This week we're going to take it back a little bit to check out an excellent submission from Ultimate Fight Night 3 in a match between Jason Von Flue and Alex Karalexis. The submission we're going to look at this week has been known by many different names over the years, as have most submissions, but in this article we are going to refer to it as the "Von Flue Choke" named after the man who popularized it Jason Von Flue. We have two videos this week that we'll use to break down this move. The first is the Jason Von Flue and Alex Karalexis fight and the second is a how-to from Submissions 101.
A Von Flue choke is actually just as much a defensive move as it is an offensive move. The are basically two kinds of guillotine chokes. One traps your opponents arm and it is harder to finish your opponent, and the other does not trap your opponents arm and is generally easier to finish. If you find yourself caught in a guillotine choke without your arm trapped that would be the time to use the Von Flue choke.
Now let's take a look at the Von Flue vs. Karalexis video. In this video Karalexis gets Von Flue in a guillotine without an arm trapped. The key to this move, if someone has you in a guillotine, is to get side control. If your opponent wraps you up in their guard you will not be able to execute the Von Flue Choke. In this video, Karalexis gets Von Flue in a no-arm guillotine (0:10). Right at that moment, Von Flue, with his right arm under Karalexis's neck and his left hand under his own head, grips his hands together with a no-thumb palm to palm grip. 02Once he has that position secure he leans his shoulder into Karalexis' neck, and puts all his weight into it, while flexing his biceps at the same time.
This is a really powerful blood choke, meaning it cuts off the blood supply to the brain to render someone unconscious. Karalexis most likely knew he was in trouble since he tried to bump Von Flue off of him (0:19), but wasn't familiar with this move and as a result got completely choked out before he could tap (0:27). This move can be very deceiving to the person on bottom if they are not familiar with the Von Flue Choke because when you have someone in the guillotine you feel like you have the the dominant position and all of a sudden you're unconscious and you wake up wondering what happened. That's exactly what happened to Karalexis.
The Submissions 101 breaks this move down very well step-by-step. In this video they start in the standing position (0:20) where as in the Von Flue fight they were already on the ground when they video started. This move can start on the feet or on the ground. It all depends on where your opponent first sinks in the the guillotine. In the Submissions 101 video they demonstrate how to transition to the ground while getting side control at the same time (0:27). This is the setup for the Von Flue Choke. Once your opponent has you in the guillotine choke and have side control they show you how to make the palm to palm grips (0:45). Finally, they demonstrate how to finish the move by sprawling your legs out walking up a little bit and using your shoulder to apply all the weight of your body onto your opponents neck while squeezing your bicep at the same time to finish the choke (0:58).
This is a really great defensive move to use and the good thing about it is that it seems like a lot of people are still relatively unfamiliar with it. When Von Flue used this move on Karalexis, Joe Rogan didn't even know about this move and he's a brown belt in BJJ. You can still effectively use this move on an opponent who knows it, but it's a great way to catch an opponent off guard. You can bait your opponent into getting you in a guillotine and then pull out this move and completely blindside them.
Hope you enjoyed reading about the Von Flue Choke. Next week will continue breaking down more submissions.
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Henry Dziekan is a new MMATorch Specialist who will provide insight into how effective and popular MMA submission holds work with video clips accompanying his explanations.
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