Footlocks in Jiu-Jitsu seem (still) to get a bad rap. In other similar grappling arts like Sambo or Catch Wrestling, they occupy an important place.
In recent years a new school of Jiu-Jitsu players have started to perfect the leg lock game (Garry Tonon or Eddie Cummings in No Gi and Luis Panza, Cavaca in Gi) but they are still not developed so much in Jiu-Jitsu and many people still see them as cheap, low class moves or are frowned upon because of high risk of injury (especially heel hooks) . Why would that be?
John Danaher, BJJ black belt under Renzo Gracie, known as one of the best BJJ instructors in the world shares his thoughts on leg locks and how he built his ‘Danaher Death Squad’ around them.
The New Zealand born black belt has been praised by the BJJ community as being a master and brain of the art. Danaher is a highly intelligent individual, who has a Master degree in philosophy from Columbia University, and is totally focused on the evolution and improvement of Jiu-Jitsu. He is also the submission coach of none other than former UFC Welterweight Champion George Saint Pierre, Travis Stevens, Garry Tonon, Eddie Cummings and Gordon Ryan.
Danaher trains and teaches Jiu jitsu at Renzo Gracie’s Academy in New York.
Danaher shared his thoughts on Facebook:
“One of the most valuable traits a person can have is a healthy sense of skepticism. The skeptical mindset is one of the pillars of the scientific method; all proposed theories are treated with skepticism until sufficient verification is accumulated before the scientific community will provisionally accept it as confirmed.
One of the downfalls of many traditional martial arts was the lack of a proving ground through open competition and a resultant lack of skepticism that allowed for increasingly outlandish theories and doctrines that veered far from reality and robbed them of effectiveness.
I had from an early stage of my training been interested in the value of leg locks as a means of victory in jiu jitsu and MMA. I worked diligently on building a system of attacking the legs which would overcome many of the complaints often voiced against the use of leg locks. During this time I was mostly known to the public through the exploits of MMA fighters such as Georges St-Pierre and Chris Weidman – none of my grappling students chose to compete during those years so my pure grappling style was largely unknown to the public. That all changed when Garry Tonon, Eddie Cummings and Gordon Ryan asked me to coach them for grappling competition.
One of my first actions was to train them extensively in my system of leg attacks, as I believed this would afford them a considerable advantage over their opponents in competition. Working initially at local level and building from there, they quickly experienced tremendous success and brought back valuable data for further improvements to our system. As their success grew they were elevated to higher levels of competition and their fame grew, along with the notoriety of their leg locks. At this stage an impasse was reached – now people knew the of the system and its effectiveness; the question became – was it up to the level of the most esteemed leg lock experts in the world? It was then that I assembled the squad and launched an ambitious plan to overcome public skepticism by systematically fighting and defeating the most renown leg lock experts in MMA/Grappling.
The four names on our list were first, Masakazu Imanari, the feared and revered leg lock master from Japan, called 10th degree leg lock master by his fans. Second, Reilly Bodycomb, an American practitioner of the Russian art of Sambo, who had garnered a reputation for deep technical knowledge of the leg lock game. Third, Marcin Held, who had used leg locks to win many victories in MMA and emerge as a champion. Fourth, the massively strong and ferocious Rousimar Palhares – the only man in UFC history to be banned from the sport for being too violent and probably the most feared grappler in modern history.
Analysis of the four convinced me that the squad would prevail against the first three. Events proved me correct as Garry Tonon and Eddie Cummings quickly and easily defeated all three via leg lock – people where shocked to see the greatest leg lockers being themselves leg locked by young students who had only been using this system for less than four years. The greatest trial was the last.
Mr Palhares was in my opinion, easily the best man on our list both technically and physically, moreover he had a mystique and competitiveness that elevated him further still. Deep analysis of his game revealed that he was extremely good at enforcing the simple algorithm of his style on most opponents, but lacked the ability to change algorithms when the initial one was interfered with. Thus I was confident that Mr Tonon would prevail in a leg lock battle despite the huge size and strength discrepancy. Here you can see Garry Tonon putting Mr Palhares under extreme pressure with a perfect inverted heel hook – forcing a wild turning escape out of bounds.
Most people in the arena that night were utterly shocked to see Mr Palhares repeatedly forced to extricate himself from his own signature move. The crowd gasped as they saw what seemed impossible – the world’s most renown leg locker being attacked at every opportunity via leg lock by a young man half his size and strength.
When the match came to end by draw both men remarked on the skill and tenacity of the other in a tremendous show of respect. That night in England, many skeptics walked into the arena to watch this match, when it was all over – very few walked out…”
