There is a certain type of opponent who is best described as a compulsive leglocker. You know the type: no sooner have you put him in your guard than he flings himself backwards and starts attacking your lower body with ankle locks, toe holds, kneebars and other submissions. You generally don't want to trade leglocks with this kind of opponent - he uses them all the time and will probably get … [Read more...]
Leglocks
Rear Mount – Crossing your Feet
The rear mount is arguably the most dominant position in grappling. When you have rear mount you can apply some very powerful chokes and locks. In MMA or self defense you can administer severe punishment without your opponent having the ability to strike you back. … [Read more...]
Thrashing Escapes
As you may know already, I like leglocks a lot.I have applied hundreds upon hundreds of leglocks to training partners without injuring them.This week I am going to tell you about the ONLY person I have ever injured using a leglock. I was grappling at a class once, in a bit of a lazy mood.I was playing light and easy, not really going for the kill very often or with very much intensity.Eventually … [Read more...]
Double Ankle Control Position for Footlocks
Today’s topic is a slightly unusual control position for footlocks. Control positions are methods of positioning your legs while you are attempting a leglock. The purpose of a control position is to control your opponent’s legs and body while you set up and execute your leglock. First check out the below (taken at Grapplemania Seattle. January 29th 2005, by Jermiah Armstrong). In this … [Read more...]
Other Ankle Lock Mistakes
In a recent article I talked about the most common mistake novice leglockers make when trying to use the ankle lock. Here are a few more common errors: Telegraphing the attack. I often see someone decide to use an ankle lock to counter the open guard: this person then wraps his arm around the ankle, pauses, considers whether to proceed, and only then falls back into an ankle lock. This is way … [Read more...]
The Most Common Ankle Lock Mistake
Let's talk about the basic ankle lock (also known as the 'Achilles lock' or the 'straight foot lock') today. When I see people trying ankle locks in sparring and in competition the most common error I see is targetting, by which I mean where they are placing their forearms on their opponent's ankle.\ Quite often I see people trying to apply the ankle lock by putting pressure far too high up the … [Read more...]
The Leglock Debate
Many Jiu-jitsu schools discourage, and even disallow, the use of leglocks while sparring. They argue that leglocks are a ‘cheap’ technique, and/or are unsafe, and/or prevent you from developing a good guard passing game. I respectfully disagree. The ‘cheap’ label gets used for new and unfamiliar techniques. There was a time when kicking someone was considered cheap and dirty - now with a … [Read more...]