One of the major common counters to the triangle choke is the stack, and while risky for the defender, it can give the attacker a whole of problems. In fact, some even lead to easy guard passes. But there are a few concepts that go into make the attack more stack proof.

And that, my friend, is the topic of this video.

One of my students was running into the same issue, so we set down and went over some of the adjustments that I’ve had success with.

Check it below, and let me know if it helps your triangle choke.

Transcript

Kenneth:

Hey what’s up everybody? It’s been a long time since I’ve been on YouTube, but I want to do a different kind of video, now that we’re finally able to open up. And we’re going to troubleshoot the triangle from the closed guard and address some problems that are very common for one of my students. All right? Let’s get into it.

All right, so here we go. Nathan, Peter, they’re going to kind of walk through the triangle and I’m going to see if we can address some problems that are common, not just for Nathan but more. So let’s go into it, right away. First problem was what?

Nathan:

The first problem is when an opponent is especially bigger or stronger, they’ll often stack really intensively. And sometimes you’re just shuffling back using the shuffle alone. It’s maybe sometimes effective but not always, especially if they’re really strong. And so then there’s problems like if I’m shuffling back, they’re driving into me like this, I might not be able to beat them. Or I might shuffle back and control the head, and I’ll try to open, but they can use that as an opportunity to pressure this way, dive across and escape.

Kenneth:

Okay, awesome. So let’s go and backtrack a little. Scoot back over. First of all, I’m big on the angles of the knees relative to hips when it comes to the triangle. So if you go back to the stack position, look at this. You start to lose control as your knees go close to your chest. So as he drives, drives, drives, that’s when you start losing your own mechanical strength in this position. So, if you can, the goal is to stop your knees from getting to your chest. And that’s why we can’t, as we talked about earlier, framing against your own thighs, reinforce them.

It’ll make it hard for him to get your knees to your chest so when he stacks down there’s a barrier of space, you control that space. You maintain your structural strength. So he’s trying to stack, even if he brings his arm across your shoulder and try to drive in and pass that leg, it’s really difficult. Why? Because he can’t get your knees to your chest. All right, so you back up again.

And now, second thing. So we’re in a situation where we’re going against someone who’s trying to stack and pass us. You’re framing against your own thighs, you’re creating that structure and reinforcing it. And now what I want you to do is pinch your knees together. Now that you pinch your knees, he feels some pressure, he’s not comfortable anymore. This is where you start winning the psychological play. Now you’re still half with your opponent with your hip, ankle relative to your knees.

So I don’t know if it’s visible to you as well but your knees are slightly past your hip. We want to bring the hip in line with the knee so you have the shoulder crawl now. So you’re going to shoulder crawl, shoulder crawl, shoulder crawl and keep going on the center, and keep that arm extended. Because he’s driving in and he’s smashing you, he’s trying to put all that pressure on you. Now, when your knees and your hips get close to alignment, that’s when you can start switching to your turn.

Bring your leg across, lock up, pinch your knees together. Now one thing I want to adjust and I may have to show you this. But there’s like a hip swivel that’s really hard for me to teach and I really want you to have it. So let me here, I’m going to come in. So we’re in the same situation where I’m here, he’s stacking me and I lift up on so when he tries to drive in and then shoulder crawl. Look, first of all I’m going to put pressure here and I’m going to bring my knee in because I don’t want this arm to slip out but also, I want to swivel my hip.

So my leg is going to swivel this way and my hip is going to move out. It’s almost like a slight shift. It’s not lateral, it’s slightly rotational. So my knees patch, so I’m going to form a diamond, he’s driving, I’m reinforcing, I create more space. I open my legs, I chop down and then I move out. And then look, this knee is going to collect. Lock, pinch. And when I pinch my toes, I curl them to the, flex them to the sky. That flexes my calf, put pressure on the back of his neck.

I’m also flexing the hamstring and all these surrounding muscles like the adductors here, everything’s compression from all angles.

Nathan:

Yeah, he’s tapping.

Kenneth:

Yeah. Your turn.

Nathan:

Okay, thank you. So reinforce, wiggle back, pinching. Then chopping, chopping down.

Kenneth:

And now swivel.

Nathan:

Swivel.

Kenneth:

Yes.

Nathan:

All right.

Kenneth:

And clamp lock.

Nathan:

Yeah. There we go.

Kenneth:

Okay. How do you feel about that?

Nathan:

It’s a big difference.

Kenneth:

Yeah.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Kenneth:

So hopefully that was helpful to you as well. Hey, it’s been a while. But we’re not going to stop putting some more content on the Tube. Look forward to it.