In a recent podcast appearance, BJJ icon Roger Gracie reflected on leg locks, heel hooks, and lower-body attacks and how modern sport jiu-jitsu has evolved.
He made his stance on the practical application of these techniques in combat very clear.
“In MMA, you don’t see heel hooks and foot locks,” he said.
“You see, but like almost very few, because you get punched in the face the moment they grab my foot. If your arms are busy attacking my foot, you’re not protecting from your punches. So it doesn’t really translate to real figh ting. That’s why back in the days there was not a lot of many foot locks, because you attack my foot, I’ll knock you out.”
He also drew on his own experience inside the cage to explain why he eventually shifted his finishing strategy toward chokes.
“After that I’m like, no, I have to start choking people out because then they had no choice. I mean, they’re just going to go to sleep. If I go for locks, you know, people sometimes they don’t tap for foot locks. They can resist. They can injure themselves for the sake of the match. They’re not tapping, but they’re still mobile, they’re still functioning. Chokes, if you get choked and you don’t tap, it’s like good night.”
On the rise of heel hooks in modern grappling, Gracie acknowledged both their effectiveness and how they reshaped competitive jiu-jitsu.
“Everyone now needs to learn heel hooks because that’s how you’re going to catch everybody. It’s a technique that almost no one has been using and then it started working like crazy. That’s the one way that you can catch someone much better than you.”
“Go for a heel hook because if your attacks are very good, he’s not used to defending the heel hook, which back in the days no one was. That’s why somebody blue belt or purple belt can catch a black belt. If you heel hook him, you have a huge chance of tapping. But nowadays, not so much, because everyone knows how to defend.”
He also suggested that the sport naturally cycles back toward more traditional grappling priorities.
“You always go back to, okay, so now let’s play jiu-jitsu. Let me try to pass a guard. I keep attacking your foot. You’re not tapping. I cannot tap anyone out. Okay, let me go back to guard pass.”
For Gracie, lower-body submissions represent one of the biggest departures from jiu-jitsu’s original intent.
“With the leg lock and the foot lock attacks, heel hooks, foot locks, knee bars, whatever, that already was the biggest shift from the main goal,” he said.
He also pointed to safety and rule enforcement as key reasons behind restrictions in gi competition.
“Heel hooks were banned for gi because people suddenly in the same day had a lot of people injured, and it’s a bad injury. Anything that will hurt athletes in the tournament gets banned.”
