Training Partners Don’t Make You Better
One of the most common complaints I hear from wrestlers is about partners.
“He’s way better than me.”
“She’s not good enough. I need a bigger challenge”
“I don’t get good looks in practice.”
Sometimes those complaints are fair. A lot of times, they’re just excuses.
The truth is simple: you don’t always get to choose your partner, but you do get to choose how you use the situation. If you’re serious about getting better, you need a plan for every type of partner you’ll wrestle in the room.
Below is how you should approach each one.
Partner Way Better Than You
This is where most wrestlers get it wrong.
They either mentally quit, wrestle scared, or try junk moves that have no chance in working on the off chance of getting a big score. These help no one.
When your partner is clearly better than you, the goal is not to win the entire live go. The goal is to create small, meaningful wins.
What to focus on:
Pick a narrow goal.
One takedown.
One clean entry
One solid defensive stand.
Compete. It’s easy to resign here and give up. You cannot! Use a your smaller goal to find a win you can take pride in and build on.
Make them chain wrestle. If you can’t score, don’t concede easy finishes. Scramble. Re-attack. Force second and third efforts.
Defend their best weapon. They’re your teammate- you know their go-to. Can you slow it down? Can you survive it?
Handfight! Clearing and controlling ties is what matters most to slow them down. Focus here. See if you can fend them off in the handfight for 5 seconds, then 10, then 30, then a whole minute
If you can’t impose your offense, then you impose resistance. That still builds you up as you develop your skills.
Partner As Good or Slightly Better Than You
This is the gold standard- the closest thing to a real match you’ll get in practice.
What to focus on:
Wrestle to win. This isn’t the time to experiment wildly. This isn’t the time to do dumb moves to avoid challenge and your ego being bruised.
Test your A-game. The things you plan to use in competition should show up here.
Match intensity. Push the pace. Create exchanges. See what holds up.
Expose weaknesses. If your A-game isn’t working, that’s a red flag. Take a note of what part isn’t working and get to fixing it. Better it happens on a Tuesday than on a Saturday.
These reps tell you the truth. Pay attention to them.
Partner Worse Than You
This is where rooms waste the most potential.
If you just run through weaker partners with your best moves, you’re not improving. You’re rehearsing dominance.
Instead, this is where you deliberately make the match harder for yourself.
What to focus on:
Work your B and C offense.
The setups you’ve been learning.
The finishes you don’t fully trust yet.
Embrace the fair fight. Handicap yourself by using developing techniques. This lowers your effective skill level. Your partner works their best stuff. You work your second-tier offense.
Build confidence in new positions. Once you can score consistently with B and C moves here, then you earn the right to try them on equal or better partners.
This is how you hone new weapons into reliable ones.
The Bigger Idea
We all want the perfect challenge every practice, but that’s not possible everyday. Sometimes it’s a major mismatch lined up against you. Don’t take a break here, learn to use this imperfect situation in order to continue to challenge yourself and develop.
If you only improve when conditions are ideal, you’re fragile.
If you can get better no matter who lines up across from you, you’re upward trajectory is limitless.
Every partner offers something.
Your job is to know what to take from each one.