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By Henry S. Dziekan III, MMATorch Submission Specialist
The armbar is a basic arm lock submission, it's easy to execute, and above all it's a highly effective move. Because of this, this move is very commonly used in MMA today. When I first got into MMA, one of the first submissions I remember hearing about was the armbar. I saw it done on the UFC several times but still didn't exactly know what it was. The armbar is an armlock submission that is designed to hyper-extend your opponents elbow by basically forcing the arm against your groin. Their are countless ways which this move can be executed, however right now I'm only going to discuss getting the armbar from the guard. I have two video links available here to view.
The first is a video is from Submissions 101 on how to execute the arm bar from the guard, and the second is Fedor Emelianenko submitting Hong-Man Choi via armbar from the guard position. The Submissions 101 video is a great "how-to" (as are all of their videos). It shows step by step the execution of this move. In the video they break down the steps and go through the move very mechanically.
In the second video you can see an example of a fluid application of the armbar from the guard position. When comparing the two videos you can also see the evolution of the move. In the first video they recommend putting your left foot on the persons hip, doing a hip escape, cutting your right legs down across the persons back bringing their torso down and then swinging your left leg across their face.
Fedor improvised this move cutting out a few of the movements. Instead of putting his left foot on Hong-Man's hip and pushing off, Fedor swings his left leg out and kind of does a double-pump with his leg to create enough momentum to be able to swing his leg around Hong-Man's face and finish the move.
In the Submissions 101 video they suggest holding your opponents arm tight to your body, then swinging your left leg across your opponents face and finally bucking your hips up and extending your legs to finish the move. Fedor does this in his match with Hong-Man but he goes even further. Right after Fedor swings his left leg across Hong-Man's face and secures his opponents arm he stretches his body out flat putting a lot of pressure on Hong-Man's elbow forcing him to tap immediately.
A lot of times when grappling, when you attempt a move if you take the time to do it step by step your opponent will be able to smell it a mile away and counter it before you even get started. Fedor knows this and therefore didn't waste the time to put his foot on Hong-Man's hip and push off. He swung his leg out and then swiftly over his Hong-Man's head in one fluid motion.
When I was first taught how to do an armbar from the guard I was taught almost exactly how it is shown in the Submissions 101 video. Now that I've spent more time training I prefer to execute it a little differently. While I'm holding my opponent in my closed guard I'll try to isolate their right arm, placing my right arm over theirs and holding their tricep keeping their arm close to my chest. With my left arm I'll try to break their posture down. I'll put my left hand behind their neck and pull them towards me. This is going to frustrate them as they try to posture up and I'll eventually remove my left arm from behind their neck to allow them to posture up.
As they do this I'll follow them up by simultaneously swinging my left leg out and over my opponents face while grabbing the wrist of their right arm with my left hand. Once my left leg is across the face and I am controlling their right arm with both of my hands I'll squeeze my knees together and buck my hips up putting pressure on their elbow to get the tap. This is a much smoother way to execute the armbar from the guard, but it takes a little more practice to get the movements down.
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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.
[Fedor art credit Cory Gould (c) MMATorch]
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