Most of the more experienced forum members here know how to do the heelhook from the bottom of the butterfly guard. You know, you move one leg between his legs, all the way under him and then wrap your leg around his leg, going over his thigh and hooking under his other leg. Then you heel hook him.
Since we don't allow heel hooks in my gym (and in many other gyms), we have to do an ankle lock from that leg-wrap-around position. I got into this position last night in sparring and I ran into two problems:
1. I didn't try to wrap my arm around his ankle until AFTER I had managed to wrap my leg around his leg. At that point I could not wrap my arm around his ankle, no matter what, because there was too little space between his ankle and my hip. Maybe I should have BEGUN the move by wrapping my arm around his ankle? Or maybe that's too telegraphic? It kind of sucked because the heel hook was RIGHT THERE, but I wasn't allowed to do it.
2. Before I tucked my instep underneath the leg I was NOT attacking, I pushed the side of his body with my foot, making him fall down to his back. I didn't want him to try to crush me. That has happened before and the pressure on my leg scared me a bit. But that gave him the opportunity to ATTACK that leg of mine (with an ankle lock, actually), since it was lying across his stomach. The end result was that both of us got out of the leg lock exchange and he went back into my guard. Would you guys say that it's more high percentage to try to tuck your instep under his other leg as soon as possible, or would YOU have tried to push on his ribs with your foot first?
Regards,
jonpall.
1) You should be able to get your arm around his ankle after you leglace him. You may have to move your hips around a little bit, as always.
2) When doing it on someone who's standing, in general DON'T try to lace your leg around and under his other leg. It's usually very hard to do and will make your leg exposed as you try to tuck it under.
You always want to sweep him first. Finishing a leglock on someone who's standing is hard because he can keep his leg pretty straight and just spin out.
Let's say you're leg locking his right leg. Lace your left leg under and around his right leg. Put your left foot on his right hip, toes slightly facing outwards, with firm pressure on his hip. Pinch your knees together tight around his right thigh. Lift your hips high up in the air and swing your knees to your left, which will sweep him to his side where you can finish the ankle lock. If he steps his left leg up so his feet are square instead of staggered, and grabs your head to try to stack you, then grab his left foot , put your right shin at the crook of his left knee, and pull with your hand as you push with your shin, sweeping him to his back.
Thanks a lot. So I was kind of doing the right things.
What's a good way to wedge my arm around his ankle when there's little space?
If you can't heelhook from there, grab a fig.4 toe hold. I've been using that one a lot recently.
Jeff
Muhahahaha. That's also not allowed. For leg locks for beginners we only allow straight ankle locks and kneebars.
Really? I've always found toe holds to be pretty safe in training...but then, I'm a quick tapper. Gotta save those ankles, baby. ;)
If you are attacking his left leg but for whatever reason you can't get your arm around his leg, I like to just grab his foot at the toes with your left hand and push his foot back towards his butt with his leg bent. It's a straight ankle lock, just not the usual kind.
But if you must do the normal overhooking the ankle kind, just scoot your hips back to create some space, push your arm through to get the overhook, then immediately move your hips forward to remove the space.
Without doing a heelhook but doing a straight anklelock i do everything the same except heel hook at the end. When going to knock him down i start to bend my left leg over his right knee and use my the bottom of my right foot to kick out his left knee. *Sometinh i do that some people disagree with* As i'm bringing them down i tuck my left foot under my right knee that way that can't try and seperate my legs to block.
As we land i unlock my legs and switch so i'm now laying on top of his right leg and trapping it to finish the hold. If you want to see the finishing straight lock i prefer there is a video version of it on www.subfighter.com
Later, Brad