So... I'm crap from the mount.

Sounds like you are sitting upright on him and trying to attack. That right there is a big part of the problem, it lacks control and pressure on your opponent.

Get high on him, and get low. You want head & arm control most of the time. So one arm around the head, keep it off the mat and puts pressure on his head keeping his head turned the other way. Fight for control of his other arm, get the wrist and push it outwards (not push it into the floor)

The other option I teach early is getting one of his arms across his body and wrapping it around his own neck (you're not going to choke him just like that, but will have a lot of options.

If he's just defending tight you once again control the head, then hook his elbow with the inside of yours. Drive with your legs forward and put his arm to his ear. Push it across his face and pin it there with your body weight. Secure it with the other hand, once again leaving you with head and arm control, just in a different form.

I will for sure try this out Friday, you're right too, I'm basically sitting upright trying to force something to happen.

This will help my game so much, thanks alot man.
 
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The other option I teach early is getting one of his arms across his body and wrapping it around his own neck (you're not going to choke him just like that, but will have a lot of options.
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Actually if you plan ahead a bit you can choke him.

Suppose you're mounted on him and you use your left hand to grab his right wrist (on your left side) and can shove it around his neck. Before you do so take a deep cross collar grip with your right hand and make a fist. This will be unpleasant or even hurt the other guy.

Now when you do the gift wrap you pull up hard after the arm is around the neck. This will start to close both his carotid arteries. One with the fist in his collar the other with his own forearm. Pull him up using the giftwrap and hold his torso in place. He will go out or tap (or you can pull him onto you to take his back)

BTW what is this choke called anyone?
 
Actually if you plan ahead a bit you can choke him.

Suppose you're mounted on him and you use your left hand to grab his right wrist (on your left side) and can shove it around his neck. Before you do so take a deep cross collar grip with your right hand and make a fist. This will be unpleasant or even hurt the other guy.

Now when you do the gift wrap you pull up hard after the arm is around the neck. This will start to close both his carotid arteries. One with the fist in his collar the other with his own forearm. Pull him up using the giftwrap and hold his torso in place. He will go out or tap (or you can pull him onto you to take his back)

BTW what is this choke called anyone?


Didn't say you couldn't use it to lead to a choke, just that its not a choke itself. Seen a feel people try and yank the hell out of the arm thinking they might get something so I make a point to state it's not one ;)

We do the same basic choke, except grabbing the forearm instead of the collar (no-gis)

You also can go to a arm triangle, regular triangle, take the back and choke, etc. Lots of chokes available, just not a choke in itself.
 
Didn't say you couldn't use it to lead to a choke, just that its not a choke itself. Seen a feel people try and yank the hell out of the arm thinking they might get something so I make a point to state it's not one ;)

We do the same basic choke, except grabbing the forearm instead of the collar (no-gis)

You also can go to a arm triangle, regular triangle, take the back and choke, etc. Lots of chokes available, just not a choke in itself.

Fair enough. Do you know the name of that choke? :)
 
IMO, you either want to be real high with the mount, or you want to have grapevines or your feet crossed underneath them. Get a crossface to pin his head, threaten with an ezekiel/ baseball choke and his arms will come up to defend- at that moment scoot up, and keep your legs tight to his body. Keep the crossface. From there, you can start isolating arms/ setting up chokes.

I'm pretty good with the arm triangle as well, one of my favorite set ups is to threaten with a basic forearm choke- when their hands go up to defend, trap the arm between your head & shoulder, and scoop behind his neck with the choking arm. From there, finishing is just a matter of clasping the hands and cinching it with whatever techniques you're good at, I like the Schafer finish.

Another good attack from high mount (aside from s- mount) I like is to post a knee on one of their biceps; this is uncomfortable and makes them think you're targeting this arm/ setting up a triangle. Instead, grab their other arm and cinch a keylock.

Disclaimer- i've only ever done no gi.
 
my coach always tells us to work the collar when you get the mount. left hand slides into his left collar, your head to the right, your right arm posting. that's the safe position and already one third into a collar choke.

if he tries to pull your hand out, he's opening his elbows for armbars. if he doesn't he's letting you set up the choke.

also, when all else fails i just leave mount and go knee on belly if i'm really looking for a finish. but i mean really if you're mounting someone and they just lock up they're still losing in every imaginable way. to escape they need to open up and you can catch them.
 
Gi or no gi?

If it's gi, I like to start off by attacking the neck with gi chokes, either cross-collar or ezekiel. That forces his arms up to defend, thus allowing me to slide my knees up into a high mount. In a high mount I can work to use my legs, thighs, and hands to bring his elbows together, which allows me to attack the arms.

No gi I like to keep a low mount with my hips real heavy. I usually start by getting one arm around the head with heave shoulder pressure to turn his head to the side. With my free arm I get my wrist under his elbow and start walking it up towards his head. From there I go for an arm triangle, or failing that I slide a knee up and work to a high mount.

A lot of people are saying S-mount, but for me that's really more of a transitional position. You don't start off in S-mount, and you can't just go there. You have to pry up his arms to get the position. And once you're there, you don't just hang around, you attack one of his arms.

Remember that attacking from the mount is difficult (unless it's MMA), and takes a lot of time and practice, but it's worth working on.
 
Mount can be a tough position.

What I did to try and improve my mount (and am still doing to some degree) is don't think about any submissions from any positions until you get the mount. This is easier to do with less experienced guys so practice this when you roll with newer guys. Don't attack from guard or side control. Don't look for any submissions until you have the mount. The greatest BJJ players (Rickson, Roger) will tell you that the mount is the best possible position.
 
My old gym we started from the knees. My new gym we start standing and I love it! Its feels good to be able to work on takedowns every class.

I wish my school did that my takedowns and takedown defense sucks.
 
I got inspired by Roger last year and now I pretty much only attack from mount (or the back). The rest of my bjj is focused on getting to mount. I will occasionally attempt sie control chokes or guard subs, but it is usually just a bait so I can sweep or advance to mount. I started doing this like six months ago and it really changed by game. I find myself in mount all the time now. And it also really opened my eyes to the power of set ups. This is just in practice, in comp, I take what I am given.

My goal is that once I get to mount, you lost, Roger style. I usually work the americana, arm entanglement, cross choke, and ezekiel. I don't like to move off of mount for the armbar personally. About 50% of the time, I end up on the back.

But it is all style. If you are flexible and feel better in guard, throw a triangle or armbar from mount. Worst case scenario, you end up in guard where you want to be anyway. No points are scored and you might land the sub.
 
I think the hardest part is being patient, and not giving anything back. What I mean is you have to just probe, while not getting reversed, and when you find even the smallest hole in his defense you need to pounce on it and not let go.

If one of his arms gets a little loose, you have to grab it and not let him re-establish his defense. If he lets you deep in the collar, don't give it up unless you get an arm in return. But in any case, don't go for the sub 100% until you know you're going to get it. Just work slowly and keep in mind you're in the better position and every second under you sucks for your opponent. You can't be in a hurry to finish people or you'll get reversed.

Watch videos (free on Youtube) of Roger Gracie choking everyone from the mount to get a sense of how slowly you can go and still be successful if you just focus on not giving up an inch to your opponent.
 
Seriously, I'm not bad at transitioning to the mount but once I get there, the guy always has super tight defense and I'm just sort of sitting there trying to pry the arm open with my shoulder for the arm triangle.

I feel much much safer when I'm on my back.

Am I BJJ Tarded? Any pointers for how to be more dominant from the mount?

I think that you're missing the point of being in mount. If you get to mount in nearly any situation (sport BJJ, an MMA fight, a real self defense situation) it's a good thing and you are winning at that point.

I'm not sure if you're new to BJJ, but the mistake most new guys to BJJ make is that they're impatient from mount and they lose position trying to go for submissions.

If the guy on the bottom wants to play the waiting game with you then do it because you're winning! I understand that everyone wants to finish like Roger Gracie when they get the mount, but really the most important thing is really maintaining the mount. By maintaining mount your offense will inevitably get better because you'll spend more time there since your opponent won't be able to get you off.

When they start to feel the desperation they'll move their arms or leave their neck open and then you'll capitalize AND you'll have the confidence in going for your submissions because you know you can maintain mount if your attempt fails.
 
I have the same problems. Lately I've been trying to just maintain mount and not really looking for a finish. My main issue is definitely patience. I forget that the guy on bottom has the disadvantage and it's up to him to do something about it. No need to force things on top. If I don't consciously tell myself to sit tight and be patient then I am always rushing to finish and end up getting reversed.

I did land my first armbar from mount in no gi last night though :)
 
great thread. my mount stinks as well, but I'll be working on that.
 
Sounds like you are sitting upright on him and trying to attack. That right there is a big part of the problem, it lacks control and pressure on your opponent.

Get high on him, and get low. You want head & arm control most of the time. So one arm around the head, keep it off the mat and puts pressure on his head keeping his head turned the other way. Fight for control of his other arm, get the wrist and push it outwards (not push it into the floor)

The other option I teach early is getting one of his arms across his body and wrapping it around his own neck (you're not going to choke him just like that, but will have a lot of options.

If he's just defending tight you once again control the head, then hook his elbow with the inside of yours. Drive with your legs forward and put his arm to his ear. Push it across his face and pin it there with your body weight. Secure it with the other hand, once again leaving you with head and arm control, just in a different form.
this is what I wanted to say, but worded better. So...do this
 
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