Dan Manasoiu is one of a handful of people who know exactly what it’s like to be a key training partner for the greatest no gi grappler in the world right now, Gordon Ryan. Obviously both of them have been training under John Danaher, but Ryan has taken on an even bigger coaching role in recent years. Even before he was coaching so often, he was always one of the best grapplers in the training room and he’s been at the top of the sport since around 2017 at this point. No doubt he’s been a huge influence on the careers of everyone from the original Danaher Death Squad on to New Wave Jiu-Jitsu, and now to Kingsway Jiu-Jitsu.
When Manasoiu was asked about training alongside Ryan, he was clear about the impact that it’s had on him:
“Gordon (Ryan) is the absolute best at this sport. He is the physical embodiment of technique, strength, and discipline. He is unbelievable, such a good teammate, such a great dude to be around. (He’s) unfathomably good at Jiu-Jitsu and having him in the room is just great. He’s such a great guy to look up to and he’s everything we wanna be.”
It’s actually one of the most common experiences you’ll hear from professional competitors, that having someone better than them in the training room helps to raise their skill level. It’s clearly worked for Manasoiu, as he came away with a bronze medal at ADCC 2024. That was the result of years of hard work though, and he’s been following Ryan’s guidance for a very long time:
“I remember my first roll with Gordon Ryan at Renzo’s. I was a young blue belt, 17 years old, not knowing anything and he’s just like ‘come here!’ and I’m like ‘okay…’ I remember he grabbed a two on one on my wrist, I’m like ‘get off me!’ and then he proceeded to just beat me up. But yeah, it was back in the blue basement in New York City.”
Dan Manasoiu shared what it’s like to train with Gordon Ryan in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
