About getting elbowed; I don't know Ray's way of training but I've had it happen in grappling unintentionally just by turning hard/twisting my torso to escape a clinch.
In grappling today I experienced something relevant to what I mentioned before about becoming complacent. I let myself slip as I had north south position on a kneeling opponent. He put his arm around my elbow from the bottom. I thought he was preparing to sit out which I'm ready to counter and so didn't pay it much thought. Instead he grabbed my wrist with his other hand and did an elbow lock. It was surprisingly strong and affected my elbow and my shoulder at the same time. I was very close to injury, closer than in a long time. Fortunately he's a good guy who's aware of the effect of the lock and he applied it gradually. I asked him to show me the move. It's a good move that I will incorporate into my game because even if you don't get the lock from the bottom you can escape the position.
I had Focus Mitts on and he was practicing his knees and elbows(elbow,elbow, clinch hands around head/neck, knee, knee) pretty aggressively and he missed the mitt.:0
Dan, the guy was on all fours, and you were N/S on top(like spin drills?) and he grabbed your elbow with one hand and wrist with other? Or you were on bottom and he was kneeling overtop of you N/S? Please explain. Are you talking like a french arm bar? If so, you can pull that off by just grabbing the wrist of opposite arm going under shoulder with same side arm and pushing forward with chest/shoulder. very similar to French arm bar but in N/S position.