Marcelo Garcia, JJ Machado. Probably the closest thing. I'm certain someone on the forum for more informed than myself will elaborate better than I.
I understand that but the question seemed like he was asking of competitive people that train in gi but choose not to use gi grips.
I do it, but I'm nobody of note. (I started out in no gi, and don't want to ruin my fingers for guitar playing.) In principle, however, I don't see a real downside to it; you may be robbing yourself of some of the most powerful grips, but if you grip fight properly, you will also rob the opponent of his, so there are very few times at which you'd both have dominant grips with him having the upper hand due to grabbing cloth.
why would they do such a thing??? there are games that translate well to no gi, but NO: every decent competitor, at some time of the match, will grab the fabric if there's one.
I think that there is a difference between grabbing the gi occasionally, compared to relying on the gi
I do it as well. I mean, I do grab the gi, but I do not have a very grip intensive game. I try to grab the cross collar a lot when playing from the bottom, but might be the only grip I insist on hunting with frequency. I have 2 main reasons. I did a lot of nogi before I ever did gi, so not having gi grips was never a problem for me, and I don't want my fingers to be destroyed when I'm older. Marcelo Garcia is the most well known competitor I know of that practices and preaches not overly relying on gi grips.
Because the game translates to everything. Because depending on the gi can become a hinderance. Exactly. If you watch oooooold BJJ you'd notice there was hardly ANY gi grabbing. Look up Jean Jacques Machado vs Wallid Ismail. No tug of war there.
Also because it's possible to build a game based on various techniques that don't require any gi grips and still work in the gi. (It just doesn't often form naturally unless you focus on no gi friendly moves.) Personally, I think the only noticeable gi grip I could benefit from using more might be a cross collar or lapel spider control when I'm caught playing guard without a connection to my opponent, but even then, I feel I get by most of the time with a 2 on 1 or a seated collar-tie. Also, it forces me to work on my wrestling more instead of coasting on my back.
I play guitar too and the other day I picked up my guitar after ignoring it for a few weeks and I noticed it was quite painful (but I could still play). And not to mention that all that gi gripping with sweaty hands ripped off some of my finger calluses lol.
It's been the one gi grip that I've put considerable time into over the past year and it's helped my guard game so much. I think you're dead on the money with that, and just throwing that one grip into my game has really helped me with my posture control, distance management, and ability to transition between guards.
