The flying guillotine is one of the most surprising submissions in BJJ, no gi grappling and MMA.
You and your opponent are both circling each other, looking for an angle to shoot or initiate grips, when suddenly you jump for his neck, lock on the guillotine choke and before you know it he’s tapping out – it’s all over!
But it’s a little more complicated than that…
The best way to attack with this move is at a distance. Before you’re all clinched up or gripped up with the other guy.
But at that distance he’s probably got at least one hand up, which will totally interfere with you sinking the choke around his neck.
So before you leap you’ve got to set a trap. Get him to drop his hands even further.
To do this you’re going to fake low, then go high!
The lower you go then the lower his hands go, and the less protected his neck becomes.
One of the best ways to fake low is to threaten the low single takedown. If you do this takedown correctly you’re basically flying across the mat towards his feet with your shoulder and head at the level of his knees.
So start probing, using the setup for the low single like a jab to see what his reaction is.
If he doesn’t react, if he doesn’t drop his hands, then fine, shoot in and take him down.
But if he does react then you know you’ve got him. Fake low one more time and then convert that into a jump for his neck!
Now you’ve got the general idea – using the low single to set up the flying guillotine.
But the devil is always in the details…
In the video below BJJ black belt Elliott Bayev shows you exactly how to set up your flying guillotine so your opponent keeps his hands low and his neck unprotected: it’s the same setup that jiu-jitsu phenom Jeff Glover has used in competition.
And then Elliott goes on to fine tune the guillotine choke so that you can make it as powerful as possible – I was his demo partner for this and believe me, even though I outweigh Elliott by 40 lbs, the choke variations were so damn powerful!
It’s all in the video right here:
More Choke and Submission Resources!
Have you ever wondered what the most popular and powerful BJJ submissions in BJJ are? Here’s our list of the top 37 submissions taught in BJJ academies all over the world.
How To Do The 10 Finger Guillotine Choke
The 10 finger guillotine is the Loch Ness monster of grappling – everyone knows someone who has seen it, but nobody can even agree what it looks like.
There’s probably been more speculation about how to properly apply this guillotine than just about any other technique. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of how to apply the 10 Finger Guillotine!
How to Make All Your Chokes Tighter
Psst, wanna tap out more people with chokes, including that super-tough guy with the giant neck?
Success in choking is all about the details and getting the underlying mechanics correct. And there are certain biomechanical principles that apply to all chokes, regardless of whether you’re using your arms, legs, or your opponent’s lapel to choke him. Click here to check out Rob Biernacki’s conceptual breakdown of effective choke mechanics.
The Strenuous Life Podcast
Finally, did you know that I have a podcast dedicated to all those people doing jiu-jitsu, working out, pushing themselves and leading what Teddy Roosevelt called the strenuous life?
I’ve been doing The Strenuous Life podcast for a while, but recently it’s really started to take off.
Click here to check out some of the past episodes or look for ‘The Strenuous Life’ on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud and Google Play.