How to be an Okay Training Partner
You can’t do Jiu jitsu by yourself. There definitely are solo drills you can do which are fun and a great workout, but ultimately you need training partners. Read on to discover what it takes to be an okay[i] training partner.
There are three types of training partners; those less experienced than you, those with about the same experience as you, and those more skilled than you. All three types are necessary to develop your Jiu jitsu. But what makes an okay training partner?
In a broad sense, if you want to be around them, they are okay. If someone twinges that invisible nerve in your gut, they are not okay. Yin and Yang. Usually, the gut feeling triggers early on in one’s acquaintanceship with the person in question. The feeling commonly lingers over a long period of time, although it may seem masked in larger groups of people. It is important to remember that gut feelings can have visual, auditory, olfactory, and also tactile triggers; or perhaps there are no easily discernable triggers at all.
To be an okay training partner, try to do the following;
Pick your training days and be okayconsistent. Life in demanding for most people, so tread softly and pick days that won’t impinge on other important aspects of your life. Remember, if you want to progress in Jiu jitsu, you need to show up.
Show up mostly on time. If you’re not five minutes early, then you’re late. It takes time to greet your training partners, change clothes, perhaps take a whiz or drop those bratty turds off at the pool. When you’re late, you hold up the rest of the class. You also look like an overindulged private school student to the rest of your mostly on time training partners.
Practice okay hygiene. Shower, brush your teeth or chew gum to mask, “the sweet smell of decay.” By all means wear clean clothes. Jiu jitsu is a close contact activity. Probably, nobody wants to smell you.
Cut your fingernails and toenails. Inexplicably, long Mandarin style fingernails are coming back. Regardless of the demands of modern fashion, cut your nails to keep your training partners safe. You can do it. You are more than your fingernail and toenail length.
Finally, just try okay hard. It takes time to acquire the subtle skill which Jiu jitsu is all about. If you muscle it, you are courting injury for yourself and others. Just relax and take a deep breath. But just an okay deep breath.
[i] Author’s note. The use of, “okay”, rather than, “good”, was done intentionally so as not to trigger anxiety in the reader with too high a sense of expectation.
