Abridged move description courtesy of Suka Pass.
A complex move that damages the opponent's arms in multiple areas simultaneously.
While grasping the opponent's arm, the practitioner moves laterally and after delivering a sharp elbow thrust, he quickly takes a reverse joint hold on the shoulder to sprain the opponent's arm, then leaps on to the opponent to finish in a position nearly identical to a reverse cross defense. This fearsome move results in simultaneous damage to several areas of the arm joint.
This is an extremely complicated composite move, and because the transition from one step to the next move must be smooth, it is extremely difficult.
The full Arm Break Fire is composed of 3 moves:
- Elbow thrust
- Reverse joint hold
- Reverse cross defense
The "reverse joint hold" and "reverse cross defense" are established judo techniques known as ude-hishigi-waki-gatame (Japanese: 腕挫腋固) and tobi-jūji-gatame (Japanese: 飛び十字固め) .
Waki Gatame
The ude-hishigi-waki-gatame, or armpit armlock, is one of the official joint lock techniques of judo and comes from traditional Japanese jiujitsu. The technique has been used to great effect in mixed martial arts as well, albeit rarely. Former Shooto/DREAM/ONE champion Shinya Aoki famously broke his opponent's arm using the waki gatame in the process of setting up a takedown.
Former UFC LHW champion Jon Jones used a conceptually-similar technique from a whizzer position in his title defense against Glover Teixeira.
Despite the move's effectiveness, it is rarely seen in competition. This could be due to the waki gatame's high injury potential and the difficulty with training the technique with resistance safely. Even in MMA or Brazilian jiujitsu where the technique is legal, it can be considered somewhat of a dick move. It can quickly cause injury to your training partner with little warning and before they have a chance to tap/signal you to let go. In judo, it's illegal to use the standing variation of waki gatame as part of a throwing combination for this reason.
Tobi Juji Gatame
Tobi juji gatame, better known as a flying armbar, is a variation of the juji gatame, or cross armlock/armbar in judo. Though all flying submissions were banned in judo competition in 2018, the flying armbar is still common in other grappling martial arts such as BJJ, sambo, and catch wrestling as well as MMA.
Flying armbars are the definition of high risk, high reward moves. They're flashy and can surprise an opponent. However, if done poorly, it can leave you in a vulnerable position and/or give you a concussion from landing/being spiked on your head. Or worse.
