Sticky Mount

Jiu-Jitsu can be very tricky. It can be hard to know which moves you can make work, and which you can't.

Usually, you are introduced to something in a lesson, and then you practice it with a partner. Maybe you keep things low and slow just to learn the movements, or maybe you bump it us a little to see how it might function under pressure. Maybe during free-roll time, you and a partner make an agreement to try and end up in the newly drilled movement, and you work on it that way.

All of these are good learning methods, and can be quite enough to make you confident in a technique, but not always.

This year, down in Los Angeles I trained several times a day at the Gracie Academy for two weeks. During all of that time, we were working on Mount techniques, mostly Escapes and Controls. I picked up a lot of good stuff, and worked on a lot of old favourites, but one thing really stuck out.

Rener Gracie was leading us through a bunch of Mount Control stuff, but his basic, default position was different. Of course, he explained the important points, and we did all the usual types of training with it. It seemed wonderful.

I wanted it to work as it seemed to once used, “in the wild;” so to speak. Put it aside as we went on to other things.

That was a couple of months ago.

Back at home last night there was a lot of rolling fun. Partner swapping happened a couple of time, and then I looked at Than.

I like Than, but rolling with him isn't something I am attracted to. He's about twenty-to-forty pounds heavier than me, is easily twice as strong, and a couple of decades younger. He used to roll in a painful fashion with everybody, but as his technique improved, he became as safe as anybody else for the smaller people; he would flow, and use skill. However, when with me he still goes really hard.

Back when he was a beginner, I was near the top of our sparring food chain, and I think that is still in his head. He likes to use all those kind of things a big, strong person might use if they were about to be awarded a big, shiny trophy for earning the next submission. I don't tap when things are uncomfortable, or half functioning. When he submits me, he knows he got it right. He likes that, too.

So anyhow, a typical match between us goes with him pushing hard for top position, and getting it. If I ever manage to get on top, staying there for even ten seconds is a major victory. He just chucks or rolls me off at will.

So last night, as we started, I decided to use Than to test my new Rener Gracie-style Mount. Getting it to work on Than would prove the effectiveness of the trick better than anything else I could think of.

I exploded immediately, which I don't usually do, determined to get the Mount. Once there, I clamped in my knees hard, and my feet slipped ever so slightly under his hips, one arm tight around his neck.

He seemed confused at first, perhaps waiting for an attack, but I just waited, clamped on top. He moved to chuck me off.

I remained attached. He tried to roll me; nothing. Elbow escape; nothing. He now was working very hard to get me off. Push, roll, elbow, roll, push....again and again.

I remained perched on the hardest guy to stay on that we've got for about three full minutes before he finally managed to get me off. Keep in mind that anything longer than ten seconds would have been an improvement.

After that, we had a pretty standard roll for the remaining couple of minutes. Afterwards, he expressed his astonishment that I managed to stay on top of him that long. I did, too.

This was so cool. Being on top of the Mount has always been a bad place for me. I've been getting regularly chucked off ever since I started rolling back in the middle of 2012. That's 5 years of being unable to hold the position for more than a few seconds against any determined opponent, let alone doing so for three minutes.

This won't last. It can't. Nothing in Jiu-Jitsu every does. For a while back in 2014 I had by far the best Guard of any student at my academy. It didn't take long for people to catch up. Conversely, my Leg Locks have always sucked horribly, but have been improving a little lately.

A year from now it will all be topsy-turvy from what it is now.