Leglocks in a grappling competition can quickly turn the tide on the outcome of a match.  In the blink of an eye, one competitor can go from being apparently dominated to having his arm raised via submission win.  But there are a few things you should know before you go to your club and try to practice getting good at these things.

The first- most important- thing to know about leglocks is that they are dangerous without proper education.  With the right supervision and understanding, leglocks can be practiced as safely as armlocks.  However, that’s a big problem for most gyms.  There is very little education available at many traditional BJJ schools because the instructor either simply doesn’t know much about leglocks, or he or she feels they are too dangerous to be practiced at all.  Some gyms take a hard line on the latter approach and impose rules such as “no leglocks at all below purple belt.”  This is actually the most dangerous approach of all, because it breeds fear, not understanding.

The second thing to know about leglocks is that they shouldn’t be thought of as exchanging one’s position for a hail Mary shot at finishing a match.  This is contrary to the strategy of every single high level leg-locker I’ve ever had the opportunity to discuss the subject with.

Now, once you’re past the “disclaimers” (see also the article on 5 Myths about Leglocks), here’s the heart of the matter.  Leg attacks can help you win a fight you might otherwise lose.  Perhaps the best example of this in MMA is Masakazu Imanari vs Mike Brown:

 If you look around enough, you’ll find dozens of examples of this happening in a grappling match.  However, there is one match that sticks out in my mind as the turning point for leglocks in sport BJJ (with the gi).  Before 1999, leg attacks were widely booed in BJJ competition in Brazil.  However, that all changed to some degree with one brutal submission:  a toe hold by Rodrigo “Comprido” Medeiros against “Roleta” Roberto Magalhães.  This wasn’t just any match, either- it was the finals of the absolute division at black belt, the most important match of the year for both of these great competitors.  Roleta’s guard was considered by many to be unpassable.  It was ridiculously crafty and innovative.

Comprido showed the limitations by popping on a super fast toe hold.  It was a real wake-up call for those of us who let our feet dangle in the open guard back then, and the beginning of my personal education in leglock safety.  Check out 1:17 at the video below:

A new generation of competitors in the US, Brazil, Japan, and all over the rest of the world continue to improve the ever-evolving leglock game.  If you can safely integrate these attacks into your arsenal, you can overcome a grappler who might otherwise have your number.  Be sure to practice leglocks safely and often!

Note: this is an impromptu follow-up to the excellent article, Immersion in BJJ.

Some people like to have a physical symbol of goals or landmarks in their professional or personal lives.  For some folks, it’s a tattoo that reminds them of a lost loved one, or motivates them to stay sober.  For others, it’s a photograph from an earlier time in life, or something written in pen on the back of one’s hand.  For me, it was my hair.

Beginning with my blue belt, in 2002, I started growing my hair out with each new belt I got.   The principle was simple:  I was starting over with each new rank in BJJ.  When I got my purple belt in 2003, all of my shoulder-length hair was chopped off, leaving me completely bald.  By the time I got my brown belt in 2006, all that was left of  my glorious long hair was a crummy rat tail, so we cut that off (see the picture).   In 2008, I was awarded the high honor of black belt in BJJ under Julio “Foca” Fernandez with Eric Burdo, so Burdo and I headed to his house afterward and shaved my head bald once again, although we went through plenty of incredibly goofy hairstyles along the way:  mullett, skullett, clown hair, horseshoe, and finally Mr. Clean.

Like the biblical Samson, I grew “stronger” (more confident) with each belt level as a competitor.  By the time I was promoted, I was confidently trampling through the competition scene at my current belt.  Sure, I lost matches during this period, but the losses were offset by the much bigger wins, and I was bursting with confidence at every tournament.

Of course, starting over (with the new belt) was always humbling.  While the hair helped with dominating the lower belt, the next belt up was a challenge.  I really liked that:  it was all new to me, and there was no pressure.

This wasn’t always easy to maintain.  On the contrary, I hated having long hair.  HATED.  My training partners would put their knees on my hair to inadvertently pin my neck to the mats; my hair was always getting pulled out from collar chokes.  Nevertheless, I don’t look back with regret in any way on my personal journey through ridiculous hair and amazingly fun jiu jitsu.

Like many present-day American BJJ black belts, I feel deeply, profoundly in love with MMA in the late 1990s.  My first exposure to the UFC was in 1995, when I saw Tank Abbot’s notorious debut, when Tank knocked out John Matua in seconds, then loomed over him mockingly as Matua lied unconscious on the canvas, dramatically looking like a corpse, with his arms apparently affected by rigor mortis.   This isn’t what made me love MMA, though- it was a year later when I watched Don Frye at UFC 8 use a combination of boxing and wrestling in order to dominate his opponents easily.

Here was something I could do!  I wrestled in high school (I graduated in 1993), and I was looking for more wrestling to continue during my early 20s at college.  Unfortunately, the school I picked didn’t have a wrestling team, and I was only sporadically involved in freestyle wrestling with the local club for the next year and a half.   However, this all changed when I found the judo club at VCU.

This coincided with Don Frye beating the snot out of everyone with his superior (to the guys at UFC 8, anyway) wrestling and decent boxing.  Right as I saw this, I was being exposed to judo.  The university offered a class in judo, so I took it for credit (mainly for fun, though, as I had all my elective credits out of the way).  From the class, I discovered the club, and a group of martial artists who were dedicated to grappling, and really good at what they did.

The judo club in 1997 was an interesting place, and unique to all my other martial arts experience since then.  I was not only exposed to a whole new world of throws and takedowns, but I was also introduced to groundwork with submissions for the first time.  The line between judo and BJJ was always a blurry one for me.  For further reading on this subject, check out What is the Difference Between Judo and BJJ?

During this time at the judo club, several BJJ practitioners from various different gyms in the Richmond area came in to train with us.  I was learning ground techniques from judo guys, then refining them with BJJ guys who came in to train.  All the while, I was immersed in watching video, reading magazines and books, and driving to the occasional BJJ seminar in order to learn whatever I could.

Gradually, the ground game became more and more intriguing to me.  By 1998, I was learning the throws, but I was thirsty for ne waza- grappling on the ground.  The judo club was actually very strong on the ground relative to most other judo places I’ve seen, so I was lucky in that regard, but BJJ smoothed out the roughness of the techniques for me when it could.

For five years, I awaited a good place to train BJJ in Richmond, and Eric Burdo opened up his gym, Richmond BJJ.  I was there for the first class, and I’ve been a part of the gym ever since, even after starting my own gym in February of 2006.   I have Burdo to thank for sharing great, technical jiu jitsu with me for years;  I have the judo club to thank for being my first martial arts home.   But I have Don Frye to thank for falling in love with MMA, and ultimately, jiu jitsu!

Leglocks, or “leg locks” as they are sometimes called, represent 50% of the joint attacks you can possibly do.  They are increasingly important at the higher levels of BJJ and grappling competition.  In fact, at the ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championships in 2011, there were more leglocks than ALL other submissions combined!

Nevertheless, they are seldom practiced with as much regularity as armlocks or chokes.  Rather, they are frequently absent from entire BJJ curriculums across the world.  Why?   The following is a list of five reasons these incredibly effective attacks are feared rather than utilized.

1.  Leglocks are more dangerous than upper body submissions.
This myth has the most merit IF the leg attacks are practiced in an environment where there is little to no supervision. If you are reading this and you are practicing with your buddies in your garage, you really might want to consider a “no leglocks” rule.  Otherwise, if you’re at a gym where you trust your training partners and your instructor, leglocks can be a safe (and fun) part of your training.  That said, you have to abide by the rules set at your gym.  If your gym doesn’t allow certain attacks below a certain belt level, you absolutely must follow this rule in the interest of safety.  You have to trust your instructor and the rules he or she has set!
With proper education as to what is being damaged by each submission, there is no reason leg locks can’t be practiced with regularity.  This is a giant caveat, though- everyone believes they understand when to tap from a Kimura, for example, but if you watch Mir vs Nogueira part 2, the area is a little bit more gray.  The same is true of a heel hook, kneebar, or toe hold!  With very little force, you can break large joints in the body and even fracture bones in special circumstances.  You can even shred ligaments, which can take far longer to heal than damage from broken bones.  This is true of all joint locking submissions!

2.  Leglocks are low percentage techniques, and you will give up your position by going for them.
This is perhaps the most egregious myth about leglocks.  First, there is a right and a wrong time to attempt a leglock.  The wrong time is when you have a dominant position, and going for the leglock means you are likely to give up the dominant position if you miss it.  This “catch” philosophy need not permeate your grappling experience at all.  On the other hand, unorthodox attacks from dominant position may catch your opponent off guard.  That said, as a general rule, you are always going to play “position before submission” when you’re rolling, and this includes leg attacks!
Second, there is a right and a wrong way to attempt leg locks.   I won’t spend any more time talking about the wrong way, but the right way involves using the leg attack to sweep from the bottom, or to pass the guard when your opponent defends the leglock, or to keep your own guard from being passed.   In short, leglocks should be used to improve your position, not the other way around.

3.  They’re illegal in competition, so why train them?
This is the easiest myth to debunk.  One look at US Grappling’s very clear rules and you can immediately see that some leglocks are allowed in all adult divisions (straight ankle locks for everybody, and kneebars for all no-gi competitors).  Toe holds, calf slicers, and heel hooks (among others) are much more restricted, only allowed in a certain few divisions.
Further, competition isn’t everything.  There are three aspects of grappling that exist beyond just rolling at the gym, and only one of them is sport BJJ or grappling competition.  MMA is another, and most leglocks are typically allowed in MMA fights (although this is well worth investigating, as each state has its own set of rules, some different from amateur to pro!).  The third is self defense, and there are exactly zero techniques that aren’t allowed when you’re defending your life!  May as well know the most devastating way to end a fight.

4.  Leglocks should only be taught at purple belt and above.
If a student is planning to compete at all before purple belt, this is a terrible idea.  Nearly all tournaments allow some leglocks before purple belt.  Getting a general idea of the submissions that are below the waist is a very good idea, even if you don’t plan to use them yourself when you compete.  They could well be used against you, and you had better (at least) know how to tap!
Further, inadvertent leglocks actually do come up fairly frequently at the gym.  If you know you’re putting your training partner in danger, you are far less likely to injure him or her!

5.  They are far too complicated to execute properly.
This is another dangerous, misleading myth, often propagated by those who don’t understand leglocks well enough to teach them to their students.  There are a few leglocks that are, indeed, complicated.  There are some, however, that are disgustingly simple to execute.
If anything complicated was shunned, we’d never have such an amazing evolution within our sport!  Just watch any highlight video, leglock based or otherwise, and you’ll see an incredible array of increasingly complicated techniques that challenge the mind.  Without more complicated stuff, jiu jitsu suddenly gets pretty boring.

The bottom line:  educate yourself!  Don’t live in the dark with regard to leg attacks.  Instead, let knowledge overcome fear, and you can add these amazing attacks into your game, often beating an otherwise more technical opponent.

A notebook is an invaluable training tool for BJJ. Keeping track of your training sessions will direct them in such a way that they become focused and efficient. While there are many aspects of your training to include in your notes, some tend to yield better information than others and should be considered indispensable. One thing is for sure though, if you commit to maintaining a notebook you will eventually see the positive effects it can have on your progress and enjoyment of BJJ.
One result of taking notes is “directed training”. Directed training is simply training with a purpose. If you keep track of what doesn’t work in a sparring session you will certainly find holes that exist in your game. The first step to correcting a problem in your game is to find the problem. Once found, you can decide how best to work on that problem. Continue to use your notes as a method of tracking progress. When you are satisfied, move on to another problem.

Methods of tracking your progress will vary as your goals vary. However, you can always find a way of monitoring your development. Some examples include a rep chart, rating rounds, and tracking time spent doing a specific live drill. You can be as general or as specific as you like. Further, the tone of your notes can be indicative of your mental state which can be very informative.

Along with monitoring your progress, note taking can include dietary habits, sleep habits, and conditioning. Your notes should definitely include your class objectives (i.e. how you plan to use your open mat time during a given training session), goals, and notes on what worked/didn’t work during sparring. Keep track of your specific partners. This will show you who your priority training partners should be. You may take notes on the details of a technique that was taught in class; however, in order for this type of information to be truly helpful, it should be paired with immediate review and/or visualization of the position.

While the method and focus of note taking may vary, it is obvious that the information gained represents invaluable data that will allow you to become responsible for your training. Once you take responsibility for your development you can decide the path your training will take. The end effect will be faster progress and, perhaps, a greater appreciation for training BJJ.

The author:  Russ Helm, brown belt in BJJ and coach at Revolution BJJ

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