My Handstand Journey with Dave Durante

My Handstand Journey

"I’ve had many coaches over the years that have all aided in my gymnastics career in different ways. As mentioned in this video, I started out at a great club in New Jersey called Surgent’s Elite. I remember learning to love handstands while training at Surgent’s. Being inverted was something I couldn’t get enough of. When I was a kid, competitions would always end with a handstand contest. Most competition organizers back in the day didn’t have very advanced scoring systems, so most were done by hand which, as you might imagine, took a long time to calculate. So while we were all sitting around, they would have all the competitors participate in handstand competitions for little prizes. Longest freestanding wins (walking allowed). To me, winning these handstand competitions was as important as the competition! I made a point to only walk if absolutely necessary. I always tried to see if I could win, without walking. I didn’t always win, but I won more than I lost and it became a part of my gymnastics that I was known for early on in my career.

When I finally got to college my freshman year I was in awe at the precision with which the guys training. For many reasons, I still feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to attend Stanford University. One of those reasons is being able to train under a coaching staff that was led by the legendary coach, Sadao Hamada. By the time I got there Sadao was towards the end of his storied career (he retired the year I graduated), but one of the many things he was known for was an attention to detail. He applied his Japanese gymnastics background into the way he coached. He expected us to not be athletes, but rather artists. I loved this approach and it was something synonymous with Stanford gymnastics. We might not have been the highest flyers in the world, but we performed with a respect for the sport. The Japanese gymnasts have always been (and continue to be in my opinion) the gold standard with regards to elegant gymnastics. 

Sadao gave us a glimpse into this type of training and it was reinforced with the coaches that we had come in as guests over the years. Every 2 years a Japanese former Olympian would come assist in coaching the team. They were there to improve their English and in return helped coach us improve as athletes. I can’t express enough how incredible of an opportunity this turned out to be. Many incredible coaches came through those doors over the years (Koichi Endo, Mutsumi Harada, Koichi Mizushima, Yoshiaki Hatakeda, etc.). All had some impact on my approach, but Yoshi Hatakeda was around during my most critical years as an athlete, when I first made Team USA. While he didn’t speak much English, he always knew how to get across to me and my teammates. Yoshi had been one of the all time great gymnasts himself, and we knew we were lucky to have him with us.* I will always be grateful for his years with us at Stanford. He instilled a great understanding of what not just the technical side of the sport, but what gymnastics should look like to the audience/judges. It becomes a performance where you show the world the elegance of the sport. The Japanese have always done this better than most.

 After I retired, I ran into Yoshi at a World Championships where I was a spectator and he was a coach. We were catching up and a reporter was asking about our relationship. He told the reporter that while I was an American gymnast, he always thought I had performed like a Japanese gymnast. I almost cried when I heard him say that. It was the greatest compliment I was ever given about my gymnastics and I’ll never forget it.  I have him, Sadao, and so many others to thank for all their help over the years.

*After Stanford, Yoshi went on to coach the greatest gymnast of all time, Kohei Uchimura, during his epic run of World and Olympic All Around Championships. He also has 2 daughters that have become some of the top Japanese gymnasts in the country."

-Dave Durante


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