Behold the Superfluous: The Great Gi vs No-Gi Debate

One of the best things about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is how unique everyone's experience can be. Because everyone has such an individualized perspective on the sport, arguing and debates have spurred up about all sorts of silly things including what one should wear while practicing. The founders of BJJ all started training wearing a Judo kimono, or commonly referred to as a "gi." Over the years people began questioning the usefulness of the gi. (If you are new to BJJ and have no clue what I’m talking about, please read this cleverly titled article written by one of the baddest BJJ practitioners I've ever met: Valerie Worthington.) Traditionalists insist that training Gi is the only measure of one’s true technical ability; while No-Gi only proponents see the Gi game as outdated or boring. In all honesty, both sides make good points, and in my personal experience, I found that Gi helps my No-Gi game. However, that’s my personal experience. If traveling around and training with a bunch of people has taught me anything, it’s that Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is a unique experience that develops from each individual’s body type, goals, priorities, environment, culture, background, and all sorts of contextual variables that surround the practitioner. Thus, Whether or not the gi is better comes down to a matter of opinion. Each style offers different puzzles for the practitioner to try and solve, and in the end, those who pick a single side are choosing to ignore a whole different look at BJJ. Furthermore, being shut off about either style kinda goes against the open-minded nature of BJJ in the first place.

To truly understand the benefits of either style, one must understand what is Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. The whole idea behind martial arts in general comes down to the fact that technical awareness of leverage, timing, and positioning maximize the chances of a smaller/weaker person being able to defend themselves and even beat a bigger, stronger, and all around scarier opponent. What sets BJJ apart is that we get to try this out at full speed every time we practice. Without going into the rich history of the sport, BJJ comes down to being able to subdue an opponent in a way in which one can minimize the benefits of strength, size, and athleticism. If we accept this as one of the fundamental truths of jiu jitsu, we find that both Gi and No-Gi are just two different roads to Rome. The goal is to submit, the goal is to control, the goal is to defend. To achieve these goals, students of BJJ need to develop the technical skills to minimize the benefits of an opponent’s athleticism, but athleticism helps a lot… A LOT.

I’ve heard both sides stake the claim that the other style gives athletic opponents an unfair advantage. I can personally say I’ve been tossed around and beaten up by stronger/faster guys in both styles; I’ve had guys grab me by the gi and rag doll me, and I’ve had guys explode out of positions without a gi. To argue that whether or not one wears a gi is the reason athletic people beat you up sounds hollow to me. Wouldn't a better approach be to become so technically sound that one could out maneuvering a stronger guy or gal regardless of what he or she wears? In my opinion, each style can teach us different ways to out-wit athletically gifted opponents.

While the gi does give strong guys grips to help control weaker opponents, it also gives weaker guys more leverage to help escape disadvantageous positions. Everyone that rolls with a gi has experienced the difficulty in trying to get a big hulking brute to break their hold on you. It’s not easy, and at times it is just plain impossible. This reality forces the weaker practitioner to rely on proper technique and leverage to out maneuver a big gorilla. Those same grips that keep smaller guys from advancing can be used against the bigger guys, and the gi can be used to give a weaker but more skilled practitioner the extra control or torque he or she needs to advance position.

In the gi, one has to learn to be patient and use their core and limbs in harmony to wear down monsters, create space, or attack. Being explosive will always be beneficial in jiu jitsu, however it is far more difficult to explode through an opponent's guard or out from under a guy when they are strong and grab your gi. Without being able to rely on one’s explosiveness, one must be able to use proper technique to win; for these reasons Gi matches are much slower than No-Gi, which a lot of people find boring. Here we find ourselves at a juncture of opinion, people who like to roll at a fast pace rather train No-Gi. Those who like a methodical game of "body-chess" generally prefer Gi.

It is important to note that patience and leverage are HIGHLY important in No-Gi; moreover, using the gi as a tool to zone in on that aspect of the game is a smart way to train. Thus it’s understandable why some people argue that the gi is a good tool to better one’s all around grappling; just how good of a tool it is, is again a matter of opinion. Of course the best way to improve your No-Gi game is to practice No-Gi, but throwing in a little Gi from time to time may help.

In No-Gi, it is much easier for fast/explosive people to slip out of disadvantageous positions and into dominant positions, making it much harder to control explosive athletes. Furthermore, while strong guys won't have the gi to anchor down on, strength and size are still tough obstacles to overcome in No-Gi. All that changes is the approach one has to take to beat bigger opponents. Without the cloth to create more friction and without the grips to slow guys down, explosive dudes and dudettes are difficult to beat. It is even tougher when the gi isn’t there to soak up sweat, thereby making an opponent more slippery and harder to control. A BJJ practitioner who isn’t athletic or fast will have trouble utilizing his or her offense against someone who is, here the emphasis in No-Gi turns to timing and again to proper technique. When you know your opponent is explosive, it is easier to time their explosion than to try and stop it. Once you get the timing down, one uses proper positioning and leverage to use the opponent’s own momentum against them, laying traps and securing a position or submission. The gi gives the weaker person more torque and leverage to push back against a stronger person's push, but without the gi it's better to deflect  that energy using good timing. Thus, just like the gi helps hone patience and leverage, No-Gi helps a grappler focus on their timing, and timing an opponent is a crucial part of grappling in general (including Gi Jiu Jitsu).

Training in both can absolutely help one’s all around grappling game, but in the end, which style one prefers should be focused on. Though Gi training helps No-Gi, and vice versa, the only way to get better at a specific style of BJJ is to train in that style often and consistently; however it is beneficial to throw in a new look from time to time. But all these points are moot when someone just plain doesn’t like training in the other style, and that’s fine. Gi does get slow, and No-Gi doesn’t have as many attacks like gi chokes and lapel sweeps. In the end it comes down to a matter of opinion, if you like Gi: great, if you like No-Gi: great, if you like both: great. I would encourage people to give both a try to make up their minds. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at its core is about being open minded, trying new things, failing and trying again, picking up tools and letting some go. To look down at someone for having a different view of the game doesn’t promote the sport nor does it grow the community; after all we are all students of the game, some just wear a different uniform to class.

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