Craig Jones is emerging as one of the better coaches in Jiu-Jitsu, on top of being the best second-rated grappler in the world under many different rulesets. The charismatic and increasingly eccentric Aussie now treats us with a look into his wrestling from the bottom approach through the new instructional Just Stand Up by Craig Jones.
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Overview
Just Stand Up is another one of Craig Jones’ jokingly named BJJ DVD instructional which delivers excellent content. With the rise of wrestling in Jiu-Jitsu, and particularly No-Gi, this one is straight down Craig Jones’ alley.
Just Stand Up by Craig Jones is an instructional focusing on escaping in a nontraditional way when it comes to BJJ. A wrestling staple is to try and get to your feet when in trouble, and Craig demonstrates how those principles can carry over to BJJ.
Craig does not only offer ways out of traditional Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu pins but also shows how you can improve the ways you pin and hold people down. His approach will help you deal with wresters and explosive fighters both in a defensive and offensive manner.
Instructor Background
There’s not much left to discover about Craig Jones as he is one of the most famous personalities in Jiu-Jitsu. The Aussie leaped into the spotlight during a legendary performance at EBI, ending with a near finish of an armbar against Gordon Ryan in the finals.
Craig, learning BJJ under the tutelage of Lachlan Giles, emerged as a leg locker who took a different approach to the then-dominating Danaher Death Squad, and made it work at the highest levels of grappling.
Jones has not left the spotlight since, dominating in plenty of pro-grappling performances, issuing numerous BJJ instructional and launching his own gym and team in B-Team, after the public split from the DDS which he joined not long after his legendary meet with Ryan in EBI.
Just Stand Up is the latest in a series of Craig Jones BJJ DVD instructionals which amass to a whooping 16 instructionals.
Subject
The subject of Just Stand Up by Craig Jones is about the fallacies Jiu-Jitsu has in the department of pinning, both offensively and defensively, and how the lesson learned early in wrestling about standing up is widely applicable to BJJ. Craig uses the turtle position to get his point across.
Craig also uses upper body controls like underhooks and crossfaces and leg rides like the Turk to provide a different perspective to offensive pinning in BJJ. Jones also includes submissions and some staple wrestling moves named after wrestling greats.
Complexity
Craig is an excellent coach and gets to the bottom of every subject covered in distinct chapters, but the subject matter itself requires at least some rudimentary background in wrestling or at least a working knowledge of some of the key movement patterns in grappling, like Granby rolls, front headlock, sit-outs and similar.
The complexity level of Just Stand Up by Craig Jones is intermediate.
Technical Details
The camera work and sound quality are at the usual standard expected by an instructor from the BJJ Fanatics production.
Content-wise, the DVD follows the usual four-volume release, with half (two DVDs) covering pinning escapes, while the final two focus on pinning and controlling people that are hard to keep a hold of.
Each of the four parts of this Craig Jones DVD lasts around an hour, bringing the total running time of the instructional to just above 4 hours.
The release is available in both DVD and digital formats.
Detailed Analysis
DVD #1
Craig starts this instructional by pointing out common mistakes we do in BJJ when it comes to pinning and how most people in Jiu-Jitsu pin themselves, hence the easy dominance wrestlers have over Jiu-Jitsu athletes.
Craig goes on to portray the principle taught to wrestlers about standing up, opening up the eyes of BJJ folk through the example of the turtle. He shares a new and updated version of the turtle, focusing on tucking the elbows and specific foot positioning that allows you to move out of the turtle in a vertical manner, hence scuppering any back take or front headlock attacks.
The first volume of Just Stand Up also covers hand fighting from the turtle, Granbying out, and building height when standing.
DVD #2
The second portion of the DVD focuses on the one seat belt and uses a simple motion like the hip sit to control everything, from the power half, to turtled-up opponents and even ways of dealing with bodylocks.
Towards the end of this volume, Jones introduces the Turk, a wrestling leg ride that is a real turtle killer and an incredible way of pinning people using only one leg and your body weight.
DVD #3
The offensive aspects of Just Stand Up by Craig Jones begin with the leg rides at the end of the second volume and extend to cover pinning via staples, crossfacing, and the heavy use of underhooks we’re used to seeing in wrestling.
The real turning point is the way Jones combines together upper body controls (underhooks and crossface) with the leg rides (Turk) to burrow through any defense, at the very least forcing half guard from opponents.
He wraps this portion up by exploring submissions as potential pinning positions and gives a new approach to finishing the arm triangle with lots of details.
DVD #4
The final portion of the instructional covers the craziest stuff, as is the expectation from a Craig Jones DVD.
Unorthodox setups, North-South attacks, and some interesting insights on the front headlock position dominate the first half of this volume. The cherry on top is the so-called Sucker Drag, along with the Barrel Roll and bonus Shultz choke and Saitiev Reversal to further spice this DVD up with some wrestling magic.
How We Grade BJJ Instructional Just Stand Up by Craig Jones
Considering Craig Jones’ Just Stand Up instructional DVD’s technical aspects and quality of content, we come to an overall score for this instructional that I’ll deliberate in short below.
Technical Quality: 10/10
From the audio, video, and format aspects to the organization of material, camera work, and delivery of the information, there is no technical aspect of the Just Stand Up DVD that is below par.
Quality of Content: 9/10
The only reason we dock a point in terms of the quality of content is the intermediate level of the material outlined in the instructional, as well as the fact that Craig favors No-Gi and the entire instructional is delivered in such a fashion.
Overall: 9/10
Beginners and intermediate grapplers will get a lot of technical ideas on how to approach pinning in Jiu-Jitsu, while seasoned, advanced grapplers are going to get a complete change of perspective on the subject by integrating these wrestling principles.
Wrap Up
Just Stand Up by Craig Jones is a grappling DVD more than worth having in your collection. Instead of trying to learn wrestling on your own outside of Jiu-Jitsu, why not get a digested version of very specific aspects of wrestling from BJJ from the best second-place grappler in the world himself?
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