A cool guillotine defense, and choking the turtle

Last night was my first night back. It seems like I'm saying that an awful lot lately, with injuries, sickness, holidays and work joining forces to turn me into a mediocre, overweight gamer. It'll never happen. This two-week hiatus was for the on-call rotation at work, and now I have about six weeks before that crap hits again, though I skipped kickboxing since I can't make a fist. Last night was a really small class, to which Marcus remarked, "I hate when the Lakers play at the same time as class." So another guillotine defense came up after we went over the turtle position. I'll hit that first and then turtle up.

I mentioned in an earlier post that being caught in a guillotine and the closed guard at the same time was a pretty serious thing, but I didn't realize how bad it can turn out for the attacker. Taking the point of view of the guillotine-ee (versus the guillotiner), the first move is predictably enough to grab the wrist or hand that is choking you. Assuming your opponent uses his right arm, you use your left hand to grab his right wrist and pull, giving yourself room to breathe. Now reach your right hand over his left shoulder and hug him. Really reach as far down into the middle of his back as you can. After you get a good grip stand up inside his guard; you'll look like a bipod from the side with your head and feet stuck on the ground. Now cram your right shoulder under his chin and drive it into his throat. Bam. Weird that scoring a solid guillotine on someone can work against you, but it's pretty brutal. After feeling it in practice I can tell you that if this was applied effectively against me I'd most certainly give up my guillotine and try to get the hell out of there, even if it meant giving up side control.

Now on to the turtle. The turtle position is kind of a fetal position but instead of being on your side you're on all fours trying to cover up and minimize damage. It's not a good place to be because you have almost no offense, and if strikes are allowed (MMA or street) you have virtually no chance of covering all targets effectively. You have to get out. However in wrestling and grappling the turtle is a position of relative safety. You aren't exposed to a pin, your arms and legs aren't extended, and your hands are within easy neck-defending position and range. But at the same time no one ever wins through defense - eventually you have to do something.

From the attackers perspective there are a range of options, but before you attack you need to make sure you've achieved complete positional dominance. This means he isn't going to get out or sweep/reverse you, let alone land some type of armlock or choke (there is an armlock from the bottom position...). The most common thing that gets the top player in trouble is leaning too far over their opponent's back and getting rolled. Assuming you're on your knees to the right of your opponent. You want your left hand ideally on his wrist, but that's far less important than keeping your weight low and far enough off to his right that he can't clamp your left arm/wrist/hand in his left armpit and just roll over his left shoulder, taking you with him.

It's not the end of the world if you can't reach his wrist, just grab his lapel if he's in a gi (or sport's coat :) ), or clasp your hands together in no-gi. Some guys will slowly creep their hand out to get you to over-extend yourself, so you end up with the wrist and you get flipped immediately. If you clasp your hands together, with your left arm underneath his armpit wrapped around his chest and your right arm over his right shoulder, it's a very quick and sneaky move to wait for the right moment and just slip the right hand up to the throat. You can finish sloppy or go for a full-blown rear naked choke.

Another option is to move your left arm from over the top of his back, slipping it under his right armpit with your hand coming out right next to his left ear. From there you move slightly in front of him and use that left hand of yours to grip your own right bicep, finishing with a rear naked choke ... upside down with an arm, but the arm doesn't get in your way since your wrist bone is against his throat. Weird, but just as potent as the normal one. The risk on this move is that by moving the arm you have over his back to underneath his chest, you relinquish your positional dominance in the transition. You can maintain it to some degree by leaning your weight on him with your chest, but it's less stable.

The more common finish for turtled opponents is the alligator roll. You keep your top arm where it is and just move around the front so you're sprawled out on top of him. From there slide your right arm through the gap underneath his left ear, with your right wrist coming out underneath his right armpit and grabbing your own left bicep. This is a lot like the previous choke, reversed and a little less effective because now instead of your wrist being against his throat it's your right bicep, which is less bony. That's ok, to tighten the choke/crank, tuck your head as far underneath his right shoulder as possible and roll him over to his right (the tuck is to avoid rolling 200 pounds over your own head). Once you both end up on your backs it's easy to tighten the hold.

Another finish that's so obvious it just might work is to turn the turtle into a quasi-guillotine. Do this by spinning around to his front like in the alligator roll, then slide your right arm through, again like the alligator roll, but stop half way. Reach under his right armpit with your left arm and link hands. Your right wrist should be on his throat at this point, and you can stand half way up and sit back down into guard, effectively putting your hips under him and then planting at least one leg over his back to prevent a rolling escape.

I know there was at least one more attack, and a few defenses, but that's enough for now.