Armbar

[royceg420]

If you have someone in an armbar and you here a crack does the arm have to be broken or is there something else that makes that noise too when you start to hyper-extend it?

[SweepEm]

I'm not a doctor and have limited amount of knowledge about physiology, (2 years in college) but there are many things where you would hear a noise if you had an arm bar submission.

The most prominent injury where you might hear a noise if the ligaments/tendons is snapped off the bone.

[TKOU]

The pop or crack can be a couple things:

Bursa sack rupture- the bursa sack hold the lubricating fluid of the joint. If you crush this sack between the bones it can "pop".

Minor dislocation

Major dislocation

Ligament tear

Tendon tear (much less common)

Bone fracture

Those are the ones that come to me off the top of my head.

[Karlinhos]

2 questions:

1) what makes the cracking noise when someone cracks the knuckles on their hand? might you get the same type of "cracking" sound with no damage from an elbow?

2) if there's minor popping noises from the elbow, is the damage minimal? like cracking one's knuckles.

story time:

i was rolling with someone over the weeked, i caught him in an armbar. he had NO chance at escaping and wouldn't tap. i urged him to just tap and he didn't answer. i put a little pressure and felt and heard a very minor pop (just 1) and asked him again to tap because there was no way that i could know his pain threshold. he didn't answer (bizarre). i put a little more pressure and hear another pop. after that i just released and explained to him that he needs to frickin' tap when caught and that there's no shame in tapping.

he then sat up and proceeded to crack his own elbow by twisting it! just like an average joe would crack his own knuckles. i figured at that point that what i did to him was probably just some of what he already probably does to himself! freak.

thoughts?

[royceg420]

That's kind of what happened to me. I was the camera man while my regular partner was rolling with the new guy we had. He never wanted to tap out, earlier this night I had him in a heelhook and I felt the ligaments and stuff straining while he only shouted out instead of tapping out. I let go because I didn't want to hurt him; I had it sunk tight. Anyway, when my friend was fighting him the newbie got caught in an armbar and it made a loud snap(you can hear it on the camera). He rolled around in pain for not even a minute and took a break only to roll later again that night, after we explained that this was practice and you have to leave your pride at the door. I couldn't tell how much pain he was in but my frind attacked the same arm in a straight keylock from cross mount and as soon as it was isolated, before the lock was even tried, it was obvious he was in pain then. This was a couple days ago and he has continued rolling with us so I figure(hope) it can't be anything serious. I guess my question is will he be fine or could this still be a fracture or something he should break training for.

[Shimora]

Perfect examples of why an Armbar is not effective on the street.
Just because some wussy kid in a BJJ class taps whenever he looks like getting armbarred does not mean a real fighter will.

[royceg420]

nice try Shimora

[Qkfx]

Shim in a real fight you are not looking for a tap, you simply break the arm.

[Mako]

I'm with Shimora. Also, it is nearly IMPOSSIBLE to work the armbar in a barrell.