Using the front headlock /guillotine to pass?

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MilesP4P

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Lately I have been watching Josh Hinger use the front headlock in a way that is similar to Justin Raders game, they both snag the front head lock and use it to pass their opponents butterfly guard/ open guard.

What is a good way to establish the front headlock when attempting to pass your opponents guard (in a no gi scenario) ?

Also any good passers that use this tactic would be a welcome addition to this thread lol.
 
MilesP4P said:
Lately I have been watching Josh Hinger use the front headlock in a way that is similar to Justin Raders game, they both snag the front head lock and use it to pass their opponents butterfly guard/ open guard.

What is a good way to establish the front headlock when attempting to pass your opponents guard (in a no gi scenario) ?

Also any good passers that use this tactic would be a welcome addition to this thread lol.
Click to expand...
There are lots of examples but I'll name a few.

Well you mentioned Justin Rader and he actually developed it based on his 1st ADCC submission loss to Rafa Mendes. Rafa uses a head and arm control from top half to roll behind the head, free the guard, and then uses his top leg to smash down and trap their arm deeper for an anaconda/brabo/guillotine series or to just take the pass.




Lachlan Giles is a great recent example and has an entire instructional on this and here's a good video of him using this style a handful of times in one roll. Lachlan's student and training partner Craig Jones used it a ton this past ADCC. He alternated between a lot of arm-in guillotine, brabo, and high elbow guillotine off the floating pass.

In this roll it looks like Giles gets 5 or 6 front headlock chokes. All while using them to pass.


As for a couple of older examples...
Marcelo Garcia used this style a lot but instead of trapping the head and arm like Rafa, he only trapped the head for the high elbow guillotine and/or to pass.




I know it's not an American phenomenon but honestly a lot of Americans are standing out to me. Edwin Najmi and Josh Hinger are great current examples that use it both gi and no-gi.

Other Americans that use/d it often are Jeff Glover, Bill Cooper, Ryan Hall, Rafael Lovato Jr, Garry Tonon, Tim Spriggs, Dillon Danis, Oliver Taza, John Combs, Geo and Boogey Martinez, Keith Krikorian, David Porter, and William Tackett are other good examples to study.

Claudio Calasans, Leo Vieira, and Cobrinha are Brazillians that used to to great effect.
 
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mataleaos said:
There are lots of examples but I'll name a few.

Well you mentioned Justin Rader and he actually developed it based on his 1st ADCC submission loss to Rafa Mendes. Rafa uses a head and arm control from top half to roll behind the head, free the guard, and then uses his top leg to smash down and trap their arm deeper for an anaconda/brabo/guillotine series or to just take the pass.




Lachlan Giles is a great recent example and has an entire instructional on this and here's a good video of him using this style a handful of times in one roll. Lachlan's student and training partner Craig Jones used it a ton this past ADCC. He alternated between a lot of arm-in guillotine, brabo, and high elbow guillotine off the floating pass.

In this roll it looks like Giles gets 5 or 6 front headlock chokes. All while using them to pass.


As for a couple of older examples...
Marcelo Garcia used this style a lot but instead of trapping the head and arm like Rafa, he only trapped the head for the high elbow guillotine and/or to pass.




I know it's not an American phenomenon but honestly a lot of Americans are standing out to me. Edwin Najmi and Josh Hinger are great current examples that use it both gi and no-gi.

Other Americans that use/d it often are Jeff Glover, Bill Cooper, Ryan Hall, Rafael Lovato Jr, Garry Tonon, Tim Spriggs, Dillon Danis, Oliver Taza, John Combs, Geo and Boogey Martinez, Keith Krikorian, David Porter, and William Tackett are other good examples to study.

Claudio Calasans, Leo Vieira, and Cobrinha are Brazillians that used to to great effect.
Click to expand...


Wow man I just got to work an logged in and read all this stuff and I just want to say thank you for taking the time out to add all this high quality information to the thread. You are a treasure man lol Sherdog needs 100 more posters like you champ!!! Thank you so much man, this is exactly what I needed!!
 
MilesP4P said:
Lately I have been watching Josh Hinger use the front headlock in a way that is similar to Justin Raders game, they both snag the front head lock and use it to pass their opponents butterfly guard/ open guard.

What is a good way to establish the front headlock when attempting to pass your opponents guard (in a no gi scenario) ?

Also any good passers that use this tactic would be a welcome addition to this thread lol.
Click to expand...
So I made a post with a lot of examples to study but as far as actually doing it Justin Rader actually does a big head over heels dive.

You can see it throughout both these matches. He uses it to get mount to back to RNC in the 1st and to get a guillotine in the 2nd.



I don't feel comfortable diving at such a downward angle all the way from my feet. So I like to crouch low on either one knee, both, or if I'm on both feet be in more of the float passing position. Sometimes I'll roll totally head over heels but I prefer to roll more over my shoulder like a classic forward roll that we practice down the mats.




If not totally rolling at least 'jumping' onto some sort of head and arm if they have their elbow open.



So I know most of the examples I've posted so far have ended in submission and not a pass. But most of these examples if the chokes had been let go then pass or mount point would've been awarded. Or if you just want to let go of the chokes you can. But attacking the neck is a great double threat to give them 2 things to worry about. If they fully defend the choke they open up the pass. If they fully defend the pass they open up the choke. So it's a great way to pass the guard and between al the examples and names I listed you can see a wide variety in commitment. Some people like Rader will dive from a mile away and others will try to get deep on the pass attempt first. If you play with this style you'll find what works for you. This and that style of getting he kimura grip before passing all the way are both really solid top options.

One last thing. This was one of the first games that broke the "position before submission" mantra. When the brabo (and later the Marcelotine) got popular some old school guys at the time thought they were cheap because you could do them without fully passing. But if you can sharpen up the these type of attacks during your passing then it will change how your regular training partners roll with you. A good sign you're getting good at this style is when you notice your mat pals start to throw their back to the mat and give you the pass to avoid being choked. That or they'll start trying to play more distance guard and less coming up into you for sweeps that use underhooks. They may even stay flat after you pass and play less turtle.
 
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i use to use this alot it works very well no gi when guys sitting up playing guard threatening the choke i jump on the neck 90% of the time they wiill fall to their back to defend relieve pressure as they do i use my left hand to push theiir knee through like an x pass kinda and pass towards my left i like the idea of threatening them with a sub to get their mind off the pass itself its hard to defend 2 things at once you just gotta really know what youare doing
 
Effective when you can get it... But let's be honest, of a guy plays butterfly guard he shouldnt let you grab his neck like that.
 
MilesP4P said:
Lately I have been watching Josh Hinger use the front headlock in a way that is similar to Justin Raders game, they both snag the front head lock and use it to pass their opponents butterfly guard/ open guard.

What is a good way to establish the front headlock when attempting to pass your opponents guard (in a no gi scenario) ?

Also any good passers that use this tactic would be a welcome addition to this thread lol.
Click to expand...
Against knee shield half guard I like to arm drag their top arm across my body, then go for a front headlock into a cradle.
 
EndlessCritic said:
Against knee shield half guard I like to arm drag their top arm across my body, then go for a front headlock into a cradle.
Click to expand...
Same. I've been working the cradle a lot this year. Rafa Mendes showed us a cool way to pull the arm across for a brabo against knee shield half guard at a no-gi seminar a few years ago. He was saying if you just grab the top hand and try to pull that it can be too obvious sometimes. So he was saying if you're passing to your left/their right that you post on their top leg with your left hand and cup the back of their top triceps with your right hand. So it looks more like you're fighting for an underhook. Then you just swim in your left hand to their top wrist and it's easier to pull across and then you can shoot the brabo or wrap up the head and arm and clear the leg for the pass. I hope that made sense.
 
One of my favorite things to do is fake a long shot and even if they don’t sprawl they’ll move their hips back which lets me quickly upper body clinch to snap down to front headlock. Very basic but 60% of the time it works every time.
 
RyanR said:
One of my favorite things to do is fake a long shot and even if they don’t sprawl they’ll move their hips back which lets me quickly upper body clinch to snap down to front headlock. Very basic but 60% of the time it works every time.
Click to expand...
Like this?

edit: wrong clip let me find it
edit 2: I can't find it but Edwin Najmi level changed aggressively and started his shot. As his opponent sprawled Najmi then raised his level and then dropped back down on a front headlock and did a go-behind. I couldn't tell if he was shooting a shot and then reacted or if the shot was a feint to make the opponent sprawl.
 
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I know that's not what the discussion is about, but can any of you suggest wrestlers with a good snapdown/front headlock game to study?
 
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