Basic Armbar from Guard

[Andrew Green]

Kyle is in my guard, and has a right arm on my chest.


I trap his right arm with my right hand, my left hand pushes his face to my left keeping his head down. My left foot moves to his hip and pushes so that I spin to my right and my right foot goes up his back to his opposite shoulder.


I then move my left leg over his head and pinch in with my legs holding him in and squeeze my knees together. To finish I hold his arm to my chest and raise my hips

 

[arnisador]

I definitely need that left hand face push...those more nimble can often get away without it.

 

[Andrew Green]

Important to remember that it is not just a push, but is also holding his head down. If he sees it coming he may posture up and escape.

 

[The MMA kid!]

so... thats NOT a good way to set up an armbar??

 

[Andrew Green]

so... thats NOT a good way to set up an armbar??

What's not? pushing it away? It can work, but if you can make it work better I go with that. As you progress you will see smaller and smaller details in techniques that become more relevant. An inch difference in something can mean the difference between success and getting reversed.

 

[Makalakumu]

I definitely need that left hand face push...those more nimble can often get away without it.

I should use the face push in order to be a little more gentle on uke. My leg usually pows him in the head on the way over.

 

[theletch1]

I should use the face push in order to be a little more gentle on uke. My leg usually pows him in the head on the way over.

So long as you don't forget that you're just taking it easier on uke and not doing it as part of strong technique you're ok. I always worry that many of the things that I do to keep from hurting uke will screw up my technique on the street if push comes to shove.

 

[grappling_mandala]

Before you push his head or at the same time you should shrimp your hips out to the side for the proper angle. Without that if he fights it's hard to push his head away with your hips disconnected. Just my .02c

Get Rodrigo's new book on guard work, it has MANY details in it.

Dave Copeland

 

[Rebiu]

That is a terrible setup for an armbar from the closed guard! Don't you have better setups than that?

 

[Andrew Green]

That is a terrible setup for an armbar from the closed guard! Don't you have better setups than that?

Yep, and not the name, "BASIC"

 

[Rebiu]

Yep, and not the name, "BASIC"

Point taken

 

[Tez3]

So long as you don't forget that you're just taking it easier on uke and not doing it as part of strong technique you're ok. I always worry that many of the things that I do to keep from hurting uke will screw up my technique on the street if push comes to shove.

Can I ask do you train this for MMA, BJJ or grappling? We do MMA and tend to put the techniques on each other quite strongly when on the ground, there's no uke, we are both going for it, even when learning. As we'll learn a techinque,we use it but carry on grappling on the floor,means you have to really try to get it on! We don't go 100% though more like 80%.

 

[Ybot]

Andrew, I'm loving your basics tutorials. This is the first submission I learned years ago, and was the first I ever caught someone with.

If I may I'd like to add a couple of details that I personally like to do.

1. Rather than reaching over both arms like you are doing in the second picture, I like to thread under the opponents left arm with my right and hook across his right bicept and hold his right wrist with my left hand (I guess if this is MMA I'd try more to trap both arms though).
2. Then using my bicept grip I try to pull his elbow across to my right hip as much as possible. This is already starting to break his posture, and traps his arm.
3. Then I would continue with dropping the foot to the hip and kicking the right leg over his back killing his posture more like you did.
4. As the leg kills his posture I now slid my right grip to his wrist as I push his face and bring my left leg over the head to finish the armbar.

Again, thanks for the great techniques.

Also, for those claiming this is a bad setup... It's basic sure, but I would say that most armbars I catch people with are slight variations of this very technique. The differences in rolling come mostly for methods of trapping the arm and killing posture.