Craig Jones power ride review: 3 Key takeaways

Craig Jones’ Power Ride has an ambitious goal: to change how we pin people in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

Craig argues that we should pin like Khabib Nurmagomedov, instead of how we do it now.

How we pin people now is according to the IBJJF point system. We use side control, mount, back mount and north south.

But MMA fighters like Khabib use an entirely different system of pins. And in this instructional Craig Jones teaches you how to do that too.

In this review I tell you all about Craig Jones’ Power Ride pinning dvd, and how his new system is going for me so far.

Full Title	Power Ride: A New Philosophy On Pinning
Instructor	Craig Jones
Total duration	4 hours and 9 minutes
Publication year	2022
Where to buy	Here on BJJ Fanatics

A new philosophy of pins – Khabib style

The shortest summary of Craig’s new philosophy of pinning is this: don’t be past the legs, be on the legs.

All the normal BJJ pins are past the legs. But the problem with this is that the legs are free. They’re free to bridge, to hip escape, and cause all kinds of problems.

Craig’s new pins (which he stole from Khabib) are on the legs. This prevents all bridges, hip escapes, and really all explosive movements. So it’s really superior for holding people down.

	Old pins	New pins
What?	Side control, mount, north south, back mount	Leg shelves, leg splits, cross body rides, Dagistani handcuffs
How?	Past the legs	On the legs
Why?	To score IBJJF points	Control leading to submission

How do ‘on the legs’ pins work?

Craig shows many ways to pin the opponent’s legs.

Sometimes you’re literally on the legs.

Sometimes you split the legs.

Sometimes you shelf the legs.

Sometimes you twist the leg.

And eventually you want to get to a full belly down back mount: where you essentially cover, shelf and split the legs, all at the same time.

So there isn’t just one way to pin the legs- it’s a whole system. And Craig does a great job of explaining how to do it and how to integrate it with your existing BJJ game.

My experience in training Power Ride

Phase 1

I watched the whole instructional on a Saturday before I went to training. I could immediately:

• Pin people’s legs
• Keep people pinned forever with no chance to escape
• Get to the belly down back mount (once)

Super happy about this 🙂

Phase 2

Over the following weeks my experience stayed the same: the pins are extremely effective, and people literally have no escapes for them.

BUT it’s hard to progress to a submission.

So I watched the instructional again to get more details…

Phase 3

The main thing I wasn’t using yet was the Daghestani handcuff with the rear naked choke grip. These grips are how you force someone belly down. Without these grips, people can stall out in a defensive position on their side/back.

I had to practice these grips because they were new for me. I now still make the mistake that Craig talks about sometimes (using the RNC grip to cross face instead of to elongate the spine), but I’m getting better.

I tap out a lot of people already using this sequence, some of whom are better than me.

But what I appreciate even more than these submissions is the control. I don’t even use the normal pins anymore when I roll with big, explosive, MMA-type people – I feel much safer when I ride their legs.

So I’m super happy with my progress – I can really control and submit people now that I couldn’t 2 months ago.

My verdict

I love this instructional, it’s in my top 5 for best instructionals I ever watched. It might even be #1.

Craig is a really great teacher: he keeps it short enough, while still explaining a lot of details and repeating what’s most important.

This dvd is a real eye opener. A paradigm shift. I now focus on getting on the legs instead of past the legs. And I think this styl of pinning will become the new standard.

Is this instructional for everyone?

You get the most out of this instructional if you already have some other skills. The instructional is about pins, but it’s tightly connected with certain pressure passes (which lead to the pins). And the pins lead naturally to certain submissions.

The pressure passes that lead to the pins are:

• Leg smash passes
• Tight leg drag style passes

If you can’t do these passes, I think it’ll be hard for you to access most of the pins that Craig shows. (My smash pass was already good, which is why I think I could implement a lot of the pins on day 1.)

The submissions that opponents often give up to defend the pins are:

• Arm triangles
• D’arces

If you don’t know how to finish these submissions, it’ll be hard to use the pins effectively. Because if your opponents realize you can’t punish them, they will defend your pins in ways that the wouldn’t be able to if you could punish them.)

To be clear: these techniques aren’t essential to use Craig’s pins, as there are many more entries and submissions that he shows. But I think they’re the most important ones.

Also read: 9 Best Craig Jones Instructionals & 6 to Avoid

Bonus: watch Craig Jones put Power Ride into practice

You can also watch Craig Jones use the pins he teaches in Power Ride in the video below. He uses many different techniques that he teaches in the instructional.