The Estima Lock is an infamous foot lock that was developed by the Estima brothers Victor and Braulio.
At the 2011 No Gi World Championship Victor Estima won all his matches by Estima lock.
The Estima lock works by putting a rear naked choke on the ankle and trapping the foot under the stomach. The torsion is similar to a toe hold. The hold is only legal for brown and black belts under IBJJF rules.
There is a popular counter to the Estima Lock from the Reverse De La Riva position. When the opponent grabs your ankle in a RNC hold you need to slightly push your foot towards the hold and at the same, invert in between your opponent’s legs. You have to go with the torque and use an inversion to escape and transition to an open guard or DLR guard. This will break the hold. Of course this has to be done early.
Since no counter is a 100% option, The Estimas already have a counter to that move (video below). That is why the defense has to be done early, just your opponent puts his hold on your ankle.
Here Braulio shows how he goes forward then sticks his heel in the hip so as to block the opponent from rolling out and inverting.
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