Hey Mappers, long time no see. So I've been really trying to develop a more competitive game. I've had success in the gi learning to use a lot of spider, DLR, and top game passing pressure from my Judo experience. However nogi seems to be its own conundrum for me. I keep running into a wall in nogi as I get crushed by the guys from our school with wrestling backgrounds. We come from a more old school Helio style of training, so even in comp class a lot of the training is geared towards being on top. It seems from my position w/o the gi its more of a battle of who's the better wrestler or knows the better leg lock system. I'm really trying to make a competitive nogi game for some upcoming competitions. I fight in nogi advanced. but most of my game is lost w/o the cloth once we are actually on the floor. Should I just go google a bunch of leg lock stuff and go from there? I'm trying to accurately describe how I feel about the situation. It feels like I have no guard in Nogi. tips on making that transition would be most appreciated.
No-gi and gi bring out different things. No-gi forces you to be better at offense, because the (1) friction of the gi isn't there, so the other guy is both slippery and (2) quicker, and (3) there are no gi handles to hold onto. Gi forces you to be better at defense for exactly the same reasons. It sounds like you're experiencing exactly this.
No gi in the guard you still need to control their posture, underhooks and head control are your friend. Work to isolate an arm whilst still breaking their posture down, the problem you have with wrestlers is their know the value of underhooks already and how to control the head so you are playing catch up unfortunately. Don't go searching for a leglock game without a solid no gi guard and guard passing game, because you will end up on the bottom when the leglock fails and will need a good guard game then
I would make the effort to learn butterfly guard too, its great for neutralising wrestlers, and lends itself to sweeps to get on top and leg lock entries from bottom. How much nogi rolling do you do? Have you tried gripping less in gi rolling?
+1 to butterfly, I feel like a lot of the nogi defenses & sweeps we cover in my gym are out of butterfly guard.
single leg x guard is another great tool to have in the no-gi game, to go with the butterfly guard. one thing i would add to the op's question... you have to stay active in no-gi. which would be my advice in gi trying to play an open guard game, which you do. you can't count on grips at all. especially if you're going against someone like me that sweats a lot.
