Submission escape

Escape the guillotine

Start here: your partner has the guillotine set but not finished.

Escape · 1 of 6

No-Gi Fundamentals: Escape the Guillotine

Report a problemKyuzo BJJ · on YouTube
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Before it’s locked

  • Keep your head up and in line with your spine when you shoot or pass
  • Don’t leave your neck exposed when they sit up from guard
  • Hand-fight their wrist as soon as the arm wraps your neck

The main escape

  1. Grab their choking wrist with both hands and pull it down to make space
  2. Turn your chin toward their chest and drive your shoulder into them
  3. Move to the side of their choking arm (the side your head is on), stacking your weight on them
  4. Pass to side control on that side; their grip loses its angle

Escape roadmap

The seven stages of this escape. Work from the top: the earlier you act, the less you need the later stages.

  1. 1
    Prevent
    • Keep your head up and in line with your spine when you shoot or pass
    • Don’t leave your neck out when they sit up from guard
  2. 2
    Defensive posture
    • Turn your chin toward their chest and drive your shoulder into them
    • Bring your hips in close; pulling back tightens the choke
  3. 3
    Hand fight
    • Both hands on the choking wrist and pull it down
    • Clear the second hand before it clasps
  4. 4
    Make space
    • Stack your weight forward onto them
    • Get your knees close to their hips
  5. 5
    Clear the structure
    • Move to the side of their choking arm (the side your head is on)
    • Put your weight on them so they can’t arch back
  6. 6
    Late escape
    • Against a high-elbow guillotine, keep stacking and stepping to the choking-arm side
    • Tap when their elbow is high, your chin is trapped and you feel pressure on your throat
  7. 7
    Back to safety
    • Pass to side control on the choking-arm side
    • Crossface right away so they can’t re-wrap your neck

Escape options

Pass to the choking-arm sideMost guillotines from closed or open guardSide control (Yoko Shiho Gatame) →
Two-on-one and postureEarly, before the grip locksOpen guillotine escape →
Stack and step overClosed guard with a high-elbow gripOpen stack pass →
When to tap

If their elbow is high, your chin is trapped and you feel pressure on your throat, tap.

Common mistake

Pulling your head straight back, or passing to the side away from the choking arm.

Drill it

Partner starts in closed guard with a guillotine grip locked but not squeezing. Round 1 at 30% resistance, round 2 at 60%, then live. Your partner applies the finish slowly; you tap the moment you reach the “when to tap” point. Switch roles each round.

How they apply it
Read about itGrapplearts articlesBJJ Heroes

My notes

Saved automatically.

← Rear naked choke (Hadaka Jime)Triangle (Sankaku Jime) →
Quick checkEscape the guillotine quick check4 questions

Related seminars

All seminars →

Longer seminars, classes and masterclasses that teach this. Free on YouTube.

Class recordingBottomEscapes

No Handed Choke Defence

Chris Paines

Guillotine defence without your hands

Chris Paines shows how to defend chokes (triangle, arm triangle, guillotine, rear naked choke) with posture and positioning instead of grabbing with your hands.

YouTube ↗

How it connects

The attack
Guillotine
Caught in
Closed guard (top)
Escape to
Side control (Yoko Shiho Gatame)
Related escapes
Escape the rear naked chokeEscape the triangleEscape the armbarEscape the arm triangleEscape the omoplataEscape the north-south choke
Seminars