How John Danaher Sets Up His Armbar

The arm bar is one of the oldest submissions used in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. This submission is one of the earliest ones new students learn because of how often it can be attacked. Even people who don’t train Jiu Jitsu know what an arm bar is just from watching mixed martial arts or action movies.

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The two basic arm bars that can be attacked include the one from mount and one from the closed guard. The mounted arm bar is clearly much more popular because it is more difficult to defend when compared to the closed guard arm bar.

Although all Jiu Jitsu practitioners learn the closed guard arm bar as white belts, few of them master it and continuously use it as they proceed through the ranks. These reason this happens is because this submission is very hard to set up but also to finish, especially against a decently skilled opponent.

When setting up the arm bar from a locked guard, grapplers face a few problems that can limit how effective it is. The biggest problem is when attacking it against an opponent who still has good posture or can easily regain it. The second problem is when the top player can easily pull out the arm.

Fortunately for us, we have been blessed by the knowledge of one of the best Jiu Jitsu minds and instructors ever. In the following video, Renzo Gracie black belt Professor John Danaher shows us how to set up the closed guard arm bar the right way. See below:

In the first part of the technique, Professor Danaher emphasizes the importance of controlling your opponents posture and keep it low. This is absolutely important for a successful arm bar but also for other attacks like triangle chokes and omoplatas.

One thing John does that I haven’t seen anywhere else is take a huge twist towards the top player’s legs. He also does this when attacking the triangle. This is important because it creates a barrier behind the defender’s shoulder so they can’t just pull their arm out.

Finishing the closed guard arm bar is as technical as setting it up is. There are so many potential options you can use but they all really just depend on what the defender does. This is why I recommend you purchase John’s latest instructional to have a more in-depth understanding of the arm bar.

John Danher is one of the few people to have athletes be successful at the highest levels in both Professional Grappling as well as MMA. He has systemized his approach to teaching,learning,and APPLYING his Jiu-Jitsu. Enter the System with John Danaher!

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