Escape from Yoko-shiho-gatame into Sankaku-gatame

Key points

• Make space first: frame on the hip and turn to your side
• Swing the far leg high over their head, not their back
• Close the triangle and control before you think about finishing

Step by step

Left-handed: these steps use the standard right-handed form. Swap every left and right.

1. You are under Yoko-shiho-gatame, your partner’s chest across yours from your right side.
2. Turn onto your right side and push your left forearm against their hip to make a hand’s width of space.
3. Free your left leg and swing it high over their head, so the back of your knee reaches the back of their neck.
4. Hook your left foot behind your right knee, closing your legs into a triangle around their head and right arm.
5. Squeeze and straighten your body: they cannot hold you while their own head and arm are trapped, and the position becomes Sankaku-gatame with the roles reversed.
6. Apply nothing quickly: the trapped arm is an armlock, and it ends the moment they tap.

From the other side

You feel the hold loosen at the hip, then a leg passes your head and closes behind your neck with your arm inside it. Posture up the instant the leg swings; once the triangle closes, concentrate on freeing the trapped arm and tap early if it starts to straighten.

VI judo notes

Everything here is read through contact. Their chest across yours and the hold settling are the start; the hand's width of space you make at the hip is felt, not seen; and the back of your knee finding the back of their neck is the cue that the leg has gone far enough. Close the triangle by touch of foot on knee. Because the finish is an armlock, agree the tap before you drill it and stop on the tap, not on the sight of it.

The techniques involved

• Yoko-shiho-gatame
• Sankaku-gatame