Episode 38: Why you shouldn't only train in the gi - but should sometimes | Balancing Gi and no Gi training

Most people don't train only gi anymore, but should you train in it sometimes? Tim and Adam discuss how, when and why to train in both, and how to manage the balance between the two if you're in a school that primarily trains one or the other.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Welcome back to the OpenMan podcast. My name is Tim. My name is Adam. And Adam, you had a question, I believe, that you uh you were talking about earlier, just uh just a minute ago before we hopped on. Could we repeat it for the the friends at home?

SPEAKER_00 0:33

I did have a question. Um, and yeah, I'll I'll give it a little bit of context too. So uh I've been I've been coaching. Um I'm going to be stepping back a little bit from coaching just due to other things going on in life. Um so right now we have a at the gym I'm coaching at, we have uh classes twice a week. Um, and one other black belt we found is going to be coaching on Mondays, and I've been coaching on our Thursday night classes. The the other coach we found, he's very good, knows a lot, also trains with the the eco CLA uh method. So it's that's been really good. It's been fun to see some of his games and his ideas come through. But he does primarily no gi. Uh we have in the past done primarily in the ghee. So my question for you is what are your thoughts about training one day a week in the GE and one day a week in no gi? And just in general, you know, how is that in terms of skill development or from a coach's perspective or athlete's perspective? Like, yeah, pretty broad, but just a point we can start this conversation off on.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Yeah, I think it's good. Um, and in my initial thought was kind of selfishly, right? I look at my own progress, and what I've tried to do for a really long time, probably since I was a bluebelt, is I've tried to be intentional about making a game for myself uh that's translatable as much as possible. In the gi, of course, I'm still grabbing sleeves, I'm still making the gi grips, but really fundamentally what my personal game is is I uh pull guard as all good jujitsu players do, right? I have a strong base uh of skill in in leg locks. Um, my preference is to use half guard to get to top, then use a lot of pressure to finish from top or the back, right? And so that's that's what I've done. And you know, my my answer to your question is kind of informed by that. I've always wanted to have something where I didn't need to have too much a difference in between my gi game and no gi game, so that if it's ever around or if it's ever an open mat I show up to in my gi and they're like, oh, it's an open mat, take take the gi off. It's no gi. That doesn't change a lot, right? And so the answer directly to your question, I guess, in terms of more or less like a 50%, like a 50-50 split, gi versus nogi, I think that's great because especially due to the fact that it's one class gi, one class nogi, gi, no-gi, right? Every other class, I think that without being heavy-handed and without needing to really explicitly tell people that, whether or not people really want to stay in the gi, they really love the gi, they're going to develop a game by default that is applicable for both, right? As long as they're coming to at least two classes per two weeks. And I think a lot of the justifications we've talked a lot about the point of jujitsu, right? I'm not backing off of any of my ideas about that, but when people come in and when people start out in jujitsu, I think they have a lot of ideas on what they want that to be. And it's it's all good, it's whatever, right? It's it's self-defense, it's MMA, it's this, it's that. And I think that the 50-50 split kind of forces jujitsu to be broader, right? And in its applicability, because we're not not that you would normally teach a wipe out like worm guard or anything like that, but like we're not getting too far into the weeds where people are so used to leaning on grips that they're building their whole guard game around uh gripping, they're building their whole back game around lapel strangles, but at the same time, the opposite's also true, where we're getting comfortable with strangling with lapels, we're getting comfortable defending lapels when we have our back taken, we're getting comfortable stripping grips. And so, you know, me personally, I love that. And I think that people can disagree, and I would think they're right too. Just because in in the context of like, if people want to go like really far down the IBJF route, they they should want to wade way further into the gi, right? If that's what they're going to do. But I think for a lot of people that don't necessarily have like the idea of I want to be a gi or no gi specialist already, and I don't want to go super far down this path competitively yet, or I don't want to I want to decide that. Um, it it's a really good thing to kind of form their games around that. I think that's the most concise answer I've ever given you, Adam. But like, does that does that make sense?

SPEAKER_00 4:56

Yeah, man. I gotta think of a follow-up question here really quickly because I thought I'd have another 10 minutes or something.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

I know, I I just got my first stripe of my blue belt for being concise, I think. Since Adam, but um, as you think, I guess we can go a little bit more into that, right? And and maybe this will give you a spark of an idea for a follow-up question. And this isn't really related directly to your question, but I think that there's been an idea, and I'll be honest, I don't know if this is still a common idea right now, but there's been an idea for a long time, especially like five, 10 years ago, when I was starting to get into like the culture of jujitsu about no gi is really good for honing athleticism and this and that. The gi will make you more technical. Uh, the thinking being that you have a harder time exploding out of things in the gi, it's much easier to punish you in a transition with like a rolling lapel strangle or something like that. Um, and most of the time, getting out of a gi grip is a lot more technical than just pulling my arm back hard. You can strip grips and you can do that hard, but you have to be used to doing that. And I think that while I don't agree at all that the gi is necessarily any more technical, um, there there certainly are more things to focus on in the gi. And there also is the reality that whether or not the gi is more technical, there is more friction. The ability I have to move in different ways is really, really different in the gi versus no gi. And so going back to your original question, I also think apart from just the the mechanics of people's games that will develop, the the mechanics of I would expect not a ton of people are going to be really big Spider Guard players if every other class they can't use Spider Guard. Uh, but people will get used to you know movements that work regardless of the level of friction and regardless of how fast or slow somebody can move, right? They'll they'll get comfortable with, oh, I can't just go fast and hard to get out of this, or if I do, it'll be harder for me. But at the same time, from a control perspective, they're also gonna be forced to deal with more slippery opponents who can still be controlled. And I think that was an oversight for a long time. Like, you can still control people just fine without the gi, uh equally well, I think. Honestly, I think it's a you know what? No, I'm gonna send it. I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna do the thing. Um, I I think it's a ridiculous idea that people have always said that you know you can control better, you can control more easily with the gi. Honestly, I just think that's a lack of technical understanding, or you know, maybe not technical understanding overall, but certainly without the gi. And I don't care who said that, like whatever their belt is, I really do think people who say that really just don't understand the mechanics of controlling no gi. Right. So there I said that. Whoever, whoever hears that, make of that what you will. Um, but I think that there's another valuable part, right? In in so far as you not only get to build a game that's that's translatable, but you also get to deal with movements, like the same movement in different contexts every week. Fast and slow, friction versus little friction, easier to control, harder to control, that kind of stuff. And I think that that level of variability is another thing that like you don't even have to design class for, but it's gonna be a big benefit to students too.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

Yeah, that that makes sense. And I I think um, you know, like you were saying, it promotes a wider grasp of jujitsu, I guess, you know, having to do both Gi and Nogi, uh, you know, one one after the other sort of thing. Um one of my thoughts and and maybe my my pushback to this a little bit is like, well, if if we only and again to be clear, like my gym, due to time constraints with other martial arts classes and things like that, um, we only have two days a week to do jujitsu. So we have two classes per week. Um and so with that, wouldn't there be some benefit to the student um getting a little bit more consistency in terms of like building skill? Like you said, okay, you know, you're you're probably not going to really uh develop a uh a worm guard or spider guard or something if you're if you're going back to back. Um wouldn't it be beneficial to maybe do a few months gi so you can dive deeper into certain I don't know, unique things to the gi, and then you transition and then do a few months in no gi. You know, so you have more consistency across and they have, I guess, more opportunities in less time. I don't I don't know if I'm saying that right, uh, to get into those positions, et cetera. Yeah. I don't know if that makes sense, but I think you're following.

SPEAKER_01 9:38

I am, I am, and I think there's there's there's like a hidden question within that. And so the the answer to the question as asked is it depends, which is never satisfying. And so what what I want to kind of take apart about that is yeah, there's absolutely benefits. There's to both, right? There's benefits to sticking with this for a couple months, there's benefits with never sticking with it for more than one class at a time and consistently doing that. Sure. And so what we want to do is, in my opinion, again, and I I can give an opinion, but it's not my class anymore, so I don't have to be right on this. Um, but the the benefits of sticking with with the ghee or with no-gi for a month or two, and every class is that is exactly like you said, it lets you get further into the gi. And part of that is getting used to the techniques and like the affordances. And what I mean by affordances is like the opportunities to act that I have in the gi that might not be present, no gi. I have grips in the gi that I don't have no-gi. I have strangles in the gi that I don't have no gi. I have different guards because of the lapels, right? And so on. Um, those things we can get deeper into, and it's not just that we can get deeper into them, but I think when you're learning a brand new system that doesn't exist in another context, yeah, there's a benefit to doing that two times a week, aside from just saying that we'll get there twice as fast, because I think we'll get there faster, because people need consistency to build skill. So there, like in that uh in that area, yeah, absolutely. I think there's a benefit to that. But I think the benefit is strictly in terms of like techniques and game building around the gi. Game building just meaning the individual's games that they're they're working on. The benefit, I think, to switching off uh every other class is adaptability, right? And so um, this may not be a perfect illustration, but I'll do my best with it. Uh, if we want to get, say, into daily Heavaguard and we want to really, really get comfortable with daily HeavyGuard, I think that's a case where it's probably better just to do that in Ghee for a while. Even though it exists no gi, even though people do that at a high level no-gi, I think the extra affordances, the extra opportunities to execute techniques with the gi, with grabbing the back of pants, with grabbing the belt, right? With with sequencing grips and the opportunity to grab pant legs, I think that's just gonna make people a lot better at daily Hiva quicker because they have more opportunities to succeed and to win, right? So there we're building a game, even if it works no gi too, it doesn't work as well. And I think everybody knows that it works better in the Gee. And so that that's better and will get better way faster if my focus just stays on that in between classes, rather than having a class in between Daily Hiva class one and two, where it's it, you know, a complete break and it's it's no gi. Um, but if we're looking at something like say mount, okay, and and pick your poison. We could do guard passing, we could do submissions, whatever. But say mount, uh, and it's gi and it's no gi. In the gi, like I said, I don't necessarily think I can control people better by default just because I'm in the gi. Um, but the control is very different. There is without any opportunity for argument, there's a lot more friction. It's a lot easier to like put pressure and restrict movement, right, with the gi than without. And so I think that's really important for people to grasp, top and bottom attacker defender. I think it's also important for both of those people to understand that that's not always gonna be the case in every context. And especially if we want to take a view of jujitsu where it's like a broader context, even if you're like me at least, who who strictly views it in the context of like what jujitsu is technically speaking, right? We still might want to do Gi and Nogi, and we have to have an understanding that that friction and the way that I control is gonna be a little bit different, partly because things will work way more easily, uh Nogi than Gi, things will work way more easily gi than Nogi, but also when when I have so much variation and what it takes to control and my ability, just like squeeze and restrict people, I think that also kind of creates a much bigger problem in our minds uh for control and escape, right? And we start looking for things that work in both of those situations, and that makes it a lot easier for us to kind of get at the heart of why things work versus why they don't. Um, so so I go for, for example, from being on bottom, right? And having a gi and being able to just grab the belt. I'm a white belt, right? I'm I'm a new guy. I just grab the belt with both hands and I'm shoving them around. And I can't escape for the life, but they don't tap me out. But then I take the gi off, and as soon as we slap bump, I just like freak out, I go ballistic, and I get out, right? So, so one of those works in each situation. I can't do that nearly as easily in the gi. And obviously, I can't just grab a belt without the gi. But if we keep switching those contexts, I'm not gonna want to do two different things, two completely distinct things every every class, right? Every other class. And I'm gonna start to try to find an answer of like what can I do in both these situations? That's where we can start game design, and that's where instructors can get a little more hands-on. And it's easier when like there's that disconnect between existing solutions to say, hey, here's like the goal, here's what we want to do. And it's not escaping. We want to frame the hips first, right? We can try the bridge and roll, we can try that first. That works as an escape sometimes. I'm a big believer that the bridge and roll is not a good like one-stop shop solution. And I would rather set up a bigger escaping strategy around something that's not a bridge and roll, right? Um, but that that starts almost every time with framing the hips, and we can get there, and then we can be like, once we frame the hips, here's the different ways we move. And that works just as well, gi as no gi. So now I got my conciseness stripe taken away because now I've rambled again. But that's that's I think the benefit, right? Of of switching it up is the adaptability. So the 30-second snapshot, I think the benefit if we're gonna do one thing for an extended period of time is we can get further into the things that are unique to that, or maybe there are affordances that make a skill easier to learn that would make it better to stay with the gi or stay better with no gi for an extended period of time. But I think there's just such a big inherent benefit in adaptability, switching between the two every other class, that unless I have a real clear reason why I would want to stay with one or the other, that that's better. And I'm not saying that's for every single person listening because that's gonna be a really hard time to you know set up a five, six day a week class for days everybody can go to. Like there's other logistics for a lot of gems. But for this case, where where Adam, uh, where Luke, where I used to have two days a week, right? Uh, I think that's a really good solution for that for that problem.

SPEAKER_00 16:26

That makes sense. Um so so one of the things that is going through my head a little bit is like, well, when you were teaching there, you did mainly just chunks of, you know, uh mostly in the gi with with some chunks of no gi. Um and so is that then because you wanted to delve deeper into certain aspects is and aspects and explore, you know, additional affordances and opportunities that that the gi would give people. Is that kind of why you you chose to do that or or uh you know what am I missing, I guess?

SPEAKER_01 16:59

You're not missing anything. You're not missing anything. Uh and the the answer that nobody wants to hear is I'm not perfect. And that was not a perfect way to run those classes, right? So I think we could go back and do a post-mortem on those and say, you know, there there would have been opportunities for those classes to be improved, those units to be improved. But my thinking in that, and for anybody listening, I I think what Adam said is pretty clear. But what I what I did is I essentially took a whole year to go through a curriculum that was kind of a deep dive into all of our major positions and then some some attacks and some opportunities to attack off of that, right? So we did a mount unit that was like a month and a half. We did our standard mount attacks, we did back control, guard, all this stuff, right? Uh it took about a year, and almost all of that, aside from um part of guard, uh, and especially all of the leg locks was Nogi. Um that I think by default, right? The the constraint slot approach created a lot of dynamicism, a lot of opportunity for adaptability. There would have been a greater degree of adaptability if we had switched every other class. But number one, it's a little bit of a jarring transition, and it will be jarring if that's what happens here, but it's not like it's not gonna earth like be earth-shattering. I don't think people are gonna leave over that. But I didn't want to disrupt the flow of that, especially because everybody who was there already had a ghee. Part of it also was inertia, and I was kind of used to having the both days a week being ghe. And so when I transitioned the CLA, you know, I had I don't have a perfect memory on how the transition went, but I went through a period of time where I was just kind of doing what I'd been doing and I was kind of phasing in, slowly phasing in the CLA. Um, and then it was like, okay, well, what I want to do is I want to give people a deep dive, uh, an opportunity to just consistently be in the same place for an extended period of time and problem solve with these constraints and really start to build an understanding. And as we go through, you know, we might be in the same spot for three classes in a row. I'm gonna kind of layer in some insights when we have a big enough problem built up. And so I wanted to do that. And I think subconsciously, this was not a conscious decision. Part of that was okay, like if I want, if I want people to spend so much time in the same position, maybe I want it really to be the same situation with the same affordances, etc. Bat control was a little bit different just because I I think we actually did do a little bit, like one or two classes, no gi. Uh but back control, if you're training in the ghee, is just so much different, and lapel chokes are just in absolute terms so much better at everything than non-lapel chokes that I wanted to focus on that. But um, you know, without without spinning our wheels too much here, Adam, I think that in terms of adaptability, those classes did not produce as much adaptability as they would have otherwise. And I think I could make like a retroactive case for why I did that. But the truth is it wasn't a conscious choice that I made. Sure. It was kind of, hey, I'm introducing the CLA. I didn't think about doing an ongoing switch, especially with two days week gi versus nogi, especially when nobody was like pestering for Nogi. I didn't think through the adaptability piece. And I'm I may or may not change that if I could go back and do it again, but that's what it is.

SPEAKER_00 20:17

Sure. Yeah, that makes sense. Um, that also explains why I'm gonna blame you. I'm terrible at nogi still to this day. So um, you know, thanks a lot for nothing. Fair enough. Um Adam, Adam, Adam, mental engagement, just engagement. Mental engagement, just mentally engage without a key. Okay, yeah, yeah. All right, good. Um no, I think I think that's good. Um, and I think, you know, even from a personal standpoint, turning around and going, okay, if I was the uh student or the athlete, I I wouldn't mind mixing it up more. Like I would find that enjoyable. Um personally, I think in general, I've that's probably the feedback that I've been getting from some of the students too, is they they don't mind it, they kind of like it. Um I think it's mainly getting more exposure to no gi is what they truly enjoy because like as you mentioned, we've done mostly gi. Um, I've done mostly gi since I've taken over almost a year ago now. Um yeah, it's it's getting close. So uh yeah, so I I I think it's good. Um I think I would agree with you. I'm just trying to, you know, I don't know, pick your brain a little bit more onto why or why not we're doing things one way versus the other. But I think it's I think that's good. And I think would that be maybe then from a from an athlete's perspective, um unless well maybe I won't even put any caveats in there. I'll I'll let you do that. But from an athlete's perspective, then would you suggest you know mixing in uh training between gi and no-gi or not?

SPEAKER_01 21:55

Um I guess the the answer is It depends. Perfect. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:03

I I think so too. Because I think, I mean, uh where we're both probably going to go is like, okay, are you training for ADCC? Right. Are you training for IVJJF? Um, you know, if you are an actual competitor, you're probably just focusing on one of those. And then if you're not a real competitor and you're not going to make this a professional living, then you just do whatever's fun, right? I think that's the that's the easy answer. Um that's exactly the answer.

SPEAKER_01 22:28

So I'll break it out into little groups. For the majority of people, um, I would say yeah, do both. And if you're at a school where you overwhelmingly do the gi, and if you have a couple minutes before or after class, just take the gi off and do like one round with somebody, no gi. Okay. Um, for for the reasons that we said. The people I'm saying that to specifically are the people who are not super serious competitors, um, or maybe they are, but you do an even split of gi versus no-gy competition. And also the people that don't hate one or the other, and also the people who are going in consistently enough that you feel like you're progressing, or you feel like you are going in enough to progress, um, and you are really invested in developing adaptability, getting better at like all of jujitsu, right? So those are a few things. And and it don't be ashamed if like one of those is not you, right? So you're not a hyperactive competitor, or if you are, you do both, right? Um, you don't hate one or the other, and you're in enough to consistently uh improve. If you are a hyperactive competitor, you don't need me to tell you this, but you need to be training for whatever you have coming up, or maybe you were a gi guy or you're a no-gee guy. If you're one or the other, do do one every blue moon, the other one, or or every other class, you know, if if you're taking a break, but you need to be getting used to jujitsu in the context that you're going to be training and competing in, right? Um, if you can't go to jujitsu often, if like you can barely ever make it in, like me, um, yeah, still do whatever you like, but here's here's the reality. And Adam, you're you're a bit of an outlier because you're a four-straight purple ball. You're you've you've you're good enough at jujitsu, this doesn't necessarily apply to you. But if if you're newer to jujitsu or you're just really uncomfortable or and not confident yet in your jujitsu skills, don't worry about the adaptability yet. You need to worry about the comfort with the sport itself. And yes, adaptability is good. I'm not saying you shouldn't want to be adaptable, but your highest priority, if that's you, if you're like, man, like I just got my blue belt, I can't tap white belts out, like I'm having all oh blah blah blah blah blah. Like I'm I'm really I'm really feeling bad about my jujitsu. Get comfortable with it. Um, your level of comfort and your level of confidence in jujitsu is what you need to build before you worry about anything else. So then stick to whatever you're best at, honestly. Get some success there. And then for the rest of the people, I hate gi, I hate no gi, whatever it is. Um remember that this is a sport that you're in first and foremost to have a good time, right? Nobody who starts well, maybe today they do, but when I started out, uh, I had no idea who um shoot who even was the best when I started. It was like right before Hafa Mendes. I'm Marcelo. I don't know who Marcelo Garcia was. I didn't know who Hadger Gracie was, I don't know any of those guys. I just wanted to have a good time on the mat. You know, you don't have to know who Gordon Ryan is or Mikey Musumacci or you know, X, Y, or Z, any of the rising stars. You got on the mats because it was a skill you wanted to learn, you wanted to have fun. If you really can't stand one or the other and you're not out here trying to make a living at doing both, then then ignore what I said. You know, I can't dictate to you what you do or don't like, and you should do what you do or don't like on the mat because let's face it, you probably have plenty of things going on where people are telling you you got to do something, whether you like it to or not, outside of the mats. Have a good time. Let the mats be your break. Like if you're not going in there every day, ready to put a lot of pressure on you, ready to stress yourself about jujitsu, then don't do that. Leave that at the door, don't worry about it, do what you enjoy, right? But I think those last three groups are smaller groups than the people who go kind of consistently a couple days a week. They want to get better, they're not super active competitors, and they don't absolutely hate either. Yeah, if you don't think you're getting enough of one or the other, I would really encourage you to take some time before or after class. If your instructor's okay with it, maybe even the last role during class. Maybe your instructor is not okay with that. That's not a red flag. That's just them saying, hey, this is the way the class is set up. Um, but before after class, take take the gi off. Put a gi on, do something that like gives you that chance because it will increase your adaptability.

SPEAKER_00 26:35

Sure. So so my my follow-up question, mainly looking at that that last group there you were just describing, is like, okay, I'm not a huge competitor. Um, I'd like to get as good as I can at jujitsu. I like both Gi and No Gi. Um, I have the opportunity to do a little bit of both, but then is it even worth me trying to explore some of the nuances more, I guess, in the in the gi, because I feel like there's more nuances there. Um, you know, should I even bother trying to do Spider Guard? Should I even bother trying to learn some of the you know worm guard and some of these weird lapel things and blah blah blah, or should I just stick to like very basic, you know, not using the gi to control uh most of the time and things that transfer from no-gi to gi uh and back pretty easily? Like is it is it even worth somebody, especially a newer person, right? If if you're saying I don't count because I'm a purple belt or whatever, so like okay, fairly advanced purple belt enough, right? You can you can choose to work on whatever you want because you should know enough, right? But if if you're a white belt, if you're a blue belt, um is it really even worth worth trying to work on some of those more nuanced and kind of niche, niche is that a word? That's a word, right? Oh yeah, niche, absolutely. Yeah, niche, like kind of niche areas of jujitsu that's only applicable in one or the other.

SPEAKER_01 28:02

Um in just so we're on the same page. This is for our group of the biggest group of people who want to get better, all that stuff, but okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 28:09

Yeah, people people that show up to to our gym, right? To my gym, right?

SPEAKER_01 28:14

Yeah, it's absolutely worth it. I wouldn't if I was your coach, I would not steer you in that direction. But for me as a guy on a podcast talking directly to you, you know, listener, and and I'm not your coach directly, yeah, it's worth it. And again, it's worth it because it's fun. And jujitsu should always be fun, it should always be something that you enjoy, even if you just want to go out there and be the biggest killer you can be. Because if you don't love it, you're never gonna be the best in the world because you're gonna quit or your life is just gonna suck because of jujitsu. And I don't want that to be anybody, right? So do it because it's fun, do it because it's interesting. Now, um that's that's my advice for for you as a practitioner to be to be excited. For me as a coach trying to optimize performance, that depends a little bit more on where you are. If I'd recommend you do that right now. If you're brand new, and I'll go back really, really briefly to what I what we both agreed on, I think, in our our bluebelts episode. Um, if you're a white belt going to blue belt, and if I was the one that you were coming to for your blue belt, I would give you a blue belt when I was confident that I could put you in any situation at all in jiu-jitsu, and you wouldn't be lost. You would have an idea of what you were trying to do and you would be able to actively start going toward that. I don't care if you're against a brown belt and you lose every single time, but you have to know what you're doing and you can't be lost, right? And then there, you know, depending on it, is I don't want you to be terrible at it all the time, but I'm you know, performance is not the biggest expectation, but it is one. Um, so going back to your question, Adam, if it's somebody who's like, I think worm guard is so cool, Adam. You know, I I really love lasso guard, Tim. Um, when I get somebody over, I have no earthly idea how to pass a guard. I only know an Americana from side control, but I can't hold him down from side control. Uh, but I just love lasso guard. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna do lasso guard. And if they get back to top, that's okay. I'll do lasso guard again, right? Um that'll get in the way of your performance, that'll stunt your growth a little bit. And if I was your coach, I would say, okay, maybe let's cut back on the lasso guard a little bit. Maybe let's really focus your roles um and try to get on top and stay on top. But, you know, again, if if it's something like, I don't know if it's worth learning lasso guard just because I'm a white belt, all this stuff, yeah, it's worth it. It's worth it because it's fun, it's worth it because it's useful. I would just discourage you from doing that to the exclusion of everything else if one of your big goals is to get better fast.

SPEAKER_00 30:42

Sure. Sure. Yeah, that uh that makes sense. Um yeah, I don't know. I don't think I really have any follow-up questions. That was just something that uh obviously I've been thinking about recently. So I was like, ah, I'm gonna pick your brain on it uh see what you think.

SPEAKER_01 30:57

So what I think is an interesting question too, uh, right, because it it's an interesting situation, first off, that it's a two-day week at most gem. And then we get like a really clear split down the middle of gi and no gi. I don't think a lot of people approach the discussion of like what's the ideal balance of gi versus nogi that way. Because I think they're approaching it from either like what classes should I go to, and do I need to go to multiple gyms to get like five days a week of nogi, or how do I schedule, you know, my six days a week gi versus nogi? Because most people either either all nogi or it's one to two nogi days a week. Um but being able to split it down the middle, I think, gives us some really interesting things to look at in terms of skill development. Um, so I think it was a good question. Well done, Adam.

SPEAKER_00 31:39

Well, thank you. I that was my one for like six months or something, you know.

SPEAKER_01 31:43

You've I'll stop it. You've had more than that. You've honed your question blade well.

SPEAKER_00 31:49

Well, it's just things I run into that I don't know the answer. So fair, fair that's where they come from.

SPEAKER_01 31:54

Yeah, fair enough. Um well with all that said, uh, thank you all for tuning in once again. As always, we are still active. I know uh not to date this episode, but over the last couple of weeks it's been a little bit quiet. We are still going. So let us know if you have any questions. Reach out to us on Instagram or on Spotify or on Apple Podcasts, I guess, if you can find a way to leave a comment there. Uh, we would love to hear from you. We would love to hear your thoughts, and especially if you have any questions. And with that said, Adam, great to talk to you.

SPEAKER_00 32:22

Great to talk to you.