BJJ Saarbrücken: LEGLOCKS STYLES & VARIATIONS

There are many grappling styles that use leg locks. One of the first references we can see is in old Japanese Jujitsu Curriculum. This includes the Single Leg X position, Ashi Garami (heel hook), Ashi Gatame (Straight Ankle Lock), Hiza Gatame (knee bar) and more.

Catch Wrestling is also known for their leglocks. One of the most popular grappling styles who are known for their vicious awesome leg attacks is the Russian Martial Art: Sambo. Below you'll find links to different grappling styles and their approach to attacking leg locks.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

In recent history, leglocks are starting to gain a lot of popularity in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Even though some leg locks are illegal in BJJ (heel hook), the world of leg attacks is greatly expanding with the influence from other styles, as well as submission only competitions where all leglocks are legal.

Previously, the BJJ world tended to shun leg locks and thought of them as cheap or even cheating. In fact Helio Gracie publicly would call foot locks "Suburban (Ghetto) Techniques".

Basically it was too easy to get leg locks, so the sport of BJJ made it "low class" to attack the legs. There are some great leg lockers in BJJ though. Felipe Pena is one of them, who is known for his straight ankle lock from 50/50 in a gi.

Judo / Japanese Jujitsu Leglocks

Japanese Jujitsu and Judo are one of the major influences on leglocks. Though the are illegal in judo and IBJJF competitions, the Ashi Garami was one of the first "throws" to be documented in Judo.  There was ground fighting in most martial arts from around the world, and many Jujitsu styles had methods of ground fighting.  But it really became a science for some of the practitioners of Fusen Ryu and other Jujitsu styles in the mid to late 1800’s.

Leglocks is the Japanese Martial Arts are taught mostly as self defense techniques. When an opponent is standing over you, and you are grounded in the bottom guard position. Ashi Garami, basically single leg x with a reap, is a powerful technique to take our your would be attacker using this vicious leglock submission.

Catch Wrestling

Catch Wrestling is also known for their extensive leg locks. It's difficult to say where catch wrestling got it's influence for leglocks, but it is a big part of their system. Neil Melanson, Josh Barnett, and Dean Lister has trained extensively in catch wrestling, and are known for their leg lock attacks.

Neil Melanson is a very innovative catch wrestler who has many creative entries and attacks for BJJ and MMA from the Catch Wrestling world.

Sambo

Sambo has roots in several different martial arts types, drawing from many of the older styles. Sambo was meant to be a melding of all of the different martial arts styles available to come up with the most efficient one yet. . Sambo actually translates to "self-defense without weapons."

Living in what amounts to a bridge between Europe and Asia, the Russian people were certainly introduced to a variety of martial arts styles via contact with the Japanese, Vikings, Tatars, Mongols, and more. The combination of what worked from these styles served as the building blocks to what is now referred to as Russian Sambo.

Sambo practitioners are known for three things: takedowns that combine wrestling and judo techniques, ground grappling skills, and leg locks.

Vlad Koulikov is a BJJ Black Belt, Judo Black Belt and a Sambo Master of Sport (National Champion). He is known for his incredible takedowns and transitions to a variety of different leg locks. He has one of the strongest and tightest straight ankle locks you'll ever experience!

Source Article: Leglocks – BJJ Fanatics

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