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Leglocks - why so neglected?
Maybe it's just me, but it seems like when I roll with a lot of guys, they comment when they notice I like to attack the legs. I don't always go for them, but whenever there's an opportunity I go for it. It even seems like I'll be with guys who are absolutely tooling on me in the positioning game, passing my guard and sidemounting me, but when I go for their legs, suddenly they're helpless. My first night at my MMA gym, I caught a purple belt with an inverted heelhook, I've caught two of my instructors with a toehold, and when I went up to TriStar, I tapped 4 guys in a row with a toehold.
The above sounds like I'm tooting my own horn, but it's really the opposite. I've been doing BJJ (no gi) for about 6 months, and while I do have a wrestling background, and I train and study MMA nonstop, I shouldn't be able to tap some of the guys who I have.
It seems to me like leglocks get neglected a lot, maybe because they're a little bit more difficult to teach? Guys just assume the only leglock there is is an Achilles tendon pull (footlock), and then when I start going for toeholds and heel hooks, they don't know what's going on.
So before you pick up that new book on guard techniques, or before you try to improve your mount position, start training some leglocks. They can be a little bit dangerous, but just know when you're caught. Start off from some common leg lock positions, and roll from there. Make sure to drill protecting your own legs into your head. It's easy to leave your legs vulnerable for attack. Obviously, from my avatar, I recommend checking out Bas' stuff. He's got some good material for picking up leg locks. He advocates the inverted heel hook over the regular heel hook, because it acts faster, and it's harder to slip out of (he broke a guy's shin with it in Pancrase). Now as people get to a higher level, obviously they start doing more with leg locks. But if you're not going to go for leg locks, you should train them anyways, because you need to know how to get out.
One of the best things about leg locks is, if a guy knows that you love attacking his ankles and knees, he really starts to get nervous. There's this guy at my MMA gym who's a lot bigger than me (and he's skilled; tough combo to beat), and he likes to play the game of holding me down in side mount and dominating me. I attacked him with a couple of leg locks, and after a rolling session he admitted that I made him afraid for his legs. After that, I could just fake a leg lock, and he'd start squirming and doing what he could to get away. When you make someone afraid to use their two most powerful limbs, that's really a mental victory. For example, if you break the guard, and stand up, it'll make passing that open guard a little bit easier, because he'll be worrying about you leglocking him, so he won't focus as much on you passing open guard.
Just some food for thought. Remember also that BJJ's major contribution to grappling was the positioning theory. Position before submission. I know Marc Laimon doesn't like leg locks because you have to usually go to a neutral position, instead of a dominant one, to get a leg lock. So it's definitely safer to try to go up the positional dominance ladder. But you should at least be training with leg locks.
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