Learn The Collar Sleeve Triangle Setup With Lachlan Giles

By Fanatics Authors, December 13, 2019

Lachlan Giles is at it again! Its been quite a year for this monster of the BJJ instructional scene. Giles has been releasing helpful content for quite some time on his YouTube channel and with constant contributions to his growing library with BJJ Fanatics, he continues to share his phenomenal technique and instruction with the BJJ masses.

Giles was quite possibly the biggest story of weekend at this year’s ADCC world championships. After a tough first day of competition, losing to Lucas Lepri in the very first round, Giles came back the following day in the absolute division and was able to best three of the biggest competitors in the competition, earning himself a bronze medal and joining a rare group of 77kg men that have claimed a podium spot in the ADCC absolute. Giles was able to implement some very clean leg attacks against some of the toughest and best in the world, and his superior technique shined. While Giles is revered for his ability to attack the lower portion of the body, his skillset certainly doesn’t stop there. The rest of his game is just as dangerous and well rounded.

Giles is a technician. His teaching is incredibly detailed and helpful to BJJ players of all skill levels. His Anthology series is highly acclaimed as some of the best instructional materials you can get your hands on and Giles shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. He recently released a video on the triangle and a subsequent sweep that you should definitely see. If you don’t know this man, it’s time to get familiar! Check this out!

The collar sleeve grip may be the most popular grip set in BJJ. It offers an exceptional level of control when coupled with some solid lower body anchoring points, this common gripping configuration can be incredibly tough to deal with. With these grips acquired, an entire world opens up consisting of several sweeps, submissions, and transitions. I remember quite vividly the collar sleeve begin my first experience with gripping the gi and this combination still remains as one of my favorite ways to begin attacking from the guard. The possibilities here are endless, but today Giles is going to walk us through a triangle attack and an overhead sweep. Two techniques that pair quite nicely with the collar sleeve set up.

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Beginning seated and disconnected from his partner, Giles begins with some sage advice on how to begin establishing the collar sleeve grips. He warns against attempting to make contact with the feet first, as this will give the passer an opportunity to control the legs and dismantle our efforts before we get started. Establishing the collar grip first, Giles then secures the sleeve and makes sure to keep his partner’s hand above the line of his hips. With the collar and sleeve secure, he can now get to work!

As Giles falls back, he brings his feet in to the game. His left foot almost follows the path of a lasso, but stops short as he plants the blade of his foot near the shoulder. Giles uses the reference here of kicking his partner’s neck which helps quite a bit with placement. His other foot finds the opposite shoulder, creating even more structure and helping to manage distance.

With the grips established and the posture controlled, Giles now transitions his left foot from the neck area to the hip and begins to push his partner away, while keeping the upper body grips intact, this separates his partner’s elbow from his knee and begins to create an unfavorable positioning of the body. As Giles keeps the tension with his grips, he begins to elevate his hips, bringing them closer to his partner’s upper body. Don’t skip this part. If you just simply open your legs here and hope to catch this one, you may sabotage your efforts by throwing up a triangle with zero structural integrity.

Giles shares another critical detail at this juncture. His partners knee can be a problem here as well. It’s likely that the passer will kneel down in response here to the technique and this puts the knee in the way of Giles’s attempts to elevate his hips. Before lifting the hips to secure the triangle, Giles creates an angle that puts his knee on the inside of his partner’s knee, and eliminates this roadblock. Keep this in mind, as this will be a common reaction to this technique. With the hips in close proximity to the shoulders its quite simple for Giles to use the elevation that’s been gained to lock a great triangle here and set himself up to finish the submission. Giles saves the finish for another day, and leaves us to focus on the setup.

If Giles can’t find any real estate on the hip where he can plant his foot, he transitions to a De La Riva hook. Next, Giles uses his opposite foot as a post on his partner’s belly. As he brings his knees to his chest and begins to open his elbows to pull his partner forward, he feels his partners center of gravity begin to load up over the center portion of his body. Here he begins to elevate the passer, and performs a nice back roll sweep, reversing the top player and claiming the top position.

With some final notes on this sequence, Giles reminds us that if things start to go south with the sweep attempt, we can always return to the triangle. Playing these two ideas off of each other can put you in the driver’s seat, eventually cause your opponent to make a mistake, and give us one technique or the other.

The collar sleeve grip isn’t something that can be ignored. It lends itself to an incredibly vast amount of techniques and guard attack sequences, in both basic and advanced applications. Learn the ins and outs of this important pairing and start reaping the benefits today!