Tarsis Humphreys's Mount Attack: A BJJ Breakdown
When we first posted this Tarsis Humphreys clip back in July 2015, the whole write-up was one line: nice details from the Alliance star. That was it — you trusted us, you watched the video, and…
Words: Jiu Jitsu Style
When we first posted this Tarsis Humphreys clip back in July 2015, the whole write-up was one line: nice details from the Alliance star. That was it — you trusted us, you watched the video, and you got a quiet masterclass in attacking from the mount from one of the most decorated gi competitors of his generation. Eleven years on, the mount Tarsis was breaking down that afternoon is still the single most dominant position in Jiu Jitsu, and the details he was showing have not aged a day.
Why the mount is still the throne of BJJ
Nothing in the sport has changed about why this position matters. The mount sits at the very top of the BJJ points hierarchy for a reason — four points in the gi, and the closest thing grappling has to a checkmate. From there the person on top has gravity, posture, and a menu of finishes, while the person underneath is spending everything they have just to survive. What Tarsis understood, and what made the clip worth its few seconds, is that the mount isn't a place you arrive at and then start guessing. It's a position with a structure: chest pressure forward, knees climbing toward the armpits, the trapped athlete's hips pinned so they can't bridge or shrimp their way back to guard.
The "Japanese mount" he was demonstrating is simply that high, technical mount played with the precision the position rewards — get heavy, climb up the torso, and strip the defensive frames before you ever reach for a submission. Control first, attack second. That order is the entire lesson, and it's the part most white belts skip.
How a 2015 mount clip plays into the modern game
Re-watch it now and the thing that stands out is how current it looks. The mount-attack syllabus Tarsis was threading together — isolate an arm, climb to the S-mount, hunt the armbar or the cross-choke depending on which defence shows up — is exactly what the best gi players in the world are finishing with today. Tainan Dalpra wins IBJJF gi finals on near-fundamental mount geometry, pinning peers who know precisely what's coming. Gordon Ryan treats the mount as a finishing position rather than a control position, the same way Tarsis did. Mikey Musumeci's armbars look like the one your first coach taught you, hit with a level of arm-isolation detail that takes years to chase down.
None of them are reinventing the mount. They're doing what Tarsis was doing in that clip — closing the gap between the textbook version of the position and the one that actually finishes a fellow black belt. The skeleton of what he taught hasn't moved; the rest of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu just caught up to the level of detail he was already working at.
What the Alliance details still teach the rest of us
Strip the name off and Tarsis's lesson survives intact. The mount attack works because the control comes first — heavy chest, high knees, the defensive arms peeled away one at a time so the submission is the last thing in the sequence, not the first. The mistake almost everyone makes is reaching for the finish while their base is still loose, which is exactly how a good bottom player bridges, recovers a frame, and escapes back to half guard.
So drill the climb before you drill the finish. Spend a round just holding the mount against a resisting partner and learning to feel where they try to create space, then learn to deny it earlier. Tarsis Humphreys spent a career making the position look effortless against the best gi players on the planet, and the reason was never a secret move — it was the reading. Go back to that 2015 clip, eleven years late, and watch how much of it was control and how little of it was the submission. That's the whole game.
See you on the mats.
Originally published on Jiu Jitsu Style, 26 July 2015. Refreshed for 2026.