Fear factor: Injury never far from gymnasts' minds

Keith English was in the middle of his floor routine when it happened.

"I twisted off the floor, tumbled crooked and landed one foot on the gym floor and one on the floor. I tore like three ligaments," the Fremd senior recalled.

Although a year has passed since that painful day, English said the accident is never far from his mind.

"It scares me every time," he admitted.

English isn't alone in his feelings of unease. Almost every gymnast, at one point or another, has experienced that sense of apprehension.

Gymnastics, after all, is a sport that requires a person to fly through the air while twisting and turning in ways that are completely contrary to a body's natural inclination.

"The coaches tell you to jump up and then flip. Your reaction is to flip immediately," said Hoffman Estates senior Mark Rogalski. "So the way you do it right is really anti-logical for every move."

And to be a good gymnast, not only do you have to fight your body, you also have to fight your mind.

In order to perform a number of high-level tricks, a gymnast has to trust that his body will respond in the way he expects while simultaneously pushing out any thoughts of failure.

For some, the fear can get intense enough to immobilize.

"It can definitely petrify you," Rogalski said. "There have definitely been times where you're supposed to do something and your feet just stay to the ground and don't let go. I think a certain amount of fear is healthy but too much is a bad thing."

While every event provides some level of fear, no event strikes more terror into the hearts of high school gymnasts than the high bar.

With the bar hanging over nine feet in the air, there is always the possibility that a gymnast will lose his grip and go flying off the bar.

"It's the only event that people are terrified of," said Palatine coach Scott Hagel, who has had several gymnasts quit rather than face their fear of the high bar. "On high bar there are so many moves where the potential is always there for injury."

Hagel should know. As a Mundelein gymnast, he experienced the peril first hand.

"When I was in high school, I was doing a trick and peeled off the high bar sideways and ended up flying over a chalk tray and landed on the wood on my rear end," he said.

Although Hagel didn't suffer any serious injuries, his senior gymnast Danny Weiss wasn't as fortunate. As a sophomore, Weiss tore his posterior cruciate ligament while landing a dismount off the high bar.

"I don't do that dismount (anymore)," Weiss said. "It took a little while to get over it."

Weiss' anxiety isn't restricted to himself as he gets nervous whenever teammates Andre Gatarano and Matt Eckardt perform the same dismount.

An admitted daredevil, Weiss was able to overcome his trepidation and resumed competing on the high bar when he returned to gymnastics the following year.

However, for some, the memory of an injury can be too much to overcome.

Conant sophomore Anthony Crivolio hasn't gone near the high bar since his freshman season, which ended prematurely after he injured both knees during a high bar routine.

"Last year he was doing a double flyaway and he over- rotated and when he landed he kind of tweaked his knees," Cougars coach Paul Kim said.

"And one time he pulled it in a little bit and clipped his feet on the high bar doing a double flip. He hasn't touched the high bar all season long. Now I'm finally trying to get him there, but it took him almost a year to be back on that event."

Although the initial fear after an injury can be tough to overcome, it only magnifies the longer a gymnast avoids confronting that which haunts him.

"You have to get back up that instant or you're going to be afraid of it forever," Hagel said.

Barrington sophomore Kellen O'Connor understands the concept. A few weeks ago, O'Connor suffered a misstep while practicing on the vault.

"One of my feet missed the board and I just went right back," O'Connor said. "I was shaking a little bit but then you have to go back and do it again. If you don't, you'll never do it again."

Prospect senior Chris Mattes broke both his wrists in seventh grade and the memory is never far from his mind.

To help ease his worries, Mattes wears a pair of wristbands and makes sure to chalk up his hands before every floor routine.

"I'm still scared of breaking my wrists, so I always have my wristbands," he said.

It is common for many gymnasts to hold back due to fear of injury. Ironically, that self-preserving attitude often times leads to the very injury the gymnast is trying to avoid.

"You have to go for it or don't do it. There's no in-between," said Fremd coach Tim Hamman. "That's what we always tell our kids is you either go for it or don't. Never kind of go for it. Because when you kind of go for something, that's when you get hurt."

Only when a gymnast can let go and trust in his body and training can he truly excel at the sport. English, Fremd's top all-arounder, said that he uses the fear as motivation while having faith that his body will perform in the way that he has practiced countless times.

"I personally love it," English said. "I love to use the fear as adrenaline. You get scared and give it everything you've got. I just feed off of it."

The ability to overcome the fear and perform is the mark of a good gymnast. Top performers know that the fear never really goes away, but they have the mental fortitude to overcome it.

"That's the biggest thing. Everyone is scared," Hamman said. "You should be scared doing some of these skills or nervous the first time you do some of these skills. It's dangerous stuff, intense stuff.

"But those who are successful can overcome those fears. Those who can't will never be successful. That's the nature of this sport."