KIMURA FROM CLOSED GUARD

The kimura is a shoulder lock executed via a figure-four grip on the opponent's wrist, named after the great Japanese judoka Masahiko Kimura, who broke Helio Gracie's arm with the technique at Maracanã Stadium in 1951. In the modern game it is one of the few high-percentage submissions that threatens from nearly every position — closed guard, half guard, side control, north-south, the back, even standing — and the closed-guard expression is its most fundamental form.

From closed guard the kimura is entered when the opponent posts a hand on the mat, almost always to base after their posture has been broken. The bottom player sits up onto an elbow, reaches across the opponent's back to grab the wrist of the posting arm, and threads the near-side hand between the opponent's arm and torso to grip their own wrist, forming the figure-four. With the grip locked, the bottom player lies back, swings a leg over the opponent's back to prevent them from rolling out, and rotates the opponent's shoulder behind their back until the tap.

Where the technique earns its reputation is in its layered threats. A determined opponent who refuses to give up the arm and instead grips their own belt or pant can be swept with the kimura grip as a steering wheel — the bottom player rolls the opponent over their controlled shoulder and finishes in mount or in a kimura trap. A locked grip that survives the sweep often gives up the back as the opponent rolls. The result is a three-option attack: tap, sweep, or back take, with the opponent forced to gamble on which to defend.

In the contemporary game the kimura has been pushed deepest by the Danaher system and its students, where the kimura trap has become a central control mechanism rather than a finishing submission alone. From closed guard, however, the technique remains untouched in its classical form, and it is still among the first three submissions taught in every legitimate BJJ syllabus. Roger Gracie, Marcelo Garcia, and Gordon Ryan have all built signature attacks around it, and it remains one of the highest-percentage MMA submissions in the modern era.