I've been lucky enough to spend the past few training sessions training with one of the best training partners I've had in all my years of training. In the same way that I've been supremely fortunate to train under the same Professor from the very first day I stepped on the mat to the present, I'm also glad to have had a couple of training partners - typically just that much bigger and that much better - who helped me make pivotal transitions from one stage in my development to the next.
There are a lot of characteristics that will make up the training partner you always look forward to training with. But one of the subtler ones for me as been an eagerness to do drills. And not just a time or two, but 10 or 20 reps at a time. Left and right. Two or three techniques at a time.
If you don't believe this significant, try doing it after every other training session for the next thirty days (6 - 9 times most). It doesn't matter if you are drilling fundamentals like triangles from the guard or the latest alchemy from the Mendes Brothers: a month or two later, you and that technique will be well on their way toward being ready for the prime time of live sparring and, potentially, competition.
Think about it. From what I've read, GSP only "does MMA" twice a week. The rest of the time - the other four days - is spent on specific skills, technical and conditioning, that support his MMA. Some days it's wrestling. Some days it's gymnastics.
Imagine spending just half an hour extra each week for a month or two training nothing but your favorite guard pass. Left and right. Ten minutes every other day for 30 days that Mundials winning sweep ...
