Sunday Class 05/04/08

Made it in for Sunday's class. It was a beautiful day in the Seattle area, one of the first this year. We've received more than our share of rain for the year already. Yuck. Yesterday, the sun was out. It was warm and coach had the big garage doors all the way open for the first time this year.

We worked triangle choke defense yesterday. After each tournament, Coach usually sees something that many of the competitors could do better, and I guess a lot of the guys were having trouble with the triangle choke. I'll go through the two big ones I know, including what we've drilled recently in class. For the purposes of the descriptions below, my right arm is caught inside the triangle choke; left arm isolated outside.

The first defense against a triangle choke is to prevent getting caught in one. As soon as I sense an arm is isolated and my opponent raises his hips, I'm going to posture up nice and high to remove his angle and put some pressure on his ankles, making it difficult for him to break me down and secure the choke. The second thing I'm going to do is take my right arm (the one inside the choke), bring my elbow back to block his leg from swinging around to an armbar, and also to keep him from being able to turn his hips. My right hand will be in nice and tight, again to keep him from transitioning to an armbar, and also to put more pressure on his ankles. Next thing to do is decide whether to attempt to pass or to get my outside arm back in and reset in his guard. If I catch the triangle attempt early enough, I can pass to the left side (the side with the arm outside the choke). To do this, I'm going to take that outside arm and in an explosive motion, drive it to the mat next to my opponent's hip (far side). I'll also, in the same motion, turn my hips all the way over, so that I'm now facing his feet. From here, I can swim my arm back over and move into side mount, or do whatever I want.

The second defense is more of an "in time" defense. The choke isn't completely locked down, but it's closer, and I'm not able to posture up as easily. I'm going to do everything the same up to the point where my right hand is in tight against his knee, and my elbow is driving back to block his left hip from swinging out. This time, because it's a little tighter, I'm probably not going to be able to break his legs open swinging my left arm over. Just too tight. So, instead, I'm going to take a little step back with my left arm and drive his knee to the mat. I'm going to keep pressure on his knee with my right arm as I turn once again so that I'm facing his feet. At this point, he may attempt to transition to an omoplata. To prevent this, I need to keep my arm locked out until I'm ready to swim it over for side control, or transition to something else. Main thing, once again, is that I should be out of danger from the triangle choke.