Mount Escapes — The Elbow Escape & the Rule of Two — Fundamentals cycle — a second way out from under the worst seat in the house, and a rule for choosing

Fundamentals cycle — a second way out from under the worst seat in the house, and a rule for choosing

Mount Escapes — The Elbow Escape & the Rule of Two

Brazilian jiu-jitsu
Week 10 · White belt
60 min
Any class size, worked in pairs
1 coach
Effort 3/5
One mat space per pair
curriculum
white belt
escapes
mount

The MatPlans curriculum teamBJJ black belts & coaches · 12+ yrs on the mat

Kit: Mats. Gi or no-gi both work — the escape is described by body parts, not grips.

Warm-up10 min

Mat Movements + Week 3 Recall

Setup: Staggered lines, arm's-width apart, one direction. Pairs form for the recall half.

How it works: Lengths, twice each: shrimps done big and named as tonight's engine, bridges with the look over the shoulder — call it the week 3 roll, rehearsed — technical stand-up, and a new one: side-lying knee slides, dragging the top knee up to the chest against an imaginary thigh. Then recall week 3 in pairs, one minute each way: mounted partner bridges, traps an arm and a leg, rolls to guard. Half the room will be rusty — say out loud that this is exactly why tonight exists.

What to say

“Shrimps tonight are rent — every centimetre of hip movement is space they cannot sit on.”
“Trap-and-roll recall: arm and leg on the same side, or the roll goes nowhere.”
“Knee slides: the knee hugs your own chest on the way through.”

Easier

Half-lengths; trap-and-roll recall on a mannequin partner only.

Harder

Knee-slide lengths on both sides without resting; recall at quarter resistance.

Drill16 min

Technique of the Day — The Elbow Escape

Setup: Pairs, one mounted on the other, sitting heavy and wide. Demo twice — once at speed, once slow with the steps numbered aloud — and finish the demo in closed guard so the destination is obvious.

How it works: Week 3 gave them the roll for when the mount drives forward; tonight is the answer for when the mount sits heavy and wide. Teach the escape, then teach the choosing — the rule of two — and make pairs say their choice out loud during reps. Walk the room hunting the oldest error under mount: straight arms shoving at the chest. That mistake fed armbars last week; never let it settle in.

The technique, step by step

Under mount: elbows tight to your ribs, hands framing on their hip creases — never pushing the chest.
Bridge a touch and turn onto your left hip — flat is over for the evening.
Your right elbow drops inside their left knee, forearm lying across their thigh like a fence rail.
Shrimp your hips out to your left — the gap you just opened is for your knee, nothing else.
Slide your right knee through the gap until your shin lies across in front of their left thigh, then hook their leg — you are in half guard. Say it aloud: half guard is a checkpoint, not a failure.
Re-frame, shrimp once more, and pull your left knee in front of their chest to close full guard — home.
The rule of two: they drive forward with arms posted — week 3, trap and roll. They sit heavy and wide — tonight, elbow escape. Feel, then choose.

Key details

The elbow never pushes the knee backwards — it holds the line while your hips run out from underneath.
Every escape starts on a hip; the first two centimetres of turn matter more than everything after.
One escape rarely finishes the job — frame, shrimp, knee through, repeat until guard closes.

Common mistakes

Shoving the chest with straight arms — it moves nobody, exhausts you and hands over an armbar.
Shrimping before the elbow-fence is set — their knee simply follows your hips and the gap closes behind you.

What to say

“On a hip, elbows in — mount only beats flat people.”
“The frame holds them still; your hips do the leaving.”
“Say which escape you chose and why — feel, then choose.”

Easier

Top player is a heavy mannequin; bottom rehearses the full journey to closed guard on both sides.

Harder

Top re-mounts honestly at half effort — bottom chains elbow escape into trap-and-roll the moment the posts appear.

Drill12 min

Drilling

Setup: Same pairs, spread with a body-length between them. Coach calls the rounds for the whole room.

How it works: Three rounds of two minutes each way, resistance building. Round one: mannequin mount, elbow escape both sides on repeat, all the way to closed guard. Round two, quarter resistance: top floats and follows the hips, so the frames and timing start to matter. Round three is the rule of two, live: coach calls POSTS or HEAVY every fifteen seconds — top instantly gives that pressure, bottom answers with the matching escape. The call is the coaching; the switch is the skill.

Rounds: 3 × 2 min each way · resistance 0% → 25% → coach-called switches

What to say

“Wrong escape for the pressure is the only real error tonight — technique errors fix themselves with reps.”
“Top players: give the called pressure honestly — you are the textbook they are reading.”
“If you stall halfway, live in half guard a breath, then continue — never go flat again.”

Easier

All rounds at mannequin resistance; the coach calls the escape by name instead of by pressure.

Harder

Round three at half resistance with no calls — bottom must read the pressure themselves and name it after each rep.

The rest of this lesson is free — along with 3 more this week.

MatPlans curriculum team

Free on MatPlans — new lessons weekly.