Inside Ashi Entry

Transition

The Inside Ashi Entry is a transition used to advance from various leg entanglement and guard positions into the Inside Ashi Garami (cross ashi/inside sankaku position), where your legs form a figure-four around the opponent's trapped leg with your inside foot hooking their far hip. It is employed when you have initial leg control but need a more dominant configuration to attack heel hooks or improve control.

Quick Reference

Key principles

  • · Thread your inside leg across the opponent's body to position your foot on their far hip, establishing the cross-body hook.
  • · Maintain constant heel-line control on the trapped leg throughout the transition to prevent the opponent from freeing their knee.
  • · Use hip escaping motion away from the opponent to create the space needed to triangle your legs around their thigh.
  • · Anticipate the opponent trying to pummel their trapped leg free by pinching your knees tightly and keeping their foot clamped to your chest.
  • · Keep your hips angled toward the trapped leg rather than flat on your back to maximize wedging pressure.

Execution

  1. 1 From your current leg control position, clamp the opponent's trapped foot to your chest and secure the heel line with your arms.
  2. 2 Hip escape away from the opponent while threading your inside leg across their centerline, placing your foot on their far hip.
  3. 3 Bring your outside leg over the opponent's trapped thigh and triangle your legs together, locking the figure-four around their leg.
  4. 4 Adjust your hip angle to face the trapped leg, settling into Inside Ashi Garami with strong knee-pinch pressure and heel-line control.

Common mistakes

  • × Releasing heel-line control while threading the legs, allowing the opponent to straighten their leg and escape the entanglement.
  • × Failing to hip escape far enough, resulting in the inside foot not reaching the far hip and leaving you in a shallow, easily countered position.
  • × Crossing your feet instead of properly triangling your legs, which weakens the lock and makes it easy for the opponent to strip the bottom hook.

Do it from

Positions and situations where the Inside Ashi Entry shows up.

Ashi Garami Kneebar Control Leg Knot Straight Ankle Lock Control Toe Hold Control

Where it lands

The position you end up in.

Inside Ashi Garami