Another lump, another triangle trick

I made my triumphant return to the gym Tuesday night, which naturally means I'm out for another few weeks.... My finger is the one thing that really didn't heal over the holiday break. I was hoping it would, but within the first 30 seconds of my first gi match Tuesday night I grabbed some guy's pant leg and he yanked his leg back - my finger pretty much exploded in pain. Wednesday I went to the doctor, and within about a minute of looking at the x-rays he told me I had torn the tendon.

The good news is there's no surgery needed, the bad news is twofold: I need to keep the finger in a splint for a few weeks so no training, and the finger will probably never be 100% again. Meh. So my knee recovery hits the 1-year mark in about a week, at which point I'll be wearing a splint on my hand.

Anyway I managed to learn a couple of cool new details Tuesday night before shit went ouch. There were only three students when class started so Marcus asked us if we had anything specific bothering us (more people showed up later, LA traffic makes this pretty routine). I had been trying to figure something out so I pounced.

I have long, thin legs and excellent flexibility. In other words I'm practically MADE to throw triangles. The problem is a lot of guys wait for triangle attempts and use them to pass by twisting their torso into into the triangle leg and flipping that leg over their head, passing into side control. This makes me hesitate to throw it.

So how to avoid this? I thought that maybe (assume I throw my right leg up and over my opponent's neck) if I hooked my left leg inside his right thigh I could avoid that pass because he would be dragging me in circles, getting nowhere. Technically that's right, but when I tried it before class with a partner I quickly realized that now my foot was stuck - I couldn't count in getting it out again which meant I would never be able to lock the triangle. Also, I had no power in the hooking leg; my opponent could easily push my left knee (which was horizontal) down and step over.

So my answer sucked, leading me to ask Marcus. He showed me two details. Neither was a super-clever silver bullet to stop someone from passing, but they sure helped.

The first tip was to clean up the technique. Specifically people can pass your triangle attempt when you fling a leg up and they're able to posture up and/or twist their torso. The answer is to not allow them to do either if possible, but definitely not both. To stop the posture, make sure the leg you shoot up leaves *no* room between the back of your knee and his neck, then form a strong L-shape and pull him down. Grabbing your own foot helps this.

Now he can't posture, but there's a good chance that if he twists his torso he can get out. Imagine you throw up your right leg. Before you can lock, he twists so his right shoulder comes back while his left shoulder stays in place. He's now removed a lot of the pressure on his neck and is in a good position to try and stack or pass. To stop the twist, squeeze you left knee as tight as you can against his right tricep or shoulder. Remember that you only need this to hold him for a second while you lock the triangle.

Ok, so either you lock the triangle or are about to, and he stacks you. Now what? If you don't react there's a good chance you're going to lose the pressure on his neck, and eventually your legs will pop open. The answer is ridiculously simple - walk backwards on your shoulder blades. As he comes forward on his knees you can outpace him while either locking the move or continuing to squeeze. There's a great chance he'll end up falling on his face with your triangle on his back, which actually sucked more than the normal triangle - it hurts the neck, back, everything really, just a really unpleasant feeling and you're still being choked. I haven't played with the move much but I suspect you can compound the effect by walking backwards to one side on your shoulder blades instead of just going straight back. I'll have to try it out.