That attack for me was the Knee-In Armbar from Side control. It was my worst submission, now it’s by far my number 1 submission. Gone are the days of forcing on Kimura’s. However people have started to wise on to what I’m doing and to varying degrees can make things more difficult for me. Now a few times I’ve chosen to grind through and get the arm bar, thus causing the roll to stall a bit. Other times I’ve tried to attack the neck which has then re-opened the arms to attack. Still something was missing – and yet again watching these Rickson Gracie seminars I stumble upon an almost throw away comment he makes.
He was stating that the person cannot defend all three (arm, neck or you getting better position), and that you always have these attack options as long as you move and keep fluid. The comment was simple. It was basic and easily understood. This tells me it’s valuable.
If they defend the neck, then attack the arm. If they turn into you from side control then take mount or attack the neck. Rickson’s commentary on this sounded bigger than just an answer to a quick question – it sounded like a philosophy or core concept for attacking in BJJ.
I’ve fallen for the error of trying to attack a persons arms, then their neck and somehow they’ve managed to defend both and getting caught up in that. The thing I’m forgetting in these circumstances is my opportunity to improve my position or change it. Numerous times now people have attempted to get to turtle from under my side control rather than lose the arm to the inevitable armbar. In these circumstances I generally control an underhook on an arm and stopped them turning. I get frustrated as they were defending the arms and the neck. What I should have done is take the back as they go to turtle. I’m one step ahead of them anyway, I know what they are about to do, but in these circumstances I choose not to flow with the go.
This was an error on my behalf. So intent was I on the control and submission of the arm or neck that I neglected the free opportunity to improve my position. Many times after rolls I recall opportunities that I missed to get full back control or mount. I failed at applying the Attack Triangle (neck, arm, position) concept correctly. My opponent was giving me position, he didn’t want me to attack his arm or neck – yet I ignored this.
If you focus on position improvement and their arm then your opponent is going to stop you from getting those. The defender can stop a person achieving these goals. It’s so easy to get focused on two sides of the triangle that you ignore the third. Try to keep fluid between all three sides of this attack triangle. Pick a side and legitimately go for it, then be on the lookout to switch to another side of the triangle attack and opportunities to finish or get better position will present themself. Part of this is changing position yourself when you feel you aren’t making progress. Knee-Ride, North-South and others are just variations of side control. Use them all in side control and flow.
This Attack Triangle concept is just part of the BJJ building blocks – I believe most good BJJ players do this subconsciously and only a select handful can articulate this concept. I come from a software development background, in that you have a triangle for Cost, Quality and Time Constraints. You can only ever achieve two of these constraints in a software development project. If you have a set Cost and a set Time Frame then you have to sacrifice Quality to achieve those other constraints. I think the same applies for Jiu-jitsu defence - it’s almost impossible to defend all 3 sides of the Attack Triangle unless you have a very good idea what the opponent is going to do next.
As an attacker I think you want to have good control, be fluid, use your hips and their levers correctly. A sure sign you are not doing things correctly is if you find yourself grinding on the other person and trying to force a submission for say more than 5 seconds. I’ve done this a ton in the past and it was such an effort to attack. If you can’t get the neck after 5 seconds, then most likely you are NOT going to get it in without something changing – the only thing that can change in this circumstance is you. Think about when someone attacks your arm and they are just belligerently trying to get it from the same position (say Kimura from Side Control). You start to adjust and make it as difficult as possible to apply the position, and you start to work for escapes to use their strength against them.
For now I’m going to try to think about the Attack Triangle when I’m going for my attacks. I’m going to see what other opportunities open up for me with this trinity of options. I’m hoping Mount and Back Control. They aren’t my strongest areas of control but I’m looking forward to see what I learn next.
Happy rolling.
Dan
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