We’ve touched on s-mount a little bit before. See S-Mount Warm Up Drill and Mounted Armbar. We’ll start with the s-mount warmup shown in the first post, and work on some attacks.
Here’s some quick and simple advice for advancing your mount position. What if your opponent has tight, defensive arm position?
If you don’t have a collar to grab, can’t fit your hand in to grab a collar, can’t separate an arm for an armbar attack, and can’t get your knees up into the armpits, start by forcing their arm into an Americana position.
Here’s a longer explanation of protecting the mount from Roger Gracie:
I strongly prefer Roger’s insistence on keeping weight on his opponent, but as an entry to s-mount, this is a nice start. Note how Jean Jacques isn’t opening any space for his opponent to sneak out the back:
His arms are too low to force over his head and you can’t slide your knees up? Trap the arm down and step over:
This is probably the most like what I do from this position. I love starting with a cross choke grip and using that to turn to the side: