wristlocks

Like joint manipulation but John gave an excellent explanation. I have used a few in grappling but were not well received by some which made me think they were not apart of the game. Ones I enjoy more are using the ground and sometimes their own body weight to fold back their wrist.

I use them a lot. But Dereck is right, a lot of folks call them 'cheap', which I think is b.s., as you should learn how to avoid them. Using the ground or body weight, especially by weighting the torso, helps to trap the arm and start the lock. I've also had good success using them to break grips and set something else up. They do take practice though.

As far as I know, wrist locks are allowed in competition, as they are not considered a 'small joint'. However, it should be noted that often if the wrist lock fails, or someone is about to wiggle out of it, the fingers tend to present themselves nicely.

--Chris

all the wrist locks I know involve having a pretty strong grip on the flesh of the hand near the fingers, so they would not only be hard to do with mma gloves, but as stated earlier, the fingers are made pretty available, especially since the mma gloves expose them so nicely.

its true wristlocks are near impossible in MMA because the gloves reinforce the wrist. I find wristlocks are best as option 2 submissions from a shoulder lock positions. My favorite is off the kimura just flip your hand and its there. Really nice if you got an opponent with flexible shoulders. Because of this flow wristlocks actually set themselves up its just a matter of elbow control. As far as wristlocks being "cheap" wristlocks fall under the same category as every other arm attack if you let me control your elbow i'm pulling something it's your responsibility to defend what's thrown at you. So thats BS.

Can't say while having MMA gloves on we ever tried for wrist locks. In fact much of the grappling changed due to the gloves as you were going more for dominance and ground'n pound. However grappling was a different game altogether.

Many submissions are more difficult when wearing gloves. The basic RNC itself is harder while wearing them.

But I've noticed that if I'm doing pure grappling (no gloves), wrist locks still prove to be a rare occurrence. They're just too easy to wiggle out of. Get a little sweaty and you can forget about it -- unless again, you have control of the elbow from a dominant position.

Wrist submissions are very difficult against a resisting and trained opponent. But still train them because wristbreaks would be practical to use in self-defense. The problem with locks is that you assume that you must maintain the hold for a submission. A (wrist)break is just a transition to the next technique, whether it works or not. I think there is limited sport use but very good self-defense application.

Someone being sweaty does indeed make them harder. I'm not sure at this point if we are talking about wristlocks from standing or ground. If it's from standing, then what I have found is that grab and lock have to occur at the same time, or else you should move on to something else right away. Don't try to wrestle the wrist. It leads to bad habits.

--Chris