Here is Roy's excellent post about leg lock in Bjj.
I thought the info in it was great. I learn some interesting stuff about Roy like he has a competition record of 20 - 4 with 14 wins from leg locks.
Any way here is the post from jiujitsugear forum:
"Bragadociously, Mike Jen and I were the first here in the US. We started this revolution back in 1991.
Mike and I taught a self-defense/BJJ class at the University of California at San Diego. While we were teaching class, this Sambo stylist by the name of Nikolay Baturin came in and asked to roll with me. He tapped me out left and right, in front of all my students. Mike and I immediately became students of his. We trained with him for about a year solid before academics and family life got in the way. Additionally, after we had trained with him, we trained each other daily.
At that time, we both developed a "bad" reputation in the BJJ community. We were doing stuff that was not allowed in many tournaments. Remember, this was 1991 and 1992..........pre-UFC and pre-large BJJ tournaments in the US. BJJ had not really caught on just yet. I am proud to say my competition record of 20 wins and 4 losses involved 14 wins by straight footlock. Most of the footage I have has people in the audience screaming to the other competitors, "Watch your foot! Watch your foot!" during Mike's and my competitions.
Back then, BJJ black belts were claiming that the reason why we had become so good at footlocks was because we were unable to pass people's guards. Regardless of whether or not that was true, the fact still remained, we had developed a repeatable skill with leg locks.
Back then, I tapped a lot of higher belts with leg locks. I remember my first training session with Professor Moreira in he spring of 1993. He told me he wanted to feel "my Jiu Jitsu." He cautioned me though. He told me, "No leg locks. I have heard you are black belt in leg locks!"
Back then, people were criticizing Mike and I because of our familiarity and confidence with leg locks. Heck, one of the my first instructors called me into his office to tell me to stop doing them at his academy because certain clientele were complaining. I responded by saying, "I haven't hurt anyone." His response was, "You've hurt their ego." I responded by saying, "I have always applied them slowly and with control, but some people did not want to tap." His response was, "I know. But I need you to stop doing them." I agreed to stop doing them on others.
Back then, I had a label on my head. I was known as "The black guy that does that leg SH@#!"
Over the past 13 years, BJJ has changed tremendously. The BJJ of today is not the same as it was back when I first started in 1991. BJJ has incorporated so many other techniques from other systems that I find it interesting how some instructors/students call these "new techniques" Jiu Jitsu.
Because the BJJ of today is not the BJJ I learned ten years ago, and because the BJJ that I learned ten years ago is not the same BJJ as presented on Gracie Jiu Jitsu in Action Volume One, I think it would be interesting to have a group of people conduct research and present us with fact so we could see the evolution of BJJ in each decade. I think it would be very educational!
Roy Harris"
Roy,
Now thinking about it, in regard to the last statement of your post, Joao Alberto Barreto, a real old-school Bjj fighter (and not instructor) who was among Helio Gracie first students stated leg-locks was one of his specialities.
Joao Alberto Barreto use to be one of the featured fighters in the Brazilian TV program that showed NHB or Vale Tudo (the name of the show was "Herois do Ringue" - Heroes of the Ring, and appeared on Tv in Brazil in the late 50s into the 60s).
Barreto made the comment in an interview that appeared in the January 2002 issue of Full Contact Fighter magazine: "foot locks were also neglected by modern Jiu-jitsu, considered to be 'suburban stuff' and everything, but it's not...I can show you foot lock techniques from any position. Any position you want, you can apply a foot lock".
Early in this same issue Barreto said: "I always defeated him (Waldermar Santana). He didn't know what I wanted, I would pretend a choke and get a leg lock, pretend a leglock andget an armbar."
Obviously foot lock and leg lock were apart of this particular fighter's fighting style.
I think it is interesting to read about the way some of the fighters of Bjj did their thing in the early years of Bjj.
Incidently Joao Alberto Barreto was the referee in the first UFC.