Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, also known as BJJ for short, employs some of the most effective techniques in the martial arts world to overwhelm and disable an opponent. A set of techniques known as “joint locks” seem to be particular favorites of expert BJJ practitioners. A lot of martial art styles and disciplines like Aikido, Hapkido, and Judo all employ various joint lock techniques, but none of them have taken the art form to a new level like Brazilian Jiu Jitsu has. Joint locks employed with enough leverage by a BJJ master can fully disable an opponent, sometimes permanently, by destroying major joints like knees and elbows or easily breaking large bones. This article will explain two of the most fundamental of the BJJ joint locks: the Juji-Gatame and the Kimura.
The Juji-Gatame, Also Known as the “Armbar”
One of the most widely utilized techniques in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competition is called the “juji-gatame”, also known in English more commonly as simply the “armbar.” This is one of the most versatile and effective joint locks there is – many a Mixed Martial Arts match has been unexpectedly ended in an instant with a sudden armbar. This is one of the many reasons BJJ has come to be known as the dominant style on the ground in Mixed Martial Arts competitions.
An armbar is a joint lock attack applied to the opponent’s elbow to hyperextend it. It is extremely effective, especially against opponents who are not trained in BJJ themselves. An armbar is usually applied by grabbing the wrist or forearm of one of your opponent’s arms and securing their arm between both of your thighs as you place your legs perpendicular to your opponent’s body over his chest. In this way your hips become a fulcrum and your opponent’s arm is like a lever that you are bending at the elbow (in the wrong direction) against that fulcrum. Well-applied armbars are extremely painful. If you have good control over his wrist, you can continue to hyperextend your opponent’s elbow until he either submits, the elbow dislocates, or his arm breaks. For obvious reasons an armbar move is most often attempted on the ground, but skilled and daring fighters can actually initiate an armbar while standing and take their opponent down to the ground by throwing both legs across their body.
The Kimura
The kimura move was named after a Judo master named Masahiko Kimura who performed it in order to defeat one of the most famous godfathers of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Helio Gracie. Like the armbar, you grab your opponent’s wrist, but this time with the hand on the same side. The kimura is designed to attack your opponents shoulder in stead of his elbow. Your opposite second arm is then quickly slipped into place on the backside of your opponent’s arm, again securing the opponent’s wrist in order to form a type of “figure four”. With your opponent’s arm in such a precarious position and you in complete control of it, you can continue to crank his arm at an angle away from his body, putting tremendous stress on the shoulder joint. Once you learn the armbar and the kimura, you will already have a significant arsenal under your belt.
