Leg Locks, the Basics

A leg lock is a submission technique applied to the joints of an opponents leg. Leg-locks are considered more difficult to apply compared to for example arm-locks particularly on bigger opponents because legs tend to be stronger than arms. Mixed martial artists, submission grapplers, shoot wrestlers, sambo players and brazilian jiu jitsu players practice these techniques. Note that judoka's on the other hand do not practice these. It is worthwhile noting that Sambo has the most developed leg locks in their art and even junior Samboka tend to be very capable in leg locks compared to bjj players in my view.

Leg-locks training and sparring is more likely to result in injury in practice compared to other submissions. Excess force can cause serious injuries such as bone fractures or dislocation with excessive muscle damage. Knee bars and heel hooks applied with excessive force can result in serious knee injuries.

Stephen Kesting in his leg locks DVD calls the leg locks below "High Percentage" leg locks because really these are the leg locks that you are likely to get much more often than some of the other leg techniques available. These four are the highly effective techniques that each grappler needs to focus his attention first for things like competition.


BASIC LEG LOCKS

Straight Ankle Lock

The Straight Ankle Lock also known as the achilles lock is applied by securing one of the opponents legs, placing his foot under the armpit and applying pressure to the achilles tendon with the bony part of the forearm.

Knee Bar


The kneebar (AKA the straight legbar) is a leglock that hyperextends the knee that works very similar to the armbar applying pressure to the opponent kneecap. Leverage is applied by moving hips forward and shoulders backwards thereby hyperextending the knee joint.

Heel Hook


The heel hook is a twisting technique applied to the foot and affecting several joints in the leg causing pain and potentially injury in the ligaments in the knee. Force is applied to the ankle which is then passed through to the knee itself.

Considered a very dangerous technique with a high risk of injury, it tends to be banned in brazilian jiu jitsua and submission grappling at the lower experience level and sometimes entirely.

Toe Hold


The toe-hold is in fact a type of ankle lock. The image demostrates the figure-four hold, a most common type of hold used. Here twisting and extension force is applied to the ankle by grabbing the toes of the opponent.


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Stephen Kesting says in his leg locks DVD the following idea. Many players focus on leg locks as an alternative when they meet difficulties in passing the guard. He proposes to train hard in both and in the end it will become clear how interconnected they are. Don't substitute your weak guard passing with leg locks.

Leglocks

Leglocks are great. They just increase your arsenal of submission moves and at the same time help develop the jiu jitsu game further, taking it to a new level.

I have to say that I know only a few moves at the moment and I guess this is partly because leglocks tend to be a more advanced area of focus. Judo does not allow them at all, while Sambo perhaps overemphasizes them, at least in some classes.

That said, if you are roughly aware of them, you can evade them and dominate using just judo newaza techniques.

When I think about the effectiveness of leglocks and their importance in jiu jitsu, I think of Mauricio Shogun Rua's fight against Kevin Randelman. Shogun is a brazilian jiu jitsu black belt and really knows his leglocks. Randelman was caught by Rua and simply did not do anything. An amazing fight in my opinion, proving that leglocks are a crucial part of mma, grappling and even street fighting.

For the moment, I am not comfortable doing leglocks because I have not had enough practice. I tap out quickly as soon as one is performed correctly on me and it feels that if I do go for a leglock in a sparring match, the fight may end in a draw with both me and my opponent competing who is more resistant to pain. It just seems that most of the time, my opponent will also be able to get me in a leg lock as soon as I go for one. I will surely need to work on this further.

I am also thinking of buying some instructional DVD materials on the subject. The number of leglocks available is incredible and I think knowing 5-6 well would be very helpful. There are plenty of materials out there worth taking a look at.