More words you'll hear: the submission edition

The first glossary covered the rooms of the house: guard, mount, side control, the things people do between them. This is part two, the names of the endings. You will hear all of these called across the mat months before anyone teaches you one, usually in a sentence like "watch the kimura," aimed at the person currently kimura-ing you.

Same rules as last time: plain words, no purism, and emphatically no instructions. These are descriptions for recognizing what just happened, learned the way I learned them. Tap early to all of the below, especially the ones that touch the neck.

Chokes, the family that ends the most rounds

Rear-naked choke. From back control, arms around the neck, no gi required, hence "naked." The sport's most famous ending and the reason back control is the best position in jiu-jitsu.

Cross-collar choke. The gi's own lapels, crossed at your neck and used against you. Being submitted by your own clothing is a rite of passage; my first one is documented in the progress post, both occurrences.

Guillotine. The front headlock choke. Famous for catching people who dive at legs with their chin up, which is why coaches keep saying chin down.

Triangle. A choke made of someone's legs, locked around your neck and one of your own arms. Geometry as a weapon; the name describes the shape your predicament makes.

Bow and arrow. A collar choke from the back where the finisher ends up shaped like an archer. Among the strongest chokes in the gi, and weirdly elegant to watch from the wall.

Arm locks, the family with the politest warnings

Armbar. Their two legs and whole body against your one elbow, levered straight. Arrives slowly enough to tap to, which is the entire system working as designed.

Kimura. A shoulder lock with the wrist held in a figure-four grip, named after the judoka Masahiko Kimura, who used it to beat Hélio Gracie in 1951. You will hear this name more than any other on this list.

Americana. The kimura's mirror image, attacking the shoulder the other direction, usually from on top. Also called the keylock.

Omoplata. A shoulder lock applied with the legs, from guard. The name is Portuguese for shoulder blade, and the position looks impossible the first dozen times you see it.

Leg attacks, the family your gym has rules about

Straight ankle lock. The one leg attack most gyms allow early.

Heel hook. The one most gyms forbid until upper belt, because it attacks the knee with very little warning between tight and injured. Gym rules about leg locks vary more than rules about anything else: learn yours in week one, the etiquette post's quiet-rules lesson in its sharpest form.

The pattern under the names

Every name above answers the same two questions: what is being attacked, and with what. Once you hear them that way, the zoo becomes an index, and "watch the kimura" stops being noise and becomes the most useful kind of sentence in the room: a warning with a name on it.

Recognition is not defense, and this page is not training. But the day a round ends and you know what ended it, write the name down. A journal full of named defeats is called a curriculum.