Jeremy Skinner is a brown belt hailing from Absolute MMA and training under two of the best leglockers in the modern era and experts on heelhooks, Craig Jones and Lachlan Giles. He’s well-known for his own skill in that particular area of Jiu-Jitsu and has already built up a number of wins on the professional grappling circuit already, including two heelhook wins on the Polaris mats. He has recently released a full-length instructional available to purchase on Techniqly and it’s been split into two broad sections:
Straight Leg Entanglements (Ashi Garami)
In this section, Skinner starts by talking through the basic concept of slipping the heel in both the standard Ashi Garami, and the Outside Ashi Garami. After this, he works backwards to explain the optimal defensive positioning in both positions and how to escape from the inferior positions and into a neutral Ashi Garami. He doesn’t just stop there however and Skinner has an incredibly valuable section where he explains how to transition to an advantageous position and simultaneously attack a heelhook of your own.
For those of you that might not be particularly confident in attacking heelhooks, Jeremy Skinner also spends a subsection on discussing how to come up on top and begin passing from the Neutral Ashi Garami position. This isn’t really the focus of the instructional, but it’s nice that he spends some time on explaining how to get into the more traditional areas of Jiu-Jitsu while the bulk of the video is centered around the leglock meta.
Cross Leg Entanglements (50/50 and the Saddle)
This section starts exactly the same as the first, by discussing how to slip the heel when your partner has locked up the heelhook in both 50/50 and the Saddle. He explains how slipping the heel can be a little more difficult from these position and goes through the necessary steps to compensate for the change of position. He works backwards again and spends some time going through effective defensive positioning either before your partner attacks, or after you’ve managed to slip the heel.
In the final subsections, Skinner again goes through how to transition from defending and escaping the position into an advantageous position of your own. In this case, he works from the Outside Crab and demonstrates how to enter the Saddle yourself, or again shows a transition into more traditional areas of Jiu-Jitsu; this time taking the back. He also shows the alternative route of escaping both 80/20 and the Saddle, whereby he enters 50/50 instead.
Conclusion: Well Worth it and a Fantastic Starting Point
Skinner starts by going through the attacker’s goals in these interactions which, in my opinion, is the best way to learn any defensive technique. He’s a really eloquent and detailed teacher who hammers home the basic concepts around how to stay safe and protect yourself in leg entanglements constantly, reinforcing them throughout. The instructional is focused almost entirely on defending, escaping and then transitioning to more dominant positions when facing a proficient leglocker.
For the cost of the instructional (£40), there’s a good amount of content and serves as the perfect starting point for anyone who is starting to get into the leglock meta. Alternatively, this could really help anyone who finds themselves dragged into heelhook shootouts often, where both grapplers are attacking with little regard for defense. Anyone in either of those situations will find a great deal of benefit from studying this and really committing these solid defensive concepts and positional escapes to muscle-memory.
In fact, if you’re interested in rounding out your knowledge of the modern leglock game and learning the offensive side of things as well, Tom Halpin also has an instructional we recently reviewed focused around X-guard and attacking leglocks.
Jeremy Skinner – Fundamental Leg Entanglements, Escapes, and Heelhooks is currently available to purchase on Techniqly, click here to find out more.
Or to take a look at our other instructional reviews, click here.
