After a very long time, Mattie was coming back to powerlifting and doing a meet last weekend.
You can catch up on his goals and concerns going into the meet here:
https://www.elitefts.com/training-logs/matties-bench-goal-for-his-meet-next-week/
After I wrote the entry up, he reminded me that he has benched 500 in a meet way back in the day in multi-ply. So his 500+ goal was single ply, old man goal. Raw has been too difficult on his shoulder to entertain that as a realistic option for too long.
Two weeks prior to his meet Matt injured his shoulder more than the typical nagging discomfort. At the time he didn't think too much of it and went on for laser therapy and a bunch of other things he thought would be helpful being so close to the meet. It hurt him for sure but things didn't really mentally connect.
Let's just say, he SHOULD have watched the video before the meet and SHOULD be more in touch with his pain tolerance like a normal person. I'll post the vids this weekend. Upon review of his training vid, you can hear two pops and see his shoulder giving out. It's gross once you can hear it.
In the meantime I just wanted to give a quick update for those following along. He blew out his shoulder on his opener of a lame 465 lbs. He intentionally went light in an attempt to test out how his shoulder was feeling and IIRC would have been elite for master's.
I was busying vid his attempt and his partner Dan was next so I just saw the bar drop and heard the announcer say something to the effect of what a strong guy he was that he just popped up off the bench like nothing happened. I wasn't concerned and continued recording Dan's attempt.
After Dan's opener I went to go see what was up and the look on his face said it all. Something was seriously wrong and if he HE was saying something was seriously wrong, he had a problem. He kept his shirt on until Dan was done with bench (hit 584 single ply for final attempt) to keep everything together to focus on Dan.
The medic assessed him and well, until he gets in for an MRI, it's all speculation. Dislocated shoulder, torn such and such, tendons, ligaments, blah, blah.
Fun fact...the night before the meet he was telling me it felt like his shoulder needed to pop and he'd feel better. It's fair to say that assessment was slightly off.
I will post his training vid and one vid of his opener where you can't see much. But the vid I got on the camera, the only thing you can see is the judge drop everything out of her hand in total shock. Good times. I guess the popping noises were pretty loud.
After the incident I was updating the lovely Traci Tate on how the meet was going. Her response was HILARIOUS and lightened the mood for a bit.
Keep your eyes peeled for the vids this weekend. Good stuff and some lessons to be reminded of. I do feel terrible for him but he'll come out on the other side with answers, perspective and a shoulder ready to pick up where he left off.