Grappling Moves For The Street: Escaping The Mount!
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Picture this…
You’re on your back on the asphalt of a parking lot. Something sharp and unpleasant is digging into your back. You don’t notice that, however, and you don’t try to get up.
Why? Because you can’t!
There’s a very large man straddling your body, punching you in the face again and again as he uses his weight to keep you pinned down.
Congratulations…you’ve just discovered the horror that is losing position to a ground fighter or mixed martial arts student out on the street. He’s used his grappling moves to get you into what is called the “mount”, and now you’ve got to try to escape it. If you don’t, it’s all over for you.
While you can’t play the other guy’s game, and you almost never want to deal with a self-defense situation on the other guy’s terms, the only way to get out of the losing end of a grappling situation is to…
Use “Dirty” Grappling Moves Of Your Own
To Defeat A Ground Fighter!
You’re not really accepting the mixed martial arts philosophy, here, so much as you are acknowledging that grappling got you into a bad position. Your only choice is to counter-grapple or “anti-grapple” your way back out of that so you can use your combative skills to teach your assailant the error of his ways.
Unfortunately, once you’re caught in the mount, you don’t have many resources. You can try to cover from the blows, but that’s just stalling. Sooner or later, he’s going to overwhelm you. If he’s on top of you just pounding away, whittling down your defenses, you won’t last long and he’s going to break through and bust you up eventually. Time is not on your side.
You do, though, still have your hands free so…
Here’s A Grappling Move That Will Come In Handy…
Use one hand and arm to protect your head while he rains his punches down on you.
With the other, form a “tiger claw”, reaching out with your fingers spread to claw into the side of his body. That roll of skin and muscle, or maybe that big roll of flab, that you’ve just caught in your fingers is yours to take home with you. Twist it with all your might.
When you do that, even a tough, determined attacker is going to flinch. Weaker men will howl in pain. It hurts…bad! Even in the adrenaline rush of a real street fight, it’s a force to be reckoned with.
When he’s distracted, if even for just a second, grab the side of his head with your free hand. Twist and roll, rolling your own body with his so you end up on top and between his legs. You’re not, technically, in the mount on him, but you’re close; you’re in a superior position, poised for bringing a knee straight up into the family jewels for a knee groin strike or to start striking him with hammer fists.
You’ve turned the tables, and now your grappling moves have him on the losing end of the fight!
I remember as a kid what was called a ‘horse bite.’ It involved almost making a fist, then catching flesh between the first knuckles [almost in your hand] and the palm – and tighten. Excruciating pain ensued – and it doesn’t take much skin to bring that pain. The ‘horse bite’ takes less effort and less skin. You’d think you were bitten by a horse. Truly.
Brilliant stuff, (as usual)
also i have to admit that grip of the flesh hurts qiute a bit. but also that type of tiger paw fist is a really good stiking tool . if your able to grab your attacker and pull them closer. then that half inch space on your middle knuckle becomes a focused weapon. hit them in the throat quick a couple of times then the eye or vise a verser that will disable their sight and breathing. giving you time to roll with him . you see by limiting their range of motion their punchs will lose their power giving you time to strike their eyes or throat and bringing their body closer so rolling them over with yourself is a little easier plus the hands should be covering their injuries
and not striking you anymore.
Sounds like a good idea but will it work on someone who does not have much body fat?
I have employed that technique and it is effective. It buys you that split second and physical reaction to turn the tables around. In one instance I was overwhelmingly surprised on a training partners reaction to this maneuver he practically flew off of me when he felt the pain making my repositioning and transitioning to follow up almost effortless. I use to wonder why nobody used it in MMA. Because it’s illegal in sport. Great Stuff.
Great blog, and I enjoyed the “Real Fights, Real Defenses” DVDs too.
I have a little different take on this particular situation. Escaping the mount is not your first priority, getting safe is your first priority. That doesn’t mean covering up, it means altering the position so it is not so devastatingly one-sided. Being mounted is a serious situation worth training for, I wouldn’t rely solely on last resort pain distraction tactics like this. THe problem is that anything you can reach up and do to them, they can reach down and more effectively do back to you, with better leverage and body weight, so you rely entirely on being the first one to deliver a lot of pain and hope they can’t counter with the same to you. If you had that kind of speed and aggression advantage, how did you end up on the ground with a guy on top of you?
From my experience, more robust, learn how to unbalance them when they strike down on you. A combination of bridging and using your knee in their back will cause them to fall forward for a moment. When that happens, you can tie up one arm and protect yourself. Now you are in a better position to use your dirty tactics, or any grappling skills you have to reverse the position. They can’t rain down on you, they have lost the range advantage, and they can’t shift position nearly as much anymore to counter what you are trying to do to escape.
The principle here more generally is to train to neutralize the worst aspect of the attack first before trying to reverse the situation. In general, trying a desperation move while you are in a bad position and don’t have the initiative will backfire, because they can shift and evade and fire back too easily.
My experience is that the initial move in a physical assault should usually be to neutralize the most dangerous threat so you can find a way to fight back. Trying to fight back before you are fully aware of what is happening and from a bad position tends to play right into whatever they had planned for you, especially if your attacker premeditated the attack.
There are exceptions, of course, where nothing but instant retaliation will help, but from my experience those are less common and more risky to try to train for. Just my $.02 for what it’s worth.
I totally agree with you and the tiger claw, I have also found that if you are in the under position and you allow your body to go limp, it will shift your attackers weight off his power allowing you more leverage after inflicting the grip.
I would like to add that, once you get the grip, don’t just twist back and forth; twist toward you and pull downward. If he doesn’t have much body fat, grab a handful of meat around the nipple and do the above action; usually you can get a good hold on the pectoral muscles.
Once you get his head down, don’t just grab the side of it; grab his ear, if possible, and jerk forward and down while moving him to the side. If you’ve got a good grip, he’ll either come down quickly or else he’ll lose most of the ear. Since you can’t get your thumb around his ear too, see if you can stick it in his eye during the process; since it’s close anyway and hanging around, you might as well give it something to do.
Just like using a bite in that area to get out of a headlock
This move is just what I was looking for. I watched a gang fight from my window one night about 2:30am. I heard screams came to the window and there were 2 groups of older teenage girls squaring off. In the middle two combatants facing to face cursing and flinging their arms threatening at each other. They charged and collided the larger one knocked the skinny one down straddled grabbed the hair of the one lying down and started smashing her head against the asphalt road. Thanks Jeff. Now I know what to apply if I should find myself in that situation!
Love it, hope I never have to use it.
seriously? While you are laying on the ground trying to pinch the guy, he is knocking your teeth out and pounding your head against the pavement.
And lets face it, if you could just grab the guys head and roll out of the situation and into a superior position,you probably wouldnt be on your back in the first place.
Will this move work on your wife, girlfriend, or little brother, probably. Will it work on someone who was committed enough to take you down on a public street and is intent on really hurting you………you decide.
Chris makes a valid point, I think, although he goes a little farther with it than I would. I think the claw could be useful, I just wouldn’t rely on it. One of the things you learn in arts that specialize in groundfighting is that your first attempt to counter a really bad position usually fails (that’s why it’s considered a bad position). However, the guy’s reaction to that move often opens him up for something else. Typically, against a determined aggressor you have to go back and forth between different threats and options, getting them to react to you, until you create enough space or time to get in something effective.
I think people who do combatives sometimes ignore the need for this kind of training because they think it looks too much like grappling practice, and they don’t want to play into a better grappler’s strengths. But that’s not what you’re doing here, you’re using position where position makes sense and then using claws and other sneaky tactics when they can be more effective. You’re using what’s most effective at each point, while keeping it simple. The point is, you’re not making it so simple that you’re stuck when you’re first option fails in a bad position.
This was done in my hometown by a man in this position during a fight, and it worked. He grabbed his attacker’s punching hand and jerked it into his mouth, where he clamped his teeth on the thumb and refused to let go, jerking his head back and forth like a dog. He now had both hands free, while his opponent only had one, and was suddenly trying desperately to get away. The biter refused to let go, even when the police showed up, and finally one of the cops had to blackjack him in the head to make him turn loose (old school police work, but effective). He had bitten through the entire thumb, bone and all, and what was left was hanging by a thread of skin.
To Chris’s comments and Todd’s great follow up…
You’re right not to “rely” on this (or any) one maneuver to get out of an attack. Fights aren’t that formulated. But it’s a matter of understanding the tools you have available to you should you find yourself in any range of survival scenarios.
Just reaching up and grabbing the back of the head when pinned by a mounting ground fighter, as suggested, isn’t much of an option. The position of the guy on top and the raining of fists is practically guaranteed to put his head and neck out of reach.
Therefore, you need a gap-filler. This “claw” technique is one (just one) way to accomplish this because of the body’s reaction to the pain. He’ll either jump off of you or wince “into” it and get his fists away from your head while bringing his neck into grabbing range.
Another option (should be in upcoming video) is to “climb” up your attacker’s clothing to get to their head. This helps cover you up from his fists while getting you into position to turn the tables.
Neither of these strategies are “fight-enders”. But they’re all a means to get to the next step quickly and make sure you survive.
Thanks for all your comments guys! Great discussion and all your feedback is appreciated!
Jeff
i think it would be effective IF, like anything else, it is done with the UTMOST intent. my personal feeling is, gripping any fleshy part, anywhere on the body, would be quite effective especially if tearing into your opponent is the objective. just a tip on biting: do not bite with the incisors (your front teeth) cause when they pull away, you could lose a couple of teeth. rather, bite with the side teeth (like when you bite those tasty, but tough ribs). you are less likely to lose any of those. like what i’m reading so far…
I think a punch in the rib will have a bigger effect than the “horse bite” ??
Jeff, do you have a counter-strategy for a similar predicament, except where the attacker on top has your shoulders/arms pinned under his knees and he’s pounding away at your head with his fists?I was in that situation once, and it took a very good friend of mine to pull my assailant off me.What would one do in this scenario, if there was no outside help forthcoming? Beg for one’s life, get beaten to death and die,pray to God?
Norm, I’m not Jeff, but I’ll tell you what I was taught. I’ve tried it many times in the dojo, as well as having my students attempt it, and if done right, it will work even if the attacker is literally twice your size. It takes a long time to describe, but only about a second to execute, which is a good thing, considering he’s pounding your face. Get a partner and try it.
1) The attacker is sitting on your chest/shoulders, pinning your arms. Rock forward fast and hard, as if trying to do a sit up. You won’t get far, but this breaks his balance slightly, rocking him back. He will instantly and instinctively try to rock forward to stop it. Don’t wait for it, just go ahead, and you’ll catch him in the process.
2) Cup your hands under his butt as you slide both thighs up as tightly as possible against his back. Don’t try to slam you knees into him, just bend your knees and bring your feet as close to you as possible, ending with them both flat on the ground as if you intended to do a bent-legged sit-up. The pressure of your thighs will continue his forward motion, adding momentum to it.
3) Immediately and explosively bridge up on the soles of your feet and your shoulders, bringing your pelvis as high as possible while jerking the arms up as if doing a combination biceps curl and front raise; only the back of your neck and the tops of the shoulders should be touching the ground at the apex of the movement. This bucking motion, accompanied by the lifting of the arms, throws him forward and slightly upward, and he will land on all fours (hands and knees). Depending on your strength and his weight, he may be thrown a few feet past your head, or he may end up straddling your face instead, when both your hands are fee and ready to drive a fist into his groin. At any rate, he will almost certainly be off you. The arms are important, but the bulk of the power of this technique comes from the bridging effect that involves the entire body, so it works for women too. Just be ready to insure he doesn’t get up anytime soon.
Like I said, this is hard to describe but remarkably easy for anyone in decent shape to do. Try it slowly until you figure out what you’re doing, and then practice with partners of different sizes. You’ll be surprised how simple and effective this really is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoJzRM0DgW8
this vid pretty much shows what Jeff is talking about,plus goes a little more in depth into escaping the mount.
I’m good at avoidance now (mainly ’cause I don’t go to bars anymore), but there was a time I got in many, many fights. I’m a thin wiry guy (150#) and for whatever reason, people wanted to “get” me. Anyway, as my attackers were generally much larger than me and attacked w/ little warning I found myself on my back often. I found that grabbing at the bicep and shoulder area slowed the punches coming down (making them all but ineffective), frustrated the person, and often winded them. Meanwhile, when their arms were raised (as they struggled to bring them down) I was able to eye gouge and lip-rip here and there, until they wanted (badly) to get off of me and there the fight generally ended. Thus, even though I appeared to be getting my butt kicked, I had only some bumps, minor bruising, and possibly a split lip while my attacker went away with blood dripping from their eye balls and mouth and terrible bicep bruising (sp?). It was difficult to convince police that I was merely the ‘defender’ in this situation. Not the greatest technique, but consistently worked. Of course, I’d have preferred not to be mounted, but you gotta do what ya gotta do.
Hi Mike, thanks for adding your experience here. Your basic strategy reminds me of the one used in the Gracie system, as far as stopping punches at the biceps. Except that against a ground grappling trained opponent this works more reliably when you also have them trapped between your own legs. Then you can add your knees into the mix as well to help tie them up. This is a “guard” situation rather than “mount.” Holding their arms with both your arms and knees really helps give you some temporary safety while you prepare to get up and out or reverse things.
If an even minimally _trained_ person is mounted on you and you reach up to grab their arms, they can slide up and trap one of your arms with their knee, then you’re really in trouble. Hopefully you never run into someone with that kind of training! That’s the sort of problem that led them to emphasize the importance of the “guard” in that system, so that the smaller person who usually ends up on their back anyway has better options for protecting themself and countering, whether they are looking for grappling counters or rips and gouges.
A little positioning savvy makes a big difference on the ground in any system I think. Realizing that the potential for protecting yourself is so different in different positions, it leads to putting more work in training into maintaining good position until you can get up and out. Not criticizing your successful strategy at all, just adding some thoughts. I suspect that these days it is becoming more likely that you might run into someone with just a little ground training.
Ross, thanks for posting the video link, that was a big help in understanding the posts!
I think the fundamentals here seem very good for quickly getting out from under, especially if your attacker is trying to rain down blows right away rather than stabilize his position. Cover, bridge to shoulder, turn. If you train at this I bet you could get out of most real mount situations. If you add a little shrimping escape in case they somehow block the bridging and stabilize rather than trying to hit you, you’d probably get close to 100% and surprise even most people with some grappling skills.
One small but important point (for me) that he doesn’t emphasize in the video, he shows a variation grabbing the hips, with or without a pinch or squeeze. I think that’s very effective, but in all cases, you have to be careful when and how you extend your arms form the bottom. There’s a big difference that people don’t realize at first between reaching down for the hips (which is usually ok if he is not hitting down at the time) and reaching up for the arms or chest. That’s the more common thing for people to try to do. You have to be sure in training that you break the habit of reaching for his arms or trying to push his chest to roll him off. Those things are very instinctive under pressure but they get you in worse trouble in the mount. They may work on some people if you’re strong, but with only a tiny bit of skill, they can exploit it and hurt you.
Second, be careful to bridge first as in the video, before you try to turn, so he has to stop attacking and post to protect himself. That little shift from offense to defense on the attacker’s part is a big component of what lets you get out relatively safely. For example, be careful not to just try to log-roll him off by grabbing the hips and turning. That feels strong for a moment but it creates a very dangerous gap where he can attack you while you’re turning because he doesn’t feel destabilized like he does from a good bridge. Just my experience, for what it’s worth. Thanks again, I think this is a very helpful blog post and exchange of ideas.
These move should be used in combination with Jiu jitsu technique.
If youre opponent has both youre wrists now youre getting head buts. then what
You also forgot trapping one side of the body (arm and foot) and the upward hip movement.
I have also used bites to the neck when controlling the head killing my opponent this way .Eating him. It saved my life. but there is no substitute for exstensive training. especially for those on active duty.