The hips play such a big role in Jiu Jitsu. From using them for leveraging submissions, to having the flexibility to expand or retract them;they are essentially a part of every movement. Some movements definitely require more flexibility, but it is extremely...

  There are always a mix of people at the gym who are either training to sharpen their technique or working on using their strength. Both are important but experience shows us that technique is often the more important of the two. Something...

  Few submissions are as devastating as a well placed, technical guillotine choke. From jiu-jitsu’s earliest inception and it’s introduction into the martial arts world as a viable and supreme form of self defense, the guillotine has been a cornerstone of any basic...

Neil Melanson has an incredibly rich grappling pedigree so it’s great to have him with us here at BJJ Fanatics teaching his unorthodox and incredibly effective style. Neil has trained UFC athletes at the highest level, including Randy Couture, Vitor Belfort, Dominick Cruz,...

Are you a head hunter? Do you seem to always find guillotine’s everywhere you look when you are in live training or competition?  If you are not seeing them, you are missing out, they are there, they are everywhere. There are so many...

Although the guillotine is one of the most simple and versatile submissions in Jiu Jitsu, while also being one of the oldest, it is one the most underutilized submissions in the sport. Students will go through white belt and even blue belt without...

Choke or armbar, that is the question. Well, it really isn’t, since a good jiu-jitsu competitor should learn both, and an opponent defending arm attacks will leave their neck open, and vice versa. But let’s pretend for a moment that answer is chokes....

Although most students learn this submission early on in their grappling career, the guillotine remains a very underappreciated submission in Jiu Jitsu.  Most students I talk complain about the difficulty of finishing this submission against anyone who isn’t in their first grappling class...

Dominate Your Opponent's With These Highly Effective Guillotine Chokes For BJJ! The guillotine choke is a very high percentage choke used in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, MMA, and no gi grappling. Once you have the guillotine choke secured it can be very difficult if not...

10 Finger Guillotine by Lachlan Giles In the World of Grappling, Lachlan Giles is one of the preeminent black belt competitors from Australia.  He is head coach at Absolute MMA and has been instrumental in the development of such standout athletes as Craig...

Guillotines are some of the most fundamental submissions grapplers learn. These chokes, sometimes called front naked chokes, can be finished in many ways, some more ruthless than others. Although many grapplers learn this submission early on, many begin to ignore it later in...

Know The Ins and Outs Of These 3 Powerful Chokes! As beautiful as Jiu Jitsu can be, it can also be confusing, especially for newer students. One reason Jiu Jitsu can be muddy at times is because it is difficult to understand submissions...

Top Chokes for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu “For the choke, there are no tough guys”. This is an old saying from Helio Gracie and it is absolutely true. A strong, tough, athletic person can very easily ignore the pain of a joint lock and...

Filipe Costa NASTY BJJ Half Guard Top Submission Lapel Guillotine Choke Learn a top half guard choke submission from BJJ Black Belt Filipe Costa.  Filipe shows a NASTY Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Guillotine Choke from the top half guard position when your opponent has...

The turtle position can be quite dynamic. Creating an impenetrable shell, using it for crafty escapes, or even to mount your own offense are just some of the benefits of the position. But when trying to crack it from the top, what’s your...