I started training in Martial Arts back in 1990 mainly for Self-Defense reasons. I grew up in a rough area of Philly where street fights were an everyday thing.
I started with Karate classes and from there found my way to the world of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA).
Over the years I’ve competed in everything from Karate to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to high level MMA Events.
After 14 years of training I was awarded my Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) Black Belt, a rank that so few ever make it to. To this day it’s still the proudest moment of my life. I think about that day all the time and It’s something I hope more people get to experience as well.
How did you end up here in the Annapolis Maryland Area?
I get asked all the time “How did you end up in Annapolis teaching Mixed Martial Arts?” Truth be told I ended up in Annapolis purely by chance.
I started off in the Maryland/DC/Virginia area in late 2005. I taught at a few locations and worked for some nice folks who brought me in to teach Brazilian Jiu Jitsu skills.
In January of 2008, on a cold winter night, some friends of mine invited me to come out and watch the Navy/Lehigh Wrestling meet, which was being held at the Naval Academy.
Those who know me know I’m a huge collage wrestling fan so I was all about it. And At the time I was living in Temple Hills so it wasn’t that far of a drive for me.
The wrestling meet was awesome (Lehigh won, sorry Navy) and afterwords these same friends took me out on the town and showed me what Annapolis was all about.
We got to talking and I said it seemed like a cool place so I started sniffing around to get an idea of what the local MMA programs might be.
All the locals pretty much confirmed that there was indeed no real MMA Academies/Gyms in this area.
I said that’s fantastic because I need a place to plant my flag and Annapolis seemed like a nice place.
I made my mind up right then and there. I’m not the kind of person who sits on his hands that’s for sure.
So the following Monday morning I drove up to Baltimore and filed for my business license and a week after that I started going door to door (in 10 degree weather) asking people if they’d be willing to give my MMA classes a try.
Most said no but a few agreed to give it a try. Alright, next I went out and rented space in a gymnastics center right off best gate rd.
3 weeks after that and now with 10 enrolled members (who’d never taken a class from me mind you), teaching inside a kids gymnastics center with cartoon anteaters painted on the walls, the doors opened and Ivey League MMA was born. That was March 3rd, 2008.
How did you come to specialize in teaching martial arts to kids?
I’ve got to be honest, If you’d have said to me 10 years ago that my Academy would specialize in kids martial arts classes I’d have laughed in your face!
Not joking. I never in a million years thought I’d be spending the bulk of my time training little kids.
It ended up being one of those things were I said okay let’s add kids classes in and see what happens. We launched the Ivey League Youth Program back in October of 2009.
It did okay at first, the classes grew little by little. I started getting into working with the kids, you know having fun teaching them and getting to see them progress.
It’s funny because I’d always considered myself bad with kids. Well long story short the program went from 10 kids one month to over one hundred kids the next!
Pretty soon we had packed classes with the numbers reaching over 40 kids. I ended up having to train and hire more staff members to help me deal with the growth.
And here we are 5+ years later. Our kids program is now ranking in the top 5 worldwide and it went from a program I had no desire to work with to now the only ones I can’t miss.
There’s something about working with kids, getting see them do all these amazing things and have great success, inside and out of the academy, it’s really cool be a part of.
I’m really proud of our youth programs and what we’ve been able to do here in Annapolis. We’re very lucky to have such great children and families in and around Ivey League. You guys rock!
2015 and beyond…
Ivey League has been a smashing success for not just me, but also my wife Teresa and our awesome coaching staff.
Our students, from little kids up to grown adults, are outstanding. It’s been great to work with so many good folks from all walks of life.
I’m very lucky to call Annapolis Maryland my home. I couldn’t have picked a better place to open up Ivey League.
–Danny Ives
