In combat sports, a spinal lock is a multiple
joint lock
A joint lock is a grappling technique involving manipulation of an opponent's joints in such a way that the joints reach their maximal degree of motion and hyperextension.
In judō these are referred to as, 関節技 ''kansetsu-waza'', "joint loc ...
applied to the
spinal column
The vertebral column, also known as the backbone or spine, is part of the axial skeleton. The vertebral column is the defining characteristic of a vertebrate in which the notochord (a flexible rod of uniform composition) found in all chordates ...
, which is performed by forcing the spine beyond its normal ranges of motion. This is typically done by bending or twisting the head or upper body into abnormal positions. Commonly, spinal locks might strain the spinal
musculature
Skeletal muscles (commonly referred to as muscles) are organs of the vertebrate muscular system and typically are attached by tendons to bones of a skeleton. The muscle cells of skeletal muscles are much longer than in the other types of muscle ...
or result in a mild spinal sprain, while a forcefully and/or suddenly applied spinal lock may cause severe
ligament
A ligament is the fibrous connective tissue that connects bones to other bones. It is also known as ''articular ligament'', ''articular larua'', ''fibrous ligament'', or ''true ligament''. Other ligaments in the body include the:
* Peritoneal li ...
damage or damage to the
vertebrae
The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates,Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristic i ...
, and possibly result in serious
spinal cord injury
A spinal cord injury (SCI) is damage to the spinal cord that causes temporary or permanent changes in its function. Symptoms may include loss of muscle function, sensation, or autonomic function in the parts of the body served by the spinal cor ...
,
stroke
A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...
, or death. Spinal locks and cervical locks are forbidden in
IBJJF
The International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation (IBJJF) is a for-profit company that hosts several of the biggest Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) tournaments in the world, including the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship, World No-Gi Championship, Pan Jiu ...
Brazilian jiu-jitsu
Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ; pt, jiu-jitsu brasileiro ) is a self-defence martial art and combat sport based on grappling, ground fighting (ne-waza) and submission holds. BJJ focuses on the skill of taking an opponent to the ground, control ...
competitions, amateur
mixed martial artas (MMA), multiple forms of no Gi
jiu-jitsu
Jujutsu ( ; ja, link=no, 柔術 , ), also known as jiu-jitsu and ju-jitsu, is a family of Japanese martial arts and a system of close combat (unarmed or with a minor weapon) that can be used in a defensive or offensive manner to kill or subdu ...
,
judo
is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponi ...
, and other
martial arts
Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defense; military and law enforcement applications; combat sport, competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; a ...
. However, professional MMA and some Brazilian jiu-jitsu competitions do permit spinal locks and, particularly, neck cranks, and such moves are trained in various MMA and Brazilian jiu-jitsu schools.
Spinal locks can be separated into two categories based on their primary area of effect on the spinal column: spinal locks on the neck are called neck cranks, and locks on the lower parts of the spine are called spine cranks.
Neck crank
![USMC-110617-M-4655G-005](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/USMC-110617-M-4655G-005.jpg)
A neck crank (sometimes also referred to as a neck lock, and technically known as a cervical lock) is a spinal lock applied to the
cervical spine
In tetrapods, cervical vertebrae (singular: vertebra) are the vertebrae of the neck, immediately below the skull. Truncal vertebrae (divided into thoracic and lumbar vertebrae in mammals) lie caudal (toward the tail) of cervical vertebrae. In sau ...
causing hyperextension, hyperflexion, lateral hyperflexion, hyperrotation or extension-distraction. This happens through bending, twisting or elongating. A neck crank is typically applied by pulling or twisting the head beyond its normal ranges of rotation. Neck cranks are usually banned from sports competitions, with notable exceptions in combat sports such as
submission wrestling
Submission wrestling, also known as Submission grappling, Submission fighting a form of competition and a general term for martial arts and combat sports that focus on clinch and ground fighting with the aim of obtaining a submission through the ...
and
MMA
Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on strike (attack), striking, grappling and ground f ...
, where they are used as
submission holds or as a guard passing technique.
Can opener
The can opener (in Judo referred to as ''kubi-hishigi'') is a hyperflexing neck crank that can be applied from the opponent's
guard
Guard or guards may refer to:
Professional occupations
* Bodyguard, who protects an individual from personal assault
* Crossing guard, who stops traffic so pedestrians can cross the street
* Lifeguard, who rescues people from drowning
* Prison ...
or from a
mounted position, by grabbing the opponent's head using the hands, and forcing it towards the chest of the opponent. If applied effectively in a competition it may force the opponent to
submit.
This may also refer to a type of neck compression employed from a rear mount position in which the back of the thumbs are used to drive into the neck starting from the high
trapezius
The trapezius is a large paired trapezoid-shaped surface muscle that extends longitudinally from the occipital bone to the lower thoracic vertebrae of the spine and laterally to the spine of the scapula. It moves the scapula and supports the ...
muscle toward the
sternocleidomastoid muscles
The sternocleidomastoid muscle is one of the largest and most superficial cervical muscles. The primary actions of the muscle are rotation of the head to the opposite side and flexion of the neck. The sternocleidomastoid is innervated by the access ...
, causing severe discomfort and even submission. As of 2006, this is permitted in ''shiai'' (competition) as long as the combatant's thumbs remain straight and not bent. Its most common uses are to open up an opponent's chin for
shime-waza
A chokehold, choke, stranglehold or, in Judo, shime-waza ( ja, 絞技, translation=constriction technique) is a general term for a grappling hold that critically reduces or prevents either air (choking)''The New Oxford Dictionary of English'' ( ...
or as a diversionary tactic.
Cattle catch
The cattle catch (also referred to as reverse crucifix, iron cross or stocks) is a hyperflexing neck crank involving trapping the opponent's hands and forcing the head towards his or her chest. The technique is performed with the opponent lying on his or her back, and the combatant performing the neck crank perpendicularly face-down in a
side mount position above the head of the opponent, with the opponent's head resting towards his or her armpit. The combatant traps one arm using the legs, and the other using the arms. By using the pinned arms and legs as a point of leverage, the combatant can forcefully crank the head towards the opponent's chest.
Crucifix neck crank
The crucifix neck crank is similar to the cattle catch, but involves the combatant performing the neck crank being mounted on the opponent. Both of the opponent's arms are controlled, and the opponent's head is held in the armpit. By cranking the body upwards while keeping a tight hold on the opponent's arms, the opponent's head is forced towards his or her chest.
Both the cattle catch and the crucifix neck crank are colloquially referred to simply as the crucifix, which often leads to confusion with the traditional
crucifix position
The crucifix position is a ground grappling position that involves being perpendicularly behind the opponent, chest against back, and controlling the opponent's arms. One of the opponent's arms is controlled using the legs, and the other using th ...
.
Twister
The twister (a similar move in
wrestling
Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...
is known as a
guillotine
A guillotine is an apparatus designed for efficiently carrying out executions by beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secured with stocks at th ...
) is a sideways body bend and neck crank, which involves forcing the head towards the shoulder while controlling the body, hence causing lateral hyperflexion of the
cervical spine
In tetrapods, cervical vertebrae (singular: vertebra) are the vertebrae of the neck, immediately below the skull. Truncal vertebrae (divided into thoracic and lumbar vertebrae in mammals) lie caudal (toward the tail) of cervical vertebrae. In sau ...
. The technique involves tension in several body parts, and depending on the flexibility of the recipient, can also involve pain in the knees, abdomen and torso. The twister is often confused with the spine crank since it involves a degree of lateral non-cervical spinal flexion. The main pressure is, however, on the cervical spine, making it a neck crank. It is performed from a back mount single vine ride position, where the top combatant has one "hook" threaded through the bottom opponent's legs and secured behind the ankle. The combatant then pulls the opponent's opposite arm behind his or her own head and grabs hold of the opponent's head, pulling it down to the shoulder. The move was popularized by
Eddie Bravo
Edgar A. Bravo (''né'' Cano; born May 15, 1970) is an American martial arts instructor, podcaster, stand-up comedian, and musician. After earning a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in 2003, Bravo began teaching his own self-developed style ...
and the
10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu system. On March 26, 2011
Chan Sung Jung
Jung Chan-sung ( ko, 정찬성; born March 17, 1987), anglicized as Chan Sung Jung and better known by his ring name The Korean Zombie, is a South Korean professional mixed martial artist and kickboxer. He currently competes in the Featherweig ...
finished
Leonard Garcia
Leonard Garcia (born July 14, 1979, in Plainview, Texas) is an American former mixed martial artist who most recently competed in the Featherweight division of the Legacy Fighting Championship, and is the former Legacy FC Featherweight Champion. ...
at
UFC Fight Night: Seattle in round 2 of their fight using a twister. This was the first and only twister finish in
UFC
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Zuffa, a wholly owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. It is the largest MMA ...
history until
Bryce Mitchell
Bryce Andrew Mitchell (born October 4, 1994) is an American professional mixed martial artist. He currently competes in the Featherweight division in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Mitchell appeared in the reality television series '' ...
defeated Matt Sayles with the maneuver in December 2019. Prior to this, Shuichiro Katsumura defeated Hiroyuki Yamashiro with a twister in
ZST
ZST (pronounced ''Zest'') is a Japan-based mixed martial arts promotion and sanctioning organization holding amateur and semi-professional MMA events. ZST adopts unique rules in the MMA industry and also used to hold tag-team MMA matches.
Hist ...
20 on May 24, 2009.
Shayna Baszler
Shayna Andrea Baszler ( ; born August 8, 1980) is an American professional wrestler, kickboxer and former mixed martial artist. She is currently signed to WWE, where she performs on the SmackDown brand. Baszler is a former two-time and longest ...
also submitted
Megumi Yabushita
is a retired Japanese female mixed martial artist, kickboxer, professional wrestler and judoka. She has participated in several Japanese professional wrestling and mixed martial arts promotions. She is a Japanese national judo champion and a for ...
with a twister on January 30, 2010. On December 31, 2014,
Shinya Aoki
is a Japanese mixed martial artist, professional wrestler and grappler currently competing in ONE Championship's and Rizin Fighting Federation's Welterweight division. He also competes in DDT Pro-Wrestling where he is a former three-time DDT Ex ...
scored a first-round twister win over Yuki Yamamoto at
Inoki Genome Federation
(IGF) was a Japanese professional wrestling and mixed martial arts promotion founded by Antonio Inoki in 2007.
History
Antonio Inoki left New Japan Pro-Wrestling, a promotion he founded in 1972, to start the IGF. The first IGF show was held on J ...
's ''
Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2014''. At the 2015 ADCC tournament in São Paulo,
Vinny Magalhaes
Vinny or Vinnie is a masculine given name, usually a shortened version of Vincent, Vincenzo, or Vicente (disambiguation), Vicente, which may refer to:
Vincents
* Vinnie Anderson (born 1979), New Zealand rugby league footballer
* Vinny Appice (bor ...
submitted Rodrigo Artilheiro in the quarterfinals using a twister. Angela Lee defeated Natalie Hills by a Twister at
One FC
ONE Championship (formerly ONE Fighting Championship) is a Singaporean combat sports promotion. Founded on 14 July 2011 by entrepreneur Chatri Sityodtong and former ESPN Star Sports senior executive Victor Cui, its events have featured mixed ...
: Pride of Lions.
Standing frontal facelock
![USMC-091027-M-3944Z-001](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/USMC-091027-M-3944Z-001.jpg)
This technique involves facing the opponent as though leveraging a guillotine, but cross facing the individual and rotating their head laterally, creating an incredibly dangerous hyperflexion of the neck sideways when hips are leveraged and the cross face is pulled up, attempting to apply extreme pressure and damage to the cervical vertebrae.
Spine crank
A spine crank (the term spine lock is also often used to refer exclusively to this type) is a spinal lock that affects the
thoracic
The thorax or chest is a part of the anatomy of humans, mammals, and other tetrapod animals located between the neck and the abdomen. In insects, crustaceans, and the extinct trilobites, the thorax is one of the three main divisions of the crea ...
and/or
lumbar
In tetrapod anatomy, lumbar is an adjective that means ''of or pertaining to the abdominal segment of the torso, between the diaphragm and the sacrum.''
The lumbar region is sometimes referred to as the lower spine, or as an area of the back i ...
regions of the spinal column. A spine crank is applied by twisting or bending the upper body beyond its normal ranges of motion, causing hyperextension, hyperflexion, or hyperrotation of the spine. In martial arts, spine cranks are generally rarer techniques than neck cranks because they are more difficult to apply. Twisting or bending the upper body to apply pressure to the spinal column requires large amounts of leverage compared to twisting or bending the head.
One of the most well known spine cranks is the
Boston crab
The Boston crab is a professional wrestling hold that typically starts with one wrestler lying in a supine position on the mat, with the other wrestler standing and facing them. It is a type of spinal lock where the wrestler hooks each of the ...
, which is usually seen in
pro-wrestling
Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...
. Similarly to neck cranks, spine cranks are illegal techniques in most combat sports, excluding some submission wrestling and mixed martial arts competitions, where they are used as submission holds. Even if allowed, spine cranks are very rarely featured because of the difficulty of applying them. Jonno Mears is the only combatant to have ever won a mixed martial arts bout with a Boston crab, which he achieved in 2017.
See also
*
Armlock
An armlock in grappling is a single or double joint lock that Anatomical terms of motion#General motion, hyperextends, hyperflexes or hyperrotates the elbow, elbow joint or glenohumeral joint, shoulder joint. An armlock that hyper-extends the ...
*
Leglock
A leglock is a joint lock that is directed at joints of the leg such as the ankle, knee or hip joint. A leglock which is directed at joints in the foot, is sometimes referred to as a foot lock and a lock at the hip as a hip lock. Leglocks are featu ...
*
Small joint manipulation
Small joint manipulation, in grappling, refers to twisting, pulling or bending fingers, toes, wrists and ankles to cause joint locks in the various joints in those appendages.
Technique
Most small joint manipulation is done on the hands or fe ...
*
Wristlock
A wristlock is a joint lock primarily affecting the wrist-joint and, in some cases, the Distal radioulnar articulation, radioulnar joints through rotation of the hand. A wristlock is typically applied by grabbing the opponent's hand, and bending an ...
References
Main references
* Bernard, Thomas
Cervical Spine Injuries in Olympic Athletes ''www.hughston.com''. URL last accessed February 8, 2006.
* Gracie Barra Tampa
Cattle CatchA Confusion of Crucifixes ''www.tampabjj.com''. URL's last accessed January 7, 2006.
* Kawaishi, Mikunosuke
''judoinfo.com''. URL last accessed January 7, 2006.
* Radebold, Andrea
''www.emedicine.com''. URL last accessed January 7, 2006.
* Riccaldi, Alain
''www.fightordie.it''. URL last accessed February 5, 2006. (In Italian)
* Wieder, Brian
''thecni.org''. URL last accessed February 8, 2006.
Other references
External links
Figure 4 Neck Crank Extension-distraction of the neck.
Neck Extension Hyperextension of the neck.
Neck Crank from All Fours Hyperextension and hyperrotation of the neck.
Image series showing how the twister is applied from the
side mount.
Twister from Head & Arm Image series showing how the twister is applied when escaping from a
scarf hold
In grappling, side control (often also called side mount, cross mount, 100 kilos) is a dominant ground grappling position where the top combatant is lying perpendicularly over the face-up bottom combatant in such a way that the legs are free and ...
.
{{Martial arts
Grappling positions
Joint locks