John Danaher is revered as a mastermind in the jiu-jitsu community. The calculated strategist behind no-gi wizards Gordon Ryan and Garry Tonon, the prolific grappling coach to UFC Champions Georges St. Pierre and Chris Weidman, and the guy who wears a rash guard to most all occasions, on and off the mat.
But however you’ve come to hear about him undoubtedly originates from his expertise and mastery of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. His coaching is sought out by the best fighters in the world and he’s been able to turn many of them into world champions.
So, a man with so much time and experience working with elite level athletes must have some isight into what makes a world champion.
Here is what he had to say…
You’ve trained a lot of athletes. Georges St Pierre, Chris Weidman, Gordon Ryan, Garry Tonon… What qualities make a world champion?
John Danaher: First, I don’t believe you can say there is a cookie cutter mold which creates world champions. I’ve seen world champions in jiu-jitsu with every type of psychological makeup and every body type.
I don’t believe there is one particular mindset or body type that dominates. I believe any type of mindset and any body can do it provided there are certain other elements in the picture.
I’ve always believed that, ultimately, your ability to get through towards whatever goals you have, not just in jiu-jitsu but in life in general, comes down to your ability to solve problems.
Life is pretty much a series of problems thrown at you day by day. There are short term problems or goals, and long term problems or goals, and the issue is how to get to those goals.
The difference I see with world champions is not that they do anything differently, it’s just that they do it better.
They’re better at solving problems, and what’s more important, they’re more persistent.
A lot of people in a competitive setting experience failure and stop. What I notice in world champions is that they have a mindset geared toward problem solving.
They have a certain goal…to be a world champion…they identify the problems on path to that goal, and they form rational solutions to overcome them.
And, they have a persistence to push through, in this case, failure. They have mental resilience.
So, really they do the same thing as everyone else, they just do it a little better, and they do it longer against resistance.
Turning GSP and Weidman into UFC Champions was a goal of yours, as was creating an elite squad of submission grapplers. You’ve achieved all of the above. Do you currently have any other goals?
John Danher: Yes, I have many of them. One is to have a squad of athletes who represent themselves in the gi and are highly successful. I think I can definitely do that, however it’s not my prime focus right now, but I’m confident I can do that in time.
Some of the other goals are somewhat up in the air because there is uncertainty about the career of Georges St. Pierre. He could be going back into a second phase of his career… making a comeback. So there would be certain goals set for him but I can’t make concrete goals at this point.
But for now the next goal would be the gi squad, and again I’m confident in time they will do very well in competition.
