To the good, Prof Carlos had us working on the standing guillotine off a double leg defense, the counter to the standing guillotine, and a variation of the running escape from side control. The latter was especially good for me, having struggled from this position in recent days against larger and/or stronger opponents. Ironically, I had spent Monday morning watching the volume of Saulo's classic DVD series that focuses on the crossbody position, specifically, chapter 13 which dealt with the running escape.
Live training gave me the opportunity to test out my side control escape on at least one occasion to positive effect. But my rear mount defense has really deteriorated over the past year and repairing it has become as critical as developing a Unified Field Theory of Guard Passing was a year ago. Hence, me, Ryan Hall, and the eyeballing over at eBay.
Some say bend at the waist to pin the leg, shuck the leg, wide step and hipscape in (Saulo). Others insist on getting your back to the mat as the prime directive (Marcelo). Still others advocate a theory of "relative hip height", insisting that the key is to avoid having the attacker's hips at the small of your back at all costs (Hall).
So obviously there are plenty of ways to escape the back mount. What I need to figure out, as I did for the guard and have begun to do in earnest with the guard pass, is the way of movement to escape that best fits the way my body is most likely to move - especially under duress - and to move that way for a while until it sticks.
More rear mount escapes/counters from Robson Moura and Kurt Osiander.
