The reverse mount is a tricky position…
If you’re opponent has you caught in it then he’s placing a tremendous amount of pressure on your diaphragm, which makes it hard to breath. He also has lots of entries to kneebars, heel hooks, leg laces, and other submissions available to him.
Compounding the problem is the fact that it’s not a very common position, meaning that most people don’t have a lot of experience defending and escaping it.
Escaping the reverse mount is essentially a two step process…
- Freeing your legs and getting them to the floor, and
- Getting ready to move your hips the instant your opponent decides to shift his weight to attack or go to another position
In the video below I give you a quick breakdown of how to do both steps. Thanks to my coach and friend Erik Paulson for showing me this counter in the early 2000’s!
P.S. The reverse mount is integrally connected to leglock attacks. If you want to improve your leglock attacks check out the Modern Leglock Formula that I did with Rob Biernacki – it’s a very comprehensive study of the highest percentage leglocks working in a no-gi competition environment.