The Mount in Jiu Jitsu: How to Get There, How to Keep It, and How to Escape It

By: Professor Itay Leibovich | 3rd-degree black belt, Gracie Jiu Jitsu | September 2026 | ~12 min read

Two seconds.

That's roughly how long a new student holds the mount the first time he gets there. He passed the legs, climbed up, sat on his partner's stomach, and for one second you can see it on his face: he's won. He's on top. He's in the position everyone talks about. Then his partner lifts his hips, rolls him to the side, and the new student finds himself on his back staring at the ceiling, with the look of someone who isn't quite sure what just happened.

I see this scene almost every week at our academy in Tel Aviv. (A composite situation for illustration, but if you've trained with us for even a month, there's a good chance it was you.) And it teaches the most important lesson about the mount in jiu jitsu: getting there is half the job. The other half, the half that separates a beginner from a seasoned student, is staying there. Even I, back in 2003, in the first grappling fight I ever took part in, in London, got thrown off the mount after spending 2.4565 seconds there. Those were the days...

And there's one more side to it, one that beginners tend to skip. With us, you learn to escape the mount before you learn to get there. You'll see why in a minute.

What Is the Mount in BJJ

The mount (montada in Portuguese, and either way it's the same position in every BJJ academy) is a position where you sit on your opponent's body, face to face, while he lies on his back and your knees are on the mat on both sides of his torso. That's it. If you've ever seen kids scuffling in a schoolyard, you've seen a mount. A bad one, with no base, but a mount.

On the positional ladder of jiu jitsu, the mount sits almost at the top. Only back control is above it. I wrote about that ladder at length in my post on Position Before Submission, but the short version is simple: whoever is on top in the mount controls, and whoever is underneath survives. In the previous post in this series, What Is the Guard in BJJ, I explained why you can be dangerous even on your back. Here the story flips. In the mount, the bottom person's legs are no longer between you. They're behind you, and they can't block you or push you away.

Why is it so strong?

• Gravity works for you. All your weight rests on him, and he has to lift it just to breathe comfortably.

• Your hands are free and his are busy. You can attack. He has to defend.

• He can't hit you hard. A punch from the bottom, with your back flat on the mat and no way to turn your hips, is a punch without an engine. A punch from the top lands with your full body weight.

That's why, in BJJ competition under IBJJF rules, a mount held for three seconds is worth 4 points. That's the highest score a position can get, tied with the back. And outside competition? There, nobody cares about that number. What matters is who's sitting on whom.

The Night a Boxer Tapped Without Taking a Punch

November 12, 1993, Denver, Colorado. The first UFC tournament. In the quarterfinal, Art Jimmerson, a professional boxer, steps in against Royce Gracie, Helio's son. Jimmerson walks into the cage with a boxing glove on one hand only. According to Campbell McLaren, the producer of that first event, he wanted to make sure people could see him tap (a light slap on the opponent or the mat, the signal for giving up) if he had to.

He was right about that.

Royce throws a few front kicks, shoots a double-leg takedown, and both are on the ground. Within seconds Royce climbs up and settles into the mount. Then something happens that you almost never see in a fight: Jimmerson gives up. No locked choke, no armlock, and Royce didn't land a single punch from the mount. 2:18 into the fight.

I already mentioned this fight briefly in my post Boxing or Jiu Jitsu for Self-Defense, but it's worth slowing down here, because it shows something anyone who has ever been under the mount understands immediately. Jimmerson didn't submit to a technique. He submitted to a position. He was an excellent boxer, with punches that had dropped people, and suddenly he's lying on his back, someone is sitting on him, and his punches don't reach anything. He figured out on his own, in seconds, what takes new students hours to understand: from there, he has nothing to do.

That's the power of the mount. It doesn't always finish the fight, but it almost always predicts the finish.

How to Get to the Mount

There are lots of ways to get there, and you could write a separate post on each one. (Don't worry, I won't do that to you.) In your first months of Brazilian jiu jitsu, three are worth knowing.

From Side Control

This is the classic route. You've passed your opponent's legs, you're pinning him from the side (side control), and now you want to go up a floor. You slide one knee across his stomach, bring it to the other side, and sit up. Sounds simple. In practice, this is exactly the moment a good opponent is waiting for: he knows that the second your knee crosses, a small window opens, and through it he can slip in a knee of his own, block, and put you back in his guard. So don't rush. First control the side position, neutralise his arms and knees, and only then move.

From a Sweep Out of the Guard

This might be the most satisfying way to reach the mount: you start on your back, in guard, and in one motion you end up on top. Some of the basic sweeps (a sweep is reversing your opponent from the bottom), like the Scissor Sweep or the Hip Bump Sweep, finish in the mount. Your opponent was on top, and now he's on his back with you sitting on him. If one move sums up everything I wrote in the guard post, this is it.

From Knee on Belly

Knee on Belly is a position where your knee rests on your opponent's stomach or chest and your other leg is out, balanced. It's not exactly comfortable for the person underneath (that's an understatement). When he pushes your knee to breathe, he opens the road for you: you slide your knee to the other side and sit down. He asked for space, he got the mount.

So what do the three routes have in common? None of them starts with a jump. They all start with control. That's what separates good jiu jitsu from athletic jiu jitsu: you don't skip rungs on the ladder.

How to Keep the Mount (the Part Everyone Misses)

Back to the two seconds from the opening. Why did the new student lose the mount so fast?

Because he tried to hold it with strength. He sat too low, with his knees tight, his hands pressing on his partner's chest, and his weight locked in one spot. When his partner lifted his hips, he had nothing to lean on. He went down like a chair with one leg kicked out.

You don't hold the mount with strength. You hold it with balance. In 16 years of teaching, it's one of the things that surprises strong newcomers most: the strongest guy on the mat isn't always the hardest one to shake off. Sometimes it's the light woman who knows where to put her knees.

Here are five principles I repeat over and over and over in every mount class:

• Wide base: knees open, not tight against his body. The wider your base, the harder it is to roll you to either side. On the other hand, don't open your base too wide. Your groin should stay off him, not in full contact with your partner's hips; that contact makes it easier for him to buck you off.

• Weight in the hips, not the hands: your hands aren't pillars. If they lean on his chest, he'll pull one of them and roll you to that side. The hands work, the weight sits in your hips.

• Ride, don't fight: when he pushes, bridges or turns, you don't wrestle the movement. You move with it, adjust your weight, and stay on top. (Like riding a bike downhill, not like stopping a truck with your hands.)

• Go low when you need to: when he thrashes, drop your centre of gravity toward him, sometimes until your head is next to his. It's much harder for him to roll you when you're glued to him.

• Don't rush the submission: the mount isn't a place to pass through quickly. It's a place to sit. The submission will come when he gets tired and opens up.

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Low Mount vs. High Mount

There are two main versions, and every student needs to know both.

In the low mount you sit low on your opponent's hips, sometimes with your legs hooked into his (the grapevine), and your weight tight against him. This is the most stable version, the one you use when he's thrashing. He can barely lift you, because he has no distance to work with.

In the high mount you climb up toward his chest, so his elbows can no longer come back and block your knees. This is the attacking version. From there the submissions are much closer, and so is the risk: climb too high too early, and he'll lift his hips and throw you over his head.

Our rule is simple: low when he's strong and you're defending, high when he's tired and you're attacking.

Making the Mount Unbearable

Carlson Gracie, Carlos's son and Helio's nephew, was one of the most influential coaches in the history of the sport. There's a line attributed to him that is almost a mount manual on its own:

"The best way to get a move to work is to make it so uncomfortable that the opponent gives it to you to stop the pain."

That's what a good mount does. You don't chase his arm. You sit on him so that every breath costs him effort, until he pushes you away with a straight arm just to get some air. And that straight arm? It's exactly what you were waiting for. He gave you the armlock to make the pressure stop.

What to Do from the Mount

Once the mount is stable, the submissions come. In the first months you learn three classics, and they're the foundation of most attacks from the mount, even in advanced Brazilian jiu jitsu:

• Armbar: he pushes you with a straight arm, you turn, swing a leg over his head, and drop back into the armlock. The submission most associated with the mount.

• Americana: a shoulder lock. His arm is on the mat, bent at a right angle, and you turn it like a key. It works even on people stronger than you.

• Cross Collar Choke: both hands deep in the collar of his Gi, and your wrists close like scissors on the sides of his neck. It doesn't take much strength, it takes the right grip.

And when he turns onto his stomach to escape? That's the moment to take his back, the only position above the mount on the ladder.

And in Gracie Jiu Jitsu there's one more job that sport BJJ barely talks about: controlling strikes. In a real confrontation, whoever is on top in the mount can strike, and whoever is underneath can mostly defend. We teach it from both directions. From the top, how to keep the position while the person underneath tries to block and grab. And from the bottom, how to survive, and above all how to get out.

The Mount on the Street: One of the Worst Places to Be

I'll be direct, because this matters: in a real confrontation, being under the mount is one of the most dangerous places you can be. A heavy person is sitting on you, his hands are free, and his punches land with his full body weight. You can't hit back effectively, you can't get up, and you can't get away. Exactly what Jimmerson understood in seconds.

That's exactly why, in many places around the world, from the Gracie Combatives program at Rener and Ryron's academy in Los Angeles to our own academy in Israel, the first lesson isn't a submission or a takedown. It's a mount escape. Before you're taught to win, you're taught not to lose in one of the most dangerous places there is. That's the logic Gracie Jiu Jitsu has always followed, and it's how we still work in Tel Aviv today. (I go deeper into it in my guide Why Jiu Jitsu Works for Self-Defense.)

One more thing, because it matters just as much: the mount controls one person. Against multiple attackers, or against a weapon, staying on the ground is a mistake. Even when you're on top. The goal there is to get up and get out of there.

How to Escape the Mount

The good news: despite everything I wrote above, you can escape the mount. Even under someone heavy. Even without strength. There are two basic escapes, and every student at our academy learns them in the first weeks.

Upa, or Trap and Roll

This is one of the first escapes taught at most jiu jitsu academies, and it's simple. You trap one of your opponent's arms (hold it tight to your body), trap his foot on the same side with your foot, then lift your hips sharply and roll toward the trapped side. He can't post a hand or a foot to stop the fall, so over he goes. In one moment he's on his back and you're inside his guard. From one of the worst places to a place you can work from.

Elbow Escape

When the upa doesn't work, for example when your opponent sits low and wide, there's a second escape. You turn onto your side, connect your elbow to your knee to block his knee, and move your hips out with a motion called the shrimp (or the hip escape, for the purists). That opens a gap through which you slide a knee, then a leg, and bring him into your guard. This escape is slower, takes patience, and teaches one of the most important lessons in Brazilian jiu jitsu: move under your opponent, don't push him.

There's a line attributed to Rickson Gracie, Helio's son and one of the family's great fighters, that is really a simple test:

"If you are not comfortable to deal with an opponent 50 pounds heavier than you, there is something wrong with your Jiu Jitsu."

Fifty pounds is about 23 kilos. And the place where a gap like that is felt most is under the mount. If you know how to get out from there, with someone bigger sitting on you, you have the foundation for everything else.

Common Mistakes, from Both Sides

Mount mistakes repeat with almost every new jiu jitsu student, so you can learn them in advance.

From the top:

• Climbing too high too early, and getting thrown over his head.

• Leaning on your hands, which he uses to roll you.

• Jumping on the first submission in sight, losing the position, and ending up inside his guard. That's exactly what the Position Before Submission principle is there to prevent.

From the bottom:

• Pushing with straight arms. It's instinct, and it hands the person on top an armbar as a gift. (I've seen it thousands of times. I still wince every time.)

• Turning onto your stomach to escape. It feels like escaping, but it gives up your back, the only position worse than the mount.

And there's one mistake that isn't a movement but the lack of one: waiting. Every second under the mount without a frame and without moving is a second in which the person on top settles in a little more.

Almost all of these mistakes come from the same place: the body wants to push, and jiu jitsu teaches it to move. That's a big part of why the gentle art is so hard for beginners.

Why the Mount Isn't Just for Big Guys

You might think that in jiu jitsu the mount belongs to the heavy guys. Whoever weighs more, presses more. That's only partly true.

Weight helps, of course. But a good mount is built on knee placement and the ability to move with your opponent. That's why a 55-kilo woman can hold mount on an 80-kilo man, and sometimes even finish from it. Not in every sparring round, and not against everyone, but often enough that it stops being a surprise. At our academy in Tel Aviv, the women's group is the largest in Israel, about thirty percent of our members, and one of the things new women love discovering is exactly this: that they can sit on someone bigger than them, and stay there. (I wrote about that side of the story in my guide Women's Self-Defense in Tel Aviv.)

And escaping the mount matters even more for smaller people, because that's the situation most likely to happen to you against someone bigger. That's the filter Helio Gracie left us, and it's the filter of every jiu jitsu class we teach: if a technique doesn't work for the smallest person on the mat against the biggest, it doesn't make it into the class.

How to Start Learning the Mount in Tel Aviv

There's no way to understand the mount just by reading. You have to feel someone underneath you trying to roll you, or feel someone on top of you and find, for the first time, the angle where he rolls.

In your first class with us, you'll very likely meet the upa. It works, it's simple, and it gives a new student the feeling that even from one of the worst places there's a way out. You'll drill in pairs, with a partner who knows you're new, without resistance at first. You don't need to arrive fit, and age isn't a barrier (I wrote about that in my guide Jiu Jitsu After 35). If you want to know what else is waiting for you, I wrote a full guide on what really happens in your first jiu jitsu class.

And if you're comparing jiu jitsu academies, there's one question worth asking: how do they teach the mount escape, and do they also teach it against strikes? With us or with someone else, it doesn't matter. The answer will tell you a lot about the place.

The Israeli Academy of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and MMA is at 29 Yitzhak Sadeh Street, Tel Aviv. All the details on classes and instructors are on the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Tel Aviv page. To book a trial class, send a WhatsApp message to 055-9212-431.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Mount

What is the mount in jiu jitsu?

The mount is a position where you sit on your opponent's body, face to face, while he's on his back and your knees are on the mat on both sides of him. It's one of the most dominant positions in Brazilian jiu jitsu: the person on top can attack, and the person underneath struggles to defend, escape or strike back.

How many points is the mount worth in competition?

Under IBJJF rules, the mount is worth 4 points, provided you hold it for three seconds. That's the highest score for a position, tied with back control. Someone who passes the guard and then goes to mount gets 3 points for the pass and 4 for the mount, with each position held for three seconds.

How do you keep the mount when your opponent is stronger?

You keep the mount with balance, not strength: a wide base with open knees, weight in your hips rather than your hands, and moving with your opponent instead of fighting him. When he thrashes, drop into a low, tight mount. When he tires, climb high and attack.

What is the difference between low mount and high mount?

In low mount you sit on your opponent's hips, tight against him, sometimes with your legs hooked into his. That's the stable version. In high mount you sit close to his chest, so his elbows can't block your knees. That's the attacking version, with more submissions and more risk of losing the position.

How do you escape the mount?

There are two basic escapes. In the upa (trap and roll) you trap your opponent's arm and leg on the same side, lift your hips and roll him over. In the elbow escape you turn onto your side, frame with your elbow and bring your legs back to guard. Both work against a heavier opponent.

Does the mount work for self-defense?

Yes, the mount is one of the most important positions in self-defense, from both directions. From the top, it lets you control one person while taking almost no hard strikes. From the bottom, it's one of the most dangerous situations in a fight, which is why in Gracie Jiu Jitsu you learn to escape it in your very first classes. Against multiple attackers or a weapon, the goal is to get up and get away.

Is the mount suitable for women and lighter students?

Yes, a good mount is built on balance and positioning, not just weight, so lighter women and men can hold it even on heavier opponents. Escaping the mount matters especially for them. At the Israeli Academy of Jiu Jitsu in Tel Aviv, students learn both sides from their first classes.

Bottom Line: Getting There Is Half the Job

Most of the world thinks the fight is over when someone sits on someone else. In jiu jitsu, that's just the moment the real questions begin. Do you know how to stay there? And when you're the one underneath, do you know how to get out?

So next time you reach the mount and feel the urge to celebrate, remember the two seconds. Don't celebrate. Settle in. Widen your base. And let him get tired first.

See you on the mat,

Professor Itay Leibovich

The Israeli Academy of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and MMA, 29 Yitzhak Sadeh Street, Tel Aviv