The Kimura. Is it a staple in your BJJ arsenal?

By Fanatics Authors, June 21, 2018

The kimura. From the roots of self- defense, to the highest levels of BJJ competition and mixed martial arts, this versatile and dangerous submission has been implemented time and again by practitioners all over the globe. If you train BJJ, there is no doubt you will be exposed to the kimura while on your journey. Be sure to give it the attention it deserves; it may just be one of the most effective tools you’ll ever possess.

A little background: The Kimura has a very special place in the history of BJJ. October 23, 1951 was an important day for jiu-jitsu and the Kimura. Hélio Gracie and Masahiko Kimura engaged in combat in front of nearly 20,000 people that day. The match ended with Masahiko applying what became known as the kimura, defeating Hélio. The technique soon became a staple in BJJ curriculum, showing up many years later in countless challenge match videos, and more recently, there are several accounts of the technique being applied in a law enforcement setting, again illustrating the broad spectrum of uses for the powerful submission.

In this video Professor Tom DeBlass black belt Freddy Trillo demonstrates a cuffing technique that employs the Kimura for superior control in a law enforcement setting:

In recent years, during the rise of MMA, and BJJ popularity, the kimura has been used famously by countless heroes of the sports. Wagner Rocha has to be at the top of the list. He has taken the amazing capabilities of the kimura to another level. Not only as a powerful submission, but as a tool to gain superior positioning on his opponents. His use of the kimura to achieve the back position is downright diabolical. In this video Wagner demonstrates just a glimpse of his ability to use the kimura in multiple scenarios.

Are you taking advantage of everything the Kimura has to offer?

If you want to dig further into the Kimura, check out Mau Mau's "The Kimura System" 3 volume set from BJJ Fanatics. It is guaranteed to have your training partners and opponents fearing those kimura attacks.

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