The Estima lock is a common leglock used at the highest levels of BJJ. The submission is a modified toehold that does not use an arm entanglement to bend the foot or pull the ankle. Estima Lock gets its name from the famous BJJ competitors Braulio and Victor Estima. The two brothers were the first athletes to use this submission at a high level after accidentally discovering it.
Whilst the Estima lock can be hit from a variety of positions, it is almost always entered from a top position. This is because the aggressor can attempt the submission hold with very little risk of being swept.
Throughout history, many submissions have come and gone through time. Some have been lost where as some have been rediscovered.
It is likely that the Estima lock was a completely new technique when discovered by brother Braulio and Victor Estima in approximately 2009. This is because when training Braulio was attempting a variation of a new lapel guard (galaxy guard) whilst inverting. After he had inverted, his foot became stuck in the gi of Victor Estima who moved forwards to pass the guard. At this point Braulio immediately tapped, as the pair realised they were able to perform a toehold without an arm entanglement.
Once the technique was discovered it was somewhat secret for a while since there was less video footage of competitions at the time. Braulio and Victor were both able to get very fast submissions over skilled opponents until they learned how to defend against it properly.
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Is The Estima Lock IBJJF Legal?
The Estima lock is classified as a toehold, so is only legal for both brown and black belts in IBJJF competition. It is illegal for white, blue and purple belts.
There has been some confusion surrounding the Estima lock. When it first arrived on the scene, many referees were not aware of the submission and couldn’t understand what had happened. This is because the Estima lock does not look like a typical toehold at all unless you know of it in advance.
To add to the confusion, some gyms were (and still are) teaching the Estima lock as a straight footlock variation with very or little twist of the ankle. This caused a lot of low level belts to get disqualified from tournaments since it is very difficult to distinguish between the two.
Even the IBJJF was confused when asked about the submission in 2016. Whilst what they have said in the above email may be factually correct. A likely outcome of using an Estima lock in a blue or white belt competition is that the referee will simply disqualify you. They are not going to stop the fight and ask which variation you are using.
Estima Lock Entries
The Estima lock is almost entered exclusively from top position. The most standard entries come from an open guard. This is greatly beneficial to the passer since it offers a submission attempt for almost 0 risk. Even if the submission is extremely low percentage, this is a great trade off for no risk taken.
When passing an open guard, the legs of the opponent should be very active. If they ever bend their foot inwards (which is common from RDLR position), they are vunerable to an Estima lock. The Estima lock can be found from a variety of guard positions such as X-Guard and single leg X. It is not exclusive to a single position.
A similar entry can be found from a knee shield half guard position. If the top player is far back inside the opponents leg entanglement, they may have access to the top foot. If a close contact half guard is being played, this will not be possible.
Overall, a general entry to the Estima lock is when the guard player has some distance from you and is careless with their foot positioning.
Controversy With “Tamalock” Variation
Johnny Tama began experimenting with the Estima lock and released his own instructional videos in 2019. This was met with some criticism from the online community.
Whilst Tama was simply just trying to show other ways to get to the Estima lock. Some people could not help themselves pouring fuel on the flames with Braulio Estima becoming angry that someone was trying to rename his moves.
Tama has never tried to discredit the Estima brothers and has shown variations of how to enter the submission from bottom position. To the credit of Tama, nobody had really attempted or pulled off Estima locks from a guard position before. There are now variations to enter the lock from X-guard and other various open guards.
Mechanics Of The Estima Lock
The idea behind finishing the Estima lock or any other toehold is to bend the opponent’s knee towards their body. Whilst doing this, you must maintain full control of their leg. By doing this you keep leg movement separated from body movement. This will finish the submission and minimize the chance of an escape.
Hand Positioning
The Estima lock has a fairly similar grip to a rear naked choke. You must come from behind the achilles of your opponent’s foot with your entry hand and place this into the crook of your elbow. Your top arm should then come back across your body and should be placed on the opponent’s shin. This gives you good control over the leg of the opponent and also keeps their foot stuck into your body.
Body Positioning & Finishing
Once the foot of the opponent is secured, you must pull it inwards to your body. This maintains full control and offers no escape for the opponent. At this point, you must rotate your body towards the ankle of the opponent. By moving your body you will be using your own chest as a way to finish the Estima lock.
If you need to finish the opponent quickly, as soon as you have this control you should rush forwards towards their body. This will bend their knee inwards to their chest and offer them no chance of escaping. It should be noted, you should never do this in a gym setting with your teammates as the chance of breaking their ankle is very high.
Is The Estima Lock Dangerous?
The main danger of the Estima lock is that it is a very fast submission. If it is not trained properly in the gym setting then there can be injuries. There are also many broken ankles from competition due to the speed and power that can be generated with your chest. A standard toehold requires the power of your arms and shoulders to submit the opponent. The Estima lock often has a huge amount of bodyweight behind it.
Another problem with the Estima lock is that it is often unexpected. This unpredictability gives the opponent a shorter time to react to the submission than a regular toehold.
Never Try This “Escape”
Lastly, the submission offers a high degree of control. If the opponent is trying to escape from an already finished position, they can injure themselves. An inexperienced practitioner may try to kick away the aggressor with their trapped leg in order to escape. This is one of the worst things you can do since you will simply put more pressure into your leg and break your ankle much faster.
How To Escape The Estima Lock
Since the Estima lock can only really be finished with a bent knee. The idea behind escaping is to never let the opponent bend your knee. This is easier said than done because as soon as the opponent has the hold locked up, it is incredibly easy to move forwards and bend the knee.
Whilst your leg is straight however, you do have a small window of opportunity to escape. Like many other leglock escapes, you must roll towards your toes.
If the opponent is attacking your right leg, you must roll to your left. Whereas if the opponent is attacking your left leg, you must roll towards your right. As the opponent has a tight grip of your foot pulled into their body, they will not be able to roll with you.
On most occasions you are able to roll, you will be able to slip out of the hold. However, this escape is based on timing. If you are already too late to realise you’re in an Estima lock, there is no chance you will realise you have to roll.
It is also possible to escape the Estima lock by inverting. This follows exactly the same principles of rolling but may be more difficult depending on the control of the hold.
Foot Positioning When Playing Open Guard
One way of defending against the Estima lock is to stop putting yourself in a bad position. The problem with the legality of the Estima lock is that your guard will not develop defenses against it until you come up against it. As the submission is illegal until brown belt, you will very likely develop some bad guard habits.
Whilst these habits can be changed, they can be annoying to get rid of. If for example, your guard is not as aggressive or active as it should be, you may find you are resting your legs on the body of your opponent far too frequently. The longer your leg is still on the hip area of your opponent. The larger the window of opportunity for an Estima lock there is.
In general, you should look to not point your feet inwards whilst playing guard. If you do have to point your foot inwards, you must make sure it is for the shortest amount of time possible.
Notable Uses Of Estima Lock In High Level Competition
The Estima lock is still a relatively new submission compared to other BJJ techniques which have been around since the beginning of the sport. Due to this fact, there have only really been a few specialists so far, most notably Victor & Braulio Estima.
Victor Estima used the Estima lock to win the 2011 World NoGi championships. Securing victories in the quarter finals, semi finals and final all with the same submission.
Braulio Estima’s most notable use of the Estima lock was against the legendary Rafael Lovato Jr in the semi finals of ADCC 2009.
For more information on the Estima lock, you can find out more on Braulio’s instructional, found here.
