Are Leg Locks Taking Over Jiu-Jitsu? What the Data Actually Shows

July 12, 2026

Updated July 12, 2026 · current as of today

The Jiu-Jitsu Mindset · Data Study

Are Leg Locks Taking Over Jiu-Jitsu? What the Data Actually Shows

Ask around any gym and half the room will tell you leg locks are the future. But the numbers from the sport's biggest stage tell a more interesting story: at the ADCC World Championship, leg-lock finishes have actually fallen from roughly 30% to 22%. Here is what the data really says about whether leg locks are taking over.

Leg locks as a share of all finishes

Lower-body submissions as a percentage of finishes, by dataset.

ADCC 2017–2019 (peak)

30%

Elite roster (our study)

23%

ADCC 2024

22%

ADCC women's division

13%

The heel hook's rise — and plateau

Leg locks exploded in the mid-2010s, driven by John Danaher's Danaher Death Squad in the no-gi circuit. At the ADCC, the heel hook climbed to the #2 most-used submission in both 2017 and 2019. Then the trend reversed: only five heel-hook finishes in 2022, and just four in 2024 — falling out of the top three entirely.

So are leg locks taking over?

Not at the top. In our own study of 3,209 finishes by 97 elite grapplers, leg locks are the second-largest family at about 23% — a huge share, but still well behind the back attacks and classic upper-body game that together account for roughly three-quarters of all finishes. The ADCC's macro data agrees: 78% of its finishes come from the upper body.

The likeliest reason the numbers dipped is simple: the defense caught up. As every serious grappler learned to recognize and counter leg entanglements, the easy finishes dried up — more on that in our heel-hook success-rate breakdown.

What about the women's division?

Here the gap is stark. In the ADCC women's division, leg locks make up just 13% of submissions, and BJJ Heroes recorded zero heel-hook finishes across four championships. See our full women vs. men breakdown.

Frequently asked questions

Are leg locks taking over jiu-jitsu?

Not at the elite level. Leg-lock finishes at the ADCC have fallen from about 30% (2017–2019) to 22% (2024), and they sit near 23% in our study of elite grapplers. They are a major weapon, but upper-body submissions still dominate.

Why are there fewer heel hooks at ADCC now?

Because defense caught up. Once athletes learned to recognize and counter leg entanglements, the finishing rate dropped. The heel hook is still a top-used attack, but it no longer produces the easy finishes it did during the mid-2010s boom.

Do women use leg locks in jiu-jitsu?

Far less. In the ADCC women's division, leg locks account for only 13% of finishes and heel hooks are essentially absent, likely a mix of flexibility, technique preferences, and more guard-based styles.