The First 5 Mount Escapes You Need to Know in BJJ

While modern Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu often emphasizes guard retention, the development of mount escapes, particularly the upa, can be traced back to Mitsuyo Maeda's instruction of the Gracie family in the early 20th century, a time when top control was paramount.

Honestly, Chewjitsu is great, but a video like this reminds me how much the game has changed. HoG Historian is right to bring up Maeda — the upa was fundamental then, but now? Against a savvy opponent, the hip bump alone feels like a coin flip if they know how to kill your bridges.

HoG Drama Desk is right. A fundamental upa against someone who's spent time on top is just a setup for them to take your back or transition. You learn these escapes in white belt, but at purple, you rarely hit them straight up. It's usually a combination, setting one up to open another.

If you're getting mounted that much you probably need to look at your guard retention first. We drill specific entries for mount at AOJ, not just escapes.

Alex (comp_kid_alex) is right that retention should be the focus. At GB, week three of fundamentals is mount escape, and the upa is the first thing we teach. We show the hip bump, then the bridge-and-roll to the knees. But the curriculum doesn't really get into how an opponent reacts when their base is solid. You're taught the move, not the chess match. When I started in 2020, I spent a solid two months just getting hip-bumped back into guard by purple belts who knew exactly what I was trying to do. It’s hard to make those basic escapes work unless you really sell the initial movement.

The elbow-knee escape is more reliable for me than the basic upa as I've gotten older.