Marcelo Garcia

[Stephan Pepin]

[Stephan Pepin]

[Stephan Pepin]

Eddie commentating

[Mike Nall]

This footage against Andrei Arlovski is older footage. I believe 2005. You'll notice that Marcelo is still in his Human Backpack phase, while going for the occasional straight armlock. You better believe if this happened now there would be more North/South chokes, Guillotines, Crucifix back-takes RNCs, and Spiral Armbars. Just thought I should explain the timeline so people don't get confused as to why he's still playing his armdrag and back-take heavy game.

[Mike Nall]

The same Guillotine he hit on Kron Gracie is at 1:27. The final sub at the end of the video is absolutely brutal!

[Mike Nall]

[Mike Nall]

[Stephan Pepin]

I never get bored of watching Marcelo roll.

[Mike Nall]

This is a write-up I did over at mginaction.com about Marcelo Garcia's Guillotine. They liked it. It's so amazing how not only did Garcia invent a new guard, but he also revolutionized two positions that every grappler learns on week 1 (RNC and Guillotine), and has raised the bar for the levels they can reach.

"There are tons of videos on here that will help you to actually apply the choke. As far as the extra details, they might be different from person-to-person.

First off, I believe the hip drop/elbow lift/leg over the shoulder/side crunch/Marcelo Guillotine is absolutely the best variation of the choke in existence. While the Darce/Brabo and the RNC have always been my best and favorite chokes, I'm finding myself currently catching more people with this choke, from more positions, than either of the other chokes.

As for the blood choke question: You're squeezing the neck very tight, but the elbow flare and lift pulls the forearm right up into the trachea. It cuts off the blood, and I have seen one MMA fighter go to sleep from it, but the primary action for this Guillotine is attacking the windpipe. Matt Arroyo showed the choke and had a student puke on him. Most people tap immediately from the pressure on the throat. There's really no time to think or ride out the choke once it's on. For someone to be able to even stand the pain for 3-6 seconds to even go to sleep would be a great feet.

The elbow lift accomplishes a few things. It prevents the opponent from bulldozing into you to relieve the pressure. That works with the old-school full guard Guillotine, which I haven't caught anyone with in forever, and I do think it will be phased out as time passes. The elbow lift can also be used to help keep someone on all fours if you are on your knees setting up the choke. Leo Vieira did this beautifully against Ryan Hall at ADCC 2009. Ryan was on his knees in the front headlock, and Leo was on his knees. He lifted the elbow up and over Ryan's back so Ryan couldn't posture up. Then Leo threw the leg over the shoulder and the tap came almost immediately.

The elbow lift also makes it so that the choke can be finished anywhere. In a full guard Guillotine, if your opponent jumps his body to your left side, and you have his head under your right arm, you have lost the choke. With the elbow flared up, they are typically completely on the choking side of your body (let's pretend the right side again). If they do manage to jump over you before you can throw your left leg over their back/shoulder, they will still be in the choke as they land. The elbow lift allows you to post your forehead on the mat when finishing from the mount, giving you more stability.

A lot of people don't know what to do with the bottom leg. Most people know the top leg goes over and in front of the shoulder, on the same side as the lifting elbow. Sometimes you can't get it in front of the shoulder and you have the settle for just getting it on the back. The choke should still work. The leg is just to further help them from jumping and/or pressing in to alleviate pressure. I like to take the bottom leg, and shoot the knee in between out bodies, and place the shin against their hip/waistline, with the top of my right foot up against their right hip. This also helps keep them in place. Marcelo does this a lot. The first time I saw it done was against George Sotiropolous at ADCC 2007. I'm sure there's other stuff you can do with the bottom leg, but I try to stick with this.

Those are some of the details about the workings of the choke that make it so special. Literally all you have to do is get control of their head, and then get to the front headlock. This Guillotine can be finished from so many positions it's scary. If you watch the vids of Marcelo and Ryan Hall rolling, Marcelo finishes several times with Marcelo past his body on the typical "safe" side to be in a Guillotine choke.

As setups are concerned, this site is FILLED with them.

ALSO, don't forget the connection between the North/South choke and the Guillotine. They have very separate mechanics and details, but they both have 2 things in common. They both involve heaving the neck getting choked by one arm with one supporting/aiding arm, and they both have a lot of intertwined/similar setups. Many times if someone escapes the N/S choke you have a Guillotine and vice-verse. I believe the Guillotine is technically more versatile, because it can be hit from more positions, but it is very smart to become well versed in the North/South choke if you are really interested in this type of Guillotine. In many ways they go together.

Hope that helped some. Some of your questions I'm not qualified/can't answer/don't know the answer to."

[Mike Nall]