I have great success with the Americana but now I think about that's with people my level of lower... I've certainly never got it on a higher belt... Actually there is a brown and black belt I used to get it on fairly regularly but they are more than twice my age and a hobbiest Jiu Jiteros. Side Control and the triangle set up from the side (I want to say inverted triangle but that's not right), even normal triangles are where I have the most success. The triangle option is great because forward rolling is a common reaction but the Americana stops it... Unless they want to mess up their own shoulder of course. It works on both arms, the one trapped in the triangle or the one outside of it. People often brace the trapped arm across the stomach to start regaining posture, this is a great time to secure the wrist, lift your hips and secure the figure-4 before dragging them back into a choky/snappy situation of ouch. Or if you've cut a major angle to finish the triangle and you see the outside arm flailing around while their face turns purple.

This was discussed on the podcast 'the blunt report' by a brown belt from Danaher named Robert Degle. He spoke about the 'tactical plausibility ' of certain techniques where the Americana has similar breaking force to the Kimura the major weakness of the Americana comes from setups, etc. Notably, Gordon Ryan used an Americana to break the arm of Kyle Boehm (from a front triangle) recently. I just don't see two evenly matched opponents of a decent level hitting the Americana from side control 'jiu jitsu basics style' in a proper match.

I have found one of the keys to finishing an Americana on good grapplers is to have solid fundamental pressure in your top game.. I have found it to be a solid submission even against good grapplers

On lower belts I can definitely catch an americana no problem. When rolling with higher belts they tend to have pretty good defense and usually it's the follow up attack that I will catch, for example they may straighten their arm to avoid the americana and get caught with the straight armlock/armbar. The typical 'chess game' as they say. My opinion for what its worth.

I'll give that a listen thanks. I bought the Danaher Kimura System on BJJ fanatics yesterday because it was on offer, then had instant buyers remorse when i realised that only 3 of Gordon Ryan's 65 submission wins were by Kimura. I like the term 'tactical plausibility' i think it's what most people really mean when they say 'high percentage'.

IIRC this has come up before, but the americana doesn't have to disappear as you go up the belts. Mike Velotta has an excellent americana, with a bunch of variations (under the head, one arm etc) which he's pulled off on all levels, from what he's said. I'll see if I can get him to comment. :)

Easy. The angle makes it so that from bottom unlike kimura you don't really control their posture UNLESS it's from a triangle position. From top it's hard to commit two arms to sub while preventing them from turning to side which leads to at least escaping the sub if not position.

You mean the shoulder lock he showed at camp that fits into a flow with a straight armbar and a bicep slicer?

Danaher's kimura DVD is excellent... honestly his intermeshing of control positions makes it extremely valuable. Generally it can be tough to finish kimuras on larger, stronger opponents but you can always use the handle for a route to the back or to serve as the catalyst in a scramble.

Ha - I forget you were there! But yep, that's the class I have in mind, though Mike could talk about that a lot more. Admittedly I don't think it's easy to pick up, I still haven't got the hang of it.

Glad it's not just me. I can get the straight armbar and bicep slicer though

Do you have much success using the kimura to take the back? I don't really have people to try it on at the moment but this part looks quite suspect to me. I don't see why the bottom guy needs to keep his hands locked and it looks like he could clear the underhook if he unlocked them and started hand fighting ?

And also if for some reason you start to lose your position a kimura grip is powerful from anywhere and a Can you use an American grip to get a sweep?

Yes, it's probably one of my favorite ways to take the back. Specifically what Danaher refers to as the 'dorsal kimura'. Lots of good ways to either finish or go to the back, a classic dilemma....

I don't really understand why the bottom guy wouldn't release his hands and grab the underhook with his right hand, to clear it. He's essentially in running man with a conceded underhook.