Leg Locks!

Where are they?
When do I learn them?
Why am I not already using them?


The prevalence of Leg and foot attacks in BJJ is really neglected until the later stages of your journey being at brown and black belt. I say that and then think of it being more restricted in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu solely as it is widely used in Traditional Jiu Jitsu and in the forward thinking no gi styles such as 10th Planet.


I personally think Jiu Jitsu has grown to the point that we can't ignore this until those stages as you are then losing 50% of the joint attacks that you can apply.

The old Gracie "its an dirty and urban way of fighting" philosophy is outdated and many new styles are making use of it to their full advantage against the guys that don't know it.

Imagine a 10th planet practitioner who has drilled leg attacks leading up to brown belt and then the other practitioner who has not. Not only will the specialist by that time have the upper hand in attacking but the unskilled practitioner will only then be learning how to not leave their legs vulnerable to submission.  

We all practice armbars and defences so imagine you had never learned an armbar defence or submission until brown belt and then all of a sudden they are in and you are getting smashed and tapped all over the place. It makes sense to familiarise yourself at an early stage with the availble positions,

Missing this piece of the puzzle will be damaging your game! Not only this but its exciting and fun to complete that part of the puzzle. It is all grappling in the end and it needs to be learned!

The other argument that they are too dangerous is my opinion is also outdated.

Jiu Jitsu has came along way in the last few years and maybe once where most were under skilled and unable to practice this safely with the little supervision available, nowadays we all have a black belt at a club and we (speaking about my bjj team) have the control to be able to practice this without injury being an issue.

Surely not practicing the movement, transitions, submissions and escapes from these positions means that it could be more dangerous for our partners incase this does happen and we need to be knowledgeable on it.

How is a kneebar any more dangerous than an armbar?  The joint itself is much larger and takes a much larger generation of force to hyper-extend so if anything it gives the same or not more time to tap to if need be.

I can appreciate the difference in angles when it comes to the heel hook as its a twisting submission so there is no time where you feel you should tap except when it is locked on. But for training sake between yourself and your partners feeling and getting into the submission without cranking it on would be more than possible without an injury occurring.

Using leg attacks in not also just great for creating new combinations from other submission and position attempts but it is a great counter against top positions and during transitional periods.

Practice makes perfect as with all Jiu Jitsu.

Lets open our eyes a little wider to appreciate all the art has to give us rather than limiting ourselves to a set path which may be right or wrong from our peers.

The student has as much to teach the teacher as the teacher to the student!