The Americana aka Keylock in BJJ

Lets have a conversation about The Americana aka Keylock in BJJ. Many believe the Americana aka Keylock in BJJ is the great under performer among the various submission holds of Jiu-Jitsu: The soul of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu resides in its submission holds. There are around fifteen to twenty families of submission holds, each with many many variations in technique and entries. These core submission holds are seen all the time in competition. The Arm bar, the triangle, the rear naked choke, the arm-triangle etc etc. are constantly seen successfully applied in all levels of competition in all weight divisions and all belt levels. There is however, one well known and foundational submission hold that has a truly miserable success rate. In fact, in the 30 years I am training, I cannot think of even a single example of it working successfully in black belt competition at the world championship level gi or no gi. I will go further and say I cannot even recall seeing it successfully applied in local tournaments above purple belt and personally I cannot remember ever seeing a black belt be submitted by it even in the gym. This must make it the single worst performing submission hold among the various foundational submissions in our sport, no? Most of the other submissions perform brilliantly, but the success rate of this one is an utter disaster. can you guess what it is? It is the Americana lock. The only example of it being used successfully that I can recall is a UFC 152 fight by Jon Jones on a badly battered and exhausted Vitor Belfort. That is the only time I have seen it in an MMA fight (and at that point Mr Jones could have submitted him with any lock he chose). This is very unusual, most core moves of the sport have excellent success rates. The American lock is unquestionably a core lock of the sport, taught often at beginner level around the world. In fact, it is usually one of the first submissions we learn and a staple of beginner classes everywhere, yet it scores so few victories that I would understand if an instructor simply stopped teaching it above white belt level. (although the keylock serves as a great set-up to attain the S-Mount position to attack choke and armlocks). Interestingly the American lock is actually very strong and potentially devastating once it is applied. Any type of 2 on 1 hold is. The failure is not mechanical, an American lock will break an arm just as surely as a kimura or armlock or any other (in fact I would argue that the breaking potential of a well applied American lock is superior to most other joint locks, it’s very strong when done well) So why the failure to be successfully applied in competition? If it’s not mechanical, the failure must reside in set-ups and entry and in ability to cope with resistance and counters. Do you think this great failure of the submission family can be rehabilitated? Can we improve our set ups to make this lock work in competition?