Leg Locks

BACKGROUND:

In order to cover content on leg locks, we need to understand the various leg entanglements that exist, general attack possibilities from each, escapes and temporary defense, control mechanisms, transitions between each, and entries into these positions. 

That's a lot! A great place to start is to learn about the general positions and their names. This video is a great resource to showing examples and helping us to gain a foothold in learning the environment that leg entanglements exist in. If you want to get a super quick view at the main ones, they show many of them in quick succession here. The main leg entanglement positions follow here: 

• Irimi Ashi Garami (straight ashi) - most common leg entanglement and legal at white belt as long as you attack towards the leg and not towards the body, as well as not reaping. 
• Cross Ashi (inside sankaku, saddle, honeyhole, 411) - including variations such as double trouble and leg lace
• Leg knot (Russian leg knot, game over position) - reaps the knee and is a dangerous position 
• 50/50 (and variations of including 80/20, 90/10)
• Outside Ashi (aka double outside ashi)

Additional leg positions that are not as common follow here: 

• Top Side Ashi Garami
• Ushiro Ashi Garami (Behind ashi, how garry tonon finished Ralek Gracie)
• Russian Cowboy 
• Russian Lasso

The arguably most important leg entanglements to learn about and understand are irimi ashi garami (straight ashi) and cross ashi (inside sankaku, honeyhole, 411, saddle). Irimi ashi garami is the easiest leg entry to enter, it's essentially just the single leg x guard when your opponent's hip is on the ground rather than standing.

IRIMI ASHI GARAMI

The main attacks from irimi ashi garami are the straight ankle and the outside heelhook. The primary defense for this position is to keep your heel in while you pommel your secondary leg into position to push off your opponent's body with your foot to clear your knee. HEELS IN KNEE OUT.

Additionally, getting their foot off of your hip while preventing them from transitioning to reverse ashi is key to preventing them from pushing you away, which is necessary to attack the straight ankle.  

I'd recommend looking at the submeta website's course "Straight Ankle Fundamentals" in order to better understand the defense, escapes, controls, and submissions from the irimi ashi position. Entries are covered in a cursory fashion, but they predominantly fall into the buckets of entering from the bottom in guard (single leg x), and while attempting guard passes. I recommend that students do not rely on attacking leg lock entries while passing, as it sometimes, unfortunately, leads to students becoming one-trick ponies that rely on leg locks rather than learning how to pass, pin and submit from top positions. 

That being said, irimi ashi garami is a main option when in single leg x guard and should be treated as such. I highly recommend attempting sweeps from single leg x and attacking the straight ankle if you achieve the sweep. 

CROSS ASHI:

The cross ashi is important because it has arguably the highest percentages for finishing submissions out of all of the leg entanglements. The inside heel hook is available on the primary leg, and the secondary leg provides a wide range of attacking options including 

• Leg Lace aka Texas Clover Leaf
• Double trouble straight ankle
• Aoki lock
• Modified toe holds - both inside and outside

One of the biggest benefits of cross ashi is the ability to control both the primary leg and the secondary leg. As in the irimi ashi, the best escape option is to use your secondary leg to push your opponent away while you pull your knee to free the primary leg. If your opponent controls your secondary leg, you cannot use it to push off of your opponent. The primary escape can be seen in the "Heel Hook Fundamentals" in Lachlan Giles' website Submeta - specifically the section on the saddle. 

The entries to saddle are a little trickier to get to compared to irimi ashi garami. At a high level of competition, there are two main entries from standing, two main entries from guard, and two main entries while passing. 

One of the main entries is not allowed at Golden Jiu Jitsu - and for good reason. While the scissor take down can lead to the saddle, it's one of the most injury prone moves in all of jiu jitsu. If done incorrectly, it will blow out your opponents knee and leave them permanently injured. 

The most common entry at high-level competition is arguably the one that exists from butterfly/half butterfly/z guard/half guard. This entry can be seen succinctly here. 

This video shows the other main entries. Just a warning, it has a pretty weird intro. 

Cross ashi is a complicated position, with potential back takes existing for the person holding saddle, counter back takes for the person escaping, and much more. 

OTHER POSITIONS:

There are other positions that we recommend you be partially familiar with if you wish to play the leg game. 50/50 is a common position, and the biggest thing to remember is to keep your heel in towards your opponent.