Opposite Triangle Escape
Opposite triangle escape — the reversed lock barely strangles, so the threat is the shoulder. Read the lock, take the arm home, use the reconfiguration.
Adapted from InGrappling, Opposite Triangle Escape. System Games did not invent this curriculum.
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The opposite triangle — hantai sankaku — is the reversed-lock triangle. For the attack, see Opposite Triangle. The trapped head-and-arm configuration is identical to a front triangle; what differs is the figure-four itself, locked on the reversed side with the choking knee on the same side as your trapped arm rather than across from it.
⚠ The good news and the bad news are the same fact: as a strangle it barely works. With the lock reversed, the choking leg’s calf never crosses the carotid line, so the bilateral compression a front triangle depends on is unavailable — and squeezing harder does not fix a geometric problem. ⚠ What it does platform is an armlock. The kimura is the finish this configuration actually threatens, and a defender who reads the reversed lock as a weak choke and settles in to wait is defending the wrong submission.
It is rarely chosen deliberately. It arises mid-scramble or mid-entanglement, when the legs close on whichever configuration the exchange offers and the figure-four lands on the available side rather than the correct one. Unlike most triangle pages the standard escapes do apply — you have posture and you can stack — and you have more time than the shape suggests, provided you spend it on the arm.
Elevated RiskOpposite Triangle (Defence) is an elevated risk technique. ⚠ The hazard here is not the strangle. With the figure-four locked on the reversed side the calf never crosses the carotid line, so the vascular compression a front triangle produces is largely unavailable. What the configuration does platform is a shoulder lock — the trapped arm is held in a position from which a kimura is readily available, loading the shoulder in internal rotation with the legs supplying the anchor. A defender waiting out a weak choke is waiting inside a live armlock. Serious injury can occur The strangle may never arrive. The shoulder lock arrives at the speed of any kimura — the travel between fine and damaged is short and gives little warning..
If you are new to this technique: read this section before anything else. Understanding the danger is part of understanding the technique.
The person applying the technique is responsible for releasing immediately.
Communicate before drilling. Know your partner's experience level with this position.