Justin Spring's surgery for his torn right ACL on his vault on August 17th at U.S. Nationals went well today in Champaign Illinois. His coach Jon Valdez says he will be back 100% in 6 months: [quote]"The surgery went great," Valdez told IG. "It was a clean tear to the ACL, with no other damage to the knee. His doctors say he'll be tumbling in four months and at full strength in six months. Justin's spirits are high, and our goal is to do the all-around in 2008 and grab one of the guaranteed spots on the Olympic team." [/quote] "Surgery Successful for Spring" - http://intlgymnast.com/news/2007/aug/082807_spring.html Interesting fact: Dr. Robert Bane did the surgery - he trained under Dr. James Andrews who did surgery for Blaine Wilson in 2004. Here's the vault where Justin Spring tore his ACL, posted by himself: [youtube]QmYOFtPXVJo[/youtube] [quote]The vault where i blew out my ACL. I have done this vault so many times in my gym at home. I just kept rushing the block a little bit in competition. I'm going to try to use this to my advantage to get stronger in the all around when I come back in 2008.[/quote] The coach there really takes his time walking up to Justin. Here's the same vault, for Pan Am's training: [youtube]diB_O6xuT4A[/youtube] You can tell he barely finishes the twisting to land it, with pressure on his knees, and he lands off to the side - you have to be really careful on the twisting skills on your knees and ankles.

commentary on this from the IG message boards: [quote]1) Pre-flight shoulder angle is CLOSED on his left side, his hips are WAY too low with a tremendous lack of heel drive. 2) His left shoulder is blocking his rotation in the transitional phase resulting in a labored twist in the second flight phase. 3) He landed off [or to the right of] the landing mat placed where the vaulting cooridor would have been [a direct result of the problems with the pre-flight and left shoulder in the second flight phase. Notice that he hops back into the center of the mat after he finshes. 4) His landing was NOT easy or done well, it was LOW... Angle from the ankle to the knee [45 degrees] , angle from the knee to the hip [45 degrees] , angle from the hip to the shoulder [almost 90 degrees].[/quote]