Jiu-Jitsu Gi

“If you want to learn jiu-jitsu, I'm a big believer in gi. I'm a big believer in gi. It's obviously it's different, but you can trans a lot of gi guys can transition from gi to no gi.”

“It's very hard the other way around. Yes. You know, so it's, and I think Damien Maia was a big believer in gi work. Well, a lot of the Brazilians are. Yeah. It's a religion. Yeah. Jiu-Jitsu is all about the gi, my friend.”

“Like for MMA? Yeah. It would have been like 2015. Right. So in like 2001, 2002, 2000-ish was when people started doing no gi, and a lot of the Brazilians did not like it.”

“Like, what is this guy? This guy abandoned the gi. It was like, it was a real problem, man. That sounds crazy now because there's so many elite Brazilians that are in no gi. They've kind of just like they abandoned the idea that leg locks are bad.”

“Yeah, and you'll get beat up afterward probably. Right. Heel hooks, people would be furious at you. You know what's great about the gi in terms of like a jujitsu side of things, especially like in trend, like for MMA as well, is that you can't make as many mistakes in the gi.”

“Because let's be honest, if you're an athletic guy, you can get pretty far in no gi. You can explode out of it. You can explode over a lot of things. I've jumped into beginner classes and a really strong guy will still shove me from Mount or from his half guard because I'm just not ready for him to just bench press me.”

“It's just like these crazy beginner sort of stuff. Right, but if you're grabbing a hold of his gi, he's not doing any of that. Yeah, well, you can't make mistakes because if you make a mistake, it gets capitalized on and you get into a bad position. Then you're working from that bad position.”

“Like you're actually punished for errors. I feel like a lot more so. Obviously, in no gi, there's plenty of that as well, especially at the highest level. I think there's definitely something to it. Jean-Jacques Machado's approach was very interesting because, you know, Jean-Jacques was born with only a thumb on his left hand.”

“His technique was overhooks and underhooks. So when he went to Abu Dhabi, his technique right into no gi immediately translated because he was using wrestling-based holds. A lot of it was overhooks and underhooks. Same systems. Yes, same system.”

“So when I learned from him, I did that. I did his style. And that was like, because I'm still going to do no gi with Eddie. So I was doing no gi at 10th Planet and I was doing Gi at John Jacques. So I just decided to do it Jean-Jacques style. Jean-Jacques style was like, the gi is great defensively because you have to have excellent position and you have to have good defense.”

“things that I do no gi and ignore the gi and just except a clock choke. I can't pass up on a clock choke. If I can get the best, if I can get that grip inside and I get that hand on the under, I can spin under. Oh, I love that.”

“That's a ninja move, man. I love me a clock choke. But other than that, I felt like offensively, in terms of like controlling people, I was going to ignore the gi. I was just going to only use grips that were wrestling-based grips.”

“So this dude was a judo champion. I was going to say, why would you wear a gi against Henzo? Against a guy like Henzo. And Henzo doesn't have a gi on. And then Henzo steps off and then gets on his neck. Oh, shit. Yeah. Ow, that was crossing the line.”