
Originally Posted by
Ron Benore
I train both. I actually have a legitimate reason for doing so. Five days a week I am in a suit for work. I am regularly in a courtroom and I often anger criminal defendants and/or their family. Therefore, I would like to know how to defend myself with what I wear to work! I also run around in shorts and a t-shirt when I am not working so I love training no-gi as well. Saying that . . . they are different as well as compliment each other. However, I don't have a problem if someone doesn't want to train with a gi. It is their own decision.
Yeah, I think the truth is somewhere between the "Gi For Life" folks and the "Gi is useless" folks. Marcelo trains 50% gi, 50% no-gi and is developing a style to work for both.
What else do you need to know? That's how I'm charting my course.
On self defense, if you live in Seattle as I do (Greater Seattle Area anyway) and you're whining about sleeves and collars, you need to double-check your thinking next time you put on that hoodie, which you probably did because it's probably raining.
In regards to the gi making your no-gi game better, I could see that argument flying in one place: if you don't use gi-only passes it could make your passing game better like running with ankle weights could make your running stronger.
But it seems to me that training no-gi could improve your guard game in the same way.
We're open minded right? I hold out hope that some day soon, 10p in a gi isn't going to make you unwelcome in the gi class and a weird gi-step-child in the 10p class.

In my mind, for my situation, it's all about doing 10p Marcelo style. We'll see how it goes.