I've been playing with getting to an inverted triangle from side control and i'm curious if it's worth pursuing.... I'm getting to the triangle a lot but the finish rate is about 1 in 4. Any ideas or suggestions?
As someone who gets caught in a fair share of inverted triangles, I think it's a great move to have in your bag of tricks if the guy in side control puts his arm between your legs. As Will mentioned, you don't have to finish with the triangle, the Americana is there if you're quick about it.
Roy Dean demonstrates attacking the other arm (straight armlock, americana) from the inverted triangle at 4:45 of this vid. Btw this video is also chock full of great escapes from side control.
Work on cinching up your triangles from all positions. If triangles aren't your strong suit (because of body type or whatever) use it to set up other moves. It's called chain grappling and it's necessary to become a high level grappler. Here's a good chain from Erik Paulson that I use ALL THE TIME from the side control triangle setup.