Foundations Stage 6 — Top Positions Study Guide

CurriculumFoundations Stage 6 — Top Positions Study GuideTop positions fundamentals — the pin hierarchy, how weight distribution drives control, the americana as the first joint lock, and the invariants that…

Stage 6 of the foundations curriculum teaches how to maintain top positions after passing guard. This study guide explains the pin hierarchy and introduces the americana — the first joint lock in the curriculum.

Stage 6 expands on the pin establishment introduced in stage 4. It covers the four primary top positions — side control, knee-on-belly, mount, and north-south — and the transitions between them. It also introduces the first joint lock submission.

The positions themselves are covered in the top positions section of the technique library. The concept-level material is on top positions objectives and pin position objectives.

Not all pins are equal. In rough order of defensive difficulty from the bottom player’s perspective:

Side control — the easiest position to reach after passing, and the hardest to immediately escape.

Knee-on-belly — higher-pressure and more mobile, but less stable.

North-south — restricts the bottom player’s breathing and frames; transitions to back or mount are strong.

Mount — the highest-value pin but hardest to reach and hold against good defence.

Foundations students learn to transition between these — pass to side control, to knee-on-belly, to mount, and back. The transitions are the point; isolated pin-holding is not.

Top positions are a weight-distribution problem. The invariants:

inside position (structural alignment) — the top player’s structure must be aligned over the bottom player’s centre of mass.

base over the support point (structure vs movement) — knowing when to post and when to float. Rigid pinning is easier to escape than a floating top game.