Ashi hishigi escape

Ashi hishigi escape is the judo-derived name for the defence against the heel hook — the rotational leg-lock that loads the knee complex through rotation applied to the heel.

Etymology. Ashi (足) means “leg” or “foot”; hishigi (挫) means “crush” or “wrench.” The combined term — leg crush — covers the broader judo category of leg-attack submissions that load the knee, ankle, or hip through compression and rotation. The escape term carries the parent technique’s name forward in judo and no-gi grappling alike, where the inside heel hook in particular has become a central submission in the leg-locking era of submission grappling. The Japanese name remains in active use in the legacy judo literature and the modern catch-wrestling vocabulary it influenced.

Mechanics. The escape’s priority is removing the rotational load from the knee before the joint reaches structural failure. The defending player must either clear the entanglement that connects their leg to the attacker’s structure or rotate their own knee in the direction of the heel’s path — both require disrupting the inside-space control the attacker depends on before the rotation completes.

Cross-reference. English-speaking no-gi uses “heel hook escape.” Full mechanical coverage on Heel Hook Escape.