Ronda Rousey's mom on the perfect armbar

Ronda Rousey famously learned to fight under the guidance of her mother, Dr. Ann Maria Rousey DeMars, the first American to win a World Judo Championship. Dr. DeMars was given to taking maxims like Practice doesn’t make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect and making them more pointed.

You know what happens when you practice half-@##, Ronda?” Dr. DeMars asked her daughter. “You ###ing lose!

Ronda’s mom has a blog on achieving success in business, sports and academics, that includes random thoughts on Judo, parenting, mixed martial arts, winning & whatever she feels like rambling on.

The most recent entry is on Arm Bars.

Random arm bar notes: I. How to do a perfect arm bar

Let’s suppose you are in a tournament, or even practice, and you have the great good fortune to have an opponent beneath you and you get hold of your opponent’s arm. I am going to assume that your opponent is not an idiot and having grasped the severity of the situation will grab on to his own arm for dear life.

How to do a perfect arm bar, according to me.

1. Have both hands at your opponent’s wrist, locking the forearm against your body.

2. Have both of your legs across the opponent’s body, one on either side of said arm (I learned to refer to things as “said” from reading too many contracts.)

3. Rotate toward the opponent’s head to break the arm free.

4. Rotate back toward the opponent’s hips so you are now at a perfect 270 degree angle from the opponent’s body (for non-math majors, a 270 degree angle is shown below. This is nothing if not a full-service blog.)

5. Legs are squeezed together holding the opponent tight at the shoulder, with your thighs.

6. Pinch knees tight together, touching, allowing no space for the opponent to pull his arm through if he did by some miracle manage to pull his wrist free.

7. Legs are bent, curling his body back toward you with your feet. (If you’ve ever done the leg curl at the gym, it’s that motion. If you’ve never done a leg curl, what the heck is wrong with you?)

8. Arch your hips to apply the arm bar. If you have ever had a boyfriend, yeah, it’s that motion. (Unless you’re a gay male in which case I am not sure.)