Calasans attacks with a wristlock at the 2011 Worlds. Photo by Ivan Trindade/GRACIEMAG.

When there’s an opponent in your guard, his objective is to unravel your legs and pass. But as Jiu-Jitsu is a human game of chess, the cleverer thinker is always a step ahead.

So how about pulling a slick and effective submission surprise, catching your opponent when all he’s got on his mind is opening your guard? That’s what the black belt Claudio Calasans teaches us today, now he’s returned from a trip to Angola, where he was working to spread Jiu-Jitsu.

“When your opponent grabs your sleeve, catch his wrist and use the other hand to grab the forearm, as I demonstrate. The key to the position is to prevent him from using his other hand to hold and defend. So push the wrist you’re attacking towards his shoulder and away from his body,” the Atos ace explains.

Once you’ve got the position down pat, work on attacking both hands, should he try and defend—as Calasans demonstrates in the following video produced by our contributor Rafael Carvalho of São José dos Campos, São Paulo State.

Check it out, and comment whether you liked it or not.

Absolute black belt podium: Erick Arona, Lucca França, Paulo Ceguim, Fabiano Soares and promoter Andrezinho Nogueira / Photo: Junior Samurai/GRACIEMAG.com

It happened this past weekend in the Brazilian state of Ceará.

In the master division at Copa Luta pela Vida, in the city of Fortaleza, Paulo Aguiar showed he’s still got plenty of fuel to burn and Jiu-Jitsu to teach. First, the Evolution team representative competed among the old guys, Next, he dove into the adult division. After that, he returned to his age group, where ultimately he won gold in both the master middleweight and absolute divisions.

In the open weight final, Paulo Aguiar tapped out Fabiano Soares with a wristlock from side control. He landed the move when Fabiano, who was on bottom, tried pushing him off. So Paulo grabbed his elbow with both hands and crunched his opponent’s wrist.

Of the 340 athletes signed up for the tournament, the big winner was black belt Lucca França, also of Evolution team, who won the adult middleweight division and closed out the absolute with his teammate Erick Arona.

At brown belt, one of those to receive the most applause was Paulo Paulada of Orestes Combat team, who went to town with an arsenal of takedowns and won the middleweight division. Now Gessy Barbosa of Gracie Barra overcame Iranildo Gigante of MG team, taking superheavyweight gold. There was no absolute for the brown belt division.

Augusto Tanquinho applies a wristlock masterfully at Brazilian Team Nationals 2009. Photo by Ivan Trindade.

The upcoming issue of GRACIEMAG features Professor Muzio de Angelis talking about ugly moves that work, so GRACIEMAG.com is following suit. Some more puritan readers of ours condemn brutish moves, while plenty of others are all for even ugly moves being put to use—or at least studied and defended.

WRIST LOCK, AN IMPORTANT WEAPON EVEN STANDING

Of the submissions that have taken the most abuse from our readers, the wrist lock, the “amassa-pão” choke and even footlocks have all taken their faire share of derision. As far as aesthetics goes, those critics may well be right. Where effectiveness is concerned, though, such moves should never be overlooked, as you can see for yourself in the following video.

Watch and let us know what you think in the comments section below. To you, is there such thing as an ugly finish, or is ugly just not finishing? Don’t stall in answering, get your two cents in.

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