What are Hooks?
Hooks are curved arm or leg attachments that connect to an opponent’s limbs, helping you follow movement, lift, or restrict an escape.
A useful hook follows the opponent’s movement and supports another control. If its angle is stripped, reposition it instead of holding a rigid, failing attachment.
Film Study
Watch Hooks in action — curated instructionals
Creating room to insert your hook — taught by Rory Van Vliet · Watch on YouTube
Butterfly guard hooks: the most important principles — taught by Marcelo Garcia · 14:13 · Watch on YouTube
The secret to Marcelo Garcia's butterfly hooks — taught by Kenny Florian · 4:55 · Watch on YouTube
Building Blocks
- Curve the limb around the target far enough to make a useful connection.
- Keep active tension while allowing the hook to follow movement.
- Pair hooks with upper-body grips or another point of control.
- Reinsert or replace a hook when the opponent changes the angle.
Prerequisites
Foot Hook Placement: The ability to set foot hooks with precision — instep behind the knee for back control, foot inside the thigh for butterfly guard, heel on the hip for open guard retention. Proper foot hook placement means the curved portion of the foot wraps fully around the target, creating geometric retention that resists the opponent’s stripping attempts.
Underhook Threading: Threading the arm under the opponent’s armpit and curving upward behind the shoulder blade. A deep underhook with the elbow past the opponent’s centerline provides powerful directional control — the ability to steer the opponent’s upper body. Shallow underhooks that stop at the armpit provide weak attachment and are easily countered with a whizzer.
Overhook Control: Wrapping the arm over the opponent’s arm and curving downward to trap it against your body. The overhook (whizzer) counters the underhook and creates its own control opportunities including back takes and sweeps. Effective overhooks press the elbow tight against the ribs to prevent the opponent from withdrawing the trapped arm.
Hook Depth Management: Controlling how deep hooks are inserted to balance retention with mobility. Deep butterfly hooks provide maximum sweep leverage but limit your own hip mobility. Shallow hooks allow quick transitions but can be stripped easily. Learning to modulate hook depth based on the tactical situation is a key skill.
Hook Reattachment: When a hook is partially stripped, quickly reattaching it before the opponent can capitalize on the loss of connection. This requires keeping the hooking limb light and responsive rather than rigid, so it can flow back into position along a new angle when the original attachment is disrupted.
Dual Hook Coordination: Managing two hooks simultaneously — both butterfly hooks, both back control hooks, or an underhook-overhook combination. When both hooks work together, they create a control system where stripping one hook often exposes the opponent to the other. This creates a dilemma that is harder to solve than a single attachment point.
Hook-Based Elevation: Using hooked feet to elevate the opponent’s body weight for sweeps, off-balancing, and guard transitions. The butterfly hook elevates the thigh, the X-guard hooks elevate the entire leg, and the De La Riva hook controls the opponent’s balance point. Understanding how hooks create upward force is essential for sweep mechanics.
Hook Defense and Stripping: Recognizing when the opponent has established hooks and knowing how to remove them. Hook stripping requires angle changes — pushing the hooking foot sideways rather than trying to pull it straight out, or swimming past an underhook rather than trying to peel it off with strength.
Where to Apply
Butterfly Guard: Use instep hooks under the thighs with upper-body control to lift and redirect the opponent’s weight.
Back Control: Use inside leg hooks with chest and seatbelt contact to follow the hips as the opponent tries to slide away.
De La Riva Guard: Wrap the outside hook around the lead leg and combine it with grips to affect the opponent’s base.
Clinch: Thread an underhook beneath the arm and connect it to your stance and head position to control the upper body.
How to Apply
- Identify what you need to attach to on the opponent’s body: Determine the target: legs for guard hooks, inner thighs for back control hooks, armpit for underhooks, arm for overhooks. The target determines which type of hook and which limb to use.
- Assess whether the opponent is defending the hook entry point: Check if the opponent’s elbows are tight (preventing underhooks), knees are pinched (preventing butterfly hooks), or arms are blocking (preventing back control hooks). If defended, use a distraction or angle change to open the entry.
- Thread the hook with enough depth for geometric retention: Insert the hook past the point where it wraps around the target. A shallow hook that does not complete the curve can be stripped easily. Drive the foot, hand, or arm deep enough that the curve creates a natural lock around the target structure.
- Activate the hook with directional pressure: Once set, apply active pressure in the direction you want to control: lift with butterfly hooks for elevation, pull with back control hooks for retention, drive with the underhook for steering. Passive hooks maintain connection but active hooks create control.
- Establish a complementary second hook or grip: One hook provides attachment; two hooks create a dilemma. Set the second butterfly hook, establish a grip alongside the underhook, or insert the second back control hook. Redundant attachment survives one hook being stripped.
- Monitor hook integrity and respond to stripping attempts: Feel for the opponent working to remove your hooks. When you sense a hook being stripped, either re-set it from a new angle, activate a backup hook or grip, or use the moment of their focus on hook stripping to attack or transition.
- Use the hook connection to execute your technique: Hooks are tools for sweeps, back takes, guard retention, and position maintenance. Once hooks are set and secure, execute the technique they enable — butterfly sweep, back take from turtle, De La Riva sweep, or underhook to single leg.
- Release or transition hooks as the position changes: Hooks that served one position may hinder the next. Release hooks that are no longer useful and re-set new hooks appropriate to the emerging position. Do not cling to hooks from a previous position when the situation has changed.
Progress Markers
Beginner Level:
- Recognizes the need for hooks in butterfly guard and back control but sets them inconsistently
- Inserts hooks too shallow — toes on thigh instead of instep behind the knee
- Relies on single hooks without establishing backup attachment or grips
- Attempts to strip opponent hooks by pulling straight back instead of changing the angle
Intermediate Level:
- Sets hooks with proper depth and foot position in familiar guard types
- Uses both butterfly hooks and back control hooks as coordinated pairs
- Begins inserting hooks during transitions rather than waiting for settled positions
- Strips opponent hooks using angle changes and swim moves rather than brute force
- Understands the difference between underhook and overhook and uses each purposefully
Advanced Level:
- Inserts hooks reflexively during scrambles and transitional moments with precise timing
- Maintains hooks under heavy resistance through responsive micro-adjustments rather than rigidity
- Uses hooks as active control tools — steering with underhooks, sweeping with butterfly hooks, retaining with DLR hooks
- Layers hooks with grips and other attachment points to create resilient connection systems
- Transitions between hook types as positions evolve without losing connection
Expert Level:
- Creates hook opportunities through subtle pressure and movement that most opponents cannot anticipate
- Uses opponent’s hook stripping attempts as openings for attacks, sweeps, or transitions
- Teaches hook mechanics clearly across all guard types with emphasis on geometric retention and energy efficiency
- Applies hook principles in novel situations and scrambles where standard techniques do not apply
- Maintains dual hook control against elite opposition through superior timing, depth, and responsiveness