So it's time to pair up in class.
Unfortunately, you weren't fast enough to find a partner, and you get paired up with Bad Hygiene Guy.
You already know who he or she is. That's why, in every class, you work so hard to get paired with anybody but your school's BHG.
BHG can be the nicest, sweetest and most skilled partner on the floor, but...
Her gi may be stained and smells like stale sweat.
His breath smells like he ate something well past it expiration date right before class.
Her hair is unwashed and greasy to the touch.
He doesn't wear antiperspirant or deodorant so as soon as you get into a headlock...
She takes off her socks and you can smell it from across the room
His feet are actually dirty, even if they don't smell.
She never bothers to trim her fingernails or toenails (long toenails are EVIL when you train without shoes).
This is typically only applicable to female BHG... they don't wash their faces before class and like to wear tons of makeup off the mat, therefore if you get them pinned to you, you get to wear their makeup on your skin or your clothes.
It makes your training experience, as their partner, downright miserable.
I've heard of people doing this deliberately as a fighting strategy, mainly in the arts that are more combative and/or in grappling. I say if you're doing this on purpose, then don't be surprised when nobody wants to train with you. It's hard to train and get better at your art if you can't get a partner because you smell like something died wrapped in your shirt or you repeatedly cut your partners with your nails and everybody knows it (and everybody does know it).
Sometimes it's not a matter of smell, it's a matter of dirt. Dirty feet, dirty uniforms, dirty clothes, dirty skin.
I understand that some of us don't have the facilities necessary to be minty-fresh and clean for class. Usually that involves people coming from a job or task that requires getting dirty straight to training.
But for Pete's sake, wash off in the bathroom, carry a change of clothes and some deodorant/antiperspirant in your bag, and hell, even pack some of those sanitary or baby wipes to get the grime off before you ask someone else to train with you!
Bad Hygiene Guy, at the root of it, has zero understanding of how his or her personal cleanliness affects others. BHG is just not thinking of the other people in the room they train with. BHG might just be one of those absent minded people who literally don't realize that it's a problem, or they're just self-centered and don't care that much about it at all.
Either way, Bad Hygiene Guy is dojo poison. If there is a BHG in the room, the instructors are obligated to address it, otherwise, they will lose the other students and only have BHG to train with.
And nobody wants that.
Tell us about your experiences with Bad Hygiene Guy. Have you ever had to tell someone you train with to clean up their act - literally? Have you BEEN Bad Hygiene Guy? Let us know in the comments!
Use the "THAT GUY" category to find all of the THAT GUY posts on TSC!