29 April 2016

29/04/2016 - Teaching | Mount | Take the Back (Super High Mount) & Americana

Teaching #503
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 29/04/2016

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Today I looked at some attacks from high mount, where you've gotten up right by their head. The first option I like to try is fishing out an arm and doing an americana against the leg (though the distinction between americana and kimura gets a bit blurred). Your knees are by their ears, squeezing in tight, causing their arms to cross over their face. For this attack, you need to be able to thread your arm by their crook of their elbow.

Grab their wrist with your other arm, using your initial arm to grip your own wrist (same configuration as if you were doing a kimura from north-south). Making sure your knees are squeezing in tight, bend their arm against your leg for the submission. Be sure to use the turn of your body, rather than purely your arms: you'll get more leverage that way.

If they have managed to hide their arm, swing your torso around so that your ribs are pressing against their forearm. That wedge means you can now walk sideways on your toes to roll them and take the back. You could go all the way until they end up flat on their belly, for what is arguably the most dominant position in BJJ, full back mount. However, if you do that, I'd recommend getting an arm under their neck before you fully roll them over, as it can be irritating to dig your hand in once they are completely flat (after all, there is a reason judoka treat that paradoxically as a defensive position, used to stall for a few seconds in competition so they get stood back up).

My preference is to instead walk them just far enough to get them up on their side. From there, I can then move into technical mount. That then provides lots of options, with chokes, armbars and a back take all available.
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Teaching Notes: The back take is very simple, so I think it combines well with that high mount americana. Next time the thing to emphasise is the specifics of the grip on the arm, along with using the turn of your torso to get the submission rather than just your arms. A few people were having trouble getting their ribs right into the arm. It would be worth highlighting making a 'shelf' of an arm, in order to wedge yourself against it. Ideally their elbow is worked up high, to create lots of 'shelf' to wedge into. :)

To repeat notes from last time (I didn't notice them, as they were under americana rather than back take: hence why I'm putting both labels in this time ;D), one thing I could have added was blocking attempts to slip out the back. I mentioned that it's a common escape attempt, but not too much on the defence. The main thing I do is just grab the back of their collar to anchor my mount, then wriggle back to flatten them out (as they normally start curling their legs over to push into your armpits).

I could also potentially bolster this lesson with more details on getting those elbows up really high. For example, talk about 'spider-walking' your hands up when you've hooked an elbow, as that can be handy. It's good to have a clear goal after getting to high mount, rather than just saying it's a great place to attack from. Evidence! :)

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