Key Takeaways
- A two-part No-Gi instructional demonstrating the importance of transitions in leg lock exchanges.
- Features overview of different guards and how they relate to Ashi Garami positions.
- Offers top and bottom transitions based on leg lock control.
- BJJ World Expert Rating: 7.5 out of 10.
NAVIGATING ENTANGLEMENTS JACK STAPLETON DVD GET HERE
What’s the most important thing about leg locks? It is the same as with every other aspect of BJJ – stay in control long enough to kill resistance and get your lock. You won’t get anything without resistance, so you might as well plan for it.
The best way to deal with resistance is to attack it from multiple positions. In terms of leg locks, this means knowing how to move seamlessly from one Ashi Garami position to another, something that’s covered pretty well in the Leg Lock Strategies Navigating Entanglements Jack Stapleton DVD.
Ashi Garami Flows
One of the best things about the Ashi Garami positions is that there are so many of them. If you know what you’re doing, you can easily flow from one to another without ever abandoning your leg lock target, or losing control.
In fact, it is one of the key aspects of leg locks I insist my students work on constantly – how to tightly transition between different Ashi Garami variations. They are all close, but there are still distance management aspects to master when learning how to navigate them.
Once you get this flow, though, there’s no stopping you. Now, you have more than simply an array of interconnected leg-locking positions – you also have a very effective guard. All Ashi positions provide sweeping opportunities and some also double as great spots to attack the back from.
You can even set up Darces from there, ending up with a foolproof system that is highly reliable and fairly easy to master by BJJ standards. The Leg Lock Strategies Navigating Entanglements Jack Stapleton DVD offers a great blueprint to achieve this mastery.
No-Gi Champ Jack Stapleton
Jack Stapleton is a first-degree black belt who teaches at and owns Ascension Athletics MMA and BJJ in Bristol, Connecticut. In the few years he has been a black belt, Jack has spent plenty of time competing and has several huge titles to show for it.
He is the reigning IBJJF Pan Ams Champion in the adult divisions, as well as ranked number three in the World Rankings. Despite being only 21 he already has a 2-0 MMA record, as well as plenty of super fight victories and high-level performances in the professional grappling circuit.
Jack has a very submission-heavy game, always on the lookout for the next finish. He is not a mindless opportunist, though, but rather a cunning strategist who expertly navigates transitioning between positions. He shares his transitioning tactics in the Leg Lock Strategies Navigating Entanglements Jack Stapleton DVD which is definitely worth looking into.
The Leg Lock Strategies Navigating Entanglements Jack Stapleton DVD offers two volumes of No-Gi strategies covering leg locks from a transitional and more dynamic perspective. There is about an hour of material in this instructional, covering vertical and horizontal applications of leg control and finishing:
Part 1 – Working From X-Guards
There is no time wasted in this DVD as the first volume opens up with transitions between the Single leg X and full X-guard. Stapleton covers movement patterns against standing opponents rather than technical transitions which I found to be helpful and effective.
He then goes on to address different leg entanglements (outside and cross) and how they relate to the X-guards. A truly valuable aspect of the Leg Lock Strategies Navigating Entanglements Jack Stapleton DVD is that the transitions connect offensive and defensive cycles as well, providing plenty of counterattacking opportunities.
The final portion addresses the reap, covering how to force your way into it and how to deal with opponents who try to attack you with reaping. A smooth back take helps provide a deeper dimension to the traditional attacks, with even more leg lock opportunities arising.
Part 2 – Leg Locks and Passing
The second and final part of the Leg Lock Strategies Navigating Entanglements Jack Stapleton DVD goes over a different transitional combination that you must have in BJJ – connecting passes with leg locks.
He begins by covering the threat of heel hooks to open up guards, something most of us have used so far. What really surprised me, in a very positive way, was Jack’s toe hold/kneebar/heel hook submission chain that he launches off of leg drag passing threats.
Plenty of details on the finishing mechanics of all the leg locks covered so far in the instructional feature in this volume as well, as Jack wraps up with a different set of transitions – going from one leg lock finish to another without relieving tension on the leg.
The Value of Leg Control in BJJ
All it takes is one leg. No matter what position you’re in, from standing to grounded exchanges, if you can control and manipulate one of your opponent’s legs, you can pretty much impose your game any way you want.
For example, let’s say you need to pass. Sit on one leg, and you’ve taken all but one guard away from the bottom person. Or, grab one of their feet and make sure it can’t touch the ground or post anywhere on your body. Now, you’re in the driving seat.
You can do the same from guard, trying to move your opponent in a way that makes them have one leg on the ground before you sweep or submit. Pins, escapes, and takedowns, all offer plenty of options using one single leg control.
Leg locks, of course, are the epitome of this, providing a finish based on using your entire body to control a leg. The one thing people tend to miss is that you can do so much more in BJJ than simply hunt for leg locks.
For the most part, the only thing you really need to understand is how to transition from leg lock attacks to sweeps or passes using the same controls. A lot of that stuff is in the Leg Lock Strategies Navigating Entanglements Jack Stapleton DVD.
DOWNLOAD HERE: LEG LOCK STRATEGIES JACK STAPLETON DVD
Leg Lock Strategies
If you want to do leg locks these days you can’t just jump on a leg, Gokor Chivichyan style, and hope to get taps. You need to strategize, utilize different Ashi positions, and know your transitions. The Leg Lock Strategies Navigating Entanglements Jack Stapleton DVD offers a great way to understand the dynamics of hunting for leg locks and using leg control to dominate.
Leg Locks 101: A Guide to Positions, Submissions, Dangers, And Rules
