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How To Use One Attack To Threaten Two Legs
Notes from the highest levels of jiujitsu we saw at WNO 27
William
April 22nd, 2025
FIRST THINGS FIRST
Welcome to Open Note Grappling.
Every Tuesday morning I send out a breakdown of the best combat sports action. In less than 10 minutes you'll learn how the top fighters win and anything else fighters, martial artists, and fight fans need to know.
Something very rare happened this weekend. We got a professional grappling event, WNO, and no UFC. That means we get to go deep on a leg locker who’s leading the next generation of technical foot fighters. If you want a better understanding of the highest levels of jiujitsu, don’t skip this article.
In the Premium Notebook we’re going to look at two matches where people tried using high guard to attack. One worked, the other didn’t, and I’m going to tell you why!
If you want to read that section upgrade to the Premium Notebook. You can try a week for free if you click here.
Before we get started I want to give a shout out to this week’s sponsor Choju!
Choju is the perfect supplement for all combat sports athletes. Choju has 5 key electrolytes and BCAAs that help protect muscle mass and speed up recovery after grueling training sessions and weight cuts. If I don’t have time to eat before I train, IO’ll drink a scoop of Choju so I don’t feel like shit.
Now let’s get into it.
What's In Today's Letter?
HOW TO USE ONE SUBMISSION TO THREATEN TWO LEGS:
Analyzing Chris Wojcik’s Beautiful Finish
In WNO 27’s featured preliminary match, ADCC competitor Chris Wojcik took on Michael Esquivel II. When the two got tangled up, it looked like Esquivel was going to counter the leg locks that Wojcik is using to make his name.
Pay attention to Esquivel’s left knee. After Wojcik elevates Esquivel, Esquivel stays safe by slipping his knee past Wojcik’s knee line. Now Esquivel can put his shins behind Wojcik’s thighs and dive into his hips to elevate him and try to take his back. Wojcick stays safe by keep his back down and scooting away. |  Chris Wojcik - Michael Esquivel |
But after this brief counter success, Wojcik got into his game.
Wojcik scoops Esquivel’s leg and inverts to elevate him. Esquivel looks to drop into a similar counter as above, but Wojcik pulls Esquivel’s leg in before he can free his knee line. Then Wojcik locks his ankles high on Esquivel’s hip before turning Esquivel’s ankle for his signature woj lock. |  Chris Wojcik - Michael Esquivel |
Here comes the slick part. Watch how Wojcik switches from attacking one leg to the next.
Wojcik threads his right arm under Esquivel’s left leg to grab Esquivel’s right. Then Wojcik relinquishes the achilles grip on Esquivel’s left leg to grab the right. Wojcik puts his left leg under and right leg over Esquivel’s leg to put some stank on the submission. Esquivel taps mid roll as Wojcik rips his foot off. |  Chris Wojcik - Michael Esquivel |
Here are some stills if you need to see the important details.
Wojcik has an achilles grip on Esquivel’s left leg.
Wojcik threads his right arm under Esquivel’s left leg
Wojcik collects Esquivel’s right ankle
Wojcik has taken his right arm out from underneath Esquivel’s left leg to attack the shotgun aoki lock
Chris Wojcik is much watch and I’m not just saying that because he’s one of my friends. Every time Wojcik competes he’s aggressively hunting new ways of breaking people’s legs.
If you’re not studying Wojcik’s game, you’re missing out.
Later in the night, two younger prospects used brutal mechanics for holding the back and attacking rear naked chokes.
HAND FIGHTING AND HOLDING ON THE BACK
Two Ways To Hold The Back And Finish The Rear Naked Choke
Owen Jones is one of the UK’s best and brightest grapplers. He made it to the podium at ADCC last year and we covered him in our ADCC Rookie Report series. You can read that one here.
Jones employed a simple and underused technique to win the hand fight against Julián Espinosa and secure the rear naked choke.
Espinosa is trying to hand fight but Jones gets cross grips with both of his hands. Before Espinosa has a second to think, Jones grabs Espinosa’s lat across the body. Jones eliminates Espinosa’s defensive hand, the right one, by pushing it down so he can secure his rear naked choke. |  Owen Jones - Julian Espinosa |
I love this arm pit \ lat grip on the back. It freezes your opponent to your chest so you can carefully work towards the rear naked choke without losing space.
Later in this match, the young phenom Helena Crevar showed a much ruder way to hang onto the back.
Clay is trying to play something like far hip ashi while Crevar stands to pass. Clay switches to an ankle lock and goes belly down. Crevar pushes Clay’s feet off of her hip and crawls up Clay’s back. Crevar locks a face crank and figure four on one of Clay’s legs. Clay is forced to hand fight from a horrible position. |  Helena Crevar - Elisabeth Clay |
Once Crevar’s leg was free it was only a matter of time before she reset the hooks and took the win.
Crevar holds the face crank while she chair sits on Clay. Then she locks a figure four to solidify the back. From there Crevar just inches her right hand up to Clay’s collar bone and locks another rear choke. With the body triangle and hands in the right place, Clay is forced to tap. |  Helena Crevar - Elisabeth Clay |
This win made Crevar the youngest WNO champion ever. She’s also quickly closing out her division. She’s already ranked #2 in the world at her weight class and she’s still a teenager!
Crevar only has one unavenged loss, and that’s to the current ADCC champ of her division. Seriously, who’s going to beat her in the next few years?
WNO 27 also had two 10th planet stars. Both make good use of their high guard attacks and complicated rubber guard but only one won this weekend.
If you want to keep reading, consider upgrading to the Premium Notebook. It’s only $5 a month and you can cancel whenever you need to. You can even try a week for free if you click here.
LINKS, INSTRUCTIONALS, AND MORE MATCHES TO STUDY:
What Are We Talking About Today?
If you click here you can read more about Chris Wojcik, his opinions on the next generation of jiujitsu athletes, and recommendations on who to study.
Want to read more about shotgun aoki locks? Watch this.
This really has nothing to do with today’s article but it’s unique, pretty weird, and very cool. Someone put on a jiujitsu event in suits and you can watch the whole thing here.
THE MOST IMPORTANT NEWS (you might have missed)
Khamzat Chimaev was rumored to be fighting Dricus Du Plessis for the middleweight title. Now it looks like DDP is injured but Caio Borralho will be fighting Chimaev. I love the Borralho - Chimaev fight. Borralho has the size and jiujitsu to stifle Chimaev early and maybe come back to win. You can read what all of them said here.
OKTAGON MMA announced OKTAGON 69 had 1.3MM viewers on its main TV partner. This is further evidence that the most interesting stuff in MMA is happening in Europe, while the most depressing part of combat sports (the Ali Act getting stripped) happens in America.
ONE Championship star Takeru traveled to Vietnam to visit a school he’s funding with his winnings from fighting. I guess this means the most uplifting stories are happening in Asia? Read the story here.
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