Chicken wing escape

Chicken wing escape is the wrestling-derived name for the defence against the figure-four shoulder-rotation submission — the configuration BJJ calls the kimura and judo calls ude garami.

Etymology. “Chicken wing” is the folkstyle and freestyle wrestling description of the trapped-arm position: the opponent’s arm is bent and trapped at an angle that resembles a folded poultry wing, with the elbow drawn in and the wrist controlled. The term predominates in American wrestling vocabulary and was carried into MMA and submission grappling through the cross-pollination of wrestlers entering catch and BJJ training. Unlike the judo and BJJ names, which describe the attacker’s grip configuration, the wrestling name describes the defender’s arm shape — a useful descriptive shift that anchors the technique in the bottom-position perspective.

Mechanics. The escape’s priority is undoing the limb isolation that the figure-four creates: the defending player must connect the bent arm back to their body’s defensive frame — by hiding the elbow tight to the ribs, by hand-fighting the wrist grip, or by rotating their shoulder — before the humerus reaches structural failure against the rotational load.

Cross-reference. Judo retains ude garami escape; catch wrestling uses “double wristlock escape.” Full mechanical coverage on Kimura Escape.