Every now and then I hear brazilian jiu jitsu practitioners debate whether its better to learn with a gi or without.  I figured I might as well add my two cents to the discussion.

I am an average guy, average athleticism and average jiu jitsu.  I have been training jiu jitsu on and off for about 15 years, am an average brown belt and rarely do no gi.  I had an interesting experience the other day in the gym where I train.  We had a wrestler / no gi jiu jitsu person come in to visit.  i asked if he wanted to roll and he said he didn’t have a gi.  I said no problem, I’ll try no gi for a change.  I said, I apologize in advance, I haven’t done no gi in a couple years.

We started rolling and  it didn’t take long for me to realize I had no material to grab.  He out wrestled me easy, and I ended up on the bottom and was able to pull guard.  But, once there, I didn’t feel uncomfortable, and the adjustments came easy for me.  I just kept grabbing the wrists, back of the triceps and back of his neck to break his base and set up some attacks.  I got a couple of different arm bars, a triangle and a lucky scissor sweep where I grabbed his wrist and back of the neck.  I did have a lot of trouble sweeping him.  He had really good base and through most of our roll I was on the bottom.

Like I said I am an average joe jitsu guy who has trained with a gi 98% of the time and here I was doing really well against a bigger, stronger and more athletic person than myself.  He had been wresting his whole life and doing brazilian jiu jitsu for years, but only no gi.

I definitely think that people who start bjj should start with a gi.  Think about it.  I held my own with someone who does no gi all the time and I hadn’t done it in a long time.  I could adapt to his game and do well.  He probably could do well wearing a gi as well, but because he didn’t incorporate traditional jiu jitsu, he wouldn’t know how to do a gi choke, for example.  And, because he doesn’t know how to do a gi choke, he won’t know how to defend against it either.

Like I said, I am just an average guy, but thought I would add my opinion!

Happy training!

RocknRoll BJJ & Fitness

http://www.rocknrollbjj.com

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This is a big pet peeve of mine!  Wrestling shoes when we are doing jiu jitsu!  What the hell?  We are doing BJJ.  I don’t want to feel your shoe scrape my face when you do certain techniques.  Super lame!  And whats even lamer, most of the guys who wear their gay little wrestling shoes, don’t take off the stupid things when they go to the bathroom. This selfish and thoughtless action tracks urine and fun bacteria onto the mat.

So if you can’t be considerate enough to take them off for your roll partners during training, at least take them off when you go to the bathroom for the sake of the kids class that will be on the mats after you!

http://www.rocknrollbjj.com