Are you finding your heel hooks attacks fall short of completion? If this is the case, then you’re running into the same problem most grapplers face as heel hooks became a common thing in BJJ, and the overexposure to their use led to the development of highly efficient defensive options.
If you only stick to Danaher’s Ashi Garami basics, you are bound to finish both inside and outside heel hooks, as long as you can get to them. Given that this ‘getting there’ part is the most difficult aspect of leg locking, more open-ended and creative approaches, such as the one Eoghan O’Flanagan demonstrates in his Downright Sloppy Outside Heel Hooks DVD is the best way to actually get a tap.
Key Takeaways
- No-Gi instructional, with just under 2 hours of video material.
- Taught by one of Europe’s top competitors who only trains at open mats.
- Perfectly organized material to take you from grip fighting to finishing.
- BJJ World Expert Rating: 9 out of 10
GET THE OUTSIDE HEEL HOOKS DVD HERE!!!
The Case for (Sloppy) Outside Heel Hooks
Outside heel hooks never really got the love and appreciation they deserve on account of the crazy breaking power of the inside heel hook from the Honeyhole, which became the holy grail of BJJ leg locks. Well, it is time to change that.
Most of the influence in raising the inside heel hook to the heights of a deity in grappling came as a result of Danaher’s (or should I say Eddie Cummings’) success with them. However, what most people did not take into account is that the much more easily accessible outside heel hooks actually made up for most of the Danaher Death Squad’s early success.
Namely, Danaher himself favors the outside Ashi Garami heel hook over all others, at least from a competitive point of view. Eddie Cummings set up plenty of inside heel hooks by threatening the outside first. Dean Lister is another example of how effective outside heel hooks are on the big stage. And of course, there is Eoghan O’Flanagan as well.
Attacking outside heel hooks is the most efficient approach as they are easily accessible both as submission and as a controlling Ashi Garami position. One of my personal favorites is the game over entanglement, with one of the nastiest heel hooks available in grappling. So why not show some love to these sloppy outside heel hooks?
A Scrappy Submission Genius: Eoghan O’Flanagan
Eoghan O’Flanagan is a grappler, not many people outside of Europe, or better said the UK, knew about before ADCC 2022. The Ireland-born grappler comes equipped with over 20 years of grappling experience, teaching all across London and Cardiff as he prefers a nomadic lifestyle.
In fact, O’Flanagan is a very curious fellow when it comes to his approach to training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He prefers training at open mats and rarely visits classes, mostly relying on instructional and, wait for it, YouTube to advance his knowledge of grappling.
Most of Eoghan’s time training before he became a black belt took place in Japan, where he went through the BJJ belt system. When he moved back to Europe, Eoghan O’Flanagan started competing a lot, becoming a popular and feared competitor in the -88kg division.
He burst out into the international grappling scene with his 2022 ADCC performance, where he gave folks like Xhande Ribeiro and Mason Fowler nightmare experiences, beating both on his way to the semi-finals. He then lost to eventual champion Giancarlo Bodoni to land a bronze match against Vagner Rocha, which O’Flanagan lost.
What he showcased, however, was a set of impressive leg-locking skills, mostly centered around outside positions, which contradicted what most ADCC competitors were looking for that evening. you can see why picking up his Outside Heel Hooks DVD makes a lot of sense if you’re looking to become as dangerous as him with leg locks.
Eoghan O’Flanagan Outside Heel Hooks DVD Content Review
What exactly are you getting from the Outside Heel Hooks DVD by Eoghan O’Flanagan? I thought it was going to be just another leg lock DVD, albeit a solid one given the instructor. What I ran into instead was, in my opinion, one of the best-organized leg lock BJJ DVD instructional ever released:
Part 1 – The R-Guard
Eoghan O’Flanagan has an interesting take when it comes to structuring this instructional. He likes to bunch up all things that relate to a given position in a single volume. Personally, I find this approach the best possible one to organize the learning material in BJJ instructional.
O’Flanagan’s R-guard, a personal invention, is the main feature of the first volume, covering everything you can ever need to hunt for leg locks from there. Eoghan starts with off-balancing tactics that open up pummeling options, which lead to various Ashi Garami controls and inescapable heel hook attacks.
That said, you only get the pummeling and entry tactics in this first volume – not one single heel hook features in it!
Part 2 – Side Guard / X-Guard
As the Donwright Sloppy Outside Heel Hooks DVD goes on, O’Flanagan takes us to the second aspect of his meticulous leg locks game – using the opponent’s reactions to bait them deeper into controlling positions.
A good half of this volume is centered around the side guard, and how Eoghan uses it to expose the legs when an opponent does, well, anything – kneeling, standing, backstepping, knee cuts, etc. O’Flanagan offers counters to all of them.
He then tops it all off with some fun and slick Ashi Garami entries featuring single-leg X-guard variations, once again organized in a reactive game. The shallow X is something I found works particularly well in rolling, and I intend to experiment with it further.
Part 3 – Inside Ashi Garami
One of the two Ashi Garmi positions covered in depth in this Eoghan O’Flanagan instructional is the inside Ashi, which is what most people reading this think of when they picture an Ashi Garami.
Since the previous two volumes covered distance management, entries, and control, this one is all about the breaking mechanics. O’Flanagan opens with a dilemma strategy and goes on to explore Z Locks and outside heel hooks versus an opponent with their hips on the mats, as well as standing opponents.
Part 4 – The Double Outside
Wrapping up the Outside Heel Hooks DVD by Eoghan O’Flanagan is an entire volume covering the outside Ashi position, also known as the Double Outside. In this part, Eoghan sort of brings everything together, blending information from previous volumes to provide contact, entries, off-balancing tactics, controlling dynamics, and breaking mechanics.
to put it simply, this is exactly the game he likes to use when grappling, and we all know how that turns out for his opponents. Oh, and that section on dealing with a shared Ashi Garami situation is pure gold!
Prioritizing Outside Heel Hooks
So, what do you think now? After checking out O’Flanagan’s success with outside heel hooks, and having access to his complete system in extreme detail, are you going to give outside heel hooks a try or stick to the glorified inside ones?
let’s put it this way – the inside heel hook remains one of the best submissions in grappling. So does the cross-collar choke. Both of these only work if you can get to them. Outside heel hooks, on the other hand, are more like a rear-naked choke – they appear suddenly and work immediately, giving you the element of surprise as a huge advantage.
The best, of course, would be to blend them all, but if you’re just starting out with leg locks, or are stuck with inside heel hooks, Eoghan’s system is a great way to shake things up and increase your submission rate.
FULL EOGHAN O’FLANAGAN OUTSIDE HEEL HOOKS DVD HERE!!!
A Downright Sloppy DVD!
Since I personally prefer outside heel hooks anyway, I was happy to see this instructional finally hit the shelves. To be honest, I had no idea who Eoghan O’Flanagan was before his impressive 2022 ADCC performance, but I have been following him since then, eagerly waiting for an in-depth leg lock instructional.
The Downright Sloppy Outside Heel Hooks DVD by Eoghan O’Flanagan is anything but sloppy, though, as it is meticulously organized to take even complete beginners to leg lock mastery in a matter of months! So, go and get O’Flanagan’s instructional now, and start getting sloppy with those outside heel hooks!
