Just stop exposing yourself to arm bars. You will learn eventually. Imagine yourself as t-Rex. Have t-Rex arms. Don't put your arms in your belt.
Go ahead and try that, and then you can work on your choke defense because you're going to get collar choked/gi choked/etc. to high hell by incapacitating your arms like that. Just keep your elbows attached to your ribs brother. And protect ya neck....
Do some bicep curls. When you get stronger you'll be able to curl your arm back if some fool tries to armbar you :icon_lol: j/k Ask your coach for advice.
I like hiding my arm in my belt for practice. It teaches me how to create good base and pressure with my legs and hips alone. You'd be amazed at how little you need your arms to open the closed guard. Not so much for armbar defense. Basically you just have to tap a lot. Eventually you will start feeling uncomfortable whenever their is space in your armpits, even if your opponent isn't attacking your arms. That's a good thing. Developing good instincts. I don't know if that will happen if you use a prop like your belt to keep your arm tied to you. Ask your coach and see what he thinks.
We do King Of The Hill drills where we have blue belts and up down for 15 minutes or so. First 5 both hands grabbing the belt, second 5 one hand grabbing the belt and the last 5 none. It is pretty fun and really teaches you to use your hips and legs. It is just a passing the guard drill though. Bottom guy can sweep or submit but top guy is just passing.
We do this drill at our school from time to time, not for avoiding armbars however. We do it as a way to promote proper hip movement and body positioning, it also helps with choke awareness. My instructor found that a lot of times when newer students were shrimping and trying to replace guard they would rely way to much on arm strength. They would to try and bench the other person off and end up not using a lot of fluidity with the hip movements. This drill forced a lot of people to realize their hip movement sucked and helped people quickly fix the problem. But as everyone else said, stop exposing your arms. The more you tap the quicker you'll realize this.
I've actually seen this happen many times. Guys with huge biceps powering out of armbars and lifting the other guy up. That's when you know the size difference is too big.
It's not that uncommon of a way to practice, I've also heard of people who did it with one arm when they were injured.
I'm not allowed to train with one arm at my gym Last time I tried one of my partners wound up with stitches because I went for a one armed DLR sweep... his head bashed mine. I still say he shoulda had better balance, but I did feel slightly bad. But training with one arm/no arms is totally cool in my book... but not to learn armbar defense. Just keep getting caught, you'll learn eventually.
