Gi fashion show?

[bushido_man96]

I just wear whatever tshirt I wore at work; I put my gi on over the top. If I'm training that day, I don't wear anything with a collar. I don't really care about colour co-ordination and it's never been an issue. A lot of guys don't wear anything under the gi, and a lot wear rashguards. When I'm doing more no-gi stuff I might get a rashguard too and use that under the gi when I go back to the gi.

I don't wear anything under my uniform, and I never have a problem with rashes. Do you have more of an issue with rashes, from the nature of practice of BJJ? Perhaps due to more contact?

[pegasi]

I'm a lady, a shirt under my dobok is pretty much a necessity, since I don't care to flash certain body parts. I'm a big gal, so I wear a larger uniform to begin with, and that leaves a larger gap to cover up.

[Daisho]

once you go rashguard you never go back!

honestly, we get our heartrates WAY up during training, and i was amazed people could wear anything under their gi and not pass out from heat. But no kidding a rashguard will actually help keep you cool, not to mention a cotton t-shirt tends to get sweat soaked and feel terrible, where the rashguard disperses sweat immeadiately, and allows it to cool the body more efficiently.

our JJ is more traditional, so we don't spend alot of time on the ground, mostly just lock up a joint and utilize a finishing strike (or for kenjutsu we use our jujutsu to control the opponent and disarm them for a strike), but the rashguard stops the gi from rub-burning your shoulders due to the grabbing of your gi, or tumbling out of a technique.

[gzk]

I just wear whatever tshirt I wore at work; I put my gi on over the top. If I'm training that day, I don't wear anything with a collar. I don't really care about colour co-ordination and it's never been an issue. A lot of guys don't wear anything under the gi, and a lot wear rashguards. When I'm doing more no-gi stuff I might get a rashguard too and use that under the gi when I go back to the gi.

I don't wear anything under my uniform, and I never have a problem with rashes. Do you have more of an issue with rashes, from the nature of practice of BJJ? Perhaps due to more contact?

So I've heard. I haven't experienced it myself, but I'm told a lot of BJJ clubs (not ours ) have been known to have various nasties living in the mats that are more easily caught when you are rolling around on them constantly. And as you said, there's much more close contact than in other styles

[dete]

I'm old school too,

plus if you cross train or move around a lot like me, then you will regret all those patches. I just had one big one to represent my competition team and I tell you I regret putting that on when I go to other schools you become a target

my thick gi top is also very expensive for me $100 range, so I learned the best thing was to just get those patches on the pants, I have tons of gi pants but only 2 tops.

anyways I do think that BJJ has some of the coolest looking gi s out there.

I think a martial arts fashion show would be amusing.

[tengu-raven]

have any of those students that wear colorfull uniforms ever thought to ask why that most dojo wear the plain white? except for the patch that indicates the style of shotokan and the color of belt our gis are completly white and no other patches.

the gi being white represents purity and the mindset of someone willing to learn. it also demonstrates being part of a group. adding patches takes away from both. the uniforms worn at the local dojang sound very much like what has been described. lots of patches reading black belt or expert with some kind of weapon. pretitious from our view. that's not a slight against taekwondo as my prior instructor would have never allowed such a thing.

what i don't have a problem with is different uniforms for other styles. the gi worn in the tang soo do dojang i visited was slightly different yet did not have those fancy trappings. it just was the gi worn by students of tang soo do or so i was told. the local kenpo dojo wears a black gi with no patches and i have no issue there either.

another interesting subject was the thickness of the gi in question. during the summer a heaver weave gi is very uncomfortable yet far more durable than our lighter ones. fortunatly the sensei likes to keep the dojo very cool and without shoes it's not too bad. even though we don't throw with the frequency of a judo class there is a lot of technique which proves hard on the light versions.

[ps1]

In Chuan Fa we, generally, wore a t-shirt and black gi pants for practice. When/if we competed we simply wore a generic "chuan fa" uniform top with frog buttons. In addition, we wore patches for each of the animal forms we had learned up to dragon.

In Karate we wore a plain white or plain black gi with only the kanji for the association. Black Belts were plain, regardless of dan.

BJJ Kimono are much more elaborate. This is, I believe, a newer trend as old pictures of Carlos and Helio or even older pictures of their kids training reveal only the signature Gracie Triangle symbol. I think the patches for them started coming into play as they started forming various teams and associtions. Primarily because Rorion trademarked the triangle symbol. The other brothers started making their own symbols and the trend simply continued. Additionally, people of Brazil seem to like lots of color variety. I think that state of mind also played into the training uniforms. Truth is, I like it too. It's a way of showing who you train under or have trained with.

[stifmeister]

Hey guys, this is my first post here , anyway today we had some visitors to our dojo from a dojo across town. Some of their students are looking for more in-depth Kenjutsu, so I guess they're being sent over to cross train.

Anyway when they walked in I was in awe of their gi's. They had ryu patches, dragons holding yin/yang balls, a huge specialized dojo crest on the back, starsfrom the knee to the ankles, Korean flags, some kenji symbols, I mean the works. Not to mention their collars are tri-color striped, as are the belts, and their Sensei was wearing a blue gi top, with red pants.

I've trained Miyama Ryu at the same dojo for 7 years, and had some people come cross-train with us, but never seen such adornment. Our Sensei is pretty old school. No-one wears patches or multi-colored gi's, and the only people allowed to wear one are combat vets, who are allowed to wear a U.S. flag on their breast.

Anyway, make a long story short, it would be funny to see a fashion show of some of the more baroque gi's, can anyone recommend a website that is dedicated to that sort of thing?

They sound like the Power Rangers to me!

[SkidRow]

I always liked the silky kung fu suits the black ones would probably make me look slimmer too which would be an added bonus