Gi vs NoGi: Why You Need Both If You Plan on Surviving
Every gym has that one former division 3 football player that used to pop steroids like they were skittles and only trains NoGi because they sweat the Gi is useless. Or the other way around, some wizard with fifty lapel traps who avoids NoGi because it’s "too fast." Both of them are wrong. And both of them are setting themselves up to get wrecked.
Can you tell the NoGi guys kick my ass every afternoon…
If you train jiu-jitsu not to be cute or flashy, but dangerous, then you need both.
Gi Training: Slow, Technical, and Inescapable
Gi teaches control, detail, and patience. It builds your timing. It makes you earn every inch. You can’t just slide out of bad spots or scramble your way to a better position. The friction makes everything harder; and that’s the point.
Want to sharpen your fundamentals? Want to actually understand posture, base, and balance? Throw on the Gi and suffer. Learn to control sleeves. Break grips. Use the lapel as a weapon. Because if you can dominate in the Gi, you can damn sure do it in NoGi.
Why it matters:
Slows things down so you actually learn the mechanics
Makes grip fighting second nature
Builds deeper awareness of positional dominance
NoGi Training: Fast, Relentless, and Real
NoGi is unforgiving. Slippery. Explosive. Mistakes get punished in seconds. It’s a different game entirely, and if you don’t train it, you’ll drown the second someone takes the grips away.
In NoGi, you learn to move. You learn to flow. You learn to chain wrestling and jiu-jitsu together. No lapels. No stalling. Just raw reaction, relentless pressure, and constant scrambling.
Why it matters:
Forces fast decision-making under pressure
Builds takedown and clinch competency
Mirrors real-life scenarios better than anything
The Truth: One Without the Other is Weak
The Gi builds precision. NoGi builds pace. Together, they build a complete grappler.
You only train Gi? Good luck when your grips get ripped off and you’ve got to scramble without handles.
You only train NoGi? Enjoy flailing when a seasoned Gi player ties you up like a pretzel and chokes you with your own jacket.
Here’s the rule:
If it makes you uncomfortable, train it.
If it exposes your weakness, lean into it.
“The only time I am growing is when I am uncomfortable” - T. Harv Eker
Want to Compete? You’ll Need Both.
IBJJF. ADCC. Fight to Win. Your local smoker. Every single event will test different parts of your game. The guys who dominate aren’t the ones with a favorite. They’re the ones who trained it all.
Competition reality:
Gi teaches control and clean technique; what judges want.
NoGi forces action and aggression; what wins the crowd.
Train both. Or train to lose.
Final Word
You don’t become a savage by avoiding the hard shit. You become one by embracing it. Gi and NoGi both suck in their own way. That’s why they work.
You want to be well-rounded? You want to be respected on the mats? You want to be capable in any situation?
Then stop hiding behind excuses and train both.
Camp Vertex doesn’t train hobbyists. We train fighters. And fighters don’t care what uniform you’re wearing—they just care if you’re ready for war.