BJJ icon Gordon Ryan recently appeared on an interview with Push Press BJJ, where a reporter asked him: “Gi or No-gi?”
Ryan replied: “I gotta go no-gi,” he said. The reporter then asked him for his reason.
Gordon replied: “Because when someone grabs my sleeves, I don’t know what to do. I mean, what are you supposed to do when someone makes a grip on you? I just flail around and hope for the best. No-gi, at least I can kind of just spaz my way out of things.”
When the conversation shifted to his go-to submissions, Ryan named his favourites. “Probably a RNC or a high-wrist guillotine,” he said. “High-wrist guillotine is actually a higher percentage for me than a RNC.”
Ryan also opened up about the lessons the sport has given him. “The ability to problem-solve under stress,” he said. “If you can solve a problem when someone’s trying to break your arm or your leg or strangle you, you can probably solve most problems in life.”
For anyone looking to accelerate their own progression, Ryan’s advice bypasses technical detail entirely and goes straight to the mental side of training.
He said: “Just have a general vision of what you’re trying to accomplish,” he said. “The number one thing that hinders progression is boredom. If you get bored, you just don’t really think about the sport. You don’t really want to do it that much. You stop coming in and things like that. But if you go into class every single day with something that, you know, one to three things that you’re trying to accomplish with both long-term and short-term goals, it makes progression a lot easier. So I think just avoiding getting bored and just always having things that you’re trying to accomplish. Trying to work on will always make it easy to show up to practice.”
As for what it takes to remain at the very top, Ryan was equally straightforward, and equally entertaining.
“It hasn’t been historically,” he said with a grin. “If I could just get my belly under control, it would be fine. But I have a tummy ache, so that’s my main issue. But if I can deal with that, then we’re unstoppable.”
