Scary knee pop in my left leg to begin tonight's training and another cramp in my right leg at the bottom of my hamstring finished things off.
The knee pop was avoidable. I was trying to do a cobrinha to get up after doing my first set of elbow escapes and make the mistake of going up on my left knee. The pressure was too much and I realized it instantly. I hobbled up, my knee throbbing, and stumbled around for a bit unsure of just how much I'd messed it up.
A few moments later, as I tried to move my leg around, I felt my knee pop - as in pop back in place. It felt sore, but better almost immediately. I hung around for awhile, trying to catch up with the warmup and, after I did, I went down to the locker room to get the knee brace I bought more than a year ago and strapped it on.
I went gently, but the pop-back and the knee brace seemed to do the trick. I was able to drill, and to do some no-gi sparring - at least until my leg cramped up.
It's just something - like my eye and my shoulder - that I'm going to have to pay attention to. I think it will help me be better, as I slow myself down to keep from getting myself into trouble. I'll probably take some Ibuprofen tonight for inflammation, but my knee already feels pretty close to 100%.
Maybe I should have recognized the omen. Emmanuel, one of the little guys in the kids program who I've seen compete, got dropped on his head a la Nog v. Sapp. Only Emmanuel didn't get the armlock and was instead out of commission for a little while. He seemed okay and Cindy did a pretty incredible job of dealing with both Emmanuel, who was hurting, and the kid he was rolling with, who was obviously devastated at the idea of accidentally hurting his sparring partner.
If they stick with it, it will be a great moment for all of those young kids. A "growing-up" moment, of sorts. I don't know how Cindy does it - but it's really pretty cool seeing all those little guys (and gals) go.
I'll save the coursework report for tomorrow. I'm not likely to make it into training Friday afternoon or Saturday - which is too bad because I hear that Saturdays are a lot like Mondays. We'll see. I can probably come to some arrangement where I can get in a Saturday training at least once or twice a month ...
