Everyone who has trained Jiu Jitsu for at least a week has learned an arm bar. There are all kinds of arm bars from all kinds of places. Basic arm bar education starts with a simple arm bar from mount and a simple arm bar from closed guard. But some people struggle with hitting these basic moves when training.
Here is one detail that Coach Matt stresses. This post won’t cover all aspects of an arm bar, but just focus on one thing: turn your foot in.
Here, Rick is mounted on Jose and going for an arm bar. Rick has already moved from regular mount to sitting on Jose’s shoulder in almost-an-S-mount. Here, Rick’s foot is pointed down. He can set his foot on the ground for a bit if need be to adjust his position. But he must turn his foot in to complete the S-mount.
Here, Rick has a full S-mount. He turned his foot in. Now the bottom of Rick’s foot is not facing the ground, but instead facing toward Jose’s bottom shoulder. This allows Rick to fully control the space. He can squeeze his hips together in this S-mount to prevent Jose from escaping and take his time to finish the arm bar. This is a small detail about a very basic position. But if you neglect it, your training partner has a greater chance of escape.
In these last two pics, Rick finishes the arm bar. First, he leans toward his Jose’s legs so he can easily bring his top leg over Jose’s head. Second, he finishes the arm bar.
Details matter. Turn your foot in to secure position before you fall back to finish an arm bar from mount.
Thanks to Rick Cain and Jose Lopez for helping with these photos. These are the last photos of Rick as a brown belt. Congratulations to him and all the new Black Belts! #ntmma #morerounds
