Alias · Kimura system
Gyaku Ude Garami
Also known as Kimura — the canonical term used on this site.
Training background: Japanese judo term — reverse arm entanglement; the kimura is the inside rotation variant
Japanese — 逆腕緘 reverse arm entanglement
Gyaku Ude Garami is the judo-derived name for the kimura — the figure-four shoulder-rotation submission that loads the humerus by rotating the wrist toward the opponent’s hip, used in legacy judo and judo-influenced submission curricula.
Etymology. Gyaku (逆) means “reverse” or “opposite”; ude (腕) means “arm”; garami (緘) means “entanglement” or “wrap.” The combined term — reverse arm entanglement — appears in legacy Kodokan judo vocabulary as a variant label for the inside-rotation figure-four. The “reverse” descriptor reflects how the technique relates to the americana (which judo originally classified as the standard ude garami): the kimura rotates in the opposite direction, hence gyaku ude garami. The terminology overlap among ude garami variants — inside, outside, reverse — explains some of the historical confusion about the kimura’s classification in pre-BJJ judo literature.
Mechanics. The submission isolates the shoulder by trapping the opponent’s wrist with a figure-four grip and rotating the humerus past the natural range of internal rotation in the glenohumeral joint. The figure-four removes the trapped arm from the body’s unified defensive frame; the rotation continues until the joint reaches structural failure.
Cross-reference. BJJ and English-speaking no-gi use “kimura”; catch wrestling uses “double wristlock”; the more common judo term today is ude garami (inside variant). Full mechanical coverage on Kimura.