Also known as: Guillotine · High-Elbow Guillotine · Marcelotine · Arm-In Guillotine · Chin Strap Choke · Guilotine · Front Naked Choke
The front headlock’s signature finish: wrap the neck from in front, connect your hands, and elevate the wrist into the throat while your chest closes the space. Arm-in and high-elbow variations change the grip, not the idea.
Submission · Strangle (blood choke) · Gi & No-gi · Difficulty 2/5 · Usually learned at White belt
Starts from Front Headlock as the attacker (on the head) → ends the match (submission).
The details that make it work
The choking wrist bone sits against the throat BEFORE you fall to guard or drop your weight.
High-elbow (Marcelotine) version: your elbow climbs over their shoulder line so the shoulder cannot relieve pressure.
Finish with hips in and chest down — the squeeze is a crunch of the whole body, not a bicep curl.
Where it goes wrong
Squeezing around the jaw instead of the throat and burning your grip on a face crank.
Letting them get chest-to-chest on the trapped side — that is the Von Flue counter arriving.
How opponents counter it
Drive to the trapped side and pass to Von Flue position
Hand-fight the chin strap and posture the head out
Is the Guillotine Choke legal in competition?
Legal in all major rulesets at all levels (IBJJF, ADCC, sub-only). Rules change — always confirm against the current official rulebook for your event.