I (30M) have been doing Muay Thai, Jui Jistu, Krav Maga and boxing since about June, and I met a good friend Mike (30sM) at our gym. We commonly partner up, and we have a good relationship in an out of the studio. He’s helped during me find a job during a recent spell of unemployment, and we’re close enough that we helped each other get through deaths in our families.
I almost don’t want partner with him anymore because, well, his equipment is starting to smell literally like poop. Boxing gloves, wrist protectors, headbands, mouth guards all building up a bad smell from the amount we sweat. Breathing it is unavoidable. I don’t want to embarrass him, and I want to suggest he cleans up as politely as possible. How can I do that kindly? Thanks.
TL;DR I want to kindly ask my friend/martial arts partner to clean the equipment he uses as it’s starting to smell bad.
6 comments
You can ask him to clean his stuff, but you have no control over how he reacts.
If he gets upset, that’s on him.
I get that it probably is an uncomfortable topic to bring up, but I’d want to know if I were him. Have you dropped hints about what smells jokingly? I would just tell him, and say hey – I’ve noticed a smell, and it’s similar to how mine smell when I don’t wash them. Is it perhaps yours? (Something along the lines of playing it cool and respecting feelings.)
I’d just be straight. Just “whew, man, we gotta clean that gear, it’s getting funky. Wanna head to mine and we can work on our gear together so it’s less boring?”
That lets him know there’s an issue, that you aren’t saying there’s anything wrong with *him*, and it gives you a chance to teach him how to do it right (because he obviously doesn’t know lol).
Seriously, I had no idea how to maintain gear for *years*. I just assumed you treated everything like we did soiled linens in nursing homes: high heat, plenty of bleach, and hope it dries all the way. And gis are easy compared to stuff like boxing gloves.
So yeah, just make it a bro cleaning session.
You’re both dudes, pretty sure you could tell him his gear smells like he just fisted a dead cow and he’d go “oh my bad”.
That’s not where I thought this was going…
But just be brutal and tell him his stuff stinks horrible and he needs to clean that shit.
“Wow, I see you can’t get the funk out of your gear. What worked for me was…(white vinegar on my hockey pads).”