Training without the gi in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: Let's roll! (my first DTube video)

Were you curious about what my rolls look like? Today is your lucky day: you get to see me awkwardly spazzing out during a couple minutes trying to secure a submission.

One of my friends says that no gi wrestling feels like trying to catch an eel. I find that quite accurate: you try to firmly grip your opponent’s limbs and they just slip away. It all becomes a fast paced game trying to dominate each other.

I tried it once long time ago and didn’t quite like it because once both you and your opponent get drenched in sweat, it is really messy, slippery and to be honest, a bit gross sometimes. Still, I decided to take the plunge and start training no gi BJJ as well.

Why did I decide to start training BJJ without the gi?

• I could get more matches in tournaments if I sign up for both gi and no gi modalities, making the most out of each event!
• It gives me the chance to train more without wrecking my fingers (my fellow BJJ players know how constantly gripping and pulling the gi can really damage your fingers over time).
• The flow of the sparring is a lot more dynamic than it is in the gi; there’s a lot more scrambles and a good opportunity to make use of athletic qualities like agility and flexibility.
• Also, since it is more difficult to firmly grasp your opponent and everything is more slippery, I find it a lot easier to transition and escape bad positons.
• It forces you to find ways to control and submit your opponent using only your limbs and positioning instead of relying on the gi as a tool (which is a major challenge for me since a lot of my favorite techniques involve using the gi to choke people).

It’s only been a couple of months since I started including no gi sessions in my training, but I am slowly getting used to it. Which takes me to the next fun part of this post, which is my first video recording of a sparring match during no gi training.

This video was recorded at the beginning of the year (Jan 2018), during my visit to the BJJ Academy located in Xalapa, Mexico (my hometown) which is affiliated to the branch of Renzo Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. In the video I am sparring with a fellow white belt friend, so bear with us in all of our face palm-inducing mistakes.

From watching the video, I can spot several mistakes, one of the most glaringly obvious being that I leave a lot of space between me and my opponent that could be used against me. However, I would really appreciate any feedback that you might have! Please feel free to critique and give any suggestions that might help me to suck less/improve.

Thanks a lot, and enjoy…