Your first 6 months of BJJ are about one thing: not getting submitted.
Every new white belt has the same experience. You get mounted. You get side controlled. You get your back taken. And you tap. Over and over. These 5 BJJ escapes don't turn you into a submission machine. They keep you in the fight long enough to start learning offense. Scott Sullivan, who learned the bridge and roll directly from Rickson Gracie, still uses these same escapes against advanced grapplers decades later.
The White Belt Rule
If you can escape back to guard from any bad position, you're already better than 80% of first-year white belts. Guard is where you have options. As Scott teaches it: master the upa and the elbow escape together, and "it'll work 90% of the time for you, no matter what level."
1. The Bridge and Roll (Upa): Mount Escape #1
Someone is sitting on your chest in full mount. This is the worst position in BJJ. The upa is your first way out.
But before you even think about escaping, Scott emphasizes prevention: "You can't let him get up on your chest. If he scoots up high, it's really hard to get out." Keep your elbows pinned to your sides like you're boxing. That blocks their knee from sliding up. If they do get high, wiggle north and push them back down to your hips. "When he's on my hips, now I've got some lift power."
The escape itself: trap one arm and the same-side foot. Bridge your hips straight up, not to the side. Scott learned this from Rickson Gracie and still uses it: "Trap, trap. Move your head out of the way and lift your hips up. Put his head on the ground above your head." The common mistake is bridging sideways toward the trapped side. That lets them post their free hand and recover. Go straight up first, then roll.
2. The Elbow Escape (Shrimp): Mount Escape #2
When the bridge and roll fails, usually because they post their hand or widen their base, the shrimp gets you out the other way. These two escapes work as a pair. You try the upa, it doesn't work, you immediately switch to the shrimp. Back and forth until one hits.
Scott's setup detail makes the difference: "Start with this little bump. Boom. Let this take over just a little bit, and you get about a clearance about that much." That small bridge creates just enough space to turn on your side. Once you're on your side, everything changes. You have hip mobility to push against their leg with your elbow or hand, work one leg free, and recover guard. Sometimes you bump so well they land on your legs, and guard recovery is almost automatic.
The finishing tip most coaches skip: if you can't get your knee through because their calf is blocking, reach down and "grab his ankle and do like a hammer curl." Pop it up. The door opens and the escape becomes easy.
3. Side Control Escape: The Hip Scoot
Side control is where white belts go to die. Someone pins you flat, chest to chest, and you feel like you're under a truck. The mistake everyone makes is trying to push them off with their arms. It never works.
The escape starts with one motion: "Butt up and scoot." Lift your hips off the mat to create clearance underneath you, then push them away and scoot your hips out. As Scott puts it, "The idea here is to make as much space as possible. If I could, if I had the power, I'd like to have this much space, just blast him away over there."
From there, you have two options. Option one: bring your bottom leg in and recover guard, just like the shrimp from escape #2 above. Option two: swing your legs back, get to all fours (turtle position), and work from there. These two options are complementary. Try one, and if it's blocked, switch to the other. Just don't forget to control something when you get to your knees, or they'll spin behind you.
4. Back Mount Defense: The Shoulder Scrape
They're on your back with hooks in and a seatbelt grip. The clock is ticking on a rear naked choke. Your first job: protect your neck. Chin down, hands fighting their choking hand.
Scott teaches the escape with one memorable concept: "If your back is on the floor, he can't be on your back. He can't take the place of the floor." The seatbelt grip has a strong side (the arm on top) and a weak side (the arm underneath). Put your shoulder on the ground toward the weak side. Then scrape your back against the mat. "You scrape him off like mud off a shoe."
It's not always clean. You might end up in their guard, and there will be a scramble. But the position you're escaping, back mount, is far more dangerous than any guard. Getting your back to the mat is always a win from here.
5. Headlock Escape: Bridge and Roll Counter
The headlock is the #1 attack from untrained grapplers (see our self-defense techniques guide for the street version) and one of the most common positions in schoolyard fights. In BJJ, it shows up constantly at white belt level. Scott's first rule: "The best way to get out of this is not to get put in it. Seriously."
Prevention means keeping your elbow on the ground when someone passes your guard. A regular headlock without the arm trapped is easy to escape. "What makes it go from easy to very difficult is this arm." Once they trap your arm and your head together, they can pin your back to the mat, and now you're stuck.
If you do get caught: lock your hands around their body, feet flat on the ground. Bridge up first, putting their head above yours to shift the weight off your chest. Then roll sideways. Up first, then over. If they're savvy and post their free hand to stop the roll, that means their arm is off your head. Pull your head free and take their back.
Use Them in Combination
These 5 escapes aren't meant to work in isolation. "In advanced sky, you're not going to just try one and get it," Scott teaches. The upa fails, you switch to the shrimp. The hip scoot to guard gets blocked, you go to your knees. The bridge and roll is stopped, you pull your head free and take the back. Drill them in pairs, 10 reps each, every class. By the end of your first year, they'll be automatic.