Full Mount
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For the person on the bottom, this is position is the opposite of being in Full Guard. The top person has a huge advantage in this position because they are able to avoid the protection normally offered by their opponent’s legs. There are a wide variety of transitions and submissions from this position. It is very difficult for the bottom person to transition into a better position.
What do you do in Full Mount?
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Attacks and Details for Full Mount (for person in blue)
- Keep your hips down. The defender will be able to use any gaps that form between your hips and theirs to their advantage. New students often have trouble holding onto the mount position, and it is often because their hips are too high. When you get to Full Mount, focus on driving your hips down towards the mat. If you can wrap your legs so that they are hooked under the defender’s as shown in the image above, you can generate much more leverage.
- Keep your arms free. The easiest escape from this position is the “bridge-and-roll” escape which requires the defender to control the arm and leg on one side of your body. When it is controlled, they can push you to that side and you won’t be able to stop yourself from being rolled over. A good rule of thumb is to never let your hands travel below the defender’s armpits. If your hands stay at their shoulder or above, you will have the opportunity to prevent the “bridge-and-roll” escape. As in most things, there are important exceptions to every rule. You can drive your hand into their armpit as a wedge if you are actively using that pressure to separate and isolate their arm from their body.
- Stay active. The defender will have to work very hard to escape mount. You have the advantage of gravity and the freedom to move and make adjustments very quickly if you need to. The defender will have to make sacrifices to their defense in order to generate the space needed to escape, and if you are playing an active game then you can use these sacrifices to get easy submissions. Mount isn’t about holding the opponent down, it is about controlling the opponent and their movement. If the defender sits still, you can begin working on setting up a variety of chokes, Armbars, or the Americana. The defender will have to move to defend these, and that movement creates opportunity. If you’re sitting still, you’re losing the advantage.
Defending and Escaping Full Mount (for person in white)
- Stay tight. You’re in a bad spot here, but panic will only make it worse. The worst thing you can do here is to try to push the opponent off of you. The two most common submissions from this position are chokes and armbars, and both are a result of your hands and arms being too far away from your body. Ideally, you should have your elbows tight against your body and your hands near your neck to defend chokes.
- Don’t be flat on your back. To escape this position, you have to have mobility. You will not be able to move if your back and hips are flat on the mat. Try to stay slightly on your side so that one shoulder and hip are off the mat. Don’t turn too far to your side or you will give them an opportunity to get to Back Mount. Turn just enough so that you can move when you have the opportunity.
- Keep your legs active. It may not seem like it, but you will need active legs in order to escape this position. If your legs are flat on the mat, you will never have the ability to escape this position. Keep at least one heel on the mat at all times. This will allow you to bridge your body up, roll from side to side, and shrimp your hips away from the opponent if you get the opportunity. Even though you don’t have a lot of freedom with your legs in this position, you can still use them to make the attacker’s job more difficult. For example, you can bump them up with your thigh to shift their weight forward when they aren’t expecting it, disrupting their balance and offering you an opportunity to move.
Hello! I love your stuff, I tend to watch videos only but you are so good at articulating the moves, it helps a lot for mental preparation (if that makes sense) and you seem to have a good balance of both on this site. Seriously, good stuff. And those cartoons are surprisingly helpful. I Just wanted to ask, for detail 2 for person in blue, it says, “A good rule of thumb is to lever let your hands travel below the defender’s armpits.” Instead of lever, should it say “never” instead? If it’s not a typo, I would first like to apologize for being annoying and I would also love to know what you meant by that. You seem like a very detailed writer and “l” is nowhere near “n” so I had to question it. I’m only guessing that it’s a typo because earlier today, my hands were not above my rolling partner’s shoulders at all and I totally got smashed in the face then flipped over like a pancake while calmly trying to pull off an Americana which is how I ended up on this page. Thank you so much, please keep it coming!
Thank you for pointing that out! It was a typo. I fixed it and added a few additional insights to that same point. There are exceptions to everything in BJJ, but generally speaking, I don’t like to attack Americanas from mount. I don’t like having my body’s main axis being parallel to their axis without the ability to either 1) post out in case the roll or 2) prevent them from being able to roll. When you get your hands tied up in the figure-4, you lose the ability to do both of those things. If I’m in mount and want to attack a shoulder lock, I’ll grab their wrist and shove it to the mat and pin it there while I start clocking my body into more of a side control position. At the same time I’ll work on securing the figure-4. They can’t bridge and roll if you have a strong angle on their body. It’s a matter of personal preference, but if I’m in mount I’m typically hunting cross collar chokes or working to separate the arm from the body to set up 1) a back take, 2) arm triangle choke, or 3) armbar (more rare).
My pleasure, it’s refreshing to hear that the time I wasted at school in order to become a writer/editor is finally paying off in a useful manner. I don’t have any friends because they don’t like “Grammar Nazis”. I’m just trying to get to the truth in an efficient manner. Anyway, you already blew my mind when you mentioned that you don’t go for Americanas from mount which as a beginner, I feel that it sounded quite counterintuitive but I’m guessing that you mentioned that because that may be the case? I do sort of understand what you’re trying to explain since we actually covered this in class after I asked you my question and that’s where I was drilling the part where you say “If I’m in mount and want to attack a shoulder lock, I’ll grab their wrist and shove it to the mat and pin it there while I start clocking my body into more of a side control position.” I had a blast drilling this because my rolling partner kept asking how I was keeping it so tight and when I explained, he said that made a lot of sense and that it’s most likely going to be “one of my go to moves” when I get more practice in. He totally started freaking out when I was clocking my body into a more side control position as you say, super poetic by the way. Anyway, thank you so much for getting back to me and unfortunately, this won’t be the last time you hear from me because you are like a jiujitsu poet and I don’t think I can get enough. And if I see any more typos, I got you. It’s the least I can do since I believe in give and take.
So I don’t monitor this site as closely as I used to. If you want to just chat about BJJ, follow me on Instagram @studentofbjj. Shoot me a DM whenever and I’m happy to discuss jiu jitsu with you anytime! I’m glad my insights help you!