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Blue belt · Defense · Core

Arm triangle defense

How to keep the arm triangle from locking: keep your arm off your face, turn into them and stop them stepping to the side. Use it under mount or side control as soon as an arm gets pushed across.

Mounted Mounted

Step by step

  1. Prevent it: keep your elbows tight and never push across their neck with a straight arm. That's how your arm ends up across your face.
  2. If they push an arm across your face, pull the elbow straight back to your ribs before their head drops onto it.
  3. If their head is down, bend the trapped arm and keep that hand near your own face. The bent arm keeps a gap at your neck.
  4. Turn onto your side, into them, so your shoulder isn't flat and pinned under their head.
  5. Stop them getting to the side: frame your free hand on their hip or knee on the side they want to step to, and bridge each time they try to slide off the mount.
  6. Tap once they're off to the side, head on the mat, squeezing. If you feel pressure on both sides of your neck, it's on.

Details that make it work

  • They need to get off the mount to the side to finish. Stopping that step stops the choke.
  • Elbow early. Most arm triangles are lost when the arm first crosses the face.

Common mistakes

  • Lying flat and letting them settle their head.
  • Pushing their head with the trapped arm, which straightens it into the choke.

Drill it

Partner in mount sets up the arm triangle at 50%: 5 reps each side of stopping the arm crossing, then 5 of blocking the step off.

If it fails, or what comes next

This defends against

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