28/01/2015 - Teaching | Women's Class | Technical Mount

Teaching #268
Artemis BJJ (MyGym/Bristol Sports Centre), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 28/01/2015

We went through some more details on mount at tonight's women's class. Sometimes, the person underneath your mount will turn to their front, although normally this will only happen when they're still inexperienced. With a few more classes under their belt, they will only turn as far as their side, prying out your knee with an elbow: as a result, it's called the elbow escape. Either way, the same technique applies to both: shifting to what's known as technical mount. Put your hands on either side of their head, using them as your base points. Putting your weight onto your hands, twist your body, sliding the knee nearest their back up towards their head. Your other heel clamps in tight to their hip. Sit back on the heel behind them, bringing your upper body close to their head.

If they continue turning to their front (if they've only recently started BJJ, for example, or some judoka have this habit too due to judo competition rules), use the foot your have by their hip to act as your first 'hook' for another position, back mount. Insert that hook, digging your heel into their inner thigh, or if possible, wrap your instep under their inner thigh for control. Your other foot will do the same (somebody more experienced will block that, but as we'll cover in another class, there are ways around their block). Next, establish a seat belt grip, where you have one arm over their shoulder, the other underneath their arm pit. Link your hands or grab your wrist: with the combination of your seat belt and your hooks, you can now 'ride' them whichever way they turn.

If they manage to knock off one of your hooks, you can make a simple adjustment to retake the mount. It will be tough to regain your back mount from here, especially if they've moved over your leg. As soon as you feel their hip move past your knee, bring your remaining hook over their body and clamp the heel to their far hip. Make sure it is providing you with enough control that they can't simply shrug you off. Pull out your elbow for base (as it will probably still be under their head, making it hard to complete this movement), then turn and slide through into mount, using your heel for leverage.

More experienced opponents will look to pry your knee away with an elbow, moving into the aforementioned elbow escape. If that happens, twist to one side and raise your knee. Pull their arm up with whatever you can grab (e.g., sleeve, wrist etc), then reinsert your knee. I've seen Rob S teach grabbing their sleeve with your opposite hand, while Mauricio likes to grab the elbow with their opposite hand and Felipe essentially shifts to technical mount for a moment.

Technical mount also enables you to take the back, with Galvao's method. Simply drop back from technical mount, rolling them over the knee you have near their head. Again, the foot you had by their hip becomes your first hook, so you just need to bring the second hook over. Cut your knee underneath them to help facilitate that back position.

The same kind of motion works as a method of retaking the back if you lose one hook, so it has some versatility. In the context of retaking the back, the time to use this is before they get their shoulders to the mat. They've managed to clear one of your hooks and started bringing their hips over. Before they can get their shoulders to the mat, press your chest into their shoulder and roll them onto their side, in the direction they were escaping. You'll probably need to balance on your shoulder and head to get into the right position.

As they have cleared one of your legs, you should be able to then slide that knee behind their head (you might need to post on an arm, but see if you can do it without releasing your seatbelt grip). Sit back and roll them over your knee, then re-establish your second hook. You can keep doing that from side to side as a drill.
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Teaching Notes: The students in class are a bit more experienced now, so as there weren't any brand new beginners, I went with a more standard technical mount. I didn't include everything in the above, as some of that is notes from the last time, but I'll leave that in there, as it would be useful to teach next time.

This time round, I stuck with the basic turn into technical mount, followed by the Galvao back take. Cutting the knee under is something I realised later when a few people were having trouble, so I'll add that into the demonstration next time. Clearly I don't realise I'm doing it when I go to the back from technical mount, but it's a useful detail that appeared to immediately help the students in the transition. Yay! :)