Martial Arts Mecca

by: Sarah Aswell 

When the fighters were on the ground, I was more confused than anything else. Although I was familiar with wrestling, the jiu-jitsu I was seeing was very foreign to me. Often, I would think one fighter was winning when, out of the blue, he was would be tapping out frantically and the fight would be over.

After learning more about jiu-jitsu and submissions, though, I was able to understand which positions and guards were optimal and which were dangerous. And as I learned more about the ground game, the more exciting it was to watch submission artists like Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Dean Lister work their magic on the mat.

Submissions can be broken down into two main categories: joint locks and chokes. There’s an almost-endless list of permutations of these two submissions, although some are much more common and popular than others.

Chokes, obviously, force the opponent to tap out because they can’t breathe. If the opponent refuses to tap out, he’ll pass out and lose the fight due to technical knock out.

Guillotine chokes, in which the fighter’s arm encircles his opponent’s neck from the front, are very popular submission options in MMA because fighters’ necks are exposed during takedown attempts.

Rear naked chokes, another popular choice, take place from behind the opponent. It is referred to as a “naked” choke because it does not require the use of a gi, the traditional Brazilian fighting attire.

Triangle chokes trap one of the opponent’s arms and the opponent’s neck – the fighter wraps one on his legs around his opponent and locks it with his other leg’s knee creating a triangle shape.

On the other hand, joint locks either hyperextend or hyper-rotate joints past their natural range of motion. These submissions can be extremely painful and, if the fighter does not tap out quickly, can cause long-term injury.

Armbars are the most common joint lock. It hyperextends the elbow. Similarly, a kneebar hyperextends the knee. Other common joint locks include the heel hook, which rotates the ankle to damage the knee ligaments, and a can opener, which wrenches the neck.

Some of the less common joint locks deal with the shoulder – they are harder to recognize and differentiate. The kimura  and Americana are shoulder locks which bend the arm at a 90 degree angle – the kimura bends the arm down toward the waist while the Americana bends it up toward the head. The omoplata is a shoulder lock applied with the legs.