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- Sep 5, 2012
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I've been doing almost exclusively no gi for the last year or so. None of my current training partners care about the gi. The only training I've had is some gi based chokes in a recent private lesson.
I have been to a lot of gi classes back in the day, so it isn't foreign to me, but I've learned so much more BJJ in the last year that whatever I did before was basically untrained flailing.
I went to a gi class today, and I can't speak for the level of the people. I believe I am about equal to the fresh blue belts I know, both in technique and skill rolling. These guys felt very difficult to me, and were close to my size. It was a Judo school, but their students cross train BJJ and wrestling.
Anyway, the argument against the gi is that the grips are unfair if you don't train them AND training them is a waste of precious time if you are training for MMA (I don't mean to express that this is my opinion; I just mean that this is the prevalent opinion in my circle).
The thing about these guys was that I thought that their gi grips were LESS effective than conventional posture control. Normally in no gi, if my posture gets broken, I have to overcome some serious pummeling to get back to a neutral position. If I get my head free, the other hand switches up and grabs it. If I get a wrist free, the hand that lost it gets a friction grip on my back, and the fight continues.
With the gi grips, people constantly grabbing at my collar and sleeves, I thought it was easier than normal to regain my posture if I lost it. All I had to do was jerk their grip free and all that space would work against them. Basically, grabbing the front of my shirt always leaves more space than the back of my head or shoulder, and that space = time.
Once I would get their grip free, there was no chance of them stopping me from posturing all the way up.
I imagine that grips could be devastating, like if you get you get your posture broken and then they grab the back of your collar or something, but I just didn't see it. If you are holding the front when you break me down, switching to the back is basically just letting me back up.
Clearly my rolling partners are not the highest level in the world, so could someone take pity on my limited understanding and help me understand the role of the gi grip?
I have been to a lot of gi classes back in the day, so it isn't foreign to me, but I've learned so much more BJJ in the last year that whatever I did before was basically untrained flailing.
I went to a gi class today, and I can't speak for the level of the people. I believe I am about equal to the fresh blue belts I know, both in technique and skill rolling. These guys felt very difficult to me, and were close to my size. It was a Judo school, but their students cross train BJJ and wrestling.
Anyway, the argument against the gi is that the grips are unfair if you don't train them AND training them is a waste of precious time if you are training for MMA (I don't mean to express that this is my opinion; I just mean that this is the prevalent opinion in my circle).
The thing about these guys was that I thought that their gi grips were LESS effective than conventional posture control. Normally in no gi, if my posture gets broken, I have to overcome some serious pummeling to get back to a neutral position. If I get my head free, the other hand switches up and grabs it. If I get a wrist free, the hand that lost it gets a friction grip on my back, and the fight continues.
With the gi grips, people constantly grabbing at my collar and sleeves, I thought it was easier than normal to regain my posture if I lost it. All I had to do was jerk their grip free and all that space would work against them. Basically, grabbing the front of my shirt always leaves more space than the back of my head or shoulder, and that space = time.
Once I would get their grip free, there was no chance of them stopping me from posturing all the way up.
I imagine that grips could be devastating, like if you get you get your posture broken and then they grab the back of your collar or something, but I just didn't see it. If you are holding the front when you break me down, switching to the back is basically just letting me back up.
Clearly my rolling partners are not the highest level in the world, so could someone take pity on my limited understanding and help me understand the role of the gi grip?