For us this week everything revolved around escaping bottom mount. This started with early intervention and preventing the transition from side to full mount. Then, we moved into the knee elbow we touch on here. Even the more advanced variants later in the week rely on these mechanics.

As a bonus, my coach Mike Budnik was up for a visit and helped us out by sharing a related specialty of his, escaping the bottom side. He's got some amazing stuff and was nice enough to share some.

So, here is this week's recap:

As always, discussion and debate welcome!

An outstanding tutorial; as always, Alex!! Thank you for sharing it!!

Nice to meet your coach Mike Budnik. His transitional options were excellent across the board. His points were exceptional:

*Do the unexpected!!

*Increase the ladder!! This you speak towards quite a lot, and I wholeheartedly concur!

Sweep's not complete until dominance is established!!

Imho, his two options, from the mindset of the unexpected, were pure poetry indeed!! EXCELLENT!!

What do you teach when your student meets dominate resistance in trying to create space, and the space isn't happening??

Great video again. All are great options. Your coach's transitions are my favorites of the ones taught here, different looks are always good.

I like these. The more I watch, the more I am seeing some things that look similar from Wrestling. That first transition your coach demonstrated, it looked a lot like what wrestlers do when the sit out and then gizoni an arm that comes over the top. A wrestler then hip heists out, and is ready to go to work. Here's a version of it:

Again, not the same, but I see some similarities.

I really liked the structure you mentioned in making the hip shifts on the knee/elbow escape you showed. That will be helpful. Again, thanks for sharing these videos. They are great!

An outstanding tutorial; as always, Alex!! Thank you for sharing it!!

Nice to meet your coach Mike Budnik. His transitional options were excellent across the board. His points were exceptional:

*Do the unexpected!!

*Increase the ladder!! This you speak towards quite a lot, and I wholeheartedly concur!

Sweep's not complete until dominance is established!!

Imho, his two options, from the mindset of the unexpected, were pure poetry indeed!! EXCELLENT!!

What do you teach when your student meets dominate resistance in trying to create space, and the space isn't happening??

Great question. From my experience, if someone is failing to make space with a bridge and shrimp, they are probably executing it incorrectly or at the improper time. That's the usual culprit. The other possibility is that the student is picking the wrong tactic for the situation. If they aren't reading the partner's energy correctly, they might be pushing into force instead of working with it.