The bottom mount is probably the worst position to be stuck in other than having your back taken. In BJJ it offers the opponent numerous mount chokes and limb attacks. Elsewhere in MMA and self defense is arguably even worse as with strikes involved it makes the bottom person vulnerable to head blows without reply. Because of this it is of vital importance to learn a few mount escapes. As a result, escaping mount should be one of the first and most important lessons that any new BJJ student undertakes.
Table of Contents
Fundamental defense concepts
To begin with, it’s important to defend the mount before starting to escape. If the opponent gets a dominant position you simply cannot start escaping. Instead, you need to focus on defense to set up possible escape methods. With this in mind, it’s important to have active feet. Your legs should never be flat and should be bent with your feet moving. This creates movement as staying still can pin you down easier.
Secondly, it’s important to protect your arms. You can do this by pinning your elbows inwards and having them inside your opponent’s knees. This makes it difficult for the opponent to pry open your arms and start attacks.
Lastly, you should watch your neck at all times. If the opponent gets a collar grip then try to remove it immediately. Because of this, grip fighting is an important skill to learn and be paranoid at all times. With these boxes ticked you are ready to start thinking about escapes.
The Bridge and roll escape
This is possibly the most common of all mount escapes and can be seen often in MMA. Here the idea is to trap your opponent’s arm to your chest. This can be done by gripping their sleeve and pinning their hand down, or by getting an overhook.
In short, in doing either of these you are taking away the opponent’s ability to base or post. If the opponent cannot base on one side, it means they are vulnerable to a reversal. For instance, if you trap your opponent’s arm and then bridge to the side of the trapped arm, they can be put on the floor.
From here you can get up and end up in the top, closed guard position. This is a huge improvement as it means you’ve gone from the bottom to the top. Even more so in MMA it can go from a poor to a good position.
A key point of doing this escape is making sure you bridge properly by using your toes and connecting the hips with your opponent. By basing on your toes it will give extra power. However, it is very important to make sure your hips are connected to your opponents. Because of this, this escape only works when the opponent’s hips are touching your own.
In short, you cannot do this escape when the opponent has a high mount. This is because their hips will be above yours, so the power generated by your hips will not force their hips away. Please remember this as bridging can take energy which is important not to waste with inefficient escape attempts. Another key part of this escape is making you arrive on top properly.
If done sloppily your opponent can bait you into possible Armbars or Triangle chokes during the transition to guard. Because of this, it’s important to keep all limbs tucked whilst completing the bridge.
Recovering to half guard
An alternative route to escape mount is by recovering to the half guard position. Here you need to get on your side, but be careful not to be too far on your side as it may open up Armbars and back takes. Whilst on your side you can snake away on your opponent’s hips to create an angle.
When this angle is made you can then do a small bridge. This bridge isn’t designed to throw your opponent off, but instead gives a small window of time to adjust your legs. The leg adjustment should allow you to put your legs under and between your opponents.
When this is achieved you should now be in bottom half guard. From here you can try and recover to a more neutral Z guard position by bringing your knee inside. However, you can also choose to go to Deep half guard and go from there if wanted.
Elevating to butterfly or single leg X guard
Another fundamental escape involves a large bridge to create distance. This starts similarly to the previous half guard escape. Here you want to snake outwards whilst framing on your opponent’s hips. The next step is to place both hands on the opponent’s hips and do a powerful bridge upwards.
Whilst the opponent is in mid-air you should then have a second of time to adjust.
The idea is re-arrange your legs whilst the opponent is elevated. If done quickly enough you should be able to choose between butterfly guard or SLX. By choosing butterfly guard you need to bring your knees inwards and under your opponent’s legs to create hooks. Alternatively, to enter SLX you need to create a leg entanglement whilst your opponent is above you.
A key mistake that beginners do when trying this escape is pushing on the opponent’s armpits instead of the hips. It is a huge mistake to do this as you can give up Armbars from the bottom. Remember in mount it’s important to keep limbs inside and out of danger.
The idea of defending the full mount position is to avoid limbs being isolated. In pushing on your opponent’s armpits you are giving the opponent your arm and creating isolation for your opponent. So when you do this escape remember to keep your hands on their hips instead of their armpits.
A nice part of this escape is that it also chains with the previous half guard method. For instance, if the opponent defends the elevation by posting on their leg, you can use this to enter half guard against the other leg. Because of this, it’s good to learn both escapes which can be used simultaneously.
Summary
It’s important to learn these escapes from mount as they can be the difference between being submitted or not. A benefit of learning the above is that they all work well together and can counter your opponent’s adjustments whilst trying to escape. Remember it’s hugely important to avoid the opponent getting a limb or collar grip or even high mount.
Not only this, but various champions such as Gordon Ryan are also big fans of putting themselves into inferior positions. By doing this, you can learn to escape and improve your attacks by becoming fearless about losing positions as your confidence in bottom positions will improve as you expose yourself to worse situations. With this in mind, these escapes are key to avoiding attacks and getting out from the position as quickly as possible.
