Ask anybody who knows a little about Brazilian jiu jitsu and they'll probably tell you about the guard. But for me the signature position of BJJ is rear mount, back control.
If you take street fighting, no holds barred, and mixed martial arts as the true test of jiu jitsu's effectiveness, then while I've seen some impressive stuff from the bottom, dominant fighters finish from dominant positions (Matt Hughes, Fedor, Rickson). And as often as not, they finish from the rear.
It's taken me a year to start to figure out what the guard is all about in practical terms. So I'm giving myself a year to reach the same mind-body consensus with rear mount: both in terms of defending it and attacking from it.
In terms of defending it, Mamazinho showed us last night two different ways to escape from rear mount. The first task is to protect the collars and neck by bringing your elbows in tight over your torso with your elbows almost touching and your chin able to rest in your palms as you protect your neck.
If the opponent gets control of your neck, then you want to "follow the fingers" in terms of which side to escape from. The idea is to avoid moving deeper into the choking arm.
You protect your neck with the inside hand/arm. "Following the fingers" you bridge up, and try and get your head and shoulders to the outside. One key detail I noticed this time is that you don't just want to escape. You want to put your weight on top of the guy as you move. Think Twister side control. You're only a shoulder twist away from half-guard.
You move the hook with the outside hand. The bridge is really important to help get the angle on the hook.
The final step is the escaping the hips out away from the guy and turning into him. You want to grab or block the far knee as you turn in to keep the top guy from moving over on top of you and taking the mount.
There is a variation. If the guy is able to change hands on the choke attack, so that you are suddenly escaping into the choke, then you want to use your outside hand to push up on the elbow of the choking arm as you lift the wrist with the inside hand that is defending the choke.
Saulo is not impressed with this escape--though he acknowledges it is standard. One thing that I don't like is that the "follow the fingers" rule means that you can find yourself constantly shifting to escape left, then right, then left again. You are using much more energy than the guy in rear mount, who is simply riding your motion.
I'm wondering, given the variation mentioned above, if you are not better off picking a side--maybe the side where your elbow escape is more explosive--and then working the hand game. Use both choke defense/escapes--either the bridge and escape in or the elbow lift--to win the hand game and get back to the top. One key to this approach, and why I think it might work, is that you ALWAYS want to fight the choke with the inside hand/arm.
If the choking arm is coming "over the top", then you want to remove the hook and spin inside. If the choking arm is coming "up from the mat", then you want to remove the hook and lift the elbow over head.
We'll see if this works over the next few months. I like it better because my problem is doing too much thinking. If I know that I'm always defending the choke with my inside hand/arm and, moreover, I can dictate the direction of my escape, then I don't have to worry about if I am bridging to the "wrong" or "right" side. As long as I know how to fight and win the hand game, I should be okay escaping from rear mount.
