How often do you train in the gi and no-gi? Our club trains 3 times a week. So in a month thats say, 12 sessions. All sessions are gi, except every other week, on session is no-gi. So 2 out of 12 sessions are no-gi. So that is about 17% of our time training no-gi. We are a young club, but at a recent no-gi competition, almost all of our competitors lost in their first match. We think changing the amout of time we trai no-gi will help improve our results in this area. do you train more gi/ no-gi, especially when competing for a gi or no-gi competition?
Per week 7 hours gi, 2 hours nogi, we double up nogi during the summer and when comps are coming up, and id say 75% of the gi classes dont depend on grips anyhow.
That is probably a good way to train Fusen. Our gi class... A lot of spider guard, ...lapel chokes. There is some cross over to no gi but not as much as I would like.
Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday are BJJ (gi only), Tuesday and Thursday are Sub wrestling (no-gi) and MMA. Personally, I only attend the classes on the no-gi days as I have time restrictions and I find no-gi more relevant for what I want to do (MMA and sub-wrestling comps). I am sure that I would develop a lot quicker if I added in some gi training, but it's not a priority for me (I'm happy to remain a hobbyist).
My wife is the grappling freak, not me, so I'll give her perspective if it helps you. She trains 11-12 hours gi and 1-2 hours no-gi, the latter only really because it's positively encouraged by her coaches. She hates no-gi lol
When I was training at a club, the ratio was probably 1:3 or 1:4 no-gi to gi. Although one of those gi classes was actually Judo... If your gym doesn't do a lot of no-gi but you want to prep for no-gi comps, you can try to develop a game in a gi that isn't gi-specific. For example, instead of focusing on collar chokes, look for RNC's and triangles, or focus more on arm locks. Use high guard and butterfly guard instead of spider guard. Go for the "seat belt" control from the back instead of grabbing the lapels. My focus has always been no-gi (MMA or self defense in a place where people wear teeshirts nine months out of the year), but since there were more gi classes, I just generally tried to get into the habit of grabbing cloth unless I was working on specific skills. Even in Judo I'd try to work for underhooks or whizzers at least as much as collar and sleeve grips. Although, again, if you guys want to be more successful at no-gi competitions, you WILL have to do more no-gi training, just to get used to the pace if nothing else.
