Journal
Every gi shop in this country publishes a catalogue and stops. These are the questions people actually ask before they buy — federation rules, Gulf humidity, sizing a growing kid — answered properly, with the sources and the dates we checked them.
A child in the Abu Dhabi schools programme needs one plain white gi in their size, a belt at the rank the programme assigns, and a name label. Most schools specify white and nothing else. Buy two if your child trains weekly — one gi will not dry between sessions and a wet gi is why kids stop wanting to go.
Read it →Three colours are legal — white, royal blue and black. The jacket and pants must be the same colour, and the collar must match the top. That holds for AJP, UAEJJF and IBJJF alike. Grey, camo, two-tone and contrast collars are not permitted, and off-white shades like cream or bone get rejected at some events.
Read it →For summer training in the UAE, choose a gi between 350 and 450 gsm in a pearl or honeycomb weave, and own two of them rather than one. Fabric weight matters less for comfort on the mat than it does for how fast the gi dries afterwards — in Gulf humidity a 550 gsm gi can still be damp 24 hours later, which is how gis start to smell and how mould starts.
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