Official Website of Sho Nakamori

It was another busy week for me, both in and out of the gym.  The combination of my part-time tutoring job, getting settled down after coming back from Japan, and practices have kept me running around the past few weeks.  The fact that it’s also competition season is making things just a bit more hectic.  I’m pretty much on-the-go every weekend with either coaching or judging.  In fact, I just came back from judging at a local competition a little while ago.

However, the big thing that happened this week was that the Winter Cup Challenge took place.  For us, US gymnasts, there are two big domestic meets every year.  The Winter Cup Challenge is held every February, while the US Championships takes place every August.  Both competitions serve as re-ranking meets for the national team.

Unfortunately, given that I’m still rehabbing my knee, I was not able to participate this time around.  After all, I have not had enough time since the surgery for me to be safely competing again.  My coach and I figured that the best thing for me to do right now is to continue to keep the big picture in mind and take the time to fully heal up before returning to competition again.  Our expected return is in the summer for the US Championships.  Despite not being able to compete, the fact that the Winter Cup took place had a fairly large impact on me.  After reading the meet report online, I got even more motivated about returning to the floor again.  While I’m anxious about returning, I have to keep in mind that I need to stay patient and not get ahead of myself .  Nevertheless, training over the next couple of months will be very exciting.

So the NCAA season is pretty much in full swing right now.  While I’m glad that I’m not competing every weekend (it gets pretty tough on the body), I do miss traveling to different places and being able to compete for your teammates.

Good news is, I’m not that far removed from Stanford gymnastics.  This year, I’m a volunteer assistant coach for the team.  Hopefully they do well this year so that I could get another championship ring, but this time as a coach!

At this point, it’s really hard to predict who’s the best because it’s still early in the season.  Plus a lot of teams have not put out their full line-ups yet and are adjusting to peak in April for the NCAA Championships.

Anyway, below is the promo video for the Stanford team.  Check it out!

Was looking around on YouTube and actually found  some videos from NCAA Championships last year.

I think that this is a 8 part series so my p-bar routine is cut off but you would be able to find the whole thing if you searched for the username: collegegymvids2009

After three full days of competition, Stanford Open 2010 is finally over.  It was a busy weekend, but as always, I had a blast!  There are many good things about the competition but I have to say that the very best thing about the whole thing is being able to watch the kids compete.  Every time I watch them, they remind of what gymnastics is all about.  The most important thing about gymnastics is to continue to enjoy the process no matter the result.  While it’s easy to forget about all of this when the going gets tough and things do not go as planned, I am always reminded when I watch the “young ones.”  This was a good thing for me as I make my way back to 100% after my knee injury at the end of summer!

I also wanted to say a quick thanks to all the people that helped me promote my website and my journey to the Olympics.  It was great seeing familiar faces and meeting a bunch of new people over this weekend, and I can’t tell you how lucky I feel to be a part of this close-knit community.  I felt so much support from so many people and all of this will turn into motivation as I train and make my push towards 2012!  Thanks again and please continue to check back in for updates about my training, competition, and life outside of the gym!

It’s been a really busy weekend for me.  Just got back from Day Two of the Stanford Open (there’s three days of competitions in all) but I’ve gotta say that I’ve been having a blast being able to coach, judge, and watch some high-level/entertaining performances! Like I’ve said before, this meet started waaaaay back when I was just a junior gymnast on the Stanford Club team (JDR Gymnastics today) so it’s always fun for me to see how much it has evolved over the years to become one of the biggest competition on the west coast.

Banner from the Stanford Open

As always it’s been great to see a bunch of familiar faces.  I’ve gotten to know a lot of the kids through coaching at clinics, as well as judging these past few years, so it’s been great to see them working hard and competing well.  It’s also been fun to catch up with the judges and coaches.  The great thing about the gymnastics community is that it’s so close-knit.  A lot of us have been involved with this sport for a long time so we are incredibly close.  The biggest surprise for me though was seeing my old teammate/roomate from the Olympic Training Center, Grant Osborne.  We were together when we were just teenagers so we’ve known each other for a while.  Anyway I totally didn’t expect to see him here, and as a judge!  Nevertheless, it was awesome to be able to catch up with him and learn that everything is going well with him.

Me and Grant!

For the competition side, the NCAA session on Saturday night is definitely one of the most exciting.  This is because the best junior gymnasts from the Fridays sessions have the opportunity to compete against the college guys.  Today, Stanford ended up finishing ahead of Cal Berkeley, however, both teams were resting their best guys due to injuries/preparing for a big competition next week, so both squads weren’t at full force.  It’ll be exciting to see them towards the end of the season though when they have the A-Teams going head-to-head!

Anyway, one more day of judging tomorrow.  I’ll be there the whole day but it should be a fun one.  Thanks to everyone that’s come up to me and given me words of encouragement.  Thanks also to everyone that’s purchased a ShoNakamori.com patch to support my journey to 2012!!!

Finally turned in my paperwork necessary to finish school at Stanford.  I won’t be officially done until I receive my diploma though (In June I think?).  Either way, it’s nice to know that I no longer have to worry about classes!

Yesterday, I met up and sat down to discuss my plans for my knee recovery with my physical therapist at Stanford.  It’s been over 3 months since I last worked with her so I’m definitely glad to be back with her.  She’s absolutely awesome and I’m excited about continuing to get this knee better.

I’m also finally accustomed to the time difference so I’m feeling much better in practices.  This is a really busy week for me though.  The biggest thing is that I’ll be helping coach and judge at the Stanford Open this week.  Can’t believe the meet is in its 18th year!  A lot of work has been put in to make sure that we could host all 650 participants so it should be exciting!

Haven’t been able to slow down since I got back to the States.  I’ve been running around ever since but I’m starting to slowly settled down!  It’s too bad my jet lag hasn’t gotten much better.  I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I haven’t had much time to rest.

Either way, gym has been going well.  I’m starting to get back into the rhythm of things and it’s been great working with my own coach again.  It’s an exciting time especially since my leg is getting much stronger.  Updates on my training will come soon.

Yesterday, I went and judged my first junior competition for this season.  It’s always a fun time seeing all the boys compete.  I’m very excited for next weekend though because it’s the Stanford Open weekend.  It’s one of the biggest meets on the west coast with over 600 kids coming to compete.  Also, as many of you may already know, there’s a collegiate competition as well, and I’m scheduled to judge it.  It’ll be my first time judging a college meet so I’m definitely looking forward to it.

Well, it’s finally Sunday but I have ton of stuff on my plate.  I’ll have to take care of things one by one, but the good thing is that my body will get a rest!

It’s been a couple of days since I returned to the US and I’ve been running around ever since.  I thought that once I finished school in Japan, it would be smooth sailing, but boy I was wrong.  I’ve been doing a lot to get settled down, and get adjusted to my life in the US again.  I do miss my life and my friends in Japan but I often forget about it because of how busy I am.  I’ll at least get to see a couple of them and my coach, Mutsumi, when the under-21 team comes to compete in California in February.

Jet lag has been tough to overcome.  Plus, I think I was tired from the last few days in Japan with preparing to leave for the US.  Training has been going well though.  Getting used to using American equipment (AAI) again is taking some time.  After 3 months of using Senoh (Japanese equipment), AAI feels so different now.  I should be back into the swing of things in a couple of days though!

It’s been a really long time since I’ve been this busy.  Last week, I took my last finals at Juntendo University.  Not only did this mean that I finished my studies in Japan, but it also meant that I finally finished my studies at Stanford!  All that I have to do now is transfer the units I took in Japan back to the US, get everything processed, and I’ll finally be able to get my degrees.  It was a long road (5 long years) but I’m relieved to finally be done!  No more studying…at least for a while!

While I was incredibly excited, there was definitely a lot of sadness in all of this.  Being done with school in Japan also meant that my time at Juntendo was finished.  It’s hard to believe how quickly the 3 months went, and it almost feels like yesterday that I arrived here from the US.  3 months is far too short because as soon as I started to feel comfortable living here, it’s now time to leave.  Looking back though, I feel like I was such a lucky guy to have met so many great people in and outside of the gym.  In particular, I’ve also gotten so close to my teammates here that I can now call them my “family.”  I know I’ll miss them all when I go back to the US.  I’ll never forget the times I spent training with them and hanging out outside of the gym.  Thanks for making my time at Juntendo so special!

My family at Juntendo!

Coming here was definitely one of the best things that’s ever happened to me.  And thinking now, the timing of coming here was almost too perfect because I not only got to train with them but I had the chance watch and learn when my exercise-level was limited.  Plus, I just hit the 6-month mark the other day after repairing my knee, so it means that I can pretty much start real training.  Perfect timing considering I’m going back to the US and back to my coach.

Thank you to everyone who supported me during my time here!  It was short but I got to experience so much.  Now it’s time to get back to business.  It’s back to the US, and being that I’m finally done with school, I’m giving all that I’ve got to my training.  It’s GO time!

Can’t believe how busy I’ve been the last several days.  I’ve been swamped with final exams and papers.  However, the good thing is that I’m close to being done. I’ll be so relieved when all of this is over!

Anyway, I learned a little while ago that they’re using me as the logo for the Stanford Open this year.  This meet started over 15 years ago when I was on the junior team at Stanford.  Back then there were only seven or eight families (including mine) that supported the meet.  Today, it’s the biggest gymnastics meet on the west coast. That being said, it’s awesome that they’re using me for the logo!

Stanford Open 2010!

For more information about the meet, click here: Stanford Open