Mikey Lock Escape

FamilyEscapes & DefenceLevelAdvancedPerspectiveBottomIntentDefensiveSafetyElevatedHubLeg EntanglementsMapView on graph →This technique has elevated risk. Make sure you've covered the prerequisites before attempting.

Manage injuries →Position map Connects to 8 positions across 3 relationshipsOpen in the map →12345678←Escape route from

The Mikey lock attacks the foot and the knee at once, from the saddle. For the attack, see Mikey Lock. The attacker puts your foot beside their neck rather than under their armpit, uses the neck as the fulcrum, and drives the heel bone with the lower palm — so the load lands on the ankle and the Achilles directly, with a slight outward turn carrying rotation into the knee.

It arrives as the second attack on the same leg. The attacker goes for the inside heel hook, you defend the rotation, and the cross-ashi configuration that was holding you for the heel hook is already holding you for this. The three attacks — inside heel hook, Mikey lock, calf slicer — are best understood as one system with three finishes rather than as separate techniques, and a defender who beats one without leaving the entanglement has changed which one is coming, not whether one is. The Mikey lock is the specific answer to the defence that beats the heel hook: pointing the toe and slipping the heel out works because the attacker’s grip needs the heel to travel a long way, and this grip needs it to travel from your shoulder to your head.

The four universal principles govern the saddle and are the prerequisite reading. What they cover is the heel; the addition here is that hiding the heel is still the early answer even though the heel is not the target — because the modified lace this needs is built off heel exposure.

Elevated RiskMikey Lock (Defence) is an elevated risk technique. Two structures load at once. The wedge on the foot loads the ankle and the Achilles directly, and a slight outward turn transmits rotation into the knee — so this is a foot lock and a knee attack in the same grip. What makes it dangerous to defend is how little travel it needs: the heel moves from beside the shoulder to beside the head, so the long, obvious movement that warns you a heel hook is coming never happens. You also cannot hand-fight the grip out or kick free, which removes the escalating struggle that normally tells both players a submission is close. Serious injury can occur Very short, and without the usual approach. Treat the foot arriving beside the attacker's neck as the deadline, not the moment you feel load..

If you are new to this technique: read this section before anything else. Understanding the danger is part of understanding the technique.

The person applying the technique is responsible for releasing immediately.