Mount Escapes

8/12/2019 Mount Escapes

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Using your arm on the opposite side of your face, establish a tight and deep body hug around your

opponents back to prevent him from regaining posture.

Begin to weave your face side arm into an overhook, grabbing the opponents tricep and trapping his

arm. This can be achieved if your opponent is posting his arm on the mat or attempting to pull it

back for a short punch.

Trap the leg on the same side of the isolated arm, and reach upwards with your hugging arm into

your opponents armpit, as you roll onto your knees inside the opponentsguard.

Headlock Variation

This is used against a more skilled opponent who is attempting to control and pin you, using a

headlock and potentially grape vining your legs.

Keep your head heavy to trap his head locking arm behind your head and on the mat, grab your

opponents tricep with a thumb up grip on his tricep to isolate the arm.

Establish an underhook body hug under his free arm, to put you in an over under clinch position.

If your opponent is not grape vining your legs you can now roll to your opponents guard in the same

manner as the punch block variation.

However if your opponent is grape vining your legs you must escape the far side grapevine. Do this

by extending the leg you want to free, rotating it towards your other leg and tucking it in by your

butt.

Now bridge upwards and reach with your hugging arm, before rolling over your shoulder onto your

knees, landing inside your opponents guard.

2. Elbow Escape/Hip Escape

Any time you find yourself trapped underneath your opponent in the mount position you should aim

to use the Trap and Roll escape, since it will place you on top of your opponent. If your opponent is

too big or this escape is not possible, the Elbow Escape will guarantee your survival. First, you mustlearn how to move your hips by doing the Shrimp Drill, and then you will learn the Elbow Escape and

a few variations that may come in handy.

Shrimp Drill

Put one leg up and one leg down, turn onto the side of the flat leg, posting on the foot of your raised

leg. Now scoot your hips out and away by pivoting on your shoulder and post leg.

Standard Elbow Escape

This is used when the opponent is keeping a low posture and his arms spread, keeping a wide base

and not allowing you to control one of his arms to execute the trap and roll escape.


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Start in the shrimp position, i.e. one leg raised with one leg flat on the floor. With your hips and

pelvis turned towards the flat leg.

Keep your raised leg side arm hugging his back, with your head close to avoid damage. Using your

hand (or preferably your elbow if possible), press down on his knee of the flat side leg, while sliding

your leg upwards and under his leg keeping it on the mat. Make sure your arm is pointing 45

degrees outward and is blocking the thigh, just above the knee.

As soon as your leg escapes, turn your hips square to face the sky, the hand that was pressing the

opponents knee now transfers around the neck in a headlock.

You will now be in the half guard, using your outside leg (formerly flat side) hook and trap the

opponents leg. Now repeat the process on the opposite side to regain full guard.

Note that the elbow escape is hard to do against an opponent keeping weight on their knees.

Hook Removal

This is used when the opponent inserts the leg hooks or grape vines for better control.

As before hug the body with one arm and stay close.

Because the opponent has hooks underneath your legs you will not be able to accomplish the elbow

escape. To remove the hook you must extend and straighten your hugging side leg, this will clear his

hook and enable you to rotate your leg around his leg and press on top of the heel of his remaining

hook.

Once you are pressing on his heel, you can now extend the remaining trapped leg. Once this leg isstraightened, rotate it around and rest it on the instep of your leg that is trapping the opponents

heel.

Once in this position you must quickly remove your trapping leg and glue your flat leg to the ground

utilizing downward pressure. You must also begin to block the opponentsknee at this stage to

prevent them for obtaining a high mount making your escape much more unlikely.

From here you can now use the standard elbow escape. It is worth mentioning if your opponent is

keeping his hips heavy you can implement a slight hip bump to create some space before attempting

the standard variation.

Fish Hook

This is used when the opponent resists the elbow escape by keeping their leg heavy.

From the shrimp position with your opponents knee blocked, you cannot escape your leg because

your opponents leg is too heavy.


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Bring your raised side leg over and across your flat leg and hook under the opponents ankle on the

flat side leg, moving your flat leg out of the way. It is important that your elbow or hand is blocking

the opponentsknee, so that his leg is low enough to be hooked by your opposite leg.

To pick up the opponents leg you must lift with the hooking toes and the elbow/hand

simultaneously, to be able to bring your flat leg through as in the above elbow escapes.

Heel Drag

This is used when attempting the fish hook but the opponent keeps his knee heavy and raises his

foot.

As the opponent lifts his foot to counter the heel drag, bump his knee out slightly with your flat leg

sliding your thigh under his shin to keep his leg raised.

You now go over his leg with your fish hook leg, clamping down and biting his leg in the pit of your

knee, using your calf to bite the opponents ankle as tight as possible.It is possible if you are

blocking with your elbow, to use your hand to help trap the opponents leg.

Now scoot your hips towards the hooked leg and turn them towards the sky pivoting on the foot of

the biting leg, to lift his hips and leg, allowing you to slide your leg through as in the previous elbow

escapes.

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Surprise Rolls

In a street fight, the Trap and Roll and Elbow Escape mount escape techniques will work against

most people. Against a skilled adversary, however, the only reliable way to escape the mount is to

use the techniques in combination. In this lesson, you will learn three highly effective Trap and Roll

transitions that you can use to surprise your opponent after they neutralize your initial Elbow Escape

attempt.

Neck-Hug Variation

This is used when the opponent neutralizes the elbow escape by hugging your neck on the same side

as the leg you are attempting to escape; he may also cross face you making the elbow escapeunlikely.

It is important to make the initial elbow escape believable; to cause the opponent to react, once he

clamps down on your neck you must instantly transition to the trap and roll escape.

Using your same side arm to trap his tricep of his head locking arm, your opposite arm tightly

hugging his body, quickly transfer your leg over his and implement the trap and roll escape.

It is important to obtain all of the elements of the trap and roll simultaneously; otherwise the

opponent will recognise the danger and move to high mount to block the position.

Punch Block Variation


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Used when the opponent rises to punch you during the elbow escape attempt.

This escape relies on the premise that it is hard for the opponent to base correctly and punch at the

same time.

As your opponent attempts to sit up, you must sit up with him, it is imperative that you maintain the

closeness to avoid being damaged.Before or as the opponent attempts to throw a punch you overhook his arm, holding the triceps,

simultaneously switching your leg to trap the opponents leg.

If your opponent continues to sit up to pull his trapped arm out, give a quick hip bump upwards, to

disturb his base and bring him to the ground, forcing him to post on his free hand.

You are now free to implement the trap and roll escape.

Forearm Choke Variation

Used when the opponent neutralizes your elbow escape with a forearm choke.

As the opponent attempts the forearm choke, transition to the standard variation of the trap and

roll, again it is important to have a genuine elbow escape attempt combined with simultaneous

upper and lower body control for the trap and roll escape.

Note that it does not matter which arm the opponent chokes you with, the technique still applies.

It can be helpful to use the flat side leg to drive the opponents knee outwards, this makes it easier

for the fish hook and heel drag, and it will also cause their leg to spring close to your leg when you

release it to transition to the trap and roll.

Remember if your opponent attempts to pull his arm out, do not trade arm strength follow him with

your body.

4. Surprise Elbows

In the previous lesson, you learned the most reliable transitions to the Trap and Roll from a failed

Elbow Escape. Now, you will learn the best transitions to the Elbow Escape when your opponent

neutralizes the Trap and Roll. By the end of this lesson, you will truly understand how, in isolation,neither of these escapes is fully reliable, but when used in combination, theyre virtually

unstoppable.

Spread Foot

Used when the opponent spreads their foot for base to prevent the trap and roll.

As you control the arm the opponent puts their foot out for base, also not allowing you to trap it,

use the elbow of your c grip arm to block his knee and execute an elbow escape.

Only attempt to trap the opponents foot is it is within reach, otherwise you will leave yourself

exposed to a twisting knee submission, or the high mount.


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Spread Knee

Used when the opponent spreads their knee for base to prevent the trap and roll.

The concept of this technique is similar to the above technique, however posting the knee out

instead of the foot, suggests a more experienced opponent. The difficulty lies in the reduced spaceavailable for the elbow escape.

Because the opponent jumps his knee out for base, his weight will make it heavy on the posted side,

to counter this and create space for the elbow escape you must execute a full shrimp folding your

body in half and extending him on his free leg side.

After obtaining half guard it is important to maintain a dominant inside hook, because the escaping

leg is somewhat restricted, otherwise your opponent will have the opportunity to pass your guard.

Your bridge from the trap and roll must be legitimate to make the opponent post his knee properly

and make his back leg weightless.

This escape generally works better against opponents who have longer legs. This is because it is

hard for shorter opponents to initially post out their knee.

You can also use the forearm of the arm initially trapping the opponents wrist to create a wedge in

between the opponents stomach or hips.

It is important to note you are far less likely to encounter an opponent posting their knee when you

utilize an over under trap and roll with the opponents arm encircled; this is because their chest is in

close contact with yours. For this reason the punch block or neck hug is often more reliable than the

two on one standard variation.

The difference between this elbow escape and all previous elbow escapes is that in this variation

your leg is coming inside the opponents leg instead of underneath.

Spread Hand

Used when the opponent posts their hand for base to prevent the trap and roll.

While attempting the trap and roll escape, the opponent frees his trapped hand and posts it to

prevent the trap and roll.

Straighten the leg that you want to escape while keeping it heavy in top of the opponents leg and

hug the back with the opposite side arm, now turn your hips and put them and your straightened leg

on the ground. The leg stays heavy on the opponents leg by keeping your hips slightly off the

ground; this puts pressure on the opponents leg as well as making the hip turn easier.

You may need to jump or slightly lift your straightened leg to avoid catching it on the opponents

heel as you attempt to flatten it on the ground. At this point you should already have your hips

turned sideways and your hand, forearm or elbow blocking the opponents thigh.

5. Modified Mount Escape


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The Elbow Escape is one of the simplest and most reliable escapes from the mount position, but it is

easily nullified by a quick transition to the modified mount position. In this lesson we will teach you

the two most effective modified mount escapes. Not only will these techniques ensure that you have

a plan when your opponent counters your Elbow Escape, but they will also improve your modified

mount by teaching you the moves vulnerabilities.

Top Knee Through

Used when the opponent transitions to the modified mount in an attempt to control you.

When you attempt to elbow escape moving to the modified mount is an effective counter because

the foot prevents the hip escaping effectively, the escaping leg cannot get under the opponents

ankle, and the foot is also out of range from the fish hook and heel drag.

To begin use both your hands to push away on the opponents knee, if he is wearing pants it will be

easier as you will have more control.

Now slightly shrimp your hips towards the opponents flat leg to create space to slide your raised top

knee through the gap in between the opponents raised leg.

Now control the ankle using the hand on your flat leg side, so the opponent cannot step his leg off tothe side mount. You also can bring the flat leg thigh upwards to assist in trapping and controlling the

opponents ankle.

You now want to fold the opponents leg back by scissoring your legs, bringing your bottom leg in

and pressing your top leg forward and down.

To assist you in getting up bring the flat leg foot into your butt as you post the same side (or ankle

trapping) hand on the ground.

You should either land in guard with one leg raised and one kneeling or in half guard with one leg

pinning his leg with your shin. In either case it is essential to secure an underhook on the oppositeside you are passing too, to prevent the opponent escaping or taking your back.

If the opponents knee is heavy in the modified mount, you can begin by pulling it towards you, to

create space for your knee to come through, however this move relies on a gi or pants. A hip bump

here can also be effective to create extra space for you.

If your opponent is not knocked onto his back allowing you to come on top, you can transition to

butterfly guard by hipping out in the direction of his captured leg and bring your other leg inside the

space in his leg.

It is also worth noting that you should be using your hands pushing/pulling to assist you in getting

your knee through, by lifting his knee over your knee.

Top Arm Through

The top arm through variation has the same use as above, it is merely a choice between the two,

however if you are having difficulty getting your knee through, you may want to use this variation.

As above you are pushing on the opponents knee but having difficulty, so you put your top arm

through (opposite side to opponents raised leg). You want to get your shoulder as deep as possible

with your through arm. Use your bottom elbow and thigh to assist in trapping the opponentsleg, so

he cannot step off and away to negate your control.


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Use a hip bump to throw the opponent forwards and slightly towards your flat leg side as you switch

onto your knees from the position they are in, while backing under and out from in between your

opponents legs. Make sure to keep control of your opponents ankle as you begin to stand.

You can also pull your opponents raised knee towards your shoulder once your arm is through togain more effective control.

It is important as you go through the opponents legs, to slide out the back and not attempt to

throw them away.

Make sure the opponents foot is not too high into your armpit otherwise you will be unable to do

the shoulder get up. You want your elbow as close to your body as possible and not overhooking his

leg.

You use the top side arm to escape because if you use the bottom arm you will be vulnerable to the

mounted triangle.

Once you have backed out it is important to control the opponents foot and ankle when you beginto stand, this ensures you come out on top, prevents a scramble on the knees and gives the

opportunity for foot locks.

When you have the opportunity to escape from the Modified Mount, act quickly and convincingly,

because you will be vulnerable to many arm locks and chokes. If you cant escape, turn toward into

your opponent and defend until the next opportunity arises.

6. Hip Thrust Escape

The Elbow Escape and the Trap and Roll Escape will enable you to escape from underneath most

people when used in combination and with proper timing. Against more skilled opponents, thesefundamental mount escapes may not work. In this lesson, we will teach you a quick, powerful

technique called the Hip Thrust Mount Escape. Its effective because it can be executed without

warning giving your opponent no time to respond. First, we will teach you the standard variation,

and then we will discuss critical combination concepts that will keep you ahead of the game even

when your opponent neutralizes the initial escape attempt.

Standard Thrust

Used when the opponent is kneeling in the mount position.

Begin by bracing the opponents hips with both of your arms and stiff arming straight.Once this is

accomplished begin by bumping up forcefully and turning your hips sideways to one direction, in an

attempt to make the opponent open his knee for base.

After a slight shrimp outwards, bring your top leg in and through. Use the shin of the top leg to press

outwards to create the space to bring your bottom leg in and through, into butterfly guard.

This technique can be used anytime the opponent has his knees touching the ground while in the

mount position. You should also attempt to weaken the opponents non posting leg with your butt

as you shrimp outward. However the technique will work better when the opponents body is bent,

it will be much harder when the opponent is postured up. The technique will also not work if the

opponent has smashing hip pressure.


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It is important you bump, fall and turn in one fluid motion, if you stall at any of the positions it will

be much harder to complete the technique. You must hip out as soon as the opponent posts his

knee for base.

Remember to extend the hips fully during the side fall, and slide out rather than attempting to

disconnect. Also if you bump your hips before you have straightened your arms, you will only add

more weight onto your arms.

Switch Thrust

Used when the opponent neutralizes the standard hip thrust with solid base.

The opponent can use a neck hug or a lapel grab, along with a posted hand, to stifle your initial hip

thrust, meaning his weigh will not be shifted enough to one side to complete the technique.

It is essential that your hips do not drop after your initial hip thrust, otherwise your opponent will

drop his weight back on you, or possibly insert his hooks, in either case he will be able to follow you

with the switch.It is also important you maintain the stiff arm, by keeping your arms extended.

As soon as the opponent negates your initial hip thrust you must change the direction your hips are

facing, while they are still elevated, shrimp out and get your top knee through.

Note that if you can fall completely to one side you have enough space to execute and complete the

technique.

A good combination for this technique against an opponent who has smashing hip pressure with

hooks, is to clear the hooks and attempt an elbow escape, when the opponent puts their weight on

their knees to counter the elbow escape, switch to the hip thrust.

Trap & Roll Combination

Used when the opponent successfully resists the hip thrust with closeness.

The hip thrust is a good technique, however it is not unstoppable, one of the main benefits of this

technique is that it forces your opponent to get close to defend the escape, in turn setting up further

escape options.

One of the most important aspects of this technique is to actually intend on achieving the hip thrust

escape and when you know that the technique will fail, you want to still sell the technique to the

opponent to throw him off his defensive game plan.

It is also critical when your technique fails to not reset after the hip thrust, the switch to the trap and

roll should be immediate and without delay.

If the secondary trap and roll is unsuccessful you can transition back to the hip thrust, or forward to

the elbow escape.

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Mount Escapes