John Danaher

We had a very, very tight team for many years, which began in New York City.

during the peak of COVID, training in New York became very difficult to sustain.

So most of the team despised the city of New York.

I was the only person in the group that liked living in New York.

I think part of the problem was that I was the only one who actually lived in Manhattan.

The others had to commute to New York.

And there's a world of difference between living in New York and commuting to New York.

So most of them had a very negative view of New York City.

That was compounded by COVID when even the basic act of training became very, very difficult.

And so everyone decided they want to leave.

So there was a prospect of a complete breakup between myself and the team, or I would have to leave New York.

It was a difficult decision for me to make because I'd lived in New York for 30 years.

I had built my life there and had most of my friends and associates that I know here in America were New Yorkers.

I thought these guys have been incredibly loyal to me as a student.

I should also be loyal to them, of course.

So I decided that if they wanted to leave, I would go with them.

We decided to go to Puerto Rico because there was a private gym where we could train through the COVID period.

I personally wanted to go to Texas.

I thought that Texas was a better place for the team to go, but many of the students, including senior students like Gordon Ryan, Craig Jones,

had been to Puerto Rico and stayed with one of the head officials of ADCC, Mo Jassim.