Justus Finds the Ground – Head First
A couple of weeks ago at the gym, Justus had a grip malfunction while doing Giants on the rings.
Quick terminology lesson:
- “Grips” are leather straps that cover and protect the palms of the gymnast when on rings and high bar. On each grip is a wooden dowel to aid in the gripping the bar or rings.
- “Giants” are large looping swings that take gymnast repeatedly through 360 degrees of motion while hanging on by his fingers.
While Justus was practicing a series of Giants, the dowel on his left grip slipped and the inertia of his swing pulled his hand off the ring. Almost immediately, with all the swinging force acting on his remaining right hand, his right hand also peeled off and he went airborne. It all happened so quickly. There was no time to re-grip or respond with survivor instinct. He was now a projectile flying upside down, and had no idea what to do. He simply closed his eyes and waited to hit the ground.
Later, Coach Sean would tell him it’s happened to him five times in his career, and the only way to prepare is to go into a tight tuck position and wait until impact.
Eventually Justus landed… on the back of his neck and head. His body crumpled with such force, his chin violently struck his sternum and he blacked out. Everyone who saw it happen reported to us later, “It was really scary.” We, unfortunately (or fortunately), were not there. I imagine the whole gym of students and coaches, and the observation room full of parents gasped, and sat in silence waiting for a sign that he was okay – like an injured football player on the field.
Justus has fallen several times before. When fighting gravity in gymnastics, falling is the most natural part of it all. But never has any of his falls been so bad a coach has called – until that evening, only minutes following the accident. We received phone calls from concerned friends too. Other parents seemed equally concerned how Lisa and I were holding up – I think some of them were replaying it in their own minds as if it were their own son.
To add to our parental consternation, Justus hadn’t been feeling 100% and had a lot of homework that day. Momma’s intuition urged her to go pick him up early rather than having him take the usual carpool, but she didn’t. And that was my fault. I managed to convince her the trip was unwarranted: She would spend an hour of her time in the truck to save him an hour of his time at home, an economy that at the moment seemed foolish to me.
Justus came home very sore and understandably emotional. We ended the day doling out lots of hugs, prayers of thanksgiving and Advil.
On the days following, Justus was poked and prodded by his sports medicine doctors, x-rayed, and given several painful deep-tissue messages. Other than a deep bruise on his sternum and diagnosis of a possible slight concussion, he recovered quickly, only loosing a week at the gym. The doctors believe the muscle development of his back, neck and shoulders possibly protected him from more serious injury. Still, he was unable to perform on Rings, Vault, Pommel and Parallel Bars due to the soreness in his chest. With the first meet of the season coming up, we knew he would go, but we didn’t know how many events he would compete, if any.
Last weekend, I drove Justus up for his first Level 9 competition: The Valeri Liukin Invitational at the World Olympic Gymnastics Academy in Frisco, home to Olympians Valeri Liukin, his daughter Nastia, and others – Carly Patterson, Rebecca Bross, to name a few. Justus was cleared to compete on Floor, High Bar and Pommels. The highlight of his day was immediately following his Pommel performance. The judge called Justus up to the judge’s table and told Justus to tell Coach Sean that he looks just like Sean did when he was competing. Apparently, the judge had been around long enough to have judged Sean when he was a teen.
Comments are closed.