Gordon Ryan on John Danaher's Dedication to Jiu-Jitsu

Last tape study, we actually watched Diego Sanchez fighting Nick Diaz in the UFC. Because there was a lot of up and down scrimmaging where Diego would hit a takedown, Nick would go for a submission, and then Diego would always end up on top. And John just builds this habit of, we call it a hustle till you score, where you just don't stop moving until you get to a score. And it just completely changed the way that we all think about the ADCC scoring criteria and how to play the game. How does John maintain his motivation? Dude, I wish I could tell you. He's just been doing the same thing for 30 years. He just loves it. I mean, I wish I had like half the dedication and like interest in jiu-jitsu that John has. And I mean, I'm the most dedicated athlete, I would say, to jiu-jitsu. And it's still just pales in comparison. Like we're podcasting right now. John's like watching like a 1957 boxing match or like the semifinals from like the 1960 like judo Olympics. Like it's insane. It's just most people, when they work really hard towards something, they get a personal reward for it. Like, I mean, he's recognized widely as one of the greatest jiu-jitsu trainers of all time. But like, it's not like the guy gets a lot of like personal satisfaction. I mean, there's not like a lot of people like heaping praise on him. It's not that's not his motivation, which is so interesting to be that dedicated. You get a lot of praise. Like you you're the guy who you're when Felipe quit and then you walk around with a big smile on your face. Or when you write down on a piece of paper, they're going to submit Wagner Rocha with a triangle and then you go and do it. Like you're getting like that feeling out of your own personal satisfaction, your own personal accomplishment achievement. He's not even getting that. He's getting it from other people's achievements. He's so dedicated. He's really selfless. I mean, he doesn't ask me. He literally doesn't ask us for anything. No money, no nothing. He just wants you to show up to training. I think he gets a lot of satisfaction from building athletes and seeing them succeed with the stuff that he teaches. And I think that's that's where his happiness comes from is just seeing like when I like win a DCC or I do something big like you can tell he's like very, very happy. That's like one thing that genuinely makes him happy. I remember with John like when we I used to train with him for about a year when they were in Puerto Rico. And you know, most instructors, they'll just come like the standard is 30 minute warm up, three techniques, and then you roll for 30 minutes. So me and John would actually hang out after class all the time. He'd just come over. We get some food. He'd always be watching tape and then he'd always be making notes. He would make a program for a week. He'd always have a goal one week, one month, three months, and he would just go and apply that every day in class. So, you know, that's all he does is dedicate himself to his craft. And you see the results. There's no one like him. No one else does that. And he doesn't do anything else in life. Like he bought an he has an apartment now and I'm like, hey, do you go like furniture shopping? You get like plates and dishes. He's like, I have to do that. I'm like, we've been living here for a year, dude. We go to fucking Bed Bath and Beyond last week to pick him up plates, bowls, dishes. What does he eat? So he fasts and he just goes to Whole Foods at the end of the day and picks up Whole Foods. Hits on chicks. And but he like doesn't have like I helped him move into his apartment. It's like no one's ever been in like any of John's apartments. So I helped him move into the apartment. So he's got like some furniture. He's got like a bed and like a couch and stuff. And he's like, I'm going to need to put some furniture in here. I'm like, yeah, that's never going to happen. But then I asked him, I'm like, do you have like cups and bowls and stuff? He's like, no. So I had to like go and buy him like all this shit. He like moves in. He's like, Gordon, what do you think about Wi-Fi? Like, what do you mean? What do I think about what he goes? Is it worth getting? I'm like, I'm like, yeah. I'm like, you want to like hook up your TV and watch like, you know, Netflix something. He goes, I despise to be not going to watch it. I'm like, okay. I'm like, well, like what if you want to have like your phone connected to the Wi-Fi so you can watch tape? He goes, I can just watch it with the 5G. It's free. I'm like, okay. And I'm like, well, what if you have a checkover on a date and she wants to watch something on Netflix? He goes, good point. How much does it cost? I'm like, I don't know, like 80 bucks a month. He's like, okay, I'll consider it. I'm like, all right. He's like a character in a movie. Yeah, it really is. Like there's I've never even heard of a person like him. If a person was like that, they would be pretending. Yes. You know, they're pretending to be this stoic master who's just selfless and dedicated to the advancement of their students. But there's no real people like that. No, that's him. That's just like, that's insane.