Some things only work in the movies. Gymnast Josh Turner learned that last Monday while practicing a release on the horizontal bar.

He was in the air when he realized the high bar was no longer in his hand. After hitting the mat, Turner looked at his dislocated left elbow. He tried to push it back in by banging it against the upright of the bar. Then he tried using his right fist.

"You know that scene in Lethal Weapon 2 when Mel Gibson hits his shoulder against the file cabinet," Turner said. "I thought, 'It's out --let's get this sucker back in.' "

While Turner was on the high bar, freshman Joe Roemer was waiting for his turn on the apparatus. Turner remembered hearing a scream and seeing his teammate run from the gym to find the trainer.

"I knew he wasn't going to catch the bar, but people miss the bar all the time," Roemer said. "People miss the bar, and they're fine."

When Turner hit the mat, he knew he wasn't fine. He recalled shaking as thoughts of his gymnastics career raced through his mind. His first thought concerned the immediate future -- he knew he'd be out for the season. His next thought dealt with long-term possibilities.

"The second thing was, 'Am I ever going to come back? Ever?' " the freshman wondered.

There are always "what ifs" when an injury occurs. What if he had a spotter? What if he had a mat thrown in? At the time, these were things Turner hadn't considered -- because Turner never considered falling. He envisioned himself hitting the release.

In addition to his own anger at the injury, Turner said he felt that Lion Coach Randy Jepson was mad at him.

"I thought he was because I got hurt," Turner said. "Because in my other teams, when someone got hurt, (the coaches) got mad."

Although Jepson said he was not mad at Turner, the freshamn might have avoided the injury if he had landed differently. Ironically, Jepson recently had instructed Turner on how to land in that type of situation.

"He just happened to get hurt doing the thing I told him to avoid," Jepson said. "But I'm not upset. No one goes out to try to get injured."

With the intrinsic uncertainty of recovery lingering in his mind, and the possibility of red shirting expired, Turner briefly considered quitting. He spent a lot of time thinking. Then he consulted teammate Brandy Wood.

"I was telling him that every time you get injured, your spirits get down, and just stick through it," Wood advised. "Everybody gets injured."

Turner is not a stranger to injury -- few gymnasts are. However, the high risk of injury associated with gymnastics is not a comforting reality. Turner just didn't want to experience the pain anymore. But after weighing his options, he could not bring himself to quit.

"Even if I can't make a full recovery, I'm certainly going to try," Turner said. "I'm not going to give up . . . That would be against anything I've ever done."

With a little dedication and plenty of optimism, Turner's struggle to recover could fit into a Hollywood script -- complete with a happy ending.