I remember being stuck under mount when I was a white belt. It was HORRIBLE.
That was especially true when it happened with certain people at Evolve, who will be left unnamed (to protect the guilty). They would utterly crush me there. And escape seemed so impossible at the time.
Against anyone good being stuck under mount is a place you don’t want to be, and that’s why it’s important to not only know how to escape but also to master those skills.
For that reason, I’m going to give you some of the basic mount escape variations I use. Add them to your arsenal and improve your escape success rate.
Escaping Mount
Breaking the Mount Escape Variations Down
Upa Escape
- For this escape, trapping the arm securely is absolutely required. And I’ve found that using just one arm makes it easy for your opponent untangle, so I’m a fan of using both arms to trap.
- Trapping the leg on the side where you want to move will make it harder for your opponent to use that leg to base out and stop the escape.
- Looking in the direction that you want to move will increase your range of motion and make it easier to complete the escape.
Elbow Escape
- The hip frame is something new that I added to my escape recently. I’ve had a lot of success with it because it makes it easier for you to move around your opponent. Of course your neck can become vulnerable. That’s why you frame and go as soon as possible.
- The basic movements used in this mount escape are the bridge, shrimp and hip switch. Pure basics.
- In one of the demonstrations, I fell back to the variation I’ve used the most over the year. Find that example. It’s when I stepped over and pull the ankle across before hip switching. That is GOLD. I lost count of how many times I successfully used that to escape a LONG time ago.
Hip Bump Escape
- This mount escape eluded me for a long time. I couldn’t use it in my division, and I didn’t even try. But since then, I’ve had a revelation about the mechanics. The goal is not to push upward, it is to bump them forward and pull them towards and over your head. That will give you the space necessary to move under.
- There are two main variations. One is when you bring both knees in and push out to butterfly guard, and the other is the one in the video when you bring one knee and push away to single leg x. I prefer the second.
