Back to Basics

It’s a weird time to be a grappler. As MMA has grown and developed, grappling has been steadily pushed aside in the scoring system. I just can’t wrap my mind around it.

Grappling effectively won the kumite that was the first UFC. That experiment showed it doesn’t matter how effectively you can hit if you’re stuck on your butt. If your opponent knows submissions neither of you will be there for long.

You’d think that that would have cemented grappling as the defacto skillset every mixed martial artist should possess. Moreover you would assume that the skillset that most strongly correlates with dominating a fight would carry weight in the judges’ eyes. If I can hold you down while you work to defend but stay grounded you’re still on defense and defense doesn’t score. The UFC rules and judges don’t see it that way as they have progressively rewarded effective grappling less and less. I guess correlation doesn’t equal causation, or whatever.

I don’t want to come off like some delusional grappler. I understand that professional fights are predicated on controlling, impacting, and hurting opponents until they can no longer continue, or the officials say they can’t. Striking is inherent to our understanding of unarmed combat, and, from a pure entertainment stand-point, striking is dynamic and exciting. When Rory MacDonald gets punched, falls to the floor, and starts writhing in confusion trying to stand-up and face Robbie Lawler the crowd screams in approval and acknowledgment that he is finished. Grappling is comparatively slower and harder to understand than striking arts.

When Rafa Mendes dances in, out, and around someone’s guard, peoples heads’ tilt. You’re more likely to hear “What’s he doing?” than “That’s incredible!” Unless you’ve felt the weight of a human body focused through a single shoulder that is being used to cement you to the floor it’s just hard to know and appreciate how exhausting, controlling, and impactful that is.

Today we’re talking about a specific position that should be undeniably valuable, back mount, why it’s so valuable, and the primary threats of the position. We’re going back to basics and going deep on back mount. Before we go deep on back mount, let’s back up and go really broad on why this position matters so much.

All martial arts and combat sports are about two things, control and damage. It’s a fighter’s job to control and damage their opponent until the opponent quits or the ref stops the action. In the process, the fighter should avoid their opponent’s attempts at controlling and damaging them. When a fighter gets behind their opponent, they are inherently safe from their opponent’s immediate attempts at damaging them, and they have many opportunities that allow them to disproportionately damage their opponent with strikes and submission holds. No other position in combat sports affords these privileges of damage and safety, and we need to recognize that that is inherently valuable.

Let’s start by defining the subpositions of back mount, naming the threats, highlighting who are great examples to study from the position, and where the positions differ in pure grappling competition versus mixed martial arts.

Defining The Position

Back mount is one position with a lot of variations on how you play it. With all of those variations there are three themes of control that always apply, with each relating to the body part its directing.

• Hooks - While the position of your feet gets noticed most, the important thing to remember is your opponent needs to stay between your knees. There are a variety of ways to maintain that, but as long as you keep your opponent between your knees while you’re behind them you can ride the back.

• Hands - Your arms need to lock around your opponent’s body with either both under the arm pits, or one under and one over. When you’re ready to attack your hands need to be on top of your opponent’s hands.

• Head - Your head should be next to your opponent’s with your chin pinching the top of their shoulder. The further your head is from your opponent’s, the easier it will be for them to escape.

Now that we understand those principles, we need to keep one thing in mind at all times - the rear naked choke is the primary goal.

The rear naked choke is the most directly effective submission in all of grappling. With a good rear naked choke you can end the match in seconds without even fully securing the hooks for a real back mount. A properly set rear naked choke puts the lock, anchor, and angle of the submission at a difficult to reach position, making it more than challenging to escape. As such, the rear naked choke should always be the goal when you get behind someone, and effectively threatening the rear naked choke opens up other submission opportunities.

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