John Danaher is a BJJ instructor who lives in NYC and trains athletes out of the “blue basement” which is Renzo Gracie’s gym. Danaher born in the USA, but raised in New Zealand moved back to the USA whilst studying philosophy at Columbia University. During this period he would earn a PhD in philosophy whilst being a doorman in the night clubs in Manhatten.
It was during these early days in America when Danaher began to train Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. At this time in the early ’90s, BJJ was not mainstream at all. The UFC had only just aired and people may have been aware of what it was, but it was very difficult to find a teacher since there weren’t many Brazilians in America yet.
An exception to this was Renzo Gracie who opened one of the first gyms in New York. It was here that Danaher trained alongside the likes of Roger Gracie & Matt Serra before earning his black belt from Renzo. He later released Mastering Jiu Jitsu with his instructor Renzo Gracie.
Danaher is well known for being the best coach in the entirety of BJJ although never competing. He has gone on record to state that he never competed, which he often contributes to his injured hip and entry into BJJ later on in life. This interests some people as they may have previously held the opinion that you could not be a great coach if you did not compete. Danaher firmly dismisses this myth as his students are the most successful on the planet and only have good things to say about him.
One of the main reasons Danaher doesn’t compete and rarely spars in recent years is because of injuries he sustained whilst playing rugby in New Zealand. Danaher completely blew out his knee playing rugby and is often seen on the mats holding a stick. Other than having a complete hip replacements, he has mentioned that he cannot straighten his leg and has walked with a limp for a long time, incidentally, when walking he is in constant pain.
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The Danaher Death Squad (DDS)
Whilst Danaher himself is not a fan of the name Danaher Death Squad, it has multiple successful members (both past and present). Current members of the death squad include current ADCC double champion Gordon Ryan, Garry Tonon, Ethan Crelinsten & Nicky Ryan. Former members include Eddie Cummings.
Danaher also has trained the MMA athletes Chris Weidman, Jake Shields and Georges St Pierre, of who have been massively successful. St Pierre often being talked about as one of or the greatest MMA fighter of all time.
Strange Facts About John Danaher
- Danaher is almost never seen without wearing a rashguard. He most famously wore a rashguard to Matt Serra’s wedding and also an awards ceremony with Georges St Pierre in which he was almost denied entry.
- Danaher enjoys collecting knives. Yes that’s right, Danaher collects knives and awards them to his students after achieving success. For instance, if they win ADCC, Danaher can give them a knife as a celebration. According to Danaher, the knife can be used for good or bad. This represents the evolution of his grapplers.
- He is known for lengthy instagram posts. In an era where most people will type a couple of sentences with emojis. Danaher will post many paragraphs about what most people would consider a basic concept.
- He will regularly wear a fanny pack for convenience and does not care about fashion
- He believes NYC is never cold enough to wear a coat – so he does not own one
- Danaher used to be a bodybuilder in his younger days whilst living in New Zealand
- He often refers to moves by their traditional, Japanese names instead of modern variations
- He was born in the USA as his father was living in a military base in the US at the time, meaning he is a US citizen
Systematic Approach To Jiu-Jitsu (Enter The System Series)
There is no doubt that John Danaher has completely revolutionized instructional videos with his deep conceptual understanding and simplistic, guided and systematic approach. When he first released his heel hook videos they were some of the most popular paid instructionals of all time. Since then he has released many different concepts such as back control, headlock control, guard passing and pretty much every other concept there is.
Whilst some people find Danaher’s videos boring, there is no doubt that they are functional and effective. There is not an instructor who appeals to absolutely everyone, but Danaher’s approach is not to entertain you. It breaks down things you previously didn’t understand properly into a basic system with simple steps to follow. Danaher has been accused in the past of being secretive of his secrets. Since we cannot get inside his head, nobody knows if this is really true, but we can say with some certainty that a lot of the heel hook details he released were revolutionary and completely changed the way people use leg locks.
Danaher’s entire ‘Enter The System’ video series can be purchased here.
He Revolutionized The Leg Lock Game
Before Danaher came along, leg locks were seen as low-percentage and moves out of desperation. In short, if you weren’t skilled enough to pass a guard, you would jump into a leg lock to try and get a cheap submission. Not only this but at the time leg locks weren’t considered controlled enough to be taken seriously. Often the leg entanglements weren’t massively detailed meaning opponents could resist until escaping.
However, Danaher changed a lot of this. Inspired by Dean Lister, he started focusing on lower body attacks which were previously taboo in BJJ. Most noticeably he turned the saddle position into a game-changer which made heel hooks massively popular due to the great control now incorporated into the entries. It could further be argued that the growth of no gi in general was partly to do with Danaher as he made leg locks so popular which lead to a completely new form of strategy when approaching no gi matches.
