Some mount escape ideas and other things

Have had some good training sessions with JS, MB and TO over the last few days. Really working on my conditioning hard in the gym, then making my jiu jitsu more of a calm flow.

Have mainly been working mount and mount escapes. Trying to look at this as just another area where it is a combination of techniques and reactions to reactions. One thing that is coming to mind is the idea of taking things step by step.

One issue I’ve noticed with JS that certainly applies to me as well is that of the Mickey Mantle idea. That ball's going out of the park, or he’s striking out. At times, my mount escapes have been like this. For a long time it was only elbow escaping to my left side. At other times, I had a decent bridge, but if that didn’t work, I was right back where I started.

With my mount escapes (and side mount for that matter) I want to make sure that every move is making progress and chaining with the last one. I think this is a little different concept that trying a lot of moves.

Before I would try one move after another, but I would be coming back to a neutral point of being on my back in between efforts. What I’m attempting to do now is have each move be a natural continuation of the move before it.

So if the opponent has a tight mount with good head control, I could control the arm holding the head or just press down with my head to trap their arm and trap their foot. I’d bridge up and over at a 45 degree angle over the shoulder.

But this usually won’t be enough to get them over, but it should be enough to get to my side. I’d look to continue with the framing, maybe moving to an elbow escape, or maybe moving onto my elbow and pulling my hips back from here with my legs straight. There are a lot of options, but the main thing I’m thinking about is to not bridge, then just end up right back on my back.

I'm really liking the concept of getting up on my elbow, not only for mount escapes, but also side mount escapes and open guard. I feel like there’s suddenly another dimension of movement, which gives me better offensive angles.

I need to start working the full game again soon. I like many of the side control aspects, along with some really cool collar chokes my instructor showed me today. Again the concept of circular motion and moving out of the tidal wave’s way is something I keep considering.

Tomorrow is my rest day but I look forward to continuing these ideas and also to start working on my wrestling but with the same sense of flow and sensitivity.