No-gi is grappling without the jacket and trousers, trained and competed in a rash guard with shorts or spats, so every grip comes from the body. Everything that depended on gripping cloth has to change.
- What you wear: a rash guard, grappling shorts or spats, and nothing with pockets or zips.
- In competition: bjjheroes.com reports on the IBJJF World No-Gi Championship as a separate event from the gi worlds; ADCC is the best-known submission-only no-gi event.
- In judo: there is no no-gi judo; the gi is part of the rules.
What does no-gi mean?
In the gi you hold collars, sleeves and trouser legs. In no-gi there is nothing to hold except your partner's body, so grips move to the wrists, the neck, the hips and the legs. Positions get slipperier, escapes get easier, and the game speeds up. Chokes that need a lapel disappear; chokes that use your own arms, and leg attacks, become central.
Most academies run both. A typical week has gi classes and no-gi classes, and most competitors enter both kinds of event.
What changes without the gi?
- Grips: collar and sleeve grips are gone; you hold wrists, the back of the head, underhooks and overhooks.
- Guard: cloth-based guards such as spider and lasso disappear; butterfly, half guard and leg entanglements take over.
- Submissions: lapel chokes are out; guillotines, arm triangles, darces and leg locks become the main threats.
- Pace: with less friction, scrambles are faster and pins are harder to hold.
- Ruleset: under IBJJF rules the heel hook and other knee-twisting locks are legal only for adult brown and black belts, and only in no-gi.
What do you wear for IBJJF no-gi?
The IBJJF Rules Book sets the kit:
- Top: a skin-tight elastic shirt covering the torso to the waistband, black, white or black and white with at least 10% of your belt colour, or all belt colour.
- Men: board shorts in the same colours, halfway down the thigh to the knee, no pockets, zips or metal, with compression shorts allowed underneath.
- Women: shorts, spats or compression shorts in the same colours.
Is there no-gi judo?
No. The IJF rules make the judogi part of every contest, and the grips on the jacket are part of the sport.
Our rash guards collection is made for exactly this: long and short sleeve, cut to stay put when someone is trying to take your back.
Sources
- IBJJF World No-Gi Championship, BJJ Heroes
- IBJJF Rules Book, IBJJF
- IJF rules, International Judo Federation