Do John Danaher Books Include Step-By-Step Leg Lock Drills?

If you're hunting for John Danaher's best material on leg locks, lean into his video and online systems rather than expecting a bunch of traditional printed books. Danaher hasn't really packaged his leg-lock philosophy in the classic paperback format the way some other coaches have; what he did do was distill the mechanics, entries, controls and counters into methodical instructional series and seminar collections. The resources you'll see referenced most often are his older DVD/online set commonly found as 'Leg Locks: Enter the System' and the more comprehensive collections usually labeled 'The Leg Lock System' on platforms like BJJ Fanatics. Those are the ones that lay out the chain of control, entries (ashi, outside ashi, 50/50, saddle/single-leg entanglement), finishing mechanics such as heel hooks, and the positional priorities that keep everything safe and effective. What makes Danaher’s material stand out for me is how mechanical and systematic it is. Instead of a grab-bag of flashy submissions, his lessons focus on the principles: weight distribution, timing, alignment of the knee, how to lock the hips and control rotation so a heel hook actually finishes rather than just hurting a partner. His sequences show how one position naturally flows into another — for example, how failed ashi entries can be routed into outside ashi or the saddle — and he spends a lot of screen time on the little technical details that people usually miss in casual rolling. If you really want to understand why a heel hook works (and why it fails), Danaher’s step-by-step breakdowns are gold: he isolates each joint, shows the force vectors, and then layers in grips and countermeasures. Watching those segments slowly, then drilling them live with a partner, is how the mechanics click for most people I know. If you're building a study plan around his work, start by picking one of those core leg-lock courses and commit to a focused block — a couple of weeks on entries and ashi control, then two weeks on transitions to outside ashi and 50/50, and finally a phase on finishing mechanics and escapes. Supplement that with match footage from his top students so you can see the system at play under pressure. Also, keep safety front and center: heel hooks and certain entanglements can injure training partners quickly, so tap early and drill controlled drills. Personally, mixing Danaher’s instructionals with a few seminar clips and guided sparring sessions was the fastest way I felt the concepts settle into muscle memory. Give it time and repetition, and you’ll start recognizing the positional priorities mid-roll, which is when it all stops being abstract and starts feeling like your own toolkit.

I get excited talking about Danaher because his approach feels like a map rather than a recipe — but that’s also the crux for beginners. John Danaher’s material (mostly his instructional series and seminar notes rather than traditional books) is incredibly systematic: he breaks positions and transitions into small, repeatable concepts and often teaches with a hierarchy of control in mind. For someone who’s already comfortable with basic positions, his stuff accelerates understanding massively. You start to see why a certain control leads to a particular submission chain, and that conceptual clarity can compound your progress quicker than random techniques picked up in class. That said, I’d be honest: if you’re brand-new to BJJ, diving straight into Danaher’s catalog can feel like trying to read advanced math before you’ve learned algebra. There’s a lot of technical nuance and positional prerequisites — the minutiae of grips, angles, and weight distribution — that only make sense if you’ve built basic movement, escapes, and posture through hours of drilling and rolling. I’ve watched beginners try to mimic sequences from his leg lock and guard systems and get frustrated because they hadn’t yet developed the hip mobility, timing, or positional control to execute them safely. Safety is important: many of his techniques (especially leg locks) are powerful and can lead to injuries if attempted without partner understanding and control. So how should a beginner use Danaher’s stuff? Treat it like a textbook you consult after class. Learn fundamentals in the gym with a coach, then use his material to deepen your conceptual understanding. Pick one focused topic — for example positional control or top pressure concepts — and study Danaher’s explanations alongside drilling and live practice. Mix it with more beginner-oriented resources like 'Jiu-Jitsu University' to build that foundation. Finally, be patient and curious: annotate videos or notes, ask your instructor how a Danaher concept fits into your gym’s curriculum, and don’t rush to apply advanced submissions in hard sparring. When used as a supplement rather than a starting point, his work is gold; used as a starting point, it’s likely to overwhelm and stall progress. I personally still revisit his material from time to time when I want to tidy up a positional detail or re-frame how I think about a sequence, and it always rewards a careful, stepwise approach.

Honestly, John Danaher's material reads more like a set of engineering blueprints than a typical how-to catalog, and that hit me the first time I sat down with one of his instructionals. Where many manuals present a long list of sexy moves—photos, a short paragraph, and a story about how someone landed it in competition—Danaher breaks things into systems, principles, and decision trees. I found myself mapping out chains: entry → control template → submission family → counters. That structure means his books and series prioritize 'why' and 'when' as much as 'how.' For someone who likes to understand mechanics and why a certain hip angle or knee line matters, it’s immensely satisfying. Technically, his explanations tend to be precise and dense. He loves taxonomy: naming positions, classifying grips, and isolating the minimal mechanical inputs that make a technique work. That can feel clinical compared to more narrative-focused texts like 'Jiu-Jitsu University,' which walks you through a growth path from white belt to black belt with lots of photos and progressive structure. Danaher’s stuff assumes you’ll spend hours drilling the same template until it becomes a reflex. He also pushed the community by systematizing leg locks, turning what used to be a niche set of techniques into a coherent, trainable subsystem—so if you’ve been frustrated by scattered leg-lock advice elsewhere, his approach ties the pieces together. On the flip side, this depth means his pages (or lectures) can be intimidating. If you’re brand-new and want quick, flashy moves to take to open mat, some other manuals with step-by-step photos and simpler cueing might suit you better at first. I learned to read his work like a textbook: take notes, draw flowcharts, and then practice the loops slowly with partners who will play along. The payoff is huge: once the templates sink in, your reactions become proactive rather than reactive. Personally, I alternate—when I want conceptual clarity I dig into Danaher-style breakdowns; when I want to build a fun repertoire for casual rolls I flip through more image-heavy guides. It’s become my favorite combo for long-term improvement and for actually enjoying training, because the clarity makes the repetitions feel purposeful rather than endless busywork.

I get excited just thinking about this topic because Danaher really rewired how a lot of us look at back control and chokes. If you want the straightest path to his material, start with the 'Back Attacks' series — that’s where he lays out the whole conceptual map for controlling the back, hook placements, seatbelt grips, body triangle mechanics, and how to systematically collapse a defender’s escape options. Those videos (often released as multiple volumes or modules) aren’t just a bunch of finishes; they show the ladder from entry to domination to submission. He breaks down the rear naked choke in a surgical way, but also covers collar-based chokes like the bow-and-arrow when we’re in gi contexts, and how to blend control and choking threats so the escape routes vanish. Beyond that core, Danaher released a focused piece often titled 'The Rear Naked Choke' (or similarly named close-up instruction) which drills into grips, head/neck alignment, elbow positioning, and the small lever adjustments that turn a sloppy RNC into a match-ender. I found this one brilliant for correcting little habits — like over-rotating the hips or leaving space with the choking arm — that you’d otherwise only notice when someone slipped out in live rolling. If you train both gi and no-gi, pay attention because he teaches how cloth changes your choke palette and what adaptations you should practice to avoid getting stumped by a turned-in chin or hand-fighting. If you’re putting together a study plan, I personally used the 'Back Attacks' material first for the big picture, then watched the RNC-focused segment over and over while drilling positional sparring (start with back-takes from turtle and guard, then force escapes). Complement those with his more conceptual lectures — sometimes sold under titles like 'Enter the System' — to understand the chaining philosophy: how every back control position is a platform for multiple chokes and transitions. Also, check where the material is sold (BJJ Fanatics often carries his stuff) and read companion notes or transcripts; Danaher’s language is dense and I found written complements helped me retain details. Happy drilling — the more you practice the small positional corrections he emphasizes, the more the chokes stop looking like magic and start looking like inevitable consequences of good control.