My Least Favorite Training Partners

I am not a martial artist, but in recent years I have taken a few classes that involved grappling and sparring, usually with some other participant you pair off with for practice. I have come to recognize four types of partners I want to be sure to avoid in the future.

1. The Self-Styled Teacher. This is the guy who took a similar class once before and now feels qualified to teach it. When you’re confused about a technique you’re practicing and want to ask the instructor for direction, your partner wants to save him the trouble and teach you himself, adding to the confusion the instructor eventually has to sort out.

2. Too Cool for School. Not sure why this guy paid for the class, as he gets bored after a couple of repetitions of a drill and doesn’t seem to take the material too seriously.

3. The “Realistic” Opponent. When you’re doing your initial practice with a technique you’ve just learned, this guy wants to show you that if he resists with all his strength you won’t actually be able to do it. Basically, he’s showing off and wasting your time. Of course, you might distract him with a knee to the groin, but then you’d be like the fourth type of partner I don’t like to train with . . .

4. The Sucker Puncher. When I was taking a Mike Janich class, a guy with whom I was practicing blocks suddenly stepped past me and knocked me on my butt with a foot sweep. “I learned that in another class,” he explained proudly. Great, let me show you what I learned at Gunsite!

Paul Kirchner has written five books for Paladin Press: Bowie Knife Fights, Fighters, and Fighting Techniques, The Deadliest Men, More of the Deadliest Men Who Ever Lived, Jim Cirillo’s Tales of the Stakeout Squad, and Dueling with the Sword and Pistol. He also did the illustrations for the final edition of Jeff Cooper’s classic Principles of Personal Defense.