I've been grappling for over 20 years now, starting with my high school days of wrestling. A few years after graduating, I quickly fell in love with both judo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. However, I was always drawn to the somewhat more unorthodox approaches to BJJ training, particularly with regard to lower body submissions. Right from the beginning, I was messing around with some pretty unorthodox leg attacks, including heel hooks and toe holds back in the late 1990s—way, way sooner than I probably should have been, in retrospect.

Unorthodox Leglocks

As a result, my "orthodox" BJJ game has evolved alongside my unorthodox leglock game, borrowing from catch wrestling and sambo, among other sources, and genuine inspiration on very rare occasions. What follows are some of the more unorthodox leg attacks I've been using for more than a decade now. I'm going to start with the most familiar one and gradually work in the direction of less and less familiar territory with these techniques.

The Rolling Toe Hold The Cloverleaf The Goathook Escape The Goathook

Practice Under Supervision and Use Extreme Caution

As always, please practice only under the supervision of a qualified instructor, and use extreme caution any time you're working on any sort of leglock, particularly when trying it for the first time (or when having it done to you!). Enjoy!