Speech from Stanford Athletic Awards Luncheon
As I wrote a little while ago, I recently received an award at Stanford’s year-end athletic luncheon. As the recipient of the Al Master’s Award, I was asked to speak in front of 700 people that included donors, supporters, and staffs (that was the biggest audience I’ve ever spoke in front of, and boy was I nervous or what). Well anyway I was surfing the internet and came across the speech last night.
Here it is:
All Charged Up
Hope everyone had a safe and fun July 4th weekend!
As for me, I definitely enjoyed the two days off I had from gym. I’ll admit that I was a bum this weekend. I slept a lot and just sat around the house. However, I’ve gotta say that my body definitely needed that after a hard week of training last week. It was also nice because I got to catch up on some much needed sleep (and for all the athletes out there, we all know that sleep is an athlete’s best friend).
Another big thing I did this weekend was I got a haircut (shows how exciting my life is, right?). Now that my head feels lighter I feel like I can jump higher and flip faster. But on the flip side, the bad part was that my I forgot to tell the hair stylist to keep my sideburns so she completely chopped them off. I’d include a picture of it but since I’m embarrassed, I don’t think I will this time. Luckily my hair grows out pretty quickly so I’m not too sad about it.
Anyway that just about sums up my weekend. It was a nice two days off of gym but I’m now recharged and ready to hit a good week of training as Japan Cup is right around the corner!
Match the Twits
As some of you guys may have already noticed, I update my Twitter account every once in a while (it’s on the right column if you haven’t seen it before). Anyway it looks like InsideGymnastics made a short quiz that asks to match the different “twits” with the people who said it. The funny part of all this is that I’m one of the options to a few of the questions. I took the quiz and did pretty poorly. Don’t worry, I won’t get too down on myself but maybe you guys will have better luck with this. Check it out: Match the Twits
Oh, and if you have a twitter account follow me @ snakamori!
Another Hard Day: Down
So I got through another hard day in the gym and it definitely feels great to be done. Tomorrow is a very very very light day with stretching in the gym and getting treatment in the training room. Recently my shoulder has started bothering me again so I’m looking to get that worked on. This is definitely a tough time in the gym. All the numbers we’re knocking out and body aches go hand-in-hand. However it’s the guy that works the smartest that gets to the top. I guess it’s important to understand your body well enough to know when to back off or know when you can push a little further.
Anyway, hopefully the light day tomorrow as well as the work I’ll get done in the gym will help me recover a bit before another hard day on Friday. After that I’m actually supposed to get the entire weekend off because of 4th of July. Now that’s exciting stuff! Better need to start planning on what to do.
Put a Ring on it
The other day, I went and picked up my letterman award for finishing up my senior year at Stanford. As freshmen we get a jacket, sophomores – clock, juniors – blanket, and seniors – a ring. The ring is gold and the design is pretty simple. All it has is an “S” (for Stanford), but I’ve gotta admit, this ring symbolizes many things. While I’m excited to get my NCAA Championship ring (they’ll be sending it to us in a couple of weeks!) I think this letterman ring is just as special. Looking at it makes me think of all the fun times as well as the tough workouts that I had to go through in college. It was an awesome experience to be able to train day in and day out with a group of guys that I now consider to be my “brothers.” This ring will also always remind me that the process, or the road that you take to get to a goal is more important than anything else. As my old coach, Vitaly, used to preach, “you have to learn to enjoy the process.”
Stanford Ring (sorry the pic is a bit blurry)
As for training, everything is going pretty well. It’s my heavy training week so I’m knocking out a lot of numbers and trying to get through more routines. The good thing is that I will start tapering down next week in order to get ready for the meet in Japan in two weeks. The downside is that it’s scorching hot right now in California. I guess I shouldn’t be complaining though because it’s not as humid as it is in other parts of the US, however, it sure would be nice to have an A/C system in the gym. I guess most gyms in California don’t have an A/C system though because the hot season doesn’t last for all that long. Anyway, a few more tough trainings to get through this week but I’m definitely “enjoying the process!”
Back At It
National team camp ended yesterday and now I’m back home in California. Overall the camp went well. Again, it was a great atmosphere because it was a joint national team camp which included both the senior team and some of the junior guys. It was great to see all the younger guys getting strong as it definitely showed the depth of the US National Team.
As posted a few days ago, Friday was an intra-squad day and we went through all six events. For me, most of my routines went well except for some mistakes on a couple of events. The intra-squad served as a good opportunity to see where I’m at and it definitely told me the places I need to work on as I get ready for the Japan Cup and the Visa Championships.
For the last day of camp, we met with a Sports Psychologist to talk about some of the mental aspect of our sport. It was an interesting talk and we learned how to use visualization effectively in order to prepare ourselves mentally for practice as well as competitions. And finally, to finish up the camp, we went to go the yoga studio again. Since there were more people than last time, the place seemed a lot hotter (we did the hot yoga a.k.a Bikram yoga). I definitely thought that I was going to pass out this time. I guess it wasn’t a good idea that I ate a whole slab of steak right before going there.
Anyway, now I’m back in California and ready to get back to training at my own gym. Camp was a great motivator and it should keep me going for the next couple of weeks until I leave for Japan!
Camp Begins
So today was our first day of national team camp. Most of us spent the day doing basics and getting used to the equipment at the OTC. We basically treated today as preparation for tomorrow as we are having an intra-squad (practice meet) with some judges coming in. This will be a tune-up for myself and the four other guys who are competing in Japan in a few weeks (you can find the participant list for the meet here: Japan Cup Roster). Tomorrow will also be good practice for the guys who are competing at qualifiers as well as USA Championships in August. I know some of the guys are trying new tricks in their routines so tomorrow’s intra-squad should be interesting.
After workout, about half of us got together and went and watched the new Transformers movie. Truthfully, I didn’t think it lived up to the first one but I will admit that it was entertaining. Going to the movie was also good because it allowed us to get off the training center complex for a bit and just relax. Anyway, better hit the sack so I can rest up for tomorrow’s practice meet!
Back Again
After a long day of traveling, I’m finally checked in at the Olympic Training Center (from San Jose, we went through Phoenix and then to Colorado Springs). While traveling was draining, the great thing about this time was that I got to come here with my Stanford teammate (as well as teammate on the US National Team), David Sender. Last time I was here I had to travel alone because Dave was at a competition in Moscow.
as you can see, Dave is very camera shy
Anyway, we’re all pretty much settled. Earlier, we went to the gym to stretch a little and had some food down at the cafeteria. I may go and see some old friends later on as this was my home a few years ago but since camp is starting tomorrow, I may just stay in and relax. This camp will be fun, especially since some of the junior guys are joining us this week. We’ll get to see how everyone is doing.
Make it or break it?
So I was flipping through the channels today and guess who I saw on TV? It was my friend, Tasha (Schwikert)!
To my surprise, it looks as though ABC Family is starting a new girl’s gymnastics show called, Make it or Break it. I’m not sure what the story is about but I’m assuming it’s going to be like the movie, Stick It. I watched about 5 minutes of it and thought that the story was way too dramatized and didn’t accurately portray the sport of gymnastics. That said, I probably won’t continue to watch it t but I wanted to mention it because I thought it was interesting that they’re starting a new show about women’s gym.
Make it or Break it
I wonder what the public will think if there was a men’s gymnastics show and who will actually star in it. I would love to see my friend Sean Golden as a character in the show because he is an entertainer. However, something tells me that a men’s gymnastics show won’t be all that popular and will only get few viewership. It might be interesting to watch though.
As for gymnastics movies, I’ve gotta say I like Gymkata. It’s an old film and it stars Kurt Thomas (the inventor of the Thomas Flare). The movie is totally random. He is basically a warrior that uses his gymnastics skills to fight zombies (for example, he uses pommel horse shaped stones to do circles on and kick bad guys who run into him). Regardless, the movie is very funny and interesting. There are other gymnastics movies out there but I’ve gotta say that in terms of entertainment factor, Gymakata is the best. Check it out when you get a chance!
Gymkata aka "funniest gymnastics movie ever"
Fun Day Sunday
It was nice to finally get a day off from gym! I spent most of the day trying not to do anything phsycial, thinking that I needed all the recovery I can get. However, I did get a haircut which was nice considering it’s getting a bit hotter here. Plus I hate it when my hair gets in the way of my practice.
Aside from that, I went to my old teammates’ place and we just hung out. It was good to be able to catch up and chill out in the sun. It’s crazy thinking that most of my friends that I graduated with are done with gymnastics. However, they’re working a lot and just doing the world good, which is a great thing.
After hanging out, I went out and watched a Japanese movie called “Departures” at a local theater. I thought it was a really good film. Unfortunately it’s only playing in select theaters because it’s a foreign film. Either way, the movie is nominated for “Best Foreign Language Film” for this year’s Academy Awards and has won a bunch of other awards in Japan.
Well that was basically my Sunday. It was a relaxing day and I’m all rested up so I should be ready to go strong again with my practices starting tomorrow. Next week should be exciting because we leave for our national team camp on Wednesday. It’ll also be good to see all the guys again.
