December 17, 2024 • 12 mins
In this episode of Social BJJ, Dave dives into the age-old debate of No Gi vs. Gi Jiu-Jitsu. As a self-proclaimed "No Gi boy," Dave shares his personal preference for No Gi and breaks down the pros and cons of each style.
From faster pace and technical precision in No Gi to the traditional control and techniques of Gi training, Dave explores:
- Why he finds No Gi more technical and applicable in real-world scenarios.
- How grips, movement, and leg locks play a role in both styles.
- Personal experiences with finger injuries from Gi grips.
- The influence of Eddie Bravo and 10th Planet gyms on the No Gi revolution.
Whether you're team Gi, team No Gi, or somewhere in between, Dave invites listeners to share their thoughts and arguments in the comments.
Key Topics:
- Why No Gi feels more technical and dynamic.
- The challenges of grips and slower pace in Gi Jiu-Jitsu.
- Real-world applicability of both styles.
- Finger injuries and the toll of Gi grips.
- The leg lock game and how it changes in No Gi.
Listener Engagement:
- Team Gi or No Gi? Share your thoughts in the comments!
- Are you a hybrid practitioner? Let Dave know what you love about both.
Closing Notes: Catch you all in the next episode! Stay rolling, stay learning.
Follow & Subscribe:
- Leave a comment and share the episode.
- Follow Social BJJ for more content like this!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey guys, welcome to Social BJJ with your boy Dave on another pod episode today.
(00:06):
We're gonna be talking about no gi versus gi jujitsu.
And if you know anything about me, then you know that I'm a no gi boy.
Like there's no way that you're gonna really catch me in the game unless there's like some
promotion and or grand opening at a gym.
(00:28):
And I'm just showing some love.
So I'm just there to put a belt on.
But I got my reasons.
I got my reasons.
Let's get into those reasons.
One, the gi is trash.
No, I'm joking.
I'm joking before people just click on the real reasons for why I believe personally
that no gi is better.
I think it's honestly I think it's more technical.
(00:50):
I think no gi is more technical.
And the reason behind that is that in no gi there aren't really any grips that you can
have like there's no cloth that you can grab this like you only can grab the person under
hooks over hooks.
That's pretty much it for the most part, you know, tight waist or whatever the case may
be a little bit of wrestling mix in there.
(01:12):
Right.
There's more movement in no gi.
So the pace is faster.
So your execution has to be on a higher level like it has to be more precise.
There's sweat.
So you a lot of people might say that's a negative right because they don't want sweat.
But like sweat is a real like it's real.
You're sweating in a gi but just because of the gi, you don't have to deal with that type
(01:33):
of resistance.
Right.
And I feel like that's a little bit make believe.
Of course, like there's always that argument that people are like, you know, on the street,
because if we got on the street and somebody was sweating, then they're gonna slip out
of this stuff.
And I don't want to make that argument even though it's true.
I don't really want to make that argument because it's like how often are any of us
(01:55):
really going to be in a street fight to keep it a buck?
Right.
Like it's just not gonna happen for the most for the majority of us.
It's not gonna happen.
And I do think somebody who trains in the gi would be able to control somebody who does
not train at all in a street fight with clothes or even without clothes.
(02:16):
At least I would like to think that I would like to think that.
That being said, it is real world applicable.
Like I mean, like it's just it's just like in any situation, you're fine.
You're not relying on cloths with the gi you you have to rely on a cloth.
So like for example, when a no gi guy goes with a gi guy, no gi and no gi obviously,
(02:41):
the gi guy is like trying to do all these random weird types of grips that don't work
or they feel a little bit lost, like I can't get the bearings right.
Like I don't know which like with the grab, there's nothing for me to grab on to.
And I've heard this a lot.
And you know, when you put the no gi guy into the gi, now, of course, there's some grips
(03:04):
that they're not going to be necessarily familiar with.
Like all you're grabbing on my clothes.
This is a little bit frustrating.
But I feel like personally, it's a little bit easier to adapt your game if you're coming
from no gi to a gi, because now there's cloths.
And you got to learn how to grab things.
Of course, you got to learn how to grab the gi.
(03:25):
You got to learn when to let go and things of that nature, which is something that I
never learned.
It's another reason why I don't like the gi is because I've never like I hurt my fingers
so much.
I remember seeing like a video of Kenan Cornelius, like he had so many like so much tape on the
knuckles of his fingers.
And I was like, this is ridiculous.
He was having like a hard time even just like making a fist because they were just like
(03:48):
so swollen or messed up.
I'm not sure if he has them fixed now or what the case may be.
But like when you grab the gi and you're doing so much so much pressure in your hands like
that that power of just like, you know, the grip power of grabbing the gi constantly is
wearing and tearing on the tendons and ligaments in your fingers on your hands.
(04:10):
And that was something that, you know, me at the time of two strike white belt, three
strike white belt, I was starting to feel it.
So I was like, this is something that I want to I want to be a blue belt.
I want to be a purple belt.
Eventually, I want to get a black belt in Jiu Jitsu, right?
Like, you know, especially when you're starting off, belts really matter.
I was like, I really want to like, you know, be there.
(04:33):
And when my hands started like messing up, I was like, this is going to be hard, though.
But you know, I just figure it out.
It's just the way of the warrior.
I'm going to start taping them up and tape them up.
And you know, you got somebody named Eddie Bravo, who pretty much, you know, revolutionized
the scene of Jiu Jitsu schools, because now you have a whole bunch of 10 planet gyms all
(04:54):
around the world that are focusing on no gi.
And you can go there Monday through Sunday, or sometimes Monday through Saturday.
And it's just no gi classes.
And they're just focusing specifically on no gi.
And when I went to one of those gyms in Korea, it was mind blowing.
(05:16):
It's like, what?
Like a lot of the stuff that I learned in the Gracie Certified Training Center, I was
able to apply to no gi because it was just everything that they showed in the intro,
the first like 32 or 36 moves, all of that is just self defense stuff.
So it wasn't dependent on sport.
It wasn't like, gi grappling.
(05:36):
It wasn't anything like that.
It was just really like how to defend yourself.
You could do it with the gi or without the gi.
It didn't matter.
But of course, they wanted you to do the gi because their gi costs 200 bucks that I paid
for it, right?
But that's neither here nor there.
Right.
But when I went to the 10 planet gym, oh, wow, I'm able to do all this stuff and my
(05:57):
fingers don't hurt and I'm able to use my speed.
Whereas in the gi, I was being restricted.
Now am I like running around jumping around a lot?
No, I'm not doing it a lot.
I need to be able to move when I need to move and I want to move when I can.
And it's up to the onus is up to the other person to control me with proper grips, under
(06:18):
hooks, over hooks.
But then that opens up a whole new world of leg locks in no gi.
And then again, if we're talking about the street applicability, hopefully I'm saying
it wrong, right?
If we're talking about in the street, right?
Of course you get knocked out doing some leg locks.
(06:38):
You could cause a lot of damage doing leg locks too, which is probably not the smartest
thing to do.
But sometimes if that's the situation you get caught in, that's the situation you get
caught in, right?
Like if that's the only thing you've got, hopefully you could transition to something
else.
But you know, when you find yourself there, you find yourself there.
But it's a whole new world when you're entering that world leg lock game.
(06:58):
The gi is primarily upper body.
Maybe you got some straight ankle logs, which is, it can be very serious, but for the most
part they're not too serious without the threat of a heel hook or a ioki or whatever else
that you can do.
And in no gi, because it's a little bit slippery, you're able to slip hills, maybe you're able
(07:20):
to clear the knee line.
Basically once your knee is free, when somebody's doing a heel hook, or yeah, for a heel hook,
in order for a heel hook to work effectively, they have to be able to control your knee
in order, actually they got to be able to control your hip in order to apply the pressure,
(07:42):
the heel hook, which is actually going to break the knee, right?
So they need to, you need to control the joint above.
So if somebody is going for ankle lock, you got to be able to control the knee in order
to break the ankle, right?
And so that conceptual approach.
So if somebody is going for your heel, but you're able to slip your knee out, they're
not controlling your hips and you're able to slip your knee out.
(08:04):
Now all they have is just your ankle, they're just grabbing onto your foot.
It's not really as much of a danger, just to explain that concept.
I'm not sure how many people are familiar with leg locks or not, but that enters in
the whole new world in no gi because in gi, again, most of the attacks are going to be
upper body and because of that, a lot of people like posture up to try to break those grips
(08:27):
and things of that nature.
When you posture up, your legs are exposed, but if you're not constantly attacking legs
in gi, that's like literally Dean Lister says, like it's 50% of the body that you're
not, you're avoiding, like you have to mess with that.
So if somebody is constantly avoiding your upper body game, which I find happens to me
(08:49):
a lot nowadays, people don't want to come into my guard as much or they're playing a
little bit, they're posturing out of all my grips.
So what's hanging around?
Legs.
If I was like, hey, this is illegal for me to hill hook or do any of this stuff, so I'm
just going to keep letting them posture up or maybe put them in clothes guard and try
(09:10):
to play clothes guard.
Like yeah, clothes guard might work a little bit better in gi than it would in no gi, but
overall it's a much slower game.
If you're a little bit older, it's probably better for you to have the gi on because you
could slow things down.
But if you're younger and you're a little bit athletic, then no gi is going to be much,
(09:34):
much better for you.
If you want to lose some weight, I would even say no gi is going to be better for you.
But also there's like that, you put the gi on, it's going to make you sweat a little
bit more.
Now ultimately I say no gi is better than gi, but there are definitely pros and cons
and I don't see the gi going anywhere.
And I don't think it should go anywhere.
I think it looks pretty nice, especially when people wear their belts and everything.
(09:58):
It's probably the only positive thing you're going to hear me talk about the gi.
Whenever I see techniques, I'm like, those are disgusting.
Whenever I see gi techniques like spider guard, lasso guard, worm guard, all that stuff is
just disgusting to me.
Because it's like, you're controlling my clothes, you're not controlling me.
(10:21):
And I would much rather control the person than their clothes.
Because again, of course, in the street situation, you could choke somebody out with a t-shirt.
They're wearing a t-shirt and you could choke them out.
And that will come from your knowledge of doing cross collar chokes and the gi.
(10:42):
So I'm not hating on that.
You could probably end fights a lot faster because of that knowledge too.
That's why I said earlier, gi guys will be able to take care of themselves.
And gi ladies, gi gals, they'll be able to take care of themselves.
I'm pretty positive.
If you train grappling, you should be pretty dominant.
But in my preference, no grips, more movement, faster pace, which equals tighter techniques,
(11:11):
you could use it at the beach.
You just got out of water, somebody bumped into you and they kicked you on the leg, they
slapped you in the face.
Maybe they slapped your significant other on his or her backside.
And you're like, oh no, you didn't just violate.
(11:32):
Maybe they pushed your kids down.
You got to intervene.
Maybe somebody's on top of your kid hitting your kid.
You got to intervene.
On the beach, everybody's wet, slippery.
You got to be able to handle that situation, right?
Nothing to grip onto.
So you got to do that no gi.
I know some of the gi people, if you're still listening to it at this point, you definitely
(11:56):
are disagreeing with me.
And if you are, if you think gi is better, let me know in the comments.
And if you are somebody who's a no gi and you're like, definitely no gi rocks, no gi
is better, let me know in the comments.
And if you're somebody in the in between, let me know why you like gi and no gi and
(12:18):
where my arguments might fall short.
But until the next time, I'll see you guys tomorrow.
Take care.
Peace.
Hey guys, welcome to Social BJJ with your boy Dave on another pod episode today.
(00:06):
We're gonna be talking about no gi versus gi jujitsu.
And if you know anything about me, then you know that I'm a no gi boy.
Like there's no way that you're gonna really catch me in the game unless there's like some
promotion and or grand opening at a gym.
(00:28):
And I'm just showing some love.
So I'm just there to put a belt on.
But I got my reasons.
I got my reasons.
Let's get into those reasons.
One, the gi is trash.
No, I'm joking.
I'm joking before people just click on the real reasons for why I believe personally
that no gi is better.
I think it's honestly I think it's more technical.
(00:50):
I think no gi is more technical.
And the reason behind that is that in no gi there aren't really any grips that you can
have like there's no cloth that you can grab this like you only can grab the person under
hooks over hooks.
That's pretty much it for the most part, you know, tight waist or whatever the case may
be a little bit of wrestling mix in there.
(01:12):
Right.
There's more movement in no gi.
So the pace is faster.
So your execution has to be on a higher level like it has to be more precise.
There's sweat.
So you a lot of people might say that's a negative right because they don't want sweat.
But like sweat is a real like it's real.
You're sweating in a gi but just because of the gi, you don't have to deal with that type
(01:33):
of resistance.
Right.
And I feel like that's a little bit make believe.
Of course, like there's always that argument that people are like, you know, on the street,
because if we got on the street and somebody was sweating, then they're gonna slip out
of this stuff.
And I don't want to make that argument even though it's true.
I don't really want to make that argument because it's like how often are any of us
(01:55):
really going to be in a street fight to keep it a buck?
Right.
Like it's just not gonna happen for the most for the majority of us.
It's not gonna happen.
And I do think somebody who trains in the gi would be able to control somebody who does
not train at all in a street fight with clothes or even without clothes.
(02:16):
At least I would like to think that I would like to think that.
That being said, it is real world applicable.
Like I mean, like it's just it's just like in any situation, you're fine.
You're not relying on cloths with the gi you you have to rely on a cloth.
So like for example, when a no gi guy goes with a gi guy, no gi and no gi obviously,
(02:41):
the gi guy is like trying to do all these random weird types of grips that don't work
or they feel a little bit lost, like I can't get the bearings right.
Like I don't know which like with the grab, there's nothing for me to grab on to.
And I've heard this a lot.
And you know, when you put the no gi guy into the gi, now, of course, there's some grips
(03:04):
that they're not going to be necessarily familiar with.
Like all you're grabbing on my clothes.
This is a little bit frustrating.
But I feel like personally, it's a little bit easier to adapt your game if you're coming
from no gi to a gi, because now there's cloths.
And you got to learn how to grab things.
Of course, you got to learn how to grab the gi.
(03:25):
You got to learn when to let go and things of that nature, which is something that I
never learned.
It's another reason why I don't like the gi is because I've never like I hurt my fingers
so much.
I remember seeing like a video of Kenan Cornelius, like he had so many like so much tape on the
knuckles of his fingers.
And I was like, this is ridiculous.
He was having like a hard time even just like making a fist because they were just like
(03:48):
so swollen or messed up.
I'm not sure if he has them fixed now or what the case may be.
But like when you grab the gi and you're doing so much so much pressure in your hands like
that that power of just like, you know, the grip power of grabbing the gi constantly is
wearing and tearing on the tendons and ligaments in your fingers on your hands.
(04:10):
And that was something that, you know, me at the time of two strike white belt, three
strike white belt, I was starting to feel it.
So I was like, this is something that I want to I want to be a blue belt.
I want to be a purple belt.
Eventually, I want to get a black belt in Jiu Jitsu, right?
Like, you know, especially when you're starting off, belts really matter.
I was like, I really want to like, you know, be there.
(04:33):
And when my hands started like messing up, I was like, this is going to be hard, though.
But you know, I just figure it out.
It's just the way of the warrior.
I'm going to start taping them up and tape them up.
And you know, you got somebody named Eddie Bravo, who pretty much, you know, revolutionized
the scene of Jiu Jitsu schools, because now you have a whole bunch of 10 planet gyms all
(04:54):
around the world that are focusing on no gi.
And you can go there Monday through Sunday, or sometimes Monday through Saturday.
And it's just no gi classes.
And they're just focusing specifically on no gi.
And when I went to one of those gyms in Korea, it was mind blowing.
(05:16):
It's like, what?
Like a lot of the stuff that I learned in the Gracie Certified Training Center, I was
able to apply to no gi because it was just everything that they showed in the intro,
the first like 32 or 36 moves, all of that is just self defense stuff.
So it wasn't dependent on sport.
It wasn't like, gi grappling.
(05:36):
It wasn't anything like that.
It was just really like how to defend yourself.
You could do it with the gi or without the gi.
It didn't matter.
But of course, they wanted you to do the gi because their gi costs 200 bucks that I paid
for it, right?
But that's neither here nor there.
Right.
But when I went to the 10 planet gym, oh, wow, I'm able to do all this stuff and my
(05:57):
fingers don't hurt and I'm able to use my speed.
Whereas in the gi, I was being restricted.
Now am I like running around jumping around a lot?
No, I'm not doing it a lot.
I need to be able to move when I need to move and I want to move when I can.
And it's up to the onus is up to the other person to control me with proper grips, under
(06:18):
hooks, over hooks.
But then that opens up a whole new world of leg locks in no gi.
And then again, if we're talking about the street applicability, hopefully I'm saying
it wrong, right?
If we're talking about in the street, right?
Of course you get knocked out doing some leg locks.
(06:38):
You could cause a lot of damage doing leg locks too, which is probably not the smartest
thing to do.
But sometimes if that's the situation you get caught in, that's the situation you get
caught in, right?
Like if that's the only thing you've got, hopefully you could transition to something
else.
But you know, when you find yourself there, you find yourself there.
But it's a whole new world when you're entering that world leg lock game.
(06:58):
The gi is primarily upper body.
Maybe you got some straight ankle logs, which is, it can be very serious, but for the most
part they're not too serious without the threat of a heel hook or a ioki or whatever else
that you can do.
And in no gi, because it's a little bit slippery, you're able to slip hills, maybe you're able
(07:20):
to clear the knee line.
Basically once your knee is free, when somebody's doing a heel hook, or yeah, for a heel hook,
in order for a heel hook to work effectively, they have to be able to control your knee
in order, actually they got to be able to control your hip in order to apply the pressure,
(07:42):
the heel hook, which is actually going to break the knee, right?
So they need to, you need to control the joint above.
So if somebody is going for ankle lock, you got to be able to control the knee in order
to break the ankle, right?
And so that conceptual approach.
So if somebody is going for your heel, but you're able to slip your knee out, they're
not controlling your hips and you're able to slip your knee out.
(08:04):
Now all they have is just your ankle, they're just grabbing onto your foot.
It's not really as much of a danger, just to explain that concept.
I'm not sure how many people are familiar with leg locks or not, but that enters in
the whole new world in no gi because in gi, again, most of the attacks are going to be
upper body and because of that, a lot of people like posture up to try to break those grips
(08:27):
and things of that nature.
When you posture up, your legs are exposed, but if you're not constantly attacking legs
in gi, that's like literally Dean Lister says, like it's 50% of the body that you're
not, you're avoiding, like you have to mess with that.
So if somebody is constantly avoiding your upper body game, which I find happens to me
(08:49):
a lot nowadays, people don't want to come into my guard as much or they're playing a
little bit, they're posturing out of all my grips.
So what's hanging around?
Legs.
If I was like, hey, this is illegal for me to hill hook or do any of this stuff, so I'm
just going to keep letting them posture up or maybe put them in clothes guard and try
(09:10):
to play clothes guard.
Like yeah, clothes guard might work a little bit better in gi than it would in no gi, but
overall it's a much slower game.
If you're a little bit older, it's probably better for you to have the gi on because you
could slow things down.
But if you're younger and you're a little bit athletic, then no gi is going to be much,
(09:34):
much better for you.
If you want to lose some weight, I would even say no gi is going to be better for you.
But also there's like that, you put the gi on, it's going to make you sweat a little
bit more.
Now ultimately I say no gi is better than gi, but there are definitely pros and cons
and I don't see the gi going anywhere.
And I don't think it should go anywhere.
I think it looks pretty nice, especially when people wear their belts and everything.
(09:58):
It's probably the only positive thing you're going to hear me talk about the gi.
Whenever I see techniques, I'm like, those are disgusting.
Whenever I see gi techniques like spider guard, lasso guard, worm guard, all that stuff is
just disgusting to me.
Because it's like, you're controlling my clothes, you're not controlling me.
(10:21):
And I would much rather control the person than their clothes.
Because again, of course, in the street situation, you could choke somebody out with a t-shirt.
They're wearing a t-shirt and you could choke them out.
And that will come from your knowledge of doing cross collar chokes and the gi.
(10:42):
So I'm not hating on that.
You could probably end fights a lot faster because of that knowledge too.
That's why I said earlier, gi guys will be able to take care of themselves.
And gi ladies, gi gals, they'll be able to take care of themselves.
I'm pretty positive.
If you train grappling, you should be pretty dominant.
But in my preference, no grips, more movement, faster pace, which equals tighter techniques,
(11:11):
you could use it at the beach.
You just got out of water, somebody bumped into you and they kicked you on the leg, they
slapped you in the face.
Maybe they slapped your significant other on his or her backside.
And you're like, oh no, you didn't just violate.
(11:32):
Maybe they pushed your kids down.
You got to intervene.
Maybe somebody's on top of your kid hitting your kid.
You got to intervene.
On the beach, everybody's wet, slippery.
You got to be able to handle that situation, right?
Nothing to grip onto.
So you got to do that no gi.
I know some of the gi people, if you're still listening to it at this point, you definitely
(11:56):
are disagreeing with me.
And if you are, if you think gi is better, let me know in the comments.
And if you are somebody who's a no gi and you're like, definitely no gi rocks, no gi
is better, let me know in the comments.
And if you're somebody in the in between, let me know why you like gi and no gi and
(12:18):
where my arguments might fall short.
But until the next time, I'll see you guys tomorrow.
Take care.
Peace.
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