These days, seeing a portable gi in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is a fairly rare sight. Now, with an array of fancy gym bags available, most people don’t bother turning their gi into a portable carrying device. However, back in the day this was more of a common practice and is actually a very efficient way to carry your gi to the gym. Here is a step by step guide on how to make a gi portable.
The first thing you will need to do is fold your gi and try to make it as compact as possible. The smaller the space, the easier it will be to carry around. Let’s start with the gi pants:
- Firstly, fold your gi pants in half at the legs. This means putting one leg over the other – so only one pant-leg side is visible.
- After this, place the now folded gi pants on top of the gi. The gi pants should sit in line with the sides of the collars.
- From here, fold one arm in half, then fold that side of the gi inwards so it’s now on top of the gi pants. After this has been done, do the same with the other side.
- Next, fold the top of the gi towards the bottom half. So far, all of the fold have gone side to side, this is the first downwards fold that you will do.
- Once this has been done – place the gi on the floor so it doesn’t expand outwards. Ideally, you should hold the gi down to keep it as tight and compact as possible.
- Finally, wrap your belt around the gi as if wrapping a bow around a box. If possible, tie a knot in the belt as it will tighten the gi and make it smaller and easier to hold.
- Ideally, this will be a square space, but sometimes if the gi starts to unfold, it can look more like a rectangle or circle.
- If your belt is long enough, you should be able to hold the gi package around your shoulder by holding the belt.
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What are the benefits of making a portable gi?
Ideally, a portable gi means that you don’t need to buy a gi bag so it’s ideal if you’re on a budget. Secondly, it’s also lightweight to carry around, as it’s literally just the gi. Lastly, it looks pretty cool and almost looks like it’s from an old martial arts movie. Perhaps a more hygienic benefit is if your gym bag is dirty. You may not even know this but if you go to train and your gi is clean, then by the time you put it on it could be covered with bacteria. Therefore, a portable gi is very handy in this sense.
If you’re looking for a particularly lightweight gi that would be easy to carry, then check out this Verus Ultra Light Gladius gi which is around $50 and is available in three different colors.
Origins of the portable BJJ gi
Portable gis have been around for years and actually started off in Japan, where Karateka would fold their gis neatly before and after training. This makes sense as Karate is older than BJJ and they wear a very similar gi in terms of shape and size.
This then spread to Brazil during the earlier days of BJJ. Here, practitioners would do the same which was more practical back then as BJJ training bags weren’t as common. These days though, most people will just use a regular gym bag. However, as mentioned – the portable gi has some benefits of its own, such as hygiene and cost.
Conclusion
The portable gi is handy for anyone who is willing to learn how to fold your gi in the correct way. Thankfully, this should only take a couple of minutes and like Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, the more you do it – the better you will become and folding your gi. Give it a try next time you train and see if you like it!
