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Escaping The Triangle
The triangle choke is an old-school Brazilian Jiu Jitsu technique that finds success in both competition and self-defense. This traditional guard submission requires that attacker to significantly break down the posture of the defender, which is not difficult to do for the skilled grappler. It is quite difficult to escape most guard submissions with poor posture, making the triangle choke very effective. In this article, we will see the triangle choke escape my favorite grappler, Garry Tonon, uses almost exclusively.
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The first step in defending the triangle choke is to create a strong posture with our upper body. The posture we create by looking up and straightening our backs is still breakable if the attacker gets a hold of the head. To mitigate this, it is vital to wedge our knees as deeply under the attacker’s butt as we can. This wedge will create a large amount of distance between us that can make it impossible for the attacker to rebreak our posture. In the following video, you will see how Tonon places his knees deeply to create this posture and ultimately escape the choke.
As you can see, Garry will follow the posturing by standing in a squatted position while keeping his back straight. Finally, when ready, swing either leg onto your opponent’s torso, sit, and lock your legs together. It is important to protect your arms here is the attacker is able to finish a painful armbar if they get ahold of it.
Garry follows the escape by moving onto a leg lock. This is not necessary if you do not wish to attack legs or if you are in a competition that does not allow leg locks. It is to swing your legs behind you to get on top and begin your guard passes.
Improve your submission defense by watching Tom Deblass's Submission Escapes DVD! You can get this great series here!
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