The Kingsway schedule tells a story that most coaches at John Danaher‘s level would never bother writing for themselves anymore. Monday through Friday, his name is on the board three separate times a day: Advanced Gi at 7:00 am, Pro No-Gi at 9:00 am, and Pro No-Gi again at 12:30 pm. Then, when the rest of the coaching staff gets the weekend off, Danaher shows up anyway, running Pro No-Gi at 10:30 am on both Saturday and Sunday. That is the actual, printed reality of how a 59 year old man who has already reshaped modern grappling chooses to spend his week.
Danaher does not need to teach three sessions a day to prove anything to anyone. He has trained and developed a generation of the best grapplers alive, guided fighters to UFC gold, and built a body of instructional work that is treated less like a video series and more like a textbook by anyone serious about the sport. His case as the most accomplished coach in grappling history, and arguably in mixed martial arts too, was settled a long time ago. There is no title left to chase and no reputation left to build. Whatever this schedule is, it is not resume padding.
It is worth remembering what that body has actually been through to get here. Danaher was born with a deformed kneecap, suffered a serious rugby injury decades ago, and the resulting damage eventually spread to his hip, leading to a hip replacement. Anyone who has watched him move around a mat for hours at a time knows that comfort is not part of the deal. He teaches through it anyway, five weekday classes that most healthy coaches half his age would find exhausting, and he does it because sitting down was apparently never the plan.
By any reasonable financial measure, Danaher stopped needing to teach a long time ago. His instructionals alone have sold in numbers that would let most coaches retire quietly and live off the royalties. He could disappear from the mats entirely and still be remembered as the sport’s defining mind. Instead he is up before seven most mornings, running a gi class, then two more no-gi sessions before lunch, then doing it all again on the weekend for students who are not even part of his flagship competition team.
Look closely at who Danaher is actually teaching on this timetable and it becomes clear this is not just about the elite. The 7 am Advanced Gi class and the midday Pro No-Gi sessions put him in the room with committed hobbyists and competitors alike, not just the household names people associate with his gym. The weekend classes exist purely because he decided grappling students deserve access to him even on a Saturday morning. Nobody is making him do that.
A man with a hip replacement, a body full of old injuries, more money than he could spend, and a legacy that is already permanent is choosing, seven mornings a week, to put on a gi or grab a whiteboard marker and teach jiu-jitsu to whoever walks through the door. At 59, with every excuse available to slow down, John Danaher’s schedule says he simply loves the sport too much to stop.
A freelance journalist with more than seven years of experience covering a wide range of topics, with a focus on delivering accurate, engaging, and well-researched reporting. He studied at the University of Birmingham, where he developed a strong foundation in journalism and communications. Martin is a 10th Planet BJJ brown belt and has been training for approximately 10 years and a keen follower of submission grappling.
