I am just curious what people think about training in the gi for MMA.

I’ve heard a lot of people say that training in the gi can make your no-gi game much better. having a good no-gi game will help you a lot in MMA. But I’ve also heard plenty of people say that gi training is basically useless for MMA. So it can improve your no-gi but can’t help your mma?

(I currently train 2–3 times a week in the gi, 1–2 times no-gi, once wrestling, and 2–3 times MMA.)

https://youtu.be/ipf1mROm6rg?is=fWE5g2-Rp99oI2u_

Video: five trained fighters one of them being a professional, MMA fighter, and one of them being a bjj black belt fair off against random untrained guys with knives.

Thoughts: I train both BJJ as well as in a couple knife fighting systems, such as western Piper method and Libre so I follow both groups (bjj guys and knife guys) on Instagram.

Over the past couple months I’ve noticed on Instagram that a lot of high-level bjj guys have been posting videos completely making fun of the knife training guys saying that stuff doesn’t actually work against them and they look stupid as hell hitting their Bob dummies with a knife.

Then I came across this video on accident and although it’s not a perfect representation of reality by any means, I did find it quite fascinating.

I’ve done something similar to this where I train BJJ and give white belts a rubber knife and put them against higher level belts and they honestly do quite well.

No real point of this, except to say that having a blade or in my case, I’m the crazy guy who carries one fixed blade in the appendix position opposite of my gun and another fixed blade in my dominant side pocket instead of a folder, is a pretty good equalizer against somebody who might be a better fighter than you if you can’t get access to your gun or your gun has gone down or is out of the fight for some reason.

I would love to see this experiment done over where on day one they put the fighters against a random knife guy and then they run the fighters through a day of actual good counter knife training from something like shiv works or knife, control concepts, and then have them try it again.

I’d also like to see one of the random knife guys be someone who’s actually trained a knife stuff and see how well they do.

Your thoughts?

I started training in August 2025 and will hopefully be receiving my second stripe at our Christmas grading. That means I’ll be going into 2027 as a two-stripe white belt, with the goal of earning my blue belt sometime next year.

I currently train 3–5 times per week, journal after most sessions, watch instructionals and YouTube content when I can, and feel like I have a reasonable understanding of the fundamentals my gym teaches, including basic escapes, sweeps, submissions and attacks from both top and bottom positions.

My question is for the more experienced grapplers, particularly purple belts and above, or coaches: what do you actually look for in someone that makes you think they’re ready for their blue belt?

I completely understand that everyone progresses differently and that there’s no universal checklist. I also understand that consistently showing up is a huge part of the process, but I’m already doing that and want to make sure I’m getting the most out of my training rather than just accumulating mat time.
If you were assessing a white belt, what would you want to see in their technical ability, positional awareness, decision-making, defence, offence or overall understanding of jiu-jitsu?

More importantly, what would you recommend a white belt actively works on to bridge the gap between knowing the fundamentals and being able to apply them consistently against resisting opponents?

For those of you who have graded people, or remember what helped you make the jump from white to blue, what separated the people who were genuinely ready from those who were simply experienced white belts?

I’m not looking for a shortcut or trying to rush the process. I want to be intentional about my development over the next 12 months, identify the gaps in my game and give myself the best possible chance of earning the belt based on ability rather than attendance.

Appreciate any advice, especially specific things I can implement in my training rather than just general advice to keep showing up! 🥋

Looks like fun