Step 1 The bridge or upa is one of the most basic but also one of the most effective mount escapes. Here Morné is mounted by his opponent. First thing is to keep your hands up so your elbows and forearms create a natural 'barrier' between you and your opponent to deal with the striking. You need to be aware of where your opponent is so he is not able to walk up onto your chest and get the high mounted position. You avoid this two basic ways, with the elbows and with your body movement. 1-The elbows can be placed in front of your opponents knee or inside of his thighs which will avoid him from walking up. 2- Combining shoulder walks and driving backwards off your feet will create that body movement where you are able to 'out walk' your opponent backwards so he is not able to obtain the high mount.
Step 2 Next you need to get close to your opponent by bringing him down towards you. Couple of ways you can do this: 1- Reach out grab his head and pull him down 2- Buck your hips up so he looses his balance forcing him to put his hands on the mat which brings him into grabbing distance 3- Vigorously moving around at the bottom which forces him again to loose balance and place hands on the mat (Check mount dynamics article - ride the bull) 4- Using your knee to drive your opponent forward towards you as illustrated in picture to left. You need to elevate your hips off the ground to obtain maximum leverage when using your knee to drive your opponent forward. Keep your hands up and your elbows in when doing this.
Step 3 Now you need to ensure you grab hold of your opponent and stay as close as you can. You need to ensure you grab high over the upper back. This way you will be able to put more weight on your opponent when he tries and regains his posture. If you grab over the lower back it is easy for your opponent just to sit straight back up again. You also need to ensure you tuck your face tight against your opponents chest area using your arms to 'hide' your face and protect your jaw line against strikes. I suggest you spend allot of time here as an isolated sparring drill where you start off in this position and let your partner try and regain his posture or push you down while striking at you. This will give you the confidence to deal with this position and improve your endurance in case you have to hang in there for a while....
Step 4 In step 4 your goal is to secure one side of his body trapping an arm and leg. You secure or trap a leg by using your foot to step over his foot/ankle/shin and pinching it in against your body. Important now is to trap the arm on the same side. Your timing is going to be important here. You can trap his arm while your opponent is trying to free it from your grab or while he is trying to strike at you. The most effective way of controlling his arm is by grabbing over the top and trapping it against your body. There is no specific sequence as to which you should secure first his arm or his leg. Usually the arms are more difficult to trap than the legs, so if you are able to secure the opposite arm to the leg you initially secured, then you are able to switch over and trap his other leg to ensure you have both secured both on the same side.
Step 5 Once you have secured the arm and leg it is time to get out from the bottom.This is where you will be bridging. Few important points about the bridge. Bring your feet up close to your butt for maximum lifting power. Elevate your hips as high as you can. You need to drive through the back diagonal angle using your head and shoulder as fulcrum points, almost as if you want to put your nose on the mat behind you. Your arm which is not trapping your opponents arm can be placed on 3 strategic positions to assist with the escape: 1- on the inside of your opponents hips 2- around his body (over the back) grabbing hold of your other hand 3- swinging the arm high up under your opponents armpit as illustrated in the picture to your left.
Step 6 As mentioned in step 5 one needs to keep driving through that back diagonal corner forcing your opponent to either fall over off you or at least loose his balance. If you are unable to bridge your opponent off you then this will at least set you up for your next mount escape i.e. attacking in combination. Something else that will happen often is that you will be able to get to your knees with your opponent at your back or on top of you. As long as you have a good game to start working from here this is better than being mounted.
Step 7 You will be landing in your opponents guard most of the time when using this escape.At least you have top position with superior striking options. You could work it into your game that when you apply this specific escape that you move out of the legs when bridging over to try and get in the side control position. This is escape is good for the Vale Tudo/No Rules arena as well as submission wrestling where no striking is allowed.
