How important is wrestling ability in No-Gi competition?

Very useful, not nessecary, might find it difficult to dictate position, but also might encounter other "pure" BJJ stylists making it a moot point.

Folkstyle wrestling (the entire art) helps with more than just takedowns, it's unfortunate many limit their wrestling study to just standing techniques.
 
Wrestling is a really great base to have, and if you are worried about entering a competition just because you haven't wrestled before, then don't even do it. It sounds like confidence is the issue here, and not a drive to win.

To be honest with you, all you need is the fundementals of wrestling. T Rex Stance, Playing for inside control, Closing the Gap, Keeping constant pressure, Circle towards your trail leg, Handfighting, knowing how to control your opponents body, push forward, await reactions, set the guy up using reach(obviously if you are taller) & baits, and then again the sprawl becomes a great addition to the defensive table. Those are some variables that determine a decent seasoned wrestler that's if he has sound defensive fundementals and a great offense, but there is definitely a lot more, and especially when you start getting into offense, dominant positions, etc.

Sometimes I handfight with the guy just to see if he knows what hes doing, and I look at his fundemental(narrow stance, crosses legs, doesnt keep his hips squared, reaches with the same side lead leg*arm drags all day*) errors at first right after I size him up and look to go to town. If he's smaller than me, I'll grapplefuck him, if he's bigger than me, I'll try to counter, get to more dominant positions, use his own momentum, etc. Big Guys are hard to move, but once you get down your go to takedown moves that work on big guys or you get into dominant positions where he has absolutely no idea what he is doing than you should have confidence to a hit a takedown in a position you are comftorable in.

Make sure you also learn how to do side sprawls.

Hope all this stuff helps bro! Good luck on your tournament and let us know how it went!

What rank are you competing in ?
 
in my no gi experience, it really depends on the guy in front of you. my wrestling skill is very limited and ive had success against some guys and none against others. my best luck in securing a takedown in no gi competition has come in going into a clinch and working on trips and dropping for single or double legs from there. my shot isnt very good so i dont rely on it too often.

and then when ive run into decent wrestlers they usually have a pretty solid advantage. in that case i have no problem pulling guard unless they beat me to the puhc, in which case, time to work like hell.
 
snakeybizz said:
a BJJ black belt who added in wrestling... perfect

tell me what's more important for no gi...BJJ or Wrestling?
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For no gi BJJ? BJJ. For no gi wrestling? Wrestling. For no gi sub grappling where you can pull guard? BJJ. Buchecha spends vastly more time training BJJ than cross-training in wrestling. I don't understand how this is not intuitive. Spend more training what is more relevant to your competition. Better wrestling skill might be the difference maker in a given match, but if it's a BJJ match or regular sub grappling, most of the match will take place on the ground with BJJ scoring and positions.
 
SuperSuperRambo said:
For no gi BJJ? BJJ. For no gi wrestling? Wrestling. For no gi sub grappling where you can pull guard? BJJ. Buchecha spends vastly more time training BJJ than cross-training in wrestling. I don't understand how this is not intuitive.
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you are agreeing with me, just so you know

just to be clear...how important is wrestling for no gi?...imo not "important" at all, beneficial maybe (but so is gymnastics or powerlifting)... is it absolutely essential? nope pull guard

what's the most important thing? BJJ!
 
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snakeybizz said:
you are agreeing with me, just so you know

just to be clear...how important is wrestling for no gi?...imo not "important" at all, beneficial maybe (but so is gymnastics or powerlifting)... is it absolutely essential? nope pull guard

what's the most important thing? BJJ!
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It's not unimportant. But it really really does depend on your game. I think that generally, as the weight increases, takedown ability becomes more important. And I think wrestling is definitely the best takedown style for no gi.

Everyone should have some knowledge, but depending on what style you have, it could be more or less important. It's probably minimally important for the likes of the Miyao brothers. It's probably more important for someone like Buchecha, or a middleweight like Marcelo Garcia whose style is like a seated wrestling style with wrestling finishes to sweeps. Good wrestling is probably more important for Andre Galvao than Keenan Cornelius, despite them being teammates and roughly the same weight. Wilson Reis is a small guy but used a lot of wrestling.

Not saying it's always very important, or never important for some guys. Wrestling is always helpful, and even a BJJ player with a distinctly non-wrestling style needs to have some understanding. But just because you're not a great wrestler doesn't mean you can't be a great BJJ competitor.
 
SuperSuperRambo said:
It's not unimportant. But it really really does depend on your game. I think that generally, as the weight increases, takedown ability becomes more important. And I think wrestling is definitely the best takedown style for no gi.

Everyone should have some knowledge, but depending on what style you have, it could be more or less important. It's probably minimally important for the likes of the Miyao brothers. It's probably more important for someone like Buchecha, or a middleweight like Marcelo Garcia whose style is like a seated wrestling style with wrestling finishes to sweeps. Good wrestling is probably more important for Andre Galvao than Keenan Cornelius, despite them being teammates and roughly the same weight. Wilson Reis is a small guy but used a lot of wrestling.

Not saying it's always very important, or never important for some guys. Wrestling is always helpful, and even a BJJ player with a distinctly non-wrestling style needs to have some understanding. But just because you're not a great wrestler doesn't mean you can't be a great BJJ competitor.
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Yep I'd agree with most of that, wrestling is important no doubt about it, esecially if it compliments your style like you said... but so is conditioning, so is diet and all these other aspects of no gi competition...the meat and potatoes however is straight up BJJ submission grappling

...however I disagree with this commonly held notion that top game is more important as the weight goes up...I think that is not only down to size but also because the bigger dudes are simply less technical off there back (some of the easiest guards i've ever past where of huge dudes forced to play guard because we were doing situational drills) and they are so used to top game in training and thorough there whole BJJ journey as soon as they come across someone there size putting them on there back they don't do great but that is a different debate

EDIT: just to be clear the bigger dudes CAN be technical off there back, I'm just saying a lot are not
 
So used to top game in training?

What has size to do with if I'm playing or passing guard in the gym?
 
SuperSuperRambo said:
The bigger, more accomplished competitor?
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the problem i was dancing around is that these discussions are confused by the fact that two different definitions of 'bjj' are being crossed in peoples heads into one. for one you have the idea of pulling guard as a strategy, and then you have the idea of 'anything involving submissions or advancing position is bjj'. so you get situations like when you criticise one you get the person falling back on the other, much broader and less objectionable idea as a recourse, and then once the discussions passed it goes back to thinking what they thought before. or where the benefits of one are mentally translated to the other, and so on.

this is pernicious for a number of reasons obviously, but chief among them here is that op asked a specific question, and the bait and switching of definitions (consciously or otherwise) obscures important points. one of which being that being able to work a takedown and get on top is absolutely an important skill. even in ibjjf rules, guys who insist on top and pass guard just have more success then guys looking to sweep. look at sub only competitions like polaris or metamoris, nine times out of ten its the guy on top whos getting the submissions.
 
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I think being at least competent in wrestling is critically important to having a high level nogi game. With the lack of grips, it is much harder to hit a clean sweep on anybody good; most sweep attempts essentially turn into wrestling scrambles. Does that mean you need to be good at takedowns from the feet? Not necessarily. Do you need to know your way around the double leg, single leg and front headlock positions? Absolutely.
 
I've won dozens of matches with basically only wrestling. Its extremely important in no gi.
 
Take down defense. Is more important than offense a beginner.

Snapdown and front headlock will be something you get good at.

At heavyweight, pulling guard is instant loss
 
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