Category: Arm lock

How Police Training Got It Wrong: The Failure of Wrist Locks & Armbar Takedowns

Click here or click the image above to watch the video.

00:05 – Intro
01:44 – Citizens arrest a man – what methods do they use?
02:21 – What are wrist locks and armbar takedowns?
03:36 – How do they differ from other methods?
04:10 – Arm drags are not equivalent to armbar takedowns
04:28 – Performance in combat sports
04:44 – So why do police train this way?
06:08 – Why do we teach police this way if it doesn’t work?
07:17 – Fighting is impossible to understand without doing it.
08:14 – Discussing examples
09:41 – Safety concerns
11:43 – Do wrist locks and armbar takedowns have any use at all? 12:41 – What should we teach instead?

School staff use armbar takedown on intruder

When an unknown man entered school grounds in this French school, a staff member used an armbar takedown to restrain him.

This clip displays two central issues with armbar takedowns:

  1. Control on ground – When the video begins, the staff member is controlling the arm while ignoring the man’s core, which allows the man to stand up;
  2. Injury – When he does stand up, the armbar takedown is effective but causes injury, slamming the man’s head into the ground, and a pool of blood is forming as the video ends.

Karate vs BJJ/Vale Tudo challenge match

I believe I saw this video about 2005-ish, so it could be much older than that. An old-fashioned challenge match where a pure Karate man has entered a BJJ (or possibly Vale Tudo) gym and challenged them to a fight, somewhere in Brazil.

Back before MMA was popular, many people completely underestimated the importance of grappling skills and believed they could prevent takedowns and never go to the ground, despite having zero experience in takedown defence and grappling.