Lauren here! I often spend a lot of my time answering questions from gym fans on my tumblr, but more often than not, I see similar questions and answering every last one takes up a ton of space. Why not bring these questions out into the open? We’ll answer as many questions as we can get to in each post, probably two or three times a week, so the whole gymternet can benefit from these discussions. Have any burning questions? Email thegymternet at gmail dot com or submit anonymously through the contact form at the bottom of this post! Don’t forget to comment if you have thoughts about what we’re talking about.

So is Peyton Ernst out for like the rest of the year? Or can she recover enough for a chance at the World Cups later this year?

I would say she’s out for the rest of the year, yes. I’ve heard she dislocated her shoulder and had surgery for a labral tear. It takes about 8 to 12 weeks for the labral tear to heal back to the bone, which is when you can start putting significant stress on your shoulder again. I’d say she’s definitely doing light conditioning until at least November, and I don’t think we’ll see her training full routines until the new year. The World Cups are definitely not an option, unfortunately.

Irina Alexeeva’s coach is Valeri, isn’t he? So when Valeri becomes the national team coordinator would he continue coaching her as she’s not a U.S. citizen? Do you think that she should just compete for USA and not complicate her life? Thanks!

Irina is actually with Natalya and Megan now that Valeri has shifted his emphasis from coaching to the USA Gymnastics development program. If he were to take over in Martha Karolyi’s role as the coordinator for the national team, I would think coaching any athlete would be a conflict of interest, so he would probably just keep his entire focus on the national team program and not in his gym, which is basically what he’s been segueing into over the past year from my understanding. In terms of Irina, I’m not sure how it works out with training in the USA and competing for Russia, especially since their national team program is centralized. I would think if she became a big hope for Tokyo 2020, she would eventually have to move to Round Lake?

Has there been anymore information coming out from Canada about what the heck is going on with Victoria Moors? What exactly happened with her at the Commonwealth Games? From what I can tell she won’t be competing at Pan Ams this weekend? is that what you’re hearing too?

She is definitely not competing at Pan Ams this weekend, you’re correct. Gymnastics Canada hasn’t responded to our question about her withdrawal from the CWGs, and their press release was very vague…we just know she’s not injured. Moors’ coach, Elvira Saadi, wasn’t in Glasgow with the team so people are assuming that she found it difficult to train and compete withour her personal coach and was just having a difficult time mentally preparing for the Games. This is all speculation, however.

In terms of Pan Ams, Canada planned on sending a B team basically since the international field isn’t much of a threat. Maegan Chant wasn’t initially on the list, but was one of two replacements added after Ella Douglas withdrew due to a surgery she had scheduled (Ellie Black was the first replacement but was herself replaced, as they want to rest her before Worlds). There are actually a couple of members of team Canada who aren’t even on the current national team, including Madison Copiak, Hélody Cyrenne, and Kirsten Peterman.

Who do you think USA is going to send to Worlds this year?

At this point, I’d say Kyla Ross, Simone Biles, Mykayla Skinner, and Ashton Locklear are all but locks. I think the final two spots plus the alternate spot will be between Alyssa Baumann, Madison Kocian, Maggie Nichols, Amelia Hundley, and Brenna Dowell.

Dowell told us at Championships that she hopes to get her all-around back for the Worlds team selection camp, in which case I think she’d take one of the spots because she could contribute an Amanar on vault in addition to a 15+ bars score. But with beam on the weak side this year, Alyssa Baumann has shown that she is super consistent on that event and could be a huge help. While Madison Kocian’s bars are amazing, I don’t think the U.S. needs them this year as much as they did in the past…and Locklear already looks like she’ll be taking the bars specialist spot. While two bars specialists would have been useful at one point in time, with Locklear and Ross up on the event in team finals, the third spot could go to almost anyone (ahem, except Skinner). This is where Maggie Nichols fits in. She’s not as good as Kocian on bars, but she has a strong score and can fill in absolutely anywhere else if someone can’t perform. I definitely think Nichols will fill the role Aly Raisman filled in 2010, though I don’t consider her a lock just yet if only because the needs of the team won’t be fully determined until Worlds get closer.

If I had to choose right now, based on what we’ve seen so far this summer I’d go with Ross, Biles, Skinner, Locklear, Nichols, and Baumann. Amelia Hundley makes sense to me as the alternate because she has four solid events and could step in anywhere in a pinch. But I think Dowell could throw a wrench into this potential team situation if she has her Amanar and shows she can hit her bars consistently.

How do you think Russia will do compared to the U.S. at Worlds based on how the Russian Cup is going?

I think Russia definitely has a few problem spots that the U.S. doesn’t have…namely vault and floor. they should be able to put up some very nice bars and beam work, even though they don’t look quite as strong here as they’ve been in the past. They do have some lovely floor work, but definitely no one who can compete with Simone Biles or Mykayla Skinner. I think their problem is that they have so much talented concentrated inside maybe two athletes…but their overall depth is very weak. They did look much better in Penza than I thought they would, so I have no doubt they could make the podium in Nanning. However, I don’t think they’ll present much of a challenge to the U.S. team.

What did you think of Gabby’s most recent interview? She was like “don’t let anyone tell you that you are nothing without them, don’t let anyone bully you.” Was she trying to allude to Chow?

I didn’t get that impression, but the first quote makes sense in the context of her leaving Chow. I can’t imagine him telling a gymnast they’re nothing without him, so that could have alluded to her time at Excalibur as well, where she said she was bullied. In regards to this whole situation, neither side seems to have handled it incredibly well based on what I’ve heard from people in the gym but I don’t know enough about it to have an informed opinion, since everything I know is hearsay. All I know is that so far, Gabby has left two gyms on bad terms so she’s the one not looking good in the situation, which is unfortunate, because people seem to love to hate her for some reason. Thankfully, she seems to be happy in Ohio and is in a really stable living situation so hopefully this works out for her because she is so talented!

What’s your opinion on Aliya bringing her Arabian back into her beam routine? I thought her beam looked really good besides the fall. Vika’s giants are worrying me! Girl needs to learn how to pike instead of bending, so she doesn’t keep hitting the low bar. Glad that Russian judges gave Paseka a reasonable score on her Amanar in the 14s. Anyway, WHAT IS UP WITH DOMESTIC BEAM SCORING?! The scores Biles, Ross, Kharenkova, and Mustafina have been getting are ridiculous.

I have no problems or concerns about her Arabian! She did do it onto the sting pad, which tells me she’s still trying to play it safe due to her ankle so I’m not sure if it’s the best idea? But I thought it was nice ahd high and didn’t seem to cause her any problems. I loved her beam…the connection on her switch side to Onodi to side aerial was very slow, and then of course, she fell, so I’m not sure she will be able to connect those two combos in the next six weeks but it would be amazing if she could get it.

Beam scoring is definitely out of control. It seems as though judges are only looking at big mistakes rather than the entire routine? Because Kharenkova really did only have about three super obvious mistakes. My guess is that these routines are probably only overscored by about three or four tenths each, but with 8.1 and 8.2 execution scores with falls, it makes them seem obscene! But they’re probably not SO bad.

How do you feel about the interview Miller and Moceanu just did? Moceanu sounds a little bitter but she makes a few good points about the code, like how it makes no sense vault is the highest scoring potential event when it is the shortest and technically only entails one skill. It was so obvious when I read that but I had never even thought about it before.

I did agree with some of what Moceanu said, especially in terms of vault, as that is definitely a thought I’ve had before, especially when a gymnast wins an all-around and then you look at her scores and it’s like, vault is around 16 but her bars, beam, and floor are all in the high 13s. She is clearly not the best all-around gymnast, but could win because she happens to be amazing on that one event.

The only thing I didn’t like was the comparison to 1996. Gymnastics has changed for the better in many, many ways. But she acted like 1996 is the be all, end all to artistry when really, we’ve seen SO much good work being done in that sense. Different, but still good. I like seeing tumbling grow into what it has today. Sometimes it’s at the expense of artistry, like when they made jumping out of floor passes a bonus and suddenly everyone who couldn’t stick their landings was adding 90 degree leaps, and now with this corner rule, everyone awkwardly dances their way slowly into the corner before quickly bolting out.

But at the same time, change doesn’t happen overnight. Gymnastics is only about eight years into the open code. They’re still trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t work. Sometimes you need these little blips along the road. 1996 was the first year I got majorly into gymnastics as a kid so I obviously thought it was incredible, but I think what we’re seeing now is just as incredible, in a different way. Positive change to the sport is what we’re after. That will eventually happen with what the FIG is doing with the code now. That won’t happen if you’re stuck in 1996.

I want to thank you for all of the work you put into the gymternet. Your coverage is awesome! Do you think it’s better if gymnasts learn most of their skills before puberty/growth spurts or after? It seems like the young ones have a more difficult time keeping/upgrading their skills if they were awesome as tiny ones.

Thank you! I personally think it depends on the gymnast. Let’s look at the Amanar. Jordyn Wieber is a good example of a kid who could do this skill at 17 the same way she could do it at 13. Better, even!. But then you see girls like Mykayla Skinner and Lexie Priessman with their Amanars…both looked good when they were doing this skill at 13 or 14, but as they grew physically, they seemed like they didn’t have the control they had when they were smaller. They grew more powerful, but it didn’t make up for larger, more adult bodies.

In looking beyond vault, Aly Raisman is a good example of a kid who learned the majority of her skills when she was older/taller/bigger/stronger (the new lyrics to that Kanye song FYI), and she was able to peak right when she needed to at 18 years old. The same goes for Gabby Douglas, who added the majority of her difficulty in the Olympic year and we all know how that turned out. Meanwhile, Wieber had made some changes but not many between 13 and 17. She didn’t lose the skills she could do as a younger/smaller gymnast, but she didn’t upgrade either. I think this has a lot to do with peaking, because gymnasts peak at different ages. Some – like Raisman and Alicia Sacramone – just aren’t good enough to do skills they attempted at 15 or 16 but then become SO GOOD as older gymnasts, and reach their maximum potential in their late teens or even early 20s.

I definitely think it’s a case-by-case kind of deal, but I do sometimes get worried when I see girls going for broke at 13, like Lexie Priessman did. Amanar aside, I don’t think she necessarily lost most of her skills – she actually gained a bunch on bars and floor! – but I do think gymnasts tend to burn out quickly and lose steam if they’re doing high level skills at a very young age. So it’s not SO much about losing skills, but more about your body hitting its peak much earlier than it probably could have, if that makes sense.

At what point do you think kids trying to make the national team should just go back to level 10? A certain age? Progression of skills?

I think this has a lot to do with what your goal as an elite gymnast is. I think some elites go in with very realistic goals, like Macy Toronjo. Will she ever make a World Championship or Olympic team? No, and she knows it. Her goal for nationals this year was to have fun and hit her routines. I think Kim Zmeskal-Burdette said they didn’t even really look at her scores! You go girl. Do elite for as long as your heart desires. Who knows? You might even get lucky and thrown onto an international team like Brandie Jay and Jessie DeZiel did in 2011.

On the other hand, if your goal is the Olympic Games and you are nowhere near the level of other girls in your nation and elite gymnastics destroys you more than it is fun, it’s probably best for you to go to level 10 when you hit this point. My heart always breaks for Sabrina Vega, who truly thought she was going to make that team in 2012 up until they announced it. It’s one thing to believe in yourself and shoot for big dreams even if you have a small chance, but it’s another to make this your reason for living and let it negatively effect you when it doesn’t happen.

I know of one gym that has a requirement where if you don’t make it to nationals by the time you’re 15, you can no longer do elite. In a way, I understand this rule because chances are if you’re not top caliber at 15, you’re not going to suddenly have a breakthrough. But there are always always ALWAYS exceptions so I think having an arbitrary cutoff point isn’t a great idea, because what if Mihai Brestyan said “if you’re not exceptional as a junior, forget it?” Alicia and Aly wouldn’t have made it to Beijing or London.

Article by Lauren Hopkins
Photo thanks to USA Gymnastics