The arm bar is a classic submission that can be utilized from multiple positions. Today we’ll be working with Coach Brian McLaughlin from Precision Boxing and MMA. McLaughlin, a former professional mixed martial artist and current Poughkeepsie BJJ Coach showed us some of his favorite tricks to finish the arm bar from guard. A couple of major problems present themselves when finishing an arm bar against a resisting opponent. Usually, people will posture up and pull their arm out to avoid the submission.
To combat this, Coach Brian bumps his hip as he pulls his partners arm across his center line. This collapses their weight onto their arm, making it significantly more harder to pull out. From here, Coach Brian jumps his legs up to a shoulder-jump or “top knot” position. His knees create a vice and his heels are pressuring downward, making it extremely difficult for his partner to retract his arm. Although we’ve secured the arm, it can sometimes be difficult to finish from here. The uke (partner receiving the technique) still has the ability to posture up as you swing your leg over for the finish. To prevent the posture up, Coach Brian glues the arm to the center of his chest by holding the end of the lever (end of the arm). He then pulls his partner in with his knees and hooks his partners leg with his free arm.
From here, he pulls his partners head past his shoulders and extends his legs to sweep him. Sometimes you can finish in the transition of the sweep, however that can be difficult if you don’t feel that you’ve landed in the right position. If you don’t feel like you have the arm bar, once you sweep them switch from hooking their far leg to their close leg. Curl the leg up and pass your leg over the head for the finish. Hooking the close leg positions him in such a position that his arm is running right into Coach Brians hip, preventing him from pulling it out or posturing up.
Although we’ve defeated the arm retraction and posture, people will still frequently lock their hands together to prevent the arm bar. To break the grip, Coach Brian weaves his bottom leg through so that his shin is against his partners far bicep. the then weaves his top leg over in an “X”. From here, he kicks outward and pulls. If this proves too difficult, Coach Brian provides a secondary option. This time he weaves his bottom leg through in the same way, but instead of weaving his top leg through as well, he falls towards the bottom side, lifting his partners head slightly. From here, he used his top foot to feed his knee behind his partners head. He “heel-toe” crawls his top foot in towards himself to pick his partner up off the mats a bit, locking up the triangle. Check out the video below for more details!
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About the Author
Oliver Swanson is an amateur boxer and Brazilian jiu-jitsu blue belt under head coach Brian McLaughlin. He teaches classes six days a week at Precision and spends his time wit his family when he’s off the mats.
