How to finish an arm in guillotine: 3 key Details

It took me 5 years to learn how to finish an arm in guillotine. The normal guillotine came easier to me, but I still learned some new details from Craig Jones’ instructional Mexican Ground Karate Escapes. Now I want to share with you what Craig told me about finishing a guillotine.

Does Craig Jones know how to finish an arm in guillotine?

Craig Jones knows how to finish a guillotine. Check out this finish from ADCC 2019, where he finished an arm in guillotine on Mason Fowler. (And he did the exact same submission again at ADCC 2022 against Kyle Boehm.)

Also read: Top 10 Best Craig Jones Instructionals (& 6 to Avoid)

How to to finish the arm in guillotine like Craig Jones

In Mexican Ground Karate escapes Craig Jones explains how to finish an arm in guillotine. Follow these steps to finish the arm in guillotine like Craig Jones:

  1. Get a chin strap
  2. Make a scooping movement with your hands into the neck (super important!)
  3. Fall to the hip of the side where you have the chin strap
  4. Get closed guard if you can (so they can’t roll to bottom), otherwise get half guard
  5. Finish by crunching

Positional hierarchy for finishing guillotines

Craig Jones also explains which positions are best for finishing guillotines. These are his principles:

  1. Closed guard is the best position to finish any guillotine. That’s because the best escapes are based on rotation and giving up bottom, which is hard to do from closed guard. However, it’s hard to get to a guillotine from closed guard, because your opponent has to make 2 mistakes: allowing closed guard and allowing the guillotine.
  2. Half guard bottom is the most common position to finish guillotines. It’s not as strong as closed guard, but it’s much easier to get.
  3. All guillotines are harder to finish on top. Because when you’re on top you can’t get a good hip angle. That’s why most people’s natural reaction is to roll to their back. If you end up on top, you can try to do a 1 arm finish, but it likely won’t work.

Why does Craig Jones show how to finish a guillotine in a dVD about escapes?

Mexican ground karate escapes is just as much about how to finish submissions as it’s about escaping them. That’s because for Craig to show the best possible escape, he also needs to explain how to do the strongest version of the submission threat.

I actually learned more about finishing submissions from this dvd than I did from many dvds about submissions.

Also read: Mexican ground karate escapes review: 1 big surprise!


Learn to finish (arm in) guillotines like Craig Jones in Mexican Ground Karate Escapes

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