From my experience, the most reliable lower body and leg submissions are the ones aimed against the ankle or foot. It seems that the farther the part of the body is away from the chest area, the easier it is to control it and the foot is about as far away from the chest as a body part can get.

When attacking the ankle or foot, the primary point to inflict pain is the ankle, either by twisting it or stretching it. An exception is the heel hook where you control and attack the heel of your opponent, but in reality, this is a variation of an ankle twist.

The three most often used foot submissions are the straight ankle lock, the toehold and the heel hook.

Straight Ankle Lock

This is the fundamental ankle lock that I teach my athletes. It’s got a high ratio of success and is pretty simple and straightforward. Basically, you hook under your opponent’s lower leg just above the ankle joint. It's important to keep the top of the opponent's foot wedged tightly in your left armpit and to cradle his ankle in your arm. Use your forearm to tighten up and roll the bone of your forearm against the opponent's Achilles’ tendon which is located immediately on the back of his lower leg. Stretching the foot as you apply a lot of pressure on the Achilles’ tendon. The action of stretching the ankle in a straight line with the lower leg and applying a lot of pressure on the Achilles’ tendon causes pain.

Heel Hook

The heel hook is a common and effective leglock. When doing a heel hook, make sure you cradle your opponent’s lower leg, ankle and foot tightly between your body and arms. When applying pressure, rotate your body and let the weight of your body do the work, not only your arms. When it comes to a strength match, your opponent’s leg will usually beat out both of your arms, so use your body to make this move work. It not only does a real job on your opponent’s ankle, it can cause severe damage to his knee as well! Heel hooks are dangerous and many submission grappling events have made them illegal because of the severity of damage they inflict. In spite of all the negative things association with this technique, it’s still an effective, hardcore submission hold and should be studied by anyone who is serious about lower body submissions.

Toehold

The great wrestling champion Frank Gotch made this hold famous. Basically, anytime you grab your opponent’s toes or the side of his foot, it’s a toehold. As shown in this photo, you grab his foot and twist the ankle, causing pain. As with the heel hook, it’s important to cradle your opponent’s foot between your body and arms and let the rotation of your body do the work for you. You can use the strength of your hands and arms to twist your opponent’s foot, but you will get more power into the technique (and a better ratio of success) if you hug his foot, apply your hold and let the weight of your body do the work.

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