Gordon Ryan has recently shared his thoughts on what it takes to excel as a grappler in MMA. He explained the areas grapplers should concentrate on when transitioning to this new sport. Gordon Rayan holds a unique standpoint as the most successful no gi grappler of his era. He has spent more time on the competition mats than most professional MMA fighters will ever experience. Moreover, he has dedicated his entire career to training under John Danaher, a coach renowned for his exceptional work with professional grapplers and MMA fighters. Despite the fact that Ryan has never participated in an MMA fight himself and probably never will, he was recently questioned. Luke Thomas asked on an episode of Morning Kombat regarding his views on what it takes to successfully transition from grappling to MMA:
“Number one: you have to have the ability, if you’re a grappler, you have to have the ability to actually, of course, take the fight to the ground. So that means you have to have good reactive and proactive takedowns in the open. Like a GSP (Georges St-Pierre), for example, where either you throw punches, get the guy’s hands up and you shoot takedowns. Or like Georges was very good at throwing jabs, the guy would chase him and reactive takedowns put the guy down or push him to the fence and put him down.”
This initial key to success highlights why numerous top MMA fighters in the current era have a solid foundation in wrestling rather than BJJ. Since Jiu Jitsu permits pulling guard, it often enables competitors to skip the learning phase of how to bring people down. At least BJJ implies that the skill is significantly less honed than it would be in wrestlers. Gordon Ryan, however, thinks there’s more to evolving into a successful grappler in MMA:
“Obviously once you get them down, being able to hold them down. As you get on top of them, if you can’t hold them down and can’t do damage it’s useless. So holding him down, stopping the initial explosion up and then being able to have a combination of working through a hierarchy of pins while also having open hands to be able to punch when you have to, while still holding people down when they’re trying to get up. If they’re going to get up, it shouldn’t be for free. It should be them getting up carrying your body weight and if they’re not carrying body weight as they’re getting up, they should be getting hit.”
BJJ competitors invest a lot of time in this element of the sport, although the strike addition significantly changes things. Clearly, it has a massive impact from the bottom position, but it also modifies how you manage an opponent from the top. Ryan concluded with a summary:
“So, the ability to take people down from top position, to take people down in the open, take people down the fence, make them carry your body weight when you’re on top of them, and if they’re not carrying body weight and they are getting up; being able to hit them. So those are the four most important things for me.”
The conversation featuring Gordon Ryan, in which he discussed the requirements for excelling as a grappler in MMA, was posted on the official Morning Kombat YouTube channel.
