Friday, September 11, 2009

What on earth is that technique?

I'll start with an easy one:
What on earth is the technique you’re trying to do in that picture? If it’s ude-giri your hand is too high up his arm (pressing down on his shoulder or the upper part of his arm isn’t going to do much), for waki-gatame you’re standing too upright and it can’t be just kote-mawashi since it’s impossible to put enough pressure on the wrist in that position. Besides that kiba-dachi, while traditional, is not a great stance for that position since he can just plant his knee into yours and you’ll collapse, losing the hold. -- Zara
This is reference to a now retired side-bar image, actually taken from a past post and reproduced below:
In Jiu-Jitsu formal stances are typically used transitionally, and are learned in the context of actual application. For example, in this photo I am applying a reverse-armbar -- a restraint and control technique -- from a horse-riding stance:


A reverse armbar

From here I could take Adam down to the ground or move into a more mobile lock to better escort him to the local police station. Either way I would not need to stay in this position for very long.
Of the techniques listed, I'd say it's closest to waki-gatame:


Standing waki-gatame

Think of it as a variation.

The neat thing about the reverse-armbar is that there are lots of ways to make it work. You can lock the shoulder, elbow, and wrist. If you have difficulty with one joint -- typically resistance or flexibility -- you can switch emphasis to another.

In this case Adam has a fairly flexible elbow -- note the hyper-extension -- so I'm using the wrist and using my ulna bone to painfully slice into his upper arm (an alternative to torquing the shoulder - probably more jiu-jitsu than judo!).

As to the risk of his planting his knee: I don't think so! Sure it's a posed shot, but given that I've got the lock and his balance, as he moves I either inflict more pain, stopping the movement, or flow with it into something else.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

For those interested I discussed my take on this in a reply to the previous post.

Zara

Charles Hobby said...

I suspect that the only chance Adam would have of escaping the hold at that point would be to go into a forward rolling tumble and hope that the sudden move would cause you to release him -- highly doubtful, eh?

Charleyhorse

Anonymous said...

A highly trained opponent will drop down onto your knee, the original commenter was right about that. By dropping immidiately forward pressure is taken away from the arm and shoulder joints (creating slack in the technique) and you'll slam his kneecap into the ground creating pain and putting him into a weaker position. A good follow-up would be a hook to the side of the head or any choke. Is this likely? No, very few people understand locks to the degree they can counter them efectively but it is a valid counter none the less. You could avoid this by planting your foot behind his, pushing against the back of the knee to keep him off balance. When done hard and fast the opponent most likely won't have time to counter so it doesn't matter that much which variation you use.

The ability to counter locks is a very advanced skill and hardly necessary in the context of self defense but it's a most interesting subject. It's key to feel the opponent's energy and move ahead of him: this can only be accomplished by possesing a thorough knowledge and practical experience in kansetsu waza and plenty of training until you can pull it off perfectly. If you can identify the weak points in a technique you'll know when and how to counter. Of course it's always possible to counter the counter: if this happens it becomes a game of 50/50 and both participants must be awesome martial artists.