Inside Heel Hook from 50/50

Also known as: 50/50 Heel Hook · Fifty-Fifty Heel Hook

In the symmetrical 50/50 entanglement, both players hold the same weapon — the inside heel hook goes to whoever wins the hand fight and hides their own heel first.

Submission · Heel Hook · No-gi · Difficulty 4/5 · Usually learned at Purple belt

Starts from 50/50 as the attacking player → ends the match (submission).

The details that make it work

1. Win the hand fight FIRST: control their wrists so they cannot reach your heel while you reach theirs.
2. Hide your own heel — knees pinched, foot flexed and buried against their body.
3. Same finishing mechanics as the saddle heel hook: catch, chest rotation, slow.

Where it goes wrong

• Racing to their heel with both of yours exposed; 50/50 punishes greed symmetrically.

How opponents counter it

• Mirror the hand fight and stall the catch
• Stand up in base to stack out of the entanglement

Is the Inside Heel Hook from 50/50 legal in competition?

IBJJF: no-gi brown/black only; gi illegal (the 50/50 position itself is fine in gi — the heel hook is not). Legal in ADCC and sub-only.

Same family: Heel Hooks

• Inside Heel Hook from the Saddle — from Saddle
• Outside Heel Hook — from Outside Ashi

Related techniques

• Inside Heel Hook from the Saddle
• Outside Heel Hook
• Single Leg X Sweep

All moves from 50/50 · Back to Grapplepedia