Week 5: Leg locks 101 🦵 - Technique and Curriculum
An introduction to modern leg locks: learning the Macro from the Micro.
My idea/plan: This issue is going to be a bit different because the subject of leglocks for beginners is a tricky one.
I'm a fan of Josh Waitzkin's learning style, and I try to apply it to any new skill I want to learn. He's Marcelo Garcia's first Black Belt and author of "The Art Of Learning."
One of his learning principles is to "Learn the Macro from the Micro," which basically means learning one aspect or technique that's inherently going to teach you the overall principles of a bigger subject. An example would be to learn how to win a chess match when you have 1 pawn, and your opponent has no other pieces but his king left on the board... Mastering this specific situation will teach you more about chess than just learning a random opening, for example.
The plan here is to learn a couple of principles and one whole leg-locking sequence to get a bigger understanding of the overall leglock game. I believe it can be done.
Words of encouragement:
Becoming better than 90% of people at leglocks is VERY EASY!
Leg locks are technical and work against strong guys, so investing in becoming proficient is great for nerdy guys like us.
Leglocks are the best tool for creating dilemmas in most situations, like passing, sweeping, etc.
Most people are scared of them! They do stupid shit to get out of them
Leglocks play into everything else. To create dilemmas and stay in offensive cycles, you need to be able to threaten leglocks. They are probably one of the main tools to create dilemmas. (We'll speak more about Dilemmas, Offensive cycles and strategy in the near future)
Principles for new leg-lockers:
Start With safe leg-locking positions: At the beginning, I think everyone should try to make it their goal to get to irimi ashi, inside ashi, cross ashi or outside ashi.
Always win inside position: I know, I know, you saw Lachlan Giles tapping 300lb men with outside position leglocks... They are great, and they work, but the way you stay safe at the beginning is by playing safe and learning gradually (Without breaking your knees). Once you become proficient at keeping your legs inside (safe spot) and leglock defense, you are free to go and learn the rest of the game.
Primary vs. Secondary leg:
Primary: The leg you want to break.
Secondary: The other leg. Until the point of breaking the leg, this is the most important leg because is the leg that can generate the escape.
Double trouble: Controlling both the primary and secondary leg
Knee line: For a leg lock to work efficiently, you need to keep their knee inside of your knee line. If the knee is out, they are out. From a defensive point of view, if you are getting attacked and you manage to get your knee outside of their knee line... you are safe.
Leg-to-leg attacks: Switching legs is crucial, like switching sides when passing. As you get better and face better leg lockers, you'll have to become great at switching legs.
Suggested Learning curriculum/sequence
Since leg locks can be entirely new for some people, I want to give you a curriculum on how to approach your leg-locking education.
Control from the basic positions
Drills
Breaking inside and outside heel hooks
Defenses (IMHO, you need to know how to break a leg to be able to understand defense and safety)
Common entries and sequences
Common ways of navigating between these ashi-garamis
Technique Breakdown
We will learn an entry into one of the most powerful leg locking positions: Single leg X to Cross Ashi Garami (Inside Sankaku).
This will teach you fundamental principles that will serve you in any leglock battle: The importance of off-balancing and controlling where your opponent places his weight. Importance of getting under our opponent's center of gravity to enter leglocks and many more.
From single leg X, our opponent will usually try to remove our outside foot. To do this, they'll need to use one of their hands, so their ability to base forward will be compromised:
Move your inside foot to the inside of the leg and place your outside foot on the mat. Use the position to lift them forward over your head:
As soon as you move their weight forward, change your leg configuration to "Reverse X Guard" and continue to move their hips directly above your head.
*Detail: You need to move their hips directly on top of your head. That way, your hips will be able to lift from the ground and be movable:
Using your Reverse X hooks, lift them up and frame with your hands while closing the Inside Sankaku (Triangle in Danaherian) over the primary leg. You'll need to extend your bottom hook and lift your hips to get the triangle as deep and close to them as possible. Remember, you need to keep their knee inside your knee line.
Sit them down to one hip and break their leg with an inside heel hook (please don't actually break their leg 😂)
Related Resources
Watch it in action:
Start with Eddie Cummings, Craig Jones, Garry Tonon and Gordon
Roberto Abreu vs Gordon Ryan ADCC 2017
Search for John Danaher’s breakdown of this match. It’s great!
If you want to become a master and invest time in this: JD's Enter the System: Leglocks
My Favorite Leglock Players
Garry Tonon, Craig Jones, Gordon Ryan, Kieran Kichuk, Diego Pato, Lachlan Giles, Juni Ocassio.
Training Plan for the Week
First Half of the Week:
Start this week by drilling the position and testing the control you have from it.
Focus on rolling playfully with someone who understands leglocks. Tell them you are trying to learn the positions and not to finish the heel hooks. That way, you can feel safe and try stuff without worrying.
Start by getting to inside position and then transitioning to any form of ashi garami you want.
Second Half of the Week:
Since leglocks are very complicated, I suggest you don't go 100% until you feel more comfortable with them and their defenses. Try to find a training buddy also interested in the subject so you can test without risk of injury.
Try to finish your week performing the move as flawlessly as possible with someone, no matter how low their skill level is: You want to make the last rep as perfect as possible; that's the repetition we internalize the most when we leave the training room.
NOTE: At the least, you should be drilling at home with a homemade dummy for 10 min almost every day to take advantage of your real training time at the gym and maximize your learnings.
That’s it for this week! Hope you like it. Feel free to email me if you have questions. 😊
PS. Please submit the following poll. I am trying to understand how to serve you better, and knowing your level helps enormously.