Alias · Escapes & Defence
Ude garami escape
Also known as Kimura Escape — the canonical term used on this site.
Training background: Japanese — entangled arm lock
Japanese — 腕緘 arm entanglement escape
Ude garami escape is the judo-derived name for the defence against the kimura — the figure-four shoulder-rotation submission that loads the humerus against the natural range of internal/external rotation.
Etymology. Ude (腕) means “arm”; garami (緘) means “entanglement” or “wrap.” The combined term — arm entanglement — describes the figure-four grip configuration that defines the technique: one hand on the opponent’s wrist, the second hand reinforcing it via a wrap around the opponent’s own forearm. The technique sits in Kodokan judo’s kansetsu-waza (joint-lock) catalogue under this name; in Brazilian jiu-jitsu vocabulary it was renamed “kimura” after Masahiko Kimura’s 1951 victory over Hélio Gracie via the technique. The escape term retains the judo terminology in legacy judo and catch-wrestling instructional contexts.
Mechanics. The escape’s priority is undoing the limb isolation that the figure-four creates: the defending player must connect the trapped 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 to neutralise the rotational load — before the humerus reaches structural failure.
Cross-reference. English-speaking no-gi uses “kimura escape.” Catch wrestling preserves “double wristlock escape.” Full mechanical coverage on Kimura Escape.