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Wastelander
Wastelander's picture
Guillotine Choke and Headlock Defense

Hello everyone,

This week's Waza Wednesday takes a look at defending against the Guillotine choke, or a front headlock. While this isn't strictly a kata application, there are many concepts of movement found in kata at play, here.

Mark B
Mark B's picture

The key opening principle - creating space to breath is exactly what I teach for a similar scenario.

I demonstrate it here, also using the sequence as a nice flow drill. 

When we add movement and resistance this drill becomes very vigorous.

One option I  didn't record was slipping out and behind the opponent after his jaw is torqued,  my Uke Matt nearly did the "wrong drill" by wanting to do just that. Once behind the opponent limb destruction and joint manipulation options are readily available,  again, some similarities to your clip, although my preference is always to locate and deliver percussive  technique.

Regards 

mike23
mike23's picture

Great counters to what can be a very painful technique and may I start by saying there are many counters that will work.

Discussing the technique further, how could a martial artist put themselves in such a bad position in the first place. Failed takedown maybe? The guillotine will be harder to apply if you keep your head up eyes looking forward when you're in that inside position. It brings the back muscles into play. This may be difficult if not impossible once the person has the choke in place. If you’re trying to take someone down with a common double leg take down (insert martial art term there), the head should be lower to make the neck crank more difficult to apply. But, we somehow got into this poor position for no fault of our own so here we are. Raising the head is much more difficult once the person is pushing your head down and pulling up in your neck. You’d have to raise your head –the moment you are in that position and turning your neck to weaken the choke is good but it might be hard to turn it toward the attacker when your head/ear is stuck on the side of his ribs and he’s applying pressure. I’m not saying it won’t work; just that is will be more difficult. Striking the groin is always good always. In the first video I’m not a fan of the leg trips. If the attacker has your neck and you trip him, you may land on your head or in a very twisted position since one leg can get stuck and your body is over/on top of the attacker.

When you find yourself in a guillotine choke as in the first video, another good counter to the guillotine to add to your toolbox that also uses solid principles is to use your left hand to make air space on the neck of course but then reach your right hand up over their shoulder and pull down in hopes to stop the upward pulling. Then move to the opponent’s left side making yourself as perpendicular to the attacker as possible. Good things can happen from here.

Mark B
Mark B's picture

Hi Mike23

I don't think there's any doubt that creating an opportunity to free the airways would be difficult,  but then in a close quarters altercation pretty much everything will be difficult!  In this particular instance the motion applied to the opponents arm is ballistic in nature - a short, sharp pull on the arm. This type of application of energy is very difficult to counter before I've managed to turn my face in towards the attacker, and believe me if I thought I was at risk of being choked I would manage to turn my face, irrespective of how uncomfortable it was.

Regarding how a "martial artist" would find themselves in that position - the same way anyone else would. Martial artists are just people after all

Regards 

mike23
mike23's picture

 

The reference as to the martial artist getting in a bad position (for me) is just to be funny. It has reference to martial arts applications that would 'never' fail. 

 I have no doubt all the techniques in the videos presented will work thus I’m only adding food for thought. Some who try the techniques may find they work smoothly others may have trouble at one point. If a smaller or weaker person tries turning towards the body they may find it difficult. They may have more success moving along the path of least resistance-to the side position.

 In the variation I offer if they do try moving to the side and put their arm over the opponent’s shoulder to hang and pull down, a smaller or weaker person may find that to be too difficult and might try targeting the groin instead, creating a variation of the variation.

There are many options. If the defender can't pull the arm away from the throat inserting the fingers and holding may at least stop it from getting worse allowing them to continue their escape. 

Mark B
Mark B's picture

I didn't realise the martial artists finding themselves in a bad position comment was meant in jest, the tone can be lost in the written word.

I'm having a little trouble picturing what your referring to with your description,  so I won't comment further on that. 

Regards 

mike23
mike23's picture

Ya tough to see faces in text, whas hoping some might get a chuckle at it.

Here is a clip of the variation I'm trying to explain. It is just another way to defend or get out of the guillotine choke. I notice the demonstrator actually jumps to the side when pressure is applied to his neck. I haven't done it that way but evidently they make it work.

When the arm goes over the shoulder, I pull down and drop my weight as much as possible to slow the lifting. 

Striking the groin at any time if possible will also weaken the hold most often also. 

Here I believe this is the cut through to a bent elbow lock as shown in the first video.You see it within the first 30 seconds.

dhogsette
dhogsette's picture

Thanks so much for sharing these videos. One thing we should remember with these chokes, especially a headlock, is that the attacker most likely is trying to immobilize you to punch you repeatedly in the head. This is similar to the lapel grab--the point is to hold on to you, keep you from getting away, and hitting you repeatedly in the head. Here is another video that takes the punching into account. I like his emphasis on trapping the hands to stop the punching, and then moving into various counters (including a Naihanchi style elbow). I hope this adds to the conversation:

Best,

David