We've crunched the numbers and the answer is clear: if you don't know heel hooks, you're going to lose at ADCC.

After combing through all of the matches from the 2018 ADCC European Trials on FloArena, we noticed a clear distinction between a successful heel hook submission and other finishing attacks: heel hooks seemed to be the result of deliberate, multi-part setups. This could be contrasted with the toehold, which was generally the result of an opportunistic scramble / an athelte literally diving on the attack.  

But some of the efficacy behind the heel hook setups must surely be attributed to the other athelte having very little awareness, and perhaps even less defense, to the attack. There was more than one instance of a competitor looking trapped in an inside sankaku (Ie: the saddle, 411, ect), grasping straws until they met their demise. 

The gap in skillset widens as well due to the fact there are athletes that are clearly specialists at the attack–   Mateusz Szczecinski (77kg) had three heel hook finishes on the day and there were five athletes across three divisions (88kg, 77kg, 66kg) that had two heel hook finishes. When one of these monsters latches on to the legs of an underprepared opposition, the match is basically over as soon as it began.  

But the heel hook, powerful as it may be, was not the only submission of the day at ADCC. Unsurprisingly, the rear-naked choke (RNC) came in second place, with armbars and toeholds rounding out third and fourth place respectively. 

Below you'll find charts detailing the type and count for every division, as well as a master list of all 85 submissions from ADCC 2018 European Trials

*We should also note that there were some simplifications made in our data collection process – for example, armbars finished from any position (guard, mount, ect) are all counted simply as 'armbars'.  An inside or outside heel hook has been counted as simply, a heel hook.