Submission profile

Americana: how often it lands in real training

The Americana is the #6 submission in BJJBuddy logs, finished by 1,374 people. How the shoulder lock from mount and side control works, gi vs no-gi, and by belt.

People who finished it1,374Logged it as their submission
People caught by it1,005Logged tapping to it
Rank#06Among 36 submissions
Gi share51%Of finishes on a logged gi day
Both sides of the exchange

Finished it. Got caught by it.

Finished it1,374
Caught by it1,005

The same person can be in both groups. Across all logs, 3,811 finishes and 2,258 taps were recorded on separate training days.

Training format

Gi vs no-gi

51%gi
Gi 51%No-gi 49%

2,811 finishes on days with a logged gi or no-gi session. Across all sessions the split is 51.5% gi.

The Americana (keylock, ude garami) is a shoulder lock that bends the arm up in an L shape and rotates it toward the mat. It is one of the first submissions most people learn from top position.

How the americana works

  1. From side control or mount, pin your partner’s wrist to the mat with their elbow bent and the hand near their head.
  2. Slide your other hand under their upper arm and grab your own wrist.
  3. Keep their elbow close to their body and the wrist on the mat.
  4. Slide their hand toward their hip, like a paintbrush, while lifting the elbow slightly.

Common mistakes

  • Letting the wrist come off the mat, which lets them straighten the arm.
  • Holding the elbow too far from their side.
  • Using it against a much bigger partner without first controlling their posture.

Learn and drill techniques with a qualified coach and a cooperative partner, and let go the moment your partner taps. This overview is not a substitute for live instruction.

How often each belt finishes it

White belt26.3%
Blue belt30.9%
Purple belt32.1%
Brown belt38.6%
Black belt27.8%

Share of each belt’s users (among those who logged any submission) who have finished with it. Belt is the rank set in the app today.

How to read these figures

“Finished it” means a user logged this move as a submission they got. “Caught by it” means they logged tapping to it. The rank orders all 36 submissions by how many different people logged them either way. From BJJBuddy training logs, November 2015 to November 2026. Duplicate uploads are removed, so a session is one person on one training day. Each person counts once per technique. Groups smaller than 10 people are not shown.