Gi and No Gi are the 2 forms of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Gi Jiu Jitsu is grappling with the use of a traditional Gi, which allows you to grab the clothing of your opponent. No Gi is grappling without the traditional uniform, instead you wear shorts and a rash guard. In no gi you cannot grab your opponent’s clothing.
Most grapplers train mostly in one style and by doing so, limit themselves to just one style’s benefits instead of both.
Main differences
Dress
In Gi, you will of course wear a BJJ Gi. In No Gi, you wear shorts and a T-shirt or rash guard.
Grips
The Gi has a huge amounts of grips on both the jacket and pants. The most common jacket grip is the collar/sleeve grip. The grips allow you to have great control on the fight and to submit your opponent using their or your own Gi. It allows a much smaller opponent to control a bigger one. In No Gi you have more wrestling based grips such as neck, and grabbing all joints in the body. It is harder to control an opponent and can slip or power out of controls.
Strategy
No Gi i BJJ is faster paced. Gi slows things down due to the natural friction of the garment.
While and Gi and No Gi are very similar, the way both styles evolve are very different. In Gi, the numerous grips and Gi material mean that alot of set ups are based on using the Gi matrerial for ex: lapel or worm guard (which is impossible in No Gi). In No Gi, you look more at taking your opponent’s back because mounting in No Gi has limited submisions, and the back position has the rear naked choke and other options. You will find No Gi players using more guillotines and brabo/darce chokes as well as using more foot locks.
It is hard to say what is more technical as both styles are different and you also have much smaller No Gi players that submit bigger ones (taking the back is a great way of doing that).
Rules
Most No Gi tournaments have slightly different rules from Gi. IBJJF rules do not allow heel hooks for Gi and ADCC (biggest No Gi tournament) allows them.
Advantages of Gi
– Upper body strength
Non stop grabbing and pulling of fabric will strengthen your muscles and tendons.
– Technical, problem solving approach to fighting
Training with the Gi is like playing chess. The game is slowed down and is more methodical. The Gi and grips can sometimes control somebody’s strength. This forces a more technical approach. You will need to use more technique to escape submissions as there is less sweat.
-Improved Judo (Stand up Jiu-Jitsu)
Advantages of No Gi
-Improved wrestling
You will be using a lot more wrestling based takedowns.
– Improved conditioning & explosiveness
With the game being so much faster because of lack of Gi grips, your conditioning will go through the roof. Setting up many wrestling based takedowns will force you work your explosiveness in a different way than with the Gi.
-Better footlocks
In No Gi, footlocks are harder to counter because there is no Gi lapel to hold on to. Also, if you train with heel hooks then that opens a whole new set of weapons that you won’t have in the Gi.
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