Techniques That Were Banned — And Then Came Back

A heel hook that was illegal for decades in the world's largest BJJ organization — until 2021. An elbow strike banned for twenty-four years in MMA — legalized in November 2024. Leg grabs in judo, prohibited since 2010, now returning to Japanese championships in 2025. Knees to a grounded opponent, always banned under the Unified Rules — suddenly legal if only the hands are touching the canvas.

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Our companion article, The Most Banned Fighting Techniques in the World, covers techniques that keep getting restricted. This article tells the opposite story: techniques that were banned, sometimes for decades, and then came back.

These reversals are not random. They follow a pattern. A technique gets banned after a high-profile injury or political pressure. Years pass. The competitive landscape evolves. New evidence emerges. Athletes and coaches lobby for change. Eventually, the ban is reconsidered — sometimes lifted entirely, sometimes with conditions attached.

We track legality across 30+ competition rule sets at Fight Encyclopedia. When a rule changes, we update every technique it affects — with the rulebook, the year, and the full history. Here are the most significant unbanning decisions in recent combat sports history.

The heel hook is a rotational leg lock that attacks the knee by twisting the heel, generating torque through the tibia and fibula into the ligaments of the knee joint. It is one of the most powerful submissions in grappling — and one of the most feared.

The ban. The IBJJF banned heel hooks from all competition since its inception. The reasoning was straightforward: heel hooks attack the knee through rotation, and the knee joint has very little rotational tolerance before ligaments tear. Unlike a choke (where you tap or go to sleep) or an armbar (where you feel the pressure building), a heel hook can cause catastrophic damage before the defender realizes the submission is locked. The ACL, MCL, and meniscus can all be destroyed in a fraction of a second.

The pressure to change. By the late 2010s, the no-gi grappling world had been transformed by heel hooks. The Danaher Death Squad — John Danaher's leg lock system, executed by athletes like Gordon Ryan, Garry Tonon, and Craig Jones — dominated ADCC and no-gi competition. Eddie Cummings' inside sankaku system and the "leg lock revolution" made heel hooks the defining technique of modern no-gi grappling. IBJJF competitors who never trained heel hooks were losing in ADCC. The gap between IBJJF no-gi and the rest of the grappling world was widening.

The reversal. On January 1, 2021, the IBJJF legalized heel hooks and knee reaping in no-gi competition for brown and black belt adult divisions. The change also legalized inside and outside heel hooks, all attacks that twist the knee, turning toward the free leg on a straight ankle lock, and outward pressure on toe holds. Inside ashi garami — previously a DQ position — became legal.

What Changed and What Didn't

The impact. The 2021 change immediately transformed IBJJF no-gi competition. Athletes who had trained heel hooks outside the IBJJF ecosystem suddenly had an advantage. Guard players had to completely rethink their approach — you could no longer play open guard without understanding the leg lock threat. Matches at brown and black belt became more dynamic, with leg entanglements appearing where previously only guard passing and back takes decided matches.

The restriction that remains. Heel hooks are still banned in gi competition at all levels, and in no-gi for anyone below brown belt. The IBJJF's position is that recreational and lower-level competitors lack the experience to apply and defend heel hooks safely. Critics argue this creates a dangerous gap — athletes reach brown belt having never trained heel hook defense, then suddenly face them in competition.

Explore the full legality breakdown: Heel Hook Lock technique page

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The 12-to-6 elbow — a downward elbow strike thrown in a vertical motion, like the movement of a clock hand from 12 to 6 — was banned when the Unified Rules of MMA were adopted in 2000. For twenty-four years, it remained one of the most debated rules in the sport.

Why it was banned. The original ban came from a demonstration at the 2000 rules meeting. Commissioners were shown videos of martial artists breaking ice blocks with downward elbows. The visual was dramatic enough to convince the committee that a vertically descending elbow to the head could cause catastrophic injury. The strike was added to the foul list.

Why fighters and coaches disagreed. The ban was controversial from day one. Critics pointed out several problems:

• A horizontal elbow to the temple delivers the same force — and is perfectly legal
• The "12-to-6" definition depended on the fighter's orientation — the same elbow strike could be legal or illegal depending on whether the fighter was on top or on their side
• No medical study has ever shown that vertical elbows are more dangerous than horizontal ones
• Referees had difficulty consistently identifying the angle, leading to inconsistent enforcement

Jon Jones famously lost to Matt Hamill by DQ in 2009 due to 12-to-6 elbows — a fight Jones was dominating. It remains one of the most controversial DQ results in UFC history.

The reversal. In July 2024, the Association of Boxing Commissions (ABC) voted to remove the 12-to-6 elbow from the list of fouls. The updated rules took effect on November 1, 2024. The first UFC event under the new rules was UFC Edmonton on November 2, 2024.

The catch. Individual state athletic commissions must adopt the new rules independently. Not all have done so. At UFC 316 in New Jersey (June 2025), the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board did not adopt the updated rules — meaning 12-to-6 elbows were once again illegal for that event. This creates a patchwork where the same technique is legal in one state and illegal in another, even within the same organization.

Timeline

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The judo leg grab ban is the most divisive rule change in modern martial arts. In 2010, the IJF banned all techniques that involve grabbing the opponent's legs with the hands — morote-gari (double leg), kata-guruma (fireman's carry with leg grip), kuchiki-taoshi (single leg), kibisu-gaeshi (ankle pick), and others. In 2013, the penalty was increased to direct hansoku-make (instant disqualification).

Why it was banned. The official justification was twofold: safety and aesthetics. The IJF argued that leg grabs led to stalling (feinting leg attacks without committing) and that judo should emphasize upper-body throws — the art's signature techniques. Critics, including Olympic champion Satoshi Ishii, have argued the ban was politically motivated to benefit athletes from countries with strong upper-body throwing traditions.

What was lost. The ban removed an entire category of traditional Kodokan judo techniques from competition. Morote-gari, kata-guruma, and sukui-nage were part of judo's original curriculum. An entire generation of judoka — everyone who started competing after 2010 — has never trained leg grabs in a competitive context. The techniques still exist in the Kodokan syllabus but have become purely theoretical for competitive athletes.

The partial reversal. In October 2024, the All Japan Judo Federation (AJF), in collaboration with the Kodokan, announced that leg grabs would be permitted again at the All Japan Judo Championships starting April 2025. However, the return comes with significant conditions:

• You must have a grip on the upper body with one hand before grabbing the leg
• You cannot grab the legs with two hands simultaneously (this rules out pure double legs and single legs)
• Direct shooting for the legs without an upper body grip still receives a shido (penalty)
• Leg grabs are permissible as part of combination techniques — for example, morote-gari following an ouchi-gari setup

The international situation. The IJF has not adopted this change. International judo competition still bans leg grabs. The rule reversal is currently limited to Japanese domestic championships. Whether the IJF will follow the Kodokan's lead remains one of the biggest open questions in judo.

The Split

This is a historic moment. For the first time since 2010, a major judo organization has reversed the leg grab ban. Whether this creates pressure on the IJF to reconsider remains to be seen.

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For the entire history of the Unified Rules of MMA, kneeing or kicking a "grounded" opponent in the head has been banned. But the definition of "grounded" has been a moving target.

The old rule. Under the original definition, a fighter was considered grounded when "anything other than the soles of the feet" touched the canvas. This created the infamous "one-hand-down" loophole — fighters would place a single finger or palm on the mat to make themselves "grounded" and avoid legal knees to the head. This was widely considered a flaw in the rules, as it rewarded gaming the system rather than actual fighting.

The 2024 change. The ABC's July 2024 rule update redefined "grounded" as: a fighter whose body parts other than hands or feet are in contact with the canvas. Under the new definition, a fighter with one or both hands on the mat is not grounded — meaning knees and kicks to their head are now legal.

What this means in practice. The "one-hand-down" exploit is dead. A fighter on hands and knees can now legally be kneed in the head. A fighter must have a knee, shin, hip, back, or other body part on the mat to receive "grounded" protection. This significantly changes wrestling scrambles and the transition between standing and ground fighting.

ONE Championship comparison. ONE Championship has always allowed knees to grounded opponents. A 2025 study reviewing all ONE Championship fights from 2023 found that grounded knees were "rarely the decisive factor in fight outcomes" — suggesting the safety concerns may have been overstated. This data point was part of the ABC's consideration when updating the rule.

The same patchwork problem. Like the 12-to-6 elbow, adoption is state-by-state. The new grounded opponent definition debuted at UFC Edmonton in November 2024 but was not in effect at UFC 316 in New Jersey in June 2025.

Looking across these cases, a clear pattern emerges:

1. A technique is banned — usually after a dramatic injury or political pressure, not systematic evidence
2. Years pass — a generation of athletes trains without the technique
3. The competitive landscape evolves — other organizations allow the technique, creating a gap
4. Evidence accumulates — data shows the ban may be unnecessary or inconsistently applied
5. Pressure builds — athletes, coaches, and commentators lobby for change
6. Partial reversal — the technique is legalized with conditions, often for advanced competitors only
7. Inconsistent adoption — different commissions and federations adopt changes on different timelines

The heel hook followed this pattern exactly. The 12-to-6 elbow took twenty-four years. Leg grabs in judo are mid-cycle, with Japan leading and the IJF resisting. Grounded knees are in the early adoption phase.

Based on the pattern above, here are techniques currently banned that may face unbanning pressure in coming years:

• Slams in IBJJF — currently banned, but many argue controlled slamming should be legal at advanced levels
• Soccer kicks in MMA — legal in ONE Championship and PRIDE FC, banned under Unified Rules. As the grounded fighter definition evolves, this may be revisited
• Neck cranks in IBJJF — currently banned, but legal in ADCC. The line between a "crank" and a "choke" is blurry, and enforcement is inconsistent
• Leg grabs at IJF level — if the Kodokan experiment succeeds in Japan, international pressure on the IJF will intensify

At Fight Encyclopedia, we track legality across 30+ competition rule sets for every technique in our taxonomy. When a rule changes — a technique gets banned, unbanned, or restricted — we update every affected technique page with:

• The organization and status (BANNED, LEGAL, or RESTRICTED)
• The source rulebook (with PDF link and year)
• The full history timeline showing every change

See it in action on the Kani Basami technique page — where one technique is banned in four organizations and legal in four others, each with its own history going back decades.

Explore the full taxonomy at fightencyclopedia.com/techniques.

Are heel hooks legal in BJJ now? Heel hooks are legal in IBJJF no-gi competition for brown and black belt adults since 2021. They remain banned in gi competition at all levels and in no-gi for white, blue, and purple belts. In ADCC, heel hooks have always been legal.

Why were 12-to-6 elbows banned in MMA? The ABC banned 12-to-6 elbows when the Unified Rules were adopted around 2000, reportedly influenced by demonstrations of concrete-breaking techniques. The ban was widely criticized as lacking medical justification, and was removed in November 2024.

Are 12-to-6 elbows legal in all UFC events now? No. While the ABC removed the ban federally in 2024, individual state athletic commissions must adopt the change. New Jersey, for example, still uses the old rules — fighters at UFC 316 in Newark could not use 12-to-6 elbows.

Why did judo ban leg grabs? The IJF banned leg grabs progressively from 2010 to 2013, arguing they led to stalling and detracted from judo's aesthetic identity of upper-body throws. Critics, including Olympic champions, called the ban politically motivated.

Are leg grabs coming back to judo? Partially. The Kodokan (judo's headquarters in Japan) began allowing leg grabs in domestic competition in 2024. The IJF has relaxed grip rules for 2025-2026, allowing gripping below the belt. Full reinstatement at international level has not happened yet.

What is the "grounded opponent" rule in MMA? Under the Unified Rules, kneeing or kicking a "grounded" fighter in the head is illegal. The definition of "grounded" was changed in 2024 — a fighter must now have both hands, or a knee/other body part, on the mat. Simply touching one hand down no longer counts.

How often do banned techniques get unbanned? Rarely, but it happens in cycles. The 2021-2025 period saw an unusual cluster of reversals — heel hooks in IBJJF, 12-to-6 elbows in MMA, and partial leg grab restoration in judo. Major changes typically take 5-20 years of sustained pressure from athletes, coaches, and medical evidence.

This article is part of a two-part series. Read Part 1: The Most Banned Fighting Techniques in the World — And Why They Keep Getting Restricted