Photo: Submissioncontrol.com & Polaris

John Danaher is a BJJ black belt under Renzo Gracie, and is known as one of the best BJJ instructors in the world.

The New Zealand born black belt has been praised by the BJJ community as being a master and brain of the art. Danaher is a highly intelligent individual, who has a Master degree in philosophy from Columbia University, and is totally focused on the evolution and improvement of Jiu-Jitsu. He is also the submission coach of none other than former UFC Welterweight Champion George Saint Pierre, Travis Stevens, Garry Tonon, Eddie Cummings and Gordon Ryan.

Danaher trains and teaches Jiu jitsu at Renzo Gracie’s Academy in New York.

Danaher shared his thoughts on Facebook about Ukemi (break falls) and the art of countering big throws and slams:

Ukemi is the skill of taking or receiving a throw or fall. It is a truly crucial combat skill that must be mastered for a simple reason – the most catastrophic injuries in the sport do not come from submission holds – they come from falling body weight landing in an unsafe fashion. The forces created by the weight of your entire body falling at speed into the floor are far, far greater than even the best applied submission hold.

Numerous MMA matches and judo/wrestling matches have been immediately ended by a competitor trying to avoid conceding a takedown or throw by bracing out an arm – resulting in sickening injuries that are so severe there is simply no way the match can continue.

A good example is Shogun vs Mark Coleman, or Yoshida vs Honorato at the 2000 Olympics. Remember – the first rule of combat is not to get hurt in ways that make eventual victory impossible. This is why ukemi, the skill of receiving falls safely is primary among combat skills. It protects us from the worst form of injury in grappling – the danger of uncontrolled falling body weight – which has ended more careers and resulted in more hospital time than all the submission holds combined.

Not only is it a crucial physical skill to master, it also has a key metaphorical element that teaches us about the nature of combat. It teaches us that it is alright to be thrown down – so long as we can absorb it and recover – we can come back to eventual victory.

It teaches us that real combat is almost always an ebb and flow of periods where we are winning and periods where we are losing. We have to be able to recover from setbacks and come back to secure final victory. Ukemi teaches us to concede a technique to the opponent and recover to come back and fight again rather than refuse to concede anything and risk being broken and losing everything on the spot. It is a recognition that fights have an ebb and flow where sometimes we have the advantage, sometimes the opponent. What counts is the final outcome, not any given moment of the battle.

A good example of ukemi playing a vital role in a grappling match occurred when Garry Tonon took on the very powerful and dangerous Rousimar Palhares. Many people prior to the match thought Mr Tonon had lost his mind when he specifically asked for this match despite a massive size and strength disadvantage. Mr Palhares had developed a fearsome reputation as a leg breaker and had shown himself to be among the best submission specialists in the world – both in MMA and grappling.

In truth however, it was not the leg locks that concerned me as I mapped out training preparation for Mr Tonon. I was very confident that Mr Tonon possessed a more sophisticated leg lock Arsenal than Mr Palhares that would prevail despite the size and strength imbalance and that this would enable him to dominate the leg submission exchanges. What concerned me most was the danger of heavy slams to a potential knockout or injury. Mr Palhares had proven himself fully capable of effortlessly lifting and powerfully slamming even big MMA stars and grappling experts – Mr Tonon was three weight divisions below him, so the danger of a catastrophic slam was real. Accordingly a big part of fight camp was advanced ukemi training and how to use this to enter immediately back into submissions.

We trained diligently in the skill of over rotating out of a slam at a speed higher than the slam itself so that immediate counter attacks would open up. During the fight Mr Palhares exhibited his extraordinary lifting ability on several occasions – one big slam in particular, but Mr Tonon was well prepared – the next big lifts allowed Mr Tonon to use ukemi skills to roll faster than the lift itself and over rotate back into attacks with no damage. So the most basic of skills, ukemi, proved vital in a clash between two of the most advanced submission grapplers in the world.

Tonon here counters slam attempts with a rolling leg attack and with leg scissor takedown attempts: