Arm Triangles and Reverse Triangles

Arm Triangle

Youtube Video - Arm Triangle from side control

First technique of the day was arm triangles from side control. The difference between this video and the way we did the technique is that once we have the arm triangle on, we switch into kesa and use our entire body to put pressure on him. It's a realllly tight choke when done properly.

• Don't get caught in half guard when switching sides
• Bring knee under his head and sit back into him to put pressure on

Reverse Arm Triangle

Again from side control. Our instructor claims that this choke came to him in a dream, and as such it's referred to as "Dream Choke" where we train.

There are no good youtube videos of this choke, and the setup is WAY too complicated to explain. So if you're reading this for information's sake, you'd better know how to set up a reverse triangle...

• Maintain arm control the whole time
• Once arm is trapped, reach around and under his neck and get your elbow right back to the floor. Put arm on the correct side to trap his arm and head inside the triangle.
• Switch around his body maintaining arm control - bring knee right over his face.
• Turn a bit more to put his arm straight across his carotid
• Sprawl hips down while crushing triangle together

I didn't quite get this technique down and would like to drill it again some time.

We then did some side control drills with the submissions we used in class. I think I did well against all of the other white belts, I "lost" once to our best white (4 stripe I think) but I'm fairly sure I "won" against all of the other whites.

Then, in rolling, it was strange being in the gi again. I've started to enjoy no-gi more but my fairly long hiatus from the gi game has made me realise how much more technical the gi game is. My base and guard passing have become worse... We only had time for two 5 minute rounds - the first one was four minutes of standup in which my opponent tied me up in my gi really well, but couldn't get a takedown for about four minutes. Then my instructor told him to just pull guard... Haha.. I couldn't open his guard for awhile, but he opened it to attack and I passed. Then he got me back into his half guard, and that was pretty much the roll.

Then I had a roll with my instructor. I don't remember how he took me down (musta been knocked out...) but I remember having my guard promptly passed. I also had mount for about two seconds because he tried something a bit risky. Then a bit later in the roll he got a beautiful, perfect half butterfly sweep on me which made me start giggling, and I looked up to see a big grin on his face.. Then he went to side control, and reverse triangled me (not reverse arm triangled - reverse triangled. this is another technique that we have been over a few times in class that he seems to like). I knew exactly what was coming, as well as how to escape, and yet couldn't do anything to stop it... Sigh, haha.. One day I want to be at that level.


From rolling and drilling it was again emphasised that I need to stop being satisfied with being on my back - I need to be more aggressive in my pursuit of top position rather than taking guard. If nothing else, then to develop a better top game - I want to be reasonably versatile by the time I reach blue belt level. I'm glad that my arm triangle seems to be coming along, but I need to work on using it a bit more in drills and rolls, as I think it's a pretty solid technique.