Daniel Strauss BJJ: The Raspberry Ape and Grip King

Daniel Strauss, better known as "The Raspberry Ape", is one of the most recognisable British BJJ black belts. He is a Roger Gracie black belt, a long-time competitor on the Polaris stage, founder of Ape Academy, and the man who turned grip training into a content niche of its own on Instagram. Full disclosure: I went to school with Dan, so some of this is first-hand.

Daniel Strauss at a glance

Attribute	Details
Full name	Daniel Strauss
Born	1990
Age	35
Nationality	British
Height	5 ft 10 in
Hometown	St Albans, England
Belt	Black belt
Promoted by	Roger Gracie
Specialities	Guillotine, grip strength, control
Business	Ape Academy (online BJJ courses)
Podcast	The Raspberry Ape Podcast

Background and early years

Dan grew up in St Albans, just north of London. We were at the same school and I rode the same bus to and from class as him for years. Even back then his fascination with martial arts was obvious. The conversations on the bus were mostly nun chucks and samurai swords. He had the kind of focus that made it pretty clear he would end up doing something with it.

From general martial arts he moved into Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and never really came back out. The discipline, the competitive aspect and the technical depth all suited him. The grip strength followed naturally: when you spend that much time on the gi, your hands and forearms either keep up or you stop progressing.

How he got the "Raspberry Ape" nickname

The Raspberry Ape moniker comes from a mix of his physicality (broad frame, huge grip strength, primal style of training) and his personality (warm, playful, a little eccentric). It started as a training-room nickname and ended up as the brand for his whole career. The Instagram handle, the podcast, the academy: all wear the Raspberry Ape name now.

Roger Gracie and the path to black belt

Dan's BJJ comes from one of the cleanest lineages in the sport. He trained under Roger Gracie, a 10x world champion and the cleanest gi practitioner of his generation. That training shapes Dan's style: pressure-based, position-first, with high-percentage submissions (especially the guillotine) coming off the back of dominant control rather than from scrambles.

Black belt for any BJJ practitioner is the work of a decade or more. For Dan, it was the natural endpoint of years of consistent training rather than a single breakthrough moment. The promotion gave him the platform to start teaching and competing at the level he is best known for now.

Competition career: Polaris and beyond

Dan made his name on the Polaris stage:

• Polaris 2 (September 2015): Faced AJ Agazarm in a high-pressure middleweight match-up. The fight ended in a draw and established Dan as a serious name on the British grappling circuit.
• Polaris 5 (August 2017): Faced MMA and grappling veteran Jake Shields. Lost the match but earned wide respect for his composure and willingness to take on a top-level opponent.

Beyond Polaris, Dan has competed and refereed at events across the UK and Europe. His competition record is solid rather than headline-grabbing. He is one of those black belts whose real influence comes through teaching, not through medals.

Ape Academy: online BJJ courses

Dan founded Ape Academy, an online platform where he hosts his courses. The flagship offerings:

• Guillotine Masterclass: A deep dive on the guillotine system. The goal, as Dan puts it, is to turn his students into the "guillotine guy" at their own gyms. The course is technique-heavy and works for blue belts and up.
• Grip training course: Over 75 minutes of instruction on building grip strength, both with and without gym equipment. This is the area Dan is best known for, and the course reflects his trademark home-made-equipment approach.

Across both courses, the through-line is practical. Less theory, more reps, with clear coaching cues for self-correction. Dan has run seminars at over 250 gyms worldwide, and his style on video matches what people get in person.

Grip training and the Raspberry Ape Instagram

The Raspberry Ape Instagram has over 100,000 followers and is where Dan built most of his audience. The content is grip training, with a heavy emphasis on home-made equipment: improvised lifts, household objects turned into resistance tools, and creative pinch and crush grip work.

The whole channel is a quiet rebuttal of the idea that you need a fully kitted-out gym to build serious grappling strength. You can get more done with a couple of old gi tops, a heavy chain and some imagination than most people do with a rack of machines.

The Raspberry Ape Podcast

Dan hosts The Raspberry Ape Podcast, where he interviews figures from across martial arts. A standout episode is his conversation with Neil Adams, the most decorated British judoka of all time, covering Adams's career, the judo ground game and where it overlaps with BJJ.

The podcast is conversational and unhurried, which is rare in the combat sports space. It is a good listen if you are interested in the why behind the techniques rather than just the techniques themselves.

Frequently asked questions

How old is Daniel Strauss? Daniel Strauss was born in 1990, which makes him 35 years old in 2026.

How tall is Daniel Strauss? He is 5 ft 10 in.

Who is Daniel Strauss's BJJ coach? Daniel is a black belt under Roger Gracie.

Where does Daniel Strauss teach? He teaches online through Ape Academy and runs seminars at gyms worldwide. He has worked with over 250 gyms.

Why is he called the Raspberry Ape? The nickname combines his physical presence and grip strength (the Ape part) with his warm, playful personality. It started as a training-room nickname and is now the name of his academy, podcast and Instagram.

What is Daniel Strauss's signature submission? The guillotine. His Guillotine Masterclass course at Ape Academy is one of his most popular offerings and reflects his real competitive game.

The bottom line

Daniel "The Raspberry Ape" Strauss is one of the most influential British BJJ black belts of his generation. His real legacy is not the competition medals but the teaching: hundreds of seminars, an active online academy, and an Instagram following built on the idea that you can train hard with whatever you have around you. If you have not seen his content yet, the grip training videos alone are worth the follow.

If you are interested in more black belt profiles, see our pieces on Danielle Kelly, Nicky Ryan and our wider top BJJ athletes list. For grip-specific work, also see our BJJ finger tape guide.