Thursday 6th – Fundamentals
Tonight we looked at defending the mount and working through some escape options.
A basic defensive approach when you’re underneath the mount:
- keep your elbows tucked in and your hands defending your neck
- use your elbows to stop your opponent moving further up your body
- use your hips to destabilise your opponent
- create a reaction and exploit that reaction
Bridging escape
In this escape we take away our opponents balancing options on one side and send them in that direction.
Opponent has mount
- control their right arm, pinning their forearm to your chest with both your hands
- block their right ankle with your left ankle – this is to stop them using their foot as a post
- bridge your hips forward taking your opponent’s weight over your head
- roll to the left and sit up in good posture
Further points on the bridging escape:
- Line
You want your opponent to be in line with your head or offline toward the sweeping side. Otherwise their weight will be a supreme effort to shift.
So, you can let them do the job for you:
If they have half a choke, wait until they get tempted to cross your centre-line to get their second grip. As they shift their weight, bridge and roll them. Don’t wait until they have the choke on though, they’ll be able to finish it from underneath when you reverse them!
Alternatively, you can try another option such as the:
Elbow escape
- Turn your body to the left
- Block the inside of your opponent’s right thigh with your left elbow
- Plant your feet flat on the floor and drive your hips into their left leg (this is just a plain old hip escape)
- This creates the space to bring your left knee through
- Turn onto your right side and repeat the same steps on the other side
E.g.
- Block the inside of your opponent’s left thigh with your left elbow
- etc etc
Extra points to consider:
If you realise you’re opponent is going to get mount, you can make this escape easier by getting into a slightly more favourable position as they transition. Let’s say they had side control on your left side and were about to step their left leg over for mount.
You would:
- turn slightly onto your right side keeping your elbows in
- bend your right leg and bring it up to meet your right elbow
- turn your little toe into the mat with your heel off the mat – this should have the effect of keeping your knee flat on the mat
- keeping the outside of the knee flat to the mat prevents them from sliding their leg under to gain a stable mount position
This gives you a head start on your escape because:
- your opponent’s left leg lands on an unstable surface – your knee
- your right elbow is already in position to block their left leg
Elbow escape variation
- turn toward your left side
- block your opponent’s right thigh with your left elbow
- drop your left leg to the mat
- bring your right foot to the outside of their right leg
- pull your heel toward their shin, taking their foot up onto your thigh
- slide your left knee underneath their right knee
The rest of the escape is the same as the regular elbow escape – turn to the other side, block the thigh, bring the other leg through.
Using the escapes in combination
Using the bridge to get the elbow escape
- Get your grips for the bridging escape
- Bridge
- To avoid rolling, they may stick their leg out
- bring the knee through the space created
- turn to the other side, block the knee and bring the other leg through
Alternatively (& more commonly) they’ll bring their other hand across to post as you bridge
As soon as you feel the momentum stop, go straight to the elbow escape
