11/11/2019 - Side control to mount (knee slide)

Teaching #913
Artemis BJJ (Easton Road), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 11/11/2019



Short Version:

• Hook their far elbow and walk your hand up, until their arm is up high
• Trap their arm by their head with your cross-face hand, using your head if necessary
• Move your hips up towards their head
• Drive your knee to their far armpit, aiming to avoid their legs. Go inside your arm if you need to block their knees
• Get your knee to the mat. If their leg is too close, push it back with your knee to clear a space

Full Version: The second main option I use for transitioning to mount from side control is the diagonal slide, which has a lot less steps compared to the reverse scarf hold approach. Start in side control, with a heavy cross face and your other arm under their far arm. Shift your body up towards their head. Walk the hand of your other arm up the mat (like a spider), until you can get their far arm tight to their head. At this point, you can grab just below their elbow with your cross facing hand, locking their arm to their skull (if you want extra control, you can use your head too).



Your other hand grabs their far hip, bringing your elbow to their near hip. That creates a barrier, making it tougher for them to block with their knee. Drive your knee inside your arm, as high as you can on their body, sliding it diagonally over their chest. Aim to put your knee by their armpit. Once you knee hits the mat, slide it directly backwards into their leg. That should clear there leg out of the way, resulting in an easy transition into mount.



You can also use a transition to north-south to open up that far arm. This variation relies on the mechanical strength of bringing your elbow back, using that to pry their arm open as you switch back from a north-south transition to regular side control.


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Teaching Notes: Keep emphasising bringing your hips up high to their head, that's the thing people were forgetting most often. Walking your hands up high enough is important too, or they will be able to power their arm back down. It would also be worth mentioning that if they try and block with their arm, you can potentially spin into an armbar, or simply insert your arm into the gap and walk your hand up again to clear that block.