Defense wins fights. Not the flashy submissions or spectacular sweeps—your ability to survive bad positions and escape dangerous situations is what keeps you in the game long enough to win.
This week's training focuses on essential escapes from common bad positions: triangle chokes, rear naked chokes, north-south control, and mount. These aren't just techniques—they're survival skills that every grappler needs in their arsenal.
Sequence 1: Triangle Escape
The triangle choke is one of the most common submissions in jiu jitsu. If you train, you will get caught in triangles. Knowing how to escape—or better yet, prevent them entirely—is essential.
01
Prevention First
The best triangle escape is not getting caught in one. When you're in someone's closed guard, pay attention to which leg is inside. Whatever leg is inside their guard, immediately bring that knee up to defend. This posture and knee position makes it extremely difficult for them to throw the triangle. Prevention is always easier than escape.
02
Early Escape: Get Inside
If they start setting up the triangle but haven't locked it yet, your first move is to get your trapped arm inside. Push your elbow to the outside of their hip—this creates space and prevents them from locking the triangle tight. Speed matters here. The moment you feel them going for it, react immediately.
03
Look at the Ceiling
Once your elbow is outside their hip, look straight up at the ceiling. This posture adjustment is critical—it extends your spine and prevents them from breaking your posture down, which is essential for finishing the triangle. Keep your head up and back straight.
04
Push Down on the Groin
With your free hand, push down on their groin or hip. This creates additional space and helps you work your head free. Combined with your posture (looking at ceiling) and your elbow position (outside the hip), you now have the leverage needed to escape.
05
Complete the Escape
Drive forward and pull your head out. Once your head is free, immediately work to pass their guard. Don't stop at just escaping—capitalize on the position by advancing.
Locked Triangle Escape
If the triangle is already locked tight, you need a different approach. This is a more difficult position, but it's still escapable with proper technique.
Rotate Your Trapped Arm
Take your trapped arm and rotate it under your opponent's hand—the hand they're using to secure their leg lock. This rotation creates leverage to break the figure-four lock of their legs. You're not trying to muscle out; you're using proper mechanics.
Move to Opposite Directions
As you break the leg lock, immediately move your body in the opposite direction from their hips. This creates the separation you need. They'll try to re-establish control, but if you're moving with intent, you can prevent this.
Push Legs Down and Pass
Once the lock is broken and you have separation, push their legs down toward the mat. This prevents them from re-establishing the triangle and opens the path to pass their guard. Don't hesitate—move directly into your guard pass.
Sequence 2: Rear Naked Choke Defense
The rear naked choke is one of the most dominant submissions in all of grappling. Once it's fully locked in, escape is nearly impossible. That's why you must defend it early—before they secure the grip.
Critical Timing
This defense only works before the rear naked choke grip is locked tight. Once they have their arm under your chin with the proper lock, your chances of escape drop dramatically. React immediately when you feel them going for your neck.
01
Hand to Back of Head
As soon as you feel their arm coming around your neck (before it's under your chin), immediately bring your hand to the back of your own head. This blocks the path for their choking arm. Your hand acts as a barrier between their arm and your neck.
02
Move Arm Over Their Shoulder
Take the arm that's blocking (hand on back of your head) and drive it over their shoulder. This movement serves two purposes: it continues to block the choke path, and it sets up your counter-attack. Your arm should come over the top of their shoulder, controlling their position.
03
Armbar Counter
From this position, their arm is extended and vulnerable. Secure their wrist with your other hand, fall to your side, and finish with an armbar. You've turned their attack into your submission. This is high-level defense—not just surviving, but countering.
Sequence 3: Closed Guard Attacks
While we're focusing on defense this week, understanding attacks from closed guard makes you a more complete grappler. These sequences show how control leads to submissions.
Fundamental Principle
When in closed guard, always break your opponent's posture first and hold them down. Posture control is the foundation of all closed guard attacks. Without it, nothing else works.
01
Break Posture
Pull your opponent down, breaking their posture. They should be chest-to-chest with you, unable to create distance. Control their head or collar to keep them broken down.
02
C-Grip the Wrist
Establish a C-grip (thumb wrapped around their wrist) on one of their arms. This grip gives you control and prevents them from posting or defending effectively.
03
Move Hips to Opposite Side
Shift your hips away from the arm you're controlling. This angle is crucial—it opens up space for your attack while limiting their defensive options.
04
Attempt Kimura
Thread your arm through (between their arm and their body), grab your own wrist, and attempt the kimura. Apply pressure by rotating their arm toward their back. This is a legitimate submission attempt, but it also sets up the next step.
05
Opponent Rolls Out
Good opponents will recognize the kimura and roll forward to escape. This is expected. Don't fight the roll—use it. As they roll, maintain control of their arm.
06
Lay Down and Sweep
As they roll out of the kimura, lay back and sweep their arm under your armpit. You're now setting up for the arm triangle. Your arm goes under theirs, trapping it against their own neck.
07
Finish Arm Triangle
Lock your hands together (one arm under their trapped arm, other arm behind their head). Squeeze your shoulder to your ear while driving forward. Their own arm creates pressure on one side of their neck, your shoulder creates pressure on the other side. This is a tight, effective choke.
Alternative: Arm Drag to Back Take
Instead of going for the arm triangle after the kimura escape, you can arm drag (pull their arm across their body), take their back, roll to your opposite side, thread your arm underneath theirs with your leg over their arm, then roll into an arm triangle from this position. Same finish, different path.
Sequence 4: North-South Escape
North-south is a smothering position. When done correctly, it's incredibly oppressive. But with proper technique, it's escapable.
01
Turn Into Their Ribs
If you're in a headlock under north-south control, the natural instinct is to pull away. Wrong. Turn into their ribs instead. This creates the angle and leverage you need to escape. Going with their pressure, not against it, is the key.
02
Grip Their Head
As you turn in, secure a grip on their head. This prevents them from transitioning to a tighter control and gives you a handle to work with during the escape.
03
Scissor Your Legs
Bring your legs up in a scissoring motion. This generates momentum and helps you turn your body. The leg movement combined with your grip on their head creates the force needed to escape.
04
Turn In and Get to Knees
Use the momentum from the scissor to turn fully into them and come up to your knees. You've now escaped north-south and can work to improve your position or defend other attacks.
Sequence 5: North-South Attack
Understanding both sides of a position makes you better at both attacking and defending. Here's how to use north-south offensively.
Move to North-South from Side Control
From side control, transition to north-south by walking around their head. Your chest should be heavy on their chest, head to head, controlling their movement.
Establish Armpit Frame
Create a frame in their armpit—your arm goes deep into their armpit, giving you control of their upper body. This prevents them from turning into you and sets up your next movement.
Grab Their Head
With your other arm, secure their head. You now have both an armpit frame and head control—double control that severely limits their options.
Move to Side and Ready Mount
Walk to the side where you have the headlock established. As you move to the side, you're setting up to step over into mount. Their arm is trapped, their head is controlled—they can't effectively defend the mount transition. Step over and establish mount position.
Sequence 6: Mount Defense & Escape
Being mounted is one of the worst positions in jiu jitsu. The person on top has gravity, leverage, and multiple submission options. Your goal: survive, escape, and reverse the position.
01
Hands on Hips
Place your hands on their hips, creating a right angle with your arms. This frame prevents them from sliding up into high mount and gives you the structure needed to create movement. Don't push straight up—that wastes energy. Push at an angle.
02
Turn to Your Side
Turn your body to one side, getting onto your side rather than flat on your back. This is critical—you cannot escape mount while flat. Turning to your side is the first real step of the escape.
03
Fish the Opponent's Leg
Once you're on your side, work your knee inside their knee—this is called "fishing" the leg. Your goal is to get your knee in between you and their leg, creating space and breaking their mount position.
04
Get Hip to Floor
As you fish their leg, drive your hip to the floor. This creates additional space and further breaks their mount. You're now in a position to fully escape.
05
Get Up with Under or Over Hook
Use the space you've created to come up, securing either an underhook (your arm under theirs) or overhook (your arm over theirs). From here, you can work to recover guard or improve your position further. You've survived and escaped the mount.
Alternative: Explosive Escape
If you're athletic and the timing is right, you can use the "superman punch" escape: make a fist like you're throwing a superman punch (this creates structure in your arm), turn your hips out explosively, and shrimp out hard. This creates immediate space and can catch opponents off-guard. It requires more athleticism than the technical escape, but it's faster when it works.
Drilling These Escapes
Positional Sparring: Have your partner start in the dominant position (triangle locked, mount established, etc.) and work only on escaping. Start at 50% resistance, then gradually increase as your technique improves.
Escape Chains: Practice flowing from one escape to another. If the first escape doesn't work, immediately transition to the alternative. This builds your problem-solving under pressure.
Timed Drills: Give yourself 30 seconds to escape from a position. If you don't escape in time, reset and try again. This creates urgency and teaches you to work efficiently.
The Warrior's Mindset on Defense
Defense isn't sexy. It doesn't get highlight reels. But it's what separates survivors from victims on the mat.
Every elite grappler has been mounted, caught in triangles, and put in bad positions thousands of times. What makes them elite isn't that they avoid bad positions—it's that they know how to survive and escape them.
This is the warrior's approach to defense: calm under pressure, technical under stress, and always looking for the path back to safety or dominance.
Your offense might win you matches. But your defense keeps you in them long enough to win.
Train these escapes. Make them automatic. When you're in a bad position, your survival depends on technique, not panic.
Defense is dignity. Master it.