A gambit is a chess opening in which a player, more often White, sacrifices material, usually a pawn, with the hope of achieving a resulting advantageous position.
From the Wikipedia page on Gambit
I read something quite intriguing by Wim Deputter, a Belgian BJJ black belt.
In his post called “The King’s Gambit,” Wim mentions that we have gambits in BJJ as well.
He then goes on to say that his favorite BJJ gambit is baiting the triangle choke.
If your triangle defense is so good that no one can finish you with triangle choke…
… you can even let your opponent go for triangle choke, because you can use this “sacrifice” to your advantage.
Under the IBJJ rules, your opponent might get an advantage for their triangle attempt, but that’s the worst thing that can happen if you can defend yourself from triangle perfectly well.
Three immediate comments on this.
1) This resonates with me.
2) There’s a Japanese BJJ black belt who does exactly the same thing… because no one can ever triangle him (Yes, I tried and failed).
He did it against Caio Terra & Caio couldn’t finish him. The Japanese guy couldn’t advance his position either, but he was in Caio’s triangle for 9 mins and a half or something. Insane.
3) I’ve been thinking about something similar, but for a different situation… when my opponent is mounting me.
If I deliberately and carefully expose my arm… in such a way that I can easily escape when my opponent takes the bait and goes for armbar…
… there’s a great chance that I can escape from the mount AND the armbar as well.
You don’t want to make it too obvious, but if you make it look as if you legitimately made a mistake of leaving your arm… well, most people are going to try to take it.
But the thing is, if you know WHEN and HOW exactly your opponent is going to take your arm and go for armbar…
… your chance of beating it (aka escaping from it) can increase significantly.
And you know these two crucial pieces of information (i.e. when and how exactly), because you are the one who will be manipulating this whole thing.
It’s pretty interesting to see how your defensive skills can be directly connected to creating your offensive opportunities.
If you want to learn more about what Wim is talking about, check out his post as well as his video here.
And if you’re somehow interested in seeing Caio Terra trying to strangle his opponent for 9 minutes and a half… here’s the video of that match.
That’s all for today… Make sure to work on your defensive skills 🙂