805BJJ Class 41: Triangles and their defenses, 60 minutes of rolling (side control bottom focus)

After coach Greggo warmed us up with some light jogging and a shrimping drill, we quickly got into the technique of the day – triangle defenses. The first step of teaching triangle defenses is to teach the triangle technique itself, so people know how to do it while others defend it. This was probably the second time I’ve seen a class lesson on triangles (the first one being no-gi intermediate class at UCLA) so it was good stuff. I was in a group of 3 with Victor and Dave until Emily came after Krav Maga finished and paired with me. Keys for the triangle are 1) foot on the arm-in hip to keep them low, 2) lift the hips to put the leg over as you punch their other arm under, 3) grab the head to keep their upper body down, 4) grab your own shin to cinch the calf across the back of their neck, 5) use your hip foot to push your angle perpendicular to your opponent, so you can get your calf directly across the back of the neck, 6) keep your overhooked foot pulled back, 7) use the overhooked leg as the choking surface, along with their trapped arm crossing in front of their neck. We also learned that if you can’t get your leg over all the way, you can still choke them by scissoring your legs and pull their head into your crotch. It still works!

For the triangle defenses, the first one was to reach your outside arm around their head as you stack their knees over their head. This makes them open their legs and you can smash pass to side control. It’s quite powerful. Emily was impressed with my control when I pulled off the move without crushing her ribs into her spine.

The second triangle defense was to sit back and pull their hips up onto your leg. Look up (pull your head back) to put pressure on their ankles, and push their bicep with your other foot to get more leverage. Then dump them over and scramble for a good position.

Rolling started very early. I went with Diego first, and he demanded to know what my injuries were before we started with me in his guard. He ended up sweeping me and mounting me and crushing me, and that was it.

I rolled with Victor, starting in bottom side control. I rolled him over twice. I caught him in an arm bar twice. It was not too hard, and I felt sorry for him.

I rolled with Dave, and he tapped me with a baseball bat choke from the bottom. Nice!

I rolled with Brandon and he taught me the bow and arrow choke. Then he guillotined me across the ears and jaw, and I didn’t tap for a long time until I started snorting and realized he wasn’t going to let go. I got the feeling he was not too friendly toward me. Oh well. I still like him.

I rolled with Victor again, and was able to sweep him off me from mount. I was leading him through a guard sweep, and he was going for some chokes and giving up his base. I taught him the A-frame basis of mount, and to maintain his base with his arms once he starts to put in a collar choke. I felt better showing him stuff than I did from dominating him.

I rolled with Jen and her new blue belt. She has a rib injury and a knee injury, so I told her I wanted to work on side control bottom. She taught me some of the finer details on shrimping to guard retention.

I rolled with Aaron and again worked on side control bottom. He kept sticking me in north-south. I was able to push him over my head, but I was not able to sweep my legs around and escape because he was very good at scrambling back to side control. I did roll him over once, and then let him get back into my side control.

I rolled with Chris and his not-as-new blue belt, and he further refined my side control escaping technique. Then we rolled regular and he quickly took my back and tapped me. After that I was able to almost pass his open guard before the round ended, and he told me that soon we’d all be blue belts.

Good camaraderie after the class. Greggo told the class that he was impressed with our toughness. Jen said our gym has a reputation as a takedown gym. I did a full hour of rolling (though a lot of it was doing bottom side control drills) and I didn’t get injured. I’m so thrilled! I even forgot my elbow was tweaked!

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