REVERSE TRIANGLE

The reverse triangle is the figure-four leg strangulation executed from a side-on angle, with the attacker's legs closing around the opponent's head and one trapped arm from above rather than from the guard's front position. Unlike the conventional triangle, the reverse triangle is set up from top position — typically from side control or kesa-gatame — and the attacker's body is rotated so that the choking leg's calf compresses the carotid from the opposite side of the conventional triangle's anatomy.

The entry is established when the top player has secured side control or kesa-gatame and the bottom player's far arm has been pulled across or under the bottom player's own neck — typically as part of an arm-triangle setup. The attacker swings the far-side leg over the bottom player's head from the kesa-gatame angle, closes the figure-four with the near-side leg, and rotates the hips downward to finish with the calf compressing the far carotid against the bottom player's own shoulder.

The reverse triangle's status is unusual among modern submissions: it is one of the highest-level finishes in the BJJ library — taught at black belt, requiring substantial flexibility — but it is also a common transitional submission in MMA, where the kesa-gatame style of top control naturally exposes the configuration. Tainan Dalpra has used the reverse triangle in IBJJF competition; in MMA the technique has finished multiple title fights including Demian Maia's submission of Chael Sonnen at UFC 95. Defensively the technique is escaped by preventing the arm from being trapped across the neck in the first place, by hand-fighting the leg-swing before the figure-four locks, or by walking the hips perpendicular to the attacker to disrupt the angle.