Speed kills: Last night in Dallas Luke Griffith won his match against rising star Haisam Rida in 24 seconds – this was the second fastest submission in WNO history – the fastest was Nicky Ryan who won in 23 seconds against the great wrestler Tony Ramos. In ADCC the give an award for fastest submission – it's interesting to look at WNO and ADCC and look at fastest submission
WNO
Nicky Ryan – outside heel hook
Luke Griffith – inside heel hook
ADCC
2015 – Eddie Cummings – outside heel hook
2017 – Marcus Almeida – heel hook
2019 – Garry Tonon – inside heel hook
2022 – Gordon Ryan – outside heel hook
Do you notice a pattern here? When it comes to fast submission entries there is an obvious king of the hill. Heel hooks can clearly be entered into and completed in less time than most other forms of submission. This is because they do not need to conform to the standard method of positional control as a precursor to most upper body submissions. Upper body submissions that don't require prior positional domination such as flying arm Bambara and triangles have the disadvantage of working against gravity in their initial application whereas heel hooks attack the lower half of the body and hence don't require the difficult act of climbing the body to be applied (made even more difficult when there is no gi to grip). So if a fast and decisive early submission is what you seek – history provides a clear lesson as to what direction you might want to go
