Triangle Choke Setup: Creating the Angle

Breaking Posture and Creating the Frame

The triangle begins with breaking your opponent's posture from closed guard. Use your legs to pull them down and control one arm across your centerline with a sleeve or wrist grip. You need one arm in and one arm out of your guard — the shoulder of the trapped arm becomes the fulcrum of the choke. Once their posture is broken and you have one arm controlled, push their other arm away to clear it from the path of your leg swing. The hip escape is next: drive your hips out to the side of the trapped arm and swing your leg over their shoulder and behind their neck to begin forming the triangle.

Locking and Adjusting the Triangle

Once your leg is over their neck, lock your ankles by placing the back of your knee over the top of your other foot (figure-four). The locked position should feel snug but not yet tight — the finish comes from adjusting the angle. Hip out toward the trapped arm side and pull your knee toward your chest while pulling their head down. These three actions together create the choking pressure on the carotid arteries.

• One arm in, one arm out — shoulder of trapped arm must be inside
• Hip escape to the trapped arm side before locking the legs
• Pull knee to chest + pull head down + hip toward trapped arm = finish

Cutting the Angle for the Finish

The most common reason triangles fail to finish is poor angle. You must be perpendicular to your opponent — if you are straight in front of them, the triangle is loose and ineffective. Use your arms to pull yourself sideways by grabbing their head and pulling toward the trapped arm. This cuts your body at 90 degrees, tightening the figure-four against their neck. Combined with squeezing your knees together and extending your hips, a properly angled triangle is virtually inescapable.