Back Triangle Escape

Manage injuries →Position map Connects to 3 positions across 2 relationshipsOpen in the map →123←Escape route from

The back triangle is a leg triangle closed around the neck and the near arm from back control. For the attack, see Back Triangle. The arm inside the lock is the whole subject of this page — it is what makes the submission survivable for longer than a clean strangle, and it is the thing the defender has to get back.

Two near neighbours answer differently. The guard triangle is met from the front with the attacker underneath. The arm-out version — the same lock from behind, taken with both of your arms outside the legs — is a cleaner, faster strangle with a different early answer, and it is covered further down this page rather than on a page of its own. The distinction is not academic: an arm-in triangle is a slower, leakier lock, and the defence spends its time on the arm rather than on the head.

It appears when a chin tuck has beaten the rear naked choke. The tuck that blocks the forearm also puts the near arm where the triangle wants it, which means a defender who has just successfully defended one thing is often walking into this.

Arm-out rear triangle escape(the version with both arms outside the legs)

Early — the legs are swapping and the ankle has not locked behind the knee

Arm extraction. The triangle needs a moment where one leg comes off to swap into the lock, and during that moment the near arm is not yet trapped by anything but pressure. Pull it free then — down and out toward your own hip, the shortest line. This is the highest-value window on the page and it is short, because the leg swap is fast. The exit is back control bottom with the arm recovered and the strangle denied.

Middle — the legs are configuring and the lock has not closed