Mount Control: A Deep Dive
How to better control, attack and escape the mount position more effectively (and efficiently)
One of my more dangerous students, a tall, strong and lanky purple belt just hit me up for a private lesson.
I was expecting him to ask something related to leg entanglements so I prepared some 50/50 and ashi garami stuff for him, hoping to provide as much value as I could for him.
We met up. I asked how I could help as I always do. His reply surprised me.
“I feel like as a purple belt, I’ve been able to do certain things half-assed and they’re working because I’m more skilled than a lot of beginners but I can’t help but think I’m making fundamental mistakes.”
“That’s common… I’ve had the same problem. What are you hoping to learn in particular?”
“Mount escapes… I feel like I could do a lot better with them.”
Uh oh…
This is a problem.
Up until this point, my whole strategy is to use all of my energy passing his guard, getting to mount and then coasting. He hasn’t been able to escape my mount yet. It was the perfect plan. And now, I had to show him the mistakes he’s been making from the mount.
Before we get there, I had another private lesson the week before with a student, a blue belt, having monumental problems controlling one of my more athletic/bigger students in the mount. It was the same problems, over and over again. So we went over the details.
Now, there are some key details in the mount position that you learn over time. These are the “little things” that seem to make mount much easier that are taught within techniques but never actually as their own concepts.
Does that make sense?
I hope so because it’s what this newsletter is primarily dedicated to. The “little things” that make all the big things work.
In this case, my student was missing some key details for controlling the mount position and we went over them.
“That’s what I was missing.”
Today’s email is going to cover those details as well as some extras with regard to better controlling the mount position as well as some little details with regard to escaping these positions.
Let’s dive in.
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