The Next Step in MMA: Outlaw the Heel Hook
Filed Under (MMA) by admin on 02-03-2009
Tagged Under : Heel Hook
I am going to receive a lot of heat from the MMA purists for my next suggestion for improving the rules, appeal and safety of mixed martial arts, but I am going to suggest it anyway.
IT IS TIME TO MAKE THE HEEL HOOK AN ILLEGAL SUBMISSION.
Now hold on, don’t throw your keyboard and monitor out the window in disgust. If you think it over and look at the issue objectively, you may ultimately find yourself agreeing with me. And keep in mind…
THERE WAS A POINT IN TIME WHEN PURISTS WERE CLAIMING THE FOLLOWING:
“We should permit head butts.”
“We should permit soccer kicks to downed opponents.”
“We should permit head stomps.”
“The fighters should not use gloves.”
“We should permit hair pulling if the fighter is reckless enough to enter the cage with hair long enough to pull.”
And if you look over the history of MMA and its gradual rules augmentations, you will see many aspects completely absent from modern MMA that were once claimed by some to be essential to the integrity of the sport.
I will probably be in the minority, but I am suggesting that we add the heel hook to the above list of once-permissible but not-worth-the-trouble fighting maneuvers. Now don’t get me wrong. I view the heel hook as a very legitimate submission move, an advanced skill, one worth knowing and studying and being able to defend against. But I would like to see it reserved more for the Krav Maga category than the arena of sanctioned mixed martial arts.
THE UFC CURRENTLY OUTLAWS THE FOLLOWING MOVES:
- Butting with the head.
- Eye gouging of any kind.
- Biting.
- Hair pulling.
- Fish hooking.
- Groin attacks of any kind.
- Striking to the spine or the back of the head.
- Striking downward using the point of the elbow.
- Throat strikes of any kind, including, without limitation, grabbing the trachea.
- Kicking the head of a grounded opponent.
- Kneeing the head of a grounded opponent.
- Stomping a grounded opponent.
- Kicking to the kidney with the heel.
- Small joint manipulation.
More than anything, I liken the heel hook to small joint manipulation (bending, twisting or breaking the fingers as a form of submission).
Several of the outlawed moves are on the outside looking in because they risk permanent brain or spinal injury (striking the spine or back of the head). However, several moves are outlawed for other reasons.
SMALL JOINT MANIPULATION IS NOT PERMITTED FOR TWO REASONS:
1. Damage to these joints can result in permanent impairment and career-ending loss of ability to effectively use the body part.
2. Due to the fragility of these joints, opponents are not given a sufficient opportunity to submit before the submission is fully executed and the damage is done.
THE VERY SAME RATIONALE APPLIES TO THE HEEL HOOK.
When a heel hook is applied, by the time the opponent feels the pain associated with the move and taps, it is quite likely that his knee and its ligaments have already been destroyed. The heel hook stands out among large joint submissions as one that is not only the most damaging, but one that provides the least opportunity to submit before it is executed to completion.
With that said, I would be willing to bet that if you surveyed professional fighters, more would prefer to punched or kicked in the head while unconscious than to have a heel hook performed to completion on them.
Every time a heel hook is applied and completed, the receiver is out for a minimum of six months and is almost guaranteed to return to the cage a reduced version of his former self. Very few athletes in any sport who require knee reconstruction due to torn ligaments will return and perform at 100% of their pre-injury level.
While the heel hook is an impressive submission and everybody loves clips like Ryo Chonan vs. Anderson Silva, is the potential drama provided by this one move worth the risk of the sport’s top stars being out for extended periods of recovery and possibly forced into retirement with a career-threatening injury? The move is literally designed to tear apart the ligaments of the knee, and is applied in such a manner that there is little opportunity to submit before the damage is done.
And don’t get me wrong. I greatly admire the legacy of Ken Shamrock, and it would be a slight source of sadness to see one of his signature moves go by the wayside, given his contributions to the rise of mixed martial arts. But at the same time, Royce Gracie employed headbutts and fought in a gi, both of which are now illegal with virtually no complaint from anyone.
I, for one, am willing to forego the (often grotesque) visuals of the heel hook and suffer the knowledge that the fighters are employing one less (minor) combat skill in order to ensure that my favorite fighters are competing longer and with the same knee ligaments (and agility) they were given at birth.
Id have to respectfully disagree. I am a purist who still pops in the vale tudo dvds and laments the rise of sanctioned , structured mma, but recognize the changes that must be made for the fighters to make a living and appeal to the masses.
However, the round system in general and any type of standup already seriously favors the striker over the grappler. Dan miller uses heel hooks to sweep as well as palhares, to deny those great fighters that , without taking away anything from the striker, is unfair.
There is a certain allowable risk for anyone who is a pro fighter, and this is one of them.
1. Another rationale for most of the list of illegal techniques is that they can hardly be called techniques. Attacking hair, fingers, groin, etc require nothing but grabbing and twisting, or in the case of the eyes, simply poking.
2. The items that can pass more easily as legitimate techniques, ie knees to the head of a grounded opponent, are also illegal because they can cause massive and irreparable damage such as injury to the spine. There is a great similarity between kneeing the top of an opponents head, for example, and “spiking” an opponents head in a slam – both can potentially paralyze and even kill.
3. There are legitimate and consistent escapes to heel hooks, whereas there really aren’t any for something like eye gouges. If a finger goes in your eye, that’s it. If someone sets up for a heel hook, you can spin out, push them away with the amazing lever that is your other leg, or, in the case of being trapped, do the obvious thing and tap.
4. Can improper reactions to having your legs attack lead to severe injury? Yes. But the same can also be said of improperly reacting to a double leg takedown.
I AGREE 100%… totally rediculous that fighters should ruin their knees to a submission that u dont even have time to tap from :O
You have time to tap out from it, Brock Lesnar v Frank Mir, frank got him in a brutal heel hook and brock is fine, fighters just gotta know that if your in pain you gotta tap. Cant hold a heel hook.
Thats like trying to get boxing glove put in, saying they give to many 1 hit knockouts, not giving the fighter the chance to decide whether he will fight on.
Its a combat sport, injuries happen.
Heel hooks should be banned. Cuts bruises and the like are fine, but a specific submission that can be fully executed in a split second and destroy ligaments is unacceptabe. Robbie brock lesnar was caught in a kneebar not a heel hook by the way. I think it will one day be banned when a highly regarded prospect gets caught in one and has his knee blown out. He will be out for a year and never be the same. He will end up being the MMA equivalent of Penny Hardaway.
I’m torn on this one – pardon the pun.
Knees are very important to life and not designed to withstand any kind of twisting like a heel hook subjects them to.
Above all, I think that injuries to fighters must be prevented where possible – and I do think it is possible.
The current practice, which is ambiguous as per the rules, is that fighters typically wait until a referee steps in after a tap. This is totally unacceptable – the rules need to be specific that all fighters must immediately desist when a tap occurs. Video replay can always confirm the tap (or audio replay in the case of a verbal tap). It only makes a big difference 10% of the time, but that’s enough to clarify the rule.
Another solution is to put the heel hook in a “restricted” category and require that fighters make every effort to apply it only short of damage. Surely it can be applied “softly” to induce pain and produce a tap? Most fighters tap as soon as they realize they are caught in a heel hook precisely because they don’t want to be disabled.
If there is a category of “restricted” techniques, a ref can call TKO very quickly in the case that one is skillfully applied and will otherwise surely lead to injury.
Also, we can make fighters responsible for any ACL injuries that occur to their opponents. You don’t generally tear an ACL under any circumstances in MMA except a joint lock designed to do that.
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Hi Justin,
Interesting thoughts and ideas. I have some doubts as to whether they would all work in a practical setting of professional MMA but they all make for good discussion at a minimum.
The notion of requiring a fighter to stop applying a submission immediately upon a tap (rather than upon the ref stepping in) would be a great idea in a perfect world.
It would, however, require video replay to be brought into MMA to an unprecedented degree (right now it is not used at all for reffing or judging purposes) and I am not wholly against that – particularly with some of the things referees miss (Cro Cop vs. Al Turk etc).
However, I think we would (at least in the short term) see a huge spike in CB Dolloway-type weak / hidden taps or even in fighters pretending the other guy tapped – possibly leading to in-the-ring confusion.
I would probably start with training referees to be more knowldgeable and attentive in submissions, so they can pre-emptively stop fights when a damaging submission is secured or inevitable. There is a downside to everything, though, as we would miss out on some great escapes or things like Royce Gracie enduring Matt Hughes’ armbar…
The Restricted Category of submissions is interesting – but I would note that placing a submission in such a category puts it on the road to being eliminated from the game.
One of the biggest issues with the heel hook is that it is probably the most difficult submission to apply “softly” without risking the full effect. Because of this, the policies of various schools on teaching and training the heel hook vary widely.
Making fighters responsible for their opponents’ ACL injuries is an interesting idea but one I would not expect to see come to fruition, other than injuries caused by a flagrant violation of the rules (like heel hooking a guy you just choked unconscious with a RNC or something). I think if you are going to make fighters financially responsible for damage from an MMA technique that is kept within the rules, that almost like going further than simply removing the technique from the rules.
Right now you can’t knee or kick the head of an opponent who is on his knees in the UFC. Do it and you might get DQ’d but you won’t have to pay his medical bills.
Then again, these kicks and knees are often inadvertent and heat-of-the-moment. There aren’t many heat-of-the-moment heel hooks, so I see your point!
I understand the problem of replay being awkward, but with today’s video quality and playback ability, a tap replay can be isolated, viewed, and assessed in under 30 seconds. I think it’s worth it.
Another possible solution is to create the technology inside gloves to detect a tap out. This seems easy enough to do, although obviously it will take a lot of testing to make sure that ONLY actual tapouts create the effect.
Then, red light beacons can be placed atop each corner of the octogon and shine in when a tap occurs.
One thing is for sure: waiting for a ref to recognize a tapout is sometimes completely preposterous, and of those times, sometimes potentially injurious.
We aren’t living in the time of Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock anymore – we can find a technological solution to ensure that fights end less than one second after a tap occurs.
On the liability issue: I have no problem with fighters being liable for flagrant, intentional knees to the head of a downed opponent, but as you point out, the ability to discern intent is far less in this case than with a heel hook.
But by the same token, because the heel hook is a highly skilled technique, it has a place in a world of less brutality than does a head-stomp.
I want to believe that all fighters will go out of their way to ensure that their opponents remain healthy, but in a trust-but-verify fashion, I think the rules need to prohibit injurious conduct.
Another idea: One camera can always specifically hone in on the hands of potential tappers, and a separate, outside-the-cage referee can be responsible for stopping the fight due to tap.
They’ll just sit, watch the screen intently, and press a big red button any time they definitively see a tap. Then, the bring red beacon lights will shine on and the victor will immediately desist.
It’s hard to imagine this taking more than 1/5th of a second.
Also, it frees the in-the-cage referee up as he or she will not need to worry about watching for tapouts, only injuries, TKOs, and the like.
Well, you’ve certainly given it some thought. They’re all ideas worthy of discussion. I know the current system certainly isn’t perfect…