Most of the FemmeBots have been training long enough that they are now able to get to side control and mount, but they are facing a very common problem: What do you DO from side control or mount? Submission? Advance to another position?
When I first started training, I hardly ever got side control, let alone mount. Once I started progressing (actually, once some newer white belts started training who knew less than I did), I would get to side control or mount, and instantly get dumped back to the bottom. When I say instantly, I mean within one or two seconds. I don't think I held mount for longer than 3 seconds until I'd been training almost two years. In my newbie brain, it was because I didn't know any submissions from mount or side control.
Nope. I got dumped off of mount and swept while trying to hold side control because I did not know enough about the basic principles of mount and side control in order to secure it and hold it properly.
Coach Tim and I came up with 5 pointers for side control and mount:
(1) More Cross-Face: Always more cross-face. There is no such thing as too much cross-face. Your cross-face should be so solid that your opponent is seriously considering tapping from the pressure and can think of nothing other than getting that pressure to stop. As a person with small arms and larger opponents to deal with, I learned that securing my cross-face with the gable grip under the shoulder improves the chances that I can hold it. Once I have the cross-face secured with the assistance of the gable-grip, I can hold it there with one arm and use the other to attack.
From a mechanical standpoint, Coach Tim says to remember that the power of the cross-face comes from creating a spinal fault - that is, twisting the cervical spine (upper spine) against the direction your opponent is trying to move. With that in mind, it should become clear that moving your WHOLE body over your opponent to cross-face them is a common mistake and often results in what is discussed below in No. 4 (don't sweep yourself). Instead, pull your opponent as close to you as you can AND THEN cross-face them. It will only take a slight rotation from your shoulder to apply pressure and by keeping the rest of your weight back you will prevent yourself from getting rolled over by your opponent.
(2) Toes on the Mat: No matter where you are on the mat, your toes should be on the ground, flexed, and helping you drive in or push or make some sort of movement more solid or powerful. In side control, no matter what position your legs are in (both knees to the armpit or one knee in the hip and the other sprawled out), your toes should be on the mat driving you into your opponent. In mount, unless you are grape-vining your opponent's legs, your toes should be on the mat, flexed, and pushing you up toward your opponent. In the last few months, Coach Tim and I have worked on adding this detail to my game, and everything has changed for the better.
If you are a student at Robot, you are in luck -- Coach Tim will always point out when it is beneficial to keep your feet flattened on the mat. Coach Tim recommends a mental check that your toes are on the mat when you are on top. Mechanically, keeping your toes on the mat allows your to have be simultaneously mobile and heavy, mobile because you can pivot and change direction as the situation dictates and heavy, because the driving force from your legs transfers into your upper body and then to your fixed point (for example, your shoulder is your fixed point when creating a cross-face) and delivering pressure where you want it to go.
(3) Base Out: When in mount, base is everything. The moment you get to mount, your knees should be working toward your opponent's armpits, your arms should be wide and flat, and your chest should be pushing their face to the side. My FemmeBots lovingly call my based out hold in mount the "boob-face" because of the position. But it works! I stopped getting reversed from mount when I was able to hold that base, and let go of whatever submission I was trying (usually an armbar) and go back to the base.
Coach Tim says that a common pitfall for a beginner is falling when they didn't have to. As simple as it sounds, when you are on top, one of your #1 priorities is to not fall over! If you feel yourself falling, try to use your arm/leg/head to catch yourself. The first few times, your opponent will probably still escape from your position because often the way we have to base invariably gives our opponent other chances to escape/get ahead. However, you will learn to prevent these follow-ups and also learn whether or not to base with your arm/leg/head depending on the circumstances. On top of all of this, keeping yourself from falling will allow you to stay further ahead when your opponent is moving correctly.
For example, when you have the mount, your opponent will be using a combination of a bridge escape and a hip-escape (also called the elbow-knee escape). If your opponent successfully bridges you over, you are on the bottom and have to work quite hard to get back on top. However, if your opponent bridges, you base on your hand, and your opponent recovers guard with the hip-escape, then you are much closer to achieving the mount again than in our first scenario. Although yes, your opponent did recover guard, they are now in the same predicament you would have been in, had they successfully bridged you over!
(4) Don't Sweep Yourself: Learning how to use your weight and pressure effectively is one of the most difficult things to learn, and one of the most important. When holding side control, if your weight is too far across your opponent's center line (their sternum), they can easily lock around your chest, bridge, and sweep you. From mount, if your weight is too high (hips up in the air) and you are not sufficiently based out, a simple bridge by your opponent will turn mount into closed guard. Keep your hips down, toes on the mat, and secure the cross-face to reduce the likelihood that your weight can be used against you by your opponent.
When students are rolled over from the mount / side control position, often times it is because they are trying to hold their opponent in place. While it is definitely possible to hold someone and immobilize them, keep in mind that your opponent can feel which direction your weight is going and will often try and move all of your weight in that current direction. For example, from side control, refrain from placing your weight towards the FAR side of your opponent's spine. Treat their spine as a line that divides their body into two halves - you are on one half and you don't want to put your weight too far towards the other half or you risk being rolled right over.
The Take Away:
When I first started training, I hardly ever got side control, let alone mount. Once I started progressing (actually, once some newer white belts started training who knew less than I did), I would get to side control or mount, and instantly get dumped back to the bottom. When I say instantly, I mean within one or two seconds. I don't think I held mount for longer than 3 seconds until I'd been training almost two years. In my newbie brain, it was because I didn't know any submissions from mount or side control.
Nope. I got dumped off of mount and swept while trying to hold side control because I did not know enough about the basic principles of mount and side control in order to secure it and hold it properly.
Coach Tim and I came up with 5 pointers for side control and mount:
(1) More Cross-Face: Always more cross-face. There is no such thing as too much cross-face. Your cross-face should be so solid that your opponent is seriously considering tapping from the pressure and can think of nothing other than getting that pressure to stop. As a person with small arms and larger opponents to deal with, I learned that securing my cross-face with the gable grip under the shoulder improves the chances that I can hold it. Once I have the cross-face secured with the assistance of the gable-grip, I can hold it there with one arm and use the other to attack.
From a mechanical standpoint, Coach Tim says to remember that the power of the cross-face comes from creating a spinal fault - that is, twisting the cervical spine (upper spine) against the direction your opponent is trying to move. With that in mind, it should become clear that moving your WHOLE body over your opponent to cross-face them is a common mistake and often results in what is discussed below in No. 4 (don't sweep yourself). Instead, pull your opponent as close to you as you can AND THEN cross-face them. It will only take a slight rotation from your shoulder to apply pressure and by keeping the rest of your weight back you will prevent yourself from getting rolled over by your opponent.
(2) Toes on the Mat: No matter where you are on the mat, your toes should be on the ground, flexed, and helping you drive in or push or make some sort of movement more solid or powerful. In side control, no matter what position your legs are in (both knees to the armpit or one knee in the hip and the other sprawled out), your toes should be on the mat driving you into your opponent. In mount, unless you are grape-vining your opponent's legs, your toes should be on the mat, flexed, and pushing you up toward your opponent. In the last few months, Coach Tim and I have worked on adding this detail to my game, and everything has changed for the better.
If you are a student at Robot, you are in luck -- Coach Tim will always point out when it is beneficial to keep your feet flattened on the mat. Coach Tim recommends a mental check that your toes are on the mat when you are on top. Mechanically, keeping your toes on the mat allows your to have be simultaneously mobile and heavy, mobile because you can pivot and change direction as the situation dictates and heavy, because the driving force from your legs transfers into your upper body and then to your fixed point (for example, your shoulder is your fixed point when creating a cross-face) and delivering pressure where you want it to go.
(3) Base Out: When in mount, base is everything. The moment you get to mount, your knees should be working toward your opponent's armpits, your arms should be wide and flat, and your chest should be pushing their face to the side. My FemmeBots lovingly call my based out hold in mount the "boob-face" because of the position. But it works! I stopped getting reversed from mount when I was able to hold that base, and let go of whatever submission I was trying (usually an armbar) and go back to the base.
Coach Tim says that a common pitfall for a beginner is falling when they didn't have to. As simple as it sounds, when you are on top, one of your #1 priorities is to not fall over! If you feel yourself falling, try to use your arm/leg/head to catch yourself. The first few times, your opponent will probably still escape from your position because often the way we have to base invariably gives our opponent other chances to escape/get ahead. However, you will learn to prevent these follow-ups and also learn whether or not to base with your arm/leg/head depending on the circumstances. On top of all of this, keeping yourself from falling will allow you to stay further ahead when your opponent is moving correctly.
For example, when you have the mount, your opponent will be using a combination of a bridge escape and a hip-escape (also called the elbow-knee escape). If your opponent successfully bridges you over, you are on the bottom and have to work quite hard to get back on top. However, if your opponent bridges, you base on your hand, and your opponent recovers guard with the hip-escape, then you are much closer to achieving the mount again than in our first scenario. Although yes, your opponent did recover guard, they are now in the same predicament you would have been in, had they successfully bridged you over!
(4) Don't Sweep Yourself: Learning how to use your weight and pressure effectively is one of the most difficult things to learn, and one of the most important. When holding side control, if your weight is too far across your opponent's center line (their sternum), they can easily lock around your chest, bridge, and sweep you. From mount, if your weight is too high (hips up in the air) and you are not sufficiently based out, a simple bridge by your opponent will turn mount into closed guard. Keep your hips down, toes on the mat, and secure the cross-face to reduce the likelihood that your weight can be used against you by your opponent.
When students are rolled over from the mount / side control position, often times it is because they are trying to hold their opponent in place. While it is definitely possible to hold someone and immobilize them, keep in mind that your opponent can feel which direction your weight is going and will often try and move all of your weight in that current direction. For example, from side control, refrain from placing your weight towards the FAR side of your opponent's spine. Treat their spine as a line that divides their body into two halves - you are on one half and you don't want to put your weight too far towards the other half or you risk being rolled right over.
The Take Away:
5) Position before submission - We hear this often enough and it is a useful saying for a number of reasons. One of the important take-aways from "position before submission" is to remember that if you can maintain side control/mount/back control indefinitely, then you will ALWAYS get a submission. On a long enough timeline, your opponent will either expose themselves to a submission or submit from exhaustion. NEVER rush to get a submission (until you have the skill to know when this is appropriate), instead, spend your time adjusting your current position and making it as uncomfortable as possible. The resulting pressure you create is what will force your opponent to react in a sub-optimal way, opening the door for the inevitable submission.
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