Okay, before you read the video, here’s why footlocks aren’t that popular amongst most submission wrestlers/BJJers

The first one is the cultural reason: In Brasil, the guard is considered the pinnacle of zhoo zhitsu. Good guard (or gward) is the essence of BJJ. Normally, to submit someone from top, you need to pass gward. Except with footlocks – if you are bad at passing guard, you can still submit your opponent through footlock. This is why it’s considered a cheap submission.

The second one is more pragmatic, and comes down to safety. With an upper body joint lock, there’s a period of discomfort, then pain, then injury, then really bad injury. With a lower body joint lock, these periods are severely truncated, so the discomfort phase doesn’t last too long before you’re into injury territory. Also, submission which twist the knee (heel hooks) can end someone’s career. That’s why they’re illegal in pretty much every competition you’re likely to enter. Added to this risk is the fact that beginners very often try to twist away from straight ankle locks, and twist their knee in the process. Ouch!

All that been said, the following video contains the safer of the footlocks. The toe hold because it places stress on the ankle, not the knee, and has a large pain component before there’s injury. The kneebar is a lot easier to control, so it’s likely your opponent will know he’s caught and isn’t likely to spaz out and injure himself.