by Great Grappling | Mar 7, 2013 | Uncategorized | 18 comments

The Kimura from North/South can be a very strong submission that works in both Gi and no Gi. I really like this position because it can be difficult to escape. By staying heaving on your opponent's head and squeezing your knees you have a lot of control and a lot of options. Over the next few videos I am going to cover a lot of options and submissions.The first order of business is to get your arms to the "inside" your opponents arms. Often my students have difficulties making this transition because that space in front of your opponent's chest is cluttered with your head, chest and arms. I have a very simple answer for this, post on your head.Posting on your head allows you to keep domination over your opponents torso while clearing the space for your arms to come to the "inside" position. Make sure when clearing your arms that you lead with your elbows and NOT your hands. Reference the video to see what I am talking about.Now that our arms are in the "inside" position it is time to turn our partner up on his/her side. When you do this make sure to change your body angle and keep your body low. When you build power to turn your opponent up do it with your legs and NOT your arms. Using the arms will result in your opponents effectively resisting you and keeping their back on the floor. The spacing is totally different and if done incorrectly often results in your opponent escaping, even when you use a lot of effort.Once your opponents back starts to come off the floor it's time to transition over the head. I like to use my free hand to open my opponents other hand and drop my knee over the top of his/her bicep. This is a very important move as it gives you a better pinch on the chest (from squeezing your knees) and also allows for some easier transitions in future moves.Now that you have dropped your knee over the bicep please squeeze your knees. You must have squeezing pressure with your knees here. I'm not sure how many different ways I can say this. The importance of the "squeeze" is huge and it's very under played by most grapplers. Now that you the squeeze it's time to lock up and clear that Kimura grip. I do this by pulling straight up. In this pull it is important that you use your whole body to pull and not just your arms. Also make sure that you keep your opponent's tricep tight to your chest. This, again, is a piece that a lot of people miss.At this point there are a number of ways to finish the Kimura. Some people keep the arm at 90 degrees and rotate the forearm. There is nothing wrong with this variation but I tend to like to put the knuckles close to the spine. This takes some practice as you dont want your opponent to grab anything on the transition but when done correctly having the knuckles on the spine really cuts down on your opponent's defense options and gives you the ability to finish with little to no effort.Keep in mind that the closer the knuckles are to the spine, the less slack their is in his/her shoulder. So be easy with your rotation when you try this variation.