How I Blew Out My Knee and Came Back to Win a National Championship

An essay by Jason Shen

… This story is for every anyone (athlete or not) who’s struggled with an injury – yeah it sucks big time, but do ALL your physical therapy and be unreasonably optimistic. Things can and will get better. …

On January 19th, 2007, while competing for Stanford Men’s Gymnastics at the UC Berkeley, I suffered a total knee dislocation while performing a double-twisting Yurchenko. My ACL, PCL, MCL, LCL and meniscus were instantly torn. It hurt a lot.

I underwent multiple surgeries, required the use of crutches for months and spent a couple hundred hour in physical therapy. One year later, I was back in the arena as an active competitor. In my final season, I was elected a team captain and helped lead our team to win the 2009 NCAA Team Championship – our first victory in over 14 years. …

Part 1 of 3

Part 2 of 3

Part 3 is yet to come.

You might want to bookmark it as an inspirational read for anyone trying to come back from injury.

Thanks Jason.

NCAA Champion 2011?

Vanessa Zamarripa is out for the season.

Who will win the NCAA Gymnastics all-around this season?

Here are the the rankings, so far:

See more National rankings on GymInfo.

Before the season I was speculating that freshman Kristina Vaculik could jump into contention, another Courtney Kupets. … That hasn’t happened. Yet.

Former Parkette, Geralen Stack-Eaton?

What about Amy Glass? An amazing story, coming back from serious injury.

Leave a comment if you have a prediction.

Spanish gymnastics camp

With all the changes at the top, these must be interesting days for the coaches and gymnasts in Spain.

Spanish gymnastics site Gymnastas posted some photos of the most recent WAG camp.

see more – Google Translate

Shaun White 4th X Games Gold

Shaun White takes fourth consecutive Snowboard Superpipe gold medal (in skinny jeans):

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Arriving somewhat out of shape for this event, he took a bad crash in training. … Missed the final completely in Slopestyle. Yet still won the Snowboard Superpipe for the 4th time in series. This guy is mentally tough.

Attendance for this year’s Winter X Games in Aspen broke all previous records by nearly 40 percent. An estimated 114,200 people …

(via Outside – The Top 10 Things You Missed at The Winter X Games)

can the Weller spring reduce Achilles injury?

We’ve posted on this topic before.

Dr. Bill Sands is doing some research on the innovative new springs at Mesa State College:

Bills Sands:

Here are my criteria for evaluation of the spring floor:

1. Stability

2. Tuned response frequency that matches the gymnast’s take off actions

3. Reliability, no matter when you hit it, or where you hit it, the spring floor reacts the same. There is some evidence that the spring floor can act like a trampoline and the athlete can experience a “double bounce.”

4. The floor should not “tip” the foot or shank at impact due to inconsistent foam or floor characteristics.

read more on Facebook (from March 2010)

Bill feels that the spring is on the right track, but that confirmation awaits testing.

There is no evidence (yet) that the Weller spring reduces the incidence of Achilles tears.

If you don’t want to wait for scientific confirmation, each spring is $2.95 right now, on sale.

Horton in it to win it

Jonathan Horton told IG he hopes to fully recover from a recent thumb injury to challenge world all-around champion Kohei Uchimura (Japan) for the American Cup title next month. …

Horton said finishing third behind Uchimura and Germany’s Philipp Boy in Rotterdam has helped him assess the improvements he needs to make by this fall’s worlds in Tokyo.

… “I have one thing I need to focus on — execution!” Horton told IG.

… it’s pretty obvious that Uchimura’s success is not only because he has great difficulty but he is super clean. I need to get to that level.”

read more – Horton Ready to ‘Push Uchimura’ for American Cup Victory

Florida, Stanford, Utah

The Utes move up to #3 this week.

See more National rankings on GymInfo.

Kent State is a contender. Congratulations to Head Coach Brice Biggin and the Golden Flashes.

Bars – interesting mounts

Mounting with Style

A tribute

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Who is LadyBeaverhausen?

related – MostepanovaFan – Uneven Bars Mount Guide Gymnastics

1/1-in triple back ?? on snowboard

Torstein Horgmo … is a Norwegian pro snowboarder. …

In the Winter X Games XV Finals Torstein landed the first Triple cork in competition in the Big Air Final on January 28, 2011 …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

A triple cork is “three off axis flips before coming back in contact with the ground”.

Looks similar to a 1/1-in triple, to me.

Geoffrey Taucer calls it more as a 1/2 in triple back.

… The one thing we can all agree on is that he does 3 “flips” around the transverse axis.

Apparently the only voting in that event is by spectators texting.