Tales of an MMA Lifer: The Dark Road to Recovery
By Julie Kedzie, Fightland Blog
"My coaches and training partners all know I have a bum shoulder; they all know I’m scheduled for surgery soon and that I am 'taking it easy' and 'not sparring as hard' until then but that I want to train as much as I can. They treat my shoulder with whatever level of respect they have for me as a whole--the good ones gauging the level of pressure they can apply by the magnitude of my grimacing, the bad ones 'accidentally' attempting kimuras. I learn very quickly who I can train with and who to avoid, for though we are a good group of people, we are a highly competitive one.
"In other words, some bitches just loooove to exploit a weakness.
"I am grumpy about the extra pain, but I can’t fault my teammates. I know that every opponent I will ever face in the future would be an idiot if they didn’t attack my shoulder, as I have very stupidly made the injury public knowledge. It’s one more element to incorporate in my game, right up there with 'keep your chin down' and 'keep yourself in motion': Learn good shoulder-lock defense. Also, keep your mouth shut."
