If someone is pinning you effectively then they probably have pretty good control over both sides of your body.

This can make escape very difficult.

Your escapes are made much easier if you off-balance your opponent before escaping, which is an application of kuzushi. If your opponent is off-balance, then he’ll be focused on getting back into good position instead of submitting you, and also it’ll open up potential escape routes.

This idea applies to all pin escapes but is probably easiest to illustrate from the bottom of the mount.

Think of your mounted opponent as a giant triangle above your body that you can tilt to the left and to the right.

When you tip that triangle to one side, you create room to escape on the other side.

This creates a dilemma for your opponent. For example, if he makes his left knee light then you might use the elbow-knee escape. And if he adjusts his weight the other way you might scoot out and put him in the Single Leg X guard.

To help you apply this concept check out this video with lots of examples here…

Video Highlights

0:05 The Tipping the Triangle Principle
0:37 The Kipping Escape
1:15 The Elbow-Knee Escape
2:05 The Tripod Escape
2:33 Side Mount Reframing

P.S. Some of the kooky background imagery in this video is a commentary on how particularly vulnerable some members of the BJJ community are to reflexive conspiratorial thinking. Yes, there have been conspiracies in this world, but no, not everything is a conspiracy!!

If you want an antidote to this reflexive conspiracism, then check out The Strenuous Life Podcast for a dose of data-driven BJJ and occasional rants about approaching the world through the lens of science. 

P.P.S. If you’re spending too much time on the bottom getting smashed and not enough time on offense then I have a very simple suggestion…

Grab No Gi Pin Escapes, my brand new, 7-volume, instant-access instructional.

This video masterclass is LOADED with action steps chunked into digestible blocks of information, with concepts and strategies that make it easy to remember what to do next.

It doesn’t matter if you’re skinny or fat, old or inflexible, weak or out of shape; this instructional WILL get you off the bottom and back on the offence!

Best of all, it comes with an unconditional, 365 day, moneyback guarantee if you don’t  like it for any reason.  Nobody else in the BJJ instructional space does this, but I like to stand behind my products 110%

Click here to check out No Gi Pin Escapes.

Thanks,

Stephan Kesting

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