Working that top game...

So this week is all about working the mount.

Our brown belt instructor got sick earlier in the week but another brown belt stepped up to teach.

As, I get into the curriculum in SBG the more I am liking it. For the longest i was used to maintaining mount by swimming arms and balancing myself with my hands on the mat about the guys head, which makes sense because I come from a Gracie background. The main points that I think will help my game that I leard at SBG is to squeeze your legs together when you are on top mount position and to not look to balance your hands on the mat as much.

So, lets address the first point. People differ on how to maintain mount. Some say to keep your legs wide when mounting someone which I understand that it gives you good balance but if someone starts bridging you then you have your hands to help balance you and maintain your balance. One glaring problem I feel about keeping your legs wide is that it creates space where a guy can move his hips and arms and possiblly escape out the back door on you. If you squeeze your legs together and tuck your feet in then you really limit the mobility of that person, finally a position where my weight comes in handy :).

Now the other point that I really like is that you don't look to balance using your hands out front above the guy's head as much. The point being that you immediately look to cross face or gain an underhook somehow. What I mean by crossface; imagine you are on top mount you slide your left arm under the guys head and drive your shoulder into the side of his face. When someone has you crossfaced it's hard to think of what to do and if you have their face forced that other way it's nearly impossible for them to move back into you all they can think is to go the direction their head is pointing. I started going directly into crossface on full mount with a similarly big guy and I was really able to control him a lot more.

For your viewing pleasure here are some videos of the head of SBGI and a quick highlight vid of one of his BB.