The Mounted Position in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Series Summary

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gained world fame in 1990 when Royce Gracie won the first ever Ultimate Fighting Championship, however the martial art has a long history. Jiu-Jitsu or Jujutsu began centuries ago in Japan as a combat system for warriors; it emphasized joint locks, choke holds, and throws to overcome the enemy's body armor which would effectively stop or weaken a strike. This martial art was modified into Judo which was brought to Brazil by Mitsuyo Maeda. Maeda instructed a man named Carlos Gracie and was soon learned by his brothers including Helio Gracie. Helio adapted moves to create more leverage with less strength allowing a smaller person to defeat a much larger opponent. He also emphasized ground fighting to minimize a larger foe's reach and strength; thus began a full contact fighting system excellent for self-defense.

In this free video clip series learn self defense as Martial Arts instructor and 6th degree black belt Aaron Fruitstone demonstrates beginner Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu moves including: mounted position, back mount move, neon belly position, closed guard position, double cross choke move, standing leg sweep, Americana move, arm bar, Kimura move, and the top cross choke move.

Video Transcript

"Hi! This is Aaron Fruitstone and Liz Muller from Chi Martial Arts, in Miami Shores, Florida. You can reach us on the web at www.chimartialarts.com and on behalf of expertvillage.com we welcome you. Techniques that you will be seeing today are beginning Brazilian jujitsu techniques. And the first technique that we are going to demonstrate is the mount. Now Liz will be performing all these techniques on me. So as I explain watch what she does with her arms and legs, so that you can make sure you have a good understanding of all the techniques. Since Brazilian jujitsu is predominantly a ground fighting system many of the techniques that you see will begin on the ground. So we are going to work positions first. And the first position we are going to work is mount position. The mount position is very advantageous for the person on top because they control the weight of the person and they are able to get striking power and submission power from that control position. The way it will work, one person will be down on their back. Liz is going straddle her hips over me controlling my hips with her legs, her feet are under by butt, her weight is reigning down on me and she can control me by controlling my arms from here. This is the mount position."