Learn to Improvise Joint Locks Under Pressure

In this video, Rory Miller makes the case that the problem is not with the locks themselves, but with our teaching methods. A principles-based approach allows relative beginners to improvise joint locks with one hour of training.

Joint locks are widely regarded as one of the most versatile physical tools-- they can move, immobilize, submit or severely injure a threat. They are also justifiably regarded as one of the more difficult of martial arts skills to implement in real life.

Joint locks are NOT primary self-defense techniques. If you are in a position that requires self-defense you are justified in and likely need a higher level of force. However, if your job requires controlling violent people with minimal injury you must be good at joint locks and you must be able to improvise them under pressure.

• Intro
• Principles
• Hinge Joints
• Ball and Socket Joints
• Gliding Joints
• Fingers
• Principles Review
• Lock Flow Drill
• Escaping Locks
• Conclusion
• BONUS: Rory Miller Interview

Program also features Coach Jeff Burger (YMAA Author of Attack the Attack vimeo.com/ondemand/d3952attack). Rory Miller's principles-based approach allows relative beginners to improvise joint locks with one hour of training, something that traditional approaches sometimes fail to do with hundreds of hours.

Rory Miller is a writer and teacher living peacefully in the Pacific Northwest. He served for seventeen years in corrections as an officer and sergeant working maximum security, booking and mental health; leading a tactical team; and teaching subjects ranging from Defensive Tactics and Use of Force to First Aid, and Crisis Communications with the Mentally Ill. For fourteen months he was an advisor to the Iraqi Corrections System working in Baghdad and Kurdish Sulaymaniyah. He received a BS degree in Psychology; served in the National Guard as a Combat Medic (91A/B); and earned college varsities in judo and fencing and received a mokuroku in jujutsu.