Stealing John Danaher's Instagram Posts

  What’s the hurry? Submission holds all have their own character.  Sometimes speed of application really does help get the breakthrough. Other times a submission hold can be a long process of control and switching from one position, grip or even a different submission altogether. As a general rule - submissions where you position an opponent on their back or butt tend to be the slower paced submissions where it’s wise to emphasize control first and submission second; whilst submissions performed is rolling on to hands and knees with chest down to floor are usually best performed at a quicker pace - though there are exceptions. The most important thing is this - LEARN TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THOSE SUBMISSIONS THAT OPERATE BEST WITH HIGH PACE EXECUTION AND THOSE WITH LOW PACE EXECUTION AND PERFORM THEM AT THE SPEED APPROPRIATE TO THE SITUATION. Understand that pace of execution is an important factor in the success or failure of most submissions and that mixing up speed versus c...

The mount and the rear mount are always linked: The mount and rear mount are the two highest scoring positions in Jiu jitsu. At any given time - whenever you have one - you are only one turn of your opponents body from the other. Learning to play between mount and rear mount is a huge part of your journey to developing a devastating pinning game. If you squeeze too tightly with your legs you lose this ability to move effortlessly from one to the other. Sometimes you have to open up and relax a little to let them move themselves from mount to rear mount and vice versa. Understand however, that if you play loose with your legs, you’ll generally have to play tight with your upper body to compensate. Here, Gordon Ryan expertly plays the gray zone between mount and rear mount - i t could go either way at this point - which way it falls will depend on his opponent - but either way he will score the maximum and be in a fine position to finish.

  The more risks you take in the gym - the less risk you’ll have to take when it counts: It’s natural to want to play a conservative, low risk game in the gym sometimes. Our training partners are often very tough and skilled.  This will make you want to play a low risk game centered around your best moves and staying away from your partners best weapons. By staying in that comfort zone however, you limit your exposure to new techniques and new situations. Competition has a way of putting you in situations you didn’t count on happening and exposing you to attacks you aren’t used to defending. This is a consequence of the fact that in competition you will face opponents you know nothing about and who come from a totally different coaching program which may emphasize very different aspects of the sport in ways very different from what you do. Learn to really USE the gym environment to make yourself better. The gym is a place to TAKE RISKS AND EXPERIMENT - not a place to win at al...

  Finding your pace: One of the most important factors in determining the outcome of a grappling match is the least discussed - the PACE of the match.  Beyond all the techniques and tactics lies the overall pace of the two athletes.  The pace will determine their work rate and if the work rate of an athlete exceed what he is physically capable of for an extended period of time, he will lapse into exhaustion. Exhaustion is almost always a precursor of defeat. Work rate is a fascinating concept. You can work in different ways.  Sometimes the work will be isometric , with a demand for static holding strength for time.  Other times the work will be movement, with heavy aerobic demands. Other times it will be explosive speed work. Each is tiring in a different way, and most importantly, different athletes usually excel at one type of work but not others. You can exhaust an athlete with excellent aerobic fitness by making him work hard in isometric situations such as ...

  Alarm clocks and Jiu jitsu:  Imagine a friend challenged you to solve a fairly complex math question within a set time.  He sat you in a chair, placed some paper and a pen on the table in front of you and set a clock. Just as you begin the challenge the clock emits a loud and continuous alarm sound - perhaps someone else set the alarm earlier in the day. What’s the first step you’d take to solve this math problem?  YOU WOULD TURN OFF THE DAMN ALARM!!!  It’s very difficult to solve complex problems when distracted.  Jiu jitsu is no different.  When you go to engage with an opponent it’s always good to begin by SHUTTING DOWN THE OTHER FELLOWS GAME TO THE GREATEST DEGREE POSSIBLE BEFORE IMPOSING YOUR OWN.  This means you can focus without the distraction of your opponents attacks whilst doing your thing. Work is always better without distraction - make sure your Jiu jitsu work is also done with the least possible distraction by consciously shutting...

The guard position will always be the most important position in Jiu jitsu: The guard must always be the foundation of your game. The guard represents the single best method of fighting effectively from bottom position for extended periods of time that enables you to protect yourself from a single unarmed attacker in a real fight and to employ almost the full arsenal of submissions against an opponent whilst also allowing you sweep your way into top position or stand back up to your feet without exposing your back if the situation should demand it. Nature doesn’t do a very good job preparing us for fighting effectively from our back.  If you watch two completely untrained people fight on the ground whoever gets top position generally prevails.  However, with knowledge and training you can make this position perform in ways that seem near miraculous. However much of a struggle and no matter how initially frustrating it may be, make sure you focus the majority of your early tra...

Isolation:  The most impressive displays of strength from the human body all involve the unity of the body working as a whole, arms, legs and core moving with unity of purpose.  Our bodies are strong when they are unified.  When it comes time to play the game of Jiu jitsu you want to reduce your opponents strength to the greatest degree possible. The best way to do this is to isolate his limbs.   A single limb in isolation is not strong. THE ESSENCE OF JIU JITSU IS TO MATCH THE UNIFIED STRENGTH OF YOUR WHOLE BODY AGAINST THE ISOLATED WEAKNESS OF AN OPPONENTS SINGLE LIMB - whether it be leg, arm or neck.  If you can do this you can make a strong man weak and easy to control.

  The mount is mastery: When I first began Jiu jitsu I was deeply impressed by the power of the mounted position for self defense and fighting. However, when I grappled my experience with the mount was like that of most people - it can be a frustrating position - it’s great when you can punch and elbow in a fight, but rather less useful in grappling when you can only do submissions. I felt that the mount was not as stable as side and north/south pins. It wasn’t as good for strangles as the rear mount and it had a rather limited number of submissions compared with other pins and these submissions were tricky to apply from the relatively unstable mount position. As such in my early years I didn’t spend much time working on mount skills outside of mma training. As I spent more time in the game I came to see the error of my ways.  Even in grappling the mount can be a devastating position when used well.  There is a reason why the two greatest Jiu jitsu pinners of all time, Ro...

One of the single biggest differences between BEGINNER and EXPERT in Jiu jitsu is that experts employ their HEAD while grappling and physical means of pushing, blocking, trapping their opponents to a MUCH greater degree than most beginners.  Most beginners have a natural tendency to shy away from head contact and often look away from opponents or hang back with their head for fear of hurting themselves or training partner. This is something you have to get over.  Your head is one of your most effective mechanical tools in grappling.  Use it whenever you can.  Here I use head position combined with an underhook to block a training partners ability to move his own head and thus facilitate a half guard pass. This is just one of numerous ways you can use your head to gain advantage or defend yourself in grappling. Start experimenting with head position as a means to increase the effectiveness of your favorite positional moves or as a way to stop your opponent performing ...

If he can’t grip you, then he can’t control you:  It’s often a good idea to focus on controlling your opponents hands and arms whenever you feel they are controlling you with grip.  Some opponents just feel like once they put hands on you they can dominate.  Don’t give them the luxury of putting grips on you.  Control their hands or get your hands and elbows inside their arms and you will severely limit their ability to use their superior strength through grips upon your body. You don’t want to play this game exclusively as it can degenerate into a negative game where you focus too much on interfering with what the other fellow is doing rather than focusing primarily on what you want to do, but used for short periods of time and/or specific opponents it can be a big help when fighting bigger and stronger opponents.

Changing angle changes everything:  Whenever you are in engaged against a skilled opponent he will adopt a stance that is designed to shut down your ability to attack him FROM YOUR CURRENT POSITION.  However, if you CHANGE your current position by taking an ANGLE on your opponent, that stance will no longer be as effective at stopping your attacks.   Changing your angle relative to your opponent changes things considerably and makes possible what was impossible just a second before.  Make a habit of moving to a new angle prior to attacking and you’ll soon find that you are breaking through defenses that were previously shutting you out.

Quintessential Jiu jitsu moves: Do you think there are certain moves that represent the spirit of Jiu jitsu better than others? I’ve always believed that among the various submissions, the TRIANGLE and the REAR STRANGLE are more representative of the ideals of Jiu jitsu than the others. The rear strangle because it represents the Jiu jitsu ideal of ASYMMETRY IN ATTACKING POTENTIAL. A central theme of Jiu jitsu is to get to positions where you can attack your opponent at will, but he cannot attack you in return.  Because the rear strangle is innately tied to dominant position, it is extremely difficult for an opponent even to defend himself, forget about attacking you.  You on the other hand, can attack with the single most high percentage finishing hold in the sport - it doesn’t get any better than that.  The triangle represents a different ideal of Jiu jitsu - the ideal of FIGHTING YOUR OPPONENTS UPPER BODY WITH YOUR LOWER BODY. The human body is set up in a way where...

 

  In a tough match against an opponent your own size and skill level you will probably get less than three opportunities to finish - your training must reflect this reality. As much as we like to learn new novelties and tricks, it must be understood that these are generally of use only when matched against easy opponents. In a tough match you will always be forced back to your most trusted weapons. MAKE SURE YOUR BEST WEAPONS ARE YOUR MAJOR FOCUS IN MATCH PREPARATION AND THAT YOU CONSTANTLY LOOK FOR WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR PERFORMANCE OF THEM AND ADD NEW SET UPS, VARIATIONS AND FOLLOW UPS TO KEEP THEM EVOLVING. You will be judged NOT BY HOW MANY MOVES YOU KNOW, but rather by HOW MANY YOU CAN APPLY ON THE TOUGHEST OPPONENTS, and this number is quite small EVEN FOR THE BEST IN THE WORLD.

  Nothing ever gets better by panicking:  Pretty much every time we spar your opponent will do something that catches you and you’ll have to dig yourself out of trouble. It’s perfectly normal to feel some anxiety when an opponent is getting into a position that could finish you or score on you - but realize this from the start - however natural it is to feel the beginnings of panic when things go wrong,  PANIC NEVER HELPS PERFORMANCE.  It will be SOUND PERFORMANCE that gets you out of bad situations, not EMOTIONAL ZEAL. Step number one in getting out of bad situations is the simple admonition to CALM THE FUCK DOWN - everything is secondary to that.  When things go wrong your mental direction should always be towards increased FOCUS and ALERTNESS, never panic. Next time your battling out of danger, don’t start with panic and blind instinct - start with ASSESSMENT and CALCULATION - and realize that the only way this is possible is with a relatively calm mind.

The story of the Kenyan runner: One day early in my coaching career I was teaching in Manhattan, when a slender but athletic fellow came in and enquired about beginning Jiu jitsu. He explained that he was a former Olympic level runner for Kenya in the 3000m Steeplechase.  He now lived in NYC where he made a living as a running partner - he had clients who liked to jog and he ran next to them as a pacemaker/coach. He was booked all day every day and so must have been in phenomenal shape as he essentially ran all day for a living.  He had seen some MMA and was curious to try some grappling. We arranged to meet on Sunday morning for an introduction class since that was the only free time he had and begin a Jiu jitsu session.  That Sunday he came in for class and began with a warm up jogging around the dojo. When you see most people run (myself Included) it’s a rather sorry sight - a clumsy, heavy gait where the movement seems forced and inefficient. This man ran like a mix o...

  It’s a game of posture: Good Jiu jitsu players always feel very difficult to attack for a simple reason - they are almost always in good posture and have the discipline to maintain that good posture through an entire match. Your job in Jiu jitsu always comes down to this simple edict: Maintain your own posture at all times whilst doing your utmost to break your opponents posture. Who wins and who loses in a tightly contested match will usually be decided by who did a better job of maintaining their own posture while undermine that of their opponent. Next time you feel stymied in your attacks against a tough opponent - start your attacks with an attack on his POSTURE and THEN the actual attack itself. I promise you this will garner you better results.  Every position in Jiu jitsu has a posture appropriately - once you know each posture and can correlate it the positions in which it is needed, then it’s a matter of maintaining yours while breaking his - that is the essence ...

  If you want to ruin your opponents day - nothing beats a high pressure pin:  A big part of grappling is fatiguing an opponent over time.  There are many good ways to do it, one of the very best will always be to get to strong upper body pins with chest to chest contact.  This puts the onus on your opponent to recover his position against your positioning and body weight and set in the context of further threat of you advancing to another pin and increasing your score. This creates a lot of physical and mental stress for an opponent and allows you to cook him over time. Learning to read your opponents fatigue level is important. It’s easy from a pin due to the close proximity. Once you ascertain that he is starting to tire - start increasing the pressure.  You can do it mechanically with methods such as cross facing and you can do it tactically with threats of submission and transitions to other pins. Learn to use the inherent power of pinning to develop your ...

When you’ve got a simple goal…Very often Jiu jitsu requires us to enter into fast and complex scrambles where it’s hard to know what to do because there are so many variables and so little time to figure things out. My advice is this: play scrambles with a few simple heuristics - simple rules of thumb that give you a CLEAR SENSE OF DIRECTION in the most confusing scrambles. Here, Georges St Pierre and his partner are in fast motion.  There are good possibilities for both athletes. From Georges’ perspective the heuristic KEEP YOUR OPPONENTS HIPS BETWEEN YOUR KNEES gives clear and concise advise that will direct him through the scramble and allow him to finish in winning position.  The more complex and dynamic the situation - the more valuable simple and effective rules become for guidance.

Finding a diamond:  There are a vast number of moves in Jiu jitsu, your job is to first master the fundamentals so that you have a strong foundation and no obvious weaknesses for an opponent to exploit, and then the fun part - selecting a small group of favorite moves that will define your game. How does this selection process occur? How do you come to choose what are to be your main weapons?  There are several main methods.  The first is exposure through a teaching program.  I was blessed to have an excellent teacher, Renzo Gracie, who always did an excellent job of exposing us to a wide and interesting variety of moves so that we had a deep set of choices to work from.  The second is talented mentors or sparring partners. Sometimes a busting athlete will come in with a new perspective or moves you aren’t familiar with but which seem very effective to you and this inspires you to emulate them. Third is watching great athletes from the past and present and being...

  Nicholas Meregali and the power of routine:  The great Brazilian champion Nicholas Meregali has been training with us this week.  In one of our first conversations he said something important that be be of great value to you. Having just arrived in Austin I asked him how things were going and whether he was well situated for training. He replied that everything was fine, he had an AirBnB and car and that now all he needed was to find a supermarket and ESTABLISH A DAILY TRAINING ROUTINE.  That was his first concern - to establish a ROUTINE.  This is the great characteristic I see in all champions.  Human greatness is based on developing SKILLS and skills can only be developed by following a training regimen over time - that is, to establish and follow a ROUTINE.  A life of routine is often disparaged as a poor way to live life. I agree that a life of routine is terrible if you are stuck in a routine that is totally divorced from your life passions. If...

  The positional core of Jiu jitsu is the task of getting to the mount or rear mount position:  Jiu jitsu is a complex game with a great many moves.  Underneath that complexity however, is a very simple desiderata - GET TO THE MOUNT OR REAR MOUNT POSITION.  The mount and rear mount are the two highest scoring moves in Jiu jitsu for a reason - no other positions offer such an imbalance of attacking potential of the athlete holding these positions versus the athlete defending them. As such they represent the philosophical core of the sport - to attain a position where you can reliably attack an opponent with far greater effect than he can attack you. All of the takedowns, sweeps, passes and lesser pins are just a means to the ends of mount and rear mount. You don’t need mount or rear mount to submit people, but they are damn good positions to do so, so they fit in well with a submission specialist’s game as well as they do a positional player; and of course, when you s...