Whoa.

I'm in the exact same boat as the OP and I've been watching tons of BJJ videos on youtube - and 20 minutes into Danahar's solo drilling my mind is blown. * Practice solo drill by imagining you have a live opponent * The goal of bridging is to generate maximum torque. Now that he points it out its obvious, but I never thought of it that way before. * In order to get that torque plant your feet asymmetrically, almost like a sugarfoot stance * One leg is the drive leg, but you have to drive hard enough that you can then brace your other leg and begin to push off it too. * Your head will get in the way of your bridge so what you do is start every bridge with your eyes by looking in the direction of the bridge * You want "live toes" with the second leg to begin to push off with the other leg (Danaher did not use the live toes phrasing but has you do it) * Then come into a compact position on your knees (not lying extended) * He then brings in the Uke and shows how you would control their limbs to make the bridge escape work.

I've watched 5 or 10 youtube videos on bridging and bridge escapes and they all - to my complete newbie sense - "scan" like their aikido videos that would never work with a resisting opponent. Or they seem like magic like that Hickson Gracie bridge escape technique. Obviously capturing the opponents limbs must be the real battle but I can now see how you could then escape the mount.

TL;DR now that I've seen a Danaher video at my level (complete newb) I can now understand why everyone goes nuts about him. Thanks for the link!