The armbar is always an option and one of the most dangerous submissions in closed guard. It can be executed in a violent surprising fashion or even a very slow and methodical way. The move entails locking your opponents elbow by immobilizing his head and shoulder using your legs while using your groin as a fulcrum to put pressure onto the elbow joint. If done correctly, you will have such a powerful leverage over your opponent that he will be unable to resist the armbar and will be forced to eventually tap.

There are a few major factors that determine the success and how powerful your leverage will be during the armbar. The most important one is how deep you can get your opponents elbow into your hip. A shallow arm bar is easily escaped while a deep armbar can get you a tap very quickly. Head control is also important; your leg around the head needs to provide a crushing pressure that forces your opponent to look down. The action of looking down makes it incredibly hard to posture up or stand up and if done correctly, makes a sweep highly likely.

The harder it is for your opponent to escape, the harder your opponent will try to escape. An opponent who is using more strength tends to make more mistakes such as basing out on one side too much or putting too much weight on one side. Also he will be more distracted. All these factors increase the ease of clinching the arm bar or sweep.

When trying to lock out the arm bar, do not just try to pull the arm into full extension. Your arms are not as strong as your hips therefore the main driving force should be coming from your hips. Extend the arm fully while thrusting upwards with your hip into your opponents shoulder. Ensure that your opponents thumb is pointed towards the ceiling to put the joint in an even more compromising position.

Recognize when the armbar becomes a failed attempt. It is pointless to keep holding on to an armbar that is failed because your opponent will have a dominant position over you by escaping. Once you recognize your arm bar attempt is failed, immediately bail and try to do as much damage control as possible by recovering full guard and do not make the mistake of just holding on to the arm.