Also known as: Side Mount · Cross Side · 100 Kilos · Yoko Shiho Gatame
Chest-to-chest control past the legs, usually with a cross-face and an underhook or hip block. The first major pin every grappler learns and a hub position: from here the top player transitions to mount, north-south, or knee-on-belly and attacks the near arm and neck, while the bottom player frames, shrimps, and fights to re-guard.
Gi & No-gi · Category: Top Control & Pins
What can you do from Side Control?
Top player (positional score +7/10)
Submissions
Americana — The first pin submission everyone learns: pin their wrist to the mat above their shoulder line, thread a figure-four, and "paint" the knuckles down toward their hip to rotate the shoulder.
Arm Triangle Choke — Trap their arm across their own neck, wrap your arm around both, and let their shoulder do half the strangle — usually set from side control or mount and finished after sliding off to the side.
Paper Cutter Choke — A sneaky gi strangle from side control: one hand behind the collar palm-up, the other folds the far lapel across the throat and slices down like a paper cutter’s arm.
Von Flue Choke — The punishment for holding a guillotine too long: when they keep the grip after you pass to the trapped side, your shoulder drives through their own arm into their neck and strangles them with their stubbornness.
Transitions
Knee Slide to Mount — Upgrade side control to mount: pin their near elbow, block the hip, and slide your knee across their beltline before their frames rebuild.
Bottom player (positional score -7/10)
Submissions
Buggy Choke — The submission nobody believed until it kept working: from BOTTOM side control, throw a leg over your own trapped arm and their head, locking a triangle that strangles the person pinning you.
Escapes
Side Control Escape (Frames & Shrimp) — The escape every grappler drills forever: frame at the neck and hip, bridge to make space, shrimp your hips out, and pull a knee inside to rebuild guard.