The toe hold bends and twists the ankle

Position and problem

A foot turns up near your chest during a scramble or a pass, you grab it with both hands and bend, and the foot straightens out of your hands, or it bends a little and your partner turns their whole leg with it and waits. The grip felt strong and nothing reached the joint. A toe hold fails this way when the hands hold the toes instead of the foot, or when the leg above the ankle is free to turn along with it. Both problems are about where the grip sits and what holds the rest of the leg, and neither is fixed by squeezing harder.

Objective

Close a figure-four across the top of the foot with the knee held still, then point and turn the foot slowly with your body while your elbows stay tight to your ribs.

Core concept

The toe hold is the same figure-four grip that makes the kimura work on an arm, applied to a foot. The hand nearer the toes takes the top of the foot across its width, close to the base of the toes, and the other arm passes behind their ankle, under the Achilles, to hold your own wrist. That grip gives you a long lever on a short joint: the ankle is the hinge, and your hand is as far from it as the foot allows. Pressing the top of the foot down points the foot past its range, and turning the grip twists the foot on the shin, so the ankle is loaded by bending and by rotation together, and that pairing is what sets it apart from the straight ankle lock and the heel hook. A straight ankle lock bends the ankle along its own hinge; the toe hold adds the turn, so most of the load stays at the ankle and part of the twist can travel up the shin when the leg above it cannot turn. Because the lock needs the shin to stay put while the foot turns, it needs control above the ankle, even if less of it than a heel hook asks for: a knee that bends and a hip that turns follow the foot round. The grip is often found wherever a foot is loose, which is why it turns up from outside ashi garami, from the 50/50, and from top positions when a passer catches a foot that was left out.

Key mechanics

1. 01Take the foot across its width, not by the toes. A hand wrapped round the toes bends only the toes, and the foot straightens out under it; a hand across the top of the foot near the base of the toes moves the whole foot.
2. 02Thread the second arm behind the ankle and hold your own wrist. The arm behind the Achilles is the anchor the foot turns around, and without it the grip is two hands pulling on the same end of the lever.
3. 03Keep both elbows tight to your body and the foot close to your chest or hip. An elbow that drifts out lengthens your arms instead of the lever, and the foot slides toward the gap.
4. 04Stop the knee and hip from turning with the foot. Your legs, your hip or your weight have to hold the leg above the ankle, because a leg free to rotate turns the lock into a leg being steered.
5. 05Point the foot first, then add the turn. A foot already pointed has no slack left to absorb the rotation, so the twist arrives at the joint rather than being taken up by the ankle moving.
6. 06Finish with the body, not the forearms. Turning the shoulders and hips while the grip stays locked is slower, more precise and easier to stop than cranking the wrists.

Common errors

• ×Gripping the toes, which bends the toes, lets the ankle stay neutral and gives the partner time to pull the foot back.
• ×Letting the threading elbow float away from the body, so the foot slips toward the open side of the grip.
• ×Twisting a foot that is still flexed back toward the shin, which spends the turn moving the ankle through its slack.
• ×Leaving the knee free, so the partner turns the whole leg with the lock and the ankle feels nothing.
• ×Cranking the grip quickly from a scramble, which loads the ankle faster than the partner can recognise what has happened.

Safety

Training progression

1. 01Static: partner sits with one knee bent and the sole of that foot on the mat. Build the figure-four across the top of the foot, thread the arm behind the ankle and hold your wrist, and let your partner tell you where your hand sits: on the toes, or across the foot.
2. 02Grip drill: take the figure-four on the moving foot of a partner who slowly draws the foot in and out, and keep both elbows tight to your ribs without applying pressure.
3. 03Knee control: from outside ashi garami, partner tries to turn the leg with the foot while you hold the knee still with your legs and hip, keeping the grip without pressure.
4. 04Pointing first: bend the foot down, then add the smallest turn you can and hold it there. Your partner taps as soon as it tightens and tells you which part of the ankle felt it.
5. 05Constrained: from a passing exchange, the top player may attack only the toe hold and only once the foot is gripped across its width; the bottom player defends by hiding the foot and turning the knee in line with it.
6. 06Live rounds: after each attempt, say where your hand sat on the foot when it finished or slipped.

Related entries

• How a straight ankle lock loads the ankle
• The leg entanglement as a control position
• Defending leg locks in order, knee first
• In 50/50, both heels are exposed