Your Guide To The Future Of Ankle Locks

Chris Wojcik has been on a tear recently. He’s been dominating opponents at major events under different rulesets across several weight classes with a unique leg locking style. He even has a move named after him!

Wojcik recently released a new instructional on leg locking so I picked his brain on the future of leg locking. In the premium section we even look at some the leg lockers he draws inspiration from.

If you want to know where grappling and leg locks specifically are headed (according to someone using them at the highest level!) read this.

My name is Chris Wojcik and I’m a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Jeff Serafin, currently training out of the B-Team in Austin, Texas.

I’ve been very active on the professional competition circuit for the last couple of years, but I’ve had some success in some major competitions this year. In August, I finished 4th place in the ADCC World Championships at 88KG.

I recently took 2nd at the Professional Grappling Federation 205-pound season. Most of my wins come via leg lock.

I’ve also been traveling the US teaching seminars and building my newsletter and Instagram page called “The Grappler’s Diary”.

My new instructional is titled “Woj Lock the World: A guide to the future of ankle locks”.

A “Woj Lock” is a Reverse Aoki Lock – I learned how to do this from my original coach Jeff Serafin. I’ve been using this leg lock in BJJ competitions since around 2021, and the instructional covers how to do this lock and how to use many of the other ankle locks I use. At PGF recently, I finished 5 of my opponents with ankle lock variations.

I guess it might sound a little egotistical to name a lock after yourself, but the truth is that Kieran Kichuk gave it the name after I showed him the lock. I thought it was funny and decided to embrace it and here we are.

Ankle locks and all of their variations are the future of leg locks.

The funny thing is that ankle locks are also the past of leg locks. Many of the ankle locks that are popular nowadays were used heavily in the early 2000s by guys like Shinya Aoki.

This technique likely comes from catch-wrestling (which Aoki practiced), and it’s becoming commonly used again today.

What’s old is new, but the Aoki locks and ankle locks that you’re seeing in high-level competition today are definitely a more refined version of the past popular ankle locks.

I expect for the next few years ankle locks will become more and more popular, and this will naturally lead people to develop strong defenses, which will lead us back to things like knee bars and heel hooks becoming popular. 

But for now? It’s an ankle lock era.

Leg locks have been around for as long as people have been fighting each other. There’s even an image from an ancient ruin depicting a centaur heel hooking a guy in battle.

For as long as combat sports have existed, there have been dorks who like exploiting the easiest way to win.

In high-level BJJ, leg locks were demonized for a long time.

They weren’t even really a part of “old school” BJJ. It wasn’t until ADCC came around and grappling styles started blending that people really started paying attention to leg locks.

BJJ has the best leg locks now, but that’s because BJJ has the most money in grappling these days. Thank the UFC for that.

Eventually, guys like Dean Lister came along and developed something called “the 4-11”. Dean was my coach at PGF and he explained to me that when he was competing, most guys didn’t understand what 4-11 (AKA saddle, double trouble, or cross-ashi) even was, and thus if you got into the position, it was basically game over.

For a few years, 4-11 was the most popular leg-locking position. Single Leg X to 4-11 (saddle) to an inside heel hook.

The Danaher guys became heavy users of the outside and inside heel hook. I used to study Danaher’s leg locking instructionals back in the day and although they were very good and detailed, they were always heel hook focused.

To defend a heel hook, you often expose yourself to ankle lock or Aoki Lock, and that’s why we’re here today.

Eddie Cummings is in my opinion the most underrated leg locker of all time. Many believe that he developed most of what became known as “The Danaher Leg Lock Game”. My entire early leg lock game just from watching Eddie Cummings highlights.

Nowadays, I’ve enjoyed watching guys like Jett Thompson, Mateusz Szczecinski, and Diego Pato.

I learned most of my early techniques from my original coach Jeff Serafin who owns a gym in Evanston, IL.

Honestly, since watching Jiu-Jitsu for a good portion of the day is part of my job, I don’t watch MMA nearly as much as I used to.

That said, my favorite leg lockers in MMA are Garry Tonon, Imanari, Ryan Hall, and Sakuraba.

I can’t say I have a favorite MMA guard player, but I always enjoy watching how the guard changes when strikes are involved versus when they aren’t.

I also really enjoy watching my teammate Damien Anderson, who’s currently undefeated in pro MMA and will be UFC-bound very soon.

Tons. I trained with Joaquin Buckley recently when he was at B-Team.

We always have MMA guys coming into the gym and I always try to get rounds in with them when possible. We had Rafael Dos Anjos coming in regularly for a while, I used to train with many of Belal’s training partners back in Chicago, and I’ve had grappling matches against several UFC vets and other high-level MMA fighters.

I don’t have any plans to do MMA myself (I did Combat Jiu-Jitsu once and that was enough for me) but I enjoy training with those guys every now and then. It’s educational and humbling for both of us, depending on what discipline we choose to train.

I think one of the biggest evolutions in grappling right now is the guard passing game.

Ideas like rumble passing, high-tripod passing, and body lock passing are all blending to create one unique passing style.

For the last few years, technical development in the sport was stand-up focused, but nowadays passing is making a comeback. Before that, the emphasis was on the guard when things like K-Guard and False Reap were being developed.

These evolutions are cyclical, meaning the next few years will be all about passing. Guard will make a resurgence after that.

Thank you so much for asking me for this interview! Was an honor.

My new instructional is available on BJJ Fanatics and my newsletter is called The Grappler’s Diary. In addition to the new Woj Lock instructional, I also have an instructional called Don’t Stand Up, which is available as well on BJJ Fanatics.

Lastly I just got second at the Eddie Bravo Invitational. You can watch the replay on UFC Fight Pass. Here is an ankle lock I got in the semi finals.

If you want to see some highlights of all of the leg lockers Wojcik mentioned above, keep reading the Premium Section below.

We’re coming up on the end of the year so next week I’ll be taking a break. That means no newsletter on 12/24.

The following week, 12/31, we’ll be doing a recap of the major changes we saw this year and discussing where both grappling and MMA are going. See you then!