You start out trying to lock the far side kimura. Maybe you can’t get it because the guy straightens out his arm. Maybe you can’t get it because the guy keeps his arm tight against his side—maybe grabbing his gi or even his own shorts in no gi. Since you can’t get at the arm—or, more accurately, can’t control his elbow—this transition lets you move to the best nearby alternative target, the shoulder.
To do the shoulder lock from the kimura grip, you want to first slide the hand that is clasping the back of your wrist—the northside hand—deep underneath his arm to clasp high up on your bicep. It’s just a quick move—reach to where your bicep and your side delts meet. From here, more or less at the same time, you want to release his wrist with your southside hand and grab the elbow of your northside arm. Keep it nice and tight because you’re going to move.
Crawl to crawl to north/south. As you get to north/south, sit out with the leg that’s underneath you (the same way you’d sit out in scarf hold). The knee on your sit out should almost be touching your elbow/shoulder lock. Slowly, under control, tilt the north side of the lock—the side that is closest to you—upward. It is almost as if you are doing an inverted Americana.
The video of the technique is available at MMAWeekly.com in their Tip of the Week section. But you’ve got to be a subscriber ($5/month) to see it.
