As someone who wrestled in High School, and then used various holds as a bouncer in a bar I have some small insight about this issue. Of course there is the fact of drunkenness to contend with, but on the whole, I never needed to punch or kick an opponent. The way that I usually solved an issue was to get the person in a headlock. One arm around their neck, the other pulling my fist towards my chest. It instantly subdues even the largest person. It puts pressure on both neck arteries as well as the larynx. This cuts off blood flow to the brain and the airway. Trust me when I say that this messes with the anger that you might be feeling as well as your balance and yelling. :-)

As far as breaking bones, sure. It can be done easily. That is if you understand the physics of the human body. Long thinner bones break easily with the correct application of lateral force. Hands and feet are easy to harm and have a lot of nerve endings. Next are the double bones of the forearms and lower legs. The bones of the upper arms and thighs are much harder to damage. BUT they have major nerves running along them as well as major arteries.

Ultimately you shouldn't NEED to break a bone to subdue even the largest person. But that is a good way to get compliance if everything else fails. The fact is, if you allow me to get my arm around your neck (a basic wrestling move) you are at my mercy, regardless of what the movies might show you.

I have often taken two rowdy drunks out of a bar at once, one under each arm. And once I had a third person punch me in the head until I was blinded with my own blood. Luckily we always had backup. But that's a story for another time.

Nice. I was thinking "this is a ridiculous place to post about fighting" but as you've shown, wrestlers lurk in Bunny-land too

yeah the extensions and locks in particular is what I've been seeing. It's kinda crazy right? Big guys just don't know what to do when a skilled grappler has them contorted (unless you're strong enough to get up and slam the grappler)

Most submissions don't take a ton of strength to finish, true. The armbar, for example, is a classic 'gangup' move - it's your arms, legs, and trunk vs the other guy's bicep and shoulder. Unless your opponent can curl more than you can deadlift, strength ain't gonna save them. Rotational holds like the Kimura and the toe hold are working against the tiny little rotator muscles in the shoulder and ankle, muscles that can only exert a few pounds of force even in very big strong people.

Oh, and a fun fact about chokes: having big, thick arms and shoulders can actually make you more vulnerable to certain chokes, like the triangle choke and various arm triangles. This is because your own arm is stuck in there, pressing against your neck and aiding the choke. ;-)

I'm still an MMA newbie, and pretty small and weak compared to my classmates/teachers. I mostly work on escapes, leg sweeps and arm and ankle locks. I'm not likely to be able to climb up on somebody to choke them. Broseph is absolutely right about triangles though. When someone big gets caught in it, they tire out pretty quick.

Were those wrestling or Jujitsu moves you saw? JJ moves are pretty quick and as you say, seemingly non intuitive. The principle of letting your opponent defeat himself. Wrestling is about domination and keeping the opponent down with your own force. At least that's my read.

Hi lysdexic. Yeah I think it's jujitsu. Specifically I was looking at Royce Gracie's early UFC stuff. Like, a layperson like me wouldn't think of grabbing people and hanging on with your legs etc as particularly effective combat moves but it certainly got his opponents to tap out