When strangleholds and joint locks join forces: The submission holds of Jiu Jitsu are broadly divided into JOINT LOCKS and STRANGLES. The former are an attack upon your opponent's body, the latter an attack upon your opponent's consciousness. Both are devastating weapons. There are a few occasions when you can bridge the divide and make them work together as one. Arguably the best example of this is the triangle (sankaku). Anytime you lock up a triangle of any type upon an opponent you always have the option of adding a lock to your opponent's wrist, elbow or shoulder as well. The effects of this can be devastating as typically the defenses to the strangle tend to open you up to the joint locks and vice versa, so that the opponent is given the devils choice between getting strangled vs getting broken. Here, triangle master Gordon Ryan shows a fine example of a front triangle (omote sankaku) combined with an arm lock action (juji gatame) to create a terrible predicament for his opponent. Look for this every time you attack with triangles of all types and begin to exploit the potential of both strangles and joint locks at the same time!
