Footage of John Danaher rolling is very hard to come by. The amazing coach of the Danaher Death Squad started training BJJ in the mid 90’s and was one of Renzo Gracie’s first American black belts. He has developed some of of today’s best MMA and Grappling athletes and coaches: GSP, Firas Zahabi, Garry Tonon, Eddie Cummings, Gordon Ryan, Nick Rodriguez, Nicky Ryan and many more…
A rare video emerged today showing a blue belt John Danaher rolling at the early Renzo Gracie academy in NYC with no other than UFC vet, ADCC medalist and BJJ champion Ricardo ‘Big Dog’ Almeida.
Danaher wrote about the experience on his IG, and detailed the early days:
“Early days – learning days – Happy days
Two questions I am often asked are – Were you someone who learned easily or had some kind of gift for the sport? And, was the early Jiu Jitsu you learned back in the day somehow better than the Jiu Jitsu of today? The answer to both questions is a definite NO!
Here is a funny old clip of me as a blue belt training in the early days of Renzo’s school (this is actually during a time when Renzo rented space to train from a local king fu school – it was not until years later that we had a permanent home in the blue basement) with one of three senior champion students and great mentors of mine, Ricardo Almeida (The other two were Rodrigo Gracie and Matt Serra).
This was during the time I was a graduate student at Columbia and working at night as a bouncer. Jiu Jitsu was a means to help me stay safe during nightclub fighting ( don’t listen if anyone ever tells you BJJ doesn’t work in real fights – Even 90’s blue belt BJJ was a HUGE advantage to possess in Street altercations if mixed with a little common sense and fisticuffs and made my job FAR easier than before).
You can clearly see two things here. First, most of the American blue belts of today would massacre most of the American blue belts of my generation including me. You can see the complete absence of Jiu Jitsu skills that we take for granted even at blue belt level today – hand fighting, standing passes, distance control when passing, no division between early and late defense etc etc.
Second, I clearly had no innate talent or advantage for the sport. I began Jiu Jitsu at twenty eight with a crippled leg – I was so ignorant of ground grappling that in my first class I had to have it explained to me for five minutes that bottom mount and bottom closed guard were not the same thing – and I was still skeptical after the explanation! I definitely cannot be described as gifted for the sport! You can see that I am just an average blue belt in the room and started as an ignorant stumblebum just like everyone else .
Judging by the time of the video I am guessing this was taken as Ricardo, Rodrigo and Renzo were probably getting ready for an early ADCC World Championships – all three along with Matt Serra were standouts and/world champions in the event.
For me as a blue belt to train with them regularly was a huge benefit. It gave me as a recreational student endless opportunities to learn survival and defense – the first skills our sport requires us to master.
In addition, each of the three mentors taught me a major theme that would go on to be a big part of my development. Rodrigo taught me the value of open guard and in particular the power of the hook sweep (sumi gaeshi) as the basis of the bottom game (this was at a time when 90% of bottom game was closed guard).
From Matt Serra I learned that just because you start in bottom position doesn’t mean you have to stay in bottom position and that rising up from underneath to initiate scrambles to submission and reversals to position is among the most valuable grappling skills you can learn.
From Ricardo Almeida I learned the need to switch the body from a relaxed and flexible state when engaged in positional moves to a state of isometric tension and tightness when engaged in submission moves and that being able to switch between those two states was one of the major keys to grappling efficiency.
Yet even in these unpromising looking early days as a part time student there was great value that would prove crucial for the future – I was learning defensive skills on the mat, guided by the best in the world at that time and seeing how to apply these lessons in a self defense context. I developed a good working relationship with the room in general and the seniors in particular where i was a good training partner with whom they could get a good workout without getting needless injuries due to clumsiness etc and in return i got priceless experience in defense and more important than any technique – the big insights that could fuel my development far into the future.
This idea of mutual benefit is the key to a good training room and your early progress.
My recreational approach to Jiu Jitsu would change just a few years after this video, when Ricardo, Rodrigo and Matt left to start their own schools/teaching and Renzo asked me to begin teaching. I made the fateful decision to leave graduate school and make Jiu Jitsu my main focus. I wanted to try to keep the standards of the school at the same high level even after the three seniors left – a daunting task as I was an unexceptional nobody replacing legends and world champions – to do this would require total immersion in the sport and a lot of catch up work to make up for my very late start, physical disability and starting point of ignorance – my attempts to do this and the training and conceptual methods and approaches i adopted to make it happen are essentially the story of my career.
Looking back it’s great to see that American BJJ as a whole has improved so much and that all of us can find a path to individual improvement with time, commitment and a plan.
No matter how much of a struggle Jiu Jitsu may seem to you, no matter how unpromising your early steps may appear and no matter how many times you get tossed head over heels or submitted – remember that it does not matter where or how you start – WHAT DEFINES YOU IS WHERE YOU END UP – keep striving, keep improving – to the student with motivation, persistence and a rational plan of action centered around growth – the potential inside your future self is always FAR greater than your current self.”
Check out the footage. Danaher is wearing the ear guards, with the Gi and Almeida is with the black fight shorts:
Part 2:
Sloth Jiu-Jitsu: you can be slow and unathletic and still kick butt in Jiu-Jitsu.