Training partner let downs

[Kungfu boy]

Hi All,

Kind of a question and rant all in one.

I have had trouble keeping training partners. No, I don't go hard on them or expect them to be 24/7 availible either. Either they don't want to do it or they get too much on their plate....work,girlfriend etc. So many it seems just don't want to, they want the results, just not willing to work towards them. Ya know what I mean?

Now here's the current situation. I've given up on my last one as he hasn't returned my calls for about a month. Now one of the students at my school(Muay Thai,JKD) says he'll train with me at the local Bally's. I'm shooting for something like 2 times a week outside the school. Now the kicker, to work the drills more I want to buy a pair of thai pads from Ringside that will run me about $65. But I don't want to spend the money then have him say "no can do man".

Should I go ahead and buy the pads? If it works out, it'll be worth the investment 100 times over. I'll be doubling my workouts each week etc. He seems serious and has been doing it for about 3 years off and on.

Anybody else here have any major let downs by their training partners? What's you guys advice?

Thanks

[ged]

if hes been training off and on, then maybe not

but, since you're serious, its a long term investment... even if it doesnt work out with this guy, there'll be other chances to use them. maybe hes got pads?

[GunnedDownAtrocity]

that's why i prefer to train alone. just collect pads and gloves where you can (off slackers like you mentioned who lose use for them) and keep them around for the off chance someone actually does come by.

[IronFist]

Check for some on eBay. Every once in a while I see stuff like that show up there. It may be a good way to save some money. Or, make him pay for half of them or something. I dunno.

Good luck,

IronFist

[GunnedDownAtrocity]

oh yeah sure iron fist ... go ahead and say something that might actually be related to solving his problem instead of spewing forth pointless pessimism ... go ahead ... see if i give a sh!t.

[Shadow Dragon]

kungfu boy.

You can always try what I do.

Everybody at the kwoon knows when and where I do my "solo/non-kwoon" training.
Open Invitation for anybody to attend.

Most of the times another 2 or 3 Students show up on a regular basis, while others drop by whenever they have times.
Most of the People at my Kwoon are married, got Kids, Jobs, commitments, etc.

This way I normally have atleast 1 or 2 partners, and I also get a range of partners at different levels.
This way People also don't feel like they have to show, and when they do show up the training is usually a lot more hihg level as they are 100% committed to it.
If nobody shows up, it is forms and drills day. But this rarely happens anymore.

Great thing after workout normally everybody heads to the Coffe-Shop for breakfast and we chat a lot about training and other subjects.

Hope this helps.

[Kungfu boy]

Well I checked ebay and they didn't have any good ones up for sale. Thanks for the suggestion though. The reason I want to buy them from Ringside though is because their stuff is so good and I know they'll last a good while.

GDA, I'll probably end up buying them for future use etc. Just kind of hesitant ya know?

This is the only partner to actually come from the school. The others were either interested in going or were from seperate arts. That being said I'm hoping he'll show more dedication than the others.

[IronFist]

Originally posted by GunnedDownAtrocity
oh yeah sure iron fist ... go ahead and say something that might actually be related to solving his problem instead of spewing forth pointless pessimism ... go ahead ... see if i give a sh!t.

What I meant to say was, why even both training? You're such a wuss anyway that no amount of training could ever help you. Someone's just going to come along and jumpkick you from the roof of an 11 story building anyway, (http://forum.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=12946) so why bother?

Better, GDA?

IronFist

[GunnedDownAtrocity]

you forgot to tell him he should kill himself, but that was definately on the right track.

[Kungfu boy]

I'm getting mixed signals ya'll. And as for killing myself, I don't do requests, besides it just seems to be alot of work. I'm quite resilant....

[yenhoi]

Thai pads and focus gloves are probably two of the most important(rewarding) investments you can make as a serious student, even if you dont have a partner now.

You will soon learn that you can strap them to just about anybody whos willing to stand there and let you hit them full force.

[Silumkid]

You want let down stories? Try these on:

In one year, I burnt through 6 training partners.

My current partner is too weak to spot me properly in my heavy workouts.

Twice now, once recently, I have had people I trained with tell me that "If I was you, I wouldn't lift that heavy". The workouts then become an hour long dissertation on muscle physiology, goal setting, proper exercise programming....then I realize I gave all that out for free when I have seen less information given on videotapes that sell for $29.95

People just suck sometimes.

[fa_jing]

I agree with yenhoi.

-FJ