Wrist Locks Submissions From Guard

By Corey Kuropas, October 18, 2016

The full guard has endless possibilities. From the fundamentals, to all the creative things you can do from there, it is a position that is very much alive in that aspect. One of the special possibilities from the guard are wrist lock submissions. Wrist locks are quick, painful and can end a match in just a couple seconds. Being able to acquire wrist locks from the guard is easy and beautiful. While some may complain that they are “dirty” techniques, the point is that they work and work well. Here are three quick wrist locks you can use and add to your full guard arsenal.

Fingers In Wrist Lock

Many of these wrist lock techniques do not have exact names, and this first technique shares that. I just call it the fingers in wrist lock. It’s an easy and effective way of getting the lock from guard. For this technique, you pull the opponent’s arm to your shoulder, like you would for a standard armbar attack, except with your other hand, you will hold the opponent’s elbow and bring it into your stomach or hip (whatever is available). You then can turn the opponent’s fingers toward him, and apply pressure in and down to finish. If it is too hard to finish with one hand, then continue to press his elbow into your body and finish with both of your hands.

Press In Wrist Lock

This particular wrist lock works great if you have an opponent that keeps his hands on your hips, while locking his arms out. This is a non flashy, straight to the point finisher. While your opponent presses on your hips, you use your outside arm to pull the elbow out and hold, while you frame up forearm to forearm. You can take your free arm, and use it to double up on your elbow hold. Press down and do a crunch to get the tap. Simple.

Calasans Americana (Wrist Lock)

This is a cool wrist lock made famous by BJJ champion, Claudio Calasans. He sets this up like an americana from guard to attack the wrist. By cross grabbing your opponent’s elbow and pulling it in to your chest, you can get the secure elbow position to make this wrist lock work. You then switch from a cross elbow grab to an americana connection, with your palm to his palm, perhaps a little higher up and drive his hand to his shoulder. If he has some decent wrist flexibility, you can bring his wrist to the outside and down. Sounds a little tricky? The man that made it famous shows it here.

Wrist locks are awesome techniques. They do not get enough love from the BJJ community as a whole. Perfect for competition and self defense, these techniques can work for anyone, and will work especially great for those who play guard. Claudio Calasans, who has made the Calasans Americana famous, has a four DVD set with a whole section about different wrist locks. If wrist locks from guard make you intrigued, then check out the DVD.

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