TWISTER

The twister is the spinal lock developed by Eddie Bravo as the signature finish of the 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu system. The technique combines a leg-trap from the truck position with an upper-body control that bends the opponent's spine laterally past its natural range of motion, producing a tap from spinal pain rather than from joint hyperextension. The name comes from the technique's appearance — the attacker appears to be twisting the opponent like a wet towel — and the submission is one of the few entirely new finishes invented in BJJ in the modern era.

The mechanics begin from the truck position, with one of the opponent's legs trapped in the attacker's figure-four. From this configuration the attacker reaches up to control the opponent's far-side head and the opposite arm, then rolls onto the side opposite the trapped leg. The combined leg-trap, head-control, and arm-trap forces the opponent's spine into a lateral curve that becomes intolerable as the attacker rolls deeper.

The twister was effectively unknown in mainstream BJJ before Bravo developed and promoted it through the 10th Planet system in the mid-2000s. Chan Sung Jung's famous twister finish over Leonard Garcia at UFC 162 in 2011 brought the technique to mainstream MMA audiences, and the broader 10th Planet competitive roster has continued to demonstrate it in EBI and other no-gi events. The technique is illegal in IBJJF gi competition and at lower belts due to safety concerns about spinal damage, but legal in IBJJF no-gi at brown belt and in most modern no-gi rulesets. Defensively the twister is escaped by preventing the head-and-arm control from establishing, by rolling to face the attacker before the lateral bend develops, or by tap-to-grip when the spinal pressure has fully engaged.