Last class before the tournament. We worked takedowns for a second night in a row (i.e., Tuesday's class). Then passing the guard and escape from the guard. It was a nice tightly focused class. The new blue belt, Jes, ran a perfect warm-up, by the way.
The most important thing in the class, however, were the counters to the triangle and the armbar that Rodrigo showed us. The other new blue belt, who also is called Jes, I think, caught me in triangle after triangle during our guard work. I know that my guard is pathetic and needs a lot of work. But I should be better at passing the guard, and knowing how to deal with triangles and armbars is a big part of that.
The main idea is that if you can fight off the attack, fine. But if you get caught DON'T STAND UP!
Standing up allows the guy to extend his legs in an armbar, and to get better leverage in the triangle choke. Like the counter to the kimura from the half-guard that Rodrigo showed a few of us after class, if you get caught then instead of creating space, you want to close the space, getting as close to the guy's body as possible--and hopefully making him uncomfortable by pinning his legs over his body so that his guard can be passed.
Fighting off the Triangle
This was the big one tonight, and I'm trying to remember how it goes. Basically, you want to do two things. First, maintain an upright posture. You do this by going to one knee, the "up" knee being on the same side as the arm that is trapped in the triangle.
Here's a fuzzy part. I think you want to reach other with the non-trapped arm and grab the hand of the trapped arm to lock arms around the guy's leg. You then lean in, pressing his legs back against his body, cheating slightly toward the "up knee" side.
Even if he is flexible enough to take the discomfort of having his legs pushed back, he will lose the strength to maintain the triangle attack. And as you loses the leverage, you gain leverage as you move toward passing his guard and moving into side control.
