Leglocks are a controversial topic in BJJ, some people hate them whereas other people love them. The general taboo comes from the early days of BJJ when you would be encouraged to progress through positional jiu jitsu. This can be seen in the increasing points given for sweeps, passes and mounts (2,3 & 4 respectively). A leg lock takes away this fundamental aspect of points jiu jitsu as you can simply drop back from your opponent’s guard, score 0 points and end the match instantly with a quick tap.
In brief, leg locking moves away from the conventional idea of ‘position before submission’. Whether that is a good or bad thing is up to the individual. For instance, it may remove the framework yet also strike fear into the opponent. Due to this, leg locks are somewhat of a grey area in BJJ and can be considered situational.
Why beginners shouldn’t be focusing on leglocks
To go into more detail. The reason beginners shouldn’t be focused on learning leg locks is mostly based on the above information. If you are trying to tap people nonstop from various advantageous, neutral, and sometimes bad positions – you will not learn fundamental jiu jitsu.
Due to the lack of knowledge of BJJ fundamentals, you will later suffer when you’re sparring people who can defend leglocks. You may enjoy a few successful submissions early on, but soon these people will learn to defend, but they will also have been learning guard retention and passing skills. Something which a person obsessed with leg locks will not acquire. Put another way, you may sacrifice good positions for low-percentage submission attempts. Eventually, you will get punished for this and your top game will suffer as a result.
What should be the first leg lock you learn in BJJ?
For most people, this is the straight ankle lock. The submission is not too dangerous if it goes wrong (compared with other leg locks) and will be a fairly clean, straight snap. Also, the achilles lock usually takes far longer to create substantial damage. Typically it needs to be held for several seconds to get a pop or break, whereas toeholds and heel hooks can cause real damage much quicker. For this reason, the straight ankle lock is legal at white belt level in IBJJF gi and no gi competitions.
There are a few entries to the position such as the Caio Terra footlock variation. Some more advanced 50/50 controls and some other less common variations. However, the most basic and fundamental straight foot lock you will be shown is from single leg X guard. From the guard, you can push back on your opponent’s hip and sweep straight into the footlock. Here you can control your opponent’s hip and finish the submission.
Please note, when you are taught this submission you will also encounter “knee reaping” – something you are not allowed to do at any IBJJF gi competition. This will be explained shortly.
Are leglocks dangerous?
Most people who play high level leg lock games will tell you no, however these are often professional athletes. For the average hobbyist, leglocks are mostly frowned upon not because they are going to injure someone a high percentage of the time, but because the injuries can be very serious.
If you compare an armbar to a kneebar, even if they have the same recovery time. You would be much better off breaking your arm than not being able to walk for months.
Injuries can also become worse when you add in heel hooks. Here the ligaments of the knee are twisted. If you don’t tap in time they will snap. If the ligaments of the knee snap you are in for a very long recovery time (9 months+) and quite probably surgery – depending on which ligament is snapped.
ven if you do return to training after rehab, your knee may never be the same again and lead to chronic pain. Because of this, a serious knee injury can massively hinder your game in the long-run. Due to this, tapping early in lesser-known, dangerous situations are advised, especially when new.
Which leg locks are legal in gi?
As discussed earlier, the straight ankle lock is legal at all levels of IBJJF tournaments, both gi and no gi. The toehold and kneebar are legal at brown belt level and higher. For belts purple and below, the straight foot lock is the only legal leg lock in IBJJF gi ruleset.
Why aren’t the other leglocks legal in gi?
This is due to a number of factors such as the historical element which was discussed at the beginning of the article. In addition to this, there is the safety aspect of heel hooks in non-professional competition.
When discussing knee reaping, it clearly is quite dangerous for beginners. If the leg is bought over the center line of the hip whilst controlling the opponent’s ankle, you can put a lot of pressure on the knee ligaments. If neither beginner is aware of this the knee can be twisted and get stuck in a very awkward position. If injured, this will often cause the worst knee injury, which is snapping the LCL.
When isolated, the knee has a wide range of motion when moving forwards to backward. Once it gets stuck going forwards this would cause a kneebar like submission.
In the same isolation, the knee does not have a wide range of motion going from into out (or vice versa). When moving inwards the knee has slightly more room to function, but when going outwards this range is very limited. This is essentially what a knee reap is doing – limiting the amount of space your knee has to move.
When pressure is applied to the heel in a breaking motion, this will cause a heel hook. The pressure added with the knee isolation will cause the ligamanets to stretch, twist and eventually snap.
Will higher belts get mad if I leg lock them?
This depends on gym rules. Some gyms will allow things like kneebars and toeholds at all levels and won’t have a problem with this. 10th Planet gyms will allow white belts to learn heel hooks, so it is obviously acceptable in some no gi gyms.
Often it could be that the higher belt has an ego and doesn’t want to be tapped by someone who they see as inferior. However, it really should be known beforehand what the rules of engagement are. If you’re training in a standard gi gym where it is commonly accepted heel hooks are not allowed, you could see why someone would be pretty angry if they dropped back for a straight foot lock and you instantly heel hooked them. Given it wasn’t discussed before the spar started, they’ve effectively cheated to get a cheap submission which they otherwise wouldn’t have got.
