
Originally Posted by
Jack Hanley
Love Marcelo to death and not trying to derail. But, I have to admit that it's funny how the arguments for training gi keep shifting. One of the things he said is something I have been hearing more frequently lately, "If you like jiu-jitsu you should enjoy both." That kind of sentiment is part of why we don't even employ the term "jiu-jitsu" at our gym.
But, having said that, I love Stewart Cooper's vids and this should be a really good one.
Not to further the derailing, but I don't think he was trying to make an argument. Cooper's videos usually are focused on happiness as cliche as it sounds, and I don't think Marcelo was trying to make some position that you need to do both.
Even if his positions have changed, that's pretty normal. Lots of people cite his Arte Suave appearance back in 05 or so filmed in 05 where he says you have to train in the gi to have the finest technique, I only took off the gi training right up to my ADCC, etc.
Then in recent years you've seen him say he prefers more of a mix, and even during ADCC training, he still does his gi classes, and during Worlds training, he keeps his no-gi classes. he does both all the time, so a statement for him saying he loves and enjoys both is very much in-line with what he's been saying since at least 2009 when MGinaction.com started.Others like Rafa Mendes and the Atos crew spent almost all of their time doing no-gi in the months leading up to ADCC and didn't train much gi at all.
I do think the philosophy you've been hearing more recently is gaining in traction. Outside of MMA training, most of the Jiu-Jitsu world has moved past the gi vs no-gi debates. You wouldn't know it by looking on online forums, but most of those arguments are started by trolls or lesser experienced grapplers. The forum with the most experienced/veteran grapplers has the least gi vs no-gi debates (the Underground.)
The reason you hear elite grapplers and coaches even talk about gi and no-gi differences and stuff is because it's an easy question for interviewers, and it's a sure fire question that will get feedback. If I ran a podcast or interviewed people I'd ask about it too. I think it's a fun question but it's an easy question.
For MMA I think there may still be a few hard line folks that advocate training in the gi from time to time, but even they would concede that your energy would be better spent doing no-gi (obviously.) For pure competitive sport grapplers, almost everyone across the board does both. The top competitors focus on gi during gi season, and no-gi during no-gi season, but I think that most reasonable people that are purple or up know that both are incredibly technical in different ways and can compliment each other very well.
it goes without saying. If you hate the gi, don't do it. if you hate no-gi, don't do it. 90+ percent of us are in this for fun and not to be the next world champ so ultimately you gotta do what makes you happy.
Personally not that you give a fuck, but I couldn't imagine only doing one if I could do both, but if I had to choose one with a gun to my head, I'd choose no-gi. I know that by definition 10th Planet is a no-gi system, so my preference is probably NOT shared by 99% of this board.
Anyways that was way longer than I hoped. Sorry.