In a facesit, the victim is on her back, face-up on the mat or floor, as the attacker quite literally sits down on her face covering it with her posterior.  Don’t let the apparently erotic nature of the hold fool you. It is one that’s extremely painful and uncomfortable for the victim, not to mention humiliating.  Because a facesit causes such an extreme predicament, we decided to catalog it as a submission hold, as more often than not the relief for the victim is only brought about by submission, although it is used as a pinning maneuver too.

A facesit can be a front facesit, which is basically a slid-forward variation of the schoolgirl pin. It can be a reverse facesit when the attacker rides the face of her victim facing her legs, a squat facesit or even a side-facesit.
There are countless variations of the facesit with the attacker locking up the legs of her victim in a jackknife fashion, effectively small-packaging her, hooking her legs back by the ankles to immobilize them, spread them holding on to them at the knees etc.

Possible escapes:  when trapped in a facesit, there are several ways you can lose the match, and very few that will get you out if it. You’ll either be counted out as your shoulders are on the mat, or you’ll submit. You can attempt bridging out of it, which is much more efficient than trying to push your attacker off with your legs as the may hook them and you’ll end up face-sat and bent in half.

Efficiency: very efficient, and also visually appealing – which means it is often used in erotic matches.