How would you submit the mountain

arm drag—>take the back–>check his oil

you don’t have to either take their back or necessarily stay away from guard.

You can do a lot of knee on belly with switching from side to side, etc.

Even if you take the back, you can’t get smothered underneath.

Playing guards where you can easily breathe would be ok… like having your feet able to keep distance.

The point is that you really need to tire them out and apply a sub when they don’t see it coming, before they can flex… Even an RNC could be difficult if they’re prepared for it. I might get him in a wrist lock if I established it before he was ready and could stiffen it… If I did an RNC, it would probably be from N/S type position where his own weight is working against him… but who knows… I’d give the trachea crush style guillotine a try too…There’s no muscle protection there and mentally some people freak out when they start choking.

One of the founders of Westside Barbell just recently started training at our gym, he's a former world record holder in dead lifting and I think either won or place in one of the world's strongest men competitions.  He'll make you second guess knowing jiu jitsu, and it's the only thing I can even remotely compare to the mountain.  Arm drag has been my go to, but even then, they can literally just pry your arms away on an RNC attempt.  Wrist lock and leglocks seem to be the answer, I've gotten chuck with an ankle lock a few times and have seen a couple have success with wristlocks, it's just hard to get on his legs as sweeping him is damn near impossible.

Yeah, as is mentioned above, at some point Jiu-jitsu just stops working once the gap in strength level becomes too large.

BJJ - and all martial arts really - act as a force multiplier for your strength and athleticism. 

I remember when starting out, we had a gal in our class who was decent, but average strength level for a 110lb athletic gal. She would go up against a fit athletic power lifter (6'2" 220 lbs solid), and literally could not armbar him. He could curl more than the force she could exert in an armbar.

Does the Mountain have any grappling experience?  I didnt think so.

A harder question is how you would try to submit a prime Alexander Karelin?  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9MDNMIbwOE

Would a prime Karelin toy with the Mountain? 

I don’t know how the Mountain is physically --if he is relatively co-ordinated or whatever-- but I would not be surprised at all if he could beat elite Black Belt with one year’s training.

If you are crazy strong, minimal technique is all you need. Soon as you are no longer clueless, you become pretty formidable.

As already mentioned above, the bigger and stronger your opponent is the fewer BJJ techniques will work for you. I feel I learned the most from rolling with the biggest strongest guys. Realistically, 80% of your game is out the window. All the "weigh class specific"move are gone. Just the ultra simple, core basics have a chance to work. It becomes almost a different art when the participants are huge.

I think BJJ people are kind of in denial about how much of high level BJJ is really about strength. Jiu jitsu is really easy when you are much bigger and stronger than your opponent --it’s why we have weight classes. Significantly smaller people have to be MUCH, MUCH better than you to beat you.

When I was a “experienced” white belt, I tapped out a very small, Brazilian Black Belt. It made me realize there is an upper limit to how much technique can overcome. No way I could have done that as noob, but after a year or two of training, with the size difference, I was just good enough that he couldn’t stop me. I’m sure on a bigger scale that would be the Mountain and BJJ Elite BB’ers.

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Never rolled with anyone that big and certainly nowhere near as strong. I’m a strong guy and the really strong guy at my school is a pain. Thor is easily twice as strong as that guy and twice the size. No thanks. It would be cool just to grapple and see what happens but only in a chill roll. 

That dude falls on me the wrong way and there goes a knee or rib. Not sure how many guys any of you have rolled with that are 300 plus and not athletic but just having them in guard is suffering sometimes. You get in their guard and they roll over and they’re mounted on you. best way is to run and hope his cardio gives out I suppose

Arm drag to the back like Marcelo on arlovski. But seriously, imagine that dude establishing a grip on you somewhere. You’d need power tools to get it off.

The Mountain is quite agile and coordinated for his size, as a younger guy he played division I basketball in Iceland before his ankle got too damaged. You can see he moves quite nicely when he was playfighting with Connor, he’s no oaf. Relatively agile, absolutely huge and beyond retarted strong guy would be hell for almost anyone.

By sub? I would think it would have to be a rear naked choke or inverted heel hook although you said ibjjf rules only so I guess rear naked choke.

2 thumbs in his eyes. But keep pressure until you know he is dead. 

He likes to play opossum 

Could you arm bar Devon Larrat?

Robobear -

Kimura all the way.

You better be a beast because I’ve locked up shit on a big dude (I walk 170) and had him just power out.

I know how to properly finish a kimura.

size and strength do matter.

twinkletoesCT - 

Do not play guard.  Big dudes are only heavy when they're on top of you. 

I used to roll with a college football player who was the starting center. 5'8"ish but over 300+ of muscle, and benched 350 for reps.  The best path was to pretend to play butterfly, armdrag to the back, and if he tried to roll, stay on top and play mount. 

I agree for the most part. The only way a big man can use his weight to his advantage is if he (or she) is position to put his weight on you.

The key to beating a big man is mobility/agility. Make the big man MOVE. When you make the big man move you are essentially making him fight against his own weight. Believe me, it is harder to move your body when it is heavy than when it is light. More effort and energy.

So make him MOVE… Make his weight a disadvantage instead of an advantage.

donkypunch55 -
Robobear -

Kimura all the way.

You better be a beast because I’ve locked up shit on a big dude (I walk 170) and had him just power out.

I know how to properly finish a kimura.

size and strength do matter.

Yeah, I was being sarcastic.  That being said, with any super strong large athlete, you gotta go medieval, take the back and choke.

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I would shut him down Schaub style

m.g - 
twinkletoesCT - 

Do not play guard.  Big dudes are only heavy when they're on top of you. 

I used to roll with a college football player who was the starting center. 5'8"ish but over 300+ of muscle, and benched 350 for reps.  The best path was to pretend to play butterfly, armdrag to the back, and if he tried to roll, stay on top and play mount. 

I agree for the most part. The only way a big man can use his weight to his advantage is if he (or she) is position to put his weight on you.

The key to beating a big man is mobility/agility. Make the big man MOVE. When you make the big man move you are essentially making him fight against his own weight. Believe me, it is harder to move your body when it is heavy than when it is light. More effort and energy.

So make him MOVE… Make his weight a disadvantage instead of an advantage.

eh… there’s truth to that primarily in nogi, but there’s a similar issue on to the other side (moreso in gi).

No matter how good your base or weight distribution is, they can often still toss you, but if your “back is against a wall” (ie your back is against the floor), you have something to brace against.

The weight is somewhat neutralized by using your feet or knees to maintain distance…

Meatgrinder - 
m.g - 
twinkletoesCT - 

Do not play guard.  Big dudes are only heavy when they're on top of you. 

I used to roll with a college football player who was the starting center. 5'8"ish but over 300+ of muscle, and benched 350 for reps.  The best path was to pretend to play butterfly, armdrag to the back, and if he tried to roll, stay on top and play mount. 

I agree for the most part. The only way a big man can use his weight to his advantage is if he (or she) is position to put his weight on you.

The key to beating a big man is mobility/agility. Make the big man MOVE. When you make the big man move you are essentially making him fight against his own weight. Believe me, it is harder to move your body when it is heavy than when it is light. More effort and energy.

So make him MOVE… Make his weight a disadvantage instead of an advantage.

eh… there’s truth to that primarily in nogi, but there’s a similar issue on to the other side (moreso in gi).

No matter how good your base or weight distribution is, they can often still toss you, but if your “back is against a wall” (ie your back is against the floor), you have something to brace against.

The weight is somewhat neutralized by using your feet or knees to maintain distance…

I’m speaking from the perspective of a big man. I am 6’1" 250lbs (well, the most I’ve weighed was 250… Now, I am down to 230ish)

I’ve used may weigh against most people I go against, both in sparring and competition. Once I get that dominate top position… game over.

NOW… I run into problem when my opponent makes me move. And I not talking about moving slowly or methodically but when I move quickly and when I have to change position and direction at a fast pace (a pace that is hard for me to handle). Basically I struggle when my opponent makes it a cat vs mouse game or a mongoose vs cobra game. Again, it is much harder to vigorously move a 250lb body than it is a much lighter body.

NOW… with that said… I will use that same strategy that smaller more agile and mobile opponents use on me on opponents who are bigger than me. It works very well!