World University Games 1970
VIEWpoints By Dick Criley
"face ta face wi th doing. "
Eddie Robinso n, Head Football Coach at G rambling College, addressed the Ho usto n Touchdown C lub wi th a beautiful rati o na le for the athleti c experience. I'd like to re peat a nd paraphrase so me of hi s words whi ch were reported in a recent iss ue of the NCAA Nellis. " At hl et ics may be the school 's most endu ring world of di scipline, of s harp thin ki ng, of a demonstrable con nection between what one puts into a nything and what he gets out of it. " The gy mnas t finds himself in a laboratory where he expe riments at putting things togethe r a nd observ ing the results. This is pretty mu c h as in real life isn't it , where he finds out th at he gets out of the experience just what he puts into it. H e finds that proper prepa rat ion , the well-grounded bas ics, the refine me nt s of repetition , the emphasis on technique usuall y bring results. He learn s th e pat ience so necessa ry in the a tta inment of excellence. " The boy has a mple oppo rtunit y to discover hi s weak nesses of cha racte r a nd to build them up . If he lacks agg ress iveness , he will soo n find out. He will lea rn too, why aggressiveness is so necessary for success." For th e gym nast , at leas t one as pect of this aggressiveness is the co nfid ence th at he is the ma ster of his body and that it will do his bidding whe n ca ll ed upon , that his reflexes have been tra ined to respond with the precise power a nd direction he des ires. " Next is this business of pelformance und er 8
press ure and being willing to face up to requirements ... I a m in favor of exposing yo ung peopl e to situ ation s th at require the highest pelformance on a regular bas is. " I n gy mnastic s, as in any other sport co mes that moment of truth whe n one stand s face to face with doing. It is the moment, perhaps a fraction of a secon d, when the deed is ei ther done or undone. The gy mn ast knows he ca n neve r " coast" through hi s exercise once the most difficult part is over, for the moment he rel axes hi s di scipline is the moment th at a revea ling break occ urs . " ThB student in th e c lassroom ca ught between the inco mpatibilities of tex tbook s (and the contradictions of hi s professo rs) often loses all contact with th e ca use-a nd-effect wo rld. In athleti cs this does not hap pen. On the playing field (or in the gym nas ium), a cause is a lways followed by a n effect. In pl ai n words , it 's hit or get hit ; fi ght or run ; pay the price of fa il ; play with minor hurt s because there can be no fudging, no fak in g, no day dreaming .. . " For youth , as it crosses the threshold of manhood , athletics is a rall yin g point to build courage whe n courage see ms to die ; to restore fa ith where there seems to be littl e cause for fa ith; to create hope as hope becomes forlorn ." Gy mnasti cs as an ho no red for m of ath leti cs contributes ma ny qua liti es to the individu al's ph ys ica l and me ntal maturation .
Torino, Ita ly By JERRY WRIGHT The 1970 World University Games began officiall y, for th e U.S. gy mnas tics team, with the selection of Makoto Sakamoto, a 5-footI-in. gymnast , born in Tokyo, J apan, April 8, 1947 , to carry th e American flag in th e ope ning ceremonies. From that moment on it was to be a memorable occasion for the U .S. gy mnasts. For it was to come to pass that an American tea m would proudly mount the victory platform to receive a medal in internation al competition in Europe. This , of course, is not the first time this has happened , but it was the first time since 192 4 tha t it has happened with all major gy mnas tic powers in the meet. (In 1967, for exampl e, the American Universiade tea m fini shed seco nd , but none of the Communis t co untries we re in the meet. ) The Competition The tea ms were divided into five groups, with three teams in each group and three events at a time. G roup A: Bulgaria, Finland and Norway together a nd Italy. Group B: Great Britain (two gym nas ts) and Tunisia (2), Ge rmany , Algeria Group C : Yugos lovia, Canada, J a pan Group D : Sweden (3 gy mnasts) and Luxembourg (I gy mn ast), Hunga ry , U.S.A. G roup E: France, Switzerland (I gymnas t) a nd Austria ( I gymn ast) , Russia All together th ere were 90 gy mn asts represe nting 19 co untrie s. Makoto Sakamoto indicated that to the best of hi s knowledge the J a pa nese had sent the best tea m they could under the rule s (a ll had to be universit y stude nt s), but not one of them had made the J a panese Worl d Ga mes team!!!!! The Ita li a n team did a fine job and were guided by Menicelli. The Yugos lovi ans were a surpri sing fourth , wi th the Hungarians fifth . Mauno Nissenen was not at hi s best as he fin ished 18th with 53.45 , a nd hi s tea m fin ished ninth. Makoto Sakamoto, Paul Ticke noff, Bob Emery a nd F red Turoff did themselves proud (and all fini shed ahead of N issenen) as they left the U.S. with nothing on their mind s but the th ought of do ing as we ll as possi ble in th e co mpet itio n and carried this attitude with the m throughout the training pe riod a nd th e co mpetition. Aft er they did their thing the y relaxed , but until the co mpet ition was over, th ey were unit ed in th ei r goa ls. Makoto found him self competiting in the univers it y c ha mpionships after all in the 1970 season ; after being denied a year of e ligibility fo r competition in the NCAA this past seaso n, Makoto geared hi s training for the World University Games a nd the World C hampion ships and finished th e first part of this goal in high fas hion. Ma koto 's floor exercise routin e ba rely met the diffic ult y requirements but was performed fl aw less ly. On the side horse he hit the ho rse two or three times slightl y and still scored 9.25 _ on th e rings he did very well and scored 9.5, hi s weakest eve nt was the vaulting ; were he did a good ya mas hita va ult but the va ult being worth onl y 9.7 , his 9.25 was about all he could ho pe for. Hi s Ya mas hita with V2 twi st was no t exec ut ed we ll , so 9.25 o n LH did not help o r hurt him much. Hi s 9.5 on pb was poss ibl y low, but how can one a rgue fo r. I tenth more ! On th e H B Ma koto did a fine job except for form breaks on hi s hec ht wi th full twist di s mo unt (hi s reverse kip is weak , but double German out almos t makes up for it) .