Answering these questions is a big part of the problem solving that I love so much about Jiu Jitsu. In Jiu Jitsu we often deal with the same scenarios repeatedly and gain efficiency, but I don’t know how often we work out new or better approaches to these problems. There are existing techniques and methods that are used in most situations and they are used due to their effectiveness. However I don’t believe that the conventional method is necessarily always the best. Or more to the point, what works in a given circumstance may not continue to work as people develop a better understanding of that circumstance. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that I have new and improved methods for every single technique and I am always very cautious of seeming disrespectful to my coaches or the developers of Jiu Jitsu. However, I have found some situations that I feel I have been able to improve.
It wasn’t until I was approaching Brown Belt that I started to investigate changing techniques that I had been learning rather than practicing them the same way I always had. In most cases the process I have followed to improve technique is by considering the most common problems and counters that arise when I am trying a technique and look for ways to pre-empt them. So here are two examples of slight modifications to fairly standard techniques that I think make a big difference.
Harness Strategies
So, most people have similar strategies when it comes to attacking the back with the harness. Such as “over/under” grip, choking arm on the bottom side and protecting the choking arm. Commonly there are two defences that you need to deal with in addition to actually taking the back. First the opponent will squeeze their chin to their chest so you can’t get to the neck and second they will hand fight to take away your choke.
As such when I approach the harness grip I like to move my arms further round the torso so that my grips are “hidden” outside the opponents arm pit. In terms of dealing with the hand fight this is effective for two reasons. 1. My grip is out of the opponent’s immediate reach and 2. My hand placement lifts their arm a little which reduces their mobility. As for the chin being down, I have usually found that the tighter pressure I generate stops their chin going down and even if it does, pulling arms through this deep has my bicep tight to their carotid artery anyway so they are already being partially choked. Incidentally this actually leads to a sneaky little back control version of the head/arm choke as a bonus.
I have a made a video to show what I mean:
Triangle with Gable grips
When it comes to triangles most people tend to agree that there are a few key things that you need for a good triangle; you need to break your opponent’s posture, cut an angle, you shouldn’t see your opponent’s shoulder, you should squeeze your knees etc. Where I approach things differently is in terms of preventing my opponent’s defences, both in a BJJ and an MMA sense. The first two lines of defence for the triangle are similar in both BJJ and MMA. In no particular order they are to drag the trapped arm back from across your body (to take away their angle) and then to posture up. In MMA you also have the very real threat of being lifted up and slammed onto your head.
In most cases the arm defence isn’t really focused on, but there are common answers to posturing up as well as lifting and slamming. However these answers tend to be reactive rather than proactive. In the case of posturing a lot of people try to prevent it by pulling down on the head, whereas the answer to the MMA slamming problem universally seems to be to underhook the leg so that you can’t be lifted off the ground when the opponent stands up.
I prefer to address both problems before they occur and to do it with the same technique. My approach is to cut my angle with the triangle and then underhook the arm rather than the leg, I then Gable-grip over the shoulder and crank downward pressure over the arm. This stops the opponent from being able to posture up and also prevents even the strongest opponents from being able to stand. If the opponent can’t lift their head, then they can’t stand and if they can't stand, they can't lift. The added bonus as well to this is that it maintains your angle and can sometimes result in a tap due to shoulder pressure.
I also made a video showing the triangle details:
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