For decades, the leg lock was the black sheep of the mixed martial arts family. In the early days of the sport, attacking a leg was often seen as a sign of desperation—or worse, a lack of skill. Traditional coaches warned their fighters that diving for a foot was a surefire way to lose top position and get punched in the face. Today, that narrative has been completely rewritten. Thanks to a technical renaissance led by innovators like Dean Lister, John Danaher, and Ryan Hall, leg locks have evolved from a “cheap trick” into one of the most devastating and systematic weapons in the Octagon.
This evolution didn’t happen overnight. It required a fundamental shift in how grapplers understood control. The modern leg lock game is no longer about blindly grabbing a heel and hoping for the best; it is about entanglement, control hierarchies, and breaking mechanics that can end a fight—or a career—in seconds. Whether you are a practitioner looking to understand the ashi garami system or a fan trying to decode the grappling exchanges on the next UFC card, understanding the rise of leg locks is essential to understanding modern MMA.
The Dark Ages: Why Leg Locks Were Once Hated
In the 1990s and early 2000s, the submission hierarchy was clear: pass the guard, achieve mount or back control, and then finish the fight. This “position before submission” dogma was the golden rule of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) in MMA. Leg locks were viewed as the antithesis of this philosophy. By attacking a leg, a fighter often had to sacrifice top position, falling to their back and exposing their face to ground-and-pound.
There was also a stigma attached to the techniques themselves. In many traditional BJJ academies, heel hooks were banned due to the risk of injury, leading to a generation of black belts who were proficient in armbars and chokes but completely ignorant of 50% of the human body. This ignorance created a massive market inefficiency that early specialists like Masakazu Imanari and Rousimar Palhares exploited with brutal efficiency. However, their success was often dismissed as an anomaly rather than a reproducible system.
The Turning Point: “Why Ignore 50% of the Human Body?”
The philosophical shift began with a simple question. As the story goes, American grappler Dean Lister once asked renowned coach John Danaher, “Why would you ignore 50% of the human body?” This question sparked a revolution. Danaher, realizing that most grapplers were only defending their upper body, began developing a system that treated the legs with the same mechanical respect as the arms and neck.
The result was the Danaher Death Squad (DDS), a team of grapplers including Garry Tonon and Gordon Ryan who decimated the competition scene using leg locks. They proved that if you could control the hips and knees (the “control mechanics”), you could attack the feet (the “breaking mechanics”) without getting smashed. This systematic approach slowly bled into MMA, culminating in moments like Ryan Hall submitting MMA legend B.J. Penn with a heel hook at UFC 232—a finish that signaled the arrival of the modern leg lock game on the sport’s biggest stage.
The Mechanics of Destruction: Heel Hooks, Kneebars, and Ankle Locks
To understand why these submissions are so effective, you must understand the anatomy they target. Unlike a choke, which puts you to sleep, or an armbar, which causes pain before the break, leg locks often attack ligaments that have very few pain receptors until they snap.
The Heel Hook
The heel hook is the crown jewel of leg attacks. Mechanically, it uses the foot as a lever to rotate the shin bone. Since the knee is a hinge joint designed to bend forward and backward, not rotate, this torque shreds the Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) and Medial Collateral Ligament (MCL). In the chaos of a fight, the adrenaline often masks the danger until the knee pops, making it a career-altering submission.
The Kneebar
Similar to an armbar, a kneebar hyperextends the joint. The attacker isolates the leg and drives their hips into the opponent’s knee, forcing it to bend the wrong way. While painful and effective, it is generally easier to defend than a heel hook because the mechanics are more straightforward and the pain onset is immediate.
The Straight Ankle Lock
Often considered the “little brother” of leg attacks, the straight ankle lock attacks the foot and Achilles tendon. However, at the elite level, it can still break the foot or tear ligaments if applied with sufficient leverage. It is also the safest leg lock to practice, making it a staple in lower-level competition.
The Palhares Controversy: When Leg Locks Go Too Far
No discussion of leg locks in MMA is complete without mentioning Rousimar Palhares. The Brazilian powerhouse was perhaps the most feared leglocker in history, but his legacy is tainted by his refusal to release submissions. After multiple incidents of holding heel hooks long after the tap—including a notorious incident against Mike Pierce—Palhares was banned from the UFC. His career serves as a grim reminder of the damage these techniques can inflict and the responsibility fighters hold when applying them.
High Risk vs. High Reward in Modern MMA
Despite their lethality, leg locks remain a high-risk strategy in MMA. The classic defense against a leg locker is simply to punch them in the face. When a fighter drops back for a leg, they lose the ability to defend strikes efficiently. We saw this perfectly illustrated in the bout between Alan Belcher and Rousimar Palhares. Belcher, rather than fleeing, stayed calm, defended the knee line, and pounded Palhares out from the top position.
However, the modern game has evolved to mitigate this risk. Fighters like Charles Oliveira and Aljamain Sterling use leg entanglements not just to finish, but to sweep. If the submission isn’t there, they use the grip on the leg to knock their opponent off balance and scramble to top position. This hybrid approach—using leg locks as both a finisher and a positional tool—is the future of the sport.
Conclusion: A Permanent Fixture in the Arsenal
The days of ignoring the lower body are over. In 2025 and beyond, a complete MMA fighter must be fluent in the language of leg locks. They don’t need to be a specialist like Ryan Hall, but they must know how to defend the entries and recognize the danger zones. The leg lock has graduated from a “trick” to a fundamental pillar of combat sports, proving that in the evolution of martial arts, knowledge truly is power.
FAQ: Leg Locks in MMA
1. Are heel hooks legal in all MMA organizations?
Yes, heel hooks are legal in major organizations like the UFC, Bellator, and PFL. However, they are often illegal in amateur MMA rulesets to protect developing fighters from serious knee injuries.
2. Why are heel hooks considered more dangerous than armbars?
Unlike the elbow, the knee does not have significant pain receptors for rotation. With an armbar, you feel pain before the break. With a heel hook, you often feel a pop (the ligament tearing) before you feel the pain, giving you zero time to tap.
3. Who is the best leg locker in UFC history?
While Rousimar Palhares had the most fearsome reputation, Ryan Hall is widely considered the most technical applicator of modern leg lock systems in the UFC. His victory over B.J. Penn remains the gold standard for leg lock application in high-level MMA.
4. Can you train leg locks safely?
Yes, but it requires a culture of safety. Training partners must apply the hold slowly (catch and release) and defenders must tap early—often before the pressure is fully applied. Ego is the number one cause of injury in leg lock training.
5. What is the “Saddle” or “4/11” position?
The Saddle (also known as Inside Sankaku or 4/11) is a dominant leg entanglement position where the attacker’s legs are triangulated around one of the opponent’s legs. It provides superior control and isolates the knee line, making it extremely difficult for the opponent to escape or strike effectively.
