The wrist lock: how it works and how to do it
Our AI analyses your rolls. Free to try.
Try a free analysis
By Scott Flear, founder of JitsAI.
A wrist lock pins your opponent’s elbow so the only joint left to bend is the wrist, then bends their hand past its range, usually palm towards the forearm. Their forearm is the anchor and their hand is the handle. It comes on fast, so finish slowly and tap early. In Brazil it’s called the mão de vaca.
What is a wrist lock?
A wrist lock is a family of locks in Brazilian jiu-jitsu rather than one move: you bend, straighten or twist the hand against the forearm. The cleanest version starts from an armbar your opponent is defending, and that’s the one on this page.
In IBJJF competition, wrist locks are legal from adult blue belt up, in the gi and no-gi. They’re illegal for everyone under 18 and for adult white belts. Bending the fingers backwards is illegal at every level (IBJJF Rule Book v6, 2024).
How does a wrist lock work?
The hand is a short lever and the wrist is the hinge. Hold the forearm still, push on the knuckles, and all the bend goes into the wrist.
- Pin three joints. Wrist, elbow and shoulder. If the elbow can straighten or the shoulder can turn, the wrist just follows and escapes. From the armbar, your stomach pins the elbow.
- Eight small bones. Between the forearm and the hand sit eight small wrist bones, tied together by ligaments. Bend the palm towards the forearm and the back of the wrist is stretched tight. Bend it the other way and the palm side is.
- A twist adds more. Twisting the hand while it’s bent loads the wrist in a second direction at the same time. That’s where the worst case below comes from.
Nobody has tested a jiu-jitsu wrist lock in a lab, so nobody can say which ligament gives first.
Episode 1 of our Anatomy Series is the physics of levers, with the armbar as the example. The wrist lock below starts from that armbar: when the elbow won’t come straight, the hand becomes the lever and the wrist the hinge.
How do you do a wrist lock?
This is the wrist lock from the armbar, for when they’re defending the straight arm. Drill it only when your coach says you’re ready.
- Step 1: Start from a stuck armbar. Their elbow is jammed against your stomach and they’re stopping you straightening the arm.
- Step 2: Grip the back of the hand. Take their hand with your same-side hand so their knuckles sit in your palm. Grip the hand, never the fingers.
- Step 3: Bring it to your chest. Squeeze the hand towards your chest to start bending the wrist.
- Step 4: Stack your other hand. Put your other hand on top of the grip.
- Step 5: Pull in and drive forward, slowly. Pull your hands in while driving your stomach forward. The elbow is pinned, so only the wrist can bend. Let go the moment they tap.
Common wrist lock mistakes
- Elbow not pinned. If their elbow can straighten or move, the wrist follows and there’s no lock. Pin it first.
- Grabbing the fingers. Bending fingers back is illegal at every IBJJF level and an easy way to hurt your partner. Grip the back of the hand.
- Snapping it on. Coaches warn that wrist locks can go from no pain to injury very quickly. Bend slowly.
- Calling it low risk. It’s low risk for the attacker, because you rarely lose your position going for it. It isn’t low risk for the wrist.
If they free the elbow, you’re back to the armbar. The same three-joint rule applies when you finish a kimura grip on the wrist.
What happens if you don’t tap to a wrist lock?
The ligaments that hold the small wrist bones together are stretched past their range and can tear, and it happens fast. Nobody has measured which one goes first in a wrist lock.
Add a hard twist and it can be worse. In one case report, not from jiu-jitsu, a man’s wrists were fully bent and then forcibly twisted, and the small bones of both wrists were knocked out of place (Chari 2010). That’s one case, so read it as “can”, not “does”.
The injury data is thin and mixed. The biggest English-language BJJ injury survey, of 1,140 grapplers, doesn’t mention wrist locks (Hinz et al. 2021). But in one Brazilian survey of 129 athletes, the mão de vaca was the move behind 23 of 112 reported injuries, about one in five, second only to the armlock (da Silva et al. 2016). That sample was small, self-reported and from one region, and it didn’t record which joint each move hurt.
How to train the wrist lock safely
- Tap early. Tap when your elbow is pinned and your hand starts to bend, not when it hurts.
- Finish slowly and let go on the tap. Bend gradually so your partner has time to tap, and release the moment they do.
- Train under a qualified coach. Learn wrist locks in a class, from blue belt up if you compete under IBJJF rules.
- Get checked if something’s wrong. Seek medical care for wrist pain or swelling that doesn’t settle, a weak grip, or a wrist that clicks or feels unstable after a wrist lock.
Does your wrist lock land on everyone, or only on beginners?
Finishing a white belt and finishing a resisting blue belt are different results. JitsAI scores each technique against a nine-level ladder by partner size and experience, so you know who your wrist lock really works on.
- One Focus a week, with pinned lessons from Henrique Rezende’s 74-lesson fundamentals course.
- A nine-level ladder for every technique, from partners less experienced than you to more experienced ones, each split lighter, same weight and heavier.
- Land it once and it’s a hit; 3 wins across 2 sessions and it’s proven.
$1 for 7 days, then $39 a year.
iPhone and Android.
Pick ONE thing One position for the week: an escape, a guard, a sweep.
Test it on everyone A quick check-in after class: who each round was against, and whether it worked.
Hit, then proven Land it once and it’s a HIT. Three across two sessions and it’s PROVEN.
Know what works See what holds up, against whom, then pick your next Focus.
Video transcripts
Transcript: What happens if you don’t tap to a wrist lock
What happens if you don't tap to a wrist lock? The straps holding your wrist together can tear, and it comes on fast. Say the armbars stuck, their elbows jammed against your stomach. Grab their hand with your same side hand, knuckles in your palm, not the fingers, that's illegal. Squeeze it to your chest, stack your other hand on top, pull your hands in and drive your stomach forward. The elbows pinned, so the only thing left to bend is the wrist. Their forearms the anchor, their hands the handle. In between sit eight little bones tied together with straps. Hold the palm down to the forearm and the back of the wrist gets stretched tight. Keep cranking and those straps can tear. In one case doctors wrote up, a wrist folded like this, then twisted hard, knocked the little bones right out of line. What tears first? Nobody's measured it. Big injury studies barely mention wrist locks, but in one Brazilian survey they were behind about one in five reported injuries. First court, tap early, train tomorrow.
Transcript: Leverage
Strength loses to physics, every time. A pivot, a load, a push. Push further from the pivot and you get more twist. That twist is torque, force times distance. Same push, three times further out, three times the twist. In an armbar, your hips are the fulcrum. Grip near the elbow, barely anything. Grip the wrist, five times the leverage. Their arm has a short lever, yours is long. Base, stay wide and low. You tip when your weight passes your base. Frames, stack your bones. Stop pushing, start framing. Smaller person, longer lever, physics wins, every time.
Wrist lock questions
Are wrist locks legal in IBJJF?
From adult blue belt up, in the gi and no-gi. They’re illegal for everyone under 18 and for adult white belts (IBJJF Rule Book v6, 2024).
Is a wrist lock the same as bending the fingers?
No. A wrist lock bends the whole hand at the wrist. Bending fingers backwards is a separate technique and illegal at every IBJJF level (IBJJF Rule Book v6, 2024).
What is a mão de vaca?
The Brazilian name for the wrist lock. It means “cow’s hand”.
Can a wrist lock break your wrist?
We found no fracture data from jiu-jitsu. The serious outcomes on record are torn ligaments and, in one case outside the sport, wrist bones knocked out of place by a bend plus a twist (Chari 2010).
Why do wrist locks come on so fast?
The wrist is a small joint with small ligaments, and once the elbow is pinned the force has nowhere else to go. Tap early.
Sources
- da Silva, Voltolini & Mine (2016), Revista Brasileira de Prescrição e Fisiologia do Exercício 10(60): 497–503. Questionnaire of 129 male BJJ athletes in São Paulo state: the mão de vaca was the move in 23 of 112 injuries (20.5%), second to the armlock (24); injury site not cross-tabulated with the move.
- Chari (2010), Bilateral dorsal perilunate dislocation of wrist, Indian Journal of Orthopaedics 44(2). One case, not from BJJ: wrists in full palmar flexion and radial deviation, then forcibly pronated; bilateral dorsal perilunate dislocations.
- Hinz et al. (2021), Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine 9(12). Survey of 1,140 athletes: the top three submissions injuring the person caught were the armbar (55), kimura (31) and heel hook (27); wrist locks aren’t mentioned.
- IBJJF Rule Book v6 (June 2024), Technical fouls: illegal moves table, p. 29. “Wrist lock” is illegal for ages 4–12, 13–15, 16–17 and adult white belts; “bending fingers backwards” is illegal in every division.
This page explains a sport technique. It isn’t medical advice.