Armbar from guard, need help

**v1y** · Posted On: 3/11/2009 1:36pm

oh god i hope i get an 'ah hah' moment for pulling off armbars from guard soon, or else i might be the only bjj blue belt alive who can't do one properly.

k so i'm attacking his right arm which is on my left side:
my right hand hooks the back of his elbow, my left hand holds onto his sleeve
left foot on hip, left knee pinches his shoulder
lift my hips using my left foot, bite hard and high with my right leg
rotate my torso to the right

HOW DO SWING LEFT LEG OVER WITHOUT ARM COMING OUT?

The sequence i described i've used as a pendulum and it's worked against blue belts... but for some reason i just can't get the armbar... i've literally only ever hit it once.

**Blue Negation** · Posted On: 3/11/2009 3:15pm

Keeping control of their arm with one hand, push their face away. The stretching motion of the push on the face and pull on the arm will keep it trapped, and pushing their face away also makes it easier to get your leg around their head if they are tucking it.

**syberia** · Posted On: 3/11/2009 3:48pm

As negation said, push the face across.

While we're on topic though, i dont know if this is correct, i tend to control/grip the neck before I control the hip/bring right leg up high. Simply because alot of the guys i grapple with can pull strait out of my control before i get anywhere and it keeps them tight. Its something i started doing without noticing and my coach doesn't have an issue with it. Is this detremental to the technique?

**Deadmeat** · Posted On: 3/11/2009 4:32pm

There are lots of setups for the armbar from guard. It's probably the most common attack I'll use from my back in no gi (closely followed by the triangle), and the second most common in gi (after the good old vanilla cross-collar choke).

Have you tried pulling your opponent's right elbow as far as possible to your right hand side (assuming you're attacking his right arm) that brings them closer to you, and makes it harder for them to pull out. Coupled with the pushing of the face, that works pretty nicely.

Alternatively, hug their right forearm to the left side of your chest, and use your free hand to underhook their leg.

Sybs, controlling the neck is absolutely fine. i tend to ensure that I have a good hook around their head before opening my guard, so they can't just slip out the back, and it's a good way of keeping their posture broken down, which is of paramount importance when fighting from your back. Break their posture before you try anything else, and you increase your chances of getting past the attempt stage and into the actual submission.

**syberia** · Posted On: 3/11/2009 4:37pm

Originally Posted by Deadmeat

Sybs, controlling the neck is absolutely fine. i tend to ensure that I have a good hook around their head before opening my guard, so they can't just slip out the back, and it's a good way of keeping their posture broken down, which is of paramount importance when fighting from your back. Break their posture before you try anything else, and you increase your chances of getting past the attempt stage and into the actual submission.

Oh goodo then. I do it because, yeah, as soon as i open guard they pull back. Thanks for that.

**UpaLumpa** · Posted On: 3/11/2009 4:53pm

More specifically, in that situation you're going to push his head with your left hand. Your other arm isn't long enough.

***jnp*** · Posted On: 3/11/2009 4:55pm

Use a two on one grip. Grab arm with one hand at wrist/sleeve and cup his tricep right above the elbow in no-gi, grip back of sleeve at seam in the same place with the gi.

From a traditional armbar from the guard setup, many people neglect squeezing their knees inward on top guy's shoulders to properly set up the move. With both of your feet on his hips and sleeve/sleeve or collar/sleeve grips, stretch him out a bit, not completely though. Collapse your knees onto his armpit/siderib area so that they are under his arms before he regains his posture.

Proper knee position means his elbows will be flared away from his side. Squeeze your knees together right away to prevent him from pulling back. Attain the two on one grip on the arm you want to attack. The next part is important. Keep the same side foot seated on his hip and maintain inward pressure with the knee. Do this right behind his upper arm so that he cannot retract it.

Disengage your other leg, and extend it a bit. Then of course you drag the arm across your body with the two on one while you bump him behind his arm with the far armpit with the free knee to help bat him to the side and assist in making the proper angle. Do this all at once.

It's easy.

**Uncle Skippy** · Posted On: 3/12/2009 1:25pm

I've been having more and more success with the arm bar from the guard by really working on controlling the other guy's posture and doing a subtle adjustment when setting it up.

Deal with his grips and break him down. I'll usually get the arm drag as he is coming down on to me after I've broken a grip and use my legs to pull him in.

Cut the angle and bring the right leg up into the arm pit and be as heavy as possible. If you aren't heavy, they will posture and you are back to where you began.

When pressing on the head, don't think about pressing the head away from you; if you press his head away, his elbow will be more likely to pull out (my problem because I have a long frame). I've used a combination of putting pressure on the head, pulling on their arm, pressure in their armpit with my right leg (extend just a *tiny* bit), and lifting my hips (using the left leg posted on his hip) to rotate his torso so he is facing me a bit more. Lock down their arm and swing the other leg over.

As soon as I stopped really pushing on their head (driving them away) and instead focused on changing the angle of his body a little (which gives me a much deeper arm bar), I started getting it quite a bit more. Bonus is if they really start to try to stack from there, you are so deep that extending will flatten him to his back.

That was my 'aha!' moment.

**3moose1** · Posted On: 3/12/2009 8:49pm

Push his face away, keep your knees pinched.

**Liffguard** · Posted On: 3/13/2009 5:10am

Assuming you're attacking his right arm, you hold his body down with your right leg.

You've got control of the arm. You plant your left leg on his hip use it to help swivel your body round. CLAMP DOWN HARD WITH YOUR RIGHT LEG, RIGHT ACROSS HIS BACK AS HIGH AS YOU CAN. This will hold his body down and if you do it right there's no way he'll have the space to pull the arm out, especially if you've got good control of his arm as well. Then you can basically swing your other leg over at your leisure. Again, you'll get more control if you hook his head with that leg as you swing it over. Push his face out of the way if you need to.