Submission Series: Flying Triangle with Polaris Champion Edwin Najmi
Learning precise finishing details early on in your grappling career will pay dividends later, in the training room and on the competition mats. You will have more confidence in going for the finish and a deeper mechanical understanding. This series will examine what makes each submission work every time.
Flying submissions are like unicorns. They don’t (successfully) happen that often, but a lot of times when they do you have no idea what you just saw. A flying attack skips a lot of the work of playing guard, grip fighting, and going for the submission, cutting straight to the finish instead while the opponent still thinking about their standing game.
Below, competitive black belt Edwin Najmi shows his very simple set up for a flying triangle that he has used in tournament all over the world. Najmi is a Romulo Barral black belt, his accomplishments include taking first at Pan Ams and medaling at Worlds, the European Open, and the Abu Dhabi Pro. He is also invited for the 2019 ADCC under 77kg division next month.
To start, Edwin takes a two handed grip on the collar. He grabs the collar on the same side as his lead foot, so if he’s right foot forward he grabs the opponent’s right collar. This grip is deceptive because it does not advertise a flying attack. It looks more like the setting up for a judo throw.
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Part of the role of the collar grip is to box out the opponent from getting inside grips. A concept for standing grip fighting is that the fighter who’s arms on the inside has a better position than the one who’s arms are on the outside. Fighting for collar grips often comes done to pummeling for the inside grip. For the flying triangle, Edwin doesn’t care as long as their grip is on the outside. If their arm is in the inside space, he will run into when he jumps.
With the collar grip in hand Edwin pulls his opponent forward, jerking their head down. Their natural response is to posture up and backwards. As they pull back, he times their reaction and jumps.
Most people try to jump and fall backwards, pulling their opponent into the triangle. This is difficult because you have to drag a resisting opponent a longer distance to actually lock them up in the submission. Edwin jumps straight up.
For those familiar, the jump is like when you are doing box jumps. One step forward, and then jumping straight up. You have tom commit to this completely, otherwise you are not going to the height needed to lock up the triangle. With the head and arm wrapped up, Edwin hits the ground. Most likely the opponent will still be standing still, so Edwin plants his hands against there knees and pushes well shoulder walking at the same time. This will make it hard for them to posture up and they will end up dropping down to the knees.
From there, finish the triangle like you normally would: push the arm across, grab the shin, cut the angle, lock up the triangle and squeeze until they tap.
The flying triangle is one of the flashiest but least understood submission in grappling. Now that you know how to do it, get to work on that highlight reel.
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