First of all he's got a lot more experience and he's probably bigger than you, so don't worry if you are having trouble with him. In a triangle you want to cut an angle so that your shin is across the back of his head. Make sure you're squeezing the side of their neck with one leg and their arm is squeezing the other side of their neck. Personally I don't like pulling the head, it really doesnt apply that much extra pressure. I prefer grabbing my own shin behind their head. There's so many little things to think about when applying a triangle, I'd recommend searching on youtube for some videos because it's hard for me to explain things here.

KW has this right... You need to switch you hips and put your top half out to the side, it allows the leg to get a better cut on the carotid. without this the grip is tight but you are actually missing the choke.

So lets break it down.

1. you have the head and one arm trapped (pretend their left arm). You then need to arm drag their arm across to the left side of your body (so the opposite side), it takes them off balance and cuts down on one side of the neck to begin the choke.

2. you need to unhook your legs and put your leg on his hip while leaving the other on the shoulder. The leg that is on the hip should be the same one that you have the arm in the triangle. so your right leg on his left hip.

3. you need to twist your body using your foot on the hip for leverage. your top half of your body should now be out the same side where you have the arm dragged across your body (so pushed to your left). as you do this you should use your left leg to cut down really hard on the back of his neck.

4. as this is being done you need to use your right hand to pull down on the head and then hook up your legs so that you have the hinge for the triangle (connect your right foot off his hip and over your ankle/shin of your left leg until your left leg is behind your right knee making a hinge). then squeeze your thighs and pop the hips and you will have the triangle.

if your body is not at like a 45 degree angle from your opponent then you have not done it correctly. his arm should be completely across your body.. clearly you are not arm dragging him across. then you are not cutting the angle and this is why the choke is a failure.

Wow that is so difficult to explain on a computer.

I'm 13 and my older brother 16 and I have been doing BJJ for 3 years now. My brother has been doing it for 4 years. Every 2 weeks we spar against each other, and this has been going on for the past few months. We've had 6 sparring sessions now, and i've lost all 6. The first five weren't that close, and he submit me 4/5 times in those. The last match though, I caught him in a triangle choke and had it locked in. I thought it was very tight, my legs were locked with his head and arm locked in tightly. I started squeezing my knees together and pulling down his head while lifting my hips but he wouldn't tap. He got out soon and then put an armbar on me.

I asked him after if the triangle was choking him, and he said it was just tight but not choking him. How can I finish the triangle? I felt like it was on my tightest it could be, but it never choked him? Am I doing something wrong?

I'm going to ask my bro in a minute if I could put a triangle on him and see if it works. I just wanna see if I could do it even if he gave it to me.