Kurt Osiander's Triangle From the Back: A BJJ Classic
Long before instructional apps and eight-hour breakdowns, Kurt Osiander's Move of the Week was where a whole generation of BJJ players got their weekly dose of technique. The Ralph Gracie black…
Words: Jiu Jitsu Style
Long before instructional apps and eight-hour breakdowns, Kurt Osiander's Move of the Week was where a whole generation of BJJ players got their weekly dose of technique. The Ralph Gracie black belt would growl through a move in a couple of minutes — no music, no polish, plenty of colourful language — and somehow those rough little clips taught the sport more Jiu Jitsu than most seminars. This week's pick from the vault: the triangle from the back.
Watch it: Kurt Osiander's Move of the Week — the triangle from the back.
How Kurt's back triangle works
It's a classic problem with a classic answer. You've got the back, your hooks are in, and your opponent is doing everything right — chin tucked, hands glued to their collar, fighting your grips for dear life. Kurt's response is pure Osiander: if they're going to spend both hands defending the choke, stop arguing with the hands. Swing a leg over the shoulder, lock your legs around their neck and trapped arm, and let the triangle do what the collar grip couldn't. The defence to one attack becomes the doorway to the next, and there's nowhere left to hide.
Why the back triangle still rules modern Jiu Jitsu
If anything, this position has aged upwards. What Kurt was showing back in 2016 is now a cornerstone of the modern back-attack game. Watch Mikey Musumeci methodically strangle his way through a bracket, or the Ruotolo brothers hunting the back from every scramble, and you'll see the same principle running underneath: back control isn't one submission, it's a web. The back triangle — the ushiro sankaku, if you like your terminology fancy — ties the strangle, the armbar and the wrist attacks into a single knot your opponent has to solve all at once. Gordon Ryan built entire title runs on the idea that once the back is taken, defence is just a choice of which way to lose.
The other lesson is in the delivery. Kurt never dressed a technique up as more than it was. He showed the position, pointed out where you'd already gone wrong — anyone who followed the series can hear his most famous catchphrase in their head right now — and told you to go train. That advice hasn't dated a day. You can study back attacks on YouTube and BJJ Fanatics until your eyes cross, but the triangle from the back only becomes yours the way it became his: hooks in, grips fought, hundreds of honest rounds. Next time you've got the back and the choke isn't there, remember the old growl from the vault — and swing the leg over.
See you on the mats.
Originally published in Jiu Jitsu Style, February 2016. Refreshed for 2026.