The heel hook is the most feared and most effective submission in modern BJJ and MMA. Competitors like Gordon Ryan, Craig Jones, and Mikey Musumeci have built entire competition strategies around it. Yet many grapplers still train without understanding how heel hooks work, which makes them more vulnerable, not safer. This guide covers how heel hooks work, the key positions they come from, why they’re banned in some rulesets, and how to train them responsibly.
What is a Heel Hook Submission?
A heel hook is a leg lock submission where you grip your opponent’s heel and rotate it, creating a twisting force that attacks the knee ligaments. Although you hold the heel, the primary damage occurs at the knee joint, specifically the lateral and medial ligaments that stabilize the knee against rotational force.
There are two types of heel hooks: the outside heel hook (standard) and the inside heel hook (also called the inverted heel hook). The inside heel hook applies internal rotation to the knee, which attacks the stronger medial structures. Counterintuitively, this makes the inside heel hook more dangerous, because the medial ligaments resist more force before giving way, meaning you feel less warning pain before serious injury occurs. This is why the inside heel hook is the primary finishing weapon for leg lock specialists like Craig Jones and the entire Danaher Death Squad lineage.
Key Ashi Garami Positions for Heel Hooks
Before you can finish a heel hook, you need to control your opponent’s leg in an ashi garami (leg entanglement). The position you use determines which heel hook variation is available and how much control you have. John Danaher’s Enter the System: Leg Locks popularized a systematic framework for these positions that most modern leg lockers still use.
Single Leg X / Ashi Garami – The most basic leg entanglement. You have one leg hooked inside your opponent’s legs (the “inside hook”) with your other foot on their hip. Good for outside heel hooks and as a transition point to stronger positions.
Outside Ashi (Cross Ashi) – Your outside leg crosses over the opponent’s trapped leg to control the knee line from the outside. This creates an angle for the outside heel hook and makes it harder for your opponent to pull their leg free.
50/50 – Both grapplers have their legs entangled symmetrically. Common in both gi and no gi. The 50/50 gives good heel hook access but your opponent has the same access to your legs, making it a double-edged position that rewards the faster, more technical finisher.
Inside Sankaku (Saddle / Honey Hole / 411) – The strongest leg entanglement for finishing the inside heel hook. Your legs form a triangle around the opponent’s trapped leg, completely controlling the knee line. Once locked in, escaping is extremely difficult. This is the position you’ll see Gordon Ryan, Craig Jones, and Nicky Ryan finish most of their heel hooks from.
Want to learn these positions in depth? Check our guide to the best heel hook instructionals, which covers the top teaching resources for each of these entanglements.
How to Do a Heel Hook (Step by Step)
The heel hook follows three fundamental steps. The quality of your leg entanglement matters more than your grip strength or rotation speed.
1. Control the leg in an ashi garami
The first and most important step is controlling your opponent’s leg in a proper entanglement. Specifically, you need to control the knee line, which means your legs need to be positioned so your opponent cannot simply pull their knee past your hips and escape. If you don’t control the knee line, your opponent can rotate with the heel hook and relieve all pressure on their knee. This is why leg lock specialists spend most of their time fighting for position, not the submission itself.
2. Secure the heel
Once you have a solid entanglement, you need to catch the heel. The standard grip places the blade of your wrist under the heel, with your arms locked in a figure-four (Kimura-style) grip or a “palm-to-palm” clamp. Experienced opponents will fight hard to hide their heel by pointing their toes and pulling their foot close to their body. The grip battle at this stage often determines whether the heel hook finishes or not.
3. Rotate the heel and bridge into the knee
To finish, you combine two forces simultaneously. First, you rotate the heel in the direction that attacks the knee (inward for the inside heel hook, outward for the outside heel hook). Second, you bridge your hips into the side of the knee to prevent the knee from rotating together with the heel. This hip bridge is what separates a tight heel hook from one that an opponent can spin out of. Without the bridge, the entire leg rotates as one unit and no torque reaches the knee.
What Does a Heel Hook Damage?
A heel hook creates rotational force on the knee joint, which damages the ligaments that stabilize the knee against twisting. The primary structures at risk are:
- Medial Collateral Ligament (MCL) – Stabilizes the inner side of the knee. Attacked primarily by the inside heel hook.
- Lateral Collateral Ligament (LCL) – Stabilizes the outer side of the knee. Attacked primarily by the outside heel hook.
- Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) – Prevents the shin from sliding forward. Vulnerable to rotational stress from both heel hook variations. ACL tears are the most serious common heel hook injury.
- Meniscus – The cartilage pads between the thigh bone and shin bone. Both the medial and lateral meniscus can tear from rotational force.
- Ankle ligaments – The outside heel hook can also stress the ankle, though the knee is always the primary target.
The inside heel hook is generally more destructive because internal rotation attacks both the MCL and the ACL simultaneously, and these injuries almost always require surgical repair.
Are Heel Hooks Dangerous?
Yes. Heel hooks are the most dangerous submissions in grappling. Four factors make them uniquely risky:
- No pain warning before injury. Knee ligaments have few pain receptors. With an armbar, you feel escalating pain well before the joint breaks. With a heel hook, the ligament can tear before you feel significant discomfort. This is the single most important thing to understand about heel hooks.
- Ligament injuries heal poorly. Ligaments have limited blood supply, which means slow healing. ACL tears almost always require surgery and 6-12 months of rehabilitation. MCL tears may heal without surgery, but recovery still takes months.
- Knee injuries affect daily life severely. Unlike a sore shoulder or tweaked elbow, a knee injury can prevent you from walking, driving, or working. The impact extends far beyond missing training time.
- Many grapplers underestimate them. The biggest risk factor is ignorance. Grapplers who have never trained heel hooks sometimes try to “tough it out” instead of tapping, because they don’t realize the damage is happening without pain.
When to Tap to a Heel Hook
If you’re new to heel hooks, tap as soon as your opponent secures a grip on your heel from any ashi garami position. As you gain experience, you’ll learn to assess whether you can still free your heel, whether the knee line control is loose enough to escape, or whether you can counter-attack with your own leg entanglement. But until you have that experience, tap early. No training roll is worth a knee reconstruction.
For a deeper understanding of when and how to escape heel hooks safely, see our guide to the best leg lock defense instructionals. Learning proper defense makes heel hook training dramatically safer for everyone involved.
When to Use a Heel Hook in Training
Only use heel hooks when your training partner explicitly agrees to roll with them and understands the risks. In training, you should catch and control, not crank. If you get the position and the grip, that’s the submission. If your opponent doesn’t realize they’re caught, tell them instead of applying force. Catching the position cleanly is what develops skill; cranking through someone’s ignorance just creates injuries and bad training partners.
Are Heel Hooks Legal?
Heel hook legality varies dramatically between organizations, rulesets, and belt levels. The trend over the past five years has been toward broader legalization, but significant restrictions remain.
Are heel hooks legal in IBJJF?
Since 2021, the IBJJF allows heel hooks in no gi competition for brown and black belts. This was a major rule change that reflected the growing dominance of leg locks in submission grappling. However, the IBJJF still prohibits heel hooks for lower belts (white through purple) in no gi, and prohibits them entirely in gi competition at all belt levels.
Are heel hooks legal in ADCC?
Yes. ADCC has always allowed heel hooks at all experience levels. This is one reason ADCC competitors tend to have more developed leg lock games than IBJJF-focused competitors. The ADCC ruleset has been instrumental in driving leg lock innovation since John Danaher’s students started dominating with systematic heel hook attacks around 2017.
Are heel hooks legal in the gi?
Almost never. The gi competition circuit largely follows IBJJF rules, which ban heel hooks in gi competition at all belt levels. A few smaller organizations and gym-level competitions allow them, but this is rare. Most gyms also discourage heel hooks during gi training, though this varies by gym culture.
Are heel hooks legal in the UFC?
Yes. Heel hooks are legal in the UFC and all major MMA organizations. Fighters like Ryan Hall have used them effectively in MMA, and Charles Oliveira has finished fights with heel hooks at the highest level. That said, most MMA fighters use heel hooks sparingly because entering leg entanglements from bottom position risks giving up the dominant position if the submission fails.
Are heel hooks legal for white belts and blue belts?
It depends on the organization. The IBJJF doesn’t allow heel hooks until brown belt in no gi. ADCC allows them at all levels. Most local no gi tournaments and submission-only events allow heel hooks at all levels, including white belt. If you’re competing, always check the specific ruleset for your event.
Why Are Heel Hooks Illegal in Many BJJ Competitions?
The reasons heel hooks remain restricted vary depending on who you ask.
The safety argument
The traditional justification is safety: heel hooks are too dangerous for less experienced competitors. This has some merit at the white belt level, where grapplers may not understand the submission well enough to tap at the right time. But this argument weakens at higher belts. Brown and black belts should absolutely know when to tap to a heel hook, just as they know when to tap to an armbar.
The “too effective in the gi” argument
The current IBJJF position is that heel hooks would be “too effective” in the gi because gi pants create extra friction, making it harder to escape leg entanglements. The concern is that this would kill open guard play. There’s some logic here, but it cuts both ways. Gi grips also make it easier to defend heel hooks by grabbing sleeves and pants, and gi friction slows down the fast transitions that make heel hooks effective in no gi. The open guard would adapt, as it always has when new techniques gained popularity.
The political reality
Realistically, politics play a role. If heel hooks became legal in gi competition overnight, many established gi competitors would struggle against leg lock specialists. Gradual rule changes (like the IBJJF’s 2021 no gi legalization) allow the competitive landscape to adjust without disrupting the sport’s established hierarchies too quickly.
Should Heel Hooks Be Banned?
Heel hooks should be restricted for white belts (and possibly blue belts) in competition, but should be legal for experienced grapplers in both gi and no gi. The argument is straightforward: if grapplers never learn to attack and defend heel hooks, they’re unprepared when they encounter them. Banning heel hooks doesn’t make them less dangerous; it just ensures people are untrained when they face them.
For context, there are other legal techniques that cause more injuries per occurrence than heel hooks do. Jumping to closed guard has caused broken legs and torn ACLs in competition. The flying scissor takedown (kani basami) has been banned precisely because of the unpredictable injury risk. Heel hooks, when trained by informed grapplers, can be practiced safely through positional sparring and catch-and-release training.
Heel Hooks Compared to Other Leg Locks
Understanding where the heel hook fits among other leg locks helps clarify why it’s the dominant submission in modern no gi grappling. For a complete breakdown of every leg attack, see our best leg lock instructionals guide.
Heel hook vs ankle lock
The straight ankle lock hyperextends the ankle joint by arching your hips into the Achilles tendon. The heel hook rotates the knee joint laterally. The heel hook is far more dangerous because knee ligaments are weaker than the ankle joint, and because the heel hook offers less pain warning before injury. The ankle lock is legal at white belt under IBJJF rules, while heel hooks are restricted to brown and black belt no gi. For more on ankle attacks specifically, check out our best ankle lock instructionals guide.
Heel hook vs kneebar
The kneebar hyperextends the knee by bending it backward, similar to how an armbar hyperextends the elbow. It attacks the posterior structures (back of the knee), which are relatively strong. The heel hook attacks the lateral structures (sides of the knee), which are much weaker. This is why the heel hook is easier to finish than the kneebar at the highest levels. The kneebar also gives more pain warning, making it safer relative to its finish rate.
Heel hook vs toe hold
The toe hold rotates the foot and ankle using a figure-four grip on the toes or forefoot. It applies torque to the ankle and, to a lesser extent, the knee. The outside heel hook is mechanically similar but adds hip pressure into the side of the knee, making it significantly more powerful. The toe hold only creates internal rotation, while the heel hook can create either internal or external rotation depending on the variation. Toe holds are useful as a secondary attack or as a way to force reactions that open up heel hook entries.
Inside heel hook vs outside heel hook
The outside (standard) heel hook rotates the heel outward, creating external rotation at the knee. Much of this rotational force is absorbed by the ankle joint, which reduces the load on the knee. The inside (inverted) heel hook rotates the heel inward, creating internal rotation that goes directly to the knee with minimal ankle involvement. This makes the inside heel hook stronger, more dangerous, and the preferred finishing weapon for top competitors. Most heel hook finishes at ADCC and other elite no gi events are inside heel hooks from inside sankaku.
Heel hook vs other leg locks
The heel hook is the most effective leg lock in modern no gi grappling. Leg lock specialists like Gordon Ryan, Craig Jones, and Nicky Ryan use the heel hook as their primary finishing weapon, though their mastery of ashi garami positions and transitions is equally important. The heel hook’s effectiveness comes from the combination of attacking the weakest part of the knee, providing minimal pain warning, and being finishable from multiple entanglement positions. Other leg locks (ankle lock, kneebar, toe hold, calf slicer) serve as secondary attacks and as tools to set up heel hook entries.
Learning Heel Hooks: Where to Start
If you want to develop a serious heel hook game, start with understanding the positions (ashi garami variations) before focusing on finishes. A heel hook is only as good as the entanglement it comes from. The best resources for learning systematic heel hook attacks and defenses are covered in our guide to the best heel hook instructionals.
For a broader look at the complete leg lock game (including kneebars, toe holds, and calf slicers alongside heel hooks), see our best leg lock instructionals guide. And if you’re specifically interested in how to defend against heel hooks, our best leg lock defense instructionals guide covers the top resources for building a safe, intelligent defensive game.
Related: Why is BJJ not in the Olympics? | Gi vs No Gi Jiu Jitsu
