Again this sounds like one of “Those Moves”. A Toe Hold from the Sprawl??? No way. That doesn’t even make sense. That was what I thought too until I noticed that Josh Barnett was teaching it. Then I paid attention. Josh, much like Erik Paulson, is a leg lock wizard. I recently had the pleasure of training with one Josh’s students and was in awe at how fast he could find a leg lock.

In the video below Josh starts from the Sprawl postion and eventually transitions to the Toe Hold. After watching the video I feel like this is going to take some serious drilling to get down. Getting the dive correct could be the difference between finishing the move and losing the move.

The good news is that in the video Josh shows several plan B attacks. This diving toe hold can be used to transition to a heel hook or a knee bar. It all depends on what your opponent on top does. This is one of the reasons I like attacking the legs. Once you understand how to chain together your leg attacks, you start to create situations that no matter what your partner does, you can find a way to attack them. Doing this will keep your opponent on the defensive and give you the time that you need to set up your favorite leg lock finish.

Like I said this move is going to require some drilling. I plan on drilling this during our 10th Planet Van Nuys drilling class so if you would like to help me out and learn the move yourself let me know!