Submission profile

Arm triangle: how often it lands in real training

The arm triangle is the #3 submission in BJJBuddy logs, finished by 1,485 people. How the head-and-arm choke works, common mistakes, and who uses it by belt.

People who finished it1,485Logged it as their submission
People caught by it1,181Logged tapping to it
Rank#03Among 36 submissions
Gi share42%Of finishes on a logged gi day
Both sides of the exchange

Finished it. Got caught by it.

Finished it1,485
Caught by it1,181

The same person can be in both groups. Across all logs, 3,850 finishes and 2,323 taps were recorded on separate training days.

Training format

Gi vs no-gi

42%gi
Gi 42%No-gi 58%

2,998 finishes on days with a logged gi or no-gi session. Across all sessions the split is 51.5% gi.

The arm triangle (kata gatame) traps your partner’s own shoulder against the side of their neck. It usually comes from mount or side control, and finishing it depends more on position than strength.

How the arm triangle works

  1. From mount, push one arm across their face so their shoulder presses against their neck.
  2. Drop your head beside theirs on the same side, trapping the arm, and connect your hands in a gable or palm-to-palm grip.
  3. Walk off the mount to the side opposite the trapped arm, keeping your chest heavy on them.
  4. Drive your shoulder into their neck and squeeze your elbows together. Hips low, weight forward.

Common mistakes

  • Finishing from mount instead of moving to the side, which takes away the angle you need.
  • Leaving space between your head and their trapped arm.
  • Squeezing with your arms only, without driving your shoulder in.

Learn and drill techniques with a qualified coach and a cooperative partner, and let go the moment your partner taps. This overview is not a substitute for live instruction.

How often each belt finishes it

White belt24%
Blue belt32.8%
Purple belt36.2%
Brown belt38.6%
Black belt31.1%

Share of each belt’s users (among those who logged any submission) who have finished with it. Belt is the rank set in the app today.

How to read these figures

“Finished it” means a user logged this move as a submission they got. “Caught by it” means they logged tapping to it. The rank orders all 36 submissions by how many different people logged them either way. From BJJBuddy training logs, November 2015 to November 2026. Duplicate uploads are removed, so a session is one person on one training day. Each person counts once per technique. Groups smaller than 10 people are not shown.