No-Gi Made Guard Worse And Nobody Wants To Say It

"No-gi made guard worse" is a galaxy-brain take that ignores how the modern gi game *also* evolved beyond static DLR to survive leg-lock entries and standing passes, not just pressure.

If you're only training no-gi guards, your gi guard retention will suffer against a heavy pressure passer. We see it every time a no-gi guy rolls in for a free trial at our gym.

I wonder how much of this depends on the *kind* of no-gi you're doing. Our gym only offers one no-gi class a week, and it's mostly positional drilling for ADCC rules. We spent three weeks straight on butterfly sweeps into leg entanglements. Not sure that translates to "worse gi guard retention" as much as it just... doesn't translate at all. My gi DLR still feels separate.

This isn't about gi vs no-gi. It's about training enough hours to get good at both. Most adults only have 3-4 classes a week. You can't be elite at everything.