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Basic Principles of Locking
So what is a lock?Locking techniques are prolific throughout Jiu Jitsu. They are taught both to allow jitsuka to apply them to others and to escape from them when they have them applied upon them. The basic principle of a lock is generally quite simple. A lock restricts a person's ability to move one or more parts of their body. The restriction is typically applied in such a way that discomfort or pain is the factor which precludes the person from the desired movement.This is achieved by applying pressure on or around one or more of a person's joints. The skeleton of the human body is the target for all locking techniques... Taking the most classic example of the arm, we can put this into more familiar terms with the following experiment:
So now imagine that someone is trying to force your arm into that position. The body is filled with lots of nerves that are basically there to monitor the condition your body is in. If your body encounters something that is bad for it, the nerves detect this and let your brain know. It starts off as discomfort and eventually if it keeps happenning, your brain starts being bopmbarded by messages - pain. This is what happens if one of the joints in the body is forced to allow movement beyond its natural limit. This is a lock.
Locks and childrenA word of warning must be added about children and the application of locks. Locking techniques must ALWAYS be applied with control with children. The bodies of children are still developing and the application of locks without control is highly inadvisable for obvious medical reasons. It should always be stressed to children to use control when applying locks and they should not be practised too regularly.This would also apply to anyone with particular joint instability, but the onus is on the instructor and the jitsuka with such a condition to come to a sensible agreement as to the use of particular locks on that person.
But sensei he's double-jointed...So there comes a time when everyone will find a lock that just doesn't seem to work on someone - for example because inexplicably their arm does bend 90° up and down! The key here is not to panic. In a 'real-life' situation outside the dojo, quickly move to a different technique (preferably after a quick distraction with an atemi). However sometimes you just really need a particular lock.The human body works on a basic set of rules. Most people hover around the average, but some people fall at the extremes. Some have restricted movement and some have hyper-mobility. Those who are extremely flexible or even double-jointed do have limits. Soetimes you can find them by simply extending the lock as best you can to that point. Using the arm as an example, you would find that bedning the forearm down by 10° would apply a lock to most, but to some you may need to take it to 100° - just do it with the appropriate amount of care and control. Very occasionally you may find someone whose limit you cannot reach. Now is the time to cheat. Try twisting the limb perpendicular to the joint or applying force in a direction perpendicular to the typical lock. Again taking the arm as an example try twisting the foream so that the thumb turns away from the body and points down too, or try pivoting the forearm horizontally at the elbow so as well as trying to bend the forearm down you try and put the person's thumb in the side of their shoulder. If none of these tricks work then you're probably fighting someone with an artificial limb in which case try another one.
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