Mount Escapes For Sport and Street

Learn from Black Belt Magazine Hall of Fame inductee Burton Richardson, creator of the BJJ For The Street program.

Why do you need so many mount escapes?
The same reason you don’t just want only a couple attacks from your guard. Or 2 punches and 1 kick. If the opponent counters those techniques, you’re stuck. We want many, functional, well-practiced options so we can flow with the situation and apply the most useful tool at the proper time. This program will allow you to recognize where exactly you are and choose the best technique for the situation and for your body type.

Yes, the most practical escapes for you depend on your body type . Are you flexible or not so much? Long legs, medium, or short? Strong or on the weaker side? You need to know many options in order to discover which ones work best for you.

In a striking sport, or even worse in the street, you do not want someone to settle into the mount. If you can’t escape, they can punch, headbutt, elbow, and apply a variety of submissions while you have no significant offense. They are in little danger while they try to smash your face, break your arm, or choke you unconscious.

Being mounted is a worst case scenario, which is why it is so important to be extremely proficient in defending the position. As a matter of fact, back in the early 90s, my very first jiu-jitsu lesson was a private with the legendary Rickson Gracie. What did we work on? Mount escapes. He explained to me that being mounted was so dangerous that it warranted lots of practice. If someone was able to mount you, you needed to be able to escape as quickly as possible before those strikes or submissions finish you.

Point well taken. As I trained over the next 30 years, I first learned a few fundamental mount escapes. As I continued training, little by little I discovered more and more details that greatly enhanced the effectiveness of these techniques. I was also fortunate to be able to train with many great jujitsu champions and coaches. I would pick up one technique from a particular Instructor that I’ve never seen elsewhere. I would pick up another unique technique from someone else. And, I recognized certain escapes that just happened during rolling and then later in competitions, even though I never saw anybody actually teach those techniques to this very day.

As good as your go-to mount escapes may be, if your opponent is skillful at defending those, you are going to be punished. That’s just the way it works. Which brings us back to our earlier point.

You need options so that you are able to take advantage of a position that your opponent doesn’t have an answer to.

Options give you a much fuller pallet to paint with. Imagine only learning an arm bar and triangle from the guard. That’s all you got. If the opponent can counter those two, you are basically defenseless. That’s why we work on Kimuras, guillotines, arm bars, omoplatas, collar chokes, and a multitude of sweeps. You need to feel where the opponent’s weakness is then apply the technique that best takes advantage of that opening. It’s clear that we all need well practiced options.

How is 18 Mount Escapes For Sport Or Street different from other programs?
I know of no other series that focuses on teaching techniques that work both for sport and street scenarios. This series is the culmination of 30 years of training. Every single one of these moves has been thoroughly pressure tested and is proven to work against skillful opponents. I go into great detail to make sure you understand each increment of the movement and the ideas behind it. I also give examples of how the theory relates to other jiu jitsu positions so that you can take the concepts from the mount escape and apply them to other areas of your grappling game.I am sure that it will help you to not just survive being mounted, but will also help you better understand all aspects of jiu-jitsu.

Mount Escapes for Sport and Street is highly organized, and very easy to follow. Enjoy the process and you will be better than ever. I wish you great training!

Burton Richardson