The Chris Wojcik Leg Lock Seminar at 10th Planet Poway brought one of the world’s top No-Gi competitors to San Diego for an incredible night of modern leg-lock instruction.
Leg locks were once treated like a specialty within Jiu Jitsu.
Today, they’re part of the language of modern No-Gi grappling.
That evolution was on full display when 10th Planet Poway welcomed world-class grappler Chris Wojcik for a seminar focused on outside ashi, 50/50, straight ankle locks, and his signature Woj Lock.
Chris has established himself among the elite competitors in professional grappling. He’s an ADCC European Trials bronze medalist, an EBI and PGF finalist, and made an incredible run to fourth place at the 2024 ADCC World Championships in his ADCC debut. He has also built a reputation as one of the most innovative leg-lockers competing today. His signature submission, the Woj Lock, has become so closely associated with his game that it’s now known throughout the grappling world.
But Chris is more than a competitor.
He’s also an accomplished writer and the creator of The Grappler’s Diary, a popular Jiu Jitsu blog and newsletter where he writes about training, competition, skill development, mindset, and the lessons he’s picked up through more than a decade on the mats.
That combination of competitor, student, writer, and teacher comes through in the way Chris explains Jiu Jitsu. Instead of simply demonstrating a collection of moves, he has a way of organizing complicated positions into concepts that are easier to understand and apply.
We got to experience that firsthand at 10th Planet Poway.
And rather than beginning the seminar with a long list of techniques, Chris started somewhere more important.
He started with concepts.
Three Concepts Behind Every Leg Lock
One of the best parts of the seminar was how Chris simplified an area of Jiu Jitsu that can easily become overwhelming.
Leg entanglements have their own vocabulary, positions, grips, transitions, and submissions. It’s easy for students to memorize a dozen attacks without really understanding why one works and another fails.
Chris stripped the entire subject down to three concepts that apply across leg locks:
- Keep your partner off balance. Put them onto their hip or force them to post on their hands so they can’t freely organize their defense.
- Segment the leg. Bend and isolate the leg using your hips or arms so the opponent can’t move their entire lower body as one unit.
- Immobilize the foot. If the opponent can freely move the foot you’re attacking, finishing becomes significantly harder.
Those three ideas became the framework for everything that followed.
Instead of students simply remembering where their hands and feet belonged, they could begin asking better questions:
Is my opponent balanced?
Have I isolated the leg?
Can they still move their foot?
That’s the difference between learning a move and understanding a position.
Why Leg Locks Have Become Essential in Modern No-Gi
The leg-lock game has changed Jiu Jitsu dramatically.
There was a time when many grapplers could develop an excellent guard, passing game, and upper-body submission arsenal while treating foot locks almost as an afterthought.
Modern No-Gi doesn’t allow that luxury.
Today’s grapplers use leg entanglements not only to submit opponents, but also to control position, create sweeps, force reactions, expose the back, and connect lower-body attacks with traditional Jiu Jitsu.
Ignoring leg locks now creates an enormous hole in a grappler’s game.
You don’t necessarily have to become a leg-lock specialist.
You do need to understand the positions.
Learning leg locks also improves your defense. Once you understand how someone isolates your knee, controls your hip, traps your foot, and creates breaking pressure, the attacks stop feeling mysterious.
That’s particularly important at 10th Planet Poway, where our No-Gi Jiu Jitsu Program is built around developing complete grapplers who can wrestle, pass, play guard, scramble, attack submissions, and recognize opportunities wherever a match goes.
Breaking Down Outside Ashi
From those three foundational concepts, Chris moved into outside ashi, one of the most important positions in his leg-lock system.
Outside ashi gives the attacker powerful control over an opponent’s leg and creates opportunities for several lower-body submissions. But Chris’s instruction went beyond simply showing where to place your legs.
The details were about control.
Where should your opponent’s weight be?
How do you prevent them from recovering balance?
How do you isolate the leg before worrying about the finish?
How do you control the foot so the opponent can’t simply rotate out of danger?
Those details are what separate knowing a foot lock from having a foot lock that actually works against experienced resistance.
For students at the seminar, getting those details directly from someone applying them at the highest levels of competition was invaluable.
Turning 50/50 Into an Attacking Position
The seminar then moved into another position that has evolved tremendously over the years: 50/50.
Older approaches to 50/50 sometimes turned the position into a stalemate, with both athletes tangled together and fighting to gain a small positional advantage.
Modern leg-lockers see something very different.
They see an attacking hub.
Chris has become particularly dangerous from 50/50, using the position to connect straight ankle locks, rotational attacks, transitions, and his signature Woj Lock.
During the seminar, he showed how the same three concepts introduced at the beginning still controlled everything.
Break the opponent’s balance.
Segment the leg.
Immobilize the foot.
Once those conditions exist, the submission becomes the final piece of the puzzle rather than something you have to force.
Straight Ankle Locks Are Far From “Basic”
One of the biggest lessons of the seminar was just how sophisticated the straight ankle lock has become.
It’s often one of the first leg submissions students learn, which can create the false impression that it’s somehow a beginner’s attack.
At a high level, that’s completely wrong.
Small changes in hip position, leg configuration, grip, foot placement, and direction of force can transform an ordinary ankle lock into an extremely difficult submission to escape.
Chris walked the room through several different straight foot-lock finishes, showing how the mechanics changed depending on the opponent’s reactions and the leg entanglement being used.
It was a perfect example of how modern Jiu Jitsu continues to evolve.
Sometimes progress doesn’t mean inventing an entirely new position.
Sometimes it means taking a submission that’s been around for decades and understanding it at a much deeper level.
Finishing with the Woj Lock
Of course, a Chris Wojcik leg-lock seminar wouldn’t be complete without the Woj Lock.
Chris finished the technical portion by breaking down the submission that has become synonymous with his competition game.
The Woj Lock fits naturally into the system he had spent the seminar building. It’s not a random trick or one-off submission. It connects directly to the control principles, 50/50 attacks, and ankle-lock mechanics students had already been working on.
That’s what made the progression of the seminar so effective.
By the time Chris taught the Woj Lock, students weren’t simply copying a famous competitor’s move.
They understood the framework behind it.
That teaching style also makes more sense when you spend some time reading The Grappler’s Diary. Chris spends a lot of his writing examining how grapplers learn and develop skills—not simply which techniques they should collect. His ability to take complicated ideas and organize them into something useful translated perfectly to the seminar room.
World-Class Jiu Jitsu, Right Here in Poway
After the technical portion wrapped up, Chris stayed on the mats, answered questions, and rolled with several of our higher belts.
It was informative, relaxed, and fun—the kind of seminar where students walked away with details they could immediately begin experimenting with in training.
Hosting athletes like Chris is also part of what we want 10th Planet Poway to offer the San Diego Jiu Jitsu community.
We recently brought another IBJJF San Diego Adult & Masters No-Gi Team Championship home to Poway, but having a strong competition team is only one piece of what we’re building.
We want our students exposed to different ideas.
Different systems.
Different high-level competitors.
Jiu Jitsu evolves too quickly for an academy to stop learning.
Between our experienced coaching staff, dedicated Wrestling Program, 100% No-Gi training, competition experience, and seminars with some of the sport’s best grapplers, our goal is to provide one of the premier places to learn No-Gi Jiu Jitsu in San Diego.
Chris Wojcik’s seminar was another great addition to that environment.
And we’re already putting the details to work.
Ready to Train No-Gi Jiu Jitsu at 10th Planet Poway?
You don’t need to know outside ashi, 50/50, or the Woj Lock before walking through our doors.
You don’t need wrestling experience.
And you definitely don’t need to be a competitor.
At 10th Planet Poway, complete beginners train alongside hobbyists and experienced competitors in an environment built around learning and continual improvement.
If you’re looking for Jiu Jitsu in Poway or San Diego and want to learn a modern No-Gi game, explore our No-Gi Jiu Jitsu Program, view our class schedule, or contact 10th Planet Poway to schedule a trial class.
Come experience the training for yourself.
We’ll see you on the mats.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Who is Chris Wojcik?
Chris Wojcik is a professional Jiu Jitsu black belt, ADCC veteran, 2023 ADCC European Trials bronze medalist, and fourth-place finisher at the 2024 ADCC World Championships. He’s also an accomplished writer and the creator of The Grappler’s Diary.
Q: What is The Grappler’s Diary?
The Grappler’s Diary is Chris Wojcik’s Jiu Jitsu blog and newsletter. Chris writes about training, skill development, competition, mindset, and lessons from his experiences as a professional grappler.
Q: What did Chris Wojcik teach at 10th Planet Poway?
Chris taught a No-Gi leg-lock seminar covering three fundamental control concepts, outside ashi, 50/50, multiple straight ankle-lock finishes, and his signature Woj Lock.
Q: What is the Woj Lock?
The Woj Lock is Chris Wojcik’s signature lower-body submission and an important part of his modern 50/50 and ankle-lock system.
Q: Are leg locks important for No-Gi Jiu Jitsu?
Yes. Modern No-Gi grappling uses leg entanglements for submissions, sweeps, positional control, transitions, and creating reactions. Understanding the leg-lock game is also essential for developing reliable defense.
Q: Do beginners learn leg locks at 10th Planet Poway?
Beginners are introduced to No-Gi Jiu Jitsu progressively, with an emphasis on understanding positions, control, technique, and safe training before more advanced attacks are added.
Q: Can I try a class at 10th Planet Poway?
Absolutely. Check our class schedule and contact us to get started.
Related Reading
- The Grappler’s Diary — Chris Wojcik’s writing on Jiu Jitsu, competition, training, and skill development.
- The History of 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu
- Gi vs. No-Gi Jiu Jitsu: Which Is Right for You?
- What Is Grappling in MMA?
- Explore more 10th Planet Poway Blog articles.
About 10th Planet Poway
Located in Poway, California, 10th Planet Poway offers No-Gi Jiu Jitsu, Wrestling, Muay Thai, and Kids Martial Arts programs for beginners, hobbyists, and competitive athletes. Our experienced coaching staff is committed to helping every student improve while continuing to bring high-level training, competition experience, and world-class instruction to the San Diego Jiu Jitsu community.
