Tuesday, January 8, 2013

To cross or not to cross?

Juji Gatame - the straight arm lock. Also called "arm bar" in many circles. It is referred to as the most powerful arm lock in Judo. It is certainly the most widely used arm lock in MMA. Without question, it is one of the most prevalent offensive techniques in the grappling martial arts.

Here is a picture of juji gatame:


Crossing the feet
When new students are learning juji gatame, it is common for the neophyte to cross his feet in an attempt to snug things up. All too often, this is done incorrectly: that is to say, the neophyte often crosses his feet in front of the far side arm. This position is unwise for two main reasons:
1. It offers a quick escape for the opponent.
2. It actually decreases the leverage in the legs for the actual application of the lock.

Here is a picture of a juji gatame, with feet incorrectly crossed:


Unintended consequences
The unintended consequences of coaches imploring their students to discontinue this haphazard application, is the all-too-common overly generalized advice:

"Don't cross your feet!"

Particularly, in many Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) schools, one will hear this advice ad-nauseum. Couple in the fact of BJJ's increasing popularity, and inevitable watering-down of quality instruction, and you get this slogan (along with several other haphazard practices) repeated to the point of losing the entirety of the original intent.

In fact, there are many BJJ black belts who do not think there is ever a proper circumstance to cross one's feet whilst grappling. How many more blue belt, purple belt, and brown belt coaches repeat this partial-truth? Repeated over and over, the rhetoric of "don't cross your feet" has become a training slogan of sorts.

Here is a hint: this slogan is misleading, as slogans always are.



When to cross the feet
There is a time and place for crossing the feet. When one has moved into a top juji gatame position (often called "spider web" position by Eddie Bravo), and is fighting to extract the arm so the lock may be finalized, there is a good opportunity to use a crossed-feet position.

- Reach across to the far arm, and pull it toward you.
- Cross your feet behind the opponent's far shoulder.
- Use your feet to pull the far shoulder toward you a bit.


Crossing the feet: so proper, that even Ronda Rousey does it:


In the photo, Rousey is crossing her feet behind Meisha Tate's shoulder. Immediately thereafter, Rousey was able to extract the arm and hyper-extend it, forcing the submission victory. A quick study of Rousey's professional fights yielded video evidence that Rousey crossed the feet thusly in every instance.

To be fair, Rousey knows more about juji gatame than the vast majority of BJJ black belts.


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