How to be a Great Training Partner in Martial Artts
Ten simple steps you can follow to be a better training partner!
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Although Martial Arts like Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ), Submission Grappling, Kickboxing, Muay Thai, Boxing, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), etc are often considered individual pursuits, our success is directly related to the quality of our training partners. Remember our individual success is built off the shoulders of our teammates. Therefore, we should appreciate and respect our classmates while striving to help them improve and succeed. Below are some tips to help you become a great training partner.
1. Train safely
This seems obvious but it’s still the most important point so goes first. It goes without saying that safety it of the utmost importance. This goes for both you and your training partner. Being cognizant of goals and being mindful of your training will ensure that everyone benefits and comes out of the class or session better for it. If you or your partner get injured that usually means no training and nobody wants that
2. Have no Ego!
It’s important that as a training partner that you have no Ego. Ego will prevent you and you’re your partner getting the most out of your session. Ego turns a training session into a competition.
As a grappler tapping is an important aspect of not having Ego. When you’ve been caught in a tight submission, tap. Leave your ego at the door and know that everyone will be tapping at some point of training. If you’re a beginner, always air on the side of caution, even if this means tapping a little early. It is important along the lines of safe training to always tap appropriately when necessary. People who are reluctant or even downright refuse to tap can be some of the worst training partners because they are feeding their egos rather than their BJJ game. They are doing their training partners a disservice by not providing them fair and honest technique feedback. This doesn't mean tap early, or not to try to work your escapes. It simply means being able to understand when you've been caught and learning from the mistake, rather than risking injury.
It’s also important to not “hunt” the tap at all costs when you’re training. When you do this, you risk injuring your partner because you’re so focussed on getting the tap, you’re more likely to injure your partner if they try to escape. Even though the tap is the ultimate goal, sometimes in training it’s beneficial to let the tap go, let your partner defend and then practice your counters. Training is about growing your skills and not about winning.
As a striker Ego comes into play when we start sparring. The goal of sparring is to build the skills you’ve learnt in class and learn to apply them under duress (the same a rolling for grapplers). Because striking presents greater risks than grappling you generally won’t get spar as early as you would if you were rolling. This can build some confidence issues (See our Blogs on
Learning about Sparring and
Not being afraid of Sparring ). Ensure that when you spar you understand that getting hit is part of learning. You WILL get hit and likely get a hit a lot. This is where control is important. You need to control your level of contact to the appropriate level of skill for you and your partner. Just because you’re getting hit more than you’re hitting your partner doesn’t mean you go harder. This is where sessions escalate and sparring turns into fighting and injuries happen. If you’re getting hit, think about focussing on your defence rather than escalating your offence. Once you’re offence tightens ups, you’ll have more opportunity to be offensive and land your own strikes. If you go in with the right attitude Sparring will always be fun. If you go in always trying to win and let your Ego take control, Sparring becomes painful. Keep your Ego in check and get the most out of your Sparring sessions.
3. Share your knowledge
With the advent of the internet, the popularity of training videos, and the spread of Martial Arts worldwide, long gone are the days of safeguarding one’s “secrets.” By sharing technical and conceptual knowledge with our training partners, they improve. And when they improve, we improve. Therefore, we should be more than happy to demonstrate our favourite techniques to our training partners. The only caveat to this rule is that you should always seek the permission of your instructor prior to demonstrating techniques to ensure consistency with your school’s curriculum. So if you land a great move on your partner and they ask “What was that” show them rather than tell them they’ll find out next time you do it (that’s Ego getting in the way, see the previous point). By sharing your knowledge, they may develop a counter which will make you get better at landing the move or help you build a system to counter those moves. This generates growth where you have more success due to great skill and not because you catch someone with something they don’t know as that success is always short lived.
4. Stay focused
When you stay focused during class, you benefit both your training partners and yourself. Unfortunately, it can sometimes be difficult to do this, particularly when a high number of different or complicated techniques are demonstrated over the course of a class. However, it’s important to bear in mind that a lack of focus can negatively impact you and your training partners in several ways. When you fail to pay close attention to your instructors as they demonstrate techniques, you become ineffective and slow during drilling. This reduces the number of repetitions that both you and your training partners can complete. And the fewer repetitions you complete during drilling, the less effective we’ll be during rolling. This creates a snowball effect that eventually lowers your overall skill. Stay focused, be skilful!
5. Be Dedicated
You want to train with someone who is just as dedicated to their workouts as you are. Knowing that your Training Partner is dedicated to achieving their goals, will only motivate you to remain dedicated to your goals. Dedication also shows a level of commitment and accountability that your Training Partner will be there waiting for you at the gym, which can be extremely beneficial for the times that you don’t even want to work out. Being dedicated keeps you motivated, your partner motivated because just as much as they rely on you, you can rely on them. This also builds a great community as you’ll see regular faces and not only develop great skill but great friendships as well.
6. Be Respectful
Time truly is the most valued commodity. And therefore, you don’t want to waste it. You should respect your Training Partner’s time and know that if you're good fit, that they will respect yours as well. If you make an agreement to train at a specific time, then don't break that appointment as it would be disrespectful to the training relationship that you have. If you say you're going to turn up for a class, make sure you turn up for that class. Even though many people say respect is earnt, it should always be given without thought. By being respectful to your training partner’s needs, they are more likely to be respectful of yours. When you show respect, you'll get respect. When you give respect, you'll give them the chance to deserve the respect you're giving them. If you're disrespectful it's unlikely you're going to earn anyone’s respect. You want to respect your partner’s needs, train in a way that makes sure they get the most out of their training while at the same time getting the most out of your training. By being polite, considerate, and understanding of your training partners needs you're being respectful and that is going to help both of you achieve your goals faster.
7. Be Goal-Oriented
You want to surround yourself on a daily basis with people who are Goal-oriented. And not just in health and fitness, but in business, family, and wealth also. Ambition is a great quality a person can have when it comes to improvement. Constantly being around someone who is driven to achieve success, only pushes you harder both inside and outside of the gym. Training with someone who is “okay” with sleep walking through their workouts will only create a very lack-luster and uninspiring session. Now looking for success doesn’t necessarily mean always winning (see point 2. No Ego) or being the best. It can mean working towards your next stripe, working towards your next competition, working towards improving your favourite sweep, working towards your improving your kick defence. Having a Goal gives direction to your training. Remember, just like in life, Goals should always change and move. They don’t always have to be big goals, like winning the World Championships, they can be small Goals that build up towards larger Goals. Winning the World Championships or getting into the UFC are great Goals but you’ll need lots of smaller Goals along the way to help you get there. Be Goal-oriented, be focused and watch your skills sky-rocket.
8. Be a Hard Worker
Be a hard worker. This means not being lazy. It means putting in the reps. It means not missing the warmup. It means not sitting out the conditioning. It means getting up and pushing on when you’re tired. Being a hard worker means making the effort when it matters. It means not giving up when things get difficult. It means pushing yourself when you think you’ve got nothing left. Not only is a being a hard work an awesome trait for you training partner (as they’ll return it as well) it’s a great trait for yourself. When you keep pushing ahead when things get difficult in training builds are natural response that will benefit in all aspects of your life. Hard work builds success, but Hard work alone won’t do it, you need to work hard and work smart. Hard worker builds their own success. The more effort you put in, the more success you will have.
9. Motivational
As a Student it’s important to work with someone who motivates you to push beyond your limits and achieve your personal best. This is something that you should always practice excelling at. A Trainers job to ensure that the students do everything they possibly can to accomplish their health and fitness goals but sometimes it helps to have that extra motivational push. A little motivation can go a long way for the times when someone is feeling down, stressed, or uncertain about themselves. A good Training Partner knows when to push your buttons and when to back off. When you’re tired, a good Training Partner will provide you with that extra ounce of energy needed by keeping you focused on the task at hand. A good Training Partner will not only motivate you to train harder but also inspire you to do better. Both actions of which are needed if you ever want to achieve results with both your skills and your health. Be motivational reminds you why you’re there and helps your partner push on when it matters.
10. Be Gracious
Thank your training partners. Be grateful to your training partners, no matter what, no matter how you feel. These are the people who share the mats, the ring, the cage with you at your academy and whether they are competitors or average practitioners, everyone is working towards some variation of being better at what they do and hopefully better people as well. As much as you’re there to achieve your goals you can’t do it without the help of the people around you. Appreciate that they’re helping you get to your goals because without them you’d be sitting in one place. Always say Hi to your training partners when they come, always thank them when you’re finished training and don’t forget to say Hi to and thank your coaches as well. You may think they’re helping you because it’s their job, but they’re doing it because they enjoy helping people reach their goals. Teaching takes a special type of person who’s willing to give more of themselves so ensure you appreciate that. Make sure you that effort to thank your Coaches as well. By being thankful you’ll become an appreciated member of the community. A lot of places talk about everyone being “family” but in the end it is up to each individual to make that happen. Each person is a valuable member that’s there to reach their goals and is also helping you reach your goals. Appreciation is one of the best motivators to keep someone moving forward. Sometimes you don’t realise what someone has been through just to get to where they are that day to be your training partner, make sure you appreciate the effort. Be thankful, be gracious because in the end that will make you appreciated and valuable member of the community.
At the end of the day, whether you enjoy training with a friend or prefer to train alone is a choice and decision that is ultimately up for you to make. If you decide you want to train in a group that means you’re going to be a training partner. Try and be the best training partner you can by following the 10 simple recommendations we’ve outlined. If everyone follows those suggestions, you’ll have an Academy full of awesome training partners which will make it more fun to turn up, and you’ll see everyone’s skill continue to climb. You’ll be reaching your goals in no time because you’re helping everyone else reach there. Success breeds success. The most important thing is that you are getting the absolute most out of your training session. Because the reality is, if your training partner isn’t getting the best out of their training and then you’re not likely getting the best out of yours. So if you want to be the best you can, start by being the best training partner you can be. It doesn't matter if you're doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ), Muay Thai, Kickboxing, Wrestling, Boxing, or Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), everyone can be a better Sparring Partner!
If you're interested in any of our Martial Arts Classes please send us a message via our
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Kings Academy of Martial Arts is the Premier Martial Arts Academy servicing Liverpool and South Western Sydney with classes in BJJ (Brazilian Jiu Jitus), Muay Thai, Boxing, Wrestling and MMA (Mixed Martial Arts)
