Craig Jones Power Ride Review: A Hands-On Breakdown

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The Core Idea: On the Legs, Not Past the Legs

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.

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.

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.

Volume-by-Volume Breakdown

Volume 1 (~30 min) Theory & Philosophy

Craig opens with his thesis: points do not equal control. He breaks down why traditional BJJ pins (side control, mount, north south) all share the same flaw – your opponent’s legs are free. He analyzes how Khabib Nurmagomedov pins fighters in MMA and builds the case for controlling the legs instead of bypassing them. He covers movement mechanics, power generation from riding positions, and why the IBJJF scoring system trained us to hold positions that aren’t actually that hard to escape.

This volume is pure concept. No techniques yet. But it reframes everything that follows.

Volume 2 (~30 min) Leg Rides & Lower Body Control

This is where the system starts. Craig teaches the Turk (and reverse Turk variations), the leg shelf, leg splitting mechanics, and the crab hook. Each control is shown as a way to immobilize your opponent’s lower body so they can’t bridge, hip escape, or generate any explosive movement.

The leg splitting control stood out immediately. BJJKlar’s reviewer noted that even lower belts reacted noticeably when he applied these controls for the first time.

Volume 3 (~40 min) Upper Body Controls

Now Craig layers upper body controls on top of the leg rides: claw rides, crossface control, Nelson variations (half Nelson, power half Nelson), the Dagestani handcuff (wrist ride), and open elbow control. This is the volume that connects riding with submissions – the Dagestani handcuff forces people belly down, which opens rear naked choke entries.

This was the volume I had to rewatch. The Dagestani handcuff with the RNC grip is what converts pins into finishes, and I was initially neglecting it.

Volume 4 (~40 min) Turtle Solutions

Craig addresses the most common defensive response to riding: turtling up. He shows diagonal rides, spiral rides, cradles, and underclaws for breaking down turtled opponents. Each technique creates submission loops – you threaten one attack, they defend into another.

If your opponents turtle when you ride them (and they will), this volume gives you the tools to punish that reaction specifically.

Volume 5 (~40 min) BJJ Integration

This volume bridges the gap between wrestling rides and standard BJJ. Craig shows how to apply riding concepts from side control, mount, and knee on belly. He covers entries from common BJJ passing positions and how to transition between traditional pins and ride-based control.

Volume 5 is what makes Power Ride practical for pure BJJ players. You don’t need to abandon your existing game – you layer the riding concepts on top of it.

Volume 6 (~60 min) Submissions

The longest and most detailed volume. Craig shows submissions that flow naturally from riding control: arm triangle setups, D’Arce choke entries, belly-down rear naked choke, arm-in Ezekiel, half Nelson submissions, the cow catcher, kimura pathways, gift wrap to triangle, and Spider-Man wrist control.

The arm triangle and D’Arce setups are the highest-percentage finishes from riding. When you ride someone’s legs and force them to defend with their arms, the head-and-arm chokes open up almost automatically.

My Experience 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.

What Makes Power Ride Stand Out

Wrestling ride philosophy adapted for BJJ. There are plenty of instructionals on passing and top control (Gordon Ryan’s Systematically Attacking from Top being the most comprehensive), but none of them teach wrestling-style rides. Power Ride fills a gap that literally no other BJJ instructional covers.

Khabib-inspired system. Craig didn’t just copy a few wrestling moves. He analyzed Khabib Nurmagomedov’s MMA ground control and reverse-engineered it into a systematic BJJ approach. The “on the legs, not past the legs” framework gives you a mental model, not just techniques.

Dense and efficient. At roughly 4 hours, Power Ride packs more usable material per minute than most modern instructionals. Compare that to Gordon Ryan’s 8+ hour sets or John Danaher’s 15-hour series. Craig teaches efficiently without unnecessary repetition.

Fatigue scoring. Dan Jonaher on Substack credits Power Ride as the origin point for the “fatigue scoring” concept in no-gi grappling. The idea: instead of chasing points, you exhaust your opponent with relentless ride pressure until they make mistakes. This concept has spread throughout competition no-gi.

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 style of pinning will become the new standard.

What Reviewers and Grapplers Say

Honest Weaknesses

Pin-to-submission transition is the hard part. The pins themselves work on day one. But turning that control into a finish requires real mat time. I spent weeks pinning people with zero ability to submit them from the riding position. Volume 6 covers submissions, but the transitions from riding to finishing are where the learning curve lives. Gordon Ryan’s Systematically Attacking from Top covers the submission-from-control pipeline more thoroughly, though without the wrestling ride component.

Not beginner-friendly. JitsMagazine noted that beginners can learn the concepts, but in practice you need existing top game skills to apply the system. If you can’t smash pass or leg drag yet, you won’t be able to get to the riding positions Craig teaches. Andrew Wiltse’s Half Guard Anthology or a guard passing fundamentals set would be better first purchases for newer grapplers.

The laughing segment. BJJKlar’s reviewer flagged one segment with prolonged laughing that breaks the instructional flow. For a $197 product, that’s a valid criticism – though it’s brief and the rest of the content more than compensates.

IBJJF competition limitations. Most Power Ride positions don’t score points under IBJJF rules. If you compete primarily under point-based rulesets, you’ll get less direct competitive value. The system is strongest in sub-only formats and MMA.

Who Should Buy Power Ride

• Blue belts and above with solid pressure passing (smash pass, leg drag)
• No-gi grapplers who compete in sub-only or want better top control
• MMA fighters who want Khabib-style ground control
• Anyone who can already finish arm triangles and D’Arces (the natural submissions from riding)
• Grapplers frustrated with opponents escaping traditional side control and mount

Who Should Skip It

• Fresh white belts without passing fundamentals – learn to smash pass first
• Pure gi competitors under IBJJF rules who need point-scoring positions
• Anyone looking for a complete passing system (Power Ride is about what happens after you pass)
• If you only compete under IBJJF rules where these positions don’t score, the value drops significantly

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 they 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.

Watch Craig Jones Use Power Ride in Competition

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.

Related Craig Jones Instructionals

Power Ride pairs well with Craig’s other instructionals that cover adjacent positions:

Full guide: Best Craig Jones Instructionals Ranked