John Danaher’s Four Part System and the integration of leg locks

The best podcast in mixed martial arts history was JRE MMA Show #11 with John Danaher. It’s said in Japan, “Kimura No Mae Ni Kimura Naku, Kimura No Ato Ni Kimura Nashi” (No one before Kimura, no one after). Same thing.

‘New Zealand’ John is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt under Renzo Gracie and an instructor at Renzo’s academy in New York City; he is widely regarded within the grappling community as one of the greatest coaches in the sport’s history. Praised by some of the prime figures in combat sports such as MMA guru Greg Jackson and BJJ legend Vinicius ‘Draculino’ for his knowledge and teaching capabilities, Danaher is best known for his work with athletes such as Georges St-Pierre, Garry Tonon, Gordon Ryan and Eddie Cummings. The latter three are among the group known as the Danaher Death Squad (DDS).

The JRE MMA Show #11 is two and a half hours long and has over 1,000,000 views. Stuart Cooper used just five minutes of it, as Danaher breaks down his systems-based approach of Jiu-Jitsu and how he found a way to integrate leg locks. For years Jiu-Jitsu has been a single directional game, always moving from the legs towards the head. But by introducing leg locks to the system, it changes the very nature of the sport. Now, for the first time, Jiu-Jitsu has become two-directional where you can now move back from the head towards the legs. This results in opening up much more submissions than the traditional game.

Danaher also has the most informative Instagram account in combat sports. FOLLOW HIM RIGHT NOW.