How Deadly Is Your Bottom Side Control?

No that title isn't a typo.

Bottom side control is usually one of the last places you want to be.  With your opponent seemingly miles away from your legs and hips, crushing your face with their shoulder of justice, it can be one of the most demoralizing positions in all of BJJ.  There are tons of different submissions that can be undertaken when they have you trapped in bottom side control.  It's really quite hopeless.

Or is it?

Joel Bouhey has released a new series from BJJ Fanatics called Reverse Triangle the World.  In this video excerpted from the series, he demonstrates a series of submissions launched, from--you guessed it--Bottom Side Control with the king being the Reverse Triangle choke.  Check it out below and take back that worst spot in your game and turn it into a deadly trap with this technique.

 From bottom side control, Joel stresses building frames to create space aided by a simple hip bump to get them off balance a bit and create some space.  From here it gets dangerous really quickly.  But not for you.  For them.

Once he has established the necessary space, he launches into a Hail Mary type of arm bar from the bottom side position which in and of itself is worth the price of the DVD series.  The beauty of this is that you just might get the submission, but that's not primarily the goal Joel Bouhey is shooting for in this case.  Instead he wants one of a couple different key reactions.

In the first scenario, the savvy opponent sees the Hail Mary arm bar coming a mile away and pulls their arm back and out of danger.  If this happens, you've now created enough space where you can now recover the guard.  You've gone from being stuck in side control on the defensive, to making up positive ground and securing the mount.

In the second and more desired scenario, the savvy opponent looks to smash the hips and legs that have come up to dare try to trap them in an arm bar.  In this case, Joel traps the tricep of the arm that is pressuring down, kicks the outside leg through and locks up the Reverse Triangle choke submission.  Besides being able to lock up this ultra-tight variation of the triangle, their free arm is exposed to a variety of arm submissions, like the kimura and straight arm lock.  Not to mention a particularly nasty version of the toe hold awaits anyone that thinks they're going to simply step over and bottom player's body and try to loosen the Reverse Triangle that way.  

Checkmate.  By using the arm bar submission as a set up, Joel gives us multiple positive pathways that at the worst will have us recovering guard and freeing ourselves from bottom side control and at best will have them tapping as the blood stops flowing to their brains.

For more from this series, head over to BJJ Fanatics and pick up Joel Bouhey's  Reverse Triangle the World for yourelf.  You can get it here.

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