Training with smelly guys & gals

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There’s nothing worse than a smelly person, at least for me personally. I always find it so sad to see a good looking guy or girl, and have a stench of onion & vinegar stab my nose as they approach. It’s a total turn off, and let's be real: nowadays if someone smells bad, it’s simply because they don’t shower enough, don’t use deodorant, or because they don’t wash their clothes when they’re dirty.

Unfortunately, when you train BJJ you are bound to smell, there’s no way around it. But there’s a huge difference between smelling bad because you’ve worked out hard, and coming to the gym already smelling like budissy.

Why am I bringing this up?

Yesterday, at our gym we had a bit of an awkward incident. Luckily, I arrived late to open mat so I missed the action, but when I got there, one of the guys who recently joined our team was already sitting on the bench. He’s a white belt and not very fit, so I simply assumed that he was taking a break. He didn’t respond when I said hello, but I didn’t think much of it. Sometimes ego gets people in a bad mood. I went about my rolling session (or the "kick Eve’s butt" session, because essentially I just go to get my butt kicked!) with my regular training partners.

When we finished, new guy had already left and so the topic came up. One of my friends had gotten pissed at him during a roll, and told him that he smelled so bad he couldn’t take it anymore. I know my friend well, and he has a short fuse for these type of things. I imagine that he wasn't very gentle with his words. That was also because it wasn’t the first time the guys had complained about his odor.

I had never rolled with that particular dude myself (I avoid the heavy newcomers because of my back problem) but I get where he’s coming from. I only once refused to roll with a guy whose body odor almost made me vomit, and it was a shame because the guy was very nice and I felt like an asshole for not sparring with him. The thing is, most people who chronically smell bad don’t even realize it. It must be out of habit, which makes it even more difficult to tell someone that they reek.

Should you be straight forward about it?

Was it wrong to tell the guy to shower before training? I don’t think so, as long as it’s being said with respect. But I also believe that coming to a gym dirty is a lack of respect towards your sparring partners. There are some positions like north-south (see pic below), you definitely don’t want to be caught in with a smelly person. I've tapped out because of bad smell before, no joke.

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It’s not only about making your sparring partners uncomfortable. Hygiene is extremely important in general for our health, and there is nothing dirtier than a tatami that has twenty different people’s sweat on it. Staph infections are no joke and gyms are a breeding ground for staph infections. Therefore, showering is the first thing you should do after you train, or else you're just asking for it!

Training with a dirty gi

I’m going to be honest, I sometimes can’t take my own smell after training. My husband and I joke in the car sometimes about who smells worse, and drive home with the windows open. When we get home, we have a rule: the kimonos cannot enter the bathroom (where we keep our dirty laundry) because the entire room would stink. So we leave them next to the washing machine downstairs to be washed immediately. There’s nothing more disgusting than a wet, sweaty rash guard or kimono, and it blows my mind when I see people come train with a kimono that is still dirty from the previous training.

Once again, it’s not only very disrespectful to everyone else who has to suffer the smell, but it’s simply extremely unhygienic and a staph risk. Coming to training with a clean gi should be common courtesy in any academy.

Have you had any experiences with smelly people on the mats or in your gym?

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