In theory, mount should be one of the most dominant positions in BJJ and the entirety of fighting, perhaps second to back mount. However, this is not always the case and a lot of people cannot seem to hold or finish from mount position. We will go over how to improve your mount control and become a high percentage finisher from this position.
With that being said, it is still relatively difficult to finish from the mount, especially in no gi. A tough opponent can essentially just keep their arms and elbows safe, then move to protect their neck if necessary. 10th Planet style will actually see a lot of people purposely avoiding the mount due to heel hook entry counters from the bottom position. This is not recommended as you should ideally be trying to actively improve your mount control at all times. If you do get heel hooked from a counter, try and learn from it, rather than avoiding such a dominant position.
Table of Contents
General Mount Control
Mount should be an extremely heavy and dominant position. Your opponent ideally will have all of your weight thrust through your hips into the ground. Roger Gracie was perhaps the absolute best from this position with his world famous cross collar choke. With that being said, Roger was able to finish his cross collar chokes because he could maintain mount for a seemingly indefinite period of time. There was no shrimping or bridge and roll if Roger got on top of you.
The fundamentals of mount control are to always control the head and elbows.
If the head is controlled and lifted from the floor, then the opponent cannot do a basic bridge and roll.
If the elbows are controlled then the opponent cannot shrimp underneath you and recover in to half or single leg X guard.
How To Improve Your Mount Submissions
You must have a good variety of submissions and chain attacks together. Whilst this is true for all of jiu-jitsu, it is absolutely critical from mount. If you are only trying an Ezekiel choke or an Americana then your opponent will know exactly what to expect.
Since your opponent always has vision of what you are doing, you are going to need to try multiple attacks against someone with experience. Simply trying one thing with as much power and effort as you can isn’t going to cut it.
It is this combination of control, added with a variation of submission attempts that are going to unstick your opponent and eventually lead to a submission.
You should always remember not to rush. Submissions from mount are more of a marathon compared to other positions. They must be set up by slowly building the position more in your favor. Only then will a submission opportunity present itself.
As the chess grandmaster Mikhail Tal said “You must take your opponent in to a deep dark forest where 2+2=5, and the path leading out is only wide enough for one”.
High Mount or Low Mount
It is important to always distinguish between the two variations of mount. As a general rule, you should always be looking to transition from low mount to high mount. There will be some exceptions, but your chances of getting a high percentage submission are increased drastically from a high mount,.
When you are in high mount, you are further away from the opponent’s hips and legs. This means you have your own legs to control their body, whilst battling against their arms and shoulders with your own. Not only this, but you also have gravity and your own bodyweight on your side. The control is much greater and the pressure will force your opponent into opening up small mistakes that you will gradually learn to exploit as you become more experienced.
The Arm Triangle aka The Head & Arm Choke
The arm triangle may well by the highest percentage submission from the mount. By trapping the opponent’s arm, you are able to push their shoulder and your own bicep in to each artery. This restricts blood flow to the brain and will eventually cause your opponent to pass out. If the choke is done correctly, it can’t be “toughed out”. Your opponent will simply take a nap if they refuse to tap.
Shown best from the video below, Braulio Estima finishes his MMA fight (with an obviously resisting opponent) by setting up a beautiful arm triangle. Estima is seen walking up his opponent’s left elbow before he gets his own head behind the tricep to completely trap the arm.
From here, he is able to sit off the mount, which is optional but preferable. This is just another way to give added pressure into the opponents neck by slumping your far side hip to the mat.
Mounted Triangle
There are a lot of intricate details to the mounted triangle so you shouldn’t be disheartened when you fail it. This just means you were doing something slightly wrong and will need to adjust it next time.
The video below by Rener and Ryron Gracie is a great instructional on how to set up and finish this submission. You will need to get a lot of things right before you get to the finishing position.
Whilst this submission is not necessarily high percentage due to things going wrong – if you are able to follow the instructions and get all 5-6 steps correct, this will be a high percentage submission. The pitfall is that if you make one mistake during the setup, your opponent will only need 1 chance to escape, whereas you need to do many things in order to get the tap.
There is too much information to explain this choke, which will be lost in text. It is best explained on the Gracie Breakdown below.
The Cross Collar Choke
Whilst this submission cannot be done in no gi, it is just too high percentage to leave off the list. There are multiple set ups that are probably best explained by the legendary Roger Gracie.
The idea of this choke is to fully control the mount, generally as high as possible. From full control, you will eventually be able to get one hand in the collar and base on your head. At this point, it is only a matter of time before you’re able to get your other hand inside – from this position it should be all over.
Once both hands are inside you can lean all of your weight forwards over your opponent and base your own head on the floor above theirs. This will cause a tremendous amount of body weight to be put straight through your wrists into their neck.
Armbar From Mount
This is the most staple submission taught in BJJ. It can be entered from a variety of guard positions, side control, back from failed bow & arrow choke – and of course from mount.
Once again, the common theme of these submissions is control. You will often see white belts attempt an armbar from mount and trying to do it as fast as possible. Sometimes it will work, but against experienced opponents, they will leave too much space and it will be a relatively easy escape.
The armbar from mount should really be pressure focussed and with a horrible grind of either leg or shin over the opponent’s face.
It goes without saying that you will need to perfect your S-mount, which is a variation of high mount. This is a very similar position to a mounted triangle entry, so you will find both submissions chain together very well.
As long as you keep your weight over the top of your opponent, you will limit their chance to escape and increase your chances of a high percentage submission. Georges St Pierre’s coach Firas Zahibi breaks down the details in his great instructional video below.
Ezekiel Choke
The Ezekiel choke is often considered a sneaky submission at the lower levels, this is because the opponent does not yet know about the entries. After a while it seems to become less effective at the higher levels, this is mostly because it is used incorrectly as a sneak attack.
Yet again, the idea of the Ezekiel choke from mount is to really isolate your opponent’s upper body. From here, if you can trap their arms against their body this is great. Any kind of 2 on 1 situation is precisely what is needed as you will be able to attack your opponent’s neck.
There are various set ups, baits and finishes to the Ezekiel, but almost all end with a fist into either the artery or the windpipe of the opponent. It is quite a brutal and rough submission, but the benefit of these entries is that you never really have to risk much at all to attempt this attack.
This is what makes the Ezekiel a high percentage attack – even if it fails, you can try again later as you have maintained your position.
Americana aka Keylock
The Americana is often frowned upon as a strength move, this is somewhat true. If your opponent has their elbows tightly pinned into their body (which they should do), you are going to have to be a lot stronger than them to completely isolate one arm to the floor.
The beauty of the Americana is that you are able to switch between this and armbars very efficiently when the opponent brings over their other arm to try and defend the original submission.
In addition to this, some people will often turn on to their side if you have pinned one arm to the floor, this will expose back taking opportunities.
Similar to the Ezekiel, the Americana is a high percentage mount submission since you really don’t have to risk your position at all in order to attempt it.
