-Why do I always get triangled?
A good principle to keep in mind; if you have hand control, 80% of what your opponent wants to do goes out the window.
-Is it ok if people are always grabbing the guillotine on me if im using it to pass, or should my head just never be in those positions in the first place?
-Is tripod passing like I do bad? Does it give to much space when passing? If I keep head in the stomach will that save me from occasionally floating too high?
If you are on top you can take advantage of it; this video explains it well.
Much like the front headlock itself, the von flue choke is a powerful position for putting pressure on your opponent, advancing position, and ultimately finishing. It is similar in respects to arm triangle control in fact, only with the arm captured, ironically turning his hold into something that's working
for you instead. This is a further good principle to keep in mind; if you can modify a choke to incorporate 'capturing' their arm in some way, that makes the choke that much harder to stop or escape.
In your first match i have a hard time seeing how you actually ended up in a triangle; you had the von flue position locked up, but even if he were to get his arm out, you would still have the underhook that you could use to tozi stack him with; my only guess is that as you felt his left leg go higher you pulled your right arm out, which would be an unforced error on your part.
When attacking side control, the best method of preventing escapes (which he managed to do both times you got there) and keeping him pinned while feeding into your own attacks is in my opinion the nelson hold; picking the head fundamentally obstructs the bridge on a structural level, and pulling 'up' increases force going 'down'.
The classic high percentage attack from this position is rolling north-south with the elbow trapped, for a darce or reverse arm triangle.
The dragon sleeper is also an option.
If they look to put their arm under for an escape like the arm spin, then you put them in the mounted crucifix; if they turn in, then pick him into the nelson choke pin.
If he is making like a limbless tree and looking to roll one way or another, you can catch the double wrist lock.
Basic championship winning triple threat.
On the question of your ill fated near side arm bar, in my opinion i think the north south dwl so shown is preferable in such cases. You also had an abortive attempt from side control earlier in the match as well. A useful detail to utilize is that it is generally easier to walk
his body towards his arm, that simply trying to pull his arm to his body; and if all else fails lock up the keylock, which is the most powerful and all but guarantees a finish no matter who it is.
Won an overtime match by one takedown basically. I dont know how to break out of guard, got nothing done in this 6 minutes, boring I know... Where do I keep my hands? In his armpits? Its very hard to keep it on the stomach because it just slides, and the bicep is very far away from me..
I'll let you in on a secret; in the ibjjf, most of the guys out there competing will deal with the closed guard situation by... not going into closed guard.
A lot of the tap dancing a lot of guys do around people playing guard is basically, them trying to find a 'sweet spot'. Like Goldilocks, unless everything is 'just right', they won't take another bite. They have a certain sequence they like in a certain situation, and if they don't get into that situation, they just disengage altogether, rather than trying to utilize something additional that might apply. It's an easy to understand method for concentrating more of one's training time into a 'golden hammer'... and it's also an approach more or less unsuitable for MMA, unless vs a very unusual opponent, as you would be giving them ample openings to escape back to neutral. So in the ibjjf sphere (and rulesets derived from it), you get to be one of the special snowflakes that spend focus time on attacking closed guard.
It is something of a 'dark art', to be sure. There are, of course, methods availible. Particularly, with arm control.
You can jam your head under their armpit to bait them into giving you the von flue, to put pressure on them and also set up a tozi pass; you can get two on one hand control to drop your elbow on his neck, like a giftwrap except your arm is in front rather than behind his head, which can also be used to go into a tozi stack, or simply cook them out; and if he is hugging around your midsection you can simply go to the nogizekiel.
When dealing with closed guard, you never want to be in the 'twilight zone', between postured up high, or postured fully down in, as that is the most viable space for the other guy to make his attacks.
One thing to keep in mind is not 'going crazy'; as long as you have posture, you can just do your thing and stop him from doing his thing. Observe how Ben Askren just calmly sits in peoples guard, casually pushing them back as he leans to undo their legs, making it look exactly as easy as it
could be. You can first see sign of this wrinkle very early in his career after making the jump from wrestling, and given the way he handled Aoki, it has served him well over the years.
