The greatest positions in Jiu jitsu – mount and rear mount: The game of Jiu jitsu rewards the mount and rear mount with more points than any other positional moves. I fact they score twice as much as takedowns, sweeps, knee on stomach and even outscore guard passing. As much as possible you should seek to get to these high reward positions. It's a fascinating question which is is the better of the two. I generally put a premium on back over mount in grappling but slightly favor the mount in fighting when striking is involved. The real point is not however, which is better, but rather, how will you move smoothly from one to the other. Both positions involve the use of your legs wrapped around your opponents hips or torso to exert control. WHENEVER AN OPPONENT TURNS OUT OF ONE POSITION HE WILL OFFER OPPORTUNITY TO TRANSITION TO THE OTHER. Learning to take advantage of this transition from mount to rear mount and rear mount to mount is key to your development in utilizing these devastating positions to maximum advantage. Understand that when an opponent goes to turn you want to HELP them by opening a little space with your legs. Look at how Gordon Ryan lifts his knee to let an opponent turn inside and go easily from mount to rear mount. He does this without losing upper body pressure – that's important because it's that pressure which motivates an opponent to turn in the first place. Jiu jitsu rewards these two positions more than any other – make sure you learn to move between them to reap those rewards to the greatest degree possible!
