Throughout his grappling career, Braulio Estima has won in many Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournaments across the world, such as the Mundials, ADCC, Pan American Championship, and European Championship. His long list of accomplishments has made him well respected among other Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioners, such that some consider him one of the top Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioners in the world.

Braulio has beaten and submitted some of the biggest names in Jiu-Jitsu: Marcelo Garcia, Ronaldo Jacare, Xande Ribeiro, Andre Galvao!

Estima made history when he submitted seven people in a total of 5 minutes and 24 seconds at the 2003 Pan-American Championship.

Estima currently holds the most wins at the European Championship, with a total number of 5

Braulio speaking as guest of the show grappling center said something very interesting about Gi and NOGI.

Transcribed by our friends at Pasando Guardia:

“After winning the Pan at my weight and absolute in brown belt, I went to New York to train with Renzo Gracie and it was the first time I trained NOGI, and didn’t know how.”

“I think certainly that the two complement each other, but if you want to be good at nogi you really should start with the gi, because if you think about it, all champions of ADCC nogi are black belts in jiujitsu, That tells you something.

By saying that it is better to start with gi, I’m not talking about the grips because it is different, but when you fight only nogi you can escape from holds and submissions with just explosiveness, with power and movements of like a fish out of water, but when you do that , you leave the fight, you have to start over and you tend to be more defensive.

For example, to escape the arm bar in the gi, if you try to escape violently, you won’t succeed, instead you’ll have to look for small options to get out, you’ll understand as well  the mechanics of how they work out correctly, like moving your body, using your weight and small details on how to move step by step. That makes you feel more technical because of the mechanics of when you defend and when you attack. When you have that knowledge and apply it to nogi already you have an advantage. You no longer need to explode. Also the other way around when training nogi later and returning to the gi, you no longer have the lapels and learn another game with different grips, which makes your game better, and therefore complement each other.

Honestly I always recommend starting training with the GI before going to NOGI.