Wristlocks and Armdrags

[Aesopian]

One night I was goofing off after class, trying to figure out a standing wristlock I've seen Jacare get (which is pretty easy, since all he does is glue their hand to his chest during grip fighting and charge forward to explode their arm).

My instructor saw me doing this and thought it was funny, so he started showing me some other wristlocks. Among these was one from guard that he said he had a black belt friend who did it all the time. He thought it was funny because everyone would laugh it off at first, then realize they really needed to get out of it or be submitted. Kinda like "Ha ha haahhh-owww!"

The technique is simple. When they post almost anywhere on your torso or hips, hold their hand against your body so they can't remove it, making sure to bend their wrist, then grab their elbow and pull it into you as you sit up. That's really about all there is to it.

(Kid Peligro shows this in his new book The Essential Guard if you want to see it.)

I regarded it with amusement, but forgot about it for a while.

But then one day I was doing no-gi and was having a hard time stopping my guard from being opened by someone posting hard into my hips and preventing me from getting under or overhook or head control. But I could reach his hand. And I could reach his elbow. You can put 2 + 2 together. He quickly broke posture to save his wrist.

Ever since, I've found myself using this quite constantly. It's my Break Posture Free card. I've honestly never really submitted anyone with this, but that's not why I love it. They just spaz and try to free their hand, which comes into play below...

Now you can grip whichever way you want, but for my purposes, I hold their hand with my same side hand and reach across to their elbow with my other. So when they do spaz and free their hand, I've already got an armdrag grip in place. And armdrag I do. I'm even sitting up into them already, so I can use my body weight to bring them down and cross the arm.

And that's about all there is to it. I've been able to get this both gi and no-gi, regardless of them grabbing my lapels, pushing my stomach or my hips.

I've got a different wristlock I've been playing around with to counter the safety position (hands on biceps or in armpits), but that's still in R&D.

And for the sake of thoroughness:

You can also do the wristlock by grabbing their elbow with both hands and sitting up into it. You get more pressure behind it, but they are more likely to free their hand. You can do this by reaching around both sides of their arm, or you can do it like in Beneville's new book The Guard, with both hands on the outside. He shows to pull their elbow with both hands on the outside so their arm flares, and they'll likely escape by shoving their arm down by your hip, giving you an omoplata.

I hope this gives you something new to play with.

[Shuma-Gorath]

Would you say the gi removes some of the effectiveness of this move? I know my no-gi posture (palm in the solar plexus) is vulnerable to this but with the gi on I grip both lapels and drive my knuckles into them.

[Aesopian]

It just makes it a little harder to bend their wrist, but that's all. Just smack at their wrist until it bends then hold it down so they can't straighten it again.

[Aesopian]

Encoded Message: Cross grip wristlock to Russian 2-on-1. Opposite grip but still take the back.

[Shuma-Gorath]

Orders Acknowledged.

[fanatical]

The technique is simple. When they post almost anywhere on your torso or hips, hold their hand against your body so they can't remove it, making sure to bend their wrist, then grab their elbow and pull it into you as you sit up. That's really about all there is to it.

Amusingly, this is a classic JJ escape from high grabs. Grab the hair? Trap the hand in place and bend forward for pressure on the wrist. Pushing the chest? If you're fast enough, trap the hand there and bend forward. Again, same concept.

I'm glad to see details like this in BJJ. Maybe people can stop their neverending whining about nutriding and see that it really is all about what works or not. Oh well. I can dream, can't I?

[Bang!]

Standard TCC lock too. Bas does the standing version in one of his street self-defence DVDs. I've been doing this for a while too. I've never sumbitted someone with it, but it certainly stops them in their tracks. I'll try setting up for the armdrag with this.

[Shuma-Gorath]

Mission report:
Limited success with the wirstlock today. Most people at my school have seen it in self-defence so I had limited success; in fact I did it better while standing than with someone in my guard. I will be trying your second variation on Monday.

Greater success achieved with stolen Soviet weaponry. Details classified.

[Bang!]

Putting pressure on the wrist in the manner that Aesopian described is what I originally learned at taiji as part of a stand-up scenario. However, I've since experimented with it in BJJ and found the same thing that he described above -- save for the arm-drag portion, which is a good idea that I will try to put into use.

The way I learned it, your hand really just holds the opponent's hand in place (ideally flat against your body). It's the angle of your own body that puts pressure on their wrist. In addition to doing this to someone in my guard, I've also done this when trying to pass someone else's. This works when the other person flexes their wrist when pushing against you. Even if they react quickly enough to take the pressure off, it typically sucks any power out of their movement, and is fairly useful in that regard.

I should also mention that the type of taiji that I practice is largely comprised of stand-up crappling and that they don't tolerate that **** over in Strikistan.

[Fighting Cephalopod]

Myself and a training partner who is gay for armdrags from guard worked with this a bit today. We were unable to get each other to tap to it, even in drilling, but it was extremely efficient in forcing the victim to break posture and open himself up for arm-draggin'.