Student skill development rep footage with “rip-testing”. The rip-testing element was introduced in JiuJitsu 1 when we were initially learning the Kimura lock.

Ask your training partner to maintain a level of resistance where you are forced to do the technique correctly (keeping the elbow trapped inside the whole time), but also a light enough resistance that you can still execute it successfully. This is especially important if you are working with a bigger/stronger training partner.

With my training partner doing the move correctly, in this video I feel incredibly controlled in the position, and the lock is coming on VERY quickly! It’s very strong, I don’t feel like I can use willpower to resist the pain. I think it would break the elbow quickly. If you’re showing this move to a training partner that hasn’t seen it, use special caution to finish the lock and warn them that it comes on quick.

Once you know it, it will quickly become a favorite to win roll-rounds and tap your training partners. There’s nothing wrong with doing good in a roll session, but use extreme caution to not to put the lock on fast. The advantage of this configuration for the armbar-from-guard is that you do have total control of the position, so you have a lot of time to slowly increase your pressure on the lock!

Over time and as your technique gets better, you will be able to perform it with more resistance until you can do it on a fully resistant training partner in live rolling. However, most people need to learn a new move with little-to-no resistance initially to get the idea of it.

Traditional Japanese Terms: “Juji-Gatame” – the armbar (“cross-hold-arm-break”)
“Ushiro-Ude-Garame – the Kimura fig 4 armlock (“reverse-entangled-arm”)