The Americana is one of the first BJJ submissions you’ll learn as a white belt.

It’s one of the simplest shoulder locks from top positions. You can think of it like the “cousin” of the kimura and the omoplata.

However, because it’s so simple, it’s easy to defend. There have only been ~4 Americana finishes in the history of the UFC.

That doesn’t mean you should stop doing the Americana.

Instead, it DOES mean that you should expect your opponent to defend it — and use it to transition to other attacks.

In this article, I’ll break down a powerful 5-step Americana submission.

And I’ll share how to use the Americana as a position, too.

Americana BJJ Submission: Table Of Contents

• How To Do The Americana In 5 Steps
• 3 Ways To Improve Your Americana Technique
• How To Defend The Americana
• Americana: Final Thoughts & Discussion

How To Do The Americana In 5 Steps

Technically, you can do the Americana from various top positions, from side control to half guard.

Here’s my favorite way to do the Americana: from top mount.

This method offers control and stability so you can increase your finishing percentage.

Step 1: Isolate One Arm & Push To Ground

Put your hand on your opponent’s wrist of the arm you want to isolate.

Lean away and use your body weight to push their arm to the ground.

This will make it much harder for them to resist. It’s their arm against your entire upper body.

Lean your bodyweight over into their arm until their hand is on the ground.

Step 2: Grab The Wrist With Your Free Hand

Bring your other arm around their head, using your elbow to move their head over to make space for this arm.

Grab their wrist with this hand.

TIP: Make sure you are on your side, facing their trapped arm. The weight of your torso will make it harder for them to breathe and escape.

Step 3: Lock Up A Figure-Four Grip

Reach underneath their trapped arm with your free arm.

Grab your wrist to lock up a figure-four grip. I like a thumbless grip for the Americana.

Simply getting to this position is enough to get the tap on training partners with tight shoulders.

Step 4: Move Their Elbow Down To Their Hip

Move their elbow down towards their hip.

For some people, this will be enough to tap them out.

Step 5: Rotate The Shoulder & Finish

If they haven’t yet tapped, rotate their shoulder to get the finish.

Think about painting the mat with the back of their hand.

Doing so will quickly get the tap.

3 Ways To Improve Your Americana Technique

1. “Rev” Your Wrists For An Easier Finish

Once you’ve locked up your figure-four grip, flex your wrists down.

Essentially, “rev” your wrists to get the tap even quicker.

If you’re having trouble imagining this, simply think about revving the engine of a motorcycle.

Doing so puts the bottom player’s shoulder in an even more compromised position.

Unless they have exceptionally flexible shoulders, you’ll get the tap as you rev your wrists and bring their arm down to their hip.

You won’t even have to “paint the mat” with their hand or use your shoulders to enforce the submission.

2. Use The Americana To Transition

Once you get your blue belt, I recommend thinking about the Americana as a position instead of a submission.

What do I mean by that?

Continue going for the Americana. But expect the bottom player to turn to their side or straighten their arm to nullify the submission.

If they turn to your side, you’ll move up their back and establish a gift wrap to take the back.

If they straighten their arm, you’ll go for an arm triangle, straight armlock, or kimura.

These are the types of combinations you’ll develop as a blue belt to earn your purple belt.

You KNOW the bottom player is going to defend. Therefore, you anticipate their defense to set up your next move.

You might not tap anyone with the Americana, but you’ll tap them with what comes after going for it.

3. Specific Training + Journaling

If you want to get better at the Americana, you have to specifically train the Americana.

Here’s a challenge for you: in your next class, make it your focus during each roll to hit the Americana.

Trying to hit specific moves during sparring is called “specific training” — and it’s how Gordon Ryan masters submissions.

Then, after class, write down in your BJJ journal…

• What worked (example: “During one roll, I got into mount and hit the kimura from top mount.” )
• What didn’t work (example: “During another roll, I tried to hit the Americana from mount, but the bottom player got to their side and escaped.”)
• Questions or notes for next class (example: “Ask coach how to transition from the Americana to another move when the bottom player gets on their side.”)

Ask your training partners if you can start from top mount. This will make hunting for the Americana much easier.

Do this for 4 weeks, and I guarantee you’ll get much better at the Americana — and all of the combinations that can come from it.

NOTE: I teach this specific training and journaling process in my BJJ Journal Of Champions Course.

How To Defend The Americana

If you’ve just been tapped with an Americana — and you didn’t know how to defend it — no worries.

It might just be the easiest BJJ submission to escape.

You can think about defending the Americana in 3 steps: prevention, mid-stage, and late-stage.

1. How To Prevent The Americana

Preventing the Americana is all about preventing the top player from isolating one of your arms.

• Keep your elbows tight.
• Frame against their hips.
• Bump and shrimp.
• Create movement and instability.
• Maintain good survival posture.
• Try to escape.

With a good mount defense, the top player won’t ever have the chance to go for the Americana.

2. Mid-Stage Americana Defense

If the top player has isolated one of your arms and pinned your wrist to the mat, get on your side.

This will instantly kill the Americana attack. You’ll be able to tuck your elbow inside and hide that shoulder from them.

Sure, you’ll still be in a poor position.

But you’ll nullify their Americana submission.

3. Late-Stage Americana Defense

Even at the later stages, the Americana isn’t difficult to escape.

If the top player has locked up their figure-four grip, don’t worry.

As soon as they get this grip, straighten your arm.

This will kill their figure-four grip and nullify the Americana.

However, don’t wait too long to do this.

If you wait until they’ve brought your arm down to your hip, you’ll have to tap.

So, straighten your arm as soon as they get the figure-four grip.

Then get back into your bottom mount survival and escape sequence.

Americana: Final Thoughts & Discussion

Although your training partners will quickly learn to defend the Americana, that doesn’t mean it’s not useful.

I expect my training partners to defend it. No problem.

I use it to set up even better transitions and submissions.

As a blue belt, I used the Americana to set up the gift wrap and take the back.

Now, as a purple belt, I use the Americana to set up mounted triangles and arm triangles.

The Americana might not be a great submission on its own.

But as a position? It’s AWESOME!

How do YOU use the Americana? Can you still use it to get the tap, or do you use it in combination with other moves?

Leave a comment and join the discussion below.

And if you hit this in class tonight, I want to hear about it.

Happy rolling. 🤙

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Tsavo Neal

Tsavo is the founder of BJJ Equipment, author of BJJ For Beginners, creator of the BJJ Missions app, and a brown belt instructor at InFighting. He launched BJJ Equipment to help grapplers at every belt level train smarter, make faster progress, and find the best gear for their game.