
Originally Posted by
D.Stachovak
If you want to train self defense roll in street clothes. I find that clothes and boots are quite different than a Gi. Besides,this is the 10th Planet forum,what did you expect,massive Gi support?
The problem with rolling in certain street apparel is their lack of durability. The gi was conceived as a durable substitute for the Japanese kimono, and a lot of gi technique is transferrable to western garb as well--if you're used to choking people with a thick, stiff gi collar, it's all the more easier with the thinner collar of a dress shirt or windbreaker. I participated in a very interesting discussion on another forum where the subject of garb for military H2H instruction came up in a discussion of gi grappling. We thought that it would be a good idea if someone created a gi simulating a BDU shirt. It would be single weave fabric with a western style collar, and instead of lapel flaps held together by a tied belt, it would have a zip up or velcro front (as buttons would probably get torn off). And as you correctly alluded to above, realistic training would necessarily involve training in boots instead of barefoot.
I would also hasten to point out that I'm not trying to incite "massive gi support" on 10th Planet. I have Eddie Bravo's Jiu-Jitsu Unleashed on my bookshelf, I'm well aware of his views on the "sacred cloth," and I agree with him that if one is going to compete no gi that one should train no gi. The point I'm making is that in a self-defense scenario one needs to do what will get him up and out of there in as timely a fashion as possible. So if an assailant has fabric handles on his person which can be gripped and manipulated to effect that end, then learning how to exploit those fabric handles would be a good tool to have in one's self defense toolbox. In that respect, gi trainers already have some of those tools in their toolbox. In a previous post, I mentioned the efficacy of a loop choke--those things can be slapped on so fast that you can be out before you have time to tap. If I found myself in a scramble on a bar room floor and my attacker had a collar that could be gripped for a loop choke, that's the way I would go. Now if I'm on the beach at Rio in my trunks, and someone else in trunks comes up and slaps me, well then I would have to go with no gi.