Hello once again
Last week i talked about what i think is important in Bjj and that most of the training time should be spent on isolation drills to develop Posture and Pressure for specific positions.
Today i want to show a little example with mount top control. Briefly explain 2 important postures, “Normal” and S-mount, the importance of switching between the two and also a little extra with the “Hips In!”.
Historically, Mount was the very first position that i truly felt competent in and that i can credit to Roger and Rickson Gracie. I always knew that Rickson was good at Mount, but somehow that alone wasn’t enough to make me really figure it out and make a huge part of my game. That was until Roger finally emerged from the Depths of Hell and has been putting on Mount clinics ever since. Because of a such a dominant display of basic Bjj (not only Mount) and submitting everyone from Mount, i just had to get mine as good as his .
With legs hidden underneath, Roger’s doing what he does
There are 2 key postures.
(For visual aid please watch the video i made to illustrate this topic)
1. First is the “Normal Mount” where you just want to keep your legs pinching together tightly against the side of the bottom guy, point your own toes inwards (heels out) and trying to connect your toes on top of each other. Keep your weight low and use arms to find balance.
From “Data analysis” and experiments i came to a very important conclusion regarding this posture. It is that you ALWAYS have to have a certain pressure to strive to keep your own feet underneath the bottom guys back/hips/legs. Really trying to connect them and keep them “hidden” there.
This serves 2 purposes :
* It makes the Upa escape less effective – Bottom guy wants to make space with bridge but you can use your legs underneath him to keep yourself close and not fall over
* It neutralizes the elbow knee escape – Bottom guy wants to use hes arms to create a frame on your hip/leg and then push-shrimp away. If you really hide your own leg, that he bottom guy is trying to use for escape, deep underneath he’s legs, you will make the escape really hard.
And that is IMPORTANT
Cool highlight of Roger Gracie
If you want a mount that is not escapable then you need to do lots of isolation drilling and work against common things that happen. And those things are the Upa and Elbow-Knee escape. Hiding your own feet underneath will help you a lot against both of those escapes.
The second key posture is the S-Mount posture. While there are many interpretations for S-Mount Posture, i am referring to the one Rickson uses where you bring your heel against the hip of the bottom guy.
Theoretically, when you always keep your feet hidden underneath the bottom guy, you will never need to switch to S-Mount. The need for this Posture comes when the bottom is guy smart and has a good elbow knee escape. Even before you begin to shrimp, when doing the Elbow-Knee escape, you should have the leg connected with the ground. The leg on that side where you use the arm frame. This means that the top guys legs are not connected nor underneath the bottom guys legs anymore. In this situation the leg is “exposed” for the escape and if you stay there you will be put back into guard.
Roger in S-Mount doing the combo attack
And here comes the S-Mount, as soon as you feel that the leg is exposed make a switch to S-Mount.
Key points to S-Mount posture : Start turning your hips towards the exposed leg, this allows you to slide your heel tightly against the hip and bring the knee up (this is the exposed leg were talking about) and keep toes pointing outward. Slide the other legs knee pretty high up against the back of the bottom guy and use arms to fight frames and keep balance. Also start applying the “Hips In” pressure that i will talk about soon enough.
Rickson using great mount control and switching to S-Mount before the choke
So basically, in a nutshell, that is quite simply put all you need for a great mount. Now its time to drill and develop pressure and timing.
The “Hips In” pressure
As a little extra i will talk about this incredible pressure. Now this is PURE LEVERAGE. Throughout my years of training grappling I’ve always followed the simple rule :
When you are trying to do something, whatever it is, be it cranking a submission, holding some control or trying to escape, when it feels like you are squeezing for your dear life while doing so … you are doing something wrong. Then its time to sit back and figure out how to gain more leverage doing the same thing thus expending less energy and make it feel a lot easier.
And most of the time you only have to modify something really simple and easy and the results will be amazing.
This Pressure allows you to use your WHOLE BODY, your entire body to accomplish your goals. You can use everything against simple limbs, they’re power, of your opponent and you’ll come out on top. This will give you tremendous force/power while expending so little energy. As i said, pure leverage.
Now im not gonna try to write it in words, just watch the video to get the idea. Develop this and good things happen!
Until next time!
Martin
Jan 14 Grappling 13 Comments
Nice blog.
I really like you way of teaching and the fundamentals you explain.
Greeting from Germany
Hi Ole
Im really glad you enjoy the blog and the material i present :)
Martin
Hey Martin,
How do you hold high mount when trying to put your toes together? I used to try to hold both high and low mount that way, but I found it very easy for my opponent to move me back down to a low mount until I stopped trying to touch my toes under his back and started putting my feet in his hip bones. I agree that what you are showing is excellent for holding a low mount position but am curious as to how your posture is once you have advanced position and have your knees up by his shoulders. Does putting my feet on his hip bones make me more vulnerable to other escapes?
Thanks for the great blog as well,
Chris
Hei Chris!
I get what your saying and ill address this question in next weeks video!
Martin
And if anyone else has some questions about mount control then its good time to ask!
Thank you for a great blog! I use these postures in mount and also teach them when I teach mount. But some guys escape the s-mount, when I keep my heel close to the hip, by keeping their arms close to their bodies and pushing them, while turning and bridging, thru the space under my knee. I have tried hip in pressure, fighting the hands and moving the knee (on the ground) higher towards his head to make the space smaller, but its still hard to stop the escape. If you could say something about that I would be thrilled.
will do Erik, i know what you mean!
Great tutorial,
Just One question: How do you prevent the ankle drag escape?
-That would be great if you could over the fundamentals for other positions ( side control and Back)
-Another good idea also would be on how to practice a tight top game & fluid top game.
Thanks
Franck
this is the mount escape I was referring to, with how to do even if you opponent tuck his feet under you
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5DPBINuCCE
Martin, awesome stuff buddy. Thank you for sharing.
PS – I think your partner would have escaped if it wasn’t for his fancy socks. You just can’t get those here in the US…:)
Franck – Thank You for the question! I will make new post tomorrow and ill answer your question in the video.
Also, i do plan to cover fundamentals of other positions as well!
Cheers Scott! Glad you like the material … and socks :p
Thanks Martin,
I am looking forward to watching all your upcoming video!
Cheers