Technique · Animated guide

How to Do an Armbar, Step by Step

Q: Is the armbar legal in MMA?

Yes, the armbar is legal in every major MMA rule set, in professional Brazilian jiu-jitsu competition at every belt, and in judo. In sport BJJ it is one of the first submissions beginners are allowed to use in competition, which is one reason it is usually among the first taught.

An armbar ends a fight by hyperextending the elbow. You trap the wrist to your chest, put your legs across the body and head, pinch your knees, and lift your hips into the joint. Five steps, one tap. The animation below walks every one of them.

Written by Harry Ali

Published 22 Jul 2026 · 7 min read · Last reviewed 22 Jul 2026 · Written by someone who taps to this move weekly

Tap the mat or use ← → to step through

Before you drill this: the armbar attacks a joint that does not bend that way. Learn it under a coach, apply it slowly in training, and tap early and often. Elbows do not grow back. This page teaches the mechanics; the mats teach the move.

What an armbar actually is

The armbar, juji-gatame if you learned it in a judo club, is the most taught submission in grappling for a simple reason: it is pure physics. Your opponent's arm is a lever. Your hips are the fulcrum, planted directly under their elbow. Your whole body, legs, back and hips together, pulls one end of the lever while the joint sits on the pivot. One elbow against your entire posterior chain. The elbow has no vote.

That is also why it belongs near the top of any list of techniques worth learning, and why Brazilian jiu-jitsu sits in S tier on our martial arts tier list: leverage does not care how big the other person is. The version below is the classic entry from closed guard, meaning you are on your back with your legs wrapped around an opponent kneeling between them. It looks like the losing position. It is not.

The five steps

STEP 1Trap the arm

Everything starts with the wrist. From closed guard, get both hands on one of their wrists, usually the arm they are lazily posting on your chest, and pin it there. The elbow must stay on your centreline. No trapped arm, no armbar; a free elbow slides out of everything that follows. Beginners skip this step because it is boring. It is also the whole move.

STEP 2Make the angle

Open your guard and put your same-side foot on their hip. That foot is your steering wheel: push off it and swing your body perpendicular to theirs, so you are lying across their line rather than along it. At the same time your other leg climbs high under their armpit, knee reaching for their shoulder blade. Square hips finish nothing. The angle is the technique.

STEP 3Swing the leg over the head

Take the foot off the hip and throw that leg over their head, clamping your calf across their face and neck. Now their posture belongs to you: one leg pins the body, the other pins the head, and the trapped arm runs between your knees. Pinch those knees together like you are holding a winning lottery ticket between them. A gap between your knees is a fire exit for their elbow.

STEP 4Break the grip

Nobody gives you the arm. They will clasp their hands together and hold on like the arm owes them money. Do not arm-wrestle the grip apart; you will lose to anyone strong, sweaty or stubborn. Keep the knees pinched, bridge your hips up into the elbow, and drag the wrist toward your chest with both hands. The hips generate the force; the hands just steer. The grip goes.

STEP 5Extend and tap

Wrist held tight to your chest, their thumb pointing at the ceiling so the elbow faces your hips. Heels heavy, knees together, and lift your hips into the joint. In training you extend slowly, a centimetre at a time, because the gap between "uncomfortable" and "surgery" is small and arrives quickly. The instant your partner taps, everything stops. That reflex is not politeness, it is the entire social contract that lets people train this stuff daily and go to work the next morning.

First-hand note: I have been on both ends of this move, unevenly distributed. The day a small, calm purple belt first broke my grip with her hips instead of her hands was the day step 4 made sense: I felt like a stuck jar lid.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The armbar is a lever: their arm, your hips as the fulcrum, your whole body as the force.
Five steps: trap the wrist, angle off with a foot on the hip, leg over the head, break the grip with your hips, extend with the thumb up.
Knees pinched at all times; a knee gap is how arms escape.
Hips finish the move, hands only steer. If you are pulling hard, you are doing it wrong.
Tap early in training, release instantly. Elbows are not a renewable resource.

Where beginners lose it

Four mistakes account for nearly every failed armbar in a beginners class. Knees drift apart, and the elbow slips out the side door. Staying square instead of cutting the angle, which turns a lever into a tug-of-war against someone's entire upper body. Pulling with the arms to break the grip, the one contest the defender can actually win. And hips too far from the shoulder: if there is daylight between your hips and their armpit, they will pull the elbow back through it. Fix those four and the finish mostly takes care of itself.

The armbar in the cage

The move translates. Frank Mir broke Tim Sylvia's forearm with an armbar at UFC 48 in under a minute, so cleanly that Sylvia argued with the referee about a bone he had not yet noticed was broken. Ronda Rousey built an entire era on it: her first six professional wins were all first-round armbars, and everyone she fought knew it was coming, which is the most flattering thing you can say about a technique. Every opponent studies it from white belt onward, and it still finishes fights at the highest level. Bad techniques need surprise. Good ones just need the steps done in order.

It is also, not coincidentally, the signature of half the submission artists in our draft game: the low-cardio sub specialist with a lightning armbar is one of the classic trap picks, and one of the great equalisers. Leverage, again, does not read the tale of the tape.

Now draft the people who never needed a step 4

30-0 is our free MMA draft game: build a camp of six real fighters across eras, wrestlers, strikers and armbar merchants, and chase the perfect 30-0 record nobody in MMA history has managed. No account, about two minutes.

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Frequently asked questions

What is an armbar?

An armbar (juji-gatame in judo) is a submission hold that hyperextends the elbow. The attacker controls the wrist to their chest, places their legs across the opponent's body and head, and uses their hips as a fulcrum to lever the joint past its range. The opponent either taps or the elbow gives.

Can an armbar break your arm?

Yes. A fully applied armbar hyperextends the elbow and can tear ligaments or break bone; Frank Mir famously broke Tim Sylvia's forearm with one at UFC 48 in under a minute. That is why gyms drill it slowly and why you tap early rather than testing how flexible your elbow is.

How do you get out of an armbar?

Early is everything. The standard defence is to clasp your hands, stack your weight over the attacker's hips, turn your thumb toward their legs so the elbow points away, and pull your elbow past their hips as you posture out. Once the arm is extended and the hips are lifted, the window has closed and the correct answer is tapping.

Is the armbar legal in MMA?

Yes, the armbar is legal in every major MMA rule set, in Brazilian jiu-jitsu competition at every belt, and in judo. In sport BJJ it is one of the first submissions beginners are allowed to use in competition, which is one reason it is usually among the first taught.

How long does it take to learn an armbar?

You can learn the movements in one class; most beginners drill a competent-looking armbar within a few sessions. Landing it on a resisting opponent is a different sport and typically takes months of rolling, because the finish is easy and the control positions before it are the hard part.

Harry "Haroon" Ali

Creator of 30-0 and writer of The Corner. A lifelong MMA fan who has dabbled in boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, jiu jitsu and judo, and taps to armbars with genuine enthusiasm. More about Harry.