09/12/2019 - Teaching | Mount | Escape from technical mount to deep half

Teaching #922
Artemis BJJ (Easton Road), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 09/12/2019

Deep half can be a bit tricky for beginners to get their head around, so I will often show a simple method to get there from under technical mount. This can work as a technical mount escape too. From technical mount, reach your arm behind their leg. Bump, while at the same time pushing their ankle with your other hand to trap their leg between yours.

Protect your neck with your 'bottom' hand, as otherwise they'll have a clear route to choke you. Alternative option to the above is to work on widening any space between the back of their knee and your torso, inserting your top arm into that space. Once you can get your arm through into the gap behind their knee, reach in and grab your gi trousers, by your knee. Start moving your legs towards your head, until there is an opportunity to shove their leg between yours and switch to deep half guard, controlling that leg with both of your own.



Your aim is to get your entire body underneath their leg, accomplished by your swivelling motion. You may need to push off their hip with your other hand, to help that wriggle underneath them. Once you've swivelled, reach your first hand around the outside of their leg, gripping the inside of their knee. You other hand tucks underneath their leg, so they can't grab it.

Finally, your legs are trapping their one leg. Make sure at least one of your legs is hooked over the top, so they can't just remove their leg and pass. Your other leg could be locking your other, or some people prefer to hook under their opponent's leg, meaning they can lift.

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Teaching Notes: The technical mount intro is definitely easier, so I think that works as a simple method for showing deep half. People weren't always staying tight enough, maybe show more of a pass at the end? Though the important part is getting them used to deep half. I could talk more about keeping the legs tight: Faria triangles his legs and squeezes, to prevent them pulling their leg out.

28/10/2016 - Teaching | Mount | Technical Mount Escape to Deep Half Guard

Teaching #582
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 28/10/2016

A video posted by Artemis BJJ (@artemisbjj) on Oct 31, 2016 at 5:09am PDT

For the switch to deep half guard, this starts when they move to technical mount. Protect your neck with your 'bottom' hand, as otherwise they'll have a clear route to choke you. Work on widening any space between the back of their knee and your torso, inserting your top arm into that space. Once you can get your arm through into the gap behind their knee, reach in and grab your gi trousers, by your knee.

Start moving your legs towards your head, until there is an opportunity to shove their leg between yours and switch to deep half guard, controlling that leg with both of your own. Get your shoulder right underneath that leg, wrapping your arm all the way around, in order to grip their knee. Hide your other arm under their leg, grabbing your own far hip. They will want to try and drive their arm underneath your non-wrapping arm, so it's important to take away any space.

Tweak their knee outwards, then roll to the top, staying tight. If you need to disrupt their balance, you can 'run' your legs back towards your head, then quickly turn the other way: this is what Jeff Glover calls the 'Homer sweep'. If your partner is wise to that and adjusts their weight accordingly, you may still be able to pop out the back, or at least escape from the mount.
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Teaching & Sparring Notes: When I was watching some video on this (I think Andrew Smith?), he was suggesting you grab your collar to defend. Chris was defending his neck in the usual way, which I think I prefer, but worth playing with both. Getting that shoulder under was the big thing people were forgetting, so must emphasise that next time. Hiding your arm and tweaking their knee were also getting forgotten, two other bits to emphasise. Also, rereading my notes, I realise that I didn't include the grabbing your trouser leg part. Instead, I said to bump them, then shove their leg between yours. That works too, but I'll try what I actually planned next time! ;)

My intention with this class was to introduce deep half guard in a way that beginners could pick up. Last time I tried, a lot of the less experienced students got confused. I think this time, it worked far better, ready for us to delve into deep half guard in December. From now on, I'll use this to start deep half guard, adding it as a drill in half guard month too. Looking forward to playing with that, I've been wanting to explore deep half properly for a while now.

Sparring was fun, testing out Hamza's mount defence, which is pretty good. He has a decent bump to butterfly, so working that out is interesting. Keeping a grip on the collar and not sitting on the hips helps block it, don't give them that space they need. Also, controlling the arms should stop it too, as that frame is key to the escape. With Matt we bounced around, going nogi unusually. He had cut his thumb and I didn't want my gi to rip the plaster off (or more selfishly, get any blood on my gi ;D).

I went for a crucifix, managed to secure it...but then completely forgot what to do with a gi to play with. I had a go at the armbar, but that's way harder than the choke. Rewatching Matt 'Aesopian' Kirtley's instructional (he has new footage), I see I'd forgotten about the RNC and single arm choke. That's something I'll play with at the weekend, as I'll be teaching the new nogi Sunday class (as Paul and Rich are both away).

25/04/2016 - Teaching | Mount | Technical Mount Escape

Teaching #500
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 25/04/2016

I start off with a variation on Saulo's technical mount escape, as seen both in his book and BJJ Library. Saulo stiff arms with one arm, the other staying back to help defend the neck. Having bent their leg outwards, he then simply sits up at an angle. Keep in mind that if you're not paying attention you could end up on your side in their guard, at risk of having your back taken. Therefore make sure you move to good posture before they can put you in a awkward position.

I therefore prefer to add in a sit-up escape element, like in the Jeff Rockwell escape from side control. That's because I find with the Saulo escape, if they're wise to it, they will scoop up your arm or possibly take your back. To try to prevent that, after you've managed to stiff-arm into their leg, come up on your other elbow, sitting up high. Move from your elbow to your hand, then pushing off that hand and your feet, try and slide your hips out as much as possible. Square back up to them and recover guard. This needs to be relatively quick, so they don't have time to knock off your arm and/or attempt a back take.

If you're having trouble with that one, you can try a simpler technique I was first taught by Kev several years ago. The basic idea is wedging something under the leg that they've stepped over. It's possible to use your arm for this, especially if you want to go to deep half (I'll get to that in a moment), but I prefer using my knee.

Grab their knee with both arms, keeping your elbows in to make it more difficult for them to strip your grips. You also want to be as much on your side as possible, curled inwards. Shove their leg towards your knee with your arms, shrimping into them to make space. As soon as there is any space, fill it with your knee, then spin to guard or simply try and knock them off-balance to escape (though that can end up becoming a scramble: either way, tends to be better than being stuck under mount).

You can try doing this with one hand, such as if they manage to strip one of your grips, but it's more difficult. As always, be aware of chokes: you may need to disengage one of your hands to defend your neck. Like side control escapes, be careful they don't immediately pass as you try and knock them off with the butterfly hook. Finally, they may be able to scupper your escape completely before you get started if they grab lower on the leg you're trying to use to insert your knee.

For something more advanced, you could also do a switch to deep half guard. The key is getting either your top arm/elbow inserted into any space between the back of their knee and your torso. Your other hand (so, this will be the arm you have closest to the floor) needs to be grabbing your opposite collar tightly, as otherwise they'll have a clear route to choke you. Once you can get your arm through into the gap behind their knee, reach in and grab your gi trousers, by your knee.

Start moving your legs towards your head, until there is an opportunity to shove their leg between yours and switch to deep half guard. From here, you can continue to run towards your head, then quickly turn the other way: this is what Jeff Glover calls the 'Homer sweep'. If your partner is wise to that and adjusts their weight accordingly, you may still be able to pop out the back.
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Teaching Notes: I showed two options, which I think is probably helpful for those who have difficulty with the first one. If people have already done the stiff arm escape from side control, then that will help a lot. If not, then either they pick it up, or the second option is nice and easy. As usual, I showed the escape to deep half to some of the more experienced people during drilling too. Saulo's is another option, but I prefer the simpler one his brother Xande does (which is like Kev's version).

I finally got back to sparring after a week off, which feels like much longer. Unfortunately, my wrist wasn't entirely happy with it. I went with some smaller white belts for specific, then one of the more experienced students who is also my size. I can trust him to be controlled, though I still twinged my wrist a few times due to the kind of open guard I normally play, so had to be careful on that. Looks like I'm not as healed up as I'd hoped, unfortunately.

23/10/2015 - Teaching | Mount | Technical Mount Escape

Teaching #409
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 23/10/2015

That same principle of creating space then filling it with your knee can also apply to technical mount escapes. This is a technique I was first taught by Kev several years ago. The basic idea is wedging something under the leg that they've stepped over. It's possible to use your arm for this, especially if you want to go to deep half, but I prefer using my knee.

Grab their knee with both arms, keeping your elbows in to make it more difficult for them to strip your grips. You also want to be as much on your side as possible, curled inwards. Shove their leg towards your knee with your arms, shrimping into them to make space. As soon as there is any space, fill it with your knee, then spin to guard or simply try and knock them off-balance to escape (though that can end up becoming a scramble: either way, tends to be better than being stuck under mount).

You can try doing this with one hand, such as if they manage to strip one of your grips, but it's more difficult. As always, be aware of chokes: you may need to disengage one of your hands to defend your neck. Like side control escapes, be careful they don't immediately pass as you try and knock them off with the butterfly hook. Finally, they may be able to scupper your escape completely before you get started if they grab lower on the leg you're trying to use to insert your knee.

Should they mess up your grips or otherwise prevent you getting the knee through, you could try Saulo's technical mount escape, as seen both in his book and BJJ Library. Saulo stiff arms with one arm, the other staying back to help defend the neck. Having bent their leg outwards, he then simply sits up at an angle. Keep in mind that if you're not paying attention you could end up on your side in their guard, at risk of having your back taken. Therefore make sure you move to good posture before they can put you in a awkward position.

I therefore prefer to add in a sit-up escape element, like in the Jeff Rockwell escape from side control. That's because I find with the Saulo escape, if they're wise to it, they will scoop up your arm or possibly take your back. To try to prevent that, after you've managed to stiff-arm into their leg, come up on your other elbow, sitting up high. Move from your elbow to your hand, then pushing off that hand and your feet, try and slide your hips out as much as possible. Square back up to them and recover guard. This needs to be relatively quick, so they don't have time to knock off your arm and/or attempt a back take.

For something more advanced, you could also do a switch to deep half guard. The key is getting either your top arm/elbow inserted into any space between the back of their knee and your torso. Your other hand (so, this will be the arm you have closest to the floor) needs to be grabbing your opposite collar tightly, as otherwise they'll have a clear route to choke you. Once you can get your arm through into the gap behind their knee, reach in and grab your gi trousers, by your knee.

Start moving your legs towards your head, until there is an opportunity to shove their leg between yours and switch to deep half guard. From here, you can continue to run towards your head, then quickly turn the other way: this is what Jeff Glover calls the 'Homer sweep'. If your partner is wise to that and adjusts their weight accordingly, you may still be able to pop out the back.
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Teaching Notes: I haven't covered technical mount escapes in class for a long while (looking through the blog, it appears to be about two years, which is longer than I thought!) I had a few options in mind, but planned to focus on the sit-up escape version that I felt was the strongest option during drilling on Tuesday. I kicked off by showing the Saulo version, to get people used to the motion, then added the sit-up afterwards. That seemed to work ok, though it did cut into sparring time a little.

I also ran through the deep half guard version with people during drilling, if they seemed to be having trouble getting the stiff-arm, or they were more advanced. It's another good option I learned a couple of years ago, but one I have to admit I'd completely forgotten about before I started checking back through my notes for this class. I'll keep playing with it over the rest of this month, then perhaps that could feed into some deep half during half guard month.

Despite including three variations on the escape (get the knee inside and lift, push the knee a la Saulo plus a sit up escape, then finally the deep half version), it didn't feel too crammed. It doesn't take much to say "yeah, you can also bring your knee in", I guess. Then again, most of the class were more experienced tonight, so that probably helped. When I next come to teach this, I might need to streamline the content.

23/07/2013 - Teaching (Escaping Mount to Butterfly & Escaping Technical Mount)

Teaching #115
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 23/07/2013

I've covered the two basic escapes (upa and elbow escape) a number of times now, also incorporating my person favourite, the heel drag. While I think those should always remain the focus, I wanted to add in some other options for variety. The one that sprang to mind was moving from mount to butterfly. I started off with the bump and frame (that picture is made of screen caps from an old Rowan Cunningham vid, whose work I first saw right near the start of my training in 2006. They're now hosted at LearnBJJTechnique), a relatively basic technique. This isn't an option I often go for, but I do regularly use some of the principles, as quite often I'll end up trying to dig my knee through.

First of all you need to get their hips in range. It is more difficult to land this escape if they're still upright, although in that case you would probably go for something else. Knock them forward with a bump, pressing your knee into their back. As soon as they're horizontal, frame your arms into their hips and do a powerful bridge (heels as close to your bum as possible, pushing high, on your toes).

Stiff arm into both their hips, so that when you drop your hips back down, the space you created from your bridge is still there. Bring both your knees through that gap: having been balanced on your arms, they are now balanced on your shins. You can then kick forward with both legs, using the momentum to also sit up. This should put you directly into butterfly guard, where you can immediately sweep them.

If they are still upright, you can still do it sloppily by jamming as much of your knees as you can into the space you create. It ends up being one or one and a half knees, knocking them off to the side at best. Still, that can work too, and will almost certainly be better than staying stuck under mount. It can also potentially give you a chance at moving into x-guard or something like that, circling your outside around to press your foot into their hip. Tony's favoured double-shin sweep could work from here too.

That same principle of creating space then filling it with your knee can also apply to technical mount escapes. This is a technique I was first taught by Kev several years ago. The basic idea is wedging something under the leg that they've stepped over. It's possible to use your arm for this, especially if you want to go to deep half, but I prefer using my knee.

Grab their knee with both arms, keeping your elbows in to make it more difficult for them to strip your grips. You also want to be as much on your side as possible, curled inwards. Shove their leg towards your knee with your arms, shrimping into them to make space. As soon as there is any space, fill it with your knee, then spin to guard or simply try and knock them off-balance to escape (though that can end up becoming a scramble: either way, tends to be better than being stuck under mount).

You can try doing this with one hand, such as if they manage to strip one of your grips, but it's more difficult. As always, be aware of chokes: you may need to disengage one of your hands to defend your neck. Like side control escapes, be careful they don't immediately pass as you try and knock them off with the butterfly hook. Finally, they may be able to scupper your escape completely before you get started if they grab lower on the leg you're trying to use to insert your knee.

Should they mess up your grips or otherwise prevent you getting the knee through, you could try Saulo's technical mount escape, as seen both in his book and BJJ Library. Saulo stiff arms with one arm, the other staying back to help defend the neck. Having bent their leg outwards, he then simply sits up at an angle. Keep in mind that if you're not paying attention you could end up on your side in their guard, at risk of having your back taken. Therefore make sure you move to good posture before they can put you in a awkward position.
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Teaching Notes: The two main points that probably need emphasising, judging by drilling today, is firstly not lifting with the arms: they should just be there as a frame to hold someone in place after you've already lifted them with your legs and hips. The second thing is making sure that initial bridge is as powerful as possible by bringing your heels right to your bum and pushing up off your toes.

On the technical mount escape, I didn't mention the shrimp enough, so that's another part I'll highlight next time. I'm not sure if having the Saulo escape as well was too much for one class, so in future I might move the Saulo option to a pure technical mount escape class. I could combine it with Geeza's method, where you switch to deep half.

Like last week, Mike came down early to get in thirty minutes of drilling. It was particularly relaxed today, which is cool: we just worked on some light resistance to various guard positions, like the double shin sweep, as well as what to do when somebody is leading with their knee into your butterfly guard. It's a handy way of warming up a bit before class.

My groin was playing up yesterday again, which is annoying. I'm paranoid about it going again, especially as it isn't 100% from last September yet. I therefore decided to sit out of the sparring at the end, just in case. Hopefully the same injury isn't going to flare up again, though I at least know how to work around it now.