Finally met John Danaher yesterday after the UFC

[Eddie Bravo]

I've always heard about him thru my students Jason "Planet" Eisner and Eric Ramey who both trained at Renzo's a couple years back but I never even knew what he looked like until this season's TUF. He has a reputation of being super crazy cool and is mainly known as a jiu jitsu genius and guess what, I was not disappointed one bit. Joe Rogan and I hung out with him at Denny's in Indy late last night hearing awesome stories about his jiu jitsu adventures. Hopefully I'll get to pick his brain on the mat sometime soon and ad some more legit nogi techs to the 10th Planet system

[Tom Edward]

Yeah i've been watching him on TUF and like GSP said the man is an Encyclopedia.

[Jason Mallory]

Did you talk jiu jitsu with him ? What were his thoughts on Gi vs No-Gi if you talked about it ?

[Michael McGuire]

I've heard Dave Camarillo of Guerriilla Jiu-Jitsu talk about him on thefightworkspodcast (BJJ radio) with great respect for his knowledge. I was wondering Sensei Eddie Bravo what exactly is it that make's him. . .him? Is it his knowledge, creativity (like yourself), or is more simplistic as he just understands grappling, it make's sense to him like the piano did to Beethoven.??

[Eddie Bravo]

Did you talk jiu jitsu with him ? What were his thoughts on Gi vs No-Gi if you talked about it ?

He agreed that there is no way yanking and pulling is better for your clinching and squeezing than clinching and squeezing itself. He agreed with pretty much all of my gi/nogi analogies. It was very clear right from the beginning of our discussions, what makes him such a jiu jitsu genius is that he thinks for himself and questions everything. He does not follow blindly. I can't get into most of the stories he told me, but I will say that he's one funny muthafucka

[Eric Schuettenberg]

I believe in 5 or 10 years people will be asking " did people really think training in a gi helped you in MMA"?

[ifreez]

^^ It's only a matter of time.

It's like conservatives fighting global warming, alternatively fueled cars, progressive education, gay marriage and health care. If you know history, you'll know they'll lose. You don't have to agree with any of it. But, it's too late to stop those initiatives now.

The conservatives once tried to paint the tobacco skepticism in the 50s a a liberal scare tactic, as they did with clean air, safe meat, the need for an FDA, or a publicly run FAA, etc, etc, etc, and like they are now doing with global warming. It's all a matter of time.

It's like seeing a tidal wave coming. But, the gi community thinks they can stop the tidal wave.

[Jason Mallory]

It's like seeing a tidal wave coming. But, the gi community thinks they can stop the tidal wave.

Hahahahahaha ....

[ifreez]

^^ It is funny, though.

The string they hold onto now is that the gi makes your no gi better. Umm, What?

Still, I am sooo curious as to who came up with that life saver.

It's foolishness, however, because 10th planet blues, those whom have never put a gi on, do well against gi oriented blues. Remember, the argument is that anyone who does well without the gi at high levels at least went to blue in the gi.

So, if I and a gi oriented blue or new purple (I've never put a gi on) are on the same level, and at this point he decides to never put the gi on again, is there some logic that stipulates he will progress better than me from here on out, through brown and black, because he started in the gi?

[Jeff K]

^^ It is funny, though.

The string they hold onto now is that the gi makes your no gi better. Umm, What?

Still, I am sooo curious as to who came up with that life saver.

I'm curious what you think about Marcelo Garcia's statement that he trains in the gi every day (no gi once a week) and considers the gi, in his words, "crucial" to developing good technique.

(Note that I'm talking about no-gi grappling, not necessarily mma).