The Renzotine
AKA: Arm-in Guillotine.
After seeing Renzo and his guys finish the arm-in guillotine so many times I went back and reevaluated my usage of the technique, and now it works really really well for me. A couple things I revised to make it more effective:
1) Chin grab. Instead of looping the neck right away, I start off from a chin-grip now and then sink the guillotine itself in when I feel the opportunity arise. This reduces the amount of time my opponent has to get his hand into the guillotine grip to defend the choke, and also insures that my initial guillotine grip will be deeper and tighter because I am sinking it when I feel my opponent lift his chin / lower his defenses.
2) Hip movement. I come in from the side of the trapped arm now, instead of falling straight back, and I scoot my hips out to that side as well when finishing the technique.
3) Fast steady pressure. The last key element is that you have to put everything into the choke from the first second that you sink your grip, then maintain that pressure steadily until you get the tap. The longer you spend on the choke the more time your opponent has to dig his chin in, get a hand in on your grip, stack you etc. etc. I find it works best for me when I can apply a lot of pressure quickly and get a panic-tap, or have the choke so deep that my opponent will be out before he can secure effective defenses.
Anyway if you take the time to set it up right so that you get it 100% deep right off the bat and use your hip movement to keep the pressure on their neck rather than the trapped arm you'll find that its a wicked submission.
TRANSITIONS:
<---> Renzotine/Brabo:
This is a very easy transition, but it depends a bit on your opponents movement.
Going from Brabo to Renzotine:
I will usually utilize this transition when my opponent has been able to base up and get to their knees despite my efforts to whip them down with the d'arce grip. At this point I like to keep my whizzer deep and use my free hand to grip their chin while I sprawl. As soon as I feel my opponent begin to drive or otherwise make un-cautious movements I'll snap my chin-grabbing hand in under their chin and swing in from the side to finish the renzotine.
Going from Renzotine to Brabo:
I'll use this transition when I'm looking to set up a renzotine but my opponent has good chin-discipline and/or hand control. From the Renzotine grip in sprawl position its just a matter of shooting your whizzer arm deeper and shoving the back of the head with your chin-grip hand, locking up the d'arce grip and looking to whip your opponent down onto their side in order to finish the brabo. If you've got big-ass pterodactyl arms like I do you can sometimes lock up the full brabo grip even as are still up on their knees, but this is unreliable.
<--->Renzotine/Anaconda
Renzotine to Anaconda:
Again I'll transition away from the Renzotine if my opponent has good chin-disciple, or hand control, or if I am outweighed or loathe to give up top position for whatever reason. All you have to do for this one is punch your chin-grip hand through, and switch your grip to Gable. Its very important that your neck-side arm is palm down, or everything will go to shit when you start trying to lock up the anaconda. Also try to start crossing their trapped arm as soon as possible, preferable during your transition, a lot of the time you can catch people in a deep anaconda before they realize you aren't looking for the Renzotine anymore.
Anaconda to Renzotine:
The time to use this transition is when your opponent staunchly defends against your attempts to cross his arm over. Again instead of going right to the handblade finishing grip, go for the chin instead. Open their neck up while you sink your whizzer back in deep (you would have pulled it loose to go for the anaconda) and then attack with the Renzotine when the time is right.
<----> Renzotine/Hell-choke
This is one of the easiest and most deadly of the Renzotine transitions. Really a brutal choke and hard to escape when executed properly and with patience.
Renzotine to Hell-choke:
Take your neck-side hand, go from your chin grip or handblade grip to a gable grip with your neck-side palm down so that the back of your hand is against their upper chest. A common mistake with this choke is to put your hand right next to the neck, this will allow your opponents' head to pop out when you go to the finishing position. More on this in the hell-choke entry. All you have to do for this transition is switch your grip to gable (remember the neck-side palm HAS to be down) then ride your chest up onto their back, step over the head an execute the choke. Easy.
Hell-choke to Renzotine:
Another easy transition, though I rarely use it because the hell-choke is just so strong. But every once in a while if you know your opponent is wise to the hell-choke its good to go back to the Renzotine because it is an excellent central position from which to attack other angles. All you have to do is switch your gable grip to a chin-grip/whizzer combo and work from there, nothing to it.
<------> Guillotine/Renzotine
Guillotine to Renzotine:
You wouldn't think this was a useful transition, going from the traditionally preferred arms-out guillotine to an arm-in guillotine seems counterintuitive. However I use this movement quite often and with great strategic effect. Often my opponent will be defending the guillotine well with hand control and hiding his chin, so it is advantageous to open my grip up and overhook the arm, going into Renzotine position. I find my opponent is much easier to control from the renzotine position than the standard guillotine, and once you're in the Renzotine position you have the whole galaxy of no-gi chokes availible to you, while the no-arms guillotine doesn't transition easily into very many moves. Often I'll go regular guillotine exclusively to set up my Renzotine grip.
Renzotine to Guillotine:
This is where I'll get 90% of my traditional guillotines, (the other 10% are wrestlers, n00bs, and people who are gassed out). When you decide to switch your grip from the Renzotine to Guillotine be sure to grab the chin in between, keep that pressure on their neck during your transition. Strategically I like to use this transition when my opponent has tucked his chin into my Renzotine, or when they are not quite getting choked for whatever reason and I feel them relax. Just lightning quick switch to the traditional guillotine grip and use the transition as opportunity to get in under their chin.
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