Kesting, Stephen

Grappling Magazine
Volume 1, Issue 1, pp. 1-20 (2002)

Highly Recommended

This article was truly helpful in not only the clarification of Brazilian Jujitsu as a legitimate martial art but also thoroughly discussed the use of the Kimura Lock. Another form of jujutsu is the Brazilian jujutsu was created in the early 1900￭s by Helio Gracie, who learned jujutsu from a Japanese Judoka named Maeda who immigrated to Brazil. Gracie had a standing open challenge to fighters of all styles regardless of size, weight, or strength. This tradition of the open challenge has been preserved by the Gracie family for over 70 years. Brazilian jujutsu is an advanced from of the traditional Japanese Jujitsu. It is thus a ground fighting art. The fighter's main objective is to ovoid his opponent's punches and kicks while attempting to ￬clinch.￮ Once in this clinch the opponents strike are rendered ineffective. The Brazilian jujutsu fighter than proceeds to take his opponent to the ground where his strike will lack the power and force they would normally have on their feet. The defense techniques are all mainly based on leverage making the fighter able to beat opponents that are stronger and heavier than them. This style, as with many other jujutsu styles, uses the opponents force against them. Again balance and leverage must be maintained. Essentially the art￭s roots are derived from pre-war Kodokan Judo, western wrestling, and Maeda's own insights into combat.

In Brazilian jujutsu, The Kimura lock is one of the most important submission methods. This move is found in other fighting styles and maybe referred to as a hammerlock, a chicken wing, or ude-garami. The Kimura lock was named after Masahiko Kimura, who was one of the most well-known and respected Judo athletes of all time. In 1952, while in Brazil, he fought a famous match against non other than Helio Gracie, the founder of Brazilian jujutsu. The famous match lasted 13 minutes, which surprised Kimura because Helio Gracie was much smaller than him. His winning move was an arm lock that ended the match abruptly. Almost 50 years after that notorious match in Brazilian jujutsu history, the arm lock that defeated Helio Gracie was named the "Kimura Lock" to pay homage the Kimura's exceptional abilities. The Kimura lock is a very versatile move which can be applied from close guard, open guard, north-south position, and from the mount, but can additionally work from the side mount, half guard, half mount, turtle, standing, and even from the back. I recommend this article to anyone who is interested in jujutsu and more importantly Brazilian jujitsu. The explanation of the use and technique of the Kimura lock are more than ample.

Annotated by: Lonny Levy (April 2003)

Martial Arts: Jujitsu |

Topics: training/exercise science |