PCC/Champions Invite Weekend
It’s an exciting and busy weekend all together! For one, the Japanese team is here and they’ll be competing against Stanford and other collegiate teams at the Pacific Coast Classic. Unfortunately some of the college powerhouses that are usually here aren’t competing this year (budget reasons?). The meet should be fun nonetheless. We’re also really excited about being able to hang out with the Japanese team after the meet ends! We had the chance to do so last year and had a blast.
Another big event that’s occurring this weekend is the annual Champions Invitational. The gym that I’m currently training at is hosting a large competition for junior level boys. There’s a bunch of California teams in attendance as well as a couple out of state ones. Since the gym has recently moved to a new location and a better facility, it should be a great meet!
Team Japan Goes Off To Oak-Town.
After training with us for three days, the Japanese team left to go to the competition arena in Oakland today. I believe they trained at the arena today and will be at training at nearby Cal Berkeley tomorrow before competing on Saturday.
While it was only for a short while, having the opportunity to train with them was great. Even though they’re only the U-21 team, I was impressed with some of the stuff they unveiled and it really showed the depth of the Japanese team as a whole. Some of those guys will definitely climb up the rankings during the next couple of years.
Since yesterday was a lighter training day, I took them out for a quick tour of the Stanford campus before they headed out to the outlets in Gilroy (about an hour south of Stanford). For those of you that don’t know, there’s a custom of buying gifts in Japan, hence their itinerary involves a lot of shopping so that they could buy things for their friends and families back in the homeland.
As an “ambassador” to the Japanese team, It’s been another busy week. I’m glad that I’ve been able to help out though. After all they did a lot for me while I was in Japan. Anyway, I’m hoping that they’re accustomed to the US by now so that they could compete full force this weekend!
Here from Japan!
After a 9 hour plane ride from Tokyo, the Japanese team got to the Bay Area yesterday morning. From what they told me, they used most of yesterday to go shopping and stayed busy in order to curb their desire to want to sleep. There’s a huge time difference between Japan and the US, and I know from going back and forth that it’s really hard to stay up when you’re coming to the US. I usually “take a nap” in the middle of the day and wake up, only to realize that it’s past midnight.
Anyway, they came to the gym today and we had the opportunity to train with them. Since it was their first day in the gym, they used much of the training time to get acclimated to the environment and to the equipment. Again, I know from experience that American equipment is very different from the ones they use in Japan so it usually takes a while to get used to. Regardless, they looked good and should put up a strong team for the competition this weekend.
Aside from training, it was great to catch up with old friends and coaches. In fact, I trained with two of the gymnasts while I was at Juntendo. It seems like forever since I saw them but in reality it has only been less than a month. Either way, it was fun to be able to hear about their lives and about all of my friends back at the university. It was also great seeing the coaches. In fact, two of them have Stanford ties. Mutsumi (Harada) helped coach the collegiate team from 2005-2006, while the other coach, Koichi (Mizushima), coached me at Stanford back in 1999-2000. In a way, it felt like homecoming.
They’ll be here for a couple more days before they head to Oakland. This time I’ll get to show them around as they did for me back in Japan!
Pickin' Things Up
With my cold getting better, I’m off to Livermore tomorrow to help coach the kids at JDR Gymnastics at the Gold Country Classic. For those of you that don’t know, the head coach of JDR Gymnastics, JD Reive, is also the assistant coach for the Stanford Men’s Gym Team. Because the competitive season for the younger kids and the college guys overlap, I try and help out whenever I can. I enjoy it though. It takes me back to the days when I was a little kid.
GCC
The cool thing about Gold Country is that there is a college session as well. During tomorrow night’s session, Stanford and Cal will go head-to-head in another Bay Area battle. The good thing about these meets is that the younger kids could get a glimpse of what NCAA gymnastics is all about. This is great considering the number of gymnasts and clubs across the country has been dwindling over the past couple of decades. Whatever to keep the popularity up right? I wonder what it would’ve been like to be doing gymnastics when practically every high school had a gym program (could anybody tell me about this)? That would’ve been awesome.
It was a pretty slow week for me especially with getting sick but I’m hoping to pick it back up starting this weekend. Plus the Japanese team is coming this Sunday to train for a couple days at Stanford before going across the bay to compete at the Pacific Coast Classic next weekend. A bunch of my friends are coming and I can’t wait to see them!
Cold: Go That Way ===>
For the last day I’ve been in hibernation. I’m guessing it’s that time of the season but I caught a cold and I sound as though I ate a frog. It’s a bummer but I’m definitely getting better.
I’m looking forward to tomorrow though. I’ll see the doctor for a check-up and I’m hoping that there will be some good news involved. It’s been a little over six months since I had my ACL surgery and I’m hoping to get released for no-restriction, 100% gymnastics. We’ll see what he says though. One thing is for sure. The knee is getting much stronger. I’ve been working with my physical therapist twice a week and I’m starting to see more muscle developing around my knee/thigh. Feels like I’ve come a long way from the days when my leg looked like a toothpick. More training is needed though. With my cold much better, it’s back to the gym again tomorrow.
Observing This Time Around
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.
Stanford Men's Gym 2010
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 completely removed from Stanford gymnastics. This year, I’m a volunteer assistant coach for the team. Hopefully they’ll 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!
NCAA Championships 2009
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
Stanford Open Concludes
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!
Stanford Open Weekend!
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!!!
