Tricky Heel Hook Set-Up With Craig Jones

By Fanatics Authors, January 23, 2019

Craig Jones has made a name for himself by surprising people and performing above expectations. Now that he is an established name with victories over some of the biggest names in the sport, we shouldn’t be surprised anymore. Yet, here he goes blowing minds once again with a super tricky set up that leads to the eventual demise of your opponent via heel hook.

Jones often employs a tricky bottom game that has multiple options and connections to other strong areas of his game. Being able to submit people from the bottom, especially No-Gi, can prove to be a challenging endeavor. The ability to mix and vary attacks while constantly testing your opponents balance is what will lead to their eventual downfall. Here is a great video to exemplify this concept.

Now that people are aware of Jones’ propensity to get underneath to enter into leg lock territory, they’ll start an early defensive approach by really rooting into their base. From this defense Craig has developed a different approach to entering into his natural habitat. The kind of habitat legs are twisted and turned.

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While Bernardo is Rooted into his base Jones begins by building a foundation he can use to bump into Faria’s base causing the desired counter reaction. Jones begins building his foundation by folding one leg into a half-butterfly/reverse X style configuration with his legs. His rear arm posts on the mat, as his near arm reaches for the far lat. This allows Craig’s butterfly hook to start apply forward pressure into his base.

This first stage is extremely important to the success rate of this technique in a rolling situation because it provides the reaction we will be looking for as we start to roll underneath and enter into the legs. As Jones bumps into his base he starts to retract his bottom leg outside of Faria’s base. This provides the space needed to successfully invert underneath of the opponent.

A key to being able to play ANY inverted game is the ability to avoid being smashed. Thankfully Jones has covered this detail. As he uses the outside hooking grip to start his inversion Jones explains that you cannot stay at this certain angle otherwise you’ll get smashed. Instead his goal is to get directly underneath of Faria’s base. This will provide the correct angle Jones needs to utilize both of his legs to finish the sweeping motion.

By utilizing an almost pendulum like movement the outside leg generates momentum as the inside leg carry’s Bernardo’s weight through. Right away it’s easy to see how this can lead to leg attacks. He also mentions how you could also simply switch to passing reverse half guard.

As much as the technique is great and can be utilized at the highest levels, a great detail is the concept he teaches at the beginning. By encountering specific defenses to his game Jones evolves his approach to attack. In a sense it is re connecting the dots. It places Craig back into one of his strongest positions. In training it is important to acknowledge when you game gets shut down. Don’t give up on the position evolve and adapt to overcome because all knew strategies will start to blossom which can add great depth to your game.

Speaking of depth, Jones has gone to great lengths to build a collection of his best techniques and strategies for all of you BJJ FANATICS out there. Be sure to check out the options from one of the TOP DOGS in BJJ!

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