I want to talk about a very important topic. This is something that is used often in some academies and treated as the dark horse in others. T
he heel hook.
The heel hook has a very poor reputation in the BJJ community and I believe this is not right. The heel hook, for those who are unaware, is a leg lock which involves trapping the foot at an angle and applying a twisting motion to the knee joint.
For this analysis I am going to discuss the reason the heel hook is illegal in gi competition and why it is frowned on in the academy.
- Injuries– This is easily the most cited reason for the heel hook hatred. People have spread a myth that the heel hook is inherently more dangerous than other submissions. This is, in my own opinion false. There have actually been a few studies on no-gi competitions where they showed far more submission injuries from arm locks. The primary reason people seem to get injured from the heel hook is that many academies don’t teach proper use or defense of this submission. Imagine if you didn’t know the escape to an arm lock. You might get hurt a lot more, right?
- Friction– This is more of a theoretical reason for why it is illegal in the gi. In no-gi you can escape this submission by simply rolling and slipping your foot out (still not easy). In gi, however, this is much harder. The gi adds friction which can hold the foot in much tighter. However the gi adds friction to every move, so applying the ban only to the heel hook can seem unreasonable.
- Fear– This is the reason I think most academies frown on the move more often than not. The instructor and students simply fear the move because they believe the aforementioned points. In many cases, they also don’t know the move themselves or how to defend it. I think that banning a move based primarily on fear is such a shame because, in truth, it is a very valuable technique.
What do you think about this submission? Do you train it? Does your academy teach or allow it? Do you agree with my points?
The post 3 Commonly Cited Reasons For Heel Hook Hate appeared first on Jiu-Jitsu Times.