YouSaid · the spoken record

John Danaher

lines on the record: 326
first: 2022-10-10
most recent: 2022-10-10
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“He was one of the Most impressive people I've ever seen in this regard. He was a true innovator. Innovated this specialized area of striking to a takedown to a greater degree than anyone else I'm aware of.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So in pure wrestling, George, it's not bad. I think he would be a very competitive match, even for a highly ranked American freestyle wrestler. He would lose easily on the ground because he's not used to the partier. He'd probably be leg-laced or gut wrenched quite easily by a skilled opponent. But in just a pure takedown battle, he'd be a competitive training partner for even a good wrestler. But in actual MMA competition, he could take down even the most highly credentialed wrestlers. And in some cases, make it look almost effortless. And that came from his unification of striking skill with wrestling. So he used wrestling skills to finish the takedown and his karate and boxing kickboxing pedigree to enter into the takedown. Now, when he initiated the study of this, this is at a time when MMA was pretty much in its infancy.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And so the act of getting to the takedown is like a completely different sport. George studied wrestling and used to go to wrestling practice twice a week in Canada. They do freestyle wrestling. They don't use the American college style of wrestling. Now, George's main emphasis in wrestling training was takedowns. Obviously, the whole ground element of freestyle wrestling was of no interest to him. Like learning how to put people's back on the ground and turn them with leg laces and gut wrenches was of no value in MMA. So he devoted almost all of his study to just the act of taking someone down.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The entire state of distancing is different. There's the idea of positioning within a cage, like how close you are to the perimeter of the cage changes radically how you approach the takedown. The setups are literally night and day different. The setups are almost entirely composed of striking setups rather than grappling setups.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's another example of someone who's performing takedowns in a rule set radically different from wrestling. Just as the ADCC rule set is so different from conventional wrestling rule sets that the whole manner in which you approach takedowns and even your understanding of takedowns has to be quite strongly modified. So to an MMA, it's even more extreme. People always think, oh, this guy's a good wrestler. He should be able to get takedowns in MMA easily. You find is that the wrestling skills in MMA enable you to finish takedowns. If you get in on your opponent and get to the legs or the waist or what have you, your wrestling skill will enable you to finish the takedown. But getting to the takedown is massively different in the context of MMA than it is in wrestling. The entire stance is different.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Emphasis is placed on the takedown itself in jiu-jitsu, the emphasis is placed on the aftermath of the takedown. That's where the score is allocated And that can be a period of up to three seconds. Now, three seconds doesn't sound like much, but in a scramble after a takedown, three seconds is a fucking eternity. It goes on forever. And so you will see many examples of takedowns that, as I said, would score very well. And judo and wrestling, but don't score at all on ADCC. And so the whole skill becomes packaging the standing position in terms of the takedowns themselves, but in particular preparing the athletes for that critical three seconds after the takedown. That's why many people who have very fine wrestlers struggle in ADCC. They take people down by wrestling metric all the time, but don't score under ADC rules.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Much slower and more evenly paced because you've got to be able to do this for long periods of time. So the number of fakes per minute, the number of shots attempted per minute is usually much lower. So these are obvious differences. The biggest difference, however, has nothing to do with that. It has to do with tactics. In jiu-jitsu, The scores. Be judged by what happens after the takedown. In the case of ADCC, you can take someone down Ways that would score in both wrestling and judo and possibly even win the match in the case of Judo. And it would score zero in ADCC because of the nature of the rules. The whole idea of ADCC scoring is to demonstrate control after the takedown. It's what happens in the critical three seconds after the takedown that creates the score. In judo and in wrestling,”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Matches in jiu-jitsu are much longer than the matches in wrestling. In addition, there are many kinds of submission threat which are not there in wrestling. So the stance has to be significantly changed. In wrestling, they favor generally a very low crouch because the vast majority of attacks are tackles to the legs. So anyone who stands upright and wrestling tends to get heavily punished by being taken down immediately with a leg tackle. Jiu Jitsu, the matches are so much longer, it would be difficult in a 40 minute match, for example, to maintain a bent over crouch. You'd be exhausted. There's also problems associated with submission holds. There are many forms of submission hold guillotines, DAS, etc. If your head comes down too low, you become a little vulnerable to this. And so the stances in jiu-jitsu competition tend to be much more upright, more like judo and Greco. So right off the bat, you see the stance is different. The motion tends to be...”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Okay, first, whenever people talk about standing position, they always say, oh, I need to learn some takedowns. It's never a question of just learning the takedowns, it's learning the prerequisites to the takedowns. The takedowns are more or less like an afterthought. Got to begin with stance, motion, the ability to engage in grip and contact, get your opponent out of balance, and then comes the takedowns. The takedowns in jiu-jitsu are mostly divided into lower body takedowns, tackles to the legs, single legs, double legs. To a lesser degree, high crotch and jiu-jitsu, and then upper body takedowns, which are mostly judo-derived. Nicholas had to start more or less at the ground. He didn't even know how to come out and make grips or hold a stance. And the fact he was able to do so in six months is just incredible.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I always laugh when I talk to Nicholas. I say, you know, I try to teach them a single language, which is traditionally most, you know, like a high single leg is one of the easier takedowns to perform in terms of mechanical difficulty. And Nicholas always struggles with it. And then I teach him one of the more difficult takedowns, Uchimata.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Is a good example of someone who literally didn't have a single takedown six months ago. Now he's throwing one of the toughest guys in the sport with one of the more difficult throws of Judo. Now you're a Judo man. You'll back me up and say, Uchimad is not an easy throw to learn. It takes some time. You're hopping on one foot with both of your body weight. It's very coun”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Nice thing is he starts off with what it looks like it's actually a two directional uchamata. He threatens Uchigari to the back. That's a throw that throws your opponent to the back. His opponent pushes into him, then he changes direction with his support foot and takes him over with Uchimata. As we said earlier, the great advantage of Judo over wrestling is that because there's upper body connection during the throw and after the throw, it's much harder for an opponent to scramble away from you. And even Ty Rotolo is one of the best scramblers in the sport. It stops scrambling here and just go back to guard position and enable Nicholas to hold top position.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Bear in mind, Ty has just fought two very tough matches against guys bigger and stronger than himself. So he's coming into a third match against a third guy who's also bigger than he is. So hats off to Ty, fighting open weight against three monsters in a row. Now Ty and Cade, one of their best attributes is they are two of the best scramblers in the sport of Jiu Jitsu. Whenever you go to shoot on the legs with them, there's a danger of running straight into a dastranglehold. They're very competent at counterattacking single legs with da strangles. It's also very hard to control them after attacked down. They do a very good job of springing back up to the feet. So I told Nicholas to favor upper body judo-based takedowns rather than wrestling takedowns. And you see here a fine example of Nicholas's gathering skill in Uchimata, one of the great throws of...”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That really impressive sense in which they identified their weaknesses and leglocks and bottom position turned it around and made it into strengths. And at the same time, they identified, okay, what are our physical gifts and how can we maximize their use? And they created a program of initiating movement that created tactical rather than physical pressure to set up their best strangleholds. I deeply admire what they've done. young men have a huge future ahead of them.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Traditionally, when we looked at the Ruth Halls when they were young, we saw that there was a disparity between their top game and their bottom game. They were generally much better in top position than they were in bottom position. Again, they saw that as a potential weakness and they turned it around using again their unique long limbs relative to their height. And they make use of a buggy strangle. I'm not sure why it's referred to as a buggy strangle, but basically it's a variation of Karagatama using the legs done from disadvantageous positions on bottom. And they both make brilliant use of that, not so much as a strangle weapon. Occasionally they'll strangle some of it, but they mostly use it to create pressure to make people back off. And as a result, they're able to overcame the disparity between their top game and their bottom game. Now their bottom game is part of their offense, and they're very, very successful from there. And so again, you had.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, strangleholds. So they specialize in those. They adapted a game based around movement. Which forces opponents not with physical pressure but with tactical pressure into positions which expose them to those specialized strangleholds that they use.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But they covered up their weaknesses, but they also understood what are our actual strengths. Now, physically, both of the brothers have extraordinary reach for their height. They both have extraordinarily long arms for their height. That means that variations of Katagatame, in particular Dasas, Anacondas, are going to be much easier for them and their weight division than for most people.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Their current weakness and made prodigious steps to improve upon it to a point now where they're winning championships with their own leglocks. I love the fact that even as teenagers, they had the maturity to say, okay, here's an obvious weakness. Let's get around, let's turn it into a strength. I love the way they did that.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Particular ones stand out, it's interesting, yeah. No, there's a lot more to it than that, it's just the first setting the scene. But what really makes them stand out is that they've mastered this idea of covering up and improving initial weaknesses while building upon strengths. When the Ruatolas first encountered my students, they were relatively easy to leg lock because none of their training experience had prepared them for that They were young at that time, I believe like 16 or 17. And it was an obvious problem for them. They both got heel hooked by my youngsters also. Nikki Ryan and Ethan Crowenston. Could clearly see that they identified.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So you're dealing with a kid who's 19 years old, but he's been grappling for 15 years. And what counts is not your age, but your MAT age.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Strong coaching all along the way. Excellent parental support. So they had like a great history where their youth didn't show off just how long they'd been in the sport.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This specific man absolutely there's a range of factors. One is that they started the sport very, very young. Probably the first example in American grappling of American students who started at age four or five. Most people, when I began Jiu-Jitsu, started Jiu-Jitsu as adults. I was 28 years old when I had my first lesson as a white belt. In time, people got a little younger. For example, Nikki Ryan started when I think when he was 12. But the Ruhr Toler started when they were literally children. They had excellent coaching going all the way up through into their teenage years. So they had the advantage of starting the way so many successful athletes do as children and going up through adulthood and with.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Long, tough matches, but he's used to it. He's a good athlete. So Nicholas and John Carlo went out and John Carlo had a spectacular submission victory against his first opponent. Nicholas had some firework matches. And one of the toughest opponents, he came up against was the brilliant Tyru Too. They had an absolute barn burner. very, very close match. And Ty had an incredible first two matches. He'd beaten Pedro Mourinho by submission and he'd beaten the great Felipe Penna in a very narrow match, very, very tight. Felipe lost on a guard pole. But Felipe is considerably bigger and stronger than Thai. So for Thai to win that match, even by guard poles, deeply impressive. It was an action. Pack match that went back and forth. Very, very impressive.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You've done a 14 week training camp where every day was just as intense as any ADC day. So you're used to it at that point.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It was a tough, tough match, and they were very well matched. Once they figured out they couldn't submit each other at came down to their wrestling ability. Neither one of them was a wrestling specialist, but they're both competent and wrestling. And it became physically very, very tough. Then Nicholas went on to win the bronze medal in his weight division. So the next day when we get called for the open weight, obviously John Carlo won a gold medal. everyone agreed that he should go into open weight.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, tough, tough match. Now, Yuri Samoy at that stage was two time gold medalist in ADC. Nicholas wins a very, very close match against him and then fights Craig Jones, who's one of the best leg lockers in the world. So I think most people are expecting Nicholas to get leglocked very easily by Craig. Nicholas showed the degree to which he had improved his leglock defense in a six-month period. Craig never really got close to the legs and ended up becoming a takedown battle. It could have gone either way. Craig, I thought, did a really good job of pacing himself. Both athletes were very tired, but Nicholas was ahead on points, and then Craig hit one last takedown, which sat Nicholas down to a hip. Didn't score, but it was the most aggressive takedown of that last period. And so Nicholas got the knot and won a narrow victory.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“His match against Raphael Lovato, one of the great competitors of ADCC, and wins a convincing victory featuring a lot of takedowns and a lot of pressure passing. And people were just absolutely shocked. I remember the staff of Flo Grappling coming out going like, who is this guy? He's literally transformed. He's like a different person. So he goes into the World Championships in his weight division. He was matched with a fellow Brazilian and the first match and they had an absolute barn-burning battle where at one point Nicholas was picked up and slammed and then ended up winning by Gimora, a beautiful Gimora. Then he took on the man who ultimately wins ADC open weight division and defeats him.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Takes a week off to try and get his ribs somewhere back in order and then begins light training building up to ADCC. We start putting him in no gi competition. He fights two opponents of good quality but not world beating quality. And then as his game starts improving, we're getting closer and closer. He's starting to develop a sense where he can wrestle confidently on his feet. He's no longer easy to leglock at all and is starting to leglock people and is starting to get his very strong guard passing, which was based mostly around pant grips and the gee to adapt to leg no gee grips. In addition, he's starting to develop strong chest to chest positioning, which was never really part of his game, a pressure top game. Things are looking good.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So I'm like, are you sure? So we fly to California and he goes out and competes his first opponent is literally the biggest man who competes in jiu-jitsu. This man is almost like 400 pounds Nicholas has got completely broken ribs. We're taping up his ribs backstage before he goes out to compete. He beats everyone by submission and wins for the first time the open weight, a title he had never won before. He steps off the mat, looks at me, and goes, Well, I got the first of them. Open weight and now ADCC. And now we can barely move. He's still gone through two days of brutal competition and his ribs are completely screwed up.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Then he had to improve. He always had a very good triangle, always had a very good armbar. Those were his two strengths coming into the Nogi training. And those translate pretty well between Gi and Nogi. But he had no guillotine, he had no strangles from the back, he has great collar strangles from the back, but he really, really struggled with finishing people from the back. He's learning all this and then he's like, well, now I've got to get ready for the gee. So we had to switch his training to gee training. And that took out a couple of months. Then he went back briefly to Brazil and got a terrible rib injury right before the world championships and came back more or less unable to move. So the world championships is a weak way and he's like, John, I can't move. So I'm like, what are you going to do? I'm going to compete.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Firstly, same thing with John Carlott. First, you've got to learn how to defend a leg lock. So initially, just as John Carlo struggled, he struggled, then he had to learn not just takedowns, but just how to set up a takedown. He had to learn basics like stance and motion and how to fight with the hands, etc., etc. So he had to learn from the ground up.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We saw it in incremental progress with each successive competition that he was in. His first competition, he looked good, but not great. Second competition, a little better, third competition, took on one of the legends of American grappling and won decisively. So there was a sense in which it was becoming more realistic with each outing.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“With that in mind, if you're committed and there's a sense in which this is a definite possibility, set your goals high. Okay, make big demands. Yes, there'll be times of frustration. There'll be more failure in your lives than otherwise. But even your failures will be something great, something memorable.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Falling short of what would otherwise be a perfect year. Even Still creates such a massive uptick in your performance that it's absolutely the right way to go. But there is a danger to this where people aren't committed and simply aren't working from a framework where they can realistically achieve these things, then it descends into delusion. And that direction goes towards madness. You can't have that. So there has to be some kind of reality check here where you have to be. Physically and mentally capable to some degree of moving towards these goals. You can't just a random blue belt can't make audacious goals like that. It's just ludicrous. But”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, that's a great question. A sense in which you don't want to make people delusional, that's sad. But I do believe that if people are sufficiently Embedded in a given project, if they're committed to it to a certain degree. You can skimp on many things in life, but don't skimp on your goals. The bigger your goals, the bigger your achievements will be. And even failure, as we saw in the case of Nicholas Mirigali, I almost frowned use the word failure because if this is failure, give me more of it.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Seemed ludicrous when it first happened, this is insanity. And yet he came at it with a plan. He came at it with his characteristic passion and hard work and came within inches of doing so. And there's a sense in which you could look at it as, oh, he had a plan and it failed. And yet, of course, no one in their right mind would look at it. He sat on audacious goal so high that it seemed impossible. And it pulled his entire performance up to a level where even failure creates something truly memorable.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's on the surface, this absolutely crazy. Like when he mentioned the goal to me, as I said, just looking at him in almost like disbelief, I didn't want to show it on my face. And yet he came within inches of actually doing it. He won his first ever gold in the open weight with a gi and got to the finals and lost a tight decision in the finals to take a silver medal. He wanted two golds. He got a gold and a silver. And there's a sense in which the sheer audaciousness of the goal set.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He thought it was like a certainty. So he's looking at me like, yeah, I'm going to do this. So I'm like, you know, well, Nicholas, this is very laudable. And I approve of your confidence. But this is a difficult goal you've set yourself. Perhaps maybe like 2024 would be a more realistic. Like, no, no, I'm going to do it”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Open weight and ADCC open weight in the same year. Yeah. Now, in my mind, I'm thinking, yeah, that's never going to fucking happen, you fucking widow.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, he doesn't just wear the gee, he really uses the gee. 90% of what he's based around is based around a combination of cross and straight collar controls with the control of the sleeve cuff. And so he really actively uses the geese. So when it came off, his first training decisions were like, oh, he looked like a fish out of water. In addition, he had no experience of leg locking. So one of the most significant parts of the modern game, he just had nothing. He had literally zero wrestling, which is half of ADCC is based around this. So ADCC is like six months away and he has to get ready for the Gi World Championships. Nicholas had won many accolades in Giutitsu, but he had never won the open weight division of Gi world. So he's like, the first day he's there, he's like, John, I want to be the first guy to win.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Talking about a sport where even small differences can make a difference between a guy who gets the gold medal versus the guy who loses his first match. It doesn't take a lot. This was a very, very tall order.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Horrible bodies and bad personalities. You're like a happy, good looking guy. You should be surrounded by supermodels. What are you doing, Judith for? And he just laughed and he started training with us. So he came in. Now, historically, he has been an athlete who always pulled God in jiu-jitsu parlance for your viewers. In jiu-jitsu, you have the option of sitting down to the ground. Judits was mostly performed on the ground, and many athletes take advantage of this. They just come out and sit to the ground position and completely forego takedowns. Nicholas did this his entire career. Judith, who also has practiced both Gi and Nogi. Nicholas was a shining light in the Gi side of Juditsu. He's one of the great champions of his era. But he had not only never competed without a ghee, he'd never even trained without a ghee. So there's significant differences between the two. There's a lot of overlap, but there's also some very significant differences.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So he comes in, he sits down in the mat, and we're all kind of looking at the new guy and introducing ourselves. And I look at him and I go, buddy, what the fuck are you doing here? And he's like, what do you mean? And I go, like, look at you. You're like, Tall and good looking, you should be a fucking model, not a jiu-jitsu guy. Look at us, we're all fucked up with.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Actually, is significantly less than a year. Nicholas only came about six months, I believe, before ADCC. A phone call came from Gordon. He was just like, okay, Nicholas wants to come down and train, wants to move to Austin. So he came down. It was funny. I remember the first day Nicholas came in, Nicholas Verigali, as you can see, this tall, handsome Brazilian guy with a great personality and a wonderful smile.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Again, it's a personal decision. If you hate someone so much that you literally can't even conceive of yourself submitting to them. Probably best you don't get into matches with them in the first place. But if it should happen, again, it comes down to the student. I teach technique, not morals. So I let people make their own decisions on that. My thing is, look, don't get injured because if you're injured, you can't train. You can't train, you can't get better. So stay away from injury as much as you can.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You're a world champion forever, and no one can ever take that moment away from you. So I would Would understand if they took a decision to take damage. Hopefully, it will never come to that because I do a good job of preparing people to get out of situations as he saw with keratone. It was in a dreadful situation and got out within five seconds Gary's been in arm locks that looked like even I was in the corner going like oh my god what is happening here and still got out so it comes down to training preparation but if they did make that decision I would understand provided it was a situation that would make their lives better and they made a calculation it's not an emotional thing now sometimes you get emotional you fight a guy you just don't like and you just don't want to tap to him then things get a little more interesting like then”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“At that point, I leave it up to the student, it's a deeply personal decision. I would never say to a student, I expect you to let your body break in order to win a gold medal. I think my students are more than mature enough to make up their own minds. I would be angry if they let their bodies break in a meaningless fashion, in some random tournament or in a first round match where there's no way you could have go on to the second, third and fourth matches with a broken limb. But in a final in a gold medal match in ADC, I would leave the decision to them a spontaneous decision in the moment. I would be confident that I had prepared them to do their very best to defend themselves. But what ultimately they do is their decision. And winning ADC is for a grapp or at least life changed.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I would expect them to tap. I also think that if you're in a stranglehold, it doesn't make a lot of sense and not tapping because you're going to pass out. It's like you said in chess, it's kind of impolite to make the guy take it through to its conclusion. So I don't see any heroism and just letting yourself pass out. Now things change when you get into a final. If you're in a final and you're head on points and you're willing to... Most people at that point are going to be willing to let something break in order to win a gold medal.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“First off, in training, you should be tapping very early because you're not getting paid to fight in the gym. You're getting paid to fight on stage. So be a professional in the gym, tap early, tap fast. That way you'll last a lot longer. And competition things are a little different. We also have to specify what is the situation. Okay, if you're in the first round of ADCC, your first match, you get caught. I would always expect my students to tap. You get your leg broken or your arm broken in the first round, you still got three more matches before you get to the final.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But I like the Irish kid's reaction, though. He's just like, you know what? Let me eat this because I'm going to win this match and I'm going to be a legend for beating Gary Tony. So I admire his. Internal fortitude. And now Gary knows he's lost it. So there's a sense there in which you see how close it gets in how little there is between winner and loser. And sometimes you just get these heartbreaking situations where someone who ordinarily you would probably do very well against and you make one mistake and it's an unrewarding, uncompromising sport, one mistake can be fatal.”
2022-10-10 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #328 – John Danaher: Submission Grappling, ADCC, Animal Combat, and Knives · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source