Do You Need to Wear Spats for No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu?

Spats are a prevalent clothing option among those who train no-gi jiu-jitsu. In fact, they are so widespread that some beginners wonder if they need to wear spats for no-gi jiu-jitsu as a requirement.

Spats are not required for no-gi jiu-jitsu, but they are an incredibly popular clothing option. Spats essentially act as a rash guard for your lower body by helping to protect your skin from irritation and keep your muscles warm.

While spats are not a necessity, they can offer you some benefits. In this article, we’ll explore what spats are, the advantages they offer, and how you can incorporate a pair into your training wardrobe.

What are No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu Spats?

“Spats” is a term that jiu-jitsu practitioners use to refer to their leggings. Typically, spats consist of skin-tight materials, such as polyester and nylon. The advantage of those materials is that they maintain a tight fit while remaining flexible enough to stretch as needed while you move.

People outside the jiu-jitsu community usually call spats by a different name, such as tights, leggings, or yoga pants. Regardless of which name you use, know that spats are a straightforward lower-body clothing option that has some specific benefits for those who train jiu-jitsu.

What are the Benefits of Wearing Spats for No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu?

Wearing spats for jiu-jitsu comes with two primary benefits. Mainly, the advantages of wearing spats are:

• Skin protection: Spats act as a protective layer between your skin and the mats. This layer reduces the odds that you’ll experience mat burns, cuts, and chafing while you train. 

• Warm muscles: The full coverage that spats provide will help keep your muscles warm, loose, and ready to perform during training.

Keeping your muscles warm is one way that spats prove their usefulness. However, the skin protection benefit is the leading reason you should consider wearing spats while you train. Training jiu-jitsu comes with a significant risk of skin infection. The more contact that occurs between your skin and the mats, the more likely it is that you’ll experience ringworm, staph, or another skin-related ailment.

Those risks increase when you have cuts and abrasions on your skin. Spats make it far less likely that you’ll experience skin irritation or damage to your legs, which means they also lessen the odds of infection as well.

How Do You Wear Spats While Training Jiu-Jitsu?

There are a few ways that you can wear spats while you train jiu-jitsu. Some practitioners use spats for no-gi exclusively, while others use them during gi training as well. In some instances, you may wear spats as a stand-alone lower-body clothing option. Other times, you’ll layer your spats with other garments. 

Wearing Spats for No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu

Spats are most popular in the no-gi jiu-jitsu community. Here are a few of the best ways to wear spats while training no-gi:

• Under a pair of shorts

• As a stand-alone lower-body clothing option

Most jiu-jitsu practitioners will choose to layer their spats under a pair of shorts. However, others wear nothing over their spats while they train. Either way of wearing spats offers you all the benefits we mentioned previously.

Wearing Spats for Gi Jiu-Jitsu

While spats are more prevalent in no-gi, you can wear them for gi jiu-jitsu as well. However, this style of grappling offers fewer options for how you can wear your spats. The only viable option is to wear your spats under your gi pants, which are required for gi jiu-jitsu.

Wearing spats for gi jiu-jitsu gives you the same advantages you would experience during no-gi training. Having a pair of spats under your gi pants also protects your skin from your gi and vice versa.

The fabric of a gi must be durable to withstand the rigors of training. However, that durability can come at the cost of softness. The inside of your gi can easily cause irritation and burns to your exposed skin. A pair of spats will protect your skin from any damage your gi can cause.

Simultaneously, spats help improve the cleanliness and longevity of your gi pants. Spats accomplish this by absorbing some of your sweat before it can soak into your gi fabric. While this benefit may seem minor, it can have a significant impact on how your gi pants perform over the long term.

Downsides to Wearing Spats for Jiu-Jitsu

Wearing spats for jiu-jitsu has its plusses, but there are some disadvantages that you should recognize as well. The main downsides to wearing spats are:

• Overheating: Overheating is easy to do in jiu-jitsu, especially when you wear a gi. Wearing spats that cover your legs will only make that issue worse.

• Increased friction: Spats provide more friction than skin, making it more difficult to slip out of certain positions and submission holds. This effect will be especially impactful when defending against leg locks.

Spats may have some slight disadvantages, but neither of the ones above is enough to classify spats as an unworthy clothing item. Instead, those two points simply indicate a few factors you should be aware of if spats are your go-to lower-body clothing option for no-gi jiu-jitsu.

Alternatives to Wearing Spats for No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu

Spats are an excellent no-gi lower-body clothing option, but they are not the only one. If spats are not your preferred clothing item, here is what you can wear instead:

• Pocketless athletic shorts: Most athletic shorts will work well for no-gi jiu-jitsu. Pocketless shorts are best because they don’t cause as many snags while you train.

• Gi pants: In most cases, you can wear gi pants for no-gi, even though they are more typically a part of a gi jiu-jitsu uniform.

Spats may not be your preferred clothing option. Fortunately, the two alternatives in the list above can be just as appropriate for no-gi training.

Conclusion

You do not need to wear spats for no-gi jiu-jitsu, but there are several reasons why you might want to. As the post above shows, spats can protect your skin and keep you warm during both gi and no-gi training, but they are by no means a requirement.