It’s funny to think the longest injury I had wasn’t due to a fight but due to a training partner.
I injured my elbow over a month and a half ago, and it’s still not 100%. Isn’t it crazy? I injured it 6 days out from my last fight. Got swept by a training partner, but it was a hook rather than a clean sweep.
The result was that all my weight landed on my left elbow. It hurt a lot, and I couldn’t do push-ups anymore. But the pain got better, so I assumed I’d be fine.
Well, that was until I got hit on it with a pad during training; I felt it immediately.
I fought nonetheless, and my elbow started swelling as soon as it got hit. I lost the fight and got an X-ray later. Nothing was broken, but I was in a lot of pain nonetheless.
The original goal was to fight one more time before my trip to San Diego in June. But that fight got cancelled because I wasn’t able to train properly.
Which brings me to the main point of this substack.
Why Good Training Partners Matter
I’ve always been picky about who I trained with, especially during training camp. It’s just a matter of safety. I’ve had 2 fights where I was injured due to training with a new guy.
One tried to impress his girlfriend, who was filming and had 15 kilos on me; the other one was 10 kilos heavier and just liked hard sparring. I would rather avoid that.
This time, I had no choice; there was no one else available due to circumstances. Which led to me not being able to say no.
With new people, I always take a look at how they interact with others. It mostly doesn’t take long to see if they have the potential to injure you or not.
We once had a guy come to clinch with us, and he thought it was a good idea to use elbows. Everyone had a “no thank you” attitude rather quickly. The guy replied, “Don’t worry, I can control my elbows.” He didn’t get it.
People like that are dangerous to train with. It’s always good to be respectful when you go into a new gym.
It’s also not a bad idea to check out how the new people in the gym spar or clinch, especially if you fight competitively and make money fighting.
And if you don’t, the same applies since it’s not worth getting injured to feed someone else’s ego.
Alex
