Safe to grab the foot while double-bagging?

Hello,

So a little context: when we do triangles at our school and we want to cut our angle, we usually grab our shin, push off the hip to cut our angle and then lock the triangle.

We've been instructed that "yes, you see UFC fighters just grab their heel and pull it tight but that isn't the best way to do it." And we're told that one of our guys did it that way in tournament, adrenaline pumping...and popped something in his foot: he basically straight ankle locked himself.

As a humble white belt, I try to learn what I can where I can and do what I can to avoid injury so I can keep training, yes?

So, I understand that the point of double-bagging is to keep your opponent broken down. But if they explode upwards while I'm holding my foot and while I'm trying to clear the neck, won't my entire weight be being borne by my foot? That seems dangerous. I had a hard time defending the theory here.

Is this safe? Or is it just a risk you take when you double-bag and clear the neck?

~Joshua

I don't know, I haven't heard of anyone hurting their ankle from double bagging and I've never worried about it before. Now grabbing my ankle to close a triangle? I would definitely worry about that, grabbing the shin is the correct way.

I'm thinking there is more danger to your ankle from the triangle position because there is a lot more pressure and potentially greater range of motion (From complete posture broken down to Full posture up), as opposed to the double bagger position, where the leg is lower on the body around the back, not over the back of the neck like a triangle.

Also I don't think you will have as good a grip on your foot from double bagger as you would from the triangle, so I think your grip would slip before your ankle popped. And if you're double bagging with a hand trapped to the mat, his posturing power will be greatly reduced.

One position you should avoid though is "gun show control" while in "new jersey" because the opponent can pass and blast through hyper extending your knee, this happened to Ben Eddy causing a sprain.

Thanks! that was my best guess but it's nice to get confirmation.

You can actually see Eddie pulling his heel, not his shin when he traingled Gracie. So it does obviously work. Its not textbook from my understanding, because you do want to use the shin in the triangle i believe, but again you sometimes have to make things work based on the opportunity given..

For me the key to your question shouldn't be just about avoiding positions where you can get presumably injured. People get injured in all sorts of funny "normal" positions. I heard of people blowing out their knees in lockdown, for example.

Every single position in this sport has the opportunity to present a bodily malfunction. Every time you move even just a hand you can go out of alignment and out of balance. The key to your question I feel is to research good recovery methods, solid nutrition, STRETCHING a LOT, looking into yoga, and especially as a white belt tapping out at the right time (not too late) and focusing on THOSE will keep you healthy on the mats. If you stretch, stay loose, and never force a position with muscle, but rather focus on the positions with technically sound movement, your injury rates will go down drastically.

Lastly controlled movement is HUGE. dont just flail around to get away, injures happen there a lot. Make sure you work the techniques you know and improve on those with a definite sense of control.

Thats in my opinion, but who knows ;p