If you’re caught in mount the first thing you want to try are the conventional bridging and shrimping movements to escape.

These are two of the gold standard escapes for a good reason; they work all the time.

But as the old saying goes, man makes plans and God laughs.  Even the best techniques are going to fail against some opponents and in certain situations so it’s always good to have some additional aces up your sleeve.

One of those mount escape aces is the bridge and double stiffarm escape which leads you right into an ankle lock, heel hook, and/or single leg X guard position.  It works in BJJ with the gi, in no gi submission grappling, and even in MMA ( so long as you do it quickly and with commitment).

Here’s a video on this escape.  Or if you prefer you can scroll down and see the steps broken down with pictures too…

Mount Escape to Ankle Lock Part 1: Bridge and Double Stiffarm

One of the first ‘rules’ you learn in BJJ is not to push someone with a straight arm when you are on the bottom. And when it comes to attempting to benchpress your opponent’s chest to find a way out of mount that is certainly a good rule. 

But rules are also meant to be broken, and a strong bridge followed by a double stiff arm push to the hips is a great way to create space and start escaping from them out.  

If you push on the hips, rather than on the chest, it’s incredibly difficult for your opponent to armbar you.

It’s important to note that this move does NOT rely on the power of your arms, and you DON’T need to be a fantastic bench presser to pull this off.

Here’s how it works…

1. Get your hands onto his hips, fingers pointing to the outside
2. Bridge UP as high as you can with your legs
3. Once he’s lifted up lock your arms out  and hold his weight using your straight arms
4. Shove him to the side while moving your hips out the other way.

At this point you’ve got a couple of different options which we’ll explore below…

Mount Escape to Ankle Lock Part 2: Move to the Ankle Lock Position

Once you’ve dumped your opponent beside you it’s relatively easy to get to an Ankle Lock, Single Leg X Guard, or Ashi Garami position.

You’ve now got a lot of space between your bodies, so all you need to do is bring one leg up between his legs and bring the other foot over onto the hip.

From here you can try for a quick Ankle Lock or Heel Hook submission…

Or control him in Ashi Garami and work your way up the leglock positional hierarchy before you submit him…

Or sweep him using the Single Leg X Guard.

So many powerful options!

Mount Escape Alternate Ending: Escape to Your Knees

One other option you should incorporate is to use the distance and movement you’ve created to get out from underneath your opponent.

Just as before, let’s assume that you’re stiff-arming his hips and that he’s off to the side of your body.

Maintain the separation with your top arm still pushing him in the hip, but bring your bottom arm underneath you and continue to escape your legs and hips backwards.

The way this usually ends up is with both people facing each other on their knees at which point one person usually pulls guard or both people get back to their feet.

Ultimately it doesn’t matter whether you end up finishing the ankle lock, using the Single Leg X Guard to sweep your opponent, or end up on your feet… you’ve escaped from the bottom of mount which is one of the most dangerous positions on the ground, so any of these endings represent a huge improvement in your situation!

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