Danaher No Gi Takedowns

[yetanother]

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

If I do 15 reps of something than I can try it in rolling against say an elite level black belt without having to think about what all the details where. At least for me I have to think what the details where when doing the first few reps of something I have seen online. I also work on new positions and/or minor details. To get the darce mechanics where there is choking pressure just right.

 

[Quebec Nick]

If I do 15 reps of something than I can try it in rolling against say an elite level black belt without having to think about what all the details where. At least for me I have to think what the details where when doing the first few reps of something I have seen online. I also work on new positions and/or minor details. To get the darce mechanics where there is choking pressure just right.

It all depends on what you are getting new instruction on

The last few years I worked a lot on guard retention, guard passing and some Danaher systems (back attack, kimura, mount)

Most of the time the instructionals are not on details but on principles and explaining how various technique and setups work together.

There's not a lot of fine details in trapping the arm when you have de back, not that much that you have to drill, it's more about awareness and getting experience as fast as possible in that position.

Same thing with a smash pass, a over under pass, how to grip fight in half guard, how to enter

But as a complete newbie in the leg lock game, I sure need to drill and troubleshoot the finishing mecanics for an inside heel hook or a knee bar

 

[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.

That's it. Whenever you hear about 'good wrestlers' in bjj without any background, they either shoot without any set-up or try a collar-tie snap down, which is 99% a slap to the head (Nicky-Rod and Cyborg are good examples of this). Nicky Rod, however, despite having a D3 background, his wrestling is just ugly to watch. His matches at ADCC in 2019 are literally just really low level wrestling matches, and Orlando Sanchez. I recall watching a video a few days ago and his coach literally told Sanchez to slap the back of his opponents head and drag him down.

I get why they say wrestling is grindy because it can be, but in any decent wrestling competition it is nowhere near as grindy as the jiu jitsu stand-up is. They talk about hand-fighting to tire their opponents out, yet cannot use effective hand-fighting to create openings for shots and attacks...

 

[fishNjits]

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!

And…Did you go through it?

 

[judoka loca]

And…Did you go through it?

Yeah, I did. I'm a super procrastinator, though, my bad.

Whatever Danaher preaches is pretty much the no gi meta, and this DVD is no exception. All the techniques and systems shown on this DVD are what you'll see all the best no gi guys use right now -- controlling takedowns suited to a more upright style of wrestling. If you watch the B-Team guys, or the Tackett brothers, or ATOS, or of course, New Wave, they all wrestle almost exactly like is taught on here.

 

[judoka loca]

Above I included the table of contents, which I don't think is on BJJ Fanatics.

From this, you can kind of get an idea for what Danaher's philosophy is, and it's a tried and true one: start with learning stance, motion, and handfighting, then work your way up to the more timing based takedowns.
He frequently refers to a couple concepts that change how BJJ stand up differs from wrestling, such as that of course submissions and rules change the takedowns, but so does the fact that BJJ athletes don't wear shoes and compete on more slippery mats.

If you don't have a strong wrestling background this would be a pretty good foundation to build a standing game provided you have some prior knowledge. I think there are too many things happening at once on the feet that make learning standing position on your own difficult versus ground techniques. Nevertheless John presents solid techniques specifically for BJJ and it's interesting to see his take on all of it.

 

[fishNjits]

Thanks.

When Black Friday comes around, I'm going to have to figure whether to get FTF Vol. 2 or S2G. I do about 5 classes per week and we often start from standing in the three morning classes. Two of those classes are no gi and one is gi.

 

[judoka loca]

Thanks.

When Black Friday comes around, I'm going to have to figure whether to get FTF Vol. 2 or S2G. I do about 5 classes per week and we often start from standing in the three morning classes. Two of those classes are no gi and one is gi.

You can easily modify this one to gi but not the other way around.

 

[fishNjits]

True

 

[randomg1t]

my main problem with danaher's instruction is how unnecessarily verbose it is.

he will ramble on and on with his high level academic lingo, when a simple description could pass the same message.

"it is of the utmost critical importance that the person performing this specific move places the point of the bottom of his feet onto the side of his opponents hip, right here on the outside of his midsection"

dude, just say "now put your heel on his hip".

the technique he shows is brilliant, though. i just wish he wasn't so desperate to portray himself as someone with tenure at harvard.

 

[dimmyfinster]

my main problem with danaher's instruction is how unnecessarily verbose it is.

he will ramble on and on with his high level academic lingo, when a simple description could pass the same message.

"it is of the utmost critical importance that the person performing this specific move places the point of the bottom of his feet onto the side of his opponents hip, right here on the outside of his midsection"

dude, just say "now put your heel on his hip".

the technique he shows is brilliant, though. i just wish he wasn't so desperate to portray himself as someone with tenure at harvard.

Danaher is actually much better in recent videos compared to older videos. I used to feel as you feel but now I will buy Danaher videos. Just be sure to watch at 1,75x.

 

[fishNjits]

Above I included the table of contents, which I don't think is on BJJ Fanatics.

From this, you can kind of get an idea for what Danaher's philosophy is, and it's a tried and true one: start with learning stance, motion, and handfighting, then work your way up to the more timing based takedowns.
He frequently refers to a couple concepts that change how BJJ stand up differs from wrestling, such as that of course submissions and rules change the takedowns, but so does the fact that BJJ athletes don't wear shoes and compete on more slippery mats.

If you don't have a strong wrestling background this would be a pretty good foundation to build a standing game provided you have some prior knowledge. I think there are too many things happening at once on the feet that make learning standing position on your own difficult versus ground techniques. Nevertheless John presents solid techniques specifically for BJJ and it's interesting to see his take on all of it.

Hey Judoka Loca,

Another question for you...from the TOC it would appear that Danaher is ignoring (unless there's a part 2), throwby's, slidebys, and uchi mata. Is this accurate or did he just rename them something else?

 

[judoka loca]

Hey Judoka Loca,

Another question for you...from the TOC it would appear that Danaher is ignoring (unless there's a part 2), throwby's, slidebys, and uchi mata. Is this accurate or did he just rename them something else?

Yeah, 100%, and I'm glad you mentioned that -- there are quite a few things that are missing or mentioned but not really touched upon that I'm sure will be added in future parts of this series:

- Auxiliary takedowns other than the snapdown (Arm drag, slide by, duck under, etc.)
- Hip throws (Uchi mata, harai goshi, and even o goshi)
- Takedowns from the rear body lock and mat returns
- Guard pulls and dynamic submissions (standing guillotine, flying armbar/triangle)

And of course the most obvious missing piece which is

- Takedown defense and recovery from bad positions.

I would've also really liked to see a study on self defense, just because I'm very intrigued as to how Danaher handles it, but I guess he kind of covers that in his Feet to Floor series (which I don't own)

 

[fishNjits]

Thanks.

yeas

Yeah, 100%, and I'm glad you mentioned that -- there are quite a few things that are missing or mentioned but not really touched upon that I'm sure will be added in future parts of this series:

- Auxiliary takedowns other than the snapdown (Arm drag, slide by, duck under, etc.)
- Hip throws (Uchi mata, harai goshi, and even o goshi)
- Takedowns from the rear body lock and mat returns
- Guard pulls and dynamic submissions (standing guillotine, flying armbar/triangle)

And of course the most obvious missing piece which is

- Takedown defense and recovery from bad positions.

I would've also really liked to see a study on self defense, just because I'm very intrigued as to how Danaher handles it, but I guess he kind of covers that in his Feet to Floor series (which I don't own)

thanks.

Yes. There’s self defense in FTF v. 1.

Danaher seems to prefer snatch singles and arm drags to the back. As far as I can figure, the only question as far as Danaher is concerned is how hard/high yiu take somebody down. This can range from a show of dominance to catastrophic injury. He advocates never going to the ground.

There is a bit where he and Bodoni put on hockey sweaters, but I’ve never completed that.