Policeman's hold

Policeman’s hold is the wrestling-derived name for the hammerlock — the arm-control configuration in which the opponent’s arm is bent behind their back with the wrist drawn up toward the shoulder blade, loading the shoulder against its internal rotation.

Etymology. “Policeman’s hold” reflects the technique’s origin in law-enforcement restraint training rather than competition grappling: the configuration is the standard arrest-control posture for restraining a subject by their bent arm from behind. The term entered wrestling vocabulary as catch wrestlers and folkstyle coaches adapted the restraint hold into a submission for competitive contexts. In modern submission grappling and no-gi the technique is called “hammerlock” — the same configuration repositioned as a finishing rotation rather than a control hold.

Mechanics. The configuration isolates the shoulder by bending the opponent’s arm behind their back, with the wrist drawn upward toward the opposite shoulder blade. The rotation loads the shoulder’s internal-rotation range past its structural limit. Because the limb is removed from the body’s defensive frame and placed in a high-leverage rotational path, the load required for structural failure is relatively low compared to the elbow or wrist demand.

Cross-reference. BJJ and English-speaking no-gi use “hammerlock”; catch wrestling uses “top wristlock” in some contexts. Full mechanical coverage on Hammerlock.