Position on the ground: Part 1

For many new to MMA, the ground game is confusing and boring unless someone is obviously being submitted. Learning about common positions can make it a lot more fun.

This is by no means a guide to learning ground technique. It is simply an overview of what the positions look like and what they mean for each fighter. Hopefully, having some idea of what’s happening on the ground will help many new spectators to develop more of an appreciation for fights that hit the mat.

There are many different positions, but we’ll start with three of the most important: guard, side control, and mount. We’ll get to more later, but an understanding of these positions should be a good start.

The Guard

When you see one guy on his back holding the other fighter between his legs, that’s guard. If the legs are crossed over, it’s closed guard. If they are open, it’s an open guard. Simple enough, right?

If you are on your back, this is the most advantageous position you can be in to perform submissions or to control your opponent. Being on top is always more advantageous, but this is the least disadvantageous position on your back.

A fighter in someone else’s guard will normally attempt to pass to side control. This generally means having to get past one of the legs of the guy on his back. While this may seem straightforward enough, guard can keep the fighter on top tied up for a long time, and this can lead to the referee standing the fighters up again in a UFC match.

Side Control

Side control is when the top fighter has passed to one side of the bottom fighter and is now generally lying chest to chest, with legs perpendicular to that of the bottom fighter. From here, striking is more effective, and knees can be used to devastating effect. There are also many submissions possible from side control, but lots of fighters will focus more on trying to move to a mount from side control rather than risking the loss of position that a failed submission could lead to. Quite often this is a very temporary position, as the fighter on top can do more damage mounted while the fighter on the bottom has to work toward moving back to guard or half-guard. Escapes and reversals are other options open to the bottom fighter, but anything more offensive is quite difficult.

Mount

From side control, a fighter on top is likely to work towards a mount. This has the top fighter essentially sitting on the bottom fighter. From here, the top fighter has the best reach and power advantage for striking on the ground, while also being in an excellent position to take advantage of any other opportunities. The fighter on the bottom will think of practically nothing but attempts to escape from here. Often, this will mean rolling over into a curled up position on elbows and knees, at least at first. This is generally referred to as giving up your back. Upsetting the top fighter’s balance is crucial to the defence of the bottom fighter, and maintaining balance is crucial for the top fighter to remain on the offensive. Once mounted, a fighter on the bottom will have to work hard to escape the situation, or else the fight will quickly finish.

In the next part, we’ll look at half-guard, north-south, and rear mount.