Danaher No Gi Takedowns

[Quebec Nick]

You never even remove the knife from its sheath for the entirety of Volume 1: Understanding the Puncture Principle, & A Brief History of the Scabbard

The dilemma between puncturing and slashing your training partner

The central problem of big Rambo style knives

The single greatest advantage of upward cuts over side to side cuts

Lunging to puncture create extension and extension is weakness

 

[Daz2300]

This is the thread two years back on the "feet to floor" series:

https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/john-danaher-launches-‘feet-to-floor’-takedown-instructional-series.4128676/

As I did then, I wonder if Danaher can really add anything meaningful to what's available for free from guys like Travis Stevens, who himself is a Danaher BB:

I remember that thread, hopefully Danaher has learned how to apply takedowns against resisting opponents in the two years since ;-)

 

[fishNjits]

It’s out as of this morning.

Standing2Ground

 

[judoka loca]

John Danaher's no gi version of his Feet to Floor series released this morning.
As soon as I get home from work I plan on going through it and sharing my thoughts with y'all about what it contains and the quality of the techniques. Let me know if you have any questions!

 

[Kratos94]

I like Danaher's instructionals (in particular; escapes and half-guard).

But why buy a takedown-focused instructional series from a guy who probably cannot put any amount of required weight on his left knee lmao

I hope he wont go through the number 1 class/whatever about Stance and Motion lmao. Wrestlers should be mobile and fluid, the opposite of what I'd assume he will show.

A short rant, but after wrestling for a part of my life (before moving to the UK), it is hard to watch 'Nogi wrestling'. It is horrible, ugly and stupid. Shooting can be dangerous against guys with good guillotines, or kimura traps, but they don't fix the problem of learning some upper body takedowns. Eg, the majority of competitors (even at the very top) try stupid arm-drags that have no chance of working because said competitors don't understand weight distribution and how to make them work...

 

[Kratos94]

I thought this was pretty interesting, and will probably give some insight to his instructional:

 

[BigDeadFreak]

I find it almost impossible to learn any martial arts from instructional videos. Unless you're going to watch it at your club, on the mats with a training partner who can go through it all with you I don't see the point.

 

[yetanother]

I find it almost impossible to learn any martial arts from instructional videos. Unless you're going to watch it at your club, on the mats with a training partner who can go through it all with you I don't see the point.

I watch it at home, then drill it at the club and rewatch to see why it didn't work as expected when drilling.

 

[CinemaKingdom]

I watch it at home, then drill it at the club and rewatch to see why it didn't work as expected when drilling.

This is what I do as well. In fact, I've learned way more from instructional videos than I ever did in classes. But I actually study them, take notes, pay attention. Most people I've seen complain about instructional videos just kind of watch them and expect to have it mastered. I've been using instructionals for years, even when everyone always said "you can't learn from them, go to class". And I was tapping people out from the stuff I learned in instructionals lol.

When resources exist that give you private lessons and fully cover a subject, from the best fighters and teachers in the world, one is kind of a moron to ignore; if they want to be good that is. If they are happy being another mediocre local guy, ignore instructionals.

 

[ITRDC5]

I mean it is really really easy to put a video up to shown that a single technique wont work and here is the defence to it.

Assuming your opponent knows the defense and is/or is an elite wrestler.

Its like saying here how to stop a inside heel hook- so never ever use one

 

[DoctorTaco]

I mean it is really really easy to put a video up to shown that a single technique wont work and here is the defence to it.

Assuming your opponent knows the defense and is/or is an elite wrestler.

Its like saying here how to stop a inside heel hook- so never ever use one

my favorite part of watching mma sparring is when someone who’s learned to sprawl gets shot on by someone who knows how to chain wrestle

 

[yetanother]

Watch some DVDs by John Smith.
Learning takedown from some guy who never wrestled seems just ridiculous to me, there is a ton of materials by guys who are 1000x times better then Danaher, better coaches, 10x smarter and can actually speak English properly and conway more details in 1/3 the time.

 

[yetanother]

A short rant, but after wrestling for a part of my life (before moving to the UK), it is hard to watch 'Nogi wrestling'. It is horrible, ugly and stupid. Shooting can be dangerous against guys with good guillotines, or kimura traps, but they don't fix the problem of learning some upper body takedowns.

I feel a big problem is that the bjj grapplers are treated as super roided out kids by their coaches and taught super rudimentary setups rather the a bit more complex stuff that gets the hands out of the way for a cleaner less risky shot.

 

[Daz2300]

Watch some DVDs by John Smith.
Learning takedown from some guy who never wrestled seems just ridiculous to me, there is a ton of materials by guys who are 1000x times better then Danaher, better coaches, 10x smarter and can actually speak English properly and conway more details in 1/3 the time.

When the Gi Takedowns set came out people from different standup grappling backgrounds all commented that it looked poor. The reason was the techniques were missing a lot of the key details that make them work against resistance that somebody who really understood them beyond the mechanical movements would show. The suggestion was that despite his huge knowledge of other aspects of grappling that teaching effective takedowns was not his strongpoint. He clearly hadn't much experience doing them to resisting opponents likely due to injuries and age based on what was shown.

The counter-argument was mostly "They should look bad to judokas and wrestlers they're for BJJ dummy!!" which ignores that those arts teach you to apply the same techniques against fully resisting opponents. Without properly explaining off-balancing, angles, your own correct body alignment and all those other micro elements rather than the basic movements that make up the takedown or throw its likely you'll fail, injure yourself or injure the other guy. With an understanding of those small details you can make them work in any grappling context against resistance even though it may not look pretty because you understand what makes them work is not just the major movements.

Hopefully this is a lot better than that set but as people said back then why not do this type of set with somebody with the relevant standup coaching skills and chip in at points? The BJJ Fanatics guys have a ton of sets already from people like John Smith, Jimmy Pedro and massive amount of high level wrestlers and Judoka past and present that will teach a BJJ guy far more useful takedown techniques for BJJ than any "Takedowns for BJJ" from Danaher.

 

[fishNjits]

I watch it at home, then drill it at the club and rewatch to see why it didn't work as expected when drilling.

^^^This.
Drilled RvL tai otoshi and single leg after this morning's class based on FTF Vol. 1.

 

[Quebec Nick]

I watch it at home, then drill it at the club and rewatch to see why it didn't work as expected when drilling.

pff drilling...

test while rolling, if it's something around the stuff you are already playing, you can easily pull it off straight in live rolling

I've had some very good success with Danaher's stuff with no drilling at all

You need to be willing to look bad from time to time but if you are a quick learner that can work

 

[Kratos94]

I feel a big problem is that the bjj grapplers are treated as super roided out kids by their coaches and taught super rudimentary setups rather the a bit more complex stuff that gets the hands out of the way for a cleaner less risky shot.

To be fair, a lot of BJJ coaches have never had any wrestling experience, thus would benefit greatly from a wrestling coach. Even one class a week. Not trying to sound too judgemental, but my BJJ gym has no wrestling class (unfortunately); although during the rolling rounds, some choose to try and take each other down, and 99% of the time it looks so dumb and stupid. The shot mechanics - everything. Not their fault, but if watching instructionals, they'd rather take advice from Danaher, than say, John Smith, Monday, Cox etc.

Having wrestled before, the only thing I need to be wary of is guillotines. But with any decent set-up, the risk is gone.

 

[yetanother]

pff drilling...

test while rolling, if it's something around the stuff you are already playing, you can easily pull it off straight in live rolling

I've had some very good success with Danaher's stuff with no drilling at all

You need to be willing to look bad from time to time but if you are a quick learner that can work

A lot more efficient to get the mechanics right in drilling rather than waste an opportunity for the move in a roll.

 

[Peteyandjia]

People can talk all the ish they want about Danaher never having the makings of a varsity athlete, nor winning any D1 titles --

-- but I can tell you firsthand, his 'Feet to Floor' series took my shit-ass standing uke waza, which previously only worked on a buncha whites, some blues, & the occasional purples I'd catch slipping here & there... to a reliable weapon, that often works on even browns & blacks.

Granted, I'm nothing special to brag about athetically, far from it; but that's kinda the point.

And I do have to give hobbled-ass old no-wrasslin' havin' Danaher, the credit for it.

 

[Quebec Nick]

A lot more efficient to get the mechanics right in drilling rather than waste an opportunity for the move in a roll.

I'm never doing some weird stuff that is not near what I do in my game.


Like I don't play a lot of closed guard. If I watch a video about a triangle choke from there, Everything will go wrong. I'm not good in that position, it's not natural for me to be there, I don't have the right grips, I'm not efficient AND I'm trying a new move. Plus the fact that I won't go naturally into the position, that I have to think about it...

But I've been playing with Half butterfly guard for 5 years, I'm doing it all the time, If I watch a video about a new X guard entry or a tweek for a sweep, I can do it right away because I'm good in that position and I'm gonna have a shitload of occasions to try it.


The other thing is that a lot of stuff is more about the setups and getting into a position. Let's say the 4X4 mount video by Danaher

The whole point is to get to mount with the other gu's arm trap over his head. The finishes are pretty basic, it's the hand fighting game that is important and that starts early in the move. What's the point of drilling the actual technique that is the Mounted triangle when all the hard work is on getting into position to do it.

Same thing with the back attack system, you need to be good at all the grip fighting, because doing the actuel finishes are not that new, it's the way of getting there that you need to get good at

Posistionnal sparring would be the best most of the time, way better than just rolling. But drilling as limits