09/09/2016 - Teaching | Side Control | Triangle from Underneath

Teaching #556
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 09/09/2016

Building on the shin-in-elbow escape, you can also use that position to attack. Use the space you've created by their arm to put your foot in the crook of their elbow rather than your shin. If you need more space for this, push off the ground with your free foot, shrimping away from them while still keeping tight on their arm.

Kick up with the foot you have in their elbow, keeping your other knee behind their arm. Your kicking foot then pulls back towards you, in order to shoot around the side of their neck you're facing. Lock your neck side shin under your waiting knee, pulling their arm in towards you to make sure you are pressing into their neck rather than their shoulder. You already have a grip on their wrist from earlier, so that pull should be easy. Bring your other arm under their near arm for control. Keep pulling on their wrist and squeeze your legs to finish.

It can be difficult to finish the triangle, but their near arm is vulnerable. You can attack with pressing armbars, kimuras and even americanas, due to locking that shoulder down so they can't relieve the pressure. If you're having trouble, straighten out your leg that's over their neck, to push their head down further. Turn your hips, then the leg that was across the back of their head becomes the leg that locks over the top. The legs are switching, changing the triangle configuration. The hard part is getting the lock in tightly enough by the shoulder, especially as you can't see what you're doing.

Related video here:


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Teaching Notes: This is a good bit more complex than the kind of thing I normally teach, but I was pleased to see that most people picked it up ok. The main difficulty was getting that lock. I know it's possible, because I don't have long legs and I can do it, but I need to work out the best option for creating enough space. I think that moving the hips away or into them could be the answer, which did indeed help a few people to lock in the triangle better, but it wasn't universal. I'll keep playing with it. There is also the option of a normal triangle, so I'll try that too next time. It isn't necessarily required to go reverse triangle: the reason I went with that this time was to fit in more from Chiu's awesome BJJ Globetrotter lesson. :)