Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Gi or not to Gi?

MANY people have been asking me my opinion on the debate of gi vs nogi. Now we all know that this subject has been talked, blogged, threaded and exhausted many times over but we shall revisit it once again. The reason people are asking my opinion on it is because I trained gi, then purely nogi from 2006-2009 and since then have trained with the gi. Another reason people are asking is because I trained Eddie Bravo's 10th Planet system and now train Brazilian Jiu Jitsu with Bruno Bastos of Nova Uniao and Sambo with the American Sambo Association. On top of that I used to be an outspoken pro 10th Planet supporter and now I am not.

This is in no way a "BJJ vs 10PJJ or Sambo vs 10PJJ" post. This is strictly my opinion of training in 3 different styles and teaching them to my students past and present.

When I returned to Hollywood after 6 years in the Army I wanted to train more nogi. I had trained gi and nogi for a long time but took a high interest in training for mma and nogi. A Jean Jacques Machado blackbelt (whom I received my BJJ brownbelt from) Jamie Walsh, referred me to his old training partner Eddie Bravo. Eddie had a straight up nogi school in the area and eventually I became an affiliate of 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu when I moved to Dallas, Texas in late 2007. From 2007-2009 I was a highly outspoken nogi supporter (even opened my mouth on YouTube and on DVDs about it) and did not train a day of gi then. In May of '09 I split from the 10PJJ system and went back to BJJ in the gi and Sambo in the Kurtka. Tons of drama went down on some forums and to this day I still have some haters but the supporters still outweigh the haters. This is not to address any of my haters nor to bash 10th Planet or Eddie Bravo. This is strictly my observation of training gi, training nogi for 3 years and then returning to the gi over the last year.

Now that I have grown up a ton mentally and spiritually I want to 1st and foremost say that in the end- you should train how you want to and whatever makes you happy. At its core this is not truely a gi or not to gi debate. This is a martial arts debate. Just like Kung Fu, Karate, TKD, Krav Maga, Sambo, JuJutsu, Judo....you get the point...all argue their supremacy in one way or another. In the sport and martial art in which I am involved in the debate is always on 2 things. 1-does gi make your nogi better? and 2-what is better for mma?

Here are some of my thoughts and observations (now please also take into account that I am NOT a world champion, ADCC vet or at the top of the food chain on the BJJ scene...but of course I do one day hope to be:) and some of these thoughts may be at random so bare with me. I write my blogs when I'm sitting on the couch and my wife is watching America's Got Talent as a spur of the moment writing. It is not some highly detailed and outlined essay written for a Harvard professor. So I apologize ahead of time.

Nogi- (pre return to gi) the nogi 'style' I was doing was an MMA based system and a physical attribute (flexibility of the lower body, including the knees) based system so I don't have a solid pure nogi BJJ training history of a student of say Alliance, Nova Uniao or Gracie Barra. I have trained wrestling and nogi a lot but my solid time in 10PJJ outweighs my days of regular BJJ nogi. That brings me to something. Some of you may be thinking, "Is this dude saying there is a difference between nogi of big name BJJ schools and 10PJJ?" Yes! 10PJJ is its own system and its master Mr. Bravo, has even mapped it out in his books. But that is not to say that many people don't cross train and use techs from both styles. In this period of my nogi training I clinched, clinched and clinched. I focused heavily on rubber guard, the twister path, my head n arm game, leg locks and half guard. When I taught, rolled and watched my students compete I realized that we needed to have basics so we practiced traditional bump sweeps, passing the guards and submission escapes/attacks that aren't heavily emphasised in the nogi style we practiced. I also loved leg locks because of the rules of local to international submission wrestling tournaments. To me the legs are half the body and 1/3 of our possible subs come from there. We only have a neck, arms and legs to be attacked after all. I relied on breaking my opponent down and going for my foot in guard and getting the lockdown when in half. On top I aimed for going down the twister path and getting head n arm chokes. This caught a ton of people off guard when we rolled with them and we loved it. The system had 'paths'. It had a direct approach to a goal and options if a certain path failed. This is phenomenal when it comes to teaching and learning. People can learn easily and connect things in their brain quicker while grappling and that is what I credit my school for winning so much at our early tournaments in Texas. The downside is after a while it becomes predictable in training. Even though a person may favor say half guard and another person the twister and another the rubber guard...everyone still knows the next step to what their opponent is looking for. This does a few things. It makes one have to force his game more or come up with ways to trick your opponent. But most of all it creates counters to the system which is awesome yet at the same time can be almost negative because 99.9% of the people you come across in competition are not going to be from the same system. A good positive I had from all of the clinching was obviously I had a good clinch and movement in the clinch. I had a good sense of direction in my game, I knew where I wanted to take my opponent. At the time I felt that my prior BJJ training lacked this and that this was superior to my prior methods. I was also a firm believer that training nogi makes your nogi better. It didn't make sense to me..all the collar grabbing, belt lifting and gi based techs...how could that make my nogi better? Wearing the 'pajamas' the 'Japanese superhero outfit' as others call it was a ridiculous idea for nogi.

The return to the Gi- As I speak about the gi in this section I also am referring to the kurtka (russian for jacket) since I train Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Sambo at my school. I now train Brazilian Jiu Jitsu with Bruno Bastos of Nova Uniao and the Sambo with the instructors from the American Sambo Association. Both Mr. Bastos and Mr. Koepfer (ASA Pres.) both believe that the core and majority of one's training should be done in the gi. This is the view of most instructors in BJJ and Sambo. I went back to gi with an open mind. I just listen and train and do what I am taught, teach my students and we all have a blast training. The main reason I went to the gi is for myself and my students. I had to make a choice. Stay training nogi by myself and never achieve a BJJ black belt or go back to gi and stick to my old roots and hopefully one day earn a blackbelt. Now I am not vocal on the whole gi/nogi debate. I am just concentrating on getting better, trying to fill the holes in my game and having fun while doing it. On another note I have all of my competitors competing in the gi and the almost every single person now actually prefers the gi! I really got blindsided by that fact. I offered gi classes and in a short while people started to turn toward liking the gi. I in no way forced their opinions. We still had nogi classes but only about 3 of my people still prefered nogi. Maybe it's the fact it was new to them, slowed their game down, gave them new grips/subs to play with, opened up their game and offered a different approach. Shoot, some just like putting on the uniform like a warrior going to battle. I have a different approach to the game and teaching now. Get on top! Pass! Submit! The biggest realization I had for myself is that there comes a time when all the knowledge of tricky, cool techniques won't do me any good. I have to be a master of the basics and enforce my game. My passing has gone up tremendously as well as top pressure and the reality that my guard is not as good as I thought. I train now to compete in the gi as well as nogi. I competed at the Mundials this month 1-to be an example to my students who compete in the gi. how could I have them fight in it without me doing it infront of them? 2-because I want to be the best I can be. As many people state...The best jiu jitsu fighters in the world nogi, gi, FILA, ADCC, GQ you name it, the best and the champions are gi guys or were gi guys for their foundation. I am not going to just train BJJ but train BJJ with one of the top guys in the world, fight gi and nogi, have fun training and just go with the flow, teach my students what they like and whats best for them. Likewise I will do what my instructor sees is best for me. Solid fundamentals are a must and so is gi if one wants to be of any rank in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

Nogi (post return to gi)- passing in the gi can have a lot of friction, submissions are hard to escape in gi. Training more gi helps me with the intricate details of passing and escaping. Therefore my passing and defense is much easier nogi I can slip right through. My free movement is better such as arm drags and getting to the back. My grip lacks. I can tell that when I roll with guys who are gi dominant that their hand grip is stronger than mine but my over/under hooks are strong. Since going to a more traditional BJJ game again my fundamentals are becoming more solid. I can still of course have a LONG way to go in my training. I don't even think of blackbelt right now only improving my game and my students game. It will come when my instructor thinks I deserve it. I still use rubber guard, old school sweeps and dogfight sweeps, calf cranks and armbar setups that I used before but I do it as flavor in my game, not the meat and potatoes. I do not know if I would even call it rubber guard I just go for the omo plata from what 10pjj would call chill dog. I never go to mission control and do the path. My old school sweeps and half guard game is still there but I don't like to use lockdown and flatten myself out. Lockdown is used primarily to stop a pass or give me time to save myself from a kimura. Never have actually, I just put my outside leg in and do my footwork while on my side. At the same time I believe in having a traditional half guard game. My clinch now comes in phases. I feel like that if I clinch the whole time that if my opponent gets an inch past my guard he can be completely passed. Whereas if I utilize the more open game of the gi while doing nogi I am more free to defend the pass, escape, move my hips, catch submissions and move around him. I find that a serious clinch is needed at times and sometimes it can work heavily against me. Space creates escape. What is truly the best is my rolling partners can tell I have greatly improved and I did much better in competition. I also of course credit this to Mr. Bastos. He crushes me every time I train, pushes me and knows my holes in my game. I also still believe in leg locks just the same as I did before. They are a must in competition and especially submission wrestling.

These are my honest thought on MY PERSONAL experiences. I intend no harm to anyone who trains straight up nogi or gi guys. I know people may take this all crazy and post it other places so I would like to reiterate this has nothing to do with Sambo, BJJ, Eddie, 10PJJ, Bruno...just me and my experience and how I am liking and training at this time in my life. If anyone twists this into something besides that then they are just starting false drama

WHAT IS BETTER GI OR NOGI?
WHATEVER MAKES YOU HAPPY!