To Gi or Not to Gi

The gi has been the uniform of jiu-jitsu fighters for close to a century, and anyone who is familiar with martial arts will quickly recognize a gi when they see one. Consisting of pants, a jacket, and a belt, the gi is an extremely durable piece of clothing that allows for ease of movement while also evening the playing field. When two fighters are wearing the same thing, that means they have the same advantages and disadvantages that come along with those pieces of clothing. With the gi, fighters can use lapels, sleeves, and collars as grips to control or submit opponents. Those same options are not available when fighters wear rash guards or (less commonly and less hygienically) go shirtless.

For many years, there was a commonly held belief that wearing a gi was necessary when training jiu-jitsu. However, as Coach Firas Zahabi of Tristar Gym in Montreal and Coach John Danaher of the Danaher Death Squad note in the above video, this is changing. More gyms are allowing people to make their own decisions with respect to what they wear. This blog will touch on some of the reasons to either wear a gi or go no gi while training.

Why People Wear a Gi

For a lot of people, wearing the gi comes down to tradition. It is a part of the culture of jiu-jitsu, and many people feel as though they should honor that tradition by continuing to wear a gi.

There are also practical reasons to wear a gi. First, the gi is made of far sturdier material than typical street clothes. Fighters who have a lot of grip strength can very easily rip or at the very least stretch most T-shirts. Perhaps most importantly, jiu-jitsu purists will likely want to train with a gi because most jiu-jitsu tournaments require everyone to wear one. There are techniques that use parts of the gi to gain leverage over your opponent. If you are not accustomed to wearing one, this can become a tactical disadvantage.

Why People Don’t Wear a Gi

Mixed martial arts started to see a sudden surge in popularity in the early 1990s, largely due to UFC tournaments. These tournaments also popularized jiu-jitsu’s outside of Brazil because of Royce Gracie’s dominant performance. Jiu-jitsu has continued to be a very popular style among MMA fighters who want to improve their ground game, but don’t want to fully commit themselves to jiu-jitsu.

This has led to some friction between MMA fighters who use jiu-jitsu to improve their ground game and jiu-jitsu purists and traditionalists. MMA fighters do not wear a gi when they fight (unless they are participating in a jiu-jitsu tournament), so they don’t really see the need to wear a gi. It only makes sense to train in a gi if that’s how you plan to fight. As Danaher observes in the above video, “The argument that somehow training in a gi makes you magically more technically adept than without a gi just makes zero sense.”

Additionally, Coach Firas notes that he’s seen a lot of people who train exclusively with a gi struggle when facing an opponent who is not wearing one. As he explains, if your strategy is largely reliant on being able to use techniques like lapel guard, galaxy guard, or worm guard, you can suddenly feel lost when those options are taken away.

It’s not just MMA fighters who feel as though the gi is unnecessary. People who are interested in learning jiu-jitsu solely for self-defense typically do not wear a gi because you’re not going to get into a street fight while you’re wearing your gi and neither is your opponent.

So, Gi or No Gi?

The question is entirely dependent on why you’re training jiu-jitsu. If your only interest in jiu-jitsu is improving your ground game for MMA fights, then training in a gi does not make a lot of sense. Similarly, if you only want to learn jiu-jitsu as a means of learning the basics of self-defense, then it’s probably best to not train in a gi.

However, if your goal is to really embrace jiu-jitsu and to treat it like a martial art, then you should train in a gi at least some of the time. On the one hand, it will prepare you for tournaments, where everyone wears a gi. On the other, it will allow you to fully explore the world of jiu-jitsu, as there are certain techniques that require a gi.