Essential Mount Maintenance with Bernardo Faria

By Fanatics Authors, October 20, 2019

The mount is tricky. At least it’s always been that way for me. In my earliest training days, I found it nearly impossible to stay there. Its still a challenge for me, as I am a bit smaller and I really have to cross my t’s and dot my I’s, or my stint will be over before it starts. I find the most difficulty stems from the bottom player having the option to escape to either side. This differs from other domini at positions like side control, where the bulk of our weight is situated to one side of our opponents. If you don’t understand good mount controls, it can be very difficult to stay in the mount long enough to get any kind of attack sequence going.

With the option to escape to either side, the hip escape can be a huge roadblock in your efforts to stay in the mount. A strong bridge, if you’re not ready for it, can also be a killer. Learning the common reactions of the bottom player when you’re in a mounted setting is paramount to your ability to stick around and enjoy some success in the position.

The mount can be devastating, if you’ve ever spent time underneath a proficient mount player it can be quite frustrating. I remember being mounted by an upper rank for the first time, who was also much bigger than me. It was an interesting experience to say the least, I felt completely helpless and became even more interested in this art I was learning.

Regardless of your size, you can recruit the mount as one of your best positions with some study, focus, and good knowledge of proper control. Bernardo Faria is more than qualified to offer guidance on control, as he possesses some of the best BJJ control in the game. In this video Faria gives us some great ideas on the subject and offers some of his best advice on staying in the mount.

Faria has a devastating mount and he’s demonstrated this at the highest levels over and over again. I’ve actually had the pleasure of feeling Faria’s mount pressure in a live training session. It felt as if I’d just laid down and asked someone to pour wet concrete over my body. It was just simply a different level of pressure. Faria’s new release, Mount Attack Encyclopedia Is now available! In this series, you’ll learn to acquire, maintain, and finish from the mount in a systemized process. Faria is clear concise and simple in his teaching and this quick video will most definitely help you to understand mount maintenance a bit better. Take a look!

This particular video deals with maintenance, specifically dealing with the hip escape. The hip escape is probably the escape we will encounter the most often when trying to control the mount position. If its strong, it can be a real problem and an instant killer of your efforts to finish from the mount.

A good knee elbow escape will always require that the bottom player get to their side to begin getting o work. Knowing this, it would serve us well to keep our partner flat. This will lead to more opportunities to attack. As his partner begins to shift on to his side, Faria answers by reaching deep under the head and placing his thumb in the collar. Here, he also shifts his weight a bit to become heavier on the side where his hand has entered the collat. This makes sense as he is giving up his base on the opposite side. This small shift will help keep him balanced and squash the threat of the upa escape.

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With the thumb in the collar, Faria then opens his knee and stretches his forearm to cause his partner to look int eh opposite direction of the escape. As his partner meets this roadblock its likely hell now begin trying to escape to the opposite side, where the same actions can be performed by Faria. This technique can be drilled back and forth in a cooperative setting to help us understand the theme a bit better. This r3direction of the head will definitely throw the bottom player off course. This deep cross face and the straightening of the arm will completely take the bottom player out of alignment and disrupt the escape path.

The second variation certainly doesn’t seem any more comfortable than the first. Here, Faria reaches under the head again, this time using his bicep, almost punching in to the space. He then looks for control underneath the opposite shoulder blade and begins to put what appears to be a generous portion of pressure down on to his partner’s face. As he transitions to this position, he also slides his knee down and out of his own way, again, this will help him with his base and stabilization as he continues through the motions.

Its easy to tell how much pressure is being applied here by just observing the bottom mans face. With the positioning of his body and the control and pressure from his arm, Faria is creating a very difficult scenario to respond to.

With some closing thoughts on the position, Faria reminds us that if we can stop the elbow escape and the bridge, we’ll have shut down a good portion of options from the mount. Being the most common ways of escape, the knee elbow escape and the upa need to be kept at bay if you hope to be successful here.

We all love to attack. We want that submission. But the tap doesn’t come easy when you’re training at a gig level. Knowledge of good maintenance and control is absolutely essential if you hope to stay long enough on top of a savvy opponent to get that submission. These details are simple and effective and sure to help you add value to your mount game. Good Luck!

The Mount Attack Encyclopedia by Bernardo Faria

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