Why I stopped teaching leg locks & why I’ve decided to start again.
My nickname since the 90’s was The King Of Leglocks.
In Brazil, I was called “Sapateiro” which stood for The Shoemaker which was featured in the Gracie Mag
In this video, I transition from an exterior heel hook attempt to an interior heel finish
Morning crew pay attention to the actual heel grip. This ain’t nothing new!
I’ve been obsessed with leglocks for the Last 22 years.
I was submitting people with leg locks in the gi, no gi, MMA and in Sombo since the late 90’s.
1996-1999 my school had a heavy emphasis on leg locks.
The majority of my students wouldn’t bother trying to pass the guard.
We would crush the local no gi events with 80%+ leglock Finishes
Our lower belt Guys could easily sub higher ranked guys with heel hooks.
But there was a serious problem
I felt guilty
I felt like I was doing my students a disservice focusing so heavily on legholds
I was a blue/purple belt at the time trying to figure it all out
But I knew one thing for a fact
I wanted to Train people that wanted to become world champions.
But there was no World Championship for what I was training them for.
Jiu Jitsu didn’t allow heel hooks
I got boo’ed in Brazil in the 90’s when I dropped back for leglock
Seriously
They would Boo at leglock attempts in Brazil back then
So I decided almost 20 years ago to focus 100% on winning World Titles in BJJ
I stopped teaching all of the leg lock systems we did.
Fast forward to 2015 our team has won No-Gi World Titles at Blue, Purple, Brown, and Black.
Gi World Titles Blue, Purple, and Brown.
But one title eluded us
The Black Belt World Title!
That all changed in 2018 when Mahamed and Jamil both won.
So what happened?
It was a comment ALY put on a Flo grappling post
he put “I still don’t know leglocks”
At that moment I was like FUCK!
What the hell
I felt bad all over again
Like I was doing him a disservice
But in reality learning heel hooks WOULD NOT HAVE helped him accomplish his goal.
Now that we got that title finally I’m working with a small group of our elite students to teach them the Dark Art & Science of the leglocks @lloydirvin