Quick Answer: The single leg X guard is a bottom no-gi position where you wedge one foot on your opponent’s hip, hook behind their far knee, and trap their leg between both of yours. From there you can sweep them by standing up on the trapped leg, or feed the leg into ashi garami to…
Quick Answer: The heel hook no-gi is a rotational leg lock that twists the heel to tear the ligaments around the knee, not the ankle. You control the leg from a position like ashi garami or the saddle, trap the opponent’s knee between your hips, secure the heel in the crook of your elbow, and…
Quick Answer: A heel hook is a rotational leg lock that twists the heel to torque the knee — not the ankle — which makes it one of the fastest and most dangerous submissions in no-gi grappling. The most reliable version is the inside heel hook finished from the saddle (also called the honey hole…
Lachlan Giles weighs 77 kilograms. At ADCC 2019 he submitted three opponents who collectively outweighed him by more than 200 pounds — Patrick Gaudio, Mahamed Aly, and Kaynan Duarte — using the same submission every single time. The heel hook BJJ coaches treated as a forbidden party trick a decade ago is now the highest-percentage…
At ADCC 2024, more than half of all submission finishes came from leg attacks — and the heel hook accounted for the lion’s share. Heel hook defense is no longer an optional skill in no-gi grappling. If you train at any serious gym, someone in your roll is hunting your knee right now. This guide…
The K guard BJJ position is the open guard that won Lachlan Giles an ADCC absolute medal at 77kg — by heel hooking three world-class heavyweights in a row. That single tournament rewrote the no-gi guard playbook. Before 2019, K guard was a niche curiosity Lachlan kept tucked inside his own academy. After 2019, it…
Heel hook BJJ guide: seven inside and outside heel hook setups from ashi garami, the saddle, and 50/50 that force the tap in modern no-gi grappling.
The heel hook BJJ tap window is roughly 1.4 seconds — that is the average gap top instructors report between the moment a competitor feels real torque and the moment a ligament gives way. Miss it, and the next sound on the mat is a wet pop you do not forget. A heel hook is…
Mikey Musumeci tapped Kevin Dantzler with a heel hook at 2:15 of Round 1 at UFC BJJ 8 — fighting through a staph infection. 5 lessons from the no-gi finish.
Gordon Ryan is widely regarded as the greatest no-gi grappler of all time, and his March 2026 retirement brought that debate to a close for many in the community. Over a decade of competition, he redefined what was possible in submission wrestling — building a record that may never be matched. Whether you watched him…
Ashi garami is the cornerstone of modern no-gi leg lock systems — the entry point for inside heel hooks, outside heel hooks, and a web of dangerous lower-body submissions that have redefined competitive grappling over the past decade. Whether you’re watching an ADCC superfight or drilling in the gym on a Tuesday night, understanding ashi…
Leg Lock Guide: Complete No-Gi Submission Techniques Leg locks represent the most explosive submissions in no-gi grappling, capable of ending fights in seconds. From Gordon Ryan’s lightning-fast heel hooks at ADCC to Lachlan Giles’ systematic destruction of heavyweight opponents, these techniques have revolutionized modern Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and submission grappling. This comprehensive guide breaks down every…