Triangle choke: how to finish it, and why yours keeps coming loose
Why the triangle from guard so often slips and how to fix it: pulling the arm across, breaking posture, getting the angle, closing the gap at the knee, and finishing it tight.
Locking a triangle is only the first part. Finishing it against a training partner who knows how to defend takes more. The triangle usually fails for the same few reasons, and in the video above Elliott Bayev, with Stephan Kesting, shows how to fix them.
Where it starts
From guard, with one of your opponent’s arms inside your legs and the other outside.
What you’re trying to do
Trap their head and one arm inside your legs, so that their own shoulder and your thigh squeeze the sides of the neck.
The steps
- Pull the trapped arm across the middle of your body. Lift your hips so they can’t put their weight on that elbow.
- Grab the head right away. From now on they must not be able to posture up.
- Grab your own shin to keep their head down, and put your other foot on their hip.
- Turn to an angle: about a quarter turn, so you’re facing more towards their side than their chest.
- Lock the triangle: put the ankle of the leg across their neck behind the knee of your other leg, then bend that leg to close the lock.
- To finish: keep the angle, squeeze your knees together and lift your hips. Use the grip on the head to stop them posturing up, not to crank the neck.
Why it keeps coming loose
When you turn to the angle, a gap opens between your knee and their neck. If you lock the legs over that gap, the triangle feels tight but doesn’t choke. Close it before you lock: go back to holding the head, straighten the leg, push the inside of your knee into the neck, then lock again. If there’s still space at the knee, adjust your angle and leg position before you lock.
The one cue to remember
Break the posture, close the gap, then lock.
Safety
Go slowly when you finish, and don’t pull hard on the head of a partner who is still defending: their neck is bent and under load. If you’re caught, tap early.
When not to force it
If they stand up and posture fully, don’t hang on for minutes. Open the legs, protect yourself, and come back with an armbar or a sweep, which often appear at the same moment.