Craig Jones

Competitive record

2014–presentActive years

−88kg · HeavyweightWeight class

2SMedals (this list)

ADCC 2017–presentEra

2016202020252026

Year	Event	Result
2025	Craig Jones Invitational (CJI 2)	Founder
★2024	Craig Jones Invitational (CJI 1)	Founder · $1m absolute prizeRival event scheduled the same weekend as ADCC 2024 in response to ADCC athlete pay; Jones did not compete in ADCC 2024
2019	ADCC World Championship · −88kg	Silver
★2017	ADCC World Championship · −88kg	SilverSubmission run via inside heel hook

Opening

Craig Jones is an Australian no-gi competitor and coach whose competitive game integrates Z-guard half guard, heel hook entries, and a back-attack chain derived from the rear body lock. He founded the Craig Jones Invitational (CJI) in 2024. This site’s scramble hierarchy, the height / hip-height principle, and the wrestle-up imperative are all drawn from Jones’ systematisation of the transitional phases of grappling.

The game through invariants

Z-guard as a heel-hook entry. Jones’ Z-guard system treats the half-guard knee shield not as a retention shape but as an outside-position structural lever from which the cross-ashi entry becomes one motion. The knee shield holds the top player’s hip on the outside line; once they commit weight to either pressure or pass, the bottom player’s outer leg threads over and the position rotates into cross-ashi — the inside-position entanglement. Z-guard itself is outside position; inside space control governs the cross-ashi destination, not the entry. The Z-guard’s job is to produce the angle from which the inversion to inside position occurs cleanly. See Z-guard and half guard.

Heel hook entries from Z-guard and the half-guard family. The cross-ashi to inside heel hook sequence from Z-guard expresses the same invariants as the K-guard (a seated leg entanglement position) entry (heel exposure by position; connection throughout) — only the entry shape differs. Jones’ contribution is the demonstration that multiple entry shapes converge on the same finishing system; the entanglement is the load-bearing structure, not the entry. See inside heel hook.

The scramble hierarchy as a structured decision system. Jones’ systematisation of the scramble — the minimally-connected or disconnected phases of grappling that occur between established positions — is the most consequential work on the transitional phases of the sport. The hierarchy he articulates is: stand up first; if standing is unavailable, shoot; if neither is available, pursue scramble-specific submissions or front-headlock-family attacks. The mechanical principle behind the hierarchy is that height is leverage — the higher of the two grapplers in any scramble has access to attacks the lower grappler does not — and that hip height beats hand position in any contested scramble. InGrappling’s scramble framework is built on this articulation. See scramble principles and scramble objectives.

The breakdown chain — rear body lock to back exposure. Jones’ documented chain from standing rear body lock through four-point, turtle, hip, back, and into strangle is a concrete expression of the destabilisation-isolation-segmentation sequence in a specific context. The chain is not a sequence of independent techniques — it is a single structural argument expressed through the positions it passes through. The mechanical principle is destabilisation precedes control applied iteratively: each position in the chain is the destabilised state of the preceding position. The chain is referenced across the standing, turtle, and back position sections of this site. See front body lock.

Wrestle-up as a guard-bottom imperative. Jones’ framing that the bottom player’s primary objective is to stand up — not to retain guard, not to submit, but to return to feet — is a structural inversion of the BJJ-derived assumption that guard is a destination. The mechanical argument is that guard retention without an exit plan converts every defensive success into a stationary equilibrium that the top player can outlast or out-pressure. The wrestle-up imperative is the ranking constraint that makes guard retention productive rather than terminal.

Contribution to the sport

• Codified the scramble hierarchy as a structured decision system. Prior to Jones’ work, the scramble was treated as an unstructured chaotic phase; after, it is treatable as a positional category with identifiable invariants and ranking principles. This site’s scramble framework is built directly on this contribution.
• Articulated the height / hip-height principle as the load-bearing leverage relationship in scramble situations.
• Articulated the wrestle-up imperative — the framing of guard bottom as a transitional rather than terminal position.
• Founded the Craig Jones Invitational (CJI) in 2024, which introduced the curved-wall pit format that has since been adopted by UFC BJJ. The format change was an explicit response to the stalling problem in submission-only events; the curved walls prevent resets and force continuous engagement.
• His scramble hierarchy, height / hip-height principle, and wrestle-up imperative inform this site’s analysis of transitional positions, alongside contributions from John Danaher and Greg Souders.
• Co-founded B-Team Jiu-Jitsu in Austin (2021), producing a competitive team that includes Nicky Ryan and others.

Related pages

Techniques. Z-guard · Half guard · Inside heel hook · Cross-ashi · Front body lock · Scramble principles

Invariants. — Inside space control determines the entanglement · heel exposure by position — Heel exposure is determined by position, not grip · — Destabilisation precedes control · segmenting the body — Segmentation prevents coordinated defence · — Connection eliminates space and transfers weight

Concepts. Scramble objectives · Back-take scrambles · Late leg entanglement entries

Other profiles. John Danaher · Gordon Ryan · Lachlan Giles

Competitive context. State of competitive no-gi 2026 · Leg entanglement meta · Back attack meta

References

• ADCC official records — 2017 and 2019 World Championship results.
• Craig Jones Invitational official event coverage (2024, 2025) — for the rival-event framing relative to ADCC 2024 and the prize structure.
• FloGrappling event coverage 2017–2025.

Other profiles

Lachlan Giles Competitor Australian ADCC 2019 absolute bronze · 3× heel hook ⊙ Team Gordon Ryan Competitor American 7× ADCC World Champion · 2017–2024 ↔ Contrasting John Danaher System architect New Zealander System architect · DDS / New Wave Jiu-Jitsu → Lineage

● SOURCES references