The path to powerful arm bars is through the head and shoulders: Ostensibly the juji gatame arm bar is an attack on the ELBOW. After all, that's what will actually break if the opponent refuses to submit. However, your ability to control a tough resisting opponent long enough and well enough to get to that breaking point is mostly bound up with your ability to dominate his HEAD AND SHOULDERS. In the use of arm bars from bottom position in particular, you must be able to take your opponents head into an unnatural position that thoroughly undermines his ability to stack his weight into you and blunt your attack. Use the crossface leg – the one that goes over the head – to curl back in such a way that his head is taken completely out of alignment. This makes effective resistance very difficult indeed. As is so often the case in Jiu jitsu, you have to win several preliminary battles in order to win the major battle. In this case, the head before the elbow.
