Originally posted by Bronco Wrestler:
just out of curiousity... the situation you describe, would directly be a judgement call? I could see it both ways.
No, the key here is that the offensive wrestler can lock his hands around the body if the defensive wrestler is in near fall criteria. If the wrestler goes directly from his feet to near fall criteria, the hands can remain locked. For example, imagine two wrestlers on their feet, one does a body lock and takes the other wrestler directly to his back to near fall criteria. Because the wrestler goes directly from the feet to near fall criteria, he can keep his hands locked around the body.
Now, to show an example of a violation, let's assume the wrestlers from their feet end up down on the mat in a scramble situation. One of the wrestlers ends up sitting on his butt, and the other wrestler (after being awarded control) locks his hands around the body to drive the defensive wrestler to his back to near fall criteria. In this example, this would be a locked hands violation because the wrestler locked his hands prior to near fall criteria, and the wrestling didn't go directly from the feet to near fall criteria.
