Armbar

Damon Nguyen, founder of 10th Planet Saigon, attacks the armbar straight from side control — no mount required. Isolate the far arm, step over, and sit back with it trapped: the finish grows out of a position you already hold.

Gracie Barra St Peters (Sydney) shows the armbar from two guards — first the classic closed-guard version, then the same finish entered off a lasso hook. Same lock, two launch pads: control the arm, climb the guard, hips under the elbow.

Sviryd Aliaksandr (Belarus — ADCC Pro grappling and sambo champion) runs the full chain in one rep: head-and-collar grip, throw his partner to his back, land on top — and finish with the armbar. The throw earns the position; the armbar closes it.

Mamadou Dabo teaches the armbar from side control the way he learned it as a beginner — and says it earns its keep especially in the kimono, where the grips do the holding for you. The gi counterpart to the no-gi version at the top of this card: same position, same finish, different handles.

Mido launches the armbar from standing — no guard pull, no mat setup: jump, swing the legs up and over, and the arm is extended before either of you lands. It is the fastest entry on this card and the least forgiving — mistime the jump and you land on your own head; mistime the catch and your partner lands on theirs. Drill it progressively, with a partner who knows it is coming.

Jonathan Jaden Becker — one half of the BJJ Twins, IBJJF juvenile world champions in gi and no-gi — sells this one on surprise: an armbar your opponent never sees building, finished before a defense can form. The caption names no entry position, and that is the technique's premise — the shock is the setup. The card's other five entries are the armbars you drill until they are reflexes; this is the one you hide.

The most-taught armbar in the world, taught plainly: from closed guard, control the arm, angle off, swing the leg over, extend. Gracie Barra's Ventura County schools present it as what it is — "simple and effective" — and it pairs deliberately with Gracie Barra St Peters' entry at #2 on this card: same guard, same finish family, theirs dressed with a lasso, this one stripped to the fundamentals every other armbar here is built on.

Kevin Johnson's own summary is the whole lesson: "Use one attack to set up another." From closed guard, the first attack — the choke threat — is real enough that they must defend it, and the defence is what opens the armbar. Filed under Armbar by the finish, per the overlap rule; it lands beside Gracie Barra VC's plain closed-guard armbar at #7 on this card as the combination version of the same home position.

The fourth closed-guard armbar on this card — and it earns its place the way every repeat does here: the details differ. Hazem Ajeeb is an Ontario competitor and two-time Ontario Open champion, and his version is the competitor's cut of the same finish that Gracie Barra teaches plainly at #7 and dresses with a lasso at #2: same guard, same arm, sharper edges. The matrix keeps all of them because the differences are the curriculum.

DiSanto BJJ calls this the best armbar chain for beginner belts to develop their skill set — and the framing matters: a chain teaches you the position, not just the finish. Each armbar attempt draws a defence, and the defence is the doorway to the next attack in the sequence. Learn the chain and a failed armbar stops being a dead end; it becomes a fork in a road you have already mapped.

Davin Soh — Sabah's first BJJ black belt, a Pan Asia champion and ASJJF referee — enters the armbar off the cross step: the step changes the angle before the hips ever commit, so the arm is isolated by footwork first and finished by leverage second. A technician's entry, shown with a referee's eye — he has watched this finish from both sides of the whistle.

Kevin Johnson's third entry on the site works the oldest sales trick in jiu-jitsu: threaten the cross-collar choke from mount until the defense commits to the neck — then take the arm the threat exposed. The choke is the advertisement; the armbar is the product. It pairs with his closed-guard armbar at Armbar #8: same teacher, same "easy" promise, opposite end of the position map.

The sequel to the entry above it. Armbar #12 threatens the cross-collar choke from mount to expose the arm; this reel — Kevin Johnson's fourth on the site — covers the other branch: they defend the choke properly, and the transition still lands on the armbar. Together the pair is the whole lesson — threaten, read the defense, and arrive at the elbow either way.

A judo man's armbar, filed under its caption's joke — "technology" standing in for technique in the caption's translation. Yang is an international judo instructor with Team Beijing, 28 years of judo and 9 of jiujitsu, so the armbar here is juji gatame by bloodline: the throw art's classic straight armbar, crossing over onto this shelf. The warning about girlfriends is his; the entry makes no ruling on it.

Marrom Jaguar's second entry of the evening — his turtle game was logged minutes before this one — and the caption is the same invitation to comment and share, naming no technique. What the record gives is the man, a Brazilian black belt and IBJJF South American champion, and your filing: his armbar, logged under his name, taking a technique title if one ever surfaces.

A competition athlete's armbar, filed under her name: Hauer is a German BJJ competitor (ADCC Open gold, NAGA champion) whose caption offers only "follow for more techniques" and the hashtag #armbar — the shelf is named, the variation isn't. The entry logs her armbar on her record and takes a technique title if one ever surfaces.

Marrom Jaguar's second unnamed armbar for this shelf: the IBJJF South American champion's caption is the same comment-and-share invitation as his turtle, sweep and first armbar entries, so the reel is filed descriptively under his name and your Armbar label, as his others were. His fourth entry in the archive.

From the sambo side again: "a painful hold on both arms — the elbow lever — for when the opponent attacks from the leg side." Artem Podvalnyy, sambo and judo coach at Moscow's Preodolenie school, shows his armbar variation. The Russian name says what the lock does: the elbow becomes the lever.