Defending the back take from the Hindulotine requires understanding that your turning escape, while necessary to relieve choking pressure, is the exact movement your opponent wants to exploit. The fundamental defensive challenge is escaping the guillotine without exposing your back. This means your turn must be controlled, deliberate, and paired with immediate counter-actions that deny seat belt establishment and hook insertion.
The defender’s primary advantage is that the attacker must release their guillotine grip to transition to back control, creating a brief window where neither submission nor positional control is fully established. Capitalizing on this grip transition gap is the key to successful defense. By timing your frames, hip movement, and posture recovery to this exact moment, you can deny the back take and either recover to a neutral position or achieve the more defensible turtle posture.
Defensive success depends on controlling the pace of your own turn. Rather than explosively rotating and giving the attacker momentum to follow, use measured hip escapes combined with immediate elbow and shoulder frames that block seat belt establishment. Your elbows must stay tight throughout, and the moment you feel the guillotine pressure release, your priority shifts from neck defense to preventing upper body control and hook insertion.
Opponent’s Starting Position: Hindulotine (Top)
How to Recognize This Attack
- Attacker’s chest pressure follows your rotation instead of maintaining the original guillotine angle, indicating they are pursuing the back rather than the choke
- Guillotine grip pressure decreases or shifts as attacker begins releasing the choke to transition hands toward seat belt configuration across your chest
- You feel the attacker’s legs moving from sprawl base to a position alongside your hips, attempting to thread hooks inside your thighs as you turn
- Attacker’s arm that was under your chin begins sliding over your shoulder while their other arm reaches under your armpit for the seat belt
Key Defensive Principles
- Control the speed and depth of your turning escape to avoid giving the attacker momentum to follow into back control
- Block seat belt establishment immediately by keeping elbows tight to your body and framing against the attacker’s arms during the grip transition
- Deny hook insertion by keeping knees together and hips low to the mat, eliminating the space needed for the attacker’s legs to enter
- Exploit the grip transition window when attacker releases guillotine but has not yet secured seat belt as your primary escape opportunity
- Maintain shoulder-to-mat connection on the turning side to prevent being pulled onto your side where hooks become accessible
- Prioritize achieving tight turtle over attempting to face the opponent, as turtle provides better defensive structure than an incomplete turn
Defensive Options
1. Complete the turn explosively and re-face opponent before hooks are inserted, using frames on their biceps and hips to create distance and recover to guard or combat base
- When to use: Early in the transition when attacker has released guillotine but has not yet secured seat belt or inserted any hooks
- Targets: Hindulotine
- If successful: You face the opponent and recover to a neutral guard position or combat base, negating both the choke and the back take attempt
- Risk: If you turn too slowly, the attacker follows and establishes seat belt during the rotation, putting you in a worse position with back partially exposed
2. Tighten into a compact defensive turtle by dropping elbows to knees, tucking chin, and keeping hips low to deny both hooks and seat belt access
- When to use: When the attacker has established partial upper body control and you cannot safely complete the turn to face them
- Targets: Turtle
- If successful: You achieve a tight turtle position that is significantly harder for the attacker to convert to full back control, giving you time to work turtle escapes
- Risk: Staying in turtle too long allows the attacker to methodically break down your defensive structure through systematic grip fighting and pressure
3. Post your near arm and drive your hips backward into the attacker while sprawling your legs away, preventing them from getting underneath you for hooks
- When to use: When you feel the attacker’s legs beginning to thread alongside your hips during the transition
- Targets: Hindulotine
- If successful: Your sprawl denies hook insertion and your arm post prevents being pulled to your side, allowing you to reset to a more defensible position or stand up
- Risk: The posted arm can be targeted for arm drag or gift wrap, and committing to the sprawl may leave your neck briefly vulnerable if the attacker re-attacks the guillotine
Best-Case Outcomes for Defender
→ Hindulotine
Exploit the grip transition window by turning fully through before seat belt is secured, using frames on attacker’s arms and hips to create enough distance to re-face them and recover guard or stand to combat base
→ Turtle
When full escape is not possible, achieve a tight defensive turtle by collapsing elbows to knees, keeping hips low, and tucking chin immediately upon feeling the guillotine release, denying the attacker easy access to hooks and seat belt
Test Your Knowledge
Q1: What is the critical window of vulnerability during the attacker’s transition that you should exploit? A: The critical window occurs when the attacker releases their guillotine grip to transition to seat belt control. During this brief moment, neither the choke nor the positional control is fully established, creating your best opportunity to frame, create distance, and either complete your turn to face the opponent or establish a tight defensive turtle.
Q2: Your opponent follows your turn with chest pressure and begins threading their arm over your shoulder - what is your immediate response? A: Immediately clamp your elbow tight to your ribs on the side where they are threading their arm, creating a physical barrier to seat belt establishment. Simultaneously drop your hips low to the mat and bring your knees together to deny hook entry. Use your opposite hand to grip fight their reaching arm, preventing them from locking their hands together across your chest.
Q3: Why is controlling the speed of your turning escape critical to preventing the back take? A: Explosive turning generates rotational momentum that the attacker uses to follow you into back control. The faster you turn, the more energy you provide for them to ride your rotation and establish position behind you. A controlled, measured turn with constant framing denies the attacker this free momentum and forces them to generate their own energy to pursue the back take.
Q4: You feel the bottom hook being inserted as you turn - what adjustment prevents the second hook? A: Immediately turn toward the hook side rather than away from it, which pins the inserted hook against the mat and prevents it from controlling your hip. Simultaneously bring your top knee over to trap their hooking leg between your thighs. This one-hook position is far more escapable than two hooks. From here, work to strip the single hook while preventing the second through active hip movement and leg positioning.
Q5: What body position should you achieve if you cannot complete the full turn to face your opponent? A: Achieve a compact defensive turtle with elbows pinched tight to the inside of your knees, chin tucked to chest, back rounded, and hips low to the mat. This structure denies seat belt access because your elbows block arm threading, denies hooks because your hips are too low for leg entry, and protects your neck through the tucked chin and rounded spine. From this turtle, immediately begin working dynamic escapes.