A Simple Wrist Lock to Gain Early Dominance
Today, we’ll add one more pass, this time by way of wrist lock. This one’s pretty simple and pretty effective, and it has the added benefit of landing you immediately in side control.
Additionally, there’s a little element of surprise in this pass. Your opponent may expect you to try to get past his hands, but he probably isn’t expecting you to control him with one of his hands. By the time he’s figured it out, he’s already rolled over on his back.
The grip we’ll get looks like the one at left, and the mechanics involved are just like in this Hapkido trick:
The BDMMA Step-by-Step
Instead of standing, as in the video, we’ll be starting on the mat in open guard.
- (Optional, recommended) Push away the hand you aren’t attacking. So, if you’re going after your opponent’s right wrist, use your right hand to knock his left hand towards him. This’ll have the dual effect of drawing his defensive attention to the wrong limb while also keeping his hands separated.
- Slap your left hand to your opponent’s right wrist. Grab the outside of his wrist with your thumb pointed up towards his fingers. Ideally, you want your thumb on the back of his hand, between the knuckles of his index and middle fingers.
- Twist and fold your opponent’s hand. You need to perform two movements and quickly: fold your opponent’s hand in towards his forearm while simultaneously twisting the hand counter-clockwise (outward).
- Add your second hand. This needs to be done so quickly that I hesitate to make it a distinct step. Slap your right hand to the inside of your opponent’s wrist. Your right hand will mirror your left hand, with your thumb behind and between your opponent’s middle and ring finger knuckles. (See pic above).
- Continue to add pressure. With both hands in place, you can apply enough pressure that if your opponent doesn’t roll to his back, you can do real damage to his wrist.
- Take side control. As your opponent falls, fall with him, and land on top. Get your knee to his hip, and consolidate your side control. There is, I suppose, if all the stars align in your favor, some chance of still submitting your opponent with the wrist lock, but I’d say you’re better off taking side control than risking it.
*Note: The spelling “Jujitsu” is an accepted variant – accepted by those who can’t spell “Jiu Jitsu” or who have limited use of the i key on their keyboards. At the risk of seeming less credible, we’ve used the misspelling in this post to cater to those searching Google for it. If you that fall into that category, welcome – and switch to “Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.”