How to Escape Mount A Beginner’s Step by Step Guide

Being mounted is one of the worst positions in BJJ. You are pinned, your opponent has scoring position, and they can attack with strikes (in MMA) or submissions (in BJJ) without much risk to themselves. Knowing how to escape mount is essential before you can do anything useful in BJJ. This guide covers the two highest leverage mount escapes for beginners.

Why Mount Is So Bad

Mount lets your opponent control your hips, attack your neck and arms, and rain down pressure with their body weight. In sport BJJ, mount scores 4 points. In MMA, mount means strikes you cannot effectively defend. Escaping mount has to be priority one before working on any offensive game.

Escape 1: The Bridge and Roll (Upa)

The classic Helio Gracie mount escape. Used when your opponent is sitting high on your chest and posting one hand to balance.

Step by Step

1. Trap the wrist of one of your opponent’s posting arms with your hand on the same side
2. Trap the foot on the same side by hooking your same side foot over their ankle
3. Bridge explosively up and to the side of the trapped arm and foot
4. Your opponent will not be able to post on the trapped side and will roll over
5. Land in their guard, posture up, and start working your guard pass

Common mistakes · Bridging without trapping both the arm and the foot first. Bridging straight up instead of up and over to the side. Not following through and landing in guard.

Escape 2: The Elbow Knee Escape

Used when your opponent is sitting low on your hips and not giving you a chance to bridge them off. The goal is to recover guard rather than reverse position.

Step by Step

1. Frame your forearms against your opponent’s hips to create space
2. Bridge slightly to off balance them and slide your nearest knee underneath their leg
3. Pivot your hips to the side and bring your knee through to the inside of their leg
4. Once your knee is inside, hook their leg with your foot and recover half guard
5. Keep working from half guard to recover full guard

Common mistakes · Trying to push directly off your opponent without bridging first. Bringing the knee through too high and getting it stepped over. Stopping at half guard and not continuing to full guard recovery.

When to Use Which Escape

If your opponent is sitting high on your chest, you can usually bridge them off with the Upa. They are top heavy and have nowhere safe to post their weight.

If your opponent is sitting low on your hips, the bridge will not lift them effectively. Use the elbow knee escape to slide out underneath them.

Most experienced opponents will adjust their position based on what you try, so you will need both escapes and the ability to flow between them depending on what they give you.

What to Do If They Take Your Back

A common counter to your mount escape is for your opponent to take your back when you bridge. If they do this, your priority becomes getting their hooks off and turning into them, not finishing the original escape. Plenty of beginners escape mount only to give up back control because they kept thinking about the upa instead of adjusting.

How to Drill These Escapes

Have a partner mount you and ask them to apply easy pressure. Practise both escapes one after the other, twenty repetitions of each. Then ask them to slowly increase resistance until you can hit each escape against a fully resisting opponent.

Mount escapes are the kind of skill that becomes easy with reps and impossible without them. There is no shortcut. Spend ten minutes a class working escapes specifically and within a few months your time spent in mount will drop dramatically.