How important/relevant is gi bjj if the goal is MMA competition?
btw, I like NoGi GIs!
btw, I like NoGi GIs!
Some people in early MMA days found out the hard way that if your Gi game is good but your No-Gi game sucks....well jumping from No-Gi submission grappling to MMA is as big of a jump from Gi to No-Gi, so you do the math...
There's some useful techniques or attributes for MMA or No-Gi grappling that you could use that come in handy you'd have to be somewhat proficient in the Gi first to perform. Like everyone else said...doing Gi can't hurt (but only doing Gi training will definitely hurt you)
IMO, gi helps your defensive skills, nogi helps with your offensive skills.