How I often deal with ankle lock attacks

You know…

To follow up on the topic of leg locks, there is one particular attack that I feel most confident in defending. It’s not the toe hold. It’s not the kneebar. And it’s definitely not the heel hook.

Yup, that leaves one likely culprit.

And you would be right if you guessed ankle lock.

I have quite the extensive history with that bad boy. People have attempted to throw it my way countless times, and many of them have suffered frustration as a result.

Here’s the thing though.

My method I used against the most common variation of the attack isn’t complicated at all. In fact, I would even say that you could see it once and apply it right away.

Doubt me?

Well then, check it out for yourself and put it to the test.

The video can be found here:

One way to escape from texas cloverleaf

A few years back, I often used to travel to the heart of the nation’s capital to train with Nakapan Phungephorn at his academy.

And at the time, he was completely obsessed with leg locks.

Almost every moment I was even defending an attempt or succumbing to my doom, and there was one particular position that gave me all kinds of fits.

It was the texas cloverleaf.

Imagine it.

I get to half guard. I get the underhook. I’m all ready to go. Then bam, he backsteps, collects the far leg, and now I have to defend multiple leg locks at once.

And that, my friend, is no exaggeration.

Almost every leg lock is possible from that position.

You like ankle locks? It’s there.

What about heel hooks? It’s there.

How about a side of toe hold? It’s there.

And who can forget the kneebar? It’s also there.

Not a fun position to be in at all.

And for the longest time, I had no answer to it. But that changed one day, while I was down in North Carolina teaching seminars. At one of the gyms I visited, I learned an answer.

And you can learn it right now if you so wish.

Not long ago, I dropped a video breaking it down in detail on the Tube, and it can be found right here:

The mount escapes I often use these days

A sneaky ezekiel from bottom half guard (lab stuff)

Some love for the ezekiel choke from the back