Anyone have any tips on how to effectively practice with a partner.

When two amateurs of equal experience are practicing how do you work on stuff without getting into fights.

Anyone with an amateur partner have any tips?

When practicing, either with someone below, same or over your level, be selfish. Yes, thats correct. What I mean by that is (i am a girl but this goes for boys too), follow the leader and think about nothing else. This is what makes you a good dancer, practice with all and adjust yourself to your partner. Ok, if he knows only the basic in cha-cha, practice cross-over steps. You have no idea how interesting you can make them if you think about it. If he is way over your level, he will understand and do the same thing whit you. What makes a good dancer is a dancer that can dance with anyone, any level. There is always something to learn no matter what level you are on. And being selfish do pay off..there is nothing like when a guy walks up to you and he has only been danceing for 6 months and tells you "I realy enjoyed dancing with you it was fun, would you like to dance again"
If guys bellow my level ask me to practice I always say yes(when I got the time)and I am having fun. The day I stop having fun, danceing is no longer my kind of sport. For my more advanced partners I do tend to say in an very nice and flirting way that: this and this would be very nice to do, I got problems with this and you just do it great, so can you please help/show me?. Ok I know, I know, but I would be very happy if someone came to and said that.

i agree with Laura. Here are a few additional DOs and DONTs that i've picked up from experience:
DO REMEMBER that you want both you and your partner to improve as much as possible. Think of the partnership as a unit - if you have something perfectly, but your partner doesn't, then the partnership doesn't, and your job is to remedy that by supporting your partner in as friendly and tactful a way as possible. At some stage the roles will be reversed (say, in a different dance) and your partner will get the chance to help you.
NEVER, as Laura said, compare your partner with someone, or even hint that they are 'holding you back'. NEVER think of practice as a 'contest' to see who can pick things up first.
DO decide on what you will be working on before the practice session starts
DO compliment your partner and be positive about what you've achieved - as a partnership- in a session. Avoid negative thoughts as these are destructive. Dancing is a performance sport, and confidence is important.
If there is a real problem (inevitably, these will crop up) then what i do is:
Defuse the situation by either making an excuse ("i've had a tough day at work and can't concentrate - let's just dance around and enjoy ourselves") or
Suggest referring to a teacher to sort out the problems (this is like getting a 3rd party to adjudicate!!)A good teacher will know not to assign 'blame' to one side.
I know married couples who argue and almost come to blows during practice - then go out and win competitions. But most people aren't like that. A good dance partnership is very precious and it's important to realise that you must work on the partnership as well as the dancing.

I dance amateur competitions and showcases with my husband and I've found a few things that seem to work best for us. One of them is what Phil suggested...agree on what you're going to work on upfront. This helps to set expectations for both partners.

And whether you are married to your partner or not, the rest of it comes down to being able to communicate with each other honestly and without hurting the other person to achieve a productive practice session. We usually approach comments to each other with how things are affecting us. For example, if I think that something he is doing is wrong, I would say "I don't quite feel your lead there...can we rehearse that move a few times?" That way I'm not putting him on the defensive, but am saying that I am having a problem.

We also take lessons regularly with a good teacher who resolves things for us if we just can't figure things out. And we tape our lessons and ourselves sometimes...that way we can see for ourselves if one of us is doing something incorrectly.

Finally, we end our sessions with some "fun" dancing. Sometimes a couple runs through a routine or just a few freestyle swings and cha chas. It ends the session on a positive and fun note.

I've been in several different partnerships, some where we were about equal, some where I knew a lot more, and some where the partner knew a lot more. Never, in any of these partnerships, did we ever get into fights. Fighting or not doesn't have to do with each other's relative knowledge or ability, but with each other's personalities and approach to problem solving.

My tip is to always approach your practices from a businesslike standpoint. Talk about what you want to accomplish at the practice session, and how much time you want to spend on each dance. Treat each other with the kind of listening and respect that you'd have for someone in a business meeting. You might not agree on something, but you won't necessarily end up fighting either. The other thing is, if something is really not working out and you can't figure it out, get help from your teacher as quickly as possible. Oh, and don't go around comparing your partner to your teachers, either, especially in remarks like "when I do it with our teacher I get it but you can't do it at all." Of course your partner isn't going to be as good as your teacher, no need to make your partner feel bad by reminding him or her of that.

I don't completely agree that you shouldn't compare what you feel with a coach to what you feel with your partner. While I agree that it shouldn't be used as an excuse or to assign blame, it can be a useful way to do identify and solve problems. Many times we use it to identify problem areas that we can ask our coach about. The key is to keep it constructive. If your goal is to improve it should mean dancing more like your instructor.

Deciding what to work on ahead of time has been said and I'll say it again DH and I have only been dancing a year and the few times we have had rough practice sessions have often been when one partner was working on one thing (maybe I was concentrating on rise and fall in waltz) and one was just trying to understand a step or pattern. Also, sometimes one of us is tired and trying to keep going to keep the other one happy and it has helped to defuse the situation by either taking or sharing the "blame" - "we're both too tired for this" or something like that. Sometimes we end with some easy or fun stuff to end on a good note and sometimes we just have to call it quits and try again the next day. We're lucky that we don't have to pay for practice space. It must be tough if you know you only have X amount of time and you've spent hard earned money and effort to get there and find that you just can't manage that particular day. Then you need to have some good communication skills and lots of tact and patience

I have been practicing ballroom dancing with my wife for two years now. At the start, she was very interested in learning the steps. But she is a very slow learner and she know it. Once in a while, I was impatient and out of frustration, said something like "we have been doing that move lots of time, how come you keep forgetting it?". I was frustrated because I learned fast. We had to take private lessons and she took this better as the steps came from someone else other than her DH (which she likes to give instructions to, in all matter in life !!!).
The real story is things got rough among us. We had to agree exactly on what to practice, and just keep doing it unless both of us got it correctly (I have to swallow my frustration and pretend that I am happy, no choice). That seems to work thing out.
On the social dance floor, when she got tired, she used to tell me "I am tired, why don't you dance with this lady?" (she names the one I have to dance with) and that bothers me a lot. I told her, let me chose the one I want to dance with as I know whom I would be comfortable with. I told her not to tell me whom to dance with.
At home, even when I tried to get her to practice the steps with correct timing, she felt kind of uneasy about it.
I know that my wife does not really want to get into ballroom, but I just loved it and she has no choice but dance with me. Of course, she does not want me to go out and dance with other ladies without her presence.
I practice quite a bit alone at home too.
The bottom line is it's hard to be husband / wife and practice ballroom together especially when both don't pick up at the same speed. I have practiced with a few others (who are fast learner) and it went very well. I dare not mention this to my wife as that's not a tactful things to say.