world won’t help you to finish, especially if the opponent is bigger than you.

This is when you turn to the next step. This is not really a counter submission but it is a great way to counter a counter of their own. Whenever the opponent looks to call the phone, you need to have your answering machine ready. The position of their arm means that you can go for an armlock. Use your head to trap their elbow in place and get a grip on their wrist. Then, simply pull their wrist to the outside for a really painful and fast finish.

A Kimura Counter Submission To A Kimura Attack

This is one of the best submission counters I’ve ever learned in my life. it works perfectly against everyone when you set it up right. The goal here is to counter a Kimura from the half guard when you’re on top. Whenever you post an arm from top half guard, the most likely outcome is that the bottom person is going to attempt a Kimura.

When they do, the worst thing you can do is panic. Instead, let them establish their grips, but do not allow them to put their weight behind the move. Instead, look to lift your arm and thread your palm between you and the opponent. This is a surprisingly strong position for you. However, the opponent won’t realize and they’ll look to hold on even stronger. This makes your counter submission that much easier. All you need to do is get a figure four grip yourself and pop their arm behind. Now, you are the one with the Kimura, but they can’t go back toward the mats without breaking their arm. Finish at will!

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The post Sneaky Submission Counters To Common Submissions appeared first on BJJ World.

The guillotine choke is one of the “basic” techniques in BJJ. people learn it fairly early in their journey, especially if they train mostly No-Gi. The trouble with the guillotine choke is that it is both efficient and painful, due to its mechanics. namely, it follows all BJJ principles: strong position, a high degree of control, and plenty of variations and follow-ups. For those that know it, it’s an almost certain way of finishing a match. To put it short, getting caught in a guillotine spells trouble. Luckily there is more than one guillotine choke escape, and there are also counter submissions to consider.

Escaping the guillotine is not an easy task precisely because of all the variations of the choke. Getting out of a Marcelotine is not the same as escaping an arm-in guillotine choke. And there’s the standing guillotine as well… All this variety means that you need to primarily understand how the choke works before you look to escape. Once you know how the choke works, you can do the needed adjustments that are going to get you out of danger

Learn further ways of escaping the Guillotine as well as any other submission you can think of! Tom DeBlass has the pedigree of an un-submittable grappler and shares all his knowledge in detail through his “Submission Escapes” DVD. Check it out and never worry about being in a bad spot again! 

Understanding The Guillotine Choke

The guillotine choke is a tricky one. It can double as a blood choke and as an air choke, which makes it very difficult to defend against. Furthermore, these two variations are easily interchangeable back and forth, constantly tightening the choke. For that, you need to identify three main areas and systematically work to block each from working if you want a guillotine choke to escape to work.

The first threat during a guillotine choke is the opponent’s arms. Regardless of the type of guillotine, the grip under your chin is crucial, as it provides the connection needed to complete the choke. Break this connection, and there’s no leverage to finish a choke.

Secondly, body positioning. The guillotine requires your opponent to be in front of you, which leaves your hips more or less open for movement. Not many people can finish the submission like that, so control over the hips and your posture is crucial. Your opponent is going to look to utilize their legs in order to keep your hips from moving. If they know what they’re doing, they’ll place the legs so that they make counters really difficult as well. This is a second thing you need to address because if you can’t get out of the position, an opponent can re-grip and still finish.

Finally, you need to understand direction. There are some directions in which you simply cannot move unless you want to tap or nap. So, you need to familiarize yourself with the execution of the guillotine, so that you can understand where its weak spots are. Moving the wrong way is going to ensure you’ll tap out. Also, be wary that your opponent is probably going to try to funnel you in such a direction deliberately.

Dealing With The Guillotine

First things first, the “regular” guillotine. For this, the opponent has a grip established around your neck, gripping underneath the chin. Both your arms are free in this scenario, which you’re going to use to your advantage. Let’s start with a guillotine from the guard.

Your first step is relieving pressure on the neck. To do this, you need to pull the opponent’s arms away from your neck. Since their grip is in the way, you’ll only be able to create a little space. To begin with, use the arm that’s on the choke side to hook the palms of your opponent. The goal is to pull your elbow towards your hips, not towards the ground. This is a more powerful configuration of your arms as opposed to pulling downwards. To further relieve pressure, get up on the balls of your feet and push forward.

This brings you to the second step – breaking their positional structure. The fact that your second arm is free is huge here as it’s going to help you establish an even better position. Simply place it around the opponent’s neck (like for side control) and keep your shoulder close to their head. To do this you’ll need to place your head on the mat, which is further going to relieve pressure. You can now release the wrist grip to push on their near side leg and open the guard.

Finally, remember to move towards the opposite side of the choke. Otherwise, you’ll just choke yourself unconscious.

Arm-In Guillotine Choke Escape

This is a guillotine choke variation in which the opponent has your arm stuck in their grip along with your neck. This can make it particularly hard to resist as they’ll be pushing your shoulder into your neck in addition to direct pressure with the arms. So, we follow the three steps we outlined before. For the sake of simplicity, let’s say you’re already in a full-blown arm-in guillotine from the closed guard.

The first step is wrist control. Once again, you’ll look to control the opponent’s wrist with one arm only. This time, it’s the arm that’s free. Once you grab the wrist take your elbow in to have breathing space.

The second step requires a bit of clever positioning on your part. For starters, you need to try and keep the trapped arm’s elbow as close to your body as possible. This further reduces the choke’s tightness. In order to achieve it, you’ll have to place your arm all the way back, palm on the floor. Next, you need to look away from your opponent as much as possible. Only then can you think about moving.

In order to defeat their structure, you’ll need to shift your body to your side(opposite of the choking side). Remember to constantly stay on the balls for your feet. To break free, you can release the wrist control and push down on their hip which is going to land you straight into side control. That’s where you’re safe from a guillotine.

Standing Guillotine Escape 

The standing guillotine choke is a very nasty move to get caught with. As such, defending it requires a bit of different positioning, since the mechanics are different from the feet. Braulio Estima has a great way of defeating the standing guillotine.

In the case of the standing guillotine, you can skip the first step. There’s no need to go for the wrists, as you’ll utilize an angle change to deflect pressure. To achieve this you first need the space to move. The first thing to do when in a standing guillotine is to get your hips back and place your arms on the opponent’s thighs. This will open a V-like shape in front of your head.

Next comes the angle change. In order to beat the guillotine, you’ll need to use this V-like space to thread your head all the way to the other side of the opponent’s body. This renders their guillotine useless. Simply put your hands around their waist and you can get on their back.

The Von Flue Counter

When you end up in top side control after defending a guillotine on the ground you can finish with a counter choke of your own. Although the regular guillotine defense is the easiest way to do it, you can get it from an arm-in guillotine defense as well.

The goal is to place your shoulder (that’s already close to their neck) directly on their carotid artery. to achieve it, you need to be on the balls of your feet. Another crucial thing is that an opponent has to keep hold of the guillotine grip. If they let go, you’ll most likely fail to finish. In any case, the Von Flue choke is a powerful submission and if you time it right you can get a tap in a second.

Related Articles:

Guillotine Choke: Basics secrets and Variations 
How To Make The Standing Guillotine Choke Work For You
A Complete Marcelo Garcia Guillotine Choke DVD Review
A Few Crazy BJJ Guillotine Variations To Brighten Your Day
Standing Guillotine Defense Techniques You Must Know

The post The Best Guillotine Choke Escape Options And Counters appeared first on BJJ World.

We can say that this is one very good escape from this type of knee on belly position. And it’s also very useful when someone is trying to knee slide his pass through your guard.

Check also:
-Renzo Gracie vs Paulo Miyao – Roll
-Renzo Gracie B**chslapped a guy who blew an air horn in His Ear
-10 years of Kung Fu vs 10 years of BJJ in Renzo’s Gym

The only question that is still unanswered is, what is Renzo’s favorite defense from “standard knee on belly”. When both hands are controlling you and the knee is full across your stomach.

The post Renzo Gracie’s Favorite Knee on Belly Escape appeared first on BJJ World.

If you want to learn more from Dean Lister you should definitely check his best Instructionals on THIS LINK

The post Dean Lister on How to Handle Rear Naked Chokes appeared first on BJJ World.

The founder of the Von Flue choke is MMA fighter Jason “Livewire” Von Flue (14-12-1). A veteran with stints in the UFC, WEC, and Strikeforce, he came up with the choke in the octagon. He pulled off his trademark submission on the big stage, at the UFC – Ultimate Fight Night 3 event in 2006. Since then, the move has gained popularity in both the MMA and Jiu-Jitsu scenes, mostly as the most effective way to counter a guillotine choke.

Mechanics Of The Von Flue Choke

The easiest way to describe the Von Flue choke is a shoulder choke from top side control. In a basic holding pattern of side control, one shoulder of the top grappler is usually close to the head of the bottom one. The usual positioning puts the top partners arm deep under the head of the bottom partner, in the cross face position. Unlike the crossface position, though, control and pressure are not the objectives. For the Von Flue choke, the top partner looks to place their shoulder on the neck of the bottom grappler, placing pressure on one of the carotid arteries. The finishing pressure is then applied by lifting the butt and driving with the toes, as shown below:

It is important to direct the pressure under the right angle which is upwards, from the chest towards the opponent’s chin. The simplicity of the move is what leads to its high effectiveness. The choke requires precise timing and correct positioning, but it is accessible fairly easily and can catch opponents by surprise. The choke comes off strong from the get-go and takes almost no time before the opponent goes to sleep.

Setting Up The Choke

When it comes to setting up the Von Flue Choke, there are two main positional pathways. One is as a defensive counter to the guillotine choke, while the other is as an attacking move from side control.

Countering the guillotine

The most common way to get the choke is as a counter to an arm-in guillotine choke. When caught in the choke from the bottom, you should aim to circle away from the side where your head is. This is important, as going to the other side will get you deeper in the guillotine. In order to correctly set yourself up for the choke, you need to make sure that you reach behind your opponent while you’re circling around. Once you obtain the position, you’re already in the perfect position to apply the choke. Just make sure that you get the right angle before driving into the opponent’s neck. Here’s how Renzo Gracie does it:

As a point of caution, make sure to remember that the Von Flue Choke is only effective against the arm-in guillotine. If you’re caught in a high elbow guillotine (aka Marcelotine) the choke cannot be applied because you can’t place your shoulder on the opponent’s neck. Furthermore, getting caught in a closed leg configuration while in a guillotine can also scupper your Von Flue choke attempt. Both the closed guard and the half guard can neutralize the choke because of the distance created between your shoulder and your opponent’s neck.

Going on the attack

Offensively speaking, you can look for the choke from the crossface position in top side control. While this way is far quicker than circling around, it can also be more difficult. If the opponent is aware and hiding their neck it might take some time to dig under the chin. Otherwise, the angle is off and the only thing you can accomplish is crossface pressure from hell, but without a choke. As you can see below, the choke sets in almost instantly:

The “Von Preux” choke

The first time Ovince St. Preux (22-10) finished a fight in the UFC via a Von Flue Choke, he earned an honorable mention in every article on the subject. Managing to pull it off three times, though, has made him the new face of the submission. Apart from a an impressive total number of Von Flue choke finishes in the UFC, St. Preux can boast with having two of those in succession. It is hardly surprising that the name “Von Preux” is catching on quickly.

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The post Von Flue Choke – Sneaky And Powerful Submission appeared first on BJJ World.

In this video we can see a great knee on belly defense technique. Check it and give it a try.

You can also check Relson Gracie’s Knee On Belly Armlock Counter!

Knee On Belly Armlock Counter – Relson Gracie

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