Today we are going to see the tightest reverse triangle by Braulio Estima. It’s a great pleasure and honor to be here with him on my YouTube channel. He is one of the toughest and most dangerous grapplers in jiu-jitsu history. In my opinion, he has the best closed guard game I have ever seen.
He is going to show us a reverse triangle position he came up with in 2009. At that time, most people didn’t know much about this position. In 2009, at the ADCC, which is the toughest grappling competition, he won his division and the open class. He pretty much caught everybody with this technique because no one was expecting it.

I’ve asked him to show us the principles he uses for his reverse triangle. In my case, many times I catch my opponent in the reverse triangle but I don’t get the submission. I just bother my opponent with it. However, when Braulio gets his opponent in the reverse triangle, it’s done, he gets the submission.
Let’s see how he does his reverse triangle.

This is a unique position that he developed a long time ago. The principle he wants to stress is that a lot of people may mistake the position of the technique to the triangle lock. However, it’s not only about locking up the triangle shape. Instead it’s about where you squeeze your opponent with this position. What really matters with any triangle is the pressure on one side of the neck and your opponent’s own shoulder squeezing the other side of the neck. Therefore, with the regular triangle or the reverse triangle, it is crucial that you create pressure on your opponent’s own shoulder to squeeze into his neck.
When Braulio locks in the reverse triangle he doesn’t stay flat on his back. The problem with staying flat on his back is that the pressure goes more down on his opponent’s shoulder. His opponent’s shoulder is not going inward towards his neck and he won’t get the submission.
In order to finish the reverse triangle, he rotates to his hip, which forces his opponent’s own shoulder against his own neck for a very tight choke. So before he locks in the reverse triangle, he positions himself on his hip and then he locks the reverse triangle. This rotation forces his opponent’s own shoulder inward against his own neck.
When he sets up the reverse triangle, he keeps one leg tight against his opponent’s neck. He also controls his opponent’s tricep on the same side where he has his leg against his opponent’s neck. Braulio stays low and he turns onto his hip. When he starts to shift his leg to the other side, his opponent thinks that Braulio is giving up the pass. However, that is when he locks in the reverse triangle after rotating to his hip. By rotating to his hip first and then locking in the reverse triangle, he forces his opponent’s own shoulder tightly against his neck to finish the submission.

Here are the key points for the tightest reverse triangle by Braulio Estima:

1. The key principle he wants to stress is that any triangle is not only about locking up the triangle shape. What really matters is the pressure on one side of the neck and creating pressure on your opponent’s opposite shoulder to make it squeeze inward to the other side of the neck.
2. When he sets up the reverse triangle, he keeps one leg tight against his opponent’s neck. He also controls his opponent’s tricep on the same side. He stays low and turns onto his hip.
3. When he shifts his leg to the other side, his opponent thinks he will get the pass. However, that is when Braulio rotates to his opposite hip and then he locks in the reverse triangle. This forces his opponent’s own shoulder tightly against his neck for the submission.

It’s very interesting for me to see how a small detail or change can make such a big difference with a technique. As I mentioned before, I used to get the reverse triangle but I didn’t submit anyone. Now after seeing how Braulio does it, I understand the correct principles behind this submission.
Thank you so much for this awesome technique Braulio. I hope you all enjoyed it. Oss
Braulio has an awesome membership site where he teaches his entire game, its called estimainaction.com , make sure to check it out. OSSS