The Best Heel Hook Escape You Will Ever Learn

Posted by Fanatics Authors on December 10, 2018

Dean Lister shows how to get out of the nastiest heel hook on the planet!

The incredible Dean Lister is back to teach us how to escape from a nasty heel hook. If you have been caught in one before you know how painful they can be. Having a defense to amount against one is vital for any Brazilian Jiu Jitsu player. Dean Lister has a grappling strategy where he will give his opponent a submission attempt and use this to advance his own position. Because of this play style, Lister is one of the best when it comes to escaping submits. Check out the video below and then we will break it down!

Learn Dean Lister's style of defending and escaping every submission ever thrown at him. It took a beast like Josh Barnett to crush Dean's soul with a scarf hold pin to finish Dean's 16 year streak of never being submitting in COUNTLESS of submission tournaments.

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Lister starts off the demonstrating by show how most BJJ players will go for the heel hook and how problematic the submission can be. “Sooner is better than later,” says Lister when it comes to escaping heel hooks. If your opponent already has your heel, you may as well just tap, else suffer the consequences. Dean avoids this by crossing his feet together, behind his opponent, making it difficult to grab his heel. It is a matter of timing on this, but once your feet are crossed you can climb up your training partner, grabbing around his neck and shoulders, switching to back control.

As long as you have a training partner you trust you can drill this method. The idea is to keep it hard for your opponent to scoop the heel. So by keeping your feet on the mat it makes it impossible for your training partner to pull off the heel hook. When your opponent gets a little greedy is when you cross your feet and then you’re fine. If you want to long, you’re done. It is a powerful submission, as the heel has very little play. Lister shows that with only your feet you can make it impossible for the opponent to grab your heel, preventing and blocking his arm as he turns to his side.

Of course, a guy like Dean Lister with many years of experience is going to feel more comfortable in this position than your average BJJ player. For many of us, a heel hook attempt sends us scrambling to find some sort of solution as fast as possible. But with the simplicity of Lister’s heel hook escape, you set yourself up to easily get out of a dangerous situation into a more opportunistic one. So remember this one the next time you are drilling heel hook escapes, it is a great tool to have in your combat arsenal.