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Short Write Up on 'The Sky Dive'
I wrote these notes for myself, to try and lock in my brain why this position works so well. Please feel free to add, critique, rip apart, dismiss, etc :)
The Mount is a position that we all know, right?
You clear you opponents guard, get on top, drop your hips and weight onto them and - as they bridge and buck their hips like a pissed off bull - you ride the wave until they settle down. Once they've chilled out and you feel comfortable with your base, you begin working for the kimura / going for some ground & pound (depending on your preference of NoGi Grappling or MMA; No Holds barred you headbutt them or bite their nose off, naturally).
That said, do you 'really' know the intricacies of the mount? Do you know what to do if the person on bottom is REALLY good at bridging? If they are able to get their hands on your hips and push your legs so hard you can't help but give them space as they shrimp and win back half guard?
In a classic example of why I love Eddie Bravo's system - Eddie has come up with 'The Skydive'. The Skydive is a position that looks like what it sounds like and so is easy to remember. It doesn't require the kind of flexibility that many of Eddie's critics claim you need to use his system and it has almost 100% success rate again, contradicting many who dismiss the 10th Planet System as impractical.
The Position:
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Intricacies and Awesomeness: As soon as you obtain mount you need to sink your hips right back and cross your feet. You then reach your arms out as far apart as you can in a 'Y' to base yourself. Much like a tripod, if you allow one of these bases to be taken away you will lose all solidarity. As your opponent bucks his hips your weight should follow him (gravity however will ensure you fall back down) and he will be unable to do any kind of meaningful elevator. The position of your arms means that he should not be able to tie them up right now. He is likely to try rocking back and forth, but the position of your hands means that you should be able to base yourself and the extra control you have by linking your legs and being locked to his hips should cement this further.
Limitations: To reap any benefits of this technique you need to ensure you do not overplay it. Both Eddie Bravo and 10th Planet Brown Belt, Magnus Hansson, express the importance of not staying in this position for more than about 2-10 seconds. This is a position you keep only to ride out the first few explosions of your opponent. Your hips are weighted on his and so should follow his, your arms should remain outstretched and basing you. If you allow your legs to uncross, your weight to come up, your arms to come too close together to stop you rolling or allow yourself to get overhooked then you will lose the position and likely end up on your back / in half guard.
Next Steps: Eddie now begins to isolate an arm. In his 'Mastering the Twister' DVD series, Eddie talks about how he will almost always begin to work for the Head and Arm choke once he is in the mounted position - especially in MMA where it is easy to encourage your opponent to bring his arms up by smashing him in the face a couple of times. The first step in doing this is to bring your left arm under your opponents head and use your forearm as a base, you will then need to use your right arm to bind his left arm to his head. To do this you use your right arm to push against his arm as though it is a clock. You DO NOT push straight up. Your right bicep ideally stays below their elbow so that they cannot slide their arm out.
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Once you have their bicep touching their ear you are going to grab their armpit with your arm that was holding the head and grab the head with your free arm. The position should leave you in pretty good shape, something like this:
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Brown Belt Magnus prefers to maintain one of his bases and lift the head off the floor and tilt it to one side as his 'go-to' means of working from the mount. The logic here is that with your opponent's head off the ground they cannot really do that wrestling bridge where they rock back onto the crown of their head. Because you have left one side open for them you know which way they are going to turn and can get ready to begin working on that basis.
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It is important to note that once Magnus has secured the head, unlike Eddie who keeps his legs backwards almost in the Skydive position the entire time he is working to isolate an arm and secure 'Head & Armpit Control', Magnus brings his knees up above parallel to make him stronger when he pulls the head.
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Final Detail: What you will notice in all the above pictures is that the person maintaining mount never has their head directly above the head of their opponent, their weight is always offset. By Offsetting your weight you can ensure you don't get rolled in one direction and be aware of the direction you could get rolled and be able to base when it comes.
