Alias · Kimura system
V-lock
Also known as Americana — the canonical term used on this site.
Training background: colloquial — named for the V shape of the submission angle
Descriptive — V-shaped arm geometry at the finish
V-lock is a descriptive shorthand for the americana — the shoulder lock in which the opponent’s arm is bent at ninety degrees with the hand pointing toward the head, and the attacker’s grip on the wrist drives the forearm toward the mat while the elbow stays controlled.
Etymology. The “V” descriptor flags the geometric shape of the trapped arm at the finishing position: bent at the elbow with the hand pointing one way and the shoulder anchored the other, the trapped arm forms an inverted V relative to the mat. The label is coach-specific and predominates in older no-gi instructional material where geometric descriptions were standard. Modern no-gi vocabulary uses “americana” (the BJJ-Portuguese-rendered name) or “key lock” (the older wrestling label) interchangeably.
Mechanics. The lock isolates the shoulder by trapping the arm in the figure-four configuration and applies rotational force at the shoulder joint — the elbow stays anchored to the mat as the wrist is driven downward, loading the shoulder against its natural range of external rotation.
Cross-reference. “Americana” is the BJJ-standard term; “key lock” appears in wrestling-adjacent contexts. Full mechanical coverage on Americana.