George St-Pierre’s path into jiu-jitsu started with a VHS tape. At around 15 or 16 years old, he watched Royce Gracie win the first UFC tournament and immediately decided that was his future.
From that moment, GSP began searching for jiu-jitsu schools in Montreal, but he quickly realized that the best school available to him wasn’t in Montreal at all. It was in New York, roughly seven or eight hours away by car.
Speaking on the Mighty Cast with Demetrius Johnson, GSP recalled making that first trip while broke and driving a car with a hole in the floor. When he finally arrived and trained, instructor Sean Williams put him through a harsh reality check, submitting him five times in five minutes.
The experience crushed GSP’s confidence. He admitted that, at the time, his dream of becoming a fighter felt completely unrealistic. On the drive home, he told his friends that the athletes in New York were “light years ahead” of anything he had seen in Montreal.
Most of those friends never returned. GSP did.
He kept making the trip over and over, sometimes taking the bus when his car couldn’t be trusted and later flying once he started earning money. Those repeated journeys eventually led him to one of the most influential coaches of his career: John Danaher.
GSP spoke glowingly about Danaher’s impact on his development.
“I met John Danaher, my jiu-jitsu instructor who is phenomenal,” he said.
Reflecting on the many coaches he has worked with throughout his career, GSP placed Danaher at the very top when it came to teaching ability.
“I think of all my trainers, in terms of the structure, the protocols, the way he teaches, he is just probably the best,” GSP said.
He credited Danaher’s academic background as a major reason for his effectiveness as an instructor.
“Because of his academic background, he’s a PhD in philosophy. He’s just unbelievable as a teacher,” he explained.
More than anything, GSP emphasized that Danaher taught him a version of jiu-jitsu designed specifically for mixed martial arts rather than sport competition.
“He taught me the way I learned jiu-jitsu. It was for mixed martial art,” GSP said.
According to him, every lesson was filtered through the lens of MMA effectiveness.
“Everything he taught me was good to incorporate into martial art,” he continued. “Because there’s stuff in jiu-jitsu that you learn that are really for sport of jiu-jitsu. They’re not really applicable for MMA.”
GSP believes the style he eventually developed was heavily shaped by Danaher’s philosophy.
“But the way he taught me the game that I have, it was coming from him, and it was for martial art, mixed martial art,” he said.
Demetrius Johnson noted that he could feel that influence firsthand whenever he trained with GSP. Johnson explained that every time GSP got hold of his legs, the grips felt incredibly precise, and he could immediately recognize where attacks on the ankle or heel were coming from.
