How to escape the Mounted position II

Master Rickson Gracie's seminar in Holland

Last BJJ / Grappling tips post talked about how to start the elbow knee escape from mounted position. In this one I’ll talk about the actual execution of the escapes and in the third post we’ll look more at what happens once you’ve escaped: correct conclusion.

Just like the start/approach, the execution of escapes (or any technique) in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu / Grappling involves a number of deep elements:

1. Recognizing the right time (e.g. escaping your knee under their leg when it has the least weight on it)
2. Recognizing the right angle (e.g. which way to shrimp and where to drive the knee)
3. Moving in one, unified motion (e.g. When executing a bridge-shrimp move, there should be no pause between the end of the bridge and the start of the shrimp)
4. Recognizing a trap or dead-end when you see one (e.g. realising that you turned too far and now they’re taking your back)*

Once again: If your mount escapes are not working, before anything else, check the list on the previous post.

If, however, you are adhering to everything on that list, start looking at the above.

Here are some mount escape-specific examples that may occur once your start/approach is perfect:

1. If you find that sometimes the escape feels easy and light and sometimes heavy and forced, you need to pay more attention to your timing and sensitivity. What Saulo calls the momento.

2. If you feel crowded as you escape, you most likely need to shrimp a little further before you start escaping

The picture below demonstrates that. The hand positioning and the weight distribution are different but the bottom guy’s motion is exactly the same.


3. If you find your escape attempts getting blocked and dissected (your partner keeps catching up with you) with seemingly simple acts of balance recovery, chances are you are moving in a series of disconnected moves rather than one smooth long motion. Once again, Rickson Gracie would tell you that you need to Flow with the Go!

Next time, we’ll investigate element 3: the correct conclusion**.

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*I want to highlight here that if you do everything correctly, you should succeed in the technique the majority of the time. Sometimes people fall into a trap of doing the first technique half-heartedly in anticipation to switch to a counter. This can work but it can also backfire in your face. Always try to make the first technique work.

**Once you reach half-guard, you've escaped mount. Getting from Half-guard to full- or any other guard is a great option but not the only option.



ZHOO ZHITSU IS FOR EVERYONE!

Liam "The Part Time Grappler" Wandi

Proudly sponsored by Predator Fightwear: Built for the kill and Brutal TShirt: Made By Grapplers For Fighters

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