John Danaher

At a glance

• Sixth-degree Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt under Renzo Gracie
• Built the Danaher Death Squad until 2021, then cofounded New Wave Jiu Jitsu in Austin
• Grappling coach to Georges St-Pierre, author of the Enter the System and Go Further Faster series

Overview

John Danaher is a grappling coach born in Washington in 1967. He grew up in New Zealand and studied philosophy at Columbia University in New York. He holds a sixth-degree black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu under Renzo Gracie.

He built the Danaher Death Squad, a group of grapplers that included Gordon Ryan, Garry Tonon and Craig Jones, until the team split in 2021. In late 2021 he cofounded New Wave Jiu Jitsu in Austin, Texas. In MMA, he served as grappling coach to Georges St-Pierre and supported Chris Weidman.

What you'll find

His Instagram account, @danaherjohn, stands out for its long teaching posts. Under a photo or short clip, he works through one principle at a time: control, position before submission, the logic of leg attacks, how to build a game around a system.

The rest of his teaching lives in his instructional series on BJJ Fanatics, including Enter the System and Go Further Faster. These are long video courses organized by topic, designed to be studied and then drilled on the mat.

Why follow

His Danaher Death Squad students, Gordon Ryan, Garry Tonon and Craig Jones, built their no-gi competition games with him, and following their coach gives you the logic behind those games. His posts spell out the reasoning behind each technique and where it fits in a system, which helps you connect positions into a coherent game instead of collecting moves one at a time.

For MMA fans, his ideas shed light on the ground game of the fighters he has worked with, starting with Georges St-Pierre. For practitioners, his Instagram posts are a free way in before you commit to the paid instructionals.

MMA Official's take

This account is for jiu-jitsu and grappling practitioners, and for MMA fans who want to understand what happens on the ground. Start with his long Instagram posts: read several on the same topic, leg attacks for example, before you try the ideas in training.

If you want to go further, Enter the System is the logical first purchase on BJJ Fanatics, because it lays out his method one system at a time. Work through one volume, drill it for a few weeks, then move on to the next.