Hitting the Triangle

The triangle choke is one of the signature moves of Brazilian Jiu-jitstu.  Unfortunately, as a heavyweight, I haven't had much of a chance to land this technique with anything that resembles consistency.  I know the mechanics. I know the theory. It's the live execution that's caused me problems.  Today, I landed it against a resisting opponent (and not some random beginner/white belt).

I had managed to secure a left side overhook in the closed guard and was trying to work my right hand across to threaten the lapel choke.  Ideally, he starts defending the choke and I can move into the Iron Hook sequence.  However, he kept pinning my right biceps to the mat.  I worked my right arm free and grabbed his wrist, then swung my right leg up and over his arm to bite the back.  Since his right arm was trapped in the overhook, he couldn't posture up to break the hold and I was able to secure the triangle.

I subscribe to Ryan Hall's Triangle Choke theories, so I didn't worry much about forcing the arm across my body.  Instead, I tried to adjust my angle so that my hamstring would be pressing in on his carotid artery.  My opponent was preventing my rotation, so I released the overhook and grabbed the back of his head.  Hall once said something to the effect that, while it's not always correct to grab the opponent's head, it's never wrong to do so.  Sure enough, grabbing the head was enough to get the tap.

Granted, I hit this technique on a guy who's substantially smaller than me, but I remember reading in one of Royler's books that one should perfect any new techniques on smaller opponents first, before trying it on bigger opponents.  I think this is a small, but important, step in my BJJ development.

Triangles and Arm Bars

Tonight, we reviewed two of the basic submissions from the guard: the Triangle choke and the Arm Bar. We started with the triangle, since one attack flows naturally into the other. So let's start with the general scenario. Please keep in mind that these are my own notes to remind myself of what I learned and should not be mistaken for an instructional guide.

The opponent is posturing up, with one hand on your chest, gripping your gi. First priority is to break his grip on the gi and to control the opponent's wrist. Grab the opponent's sleeve with the opposite side hand (eg. if he's gripping your gi with his right hand, you grab his sleeve with your right hand). Grab your right wrist with your left hand and pull up and across your body, so that his hand ends up off your body and ideally over your right shoulder or center of your chest.

Adjust your grip so that your left hand is controlling his right wrist. Straight-arm his wrist right into his chest. It should be fairly difficult for him to resist this. If he tries to pull his arm away, then he unknowingly helps the process. Grab his lapel with your right hand and pull your opponent down towards you. Maintain the straight-arm on the right wrist. As you pull him down, open the guard and hop your left leg over his right shoulder. Re-establish control by hooking your legs together. At this point, you should be in a triangle set-up position, but you still need to create the proper angle.

Before making any adjustments, reach up and grab your left shin with your right hand. This should allow you to keep your opponent trapped as you open your guard to adjust the angle. Don't let his left arm find it's way out. Use your right foot to push off either your opponent's left knee or hip. This will allow you to affect his balance, as well as adjust your angle. If you've done the push-off properly, then your left leg should be tight against his neck and you can loop your right leg over your shin to complete a figure-4 sort of position. In order to complete the choke, you need to get the remaining arm (the left, in this case) across his body. To do this, you need to lift your hips off the mat. His arm will naturally pop up as you do this. Find his elbow and then push it across from your right side to your left side as you drop your hips. Pull down on the head, if necessary.

In the event that he defends the triangle attempt, you can switch to the arm bar easily enough. Clamp your knees tightly against the opponent to try and limit his mobility. Control the arm that you still have trapped (the left, based on the set-up above). Extend your left leg, maintaining the hooks you established while going for the triangle. Try to keep your hips on the ground. This will give you a bit of distance, as well as attack the opponent's balance, moving him to your right (his left). Control the trapped arm. Control the trapped arm. Control the trapped arm. I can't stress that enough. The opponent's elbow should be ripe for the picking. Push off his left knee or hip again, if necessary, while biting down with your left leg. From there, swing your right leg over his head and squeeze tightly with both knees. You can push his head to the side to make it easier, as well. From here, it's just a matter of raising the hips and hyper-extending the elbow.