My Renzo Gracie Academy trip 2012 (part 2)
[Click HERE for part 1]
Day 2: Morning classes at RGA
7:00am comes way too early for this guy. I’m rarely up before 9am on any given day, but thanks to my little yellow friend, Ambien, I got a good night’s sleep and am ready to roll. After downing a peanut butter and Nutella pita sandwich and a banana, it’s out the door to Renzo’s for John Danaher’s morning no-gi class.
I recognize a few faces on the mat from last year’s trip, but the class isn’t as crowded this morning, which is nice. This year me, Derek, Chase, and Mike are taking the class together. Mike and I decide to partner up for drills each day so we can have a familiar partner while we’re repping and working through the techniques, and so that we can help each other remember what we learned once class is finished.
John shuffles in, sporting his standard rashguard/fanny-pack/fight shorts attire and after a few minutes in the instructor’s back room he’s out on the mat immediately demonstrating butterfly guard passes and sweep counters.
As I discovered last year, being a blue belt level grappler in a John Danaher class is like being a first year algebra student attending a Stephen Hawking lecture.
Or an airbrush t-shirt artist from Myrtle Beach taking a sculpting class from Michelangelo.
Or a guy who plays checkers at the local barber shop going to a seminar by Bobby Fischer.
He’s simply on another level when it comes to physically dominating another human body.
I’ve seen John say in interviews that he’s not the best teacher, pedagogically speaking, and as a teacher myself, I believe that it’s a testament to his genius in the art that he can literally do everything you’re not supposed to do when teaching (i.e., speak rapidly at a low volume, present lots of detailed information at once, give little individual feedback, watch from the side rather than interact much with students, etc.) and yet still produce some of the best grapplers in the world.
That is not in any way meant to be a negative assessment of him; just a stylistic observation. Results are what determine how good a teacher someone is and John Danaher’s results speak volumes…just ask Renzo Gracie, Dave Camarillo, GSP, Roger Gracie or Frankie Edgar!
So after repping various butterfly techniques for a while, it’s time to roll. Four 6min rounds from standing to end class.
Since Mike and I are partners, we roll the first round together. My plan is to take it easy the first round and flow some with Mike so I can save my strength and stamina for the next rounds with the RGA beasts.
I should’ve let Mike in on that plan.
Now Mike is truly a specimen. He’s a 42 year old father of two who runs a concrete business in SC and has a background in kickboxing/Muay Thai (we call him “Muay Thai Mike” to distinguish him from the other Mike who trains at LMA in fact). He’s the fastest promotion to blue belt we’ve ever had at the school and he NEVER gasses out. EVER. He’s also only got one speed when grappling…and it’s not “slow and gentle”!
So after the first 6min round with my teammate who I roll with all the time back home, I’m already pretty drained.
This is not good.
My next round is against one of Renzo’s brown belts I met last year, Cecilia.
She’s super nice and we have a great roll. I like rolling with Cecilia because she’s incredibly skilled, but doesn’t rely on gorilla strength to get her finishes. She doesn’t tap me this time, but would definitely have won if we were scoring because she passed my guard pretty easily a few times and controlled the positioning for most of the round.
After rolling with Cecilia, this big dude with a shaved head and tights under his fight shorts comes over and grabs me as his partner. I should’ve known from the tights that I was in trouble.
Superman wears tights.
Spiderman wears tights.
Aoki wears tights.
I knew this would not end well…
Now let me say firstly that he was very nice and friendly…after we rolled!
I don’t know if it was the fact that it was 2 days before the promotion ceremony, when everyone is training their hardest, or if it was because I was a new guy on the mat, or if it was because of the general dislike of us soulless gingers, but this guy absolutely DESTROYED me.
Remeber as a kid watching NWA wrestling back in the early 80s? Specifically the Saturday night tag team matches between the Road Warriors (aka. Legion of Doom) and some random no-names in satin jackets with mustaches and their wrists taped?
Remember that feeling you had as the bell rang? When you just felt sorry for them because you knew that they were about to be completely decimated by Hawk and Animal?
I think that’s how anyone watching me was feeling that morning.
This guy literally hits 5 kimuras (and 2 armbars, I believe) in a 6min round…2 of which are flying kimuras.
Yes, you read that right. Flying kimuras.
This was pretty much how the entire round looked…
What’s worse is that I’ve always thought my kimura defense was pretty good. There’ve been multiple times when, as a last-ditch effort I’m able to reach around back with my free hand, grab my trapped hand, and stall out until the person abandons it for something else.
Not with this guy.
He just got to his knees and picked me up entirely, turning me upside down, and finishing from there. If I hadn’t let go with my free hand, I would’ve been double-kimura’ed!
My only consolation was that he also tapped Chase and Mike multiple times. That, and I was also able to defend two of his heel hook attempts (LMA is a footlock school after all, so I’ve been defending heel hooks–even in the gi–since day one!)…but he just sat up and locked on a kimura each time for the tap. I was glad to find out later from Silver Fox that he regularly catches black belts in kimuras, so I didn’t feel quite so bad. And, as I said, he was very nice after class (as almost every RGA student I’ve ever met has been).
After that round, I was physically done. I don’t even really remember the final round, but I’m pretty sure I just laid there and worked my trout-in-the-bottom-of-the-canoe technique.
But worse than my getting totally owned that morning was the accident that happened when Chase was rolling with a big purple belt. They went down somewhat awkwardly and Chase’s knee popped. He was able to walk on it with a limp, but would be off the mats for the rest of the trip. Physically, Chase is probably our best grappler, and I know he was looking forward to testing himself against much better competition at RGA this year. So this was a pretty crappy thing to have happen on his first day. 🙁 But he’s a trooper and never complained or got down about it. He just enjoyed the trip and was there to support the rest of us for the remainder of our time there.
With class finished, we hit the showers. Michael, Brooke, Dave and Nick were finishing their class with Luciano on the other mat and we all met up to head back to the apartment for a quick rest before our 1pm class.
Before leaving though, I see John sitting on the side of the mat, so I decide to go introduce myself and thank him. I tell him I’m in town with the team from NC for the week and how much I have enjoyed his classes whenever I’ve been able to be there. He shakes my hand and smiles, asking if I had fun. I say yes. Then I tell him that while I hadn’t brought it with me that morning, I have a gift for him.
Now I need to back up a second.
Last year, as you may recall, I brought my artwork with me and even got Georges St. Pierre to sign the original portrait I did of him so I could auction it off to support Disciple Dojo and International Justice Mission (the charity I usually donate a portion of my art sales to…and which you should absolutely support if you are looking for a good cause!). A few months ago, when I knew I’d be coming back to RGA, I asked Renzo via Twitter if he thought John would sign it if I did his portrait and brought some prints for him and Renzo. Renzo said he definitely would, so I did John’s portrait and brought it with me.
So, back to the conversation. I tell John I have a gift for him that I will give him at the ceremony on Friday.
“Is it a thousand dollar hooker?” he asks, totally deadpan.
At first I don’t catch what he’s said due to the combination of his low volume, quick speech, slight New Zealand accent, and the noise from people training on the mats in front of us, so I’m like “I’m sorry?”
“Is it a thousand dollar hooker?” he asks again, still with the same piercing gaze and totally serious face he’s known for.
I catch the “thousand dollar” part this time, but can’t make out the last part. So I just assume I’ll be able to pick it up from context if I play along.
“Haha, no, it’s worth much more than that,” I joke.
“So it’s worthless then.” Dead serious expression.
“Uh…”
Only as I am in the process of trying to explain to him that I’m the artist who does portraits of Renzo and other martial arts legends do I finally realize what he said.
My first day back and Renzo Gracie Academy and I have just been epically trolled by John Danaher.
Awesome!
🙂
[Continue reading Part 3]
Categories: Blog, Martial Arts
He’s also only got one speed when grappling…and it’s not “slow and gentle”!
I love this quote because it’s so true
by Dave on Jul 3, 2012 at 7:22 pm
[…] HERE for part 1] [Click HERE for part […]
by Disciple Dojo – JMSmith.org » My Renzo Gracie Academy trip 2012 (part 3) on Jul 12, 2012 at 6:11 pm
[…] reading Part 2 Posted By: jm in Blog, Martial Arts Tags: […]
by Disciple Dojo – JMSmith.org » My Renzo Gracie Academy trip 2012 (part 1) on Jul 12, 2012 at 6:14 pm
[…] HERE for part 1] [Click HERE for part 2] [Click HERE for part 3] [Click HERE for part […]
by Disciple Dojo – JMSmith.org » My Renzo Gracie Academy trip 2012 (part 5) on Jul 12, 2012 at 6:14 pm