Leglock Basics: Understanding the Modern Leglock Game

Leglocks, they’re so hot right now. There are literally hundreds of leglock tutorials available for purchase from practically every big name competitor from the last 15 years. The thing is though leglocks are not some magic bullet that are better than any other technique. They actually are all fairly similar mechanically and if you can master a few principles you can become a strong leglocker and save yourself a dollar or two on instructionals. I accidentally became the go to leglock guy at my school because I understood these principles, not because I even do leglocks very often.

The primary principle of a solid leglock game is one that I call the knee line. This is a principle that can be utilized in both offense and defense. Looking at this from an offensive perspective, it involves being in control of the knee on the leg that is being attacked. What I usually tell my students when I am teaching them this concept is that if you take a Sharpie and draw a line up the shin with an arrow on the kneecap, then as the attacker you want to control where that arrow points. Ideally, the person whose leg you are attacking lacks the ability to turn or rotate because you have isolated this knee line effectively. When I am going for a leglock I like to have my opponent’s leg between my knees and utilize a pinch similar to an armbar to help control it. I also have my leg that is between my partner’s legs, lifting up near the hip while my outside leg puts downward pressure. This does a great job of isolating the leg and makes finishing with your choice of submission fairly easy.

Conversely, when you are defending, if you can work to not let your knee line be isolated, it will create a strong defense and reduce the risk of damage to your knee if someone gets a little too excited and re-lives their first time starting a lawn mower.

The second major principle is distance management. When I am grappling I break up more leglock attempts because my partner’s fail to manage the distance properly and allow me to change the pressure they are putting on my leg and reduce tension. When you are working on a leglock you want to be far enough away that your partner cannot grab you and collapse the space between you but not so far that you are at full extension. Trying to initiate a leglock at full extension can make it very difficult as you do not have extra space to add additional tension. Oftentimes, people try to work their leglock game in much too close to their partner, and even if they do a good job of managing the knee line, their partner can collapse the space between them and eliminate the ability to put tension on the leg lock. This is true of both straight ankle and heel hook style leglocks and being able to properly position yourself in the right range can improve your leglock game greatly.

The final principle is that you have to control your alignment with your partner. This means you need to be roughly in line with your hips to theirs. This will do two things, it doesn’t allow your opponent to collapse the space by moving to one side or the other. It also makes controlling the kneeline much easier. By keeping your hips in line with your partner, you restrict their ability to adjust the angle of their knee line and it becomes much more difficult for people to defend your leglocks.

Using these three principles, I have developed a decent leglock game and also have helped several of my students develop their leglock principles as well. While these are not the end all be all of the leglock game and there are hundreds of thousands of entry and finishing mechanics out there just waiting for you to find the one that works for you. These principles are in general consistent across almost all leglocks and will help you finish them more often.