Craig Jones Reveals the Dangers of The Outside Ashi Garami Position

By Fanatics Authors, May 06, 2019

As the leg game continues to evolve, and the most successful leg attack artists continue to make contributions to the world of leg locks, were seeing some new ideas and concepts emerge.

Craig Jones has recently released a new instructional title, “Battle Tested Leg Locks”. A very fitting title for the next body of work brought to us by one of the best leg lockers in the business.

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I’m interested to begin going through the material, as Jones has had quite a bit of time to put his skills to the test since the release if his first leg lock instructional. He’s no doubt learned much from his endeavors over the past several months, and these new pressure tested ideas are sure to pique the interest of anyone that’s serious about being successful with their lower body submission game.

Jones describes the newest release as more of a strategic look at leg locks, with the game and counters being a focal point. It seems this will be a more in depth look at the working parts of the leg lock game, and a closer look at what’s made Jones so successful. Count me in.

Let’s get a look at a technique. In this video Craig Jones and Lachlan Giles go over a counter to the outside ashi position. Give this a watch.

I’ve always enjoyed the outside ashi and has its perks, but after watching this video, a few red flags have been raised for me personally.

In this particular scenario, Jones is discussing a counter from outside ashi while he’s standing and the position is being set up. The first order of business is to beat the knee closest to the centerline of his body. Jones does this by employing two grips. A C-grip at the knee, and a scooping style grip on his partners far hip. Using a steering wheel like motion, Jones turns his partner with his newly acquired grips.

At this juncture, Jones reaches for his partner’s upper body, locking an S grip under the arm and behind the head. He uses this harness to pull himself forward and get his knee to the floor. The outside ashi position has now morphed into a leg drag situation for Jones. Sprawling to release his trapped foot, Jones then uses his secondary foot to help with the clearing, and with a small backstep removes his lower body from the situation. Not only has Jones now dismantled the position, but he’s also put himself in place to apply a nice arm triangle to finish the exchange and submit his partner.

So, is the outside ashi garami a bad position? No, but it does come with some element of risk, as Jones explains. Depending on the level of your opponent, you could be asking for trouble when entering in to the position.

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At the close of the video, we get to listen to Jones as he narrates a match between himself and Giles. In this scenario, Giles is furiously pursuing the outside heel hook from the outside ashi position. As Giles over commits to the submission, you’ll see his leg go a bit too far past Jones, abandoning any sort of frame, clearing the path for Jones to secure that important upper body grip set. This allows him to get his knee to the floor, exactly like he did in the instruction, sprawl and transition in to the arm triangle.

I don’t think we all need to throw out the outside ashi position, but this video certainly gives us some insight into where things can go wrong.

From the other side, this is a beautiful counter to a pretty common scenario. I’ve been here many times, and now that I think about it, I also feel that I’ve been countered in this manner before as well. What I really enjoyed about the instruction portion of this video, is that Jones gives us a method to actually create this situation. So, even if your opponent isn’t over committing to the heel hook, you can force the circumstances, and still implement the technique.

Leg locks aren’t going anywhere. And it's been a joy to watch them evolve and change to become more efficient, and applicable. I feel this evolution will continue, as long as top-level players like Jones himself continue to test leg locks at the highest levels and push the envelope. Great stuff!

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