Who knows the story behind Gordon Ryan?

[Meulenhof]

To me its impossible to train 4 years in grappling and be the absolute nogi champ ebi.

Is it the level of trainers/trainingpartners and training 7 days a week twice a day.

Was he a wrestler in college.

Does anyone know how this is possible?

 

[INTERL0PER]

You should really post this in the Grappling forum.

But basically, he trains at one if the best BJJ gyms in the world, with some of the best coaches and training partners.

Talent + hard work + the right people around you = success.

It's not rocket science.

 

[Pierced7681]

His little brother is a natural too. Grappling just clicked with them and they progressed faster than others.

 

[lts5025]

BJ Penn won Mundials in Brazil at the black belt level and did it with 4 years of training.

Guys on other forums who've known or rolled with guys like Gordon or Gary Tonnon say there wasn't much special about them as blue belts but their work ethic was absolutely incredible. Having a genius like Danaher so personally invested in your training, plus working your ass off for hours and hours every day would get anybody a long, long way in jiu-jitsu.

 

[Supereem]

Prodigies do exist in BJJ, but from my experience a lot of the best in the world are not. I've known guys who BJJ has "clicked" for and basically got to blue belt level in a couple of weeks. I think these people could easily become world champions but many lack the motivation.

Then there are those who sucked at white and blue (like, really sucked) but never gave up and out of nowhere burst into the scene at purple as contenders after years of training.

Kit Dale would be an example of a prodigy. Guy hardly ever trained BJJ (by world champ at assess) yet still achieved a lot. He also seems to have suffered from a lack of motivation (like when he quit to become an actor).

I don't know enough about the DDS to know if they are naturals or not.

 

[Bubblun]

Take a young flexible kid, willing to focus 100% on grappling, and put him in the best program available and you get pretty much the same result every time.
I bet there are tons of "bjj talents" out there, but few are living in the gym training all day every day with passion, and ever fewer have world class coaches and training partners.

I remember a young kid that looked exactly like Keenan, with the same body type, long, scrawny, insane flexibility, joining my gym and after a roll i told him:" Dude, stick to jiu jitsu because you are made to do this".
He was complaining about mat burns and after a week or two he quitted and joined the crossfit class at the same gym, bummer.
I believe a lot of young talents quit jiu jitsu before betting the bug.

 

[nodferatu]

Having a genius like Danaher so personally invested in your training, plus working your ass off for hours and hours every day would get anybody a long, long way in jiu-jitsu.

I think Tonon and Deblasse need some credit in there for Gordon as well.

 

[yetanother]

Getting technical at heel hooks is a much better strategy for no gi sub only than focusing on guard passing in the gi and berimbolos.

 

[Uchi Mata]

He has one of the best coaches and some of the best training partners in the world. Plus, his gym is by far the highest level group of guys focusing exclusively on no-gi open rules sub only as a style, so he walks on the mat with a huge advantage in that rule set against guys who train at comparable gyms (Atos, for example) but which are focused primarily on training for other types of competitions. The final factor is that BJJ is a tiny sport relative to something like basketball, the talent pool is quite small and the number of people who train full time much smaller still, so you don't have to be a crazy prodigy to rise to the top of that world pretty quickly (and let's be clear, even among people who train full time Ryan is only at the top in his very limited world of open rules sub only tournaments). A guy with even a little talent and a lot of work ethic who trains full time with the guys he trains with is going to be competitive at the top level very quickly.

 

[BJJ_Rage]

as people said, theer are people incredible talented, those white belts you roll and you can see they were just born to do jiu jitsu..

sadly, it takes more than just physical attributes to do this.

 

[lts5025]

I think Tonon and Deblasse need some credit in there for Gordon as well.

Absolutely. Deblasse is a very underrated instructor.

 

[lechien]

It just shows how young is the no GI submission only sport is.

Can you replicate that in the ibjjf bb GI division? I doubt that.

 

[mataleaos]

It's talent and a lot of hard work. BJ Penn and Bill Cooper both are two of 5 or 6 Americans in history to get to the finals of the black belt worlds and they both did it at around 20 years old with just a few years of training. People talk about BJ like he's a prodigy and he is, but he also trained all the time which is what a lot of people gloss over. If you ever listen to Gordon Ryan describe his weekly schedule it's insane. At least several days a week he's basically training from 5am until 10pm with only breaks in between to eat and ride to other places to train. He's young and may not have a lot of calendar years but his last calendar year is probably filled with more high quality training than several years of training for an average adult male.

 

[BJJ_Rage]

its not years, but mat time what matters.

 

[kenpeters8]

The story behind Gordon Ryan is he tapped Keenan and made all the Keenan fan boys cried. LOL!

 

[Shot]

BJ Penn won Mundials in Brazil at the black belt level and did it with 4 years of training.

Guys on other forums who've known or rolled with guys like Gordon or Gary Tonnon say there wasn't much special about them as blue belts but their work ethic was absolutely incredible. Having a genius like Danaher so personally invested in your training, plus working your ass off for hours and hours every day would get anybody a long, long way in jiu-jitsu.

I seen Gordon roll when he was a blue belt at like 16-17 years old. You could see he was talented even back then. But yea, his work ethic is insane.

His brother Nicky is gonna be a real motherfucker. Kid is 15 at around 130-140 pounds and I've seen him tap blackbelts.

 

[mataleaos]

I seen Gordon roll when he was a blue belt at like 16-17 years old. You could see he was talented even back then. But yea, his work ethic is insane.

His brother Nicky is gonna be a real motherfucker. Kid is 15 at around 130-140 pounds and I've seen him tap blackbelts.

Nicky is one of the toughest rolls of my life. Probably the most impressed I've ever been by anyone after a roll. Rolling with someone like his brother or another elite grown adult grappler you are at least expecting what you're getting into. I knew Nicky was good and had won adult divisions but I didn't expect him to mop the floor with me which is what happened.

 

[mike sherry]

its not years, but mat time what matters.

Yep...asking someone how many years theyve been training is not a good gauge of how much training theyve done

Ive had a six month stint where i maybe got on the mat 10 times. I had a different 6 month stint of training 10 times a week. It's a joke to pretend like they are equivalent

 

[kying418]

He has one of the best coaches and some of the best training partners in the world. Plus, his gym is by far the highest level group of guys focusing exclusively on no-gi open rules sub only as a style, so he walks on the mat with a huge advantage in that rule set against guys who train at comparable gyms (Atos, for example) but which are focused primarily on training for other types of competitions. The final factor is that BJJ is a tiny sport relative to something like basketball, the talent pool is quite small and the number of people who train full time much smaller still, so you don't have to be a crazy prodigy to rise to the top of that world pretty quickly (and let's be clear, even among people who train full time Ryan is only at the top in his very limited world of open rules sub only tournaments). A guy with even a little talent and a lot of work ethic who trains full time with the guys he trains with is going to be competitive at the top level very quickly.

I totally agree with this!

IE- take the largest blue or purple belt IBJJF division at worlds- maybe 140+ competitors? Of those 140, how many of them train 4-6 hours a day, all day, 5-6 days a week? Maybe a handful? Thus, their real competition dwindles from 140+ to 5 or so.

 

[vcmmafan]

The story?

Danaher once forged a leg lock wizard named Gordon. Mistakes were made. Ligaments exploded.

The end.