Last night during our team training class we continued our study of the Triangle choke. The triangle is a strangulation submission where you use your legs and your training partners shoulder to reduce blood floor through the carodid arteries. The reduced blood flow will cause a person to feel sleepy and eventually fall asleep.
The focus of the last several classes has been entering the submission from different angles and positions. The most common entrybto this submission is from the guard however as we’ve seen over the last you can also enter the submission from the mount and the side control position. In jiu-jitsu a typical “trigger” for the triangle choke is when your training partner place one arm outside of your legs while keeping thier head and other arm inside. However since we are working this from the side control it is not likely that our training partner will be able to do this part for us. We began the technique by isolating an arm. By controlling the arm we can begin to move around it and create the one arm in, one arm out situation by swinging our leg over the arm not being controlled.
Last week we discussed finishing the triangle from mount, which is an option in this entry from side control as well, however today we worked rolling through to finish from the bottom of guard. We payed close attention to where we should roll to end the submission in the correct position.
The last idea of the class was on attacking other submissions which are in close proximity to the triangle. In this particular case that submission was the armbar, a submission that can be found not only in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu but also in judo and Sambo as well. During the triangle attempt we discussed several point during the attack where the arm bar is available if for some reason the triangle isn’t working. We also discussed the reasons you may switch between the two attacks. Linking submissions that require minimal movement to switch between the two is a great way to keep your training partners guessing, the hardest attack to defend is the on you don’t see coming. By getting good at the quick switches between subs that are close together positionally we can dramatically improve our finishing rate.
Dustin Rhodes
Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Black Belt
Head Instructor Crossroads BJJ
Waterford, CT
New London County
CrossroadsBJJ.com