Straight Ankle Lock Mechanics

[tallgeese]

Leg locks of any kind can be controversial in BJJ. We spent all week on them working from the straight ankle lock to rolling knee bars. In this video, I kick around the ideas I have about when you should learn them vs. when you should put them into rolls.

Then we discuss the mechanics of the straight ankle lock. A movement that even 15 years after the explosion of BJJ onto the American martial arts scene that people still perform in manners that are less than optimal.

Check it out:

Feel free to discuss. What role do leg attacks play in your grappling? When do you start learning them? Deploying them?

[sensei8]

Great tutorial; as always, Alex!!

You speak true on every point in your intro, middle, and end of your video. As always, it's not to just move, but to move with an effective purpose, this is the same when it comes to leg attacks.

To cinch a leg is one thing, but to cinch a leg for control/submission, is another. Bears back down to the knowledge of not just the "How", but the "Why", as well as the "When" for an effective leg attack.

What role do leg attacks play in your grappling?

Because the modicum of the head is connected to the neck bone and the neck bone is connected to the shoulder bone, etc., the legs play a vital role in our grappling in Shindokan.

The leg can be involved in s so many ways. To thwart, to control, to keep at bay, to transition, to support, and so on and so forth, and of course, to have those reversed back onto you; not fun if ones not paying attention, and this is dependent on knowledge/experience.

When do you start learning them?

Learning them or understanding them?? Soke taught us that these are two different things; each important. Not trying to be suave or anything like that, but our ideology will not let us treat them the same.

Learning them: 8th Kyu

Understanding them: 3rd Kyu

Deploying them?

8th Kyu.

While we're learning them, we're ALSO learning the wide world of Deploying them. Can't learn them without learning how to deploy them as well, at least that's what Soke was a proponent of.

Why 8th Kyu?? Why not?? Remember, Shindokan's biggest thing is our brand of Tuite, and this is in conjunction with our brand of Kyusho Jitsu, and all of this is laced/intertwined with our brand of grappling. Look, we train in the WC Dummy, and not many, if any Karate-do incorporate that apparatus in their daily dojo life. Soke was a true believer that the earlier the student is exposed to something, the sooner the understanding can begin.