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, and Gordon Ryan.
Danaher trains and teaches Jiu jitsu at Renzo Gracie’s Academy in New York.
Danaher shared his thoughts on Facebook about being an instructor in BJJ:
Dictator and Libertarian: I often say to my students:
“as a coach I am a dictator with regards the fundamentals of the sport, but a libertarian with regards everything else.”
In jiu jitsu and indeed in life, there are certain fundamental skills without which you simply cannot perform well. It is absolutely crucial that these skills are developed and maintained. Any other projects must be curtailed until they are mastered. In this sense I come across as dictatorial and inflexible. A skill as fundamental as an elbow escape simply cannot be overlooked. Show me a student with a feeble elbow escape and I will show you a student whose game as a whole is feeble.
One of the most talented students I have ever had the good fortune of working with is Garry Tonon. Interestingly, when Mr Tonon first came to work full time with me, his game was largely confined to half guard based scrambles to the back and finishing with rear strangles. I always insist that a good jiu jitsu player be equally adept at strangling from behind an opponent and in front of an opponent. I don’t care what strangles you choose to employ – obviously there are many choices, but you must have (at least) one good strangle that you really apply well from the back and one from the front, if not, your game overall will suffer from the deficiency. I started pushing Garry towards developing a strong high elbow guillotine attack for frontal attacks. Surprisingly, Mr Tonon really struggled with this and several times tried to give up. I put my dictatorial foot down and insisted he keep working. Our persistence paid off as Mr Tonon eventually developed a truly impressive high elbow guillotine which he showcased in several high profile matches and many, many training sessions.
With regards more advanced players who have demonstrated a solid foundation of skills, my libertarian side emerges. I believe the long term directions of my students will be mostly determined by their body type and their personality. In class I show a very wide array of techniques under the assumption that advanced students will pick and choose over time for themselves rather than try to force my favorite moves upon them and make them an imprint of myself and my personality (in my case this is a very good thing – imagine me trying to enforce a jiu jitsu style for a man with a crippled leg and a notoriously unpleasant personality upon my poor students!! ?)
When visitors come to my class they are often surprised by the many very different styles of jiu jitsu my students express on the mat. This, I believe, is a healthy thing; as it makes jiu jitsu a very satisfying form of self expression that will change as you change and grow as you grow…Now get back on the mat and work your elbow escapes you lazy slobs!! ?
