I'm not gonna tell you anything that you don't already know, other than perhaps a perspective. I did several years of mostly no-gi submission grappling in another art before I came to BJJ. I originally began BJJ under Roy Harris, which meant even that was 90% no-gi for the first couple of years. Only when I accepted a challenge from a friend in another association to 'wear a gi for six months' did I really embrace the value of the gi. Defensively, the gi adds friction between you and the mats, and between you and your opponent. Sweat can't save you, only good technique and timing can. Especially when you are a larger guy, as I am. There's also an enormously greater number of techniques you can do in a gi because of all the extra handles and grips available. I found this required a higher degree of awareness at all times, and thus training in the gi really tightened up a lot of the holes in my game where I was using strength, explosiveness, and the 'sweaty' factor to defend myself. On the other hand, when it's no-gi, I firmly believe it takes an even higher degree of technical offensive skill and positional control to actually finish a submission on someone who is both explosive and sweaty. Doubly so if they are bigger and stronger than you. For those reasons, I personally believe they are equally as technical, just in different ways. Due to the added number of gi techniques and the use by many - especially at lower belts - of athleticism and sweat to aid in no-gi defense, I suspect that is why many people think gi is more technical than no-gi.

I have seen this conversation before where people end up arguing about what they mean by “technical”. At the end of the day, it’s really a conversation about variables. In the gi there are additional grips and added friction, which affects technique...... That being said, I have found in both gi and no-gi, the level of “technical” depends on the practitioner.

I have as well, which is why I bring this up. I don't see how or why someone would think one is less technical than the other. I personally feel both are just as technical as the other in their own respective rights.

The obvious solution is: don't train neither, so you don't have to worry about any of these arguments!

If you look at the list of techniques available in the gi, there are definetely more than in nogi. That being said, the pace is generally slower, and the ability to block or stall is higher in the gi, which results in a lesser amount of opportunities in my opinion. Therefore, in reality nogi is just as technical, if not more technical because of the amount of windows of opportunities in a nogi match as opposed to a gi match, and in the amount of situations that results to those opportunities (ie : more exchanges of positions, more submission attempts, etc...).

RE:Why do people think Nogi is less technical than the gi?

Is (American) football more technical than soccer :) ?

The obvious solution is: don't train neither, so you don't have to worry about any of these arguments!

I'm not gonna tell you anything that you don't already know, other than perhaps a perspective. I did several years of mostly no-gi submission grappling in another art before I came to BJJ. I originally began BJJ under Roy Harris, which meant even that was 90% no-gi for the first couple of years. Only when I accepted a challenge from a friend in another association to 'wear a gi for six months' did I really embrace the value of the gi. Defensively, the gi adds friction between you and the mats, and between you and your opponent. Sweat can't save you, only good technique and timing can. Especially when you are a larger guy, as I am. There's also an enormously greater number of techniques you can do in a gi because of all the extra handles and grips available. I found this required a higher degree of awareness at all times, and thus training in the gi really tightened up a lot of the holes in my game where I was using strength, explosiveness, and the 'sweaty' factor to defend myself. On the other hand, when it's no-gi, I firmly believe it takes an even higher degree of technical offensive skill and positional control to actually finish a submission on someone who is both explosive and sweaty. Doubly so if they are bigger and stronger than you. For those reasons, I personally believe they are equally as technical, just in different ways. Due to the added number of gi techniques and the use by many - especially at lower belts - of athleticism and sweat to aid in no-gi defense, I suspect that is why many people think gi is more technical than no-gi.

Lets meet in the middle... OIL UP YOUR GIS BOYS AND GIRLS!