Practice Escapes from Armbars

This seems like a no-brainer, right? Honestly, though, how often do you practice escapes from arm bars? Daily? Weekly?

How often do you practice escapes from pins? From chokes?

Watch this short video. There will be pop quiz at the end of it.




The most interesting thing I hope you notice here is that she is doing the arm bar on his left arm. At the beginning of the clip, I say,

"Now we're going to practice on the OTHER side!"

Just to show you that I practice what I preach, having written a post earlier about being sure you practice arm bars on both sides.

Also notice that while the player on top is practicing the arm bar, the player on the bottom is practicing arm bar escapes.

It just so happens that the day we did this drill we had a fairly mixed group - some big, strong guys, a couple of teenage girls and some kids under 12. How to make sure that everyone gets a productive work out? On that particular day, those big guys, like the one on the ground above, only practiced escapes. It was good for them because they got into a dangerous position and then got out.

The smaller, younger people practiced arm bars. They got most of the way into the position and then had to try to finish it.

Everyone had to work hard and everyone got better.

SHAMELESS PLUG

Learn more matwork from our book, Winning on the Ground, available as an ebook and in paper book.