It’s time for the 32nd edition of You Asked, The Gymternet Answered! We apologize if we haven’t gotten to your question yet, but we try to answer in the order in which they were received. Something you want to know? Ask us anonymously by going through the contact form at the bottom of the page!

I have been watching NCAA gymnastics every week this season. I am not sure what the commentators mean when a gymnast “cowboys” something. For example, Kytra Hunter from Florida “cowboyed” her double back dismount on beam. What does that mean?

When a tuck is “cowboyed” basically it means the legs are pulled back really far and apart, kind of making it look like the gymnast is straddling a horse like a cowboy would. It’s how divers tuck because that body position makes it aerodynamically easier to get multiple rotations around. However, it comes as a form deduction for gymnasts, where the tuck position is supposed to have knees/legs together in front of the body. If you want a good comparison, watch Nastia Liukin’s double front compared to Ivana Hong’s.

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See how Nastia’s knees are separated and Ivana’s are together? It’s the same skill, but Ivana is doing it in the correct form while Nastia is “cowboying” hers.

Why were the D-scores on bars so low at 2014 Youth Olympics?

I think for the most part because it was juniors who hadn’t yet put in upgrades that they’d be more likely to add as seniors, and because the majority of the girls who competed there weren’t from top nations, so overall the difficulty looked a bit low in comparison to what you’d see from top nations at a senior competition. Plus, there also just weren’t a lot of bar workers there in general…each country can only send one gymnast, and most seemed to send girls who had strengths elsewhere. Even the biggest names competing – Seda Tutkhalyan of Russia, Laura Jurca of Romania, Flavia Saraiva of Brazil, Ellie Downie of Great Britain, and Wang Yan of China – were all definitely not ‘bars gymnasts.’ It’s funny, because Tutkhalyan and Wang are both from countries known for producing great bar workers, but these two gymnasts are both pretty much anomalies, especially Wang, who really excels on vault and floor.

Sometimes I see American gymnasts at events I KNOW Marta isn’t sending girls – events like the Austrian Open or Massilia. I’ve never heard of any of the girls (the Massilia girls in particular looked quite young), and they never seem to do very well. So I have to wonder: Where are they coming from? Who is sending them?

These competitions are invitationals, not FIG-sponsored international meets, so gymnasts don’t need FIG licenses and don’t need to be sent by their federations to attend. The United States isn’t sending girls to these competitions…their gyms are. Some of them might not even want to attempt elite, but just want to have fun experiencing international competition, which is why their difficulty might be a bit lower than you’d normally see. The WOGA Classic and Nadia Comaneci Invitational are both U.S. examples of meets that are technically international elite meets, but that don’t require a national federation to send gymnasts or a team. There is one U.S. gymnast, Tienna Nguyen, who is currently attempting to qualify for elite and in the meantime is attending open international meets to gain experience. She missed qualifying at both the Buckeye and WOGA qualifiers, but is on the roster for International Gymnix this week because it’s a good way to get more experience. WOGA has actually also sent gymnasts to this meet in the past…I believe Samantha Ogden competed there last year, sent by her gym, not by Martha Karolyi.

I heard that Chen Siyi is training a 3.5 twist dismount on beam. Do you think it’s possible? And what would be the difficulty of that? G or H?

I think it’s possible for someone who can twist quickly, but can imagine it’s going to be super difficult to land. I think it’d be a G dismount…I know there’s a full jump over the E between the 2.5 and the triple, but I think that’s just the 2.5 pretty much became a standard elite level dismount whereas very few do the triple, so it made sense to skip E. But G makes sense as the next logical step up for the additional half twist, and the decision makers are usually somewhat reluctant to go above and beyond in terms of difficulty values, so I don’t think they’d create an H value just yet.

At their best/peak performances and under the current code of points would Gabby Douglas (in her peak in 2012) or Simone Biles (now) be stronger?

I personally think Simone is the stronger all-arounder of the two in that she would definitely beat 2012 Gabby on vault, beam, and floor, no problem. Gabby definitely had the edge on bars, but I do think Simone across the board is a bit more impressive as a whole both in terms of her difficulty and her execution.

How would you pronounce Maile O’Keefe’s name?

It sounds like MY-lee, like Miley Cyrus.

Do Bailie Key and Nia Dennis have a shot at beating Simone in the AA next year or in Rio?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it a billion more times over the course of my life…anything is possible in this sport. Anything could happen in the next 17 months, and both Bailie and Nia are on the right track in their training. In 2011 at Worlds, people didn’t think any other U.S. gymnast could beat Jordyn Wieber in the all-around, and about four months later at American Cup, Gabby Douglas – best known at that point for crashing on beam three times at 2011 nationals – bested her in the all-around and then won the Olympic AA gold. I think Gabby was someone many people least expected to threaten Jordyn’s dominance even 7 months before the Olympics, let alone 17 months before, so even though I think Simone is unstoppable, history tells us that the next year could have many, many surprises.

USA Gym have released official Pan Am selection requirements. Historically, how important of a meet are the Pan Am Games? Do more senior gymnasts typically attend the American Classic because its the only meet before Pan Ams?

Well, it depends on the year. In 2011, they were one of the least important competitions for the U.S. ladies, because they were held basically at the same time as World Championships, so the U.S. sent their “A team” to Worlds and their “B team” – which featured lots of injury comebacks and two gymnasts who didn’t even make the national team – to Pan Ams. This year, with Pan Ams being held before the U.S. Classic, I think it’ll be used more as a test for those who are trying to make the World team but still need a little experience, kind of like how Pan Am Championships were used for that last summer (i.e. not naming Simone or Kyla to the team because they didn’t really need to prove anything, but sending the girls who still needed to show Martha how they could compete in a team setting under pressure). I don’t think girls who are already qualified to the U.S. Classics will attend the American Classic, which is more of a qualifier, not a meet for top elites with a chance at Worlds. The Pan Ams team will be selected at the camp held around the same time as the American Classic, but through verification, not American Classic performances.

Do you find it worrying that many of the juniors are upgrading so much so fast, like Hernandez. A lot of junior stars burn out or get injured by their senior career, Priessman, Ohashi, Wieber, Komova etc, whereas gymnasts who took it slower when they were younger seem very successful, like Douglas, Raisman or Biles.

I do worry about juniors who do too much too soon…sometimes it works out for them, but if they’re doing skills that don’t look safe or that just cause physical burnout, there’s definitely a history of “too much too soon” leading to careers that didn’t quite go as planned. Ohashi and Priessman are great examples, as they were definitely doing very difficult skills at the ages of 12 and 13, so even though they looked like they’d dominate as seniors, they turned out to be kind of over it, both mentally and physically for Ohashi and then obviously physically for Priessman, though she still seems to really want elite to happen again.

Wieber and Komova…I mean, they still ended up to be the best in the world as seniors, so I wouldn’t say it was their junior upgrades that caused them to not win Olympic gold as it was just another gymnast having a better day…if you held that Olympic AA five times, you could easily have had five different outcomes for gold. Both Wieber and Komova were able to maintain the difficulty they gained as juniors, and I think it’s because physically they didn’t change too much…especially Komova, whose body didn’t really change into her adult body until after the Olympics. But both Priessman and Ohashi were doing their skills when they were SUPER TINY. It made sense that Priessman’s Amanar deteriorated as she grew A LOT, and same with Ohashi losing the ability to do some of her skills (or the form on them if she didn’t lose them completely) between 2011 and 2012.

So there’s definitely growth to look at as a factor, because if you learn skills as a tiny junior and then you grow, it’s almost like you have to relearn all of those skills over again, which is partly why Komova has been struggling in her comeback now that she’s super tall…and then when you look at Douglas and Raisman, they basically waited to upgrade until their bodies had changed into the bodies they’d have in the Olympic year, which definitely makes a difference. By that point, as seniors they’d also gained a kind of mental growth through experience that helped them handle their upgrades a little better. They got to the level Jordyn had been at since she was 13, and in the end they got the all-around final spots, though I wouldn’t call Jordyn not getting a finals spot an issue with burnout…there was such a tiny margin between her and Gabby, it literally came down to a tiny step or wobble or one missed connection rather than her having burned out too fast.

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Article by Lauren Hopkins