Mount in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

What It Is

The mount in Brazilian jiu jitsu is one of the most dominant positions you can get to, period. You’re sitting on your partner’s torso, knees pinched tight to their sides, hips heavy, aiming to trap their hips and shoulders. All your weight is on them while they’re flat on their back. This isn’t just about racking up points in a tournament, it’s a platform to finish fights, rack up submissions, and wear people down until they make mistakes. If you’re rolling often, you already know: giving up mount usually feels like the beginning of the end.

Why It Works

The mount in Brazilian jiu jitsu works because it’s pure control. Your hips beat their hips, your upper body pins their upper body, and they’re left to make desperate frames or risk exposing their arms and neck. Gravity is on your side. Their legs are stuck under you and useless for shrimping or bridging if your pressure is right. From there, you can attack for armbars, mounted triangles, collar chokes (gi), or just make them miserable and force openings. It’s exhausting to defend the mount with someone skilled on top. They’re burning energy, you’re not.

Key Details

• Knee Position: Keep your knees pinched into their body. If you’re loose, they’ll elbow escape or trap a leg.
• Foot Anchoring: Hook your feet under their butt or flare them wide for base, depending on their escape attempts. Both work, but know why you’re doing each.
• Hip Pressure: Your hips aren’t floating, they’re glued down and aiming to track their hips as they try to bridge or shrimp. Adjust your angle to follow them.
• Chest Placement: Stay low. Your chest should be heavy against theirs, making frames weak and bridging tough for them.
• Hand Fighting: Don’t post with both hands unless you’re about to lose the position. Use one hand to threaten the collar/neck or attack arms; the other frames for balance.
• Head Position: Keep your head low and past their head. If you’re too high, you’ll get rolled. Too low and they’ll trap an arm.

Small things like shifting your hips with their movement, or floating your weight just enough to adjust but not enough to get bucked, are what separate a decent mount from a nightmare mount.

Common Mistakes

• High Hips: Floating your hips gives space for their knees to come in and start the escape.
• Lazy Knees: If your knees aren’t tight, you’ll eat a quick elbow escape, same thing if your knees are too wide and you’re sitting on their stomach.
• Posting Both Hands: As soon as your hands leave their body and post on the mat, you’re begging to get bridged over.
• Ignoring Hip Movement: Not tracking their hips lets them build frames or set up a trap and roll.
• Focusing Only on Submissions: Jumping for every armbar without controlling base is just giving away the mount. Secure, then attack.
• Overcommitting Pressure: Going too heavy and too low can get you rolled, especially if you don’t have knee and foot control dialed in.

When To Use It

You use mount in Brazilian jiu jitsu when you’ve passed guard, broken their frames, and they’re flattened out. Mount is high value in tournaments because it scores four points and sets up high-percentage finishes. It’s a position where you can recover if things go wrong, isolation is easier, submissions are closer, and you can threaten both sides without leaving huge openings. If you’re on top and they’re tired, flatten them out in mount and cook them until they hand you a submission. If you’re working self-defense or MMA, mount is even more critical. You shut down their hips, limit their options, and control them until help arrives or until you choose to finish.

Training Tips

• Drill Transitions: Don’t just sit in mount, drill getting there from side control, knee on belly, or from passes. Make mount part of your flow, not just a destination.
• Pressure Over Submission: Spend time in training just holding mount, adjusting pressure, and making your partner uncomfortable without attacking. Learn base first.
• Timed Rounds: Put yourself against fresh partners in mount every minute. Get used to the feeling of controlling against explosive escapes and tired opponents.
• Escape Reps: Have partners escape repeatedly, get used to following their hips and regaining mount as they move.
• Submission Chains: Don’t tunnel vision on one finish. Cycle between armbar, Americana, cross collar, S-mount, and back takes. Do not give up mount hunting for a low-percentage move.
• Video Your Mount: Watch your own rolls and see where your knees, feet, and hands are when you get swept.
• Open Mat Testing: Try mounting partners who are significantly heavier or lighter. You’ll find where your pressure and hooks need work.

Final Takeaway

The mount in Brazilian jiu jitsu is a technical stronghold if you respect the details and fight to control before finishing. Small lapses, like getting lazy with your knees or hips, will cost you, especially against athletic scramblers. Drill the basics, master switching between pressure and mobility, and train yourself to feel the difference between pinning for control vs. mindlessly attacking. Make people miserable from mount, keep your base, and your finish rate will climb. The fighters who end up on top in real matches are the ones who treat mount as a craft, not just a rest stop.

Athletes To Study

• Roger Gracie
• Gordon Ryan

Official Pages

• Roger Gracie Academy