Starting in Closed Guard - to attack their right arm, your left side
1. Swim with hands and lift knees forward to pull them down onto you
2. Over hook left arm, bicep check right arm as you hip escape back onto your right hip
3. Immediately kick your left leg up across their shoulder to keep them from posturing
4.From the previous position, the trigger position, hit the Oma Plata by kicking the left leg over in front of their face. Post on their hip with your other foot, your right foot to help you rotate and continue to trap the arm you are attacking by pulling their elbow down onto your hip with the over hook hand.
5. To flatten them, kick your attacking leg straight.
6. Figure four your legs and switch the hands so that your right hand is pushing thier trapped hand against your hip.
To Finish
1. Sit-up over their back
2. Grab their far arm with both your hands (you can let go of the hand now)
3. lift your hips.
To Sweep to side control (If you’re having trouble sitting up or if they are too tall)
1. Grab their pants below the knee with your left hand (you should now both be flat. they are belly down, their head by your feet. your are belly up, your head by their feet.)
2. Stay straight and roll them over your body.
3. Walk your legs towards you, away from their head, and establish side control.
Posture is key when escaping a closed Triangle Choke. Here is a series of counters to escape, based on how tight the triangle is and where your body is.
Escaping the Loosely Closed Triangle:
If your opponent has just shot the triangle (perhaps you were just in their closed guard) the first thing to do is get posture by pointing your head up, and scooting your hips forward. You should be your head and hips should be in a striagh line and perpendicular to the floor. Form this safe position, you can open the triangle by grabbing your opponents front knee or their front hip with both hands and pushing out to open.
Escaping the Tighter Triangle:
If the triangle is tighter and your head is lower and closer to their hips you’re in more danger. From here, if your opponent is pulling on your head, remove their grips off the back of your head with your free arm and then work to frame your arms. (Framing your amrs means you are sliding your trapped arm’s forearm across your opponents hips and clasping your hands and pushing down to create space. Structurally, this is like a “frame” and provides a brace for you against your opponents hips. )
To Frame:
Push the their grips off the back of your head (mentioned previously above.) Next, before they can get the grips back, hold their bicep on the side of your free arm. Pull your trapped arm across. Let go of the bicep, frame, and immediately posture.If you can frame and make distance, then go for the escape above,
If You Cannot Frame:
It’s not over yet. Push off the grip. hold their bicep. on the bicep side, reach you foot forward to pin that arm, placing your foot in their armpit. Flop onto your hip on that side. kick your other leg over as you arch back to break the triangle. Now that those feet are in your face, maybe hit a leg lock?
Survival Secrets from the Griffiths Files:
From the Triangle Master come these little known tips for survival in the face of a tight and menacing triangle. This insight has mainly to do with breathing and maintaining enough space to breath. If you’re in a really tight triangle, and your arm is flat across your neck, this trapped arm will be putting pressure on your neck, making it hard to breath. The more this arm is flexed, the more pressure it will exert on your neck. So, relax the trapped arm and turn your head to face your elbow. If you’re relaxed with your head turned, it will be very hard for the guy to finish you. From this stall position, try to get lock hands and slide your framing forearm across your opponents hops so you can start to fight for posture. Once your arms are in the proper position to push up to frame, the triangle may still be very tight. Again, try to relax the trapped arm and this time turn your head towards you trapped shoulder as you attempt to push up to frame.
Here Kenny Florian shows a creative finish from the back in the gi. Kenny gave Josh Griffiths his Black Belt, is the number 1 contender in the UFC, and is currently teaching in Boston.
The clean and press is an excellent compound movement for jiu jitsu practitioners. Here Jiu Jitsu Inc Strength and Conditioning coach and owner or High Performance Fitness, Clay Burwell shows this lift.
Here are the 2 techniques to open the closed guard from class this week. The first one, the “Lunge” does not require the player inside the closed guard to stand up. the second on, the “Sleeve ‘n Stand”, does.
“The Lunge”:
Grab the gi above belt and hold. you don’t need to apply pressure. (Keep your elbow on the inside of your opponents leg to avoid an oma plata.)
With your other hand, grab your opponents waist above their hip, and place your elbow inside their thigh. (This hand will be opening the guard and checking their hip.)
Nest, put your knee, on the gi grip side, next to their tailbone.
Open the guard by kicking the other leg back, like a “lunge”, posting on your toes on that leg, and then rotating your heel down as you twist your hips and push with the tailbone knee to pop the guard open.
“The Sleeve ‘n Stand”:
Start this pass by securing the lapels grip, but this time turn your palm so that your knuckle face your opponent and your palm is down. You will be using this hand to keep them down, should they try to pop up as you stand.
With your free hand, grab one of their sleeves by rolling your fingers under the outside of their sleeve and turning your palm up as you close your fist.
Pull this sleeve grip up to your hip, keeping your elbow inside their thigh.
Stand by rocking laterally and planting your sleeve-grip side foot and then stepping up with the other one. (Always step with the sleeve-grip side foot first to avoid the sweep.)
Once you are standing, release the lapels and grab the inside of their knee with that hand.
To open the guard, lean away from the knee as you straighten that arm. Once the arm is locked, lean down on that knee to pop the guard open.
*You must maintain posture or neither of these will work.
*There is no real reason this should be called the Dancer Sweep, except for introducing some diversity into our naming conventions. (That, and the fact that it may very vaguely resemble an 80’s era Yo MTV Raps move. The move where a person grabs their own ankle while standing and kicks their hip forward with that leg.)
This move is a sweep from half guard. It is performed when you are on bottom and your opponents starts walking their trapped leg up to do a knee through pass.
1. When their foot is close enough for you to grab with your top hand, grab it.
2. now move your top leg up above their knee on their trapped leg and lock a figure four with your legs.
3. post on your bottom elbow as you bridge your hips up, pushing their knee back as you hold the ankle for the sweep. This will force your opponent to sit back or they will hurt their ankle (be mindful of their ankle.)
4. Finish on top in their half guard, or push their top knee out and escape yoru leg for side control.
This is a good chain of choke attacks from side control (and possible half guard top, if you are high up).
1: try for the guillotine first. Top arm loops under and around your opponents neck beneath you. If you can clasp your hands, roll to your back as you throw your top leg over your opponents body and “rock the baby” to finish. IF you cannot clasp your hands because they are fighting your hands, THEN
2: Punch your top arm under their top arm and under their neck to the Darst set up. gable grip your hands. Pull towards your hip to get their head close to you and your arm deeper. Grab your bicep with your bottom arm and their trap with your top arm. Post on your toes and elevate your forearm to crank the finish. (if you have ample pressure on their top trapped arm, you will get the choke, otherwise, it’s a crank.) IF they know your Darst intentions and won’t let you punch through, Then go for the armless Darst Choke.
3: Instead of punching under, just slide your am under thier neck, but not too deep, your elbow should not be under their neck, but your forearm should. Lock up the Darst grip (bicep, top hand is on top of the front of their shoulder this time though. ) Critical detail: now slide your own shoulder down so that it is on top of their neck, and curl your bicep to get the choke. You are basically doind a curl with their neck between your forearm and your bicep.
