Reverse Triangle Escape
Reverse triangle escape — the outside leg over your shoulder and your own trapped shoulder doing the compressing. Recover the arm early, and expect it from underneath a pin.
Adapted from the original page. Grappling.Games did not write this. Sources.
Manage injuries →Position map Connects to 3 positions across 2 relationshipsOpen in the map →123←Escape route from
The reverse triangle — gyaku sankaku — is the inverted-orientation triangle. For the attack, see Reverse Triangle. The attacker’s outside leg swings over your shoulder while their inside leg tucks underneath, and the figure-four closes around your head and one arm. ⚠ The compression is not their leg on your throat: it is your own trapped shoulder driven across one carotid, with their legs closing the other side. That is what the defence has to undo, and it is why recovering the arm collapses the lock more reliably than fighting the legs.
It exists because it arrives from places a front triangle cannot. It is a counter taken from underneath — the attacker is in an inferior position and you are the one holding a pin — which is exactly why it lands: a top player concentrating on holding side control drops their head into range and the legs come up over the shoulder line before the position reads as dangerous.
★ Its home is bottom side control, which is the position both of the sources behind the attack page name — one of them calls it the easiest place to learn the technique. So this page is written for the problem you will actually meet: you are on top, holding a pin, and the person underneath is attacking. That inverts the usual reading of an escape page, and it is the single most useful thing to know about defending this.
Elevated RiskReverse Triangle (Defence) is an elevated risk technique. A bilateral vascular strangle, the same class as any other triangle. One carotid is closed by the defender's own trapped shoulder pressed across it; the other by the attacker's legs. ⚠ What is unusual is not the mechanism but the orientation: the attacker is underneath and inverted, so the defender is the one holding a dominant position and is least expecting a finish. Serious injury can occur Seconds once both surfaces close, as with any bilateral carotid compression. The fade is the signal..
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.