1) you made assumptions about my post that were wrong and drew conclusions from them 2) after basically shoving words into my mouth, I kindly clarified that no...you're wrong (about my stance)... and that that's NOT what i'm saying 3) based on your unfounded opinion of my opinion, you say mine is poorly formed and downvote me....?

so all in all, that's pretty antagonistic behavior so it's ironic to me that you're calling me rude. all i did is point out that you're making assumptions about my stance that are wrong. or would you have preferred i used different diction? Okay. then let me rephrase: you're drawing conclusions out of "thin air", and not "your ass". lol.

if you think people should be able to use heel hooks at the purple belt and above, cool! i really don't care. go ahead and fly that flag..just don't say that that's what i'm saying. because i'm not.

So, since your reasoning for keeping them illegal stemmed from the idea that people don't understand them, it would indicate that you would support them at higher belts as there is far less ignorance. again, you're assuming that what I'm saying even has anything to do with belts.

increased grappling experience != knowledge about a specific position

higher belt color != knowledge about a specific position

I've seen blue belts who are wizards in the 5050 position tap out visiting brown belts and other examples of that nature. does that mean that blue belt is 'better' than the brown belt? well, to start, 'better' is kind of subjective but for all intents and purposes in this case, i think you get what i mean, and the answer isn't necessarily yes.

my point is, jiu jitsu isn't like a video game where just because you level up it's automatically +10 to ALL stats. real example: ryan hall was able to fly through competition up and through the purple belt level even against much more seasoned grapplers because he made one aspect of his game really good (the closed guard) while not necessarily excelling in other areas at the time.

It's actually happened to me enough where I've rolled with dark colored belts who surprise me by not knowing what's going on when our legs are tangled and I've found that a really common reaction is to just GATOR ROLL. luckily, I'm familiar enough in these positions and my ego is in check enough to know that it's not worth it, and I just open up.

To make a point... if heel hooks were banned then let's assume for a moment they're usually taught in class, right? Even if you were a purple belt training for 5 years, but you've NEVER gone over heel hooks, how much more knowledgeable about the position would you really be compared to a beginner? Probably not that much more knowledgeable unless you specifically/actively sought to learn the position on your own already.

U know when you watch big tournaments, positions like the 5050 are so common that you would think they're popular now, but based on my experience rolling at traditional gyms or even just almost anywhere outside of california, peoples games are still very 'traditional' and knowledge on these more intricate positions are very lacking.

At the end of the day, I think u should be able to practice whatever the hell you want, and just be safe about it. but jiu jitsu doesn't involve just you and frankly it's wrong to assume that people would be comfortable with you training it on them.

the argument could probably be made that if heel hooks were in fact legal, then they would be taught more regularly and people would be more knowledgeable about them and hence can practice them more safely. I think that's a good point and I know blue belts who are wizards in these leg entanglement positions but by the same token I've seen LOTS of dark colored belts get super confused in them too. for fucks sake 5050 is 100% legal and i don't see higher belts automatically learning how to attack or use it offensively

jesus this was long and unorganized