Kevin Leavitt

I'm a "MMA" guy..so this is my opinion...and someone else might have a different experience.

Couple of different reasons I think you don't see them.

1. They pretty much are weapon based pins. They work decently when you are grappling over weapons, but not so much when you don't have the weapon to fight over.

2. MMA is about submission. So, what causes immobilization and pain is "good enough" so why not keep things simple and efficient and when your match?

Variations of them work, but again, position before submission and in MMA or Grappling arts you are concerned with a different strategy of dominance...again...when you don't have weapons involved..it affect the strategy alot.

I use a couple of different locks and I have used sankyo to control, but it doesn't do much to help you improve your position, so there are many other things that work better in a MMA/grappling style match.

When you look at the kumura, it is sankyo like (sort of), when you look at omaplata it is ikkyo like, albeit with the leg. When you look at a key lock it is shionage like....when you add a knife in the hand...the key lock looks very, very familar!

Don't get caught up in the "style" of the pin...but look at the principles that are employed in various ranges, assumptions, rules etc and see how they are similar...you'd be suprised at how much similiarity there is at the principle level.

I don't think it is as simple as "will they work or not work in a real fight". There are alot of variables and things that need to be considered.