Triangle

What it is

The triangle is a strangle done with your legs from guard: one of their arms is inside, one outside, and your legs lock in a figure four around the neck and arm. Their own trapped shoulder closes one side of the neck and your leg closes the other. It is the main submission of closed guard and the reason you never leave one arm inside and one outside.

When to use it

• From closed guard, when they post one hand on the mat or reach with one arm while the other stays inside.
• When your opponent stands or pushes one arm into your body and the other goes wide.
• From mount or the back as a follow up when an arm is already isolated.

How to do it

1. Control their wrists. Push one arm down and across to the outside of your hip and keep the other arm inside your legs.
2. Open your guard and shoot your hips up so one leg goes over their shoulder on the side of the arm you pushed down, so that arm stays outside your legs.
3. Put the back of that knee over their neck and lock your other leg over your own ankle, in a figure four.
4. Pull their head down and cut an angle: turn your body toward the inside arm so your leg lies across the back of their neck, not the top of their head.
5. Pull the inside arm across their body, toward the leg that is on their neck.
6. Squeeze your knees together, lift your hips and pull down on the head until they tap.

Key details

• One arm in, one arm out. Without that there is no triangle, only a leg around the neck.
• The angle is the choke. Square on, your legs press the skull; off to the side, they press the neck.
• Their arm goes across, not out. Pulling the trapped arm across closes the second side of the strangle.
• Lock the leg over your ankle, not over your foot, and point your toes to stay tight.
• Finish with the hips, not by pulling the head with all your strength. When you are the one caught, tap early.

Common mistakes

• Mistake: locking the triangle while still square in front of them. The choke never closes and they posture up.
• Mistake: leaving your hips flat on the mat. They stand, stack you and pass.
• Mistake: letting go of the head to adjust. They posture and walk the elbow out.

What they will try

• Posture: they lift their head and drive their trapped elbow back inside your legs before the lock closes.
• The stack: they drive forward and walk around to the side where the trapped arm is.

Gi and no-gi

The grips are the same; without a collar or sleeve, control the wrists and the back of the head, and expect them to be slipperier when you cut the angle.