Most of the times, if your opponent turtles up, you’ll be aiming to take their back, establish position and move on to impose your submission game from there. But why not change it up a little and go for a submission immediately? Even more so – why not go for the Head and Arm Guillotine?
Robert Drysdale breaks down the setup for this quick and efficient finish.
SET THE HEAD AND ARM GUILLOTINE UP
Robert starts off by saying that the Head and Arm Guillotine is going to really surprise your turtled-up opponent – he won’t expect it.
What Robert does first is that he looks to dig in his knee in-between his training partner’s arm and knee; inside his rib cage. In other words, he’s looking to place it into position not by just trying to move it in, as this’ll be too easily blocked off. Instead, he digs his knee in, as deep as possible.
From there, he looks to go around his training partner’s head with the arm which is on the same side as his „dug-up knee“ is, getting to face his legs in the process. Robert points out that this is exactly what’s unusual for this setup: normally, from this position, he’d be attacking the back – but, instead, he’s directly attacking the head!
GO ACROSS AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE
Robert emphasizes that the point is to get that arm in as deep as possible across the neck, at the same time as he’s pushing his training partner’s arm out with his hip.
After doing so, what he does is that he uses his second arm to go across the training partner’s rib cage and chest, connecting itself to the „across the neck“ arm. The point is to grab as high as possible on that arm, not being merely satisfied with grabbing its wrist; but by going as high as possible towards the elbow, as this will yield to more control.
From there, Robert moves his hip across and uses his second arm to pull his „across the neck“ arm in as deeply as possible.
DON’T RUSH!
Now, don’t be in such a hurry to finish! If you connect your arms and immediately decide to just sit down and go for the Head and Arm Guillotine, chances are that you won’t be successful; you’ll simply slip off of your opponent. The trick for this setup, Robert explains, is to adjust before you finish.
What does this mean? It means that you have to get the lock down well enough in order to get the tap from your opponent: you need to combine getting your arm across as much as possible (if you do it right, you’ll be able to see it on the other side of your opponent’s body) with driving your knee deep into your opponent’s rib cage, and peeling his arm away from his body with your hip.
Then, make sure that your foot is placed on your opponent’s hip, as well as that your other leg goes across his back.
DON’T LET THEM COUNTER YOU
If you’ve followed through all of the previous pointers, you’ll be able to feel your opponent being stuck and on the verge of tapping out even before you position your legs.
Also, beware not to let him get up and walk over sideways, which would mean that he has successfully defended the submission and gotten into Side Control. You minimize the chances of this happening by lifting your leg high as your other leg’s knee is digging into your opponent.
Watch Robert explain the details greatly on the video below:
