By David Kiefer
STANFORD, Calif. - As Stanford gymnast Akash Modi earned his second NCAA all-around title, teammate Robert Neff quietly assembled a breakthrough 2017 season.
Neff won the NCAA high bar championship, was an all-around All-America, made the U.S. national team and reached the all-around finals at the World University Games.
It may be too soon to christen Neff as the face of the Cardinal in place of the now-graduated Modi. Both could make a run for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Neff is having an increased impact for Stanford, which prepares for this weekend's MPSF Championships as the postseason gets underway.
A four-time All-America senior, Neff is also a Nissen-Emery Award finalist, looking to become Stanford's sixth all-time honoree and second straight after Modi claimed last year's award. Neff owns the team's top all-around score (83.450) and is a potential force in the floor exercise, parallel bars and pommel horse.
"He's pretty motivated right now because he sees where he's at and how he stacks up, not just with the U.S. team, but internationally," said Stanford coach Thom Glielmi.
The jump to elite had some to do with overcoming a wrist injury from the previous season, but more with feeling comfortable with the training program.
Glielmi said its common to see great improvement when a gymnast gets to that point. But it's not easy, simply because the training is so difficult.
Neff said that last season he felt, "less nerves and more confidence in meets and training, and more enjoyment overall. Having a strong team of guys who are always pushing one another also created a great training culture."
Neff has learned to take advantage of his strengths: "I rely a lot more on spatial awareness and body awareness -- really knowing what I'm doing. Even though I might not be close physically to do something, I can figure out a way to get around that barrier."
Neff developed his style because of his background. His father, Richard, worked at G.E. Capital and ran financial service businesses that grew internationally. Robert lived in Australia, Switzerland, and England, before returning to his native Wisconsin for his sophomore year at Brookfield Academy.
He trained with Swiss Turners, the powerhouse Milwaukee club that produced Olympian brothers Paul, the 2004 all-around gold medalist, and Morgan Hamm, and U.S. national-teamer Marvin Kimble.
"I have a distinctive style that differentiates me from other gymnasts in the U.S.," he said. "In Switzerland, there was an emphasis on line, shape, and form. In England, I was pushed to maximize my skill acquisition to the detriment of form. Over the years, this has led to a hybrid of both systems."
A look at the team's majors reveals a math-heavy pattern: Mechanical engineering, engineering physics, aeronautics and astronautics, computer science, and science, technology and society.
Neff is working toward his bachelor's and master's degrees while co-terming in computer science. His interests range from the gaming industry to computer security. He finds gymnastics to be an extension of his science/math personality.
"I like things to be very ordered," Neff said. "Computer science is very much that way. It allows you to break down problems into smaller problems and deal with those. Most computer-science languages that you code have a pretty rigid structure, and I like that structure. Gymnastics requires a very similar structure in the way that you train, compete, and recover."
Since age 10, Neff has been a Star Wars fanatic. Thumbs up on the new film, he says, but his interests also were kindled by graphic novels. He slept in Star Wars sheets and surrounded by Star Wars action figures ("for display only," he says.).
"The mix of the hero's tale with the mysticism of 'the Force' really drew me in," Neff said. "I always thought Obi-Wan was the coolest character, but I don't really relate to any character specifically. I like to see myself existing as a unique hero if I were to be in the Star Wars universe."
Instead, he can be a 'unique hero' in the gymnastics universe, and that's quite enough for Stanford.
