In the early days of Gracie Jiu Jitsu, it was common to wait until blue belt level to teach a student
the spinning armbar from the guard. Today, this submission technique is commonly taught
during the early white belt stages of a practitioner’s career. Honestly, it might very well be best
to wait until the student has at least a basic blue belt level of skill before really putting a lot of
emphasis on learning how to perform this particular technique.
Spinning Armbar:
There will be a few people reading this and shaking their head. Why would you want to wait so
long to teach someone such a basic move? The answer is the spinning armbar from the guard
really is not all that basic. In fact, it is one of the more complex moves you could learn.
Sure, you see a lot of people performing the spinning armbar and they make it look easy. But,
that ease of performance comes with a lot of practice performing the spinning armbar on a
resisting opponent. When you are a beginner to Gracie Jiu Jitsu, you will soon discover that will
the spinning armbar may look easy to perform, there are quite a number of components to the
armbar that have to tie together in order to execute it effectively.
Another Version of the Armbar: From the Cross Choke in Mount Position
Your legs have to be positioned perfectly, you must isolate and control the arm and elbow of an
opponent, and you have to be able to spin and position your head and hips at a moment’s notice.
All of these things have to be done simultaneously and against a resisting opponent. Once again,
that could prove to be more than a little tough for a beginner to handle. This is why the spinning
armbar from the guard should be considered more of an intermediate to advanced technique.