Prom at Children's Hospital
I forgot to mention that last Friday I volunteered at the Stanford children’s hospital for their annual “prom” party. It’s an event that the hospital hosts every year for the kids in the hospital who cannot attend their own prom because of illness. It was great as the event was not only open to high school kids but kids of all ages. The prom was a little different in that they had a theme for it, which was pirates! While the older kids wore tuxedos and dresses, it was fun to see the younger ones dressed as little pirates.
After talking to some of the kids, I learned that a few of them were battling some serious illnesses. I thought it was amazing that despite all of the things they have to go through, these kids are so positive about everything in life. Having contact with these kids was inspiring and definitely put my life in perspective. I realized that although there may be some struggles in life, I should always keep pushing on because there are always others in the world that have to deal with more serious things.
Anyway, I was glad I was able to help out with this event. The party was awesome and being able to see all the kids having fun was definitely the best!
Delirious Gymnastics
So today was a day of delirious gymnastics. It usually happens during finals week when I can only get a few hours of sleep. I guess it’s normal though for a student-athlete. Either way, I was rather surprised since I was able to get through the training assignment ok. Of course this is not the most ideal way to get through practice but it’s crazy to see how much your body can handle even when you might be tired. While it’s finals week, it’s important that I don’t slack off because we have a national training camp coming up very soon.
Good news is that I’m almost done with my work. After this, there will be no more pulling all-nighters! All I have to do is revise my papers really quickly and submit them. After I click “send,” I will forever be done with my undergraduate studies at Stanford! Almost there!
Stay Strong Huskers
It looks like Francis Allen, the long time head coach at the University of Nebraska is retiring. I just wanted to mention this because Francis has been a big part of my life as a gymnast. I might even consider him one of my “grandfathers” since I’ve known him ever since I started the sport. Yay to Francis for doing so much for men’s gymnastics.
While all of this must be exciting for Francis (he gets to kick back and relax now), it looks like the gymnastics team at the University of Nebraska is faced with some trouble. From what I hear, it seems as though the school is thinking about dropping its men’s gymnastics program. I can’t begin to say how terrible this would be for collegiate gymnastics. After all, there’s only 18 universities left that supports men’s gymnastics. This will also be bad for the conference that Stanford competes in (the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) because Nebraska is one of the four teams that competes against us.
Unfortunately, this type of thing has been going on for a while. After all, MIT dropped their gym program just this year. It’s sad thinking that 30 years ago, almost every school had a gymnastics program. It’s also scary to think that pretty soon, NCAA gymnasts might become endangered athletes. I guess all I can do now is cross my fingers and just hope that the situation for men’s collegiate gymnastics will improve…
Raj's New Skill
Looks like my teammate on the US National Team, Raj Bhavsar, just added a new skill to the Code of Points.
From my understanding I thought that a new skill had to be done at either the World Championships or the Olympics to get it named but it looks like the rules may have changed. From what I hear, it seems like a person can get a skill named after himself if the FIG (International Federation of Gymnastics) simply approves it.
Anyway, Raj successfully completed this never-before-seen skill at a World Cup competition held just recently in Moscow. The skill was given an “E” rating. From my point of view, a gymnast will need to be super quick twitched in order to be able to complete the skill. Therefore, it’ll be interesting to see how many people will actually compete this in the future.
As for me, I think I’ll pass on trying this trick because I feel that I’ll completely miss the bar and wreck myself. Major props to Raj though. I’ve gotta say, it’s a really cool looking skill.
Up, Up, and Away
Thank you all for checking out my website. Today is the first day that it’s up under www.shonakamori.com (it was under wordpress.com for the last week or so). Since it is still new, there may be some stuff that I need to tweak but I feel that for the most part the website should be good to go.
I’ll be updating my blogs periodically so please check back regularly. I’m also hoping to add new pages to keep you guys on your toes.
Anyway, I’m still in the midst of finishing up my final exams. I’m hoping to knock out all my papers by this weekend though so I can get back and focus on training. In terms of the next big gymnastics event, I leave for another national team camp in about three weeks. This will serve as preparation for the Japan Cup in July, so I’ll need to be in top shape for this.
Alright, time to hit the books again…I’m hoping that the caffeine in my Coke will help me stay alert as I still have quite a ways to go with my school work!
The Man, The Legend
NBA finals start tomorrow! It’ll be an intense competition between the Lakers and the Magic in their quest to win the championship. Unfortunately we won’t be able to watch the hyped up battle between the Black Mamba and King James (hopefully next year!). I know that the media likes to compare Kobe’s skills against Lebron’s, and vice versa but I’ve gotta say that I really look up to Lebron even though his team was knocked out in the semis.
I thought that Lebron’s buzzer beater in game 2 of the semis was absolutely awesome. The reason I look up to the guy is because I’ve heard from various people about the way he trains leading up to games. One of my current coaches that went to Beijing for the Olympics told me about Lebron’s training sessions. He said that it was clear that Lebron did more sets and more repetition than the rest of the guys on the Dream Team. He just continued to work relentlessly in the corner of the gym. When I heard about this, I was really inspired. It told me that regardless of how good you are at what you do, more work could be done and that there is always a level above. It also told me that it takes more than pure talent to become legendary.
I’m sure that most of you have seen the Kobe and Lebron puppet commercials but I think they are hilarious:
Last Day of Class!
Wow, I can’t believe that I will never again attend class as an undergrad. I’m not sure whether to feel happy or sad as I’m in a very delirious mode right now. I guess you can say that my mind has been cluttered recently with all the papers I have to finish writing. While today is the last day for lectures, I still have a few more finals to knock out before I’m completely done.
School has always taken precedence over gym. It’s been like this ever since I started going to school. However, after I finish writing my last paper, I won’t have to worry about this for a while (at least until I decide to go to grad school). I’m definitely looking forward to being able to focus more on gymnastics. Plus, when summer rolls around I’ll have a little more leisure time, and you know what that means…I’ll actually be able to get some sleep!
my super cluttered desk
Can’t wait to get rid of these books. Just a little more to go!
Back in Cali!
Well I’m back in California and that only means one thing…it’s back to the daily grind. I still have a little more to go with school so for the next week or so I’ll be pretty busy with getting ready for finals. If I can get through the weekend I should pretty much be golden.
As for gym, It’s back to doing routines again. I’m trying to add in a couple of new skills for the competition in Japan so there’s a lot to do in the gym as well. I’m hoping to add in a new pass on floor and possibly a new dismount on rings…should be exciting!
Anyway, with school and gym done for the day, it’s time to hit the books. I can’t wait to be done with finals. I just have to finish the school year strong and then I’ll finally get to rest my mind for a bit. It’s been really busy for a while but summer is right around the corner!
Coming Home
Camp is finally over! Training has been pretty intense over the last few days but training with the rest of the national team is always great because you get to see what everybody is doing. It’s very motivating for sure.
I also have good news. I was selected as a member that will compete in Japan in July! I’m very excited about this as I have a lot of family members that live out there. Plus, the site that we are competing at is only about 20 minutes away from where they live!
I’ll be back at the OTC for another camp in June but I’m definitely looking forward to going back home, getting stronger, and gearing up for this next competition.
Also, thanks to all the people at the OTC for always taking care of us while we’re there!
Me and my other mother, Flower!
Routine Day: Done
Today was our routine day at camp. We basically split into two teams and started on separate events. Our group started on pommel horse, while the other group started on floor and we switched off. Overall, routines went fairly well. There were some mistakes here and there but for where I am in my training cycle, it went just as I expected. The other guys on the national team seemed to have some struggle but again, they are in a similar stage in their training so everyone is definitely not at 100% right now. It was great to see the fight in each of the guys though.
As for tomorrow, we are going back to any problems we had today. An exciting thing is that part of our afternoon workout tomorrow is we’ll be doing yoga. For any sport, recovery is just as important as training, and apparently yoga is a good way to recover and to relax the muscles. I’m looking forward to it as this will be my first time!
While I’m looking forward to going back and training again at my own gym, it’s been great to see how the rest of the national team members are doing. It’s been motivating to see their progress. Oh, and I’ve also gotta mention that it’s been fun seeing my old friends at the Olympic Training Center. The great thing about the training center is that there are always a bunch of high level athletes that come through so it’s interesting to able to talk to them and learn about their experiences. In fact, I saw Michael Phelps (yes, the swimming legend!) down in the cafeteria yesterday!
Anyway, one more day of camp to go and it’s back to California!
