It is going to be inevitable that you will have times when awkward opponents will cross your martial training path. Many beginners and even some advanced Jiu-Jitsu practitioners will be discouraged by certain opponents with whom they constantly have difficulty. These opponents are referred to as nigate.

The fact of the matter is that, these nigate may not be be very skilled or even very strong and often some of the opponents that you can easily deal with and apply techniques on, will be able to deal with them without any difficulty at all. Having a hard time with these particular opponents can be as simple as a matter of conflicting styles.

It is important to study why you have difficulty with this opponent, considerations like, is this person left handed, uses a cross grip, has diconnected movements or moves in an opposite direction when you need to execute your techniques. There are a multitude of possibilites, but by studying the reasons why it is that you cannot deal with this person you will become a much wiser and better Jiu-Jitsu practitioner.

There are going to be times when you should want to switch training partners so that you can analyse your technique until you are confident in the fact that the problem doesn't stem from you. Once this is done you should go back to the nigate and keep trying until you figure it out.

The most important thing to realize is that even the best Jiu-Jitsu practitoners in the world have their own nigate to contend with, but the true battle is with yourself and trying not to let these awkward opponents discourage you in your training.

Randy Martin Shihan