Issue 075
May 2011
How an unassuming Kiwi became the world’s premier BJJ instructor
The gossip in elite BJJ circles right now is that John Danaher made pretzels of Guy Richie’s bodyguards when the cult film director, himself a brown belt, swung by Renzo Gracie’s NY academy recently. “Absolutely not!” refutes the normally soft-spoken Danaher. “They’re a bunch of hulking judokas who would pick me up and drop me on my head were I to attempt any of my puny techniques!”
LEADING MAN
John Danaher
TUF 13 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Coach
The rumor’s not entirely unfounded – Danaher has long been regarded as BJJ’s best-kept secret. “He is the smartest man I have ever met,” says Georges St Pierre of his long-term trainer, who holds a Phd in philosophy from the Ivy League‘s esteemed Columbia University. Until last year Danaher was primarily known as the co-writer of grappling bible Mastering Jiu-Jitsu (currently £10.99 on Amazon) alongside his mentor Renzo Gracie. But a show-stealing cameo alongside GSP in The Ultimate Fighter 13 propelled the profound guru into modern MMA’s glaring limelight. His intellectual interpretation of jiu-jitsu’s principles and how they apply to contemporary life compelled viewers as much as it did the highly-regarded UFC welterweight champ.
“Philosophy literally means ‘love of wisdom,’” says Danaher. “The study of jiu-jitsu gives one wisdom with regards the working, mechanics, weaknesses and strengths of the human body and the strategy and tactics by which one person or group of people can gain competitive advantage over another. The study of philosophy gave me the greatest skill that any man can have: the skill of critical thinking that enables a man to gain knowledge through rational enquiry. To look upon the world through the eyes of a problem solver. Jiu-jitsu is, more than anything else, a course in problem solving, namely, the problem of how to control and submit a resisting opponent who is attempting to do the same to you. As such, it shares with the study of philosophy the ideal of rational solutions to difficult problems. They differ only in subject matter.”
New Zealander Danaher discovered BJJ while working as a bouncer in his student days. “I needed a means of making money to pay the bills that rapidly accumulate in a city such as New York, and accordingly I took on a job that I had done back in New Zealand, bouncing at bars and nightclubs. In such a line of work, fighting is a common thing. I was intrigued by the success that I witnessed wrestlers having in bar fights. Like most people of my generation, I was lead to believe that grappling skills would be useless in a real fight, since an opponent would simply knock you out as you attempted to grapple with him. About the same time, the first UFCs were being held and I was greatly impressed by the performance of the various grappling styles, in particular, Royce Gracie and Brazilian jiu-jitsu.” Already a keen bodybuilder, Danaher delved into this intriguing ‘new’ martial art, heading ‘downtown’ to Renzo Gracie’s burgeoning Manhattan academy. In an arena populated with bullshit artists and shape throwers, Renzo’s family’s functional fighting art was a breath of fresh air. Danaher took to Renzo from the outset. “He’d moved to NYC in 1995 to open up his school and had many talented students, foremost among them a young Matt Serra. Renzo is, as anyone who has ever met him will testify, one of the most charming, warm and charismatic fellows you could ever hope to meet. I was blessed to be there as a beginner at that time. This was during the early days of MMA, with the greatest revolution in the history of modern martial arts taking place all around us. We felt like witnesses to a new age, led by one of its leading forces. The sheer variety of people who were drawn to the school from all walks of life united by only a single strand – their desire to learn the kingly art of jiu-jitsu. At the time I was so naive I didn’t even understand how lucky I was.”
Danaher is noted for his dry humor as well as his intellect. A devout proponent of the rash guard, he’s rarely seen without one, including in the congregation at Matt Serra’s wedding and on the red carpet of ESPN’s ESPY awards. “They are much more efficient than regular shirts. Lighter, more comfortable, good for travelling, easy to clean. I cannot understand why the whole world has not switched over to rash guards yet. The one I wore to Matt’s wedding was a particularly fine one, I would wear it to the White House and be proud. When I entered the wedding hall there was an awkward silence – that usually happens when I enter any room – and then all the men turned to their wives and whispered, ‘Don’t worry, it’s Danaher – he means well.’”
Like his star student GSP, Danaher believes in constant evolution and the quest for self-knowledge. Or in his own inimitable words: “The underlying principles of jiu-jitsu (and indeed, all combat sports) are as fixed and unyielding as the greatest mountains of the Earth, rooted as they are, in the unchanging strengths and weaknesses of the physical body of man. The techniques of jiu-jitsu, on the other hand, change with the rapidity of the waters of a river, since they are the result of the restless minds of men, who endlessly seek out innovation and change, and study hard in order to gain competitive advantage over each other.” Maybe Danaher would be an academic were he not lecturing in combat sports? “No, if I wasn’t a grappling coach,” he says, “I’d be a porn star.”
