POSITIONTOP

Mount

Sources and other names

Also called: full mount, high mount, low mount, mount, mount position, mounted

95videos

27channels

51 gi · 43 no-gi

Start with the example · Playing top

Mount is the position everyone's instincts and every rule set agree on: both legs past their hips, your chest over theirs, their submissions gone and yours all live. All things being equal, the person in mount is winning.

The chapter

Getting there turns out to be the cheap part. Holding it — especially the high, chest-on-chest mount — is a separate skill made of small details about where your hips and knees actually are, and a mount that isn't consolidated gets lost in seconds.

For the bottom player the position is survivable if the first battle is won early: frames in, hips turned, never flat. From there escaping isn't one move but a chain — bridge, elbow-knee, legs — where each escape scores off their answer to the last one.

Playing top

Control first, submissions second: pin the hips so you can stay, separate the elbows so you can attack, and let their escape attempts pick the finish.

1Pin their hips before you attack
Settle your hips, hamstrings and seat down onto their pelvis so their bridge lifts nothing, and let your legs do the holding — knees to the mat when they buck, grapevines or hooks when they get violent.
WhenThe first seconds after you arrive, before any grip — and again every time they bridge. Their escape starts the moment you land, so consolidating is the first move, not a pause.
2Climb high and open the elbows
Walk your knees up toward their armpits and hand-fight their elbows away from their ribs — high mount with their elbows floating above their shoulders is where every finish on this list lives.
WhenOnce the mount is stable and their elbows are glued tight. Nothing submits a tight-elbowed opponent; separating the elbows is the doorway, not the attack itself.
3Cross collar choke
First hand goes deep in the collar, second grip comes behind it, and the finish is connection to the neck rather than arm strength — done right it takes very little movement.
WhenEarly and often. Even a threatened collar grip forces both of their hands up to defend, and that reaction is what opens the armbar and the back take below.
4Arm triangle / head-and-arm choke
When one of their arms gets pushed across their own neck line, wedge it there, drop your head to the far side and connect your chest to their trapped shoulder before you squeeze.
WhenThe moment your elbow-separation work sends an arm past their neck. Mount is the best room in the house for this choke because it controls their hips while you finish.
5Armbar when they push
Their straight pushing arm is the entry: pin it to your chest, slide your hips up their trunk, swing your leg over the head and drop back with your knees pinched.
WhenThey push on your chest or hips to make space. The push is the exposure — find the sleeve or wrist, drop your hips underneath it, and the arm is already extended for you.
6Take the back when they turn
When they commit to a side, ride up into technical mount, force their hands to the mat or feed a reverse underhook, and slide around behind them instead of wrestling them back flat.
WhenTheir shoulders leave the mat and they start the elbow-knee escape. Don't fight to keep flat mount — follow the turn up and take the better position they're offering.

Also worth knowing

AmericanaWhenThey push up at your chest with a bent arm or let a wrist drift toward the mat — pin the wrist and paint the elbow.
Mounted triangleWhenYou can only free one of their elbows — when both won't come up, the triangle is the answer built for exactly that.
Gift wrapWhenA hand crosses their centerline fighting your grips — pass it over their own bicep and their whole upper body is tied shut.

Why you keep failing here

“I get to mount and lose it within seconds.”
WhyYou start attacking before consolidating. If you land with their elbows still inside and their hips free, the escape is already running underneath you.
FixTreat the first seconds as their escape window, not your attack window: open their elbows on the way in, settle your weight onto their pelvis, and only then reach for grips.
“Strong opponents just bridge and launch me over their head.”
WhyYour weight is riding upright on two static knees — a hard bridge against that structure wins on physics.
FixChange your feet when the violence starts: grapevines or long hooks against the bridge, and sit your weight back so their hips can't send you overhead.
“They always wiggle a knee back in and recover half guard.”
WhyYou let them connect a knee to an elbow. That connection is the entire elbow-knee escape — once it exists, the guard is coming back.
FixGuard the gap, not the leg: keep your knees tight behind their elbows and deny the connection before the knee ever starts sliding.
“I can hold mount all day but never finish anyone.”
WhyYou're attacking arms-first into tucked elbows, so every submission attempt starts from zero against their strongest defensive shape.
FixMake elbow separation the project instead of the submission: climb, wedge, and walk their elbows up — the attacks appear on their own once the elbows float.