Scared?

All the time.

Release moves 10 feet above the ground.

Blind double twists.

Big tricky tricks.

But with great risk comes great reward.

Joshua Yee knows all about that.

The 17-year-old from Hawaiian Island Twisters Gym became the first male gymnast from Hawaii to qualify for the VISA Championships when he placed in the top 18 at last month’s Men’s Junior Olympic National Championships in Long Beach, Calif.

The incoming 5-foot-7, 140-pound senior at Myron B. Thompson Academy has about eight more weeks of 5- to 8-hour training days to prepare for the Aug. 17-20 VISA Championships in Saint Paul, Minn.,

The goal is to finish in the top seven and make the U.S. junior national elite team. The dream is to do well enough to qualify for the 2012 Olympic Trials.

“I want to at least make the trials,” Yee said. “Although I think 2016 is more realistic.”

After just missing the VISA event last year — he placed 19th by a tenth of a point — Yee went into last month’s competition injured (shoulder and ankle) and sick. The Level 10 gymnast watered down some of his routines, wanting to be solid but needing to be a bit conservative.

“I’m disappointed that I didn’t have that great of a meet,” said Yee, who competed against more than 200 in the 16-18 division. “It was intense because you’re also wanting to show colleges what you have.

“I’m happy and relieved to make top 18. I hope to throw in some new stuff, do a couple of release moves and bigger tumbling moves that I couldn’t do at nationals.”

Yee will be going up against 29 of the top teenagers in the sport.

“This is just another steppingstone in his career,” said Joe Rapp, HIT’s founder and one of Yee’s coaches. “It’s a great accomplishment, being the first for any boy from Hawaii.

“I don’t see why 2016 (Olympics) isn’t realistic. If he stays on track, he should be there. He does all the things you have to do to be at that level, coming in early, staying late, and being self-motivated.”

Some of that is out of necessity. Although interest in the sport is at an all-time high for males in Hawaii, Rapp said, Yee is the lone Level 10 male in the state. (There’s also just one each at levels 9 and 8).

“It’s good and bad, competing against yourself,” said Michael Yee, Josh’s brother and coach. “He doesn’t have to worry about the other guys and can work on what you need to work on.

“But you never see how far you are. You can get a little stressed, wondering how you compare at the national level.”

Michael Yee gave up competitive gymnastics a few years ago. Asked about his younger brother’s potential, the 19-year-old said he didn’t see it in the beginning.

“He was 10, I was 12, we were just having fun,” Michael Yee said. “But as we started going to bigger competitions, I saw how hard he worked. I saw the potential.

“I was really proud of him in Long Beach. He worked through being sick, being hurt. I’m excited that he’s done so well. We’ve been in the gym a long time. It’s like home.”

The Yees are a gymnastics family. Mother Lori competed in high school in Washington state.

The family moved to Hawaii from North Carolina in 1995 when father, Mark, got his orders from the Army. Josh was a year old, and he and his mother started out in a Mommy & Me class, a fitness program for moms and young children.

“I could tell even then that Josh was a daredevil,” said Lori Yee, an instructor at HIT. “He was always talented but wasn’t serious in the beginning.

“He is very focused, probably the toughest coach he’s ever had is himself. He keeps getting better. To have an Olympian in the family would be amazing. He wants it, to go to college, to compete nationally and internationally.”

The recruiting videos are starting to go out to some of the 18 Division I schools that offer the sport. The Yees are looking at mostly Big Ten schools, such as Illinois, Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State, as well as Oklahoma.

Yee’s best scores last month came on the parallel bars, where he was third in the prelims and fourth in the final. But his favorite event is the horizontal bar.

“I love to get on it,” he said. “I enjoy the view.”