Yep, this age old question that everyone has debated for years about the merits of BJJ pajama wrestling. People keep asking me, so here's my answer. (And the three ways to review your sparring videos.)
The only thing i find useful in the gi for mma is for escaping submissions since in the gi it makes them tighter and you have to use proper technique and skill to escape while in no gi submissions are easier to escape
ah yes, the "proper technique" argument... you know, wrestling has a bunch of ground escapes to learn, too, right? they're much more useful in mma than the other stuff. want proof? watch connor mac fight, or old chuck liddel fights. none of that comes from the gi, as those guys never trained gi, and they're some of the best at not letting op keep you on the ground. the "proper technique" reasoning simply isn't valid.
It's like to say if you have to train Muay Thai,since it has more option than Boxing,to become a better Boxer...Gi is a great selling point but maybe is more smarter investing time in Wrestling Takedowns than in Sleve control and collar chokes,expecially if you competing under UWW NoGi Grappling rules like us.Best form of training can be instead a more slippery conditions than the ones that you can find in competition.This perfecting your grip,precision and body sensibility.Many Wrestlers from East Europe train that way,not in more friction condition and they aren't bad at all in the Olympians.Love your videos,by the way.
I go to a nogi school, so I absolutely agree. I do recognize, though, that nogi allows me to have a level of carelessness that I could not have in a gi.
Thank you for the truth about training with the GI! I am amazed by the people who say training with the Gi is optimal for MMA. Actually, I am flabbergasted lol I love that word. Ramsey, your videos and voice and sense of humor are fantastic. Keep up the good work my friend. I am sure you have already answered this question many times before, but I am new to your channel - why did you move to China? Was it for a girl? For cheap rent? For the pollution? What?
Like you said, it really depends on what you are training for. For example, if you are training for the street, a gi is essential for practicing grabbing someone's jacket. For the ring where every one wears only shorts, yeah I agree with you that a gi is counter productive.
Hey Bro, love your vids. Would you be able to make a vid about how to deal with those GI death grips. Every time I start from the feet with white belts that same thing happens and it always ends up the same way...
Ramsey: I know you're struggling with how to figure out technique. But I can really help you out. I'm the instructor at my gym, and we train buck naked. There are a half dozen ball sack techniques, which are vital additions to standard jiu jitsu. I live in the U.S., and if you take a plane trip here, I'm willing to train you for only $450 an hour. I'd even be willing to let you videotape our sessions for the benefit of your students.
I train in combat jiu jitsu/arb/kinda traditional judo and crosstrain mma and the only thing I can think of that the gi helped me with that transitioned to mma was throws and certain pins. Idk why but when I started mma I could pull off all my jiu jitsu throws no gi.
I'm stuck because if I want more grappling time I need to do BJJ in the gi. 75 bucks later here I am, new white belt. First impressions are: soooo many grips
My background is basically judo, and today i train with a guy who is a proficient MMA fighter who's fought at the highest tiers of the sport here in scandinavia. He is well versed in freestyle wrestling as well as BJJ and absolutely detests the gi. I just feel so lost when i try to wrestle this guy. He says that he can see that my footwork is pretty good. I've got good defensive insticts, good balance, good posting, and good grip fighting and i am a constant threat to his legs. I am generally good at seeing his weaknesses and instinctively go for them. But i couldn't throw or submit him if my life depended on it! I've clearly got the stronger grip, but he can just shake me off any time he wants and then be like glue when i try to do the same to him. I always knew, even as a kid, that for all the bruises we got what we were doing was still bathrobe wrestling and then there was real wrestling. But even though i knew these guys were much better than us with a "less artificial" ruleset i still did not expect to be completely helpless! Damn you gi!
I would only do one session of gi and spend the rest no gi. I'd only do gi for the scenerio where I get into a fight... and I have to grapple... in the winter.
Hi Mr Dewey. I do BJJ with a Gi. I find that training in a Gi is so much harder than without it. All these grips make it very hard to get loose and breaking the guard when my partners have vices for hands. I still do it with a Gi because it's more challenging. And because I brought it so I must use it. Could you tell me what in your opinions would be the benefits of GI and no Gi further than you already explained please?
I train with gi most of the time. There is more to play with and to proceed to the next step. When I do no gi I don't think anymore and second nature and know what to do.
T-shirts will rip with little pressure and you will not get a collar choke unless the guy is wearing a winter jacket and where I live we dont wear winter jackets. Both are good but both attract different people. People who are more technical tend to prefer the GI and people who are more athletic may like the no-gi.
i tell you, emphatically, no. every mma guy i met during my career that believed in the gi had an incomplete mma game, even the guys that made it to ufc. the gi is a restriction to your martial arts training that's not worth the effort, unless you just want to do bjj tourneys. plus, you end up training a huge amount of techniques that literally don't work anywhere but a controlled bjj environment. dave menne once told me that he never trains gi (i know i'm going pretty far back, but he's a ufc champion) and i took his reasoning to heart. that's why i'm now a martial artist who holds no belt, but has tapped multiple black belts. you should have seen it when i joined a traditional bjj gym, was given a white belt (i never paid enough to be awarded the blue) and i tapped every single person in the school at will. you should have seen how upset that made them, lol. i left the gym after a training injury that could have easily been prevented. when the owner of the gym said i owed him money, i told him i was the best guy in the room (no comment form him btw) and that i only was injured due to poor training method. he shut his mouth real quick. he later had his parent school disavow him and had to give up his business. i'm still one of the baddest dude in the state, lol, and never will i ever accept a silly belt.
