John Danaher Takes You Inside the Matrix

Read the full article about the seminar by John Danaher over at Submission Control.

For me, when I started Jiu-Jitsu, my background was predominantly in Judo. I had also wrestled for a club team in college and helped coach a local high school program by working out with the kids and doing my fair share of freestyle wrestling.

When I began committing more time to Jiu-Jitsu, like many, I started by looking for moves. Looking for a certain or particular escape. I look for a piece of the puzzle.
Over time, however, you often find yourself more interested in knowing at times what the big picture looks like. Even a rudimentary understanding of what the puzzle should look like will help a brand new puzzle solver complete the puzzle.

With time, you tend to find yourself looking for an approach, or a style in which you approach Jiu-Jitsu. For some it is a passing/top position game. For others it is an open guard game to sweep and/or submit et cetera.

It's easy to find 1001 submissions on youtube. And technique videos have their place.
But, I find myself far more interested in hearing a high level grappler talk about their approach to Jiu-Jitsu, and their philosophy. That being said, when I read the description of a seminar by John Danaher I was highly interested. He's one of those guys that other black belts find themselves blown away by. Much in the manner which I hear black belts talk about how Rickson will explain an armbar or a collar choke, one technique, but his ability to deepen their level of understanding proves astounding.

Back to the article:
Danaher breaks down what he calls high percentage moves. His working definition for a high percentage move is one you see at all levels of competition, at all body types, and succeeds a large(r) portion of the time when attempted.

I highly recommend you go read the article for yourself btw, rathere than read my paraphrasing.

He breaks down into list form the highest level/percentage moves in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (while using the Japanese terminology ;)

They are as follows:
1) The Roger Gracie mounted collar choke
2) Mounted collar choke to armbar
3) Cross Collar choke from Butterfly guard
4) Double lapel choke from the back mount to armbar

At any rate, Happy Trainingz and give this some food for thought.

For sure, high level grapplers have their pet techiniques like Marcelo's Guillotine, or Langhi's Spider guard, Roger's mounted collar choke, but their attributes, are often what lets them best so many various styles and players.
Their base, balance, grip, precision, pressure.....these are the true hallmarks of a high level grappler.