For the last two weeks we have been drilling entries into various arm bars from the knee on belly position. The knee on belly position is a very dynamic position which connects side control with mount, offers the ability to create a high level of pressure on the bottom bjj player and has a wide range of submissions entries including arm locks, leg locks and even entries into the north south guillotine. During this knee on belly segment we focused on arm bars.
Because if you don’t feef comfortable entering into the arm bar position without resistance it will be impossible to enter into the arm bar position when your jiu-jitsu training parter resists. Once you are in the position where you can work towards a submission the bottom bjj player is not just going to let you get the arm bar they’re will be a number of things they try to do to create space and escape the position. The power of jiu-jitsu is that even if the bottom bjj player does escape we can simply reposition ourselves to look for another submission, however to move ourselves towards another submission we must know what escape our jiu-jitsu training partner is attempting. So this week we are working arm bar escapes.
If you are really training jiu-jitsu you will find yourself in an arm bar and your going to need to know what to do in order to not get submitted. And of course the only way to get good at arm bar escapes is to find yourself in a lot of arm bars. Getting submitted is the most important part of learning in jiu-jitsu. When you are getting submitted regularly you are being given a very clear message that you made a mistake. Knowing you are making mistakes allows you to make corrections. While most people come to learn jiu-jitsu to learn the submissions it is getting submitted and then eventually learning how to escape submissions that eventually leads to confidents in attacking. All attacks create openings for defense, and the arm bar is no different, in fact the arm bar is one of the submissions where you create the most opportunity for escape because of how dynamic it is. If every time you missed an attack it meant getting submitted nobody would ever attack, knowing that you can not be submitted by your training partner allows you to confidently attack without fear of consequence(or at least less consequence).
So make sure your getting to class and learning how not to get caught!!!! and if your armbar guy (or girl) don’t worry, next week we are coving attacks off of escape attempts 🙂