Skip to content
Hidden Leg Attacks, Slicers and Compression
Leg locks are commonly perceived as heel hooks, toe holds, ankle locks, knee bars, and estima locks. People often forget about compression locks and slicers. Compressions and slicers are absolutely devastating and have been extremely effective for years. Why are they so effective? They attack muscle, joints, tendons, ligaments, and even bones. A tight calf slicer can tear your entire muscle, rupture tendons, and even break bones.
Why are slicers and compressions often over looked? Because many people assume they are a pain submission but don’t realize the implication of a slicer or compression lock can cause devastating damage. The calf slicer is one of the best submissions in bjj and MMA, along with knee compressions or hamstring compressions.
The Calf Slicer
The calf slicer is one of the best submissions in bjj and has been around much longer than people assume. The calf slicer has been utilized in competition for over a decade. Check out our article “The Wonderful World of Calf Slicers” to learn more on them and their history.
Calf slicers have very good entries and they can surprise your opponent. One of the slickest entries to the calf slicers comes from the 10th planet positions “the truck” and “lock down.” These are incredible positions to attack the calf slicer from. The calf slicer is an extremely unorthodox submission and many people may be surprised by someone who is well versed with it. Check out this sneaky set up from Dean Lister doing a calf slicer from mount.
Compression Locks
Compression locks are commonly perceived as pain locks but they are much more. The knee compression is an extremely popular compression lock and finishing a knee compression threatens tearing the meniscus, ACL, MCL, LCL, Patella, and even dislocation of the knee cap. These submissions are no joke. The element of surprise is another great benefit of compressions locks. Eddie Bravo infamously put Royler Gracie in knee, groin, and calf compression in the Metamoris rematch but Royler would not tap.
Many top level grapplers have used compressions to win matches at the highest level, and even if you can’t finish a compression lock you can use it to set up other submissions or positional attacks such as back takes, guard passes and more. Some people think that the lock down is a compression lock in itself and many people will conceive to sweeps just to avoid the pain of a tight lock down. If you are having problems with defending compression locks check out this video of Dean Lister displaying a Compression Lock escape.
If you really want to take your leg attack game to the next level than you need to check our article “Dean Listers Slick Calf Slicer,” also, get Dean Listers 4 DVD set “The K.A.T.C.H Leg Attack System.” This is a complete leg attack system by the best to ever do leg locks, Dean Lister. Dean Lister won the ADCC Absolute!
