How many of you BJJers here on MAP, practice foot locks in the gym? What are your thoughts about it? And if you do, how do you do it? I, myself practice foot locks, especially in sparring. My first ever BJJ coach was from Russia and had Sambo experience, so right away, he versed me in heel hooks and toe holds. Going six years back, a lot of tournaments still allowed those locks, and I won a whole tournament with heel hooks, and kneebars. My current coach, before training BJJ, had learned Shoot Wrestling, so he as well was very versed in foot locks, so he teaches them, even though in most grappling tournaments and in our local MMA scene, heel hooks and toe holds are not allowed. If we roll with twisting foot locks, we do catch and release. You grab it, let go and restart. But in rolling with straight ankle locks and kneebars, we go for the tap. Not everyone is a fan of them, but there is a core group of guys at our place that will play in sparring with them. Getting ready for my MMA fight in February, I have been doing a lot of work with the straight ankle lock.
I'm pretty much the same. In the gi we just don't go for heel hooks. In no gi we go for everything. Neck cranks too.
It's been different at different gyms I've trained at. I like leg locks, I think they open up an entirely new game for people.
Hit them where we want. The mma guys will go for heel hooks and not touch the foot, but get to the tie ups and everything where both guys know its a done deal anyway. Don't think I've ever been to a bjj place that didn't let you go for the achilles and stuff. My old gym used to not let you go for anything that wasn't allowed at your belt, but my current one the guys can go for anything that's legal in bjj.
I always try to stress to my students to play with the straight ankle lock. It is always overlooked when it comes to foot locks. Everyone wants to do the heel hook because of its devastating power, but if you can become proficient with the straight ankle, you can surprise a lot of people and win matches.
I love the straight ankle lock. I catch it a lot from standing passes. If someone leaves their foot hanging for even just a second it's easy to slap it on and, if you miss it, not that hard to get back up and try again for the pass.
I enjoy that as well. What I've been playing with a lot more is with the 50/50 guard. I find that most people do not properly train foot locks, so I can usually pick off a straight ankle from there.
We do everything but save heel hooks for purple and above.... Or even experienced blue belts. Basically people who've learned not to spaz.
Straight footlocks and no reaping only at white (standard IBJJF), after Blue anything non ibjjf is ok with the express consent of your partner, But you have to know what your doing, and know how to look after your partner.
I teach the reap. I think it is important for anyone doing BJJ to know, and it is not dangerous like the IBJJF tries to make it out to be.
It's definitely important, but its also important white belts don't get dq'd in comp, so we use the ibjjf rules as a starting point. I like the fact BJJ has multiple rulesets, but I think it helps the new people to have an ultra clear ruleset at white.
