High Percentage Leg Locks

Instructor: Lachlan Giles, black belt under John Donehue (Absolute MMA, Melbourne). Physiotherapist with a PhD thesis on knee injuries. System: His own leg-lock framework — built around 50/50, 80/20, and outside Sankaku (90/10) rather than the older saddle / outside ashi game. The same system he used to medal in all three weight classes plus the absolute at ADCC 2019. Why I'm studying this: The leg-lock branch of my game. Going through it systematically.

Volumes

• Volume 01 — Concepts The conceptual foundation: position naming (50/50, 80/20, outside Sankaku, saddle, outside ashi, reap, single X), knee anatomy, the three ways to finish a heel hook, the two pillars of control (knee line + rotation), the three-phase finishing system (expose → secure → finish), and the full defensive hierarchy.
• Volume 02 — Countering Counters, Position Analysis, and the 50/50 System The attacker's answer to every defense from Volume 01: forward elbow hop, forward shoulder roll, the four-tier counter ladder. Then a strengths/weaknesses pass over all five leg-locking positions (reap, outside ashi, saddle, 50/50, outside Sankaku). Then the full 50/50 system end-to-end — defending your own legs, the knee-line battles, freeing your knee into 80/20, the transition to outside Sankaku, unlocking partner's feet (Jason Rau toe grip), and the finishing options.
• Volume 03 — Other Submissions, Outside Sankaku, Reclaiming the Knee Line, and Distal Control The secondary submissions worth knowing (bread cutter, toe hold, the 50/50 straight ankle), outside Sankaku in depth — including the Vettelina-inspired forward-roll-over-head finish Lachlan flags as possibly his current best heel-hook entry from there. Reclaiming the knee line once partner frees it. Then the full distal control system for when you only have the end of partner's leg — both the foot-inside scenario (chop-the-knee, foot-fight sequence) and the foot-outside scenario (renaked-choke grip, single-X variant).
• Volume 04 — Standing Opponent, Sweeps, Back-Takes, and the Top 50/50 Game Heel hooks against a standing opponent — three exposure methods (knock-to-side, spin-under, spin-over-the-top), the last of which Lachlan hit in the ADCC trials final. Sweeps and back-takes from bottom 50/50 for points contexts (the "free leg on bottom" rule, thigh-hook back-take, dragon's tail, the Mehdi brothers' same-ankle grip). Top 50/50: how to come up safely, how to disengage three different ways, the opportunist back-take, and the knee-bar finish.
• Volume 05 — Defending the Saddle and Outside Ashi, and Inside-Position Entries to 50/50 Two volumes glued together. First half is defense — surviving the saddle (the leg lace, double trouble, the Z lock) and outside Ashi (including last-resort heel-hook escapes). Second half is entries — how to actually arrive at 50/50 and outside Sankaku from butterfly, half butterfly, shin-to-shin, and single leg X, with the full menu of follow-ups: outside Sankaku via sweep, outside Ashi, X-guard, K-guard, and reverse X to the saddle.
• Volume 06 — Outside-Control Entries and the K-Guard System The K-guard chapter — densely problem-solving. The three-layer hierarchy (closed guard → De La Hiva → Reverse De La Hiva), the standard K-guard entry from closed guard, the modified K-guard entry from De La Hiva, and a full defensive playbook against every common counter (two hands on the far leg, knees-together, north-south pass, Berimbolo, run-aways). Ends with a live coaching drill that adds Toriendo and backstep defenses.
• Volume 07 — Reverse De La Hiva and Top-Position Entries Closes the series. First half is the Reverse De La Hiva bottom game — positioning (the Ari Tabak heel-against-ribs detail), the inversion drill, attacking sequences for varying partner distances (invert-to-50/50, false reap, change-grip, far-side K-guard), and late-stage inversion entries when partner starts to pass. Second half is the top-position entries: leg drag, forced leg drag, sit-down recovery, back step from half-guard (regular and fast), straight ankle sit-down, and the under-the-legs stack to saddle.

Watching along

Every timestamp button on this site opens the ▶Bilibili upload of Volume 01 at the exact second referenced. Click any [▶ Watch] link inside the transcript to jump to that moment in the source video.