The Wristlock from the Closed Guard

I am trying constantly to develop my game, selecting techniques that really work for me and practicing them in a competition setting.

When I look at techniques that I really want to use, I look for two kinds of factors. i) how much they put me at risk i.e. if I fail to carry out a technique, what will this lead to? will I get submitted myself if I fail? will I get mounted?

The reasons why I love the back grab from north south is because it is effective, it gives me plenty of choices and a chance to get another 4 points in a match. If I fail, I still have a decent chance securing the mount or at least the cross body.

ii) the second thing is of course how effective the technique is. Of course if you practice a single technique over and over, you will get better, but I prefer to have a set of techniques for every position which I are already well-practiced by me. You don't want to try a new technique in competition.

There are techniques which are more effective for you. I personally love going for the kimura, especially from the guard but also from cross body or north south. Very often I can recover my position from the kimura and there is very little I lose.

Now one technique that I recently been thinking about however is the wristlock from the guard. The closed guard is kind of a safe place to be if you are on the bottom as long as you can keep your opponent off balance and from passing your guard. There are some moves that really expose you while others are really safe.

Moves that I consider relatively safe and want to develop are things like the basic cross choke. You don't open your guard and if you can secure the under arm hold or a brabo choke, you are safe if your opponent powers out because you are still in guard and you start over trying something else.

To add to this one, I am thinking about the wristlock. Of course I think it takes a lot of practice but it is worth exploring. The opponent very often does not expect it and in many schools the wristlocks are very often overlooked.

At the same time wristlocks in the adult divisions are permitted from white belt level unlike leg locks for example so you can start developing wrist locks from your closed guard right from the beginning.