and just as I thought things were going well...

Yeah, bang. Injury.

Thankfully nothing too serious. A tear in my left rotator cuff. Some movements hurt, but I can move it in all directions. And it's improving. But it means time off and missed training. The last thing I want is to aggravate it or re-injure it before it's good, because then it will be more down time and more pain.

What really annoys me is that someone did it when he cranked on a figure 4 armlock, and it was so avoidable.

We were doing some no-gi grappling after learning a couple of new sweeps. I'd been working with a new, tall, young guy. I talked him all the way through the sweeps when it was his turn to practice them which was cool. He succeeded with both variation after a little while and plenty of help from me. Then we started grappling. As he was so evidently clueless, I gave him openings and encouragement and basically let him pass my closed guard. I let him get to mount with minimal resistance so that he could work on his transition. I said good, now what subs do you know from here? So he pushed on my left arm with both his to set up a figure 4. All good. I thought of a bridge and roll but thought no, let's see if he knows how to do this. So he put the grips on, goes to side control and starts lifting my elbow. I tapped with my foot as my left hand was busy and my right hand stuck under him. Then he hesitated and before I could say anything else, he cranked the sub on with a yank. Something in my left shoulder said CRACK. About the same time I said SHIT! Oh, he heard the crack and let go. I said that I tapped so why did he crank it on more? Well, he didn't know you could tap with your foot. WHAT?!?!

My shoulder was a bit sore but felt fully functional, so I didn't go ape. I gave him the lecture about tapping and looking after your partners etc. I mentioned it to the instructor who gave the guy another lecture about the issue. Though I iced it of course, next morning was not good.

The bottom line was the guy didn't pay attention, because he was so busy putting on the sub. How on earth he could get an adrenal rush from it after being talked through and encouraged every step of the way, that I don't comprehend. Hell, it's not like we had an all out roll (not that it would be acceptable then..).

In hindsight, I should have done what I normally do, that is go to full survival position and never let him near my arm. Hell, he only ended up in a dominant position because I let him. He only got the arm because I let him. I should have just assumed that a newbie would go all egoistical and careless and put me in danger. I should have been more concerned with my safety than with his learning experience. I guess I'm just not used to people being such Neanderthals.

I've had overzealous guys give me sore elbows from hasty armbars, had elbows to the head, a sore neck etc, but this is the first time I'm having to take time out because of someone's carelessness. I'm not damn well impressed, that's for sure.

And I was having such a good week. I'm certainly not going to be wrestling for a few days, which means I'll be home and sulking (only kidding). Hopefully it'll be ok next week.

Grrrrr....