Tighten Up Your Ude Garami

Ude Garami - often known by the terms "Americana" and "Kimura," is one of the more popular techniques in Judo, Jiu-Jitsu, and MMA. Because it is easy to apply, it is often taught to beginners. When it is taught to beginners, a common description is to hold one's partner's arm in an L-shape, and then rotate the wrist one way or the other to apply pressure.

While the L-shape of the opponent's arm is not technically incorrect, there is a way to tighten up your ude garami so that you can apply pressure and get your opponent to tap, while using far less strength. Here are three of the more common applications, and ways to tighten up each of them -

Ude Garami (upwards version - Americana)
Ude Garami can be applied from tateshiho gatame (the mount) and from yokoshiho gatame (the side). To get even more leverage on ude garami when you have your opponent's arm in the upwards position, one should simply bring the opponent's elbow closer to the opponent's ribs. Be mindful - when the opponent's elbow is close to the ribs, very little pressure is needed to coax a tap out.

Here is the classical position. 

And here, the opponent's elbow is close to the ribs:

Ude Garami from Guard (Kimura)
A very common application for ude garami is from the guard position. Again, the classical L-shape hold is taught, and that is not incorrect. However, to apply even more pressure, put the opponent's hand over the spine. Please note, in the second photo, where Grandmaster Larry Beard's hand was placed over his spine, he was nearly forced to tap from simply being in the position, without any pressure applied - this is not uncommon from this application.

Here is the classical position:

And here, the opponent's hand is over the spine:

Ude Garami from top (north-south or wedge position)
Another common place to apply ude garami is from up top. This was the method used by the great Masahiko Kimura to break the arm of Helio Gracie in 1951, and thus the arm lock bears his name in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Mixed Martial Arts circles.

Like with the variation from the guard, the classical method is to hold the opponent's arm in the shape of the letter L. However, for more leverage, again hold the opponent's hand over the spine. Be mindful, as the switch in angle will yield tremendous leverage, so go easy with your training partner!

Classical application:

And the hand over the spine application:

Special thanks to Grandmaster Larry Beard for helping with the poses.
Special thanks to Cael Howell (age 8) for taking the photographs.
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