It’s time for the 86th 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 (unless they are super relevant and need to be answered in a timely manner). Something you want to know? Ask us anonymously by going through the contact form at the bottom of the page.

What do you think is the ideal trajectory for a gymnast to peak as a senior? Looking at the impressive results from the Hopes Classic, how can a girl achieving a 55 at 10 or 11 be at the top of her game when she turns 16?

Looking at results over the past two quads, the gymnasts who have been the most successful have been the ones who waited until they were seniors to begin reaching their full potential. The ones who emerged at 11 or 12 with senior-level difficulty struggled to upgrade from there and while they may have maintained that difficulty into their senior careers, those who held back as juniors and then exploded onto the scene as seniors tended to do better.

I think if you look at Katelyn Ohashi and Lexie Priessman especially, both were well-known in the gymnastics community at 11 thanks to some especially difficult routines (Katelyn with her huge skills on beam and Lexie with her Amanar). Both burned out pretty quickly, though, and by the time they reached 16 they were physically and mentally done. But then Simone Biles, who no one knew as a junior until her final junior year and who waited to really show her stuff until she was a senior, ended up going on to dominate as one of the best gymnasts of all time.

It’s easy to burn out mentally if you’re being given difficult skills and routines at a young age, because you’re not the one calling the shots and usually kids that age are afraid to stand up for themselves. They tend to think whatever the adult says is the law of the land, so if a coach says “you’re doing a 7.0 beam routine,” you do the routine. But once these girls get older, they tend to rebel a bit more. I remember when Lexie turned 16 and Mary Lee Tracy basically joked at one point that she couldn’t deal with her attitude anymore, and while the two were (and are!) still on good terms, eventually it was best for them to not be in a coach-athlete relationship anymore. It’s like the kids who have so much pent up frustration from being juniors pushed beyond their limits and not speaking up always end up being over it by the time they’re seniors, and while they still love the sport, they also want to have the chance to be normal teenagers.

But then look at gymnasts like Simone who are given more freedom to be kids when they can still be kids, and aren’t handed major responsibilities like Amanars and other high-difficulty routines  until they are physically and emotionally mature. By this point, a gymnast is more insightful and able to voice her feelings a bit better, and while the coach is still the coach, there’s a bit more collaboration. While some kids are like machines and can go through entire careers without missing a beat (ahem, KYLA ROSS), I think in general, this whole “wait until you can handle it” mentality is best. For the most part, there’s no need to bust out insanely difficult skills until you need them as a senior. By all means, train them in the gym (like Morgan Hurd throwing triple Yurchenkos into the pit for fun but sticking to a full in competition for her first two years as a junior and then making the upgrade to a DTY now that she’s 15 and will be a senior next year), but you don’t need a 60 AA as a junior. 

You need to do well enough to get the national team staff interested and to get international experience but you do not need to be at a senior level until you are a senior competitor. None of last year’s U.S. worlds team members were on the radar at 12 -14. They were competing as juniors, but all were 16 or older by the time they began to really stand out. Also consider this. In 2011, Katelyn had scores of 60.95 and 60.0 in the all-around at nationals to win the title while MyKayla, also 14, was 10th with scores of 54.7 on both days. If you were to guess who would go on to become a world gold medalist with a big shot at the 2016 Games, you’d probably pick Katelyn, and yet Katelyn’s the one who retired at 16 and MyKayla, now 19, is the one going on as an Olympic hopeful. I think these are perfect examples of why what you do as a junior doesn’t really matter if you can’t keep it going when it counts.

All of this in mind, every gymnast is different. Some 12-year-olds are more mature than some 22-year-olds and if they’re safely and confidently performing difficult skills, there’s no reason to limit them. But looking at how things typically work out and seeing generally that young standouts end up burning out before they reach their senior years, I don’t think it’s the best option for the majority.

Did Alyona and Polina Shchennikova switch gyms? Her parents own TIGAR, so was the parent-coach relationship not working? Is Polina still at TIGAR? Where has she been?

Alyona and Polina now train at 5280 Gymnastics. Her parents coached at TIGAR and moved with the girls to train at 5280, where they continue to coach their daughters. Polina has been struggling with injuries for the past few years and while she tried to make a comeback last year, those injuries got the best of her and she’s been unable to train and compete at a level she’d like to reach. I believe last year her injuries got so bad she had to withdraw from the second day of nationals. She’s a Michigan commit, though, so hopefully if elite doesn’t work out anymore, she’ll be able to enjoy moving on to college.

Why has Huang Huidan deteriorated so much over the second half of this quad? Did she just burn out or was it injury or something else?

She probably just reached her natural peak in 2014 and has been unable to keep up with some of the younger kids turning senior in the meantime. She was really only ever super strong on bars, and she’s actually still pretty awesome there, but she just doesn’t have something she can offer a team now that girls like Fan Yilin, Liu Tingting, and Tan Jiaxin exist, all of whom can do equally strong bar routines but can also contribute on at least one other event in a team final situation. It’s hard to keep up in general, but when you only really train one event at a high level of difficulty, it’s almost impossible to stand out when other girls are doing more.

I heard Larisa Iordache’s recovery isn’t going as planned and Catalina Ponor will most likely take Romania’s Olympic spot. Do you think Larisa can still surprise?

Larisa is actually still in the mix…I think the Romanian news source that reported Catalina as Romania’s Olympian did so as speculation, as the federation later went out and said that they have not made a decision and that Larisa will be back to training after a couple of weeks and is still in the running for a spot. Given that she hasn’t competed since the end of last year, I’m not feeling too optimistic, as there are only about 80 days until the Games and federations have to submit their athletes in about two months. Two months is not a lot of time to get back to full strength and then get to a medal contender level on top of that, so I do think Catalina will end up going by default…though I think if the two were at full strength, Larisa would have much greater medal and final potential, and it’s a shame to see her likely miss out after she was the heart and soul of this team all quad.

What’s your take on the rule that only event medalists at worlds obtain an Olympic spot? All-around medalists should be the first ones to receive an Olympic berth because they are strong on all events and have the most potential going into the Olympic year.

I think it probably exists for a logistical reason like when do we ever see an all-around medalist not part of a major team? With the exception of, like, Giulia Steingruber, is there anyone in the world who could realistically medal in the all-around who isn’t part of one of the twelve teams going to Rio as a full team? I’m looking at results for last year’s worlds now and after Steingruber and the Romanians, the only other non full-team gymnast in the all-around final was Noemi Makra. But while it once maybe seemed pointless to include the all-around medalist as part of the list of guaranteed Olympians, clearly that was proven false last year with Larisa Iordache winning and then her team not qualifying. I think Larisa absolutely deserves a spot based on her all-around medal and think it’s ridiculous that the prior worlds acts as a qualifier for top three apparatus medalists, the top eight teams, and then zero all-arounders. Like Jordyn Wieber in 2012, Larisa is likely yet another victim of a silly and arbitrary rule that makes absolutely no sense. I will never understand how it’s good for the sport to keep some of its best gymnasts in the world from reaching the Olympic Games or the all-around final at the Games.

Do you know what happened to Ekaterina Sokova? I haven’t seen her since the Trofeo di Nationi and I wonder if she’s still in training.

She was actually named to the training squad for Rio earlier this year but then was dealing with injury and is no longer really in contention due to her injuries. She’s still at Round Lake and I always see her in silly little videos the girls put up on social media on occasion but I don’t think we’ll see much from her this year.

I read somewhere that Kyla Ross was having problems with her feet touching the ground while swinging on uneven bars but Martha Karolyi wouldn’t let her change the height. Can the girls change the height if needed and if so, why would Martha object to it?

I don’t think it was a major struggle for her, and her feet never actually brushed the ground on giants, but I do think raising the bar could’ve helped her. I believe Georgia Rose Brown of Australia – who is about Kyla’s height – adjusts the bars when she goes up, so it’s definitely allowed. I’m not sure why it was never an option for Kyla, though I don’t think Martha was opposed to it.

Do you think the competition for this year’s team is more intense than in 2012?

Yes. In 2012, by the time Classics rolled around, there were four you knew would absolutely be on the team, no questions asked. There were maybe four or five others who were in consideration for the final spot, but it wasn’t such a huge puzzle and while there was a lot of depth, there were only a handful who were serious contenders. Like, 15 ended up going to Olympic Trials, and before that meet even started, you knew half were just there to fill spots. This year, I’m basically already like who are they going to cut for trials?! Because there are definitely 15 girls right now who could realistically fill spots on the team probably ten of whom are serious contenders. Also, only one – Simone Biles – is really a lock, meaning for the four spots open there are almost endless combinations and possibilities. They won’t just leave behind girls who are good, they’ll be leaving behind girls who are at the same exact level as the girls going. There’s just too many who are super strong who won’t get that chance, which is going to be incredibly intense once we get to nationals and trials and the naming of the team.

What do you think of Dominique Moceanu’s criticism of USA Gymnastics and the Karolyis in her book?

I think based on the fact that Bela Karolyi has faced a lot of criticism from Team USA gymnasts, he probably wasn’t the best as an authority figure for teenage girls and USA Gym was right to replace him (especially after 2000 where he wasn’t even officially part of the team and yet still managed to be a source of negativity for many of the girls, some of whom are as outspoken about it as Dominique is). I don’t think it’s “sour grapes” as some have said. I think as a 14-year-old girl, she took a lot of the Karolyis’ actions personally and as her book is about her experience, she has the right to discuss what she personally went through with them. I think things are SO different now, Dominique’s experiences aren’t really that relevant anymore, but she still has the right to discuss what she went through.

That said, look at what McKayla Maroney came out to say about her own coaches and on a lesser scale, Martha and the national team program. Things are definitely different than they were in the 90s, but every gymnast is going to experience things differently. I think the system now has a pretty solid balance of both reaching for big team success while simultaneously acting in the best interest of the girls, so in that sense it’s much different than what Dominique went through, but at the same time there are probably several girls in McKayla’s shoes who may not feel comfortable with some aspects and, like McKayla, are too afraid to speak up.

In one history class I took in high school, we read a lot of personal accounts of WWII, and I had to write a paper discussing the pros and cons of memoirs as well as how they compare to straight up history books just listing facts. Every individual experiences something in his or her own way, and so one gymnast’s horrible experience can still be true and accurate without it being everyone’s experience. Look at this whole Penn State mess…many of the walk-ons from recent years are describing horrendous treatment on behalf of the coaching staff while their teammates who were superstar standouts are trying to discredit them and discussing their own experiences as the best time of their lives. We can’t really judge someone else’s reality in a situation by what we went through in the same situation, so while I’m sure there are many who don’t like what Dominque has to say, I think her opinions are based on her personal situation and no one should be allowed to discredit or downplay what she went through even if others didn’t happen to agree with her side.

I saw that Simone Biles had a 6.4 d-score on one of her vaults last year because of a stick bonus. I am assuming this is only in the U.S. but why do we have that? Is it on all events? Can you get an extra four tenths if you stick all your passes on floor?

The U.S. has a stick bonus at domestic meets as kind of an incentive to get athletes to stick in competition, allowing for one stick per event (so only one pass on floor can get a one-tenth bonus). Basically, when the difference between a silver medal and a bronze medal at meets can be decided by a tenth, this gives the girls a reason to fight for stuck landings, which will carry over once they get to international meets even though the FIG doesn’t have things like stick bonuses. The U.S. also has other little rules, like downgrading FTYs to a 4.9 d-score for juniors and a 4.7 d-score for seniors as an incentive to get them to upgrade to more difficult vaults.

While this is the system the U.S. uses at domestic meets, they’re not the only country to use bonuses. The Chinese federation used stick bonuses at nationals this past week, and also had difficulty bonuses where they’d give a gymnast an extra two tenths on vault if she did a DTY, an extra three tenths on floor if she did an H level tumbling pass, and an extra couple of tenths for high-level dismounts on bars and beam. Wang Yan, for example, racked up five tenths in bonuses on floor, getting a 15.0 for a floor routine that in international competition would’ve been around a 14.5. Italy also uses a difficulty bonus in their Serie A meets, rewarding high-level vaults and difficult skills and combinations on the remaining events by giving out bonus tenths in order to get girls to actively focus on upgrading. While bonuses are meaningless internationally, at home they are great motivators.

What is the latest with Nica Hults? Is she still training at Texas Dreams? Is she still going to UCLA in the fall?

Nica was still training at Texas Dreams as of this past spring. She was competing level 10 and was doing well, including reaching a perfect 10 on beam at the Legends meet, but then fell on floor and I believe got a concussion that unfortunately took her out for the remainder of the season. She was apparently struggling with a mental block in the sport, and was just starting to get over it and enjoy competing again when her new injury happened, which was a major setback, sadly. She is not on UCLA’s roster for next season (which I think was originally the plan if I remember correctly?), but is now expected to enter for the 2017-2018 school year along with Nia Dennis.

Why does the U.S. reuse leotards? Some of the event finals leotards were the same at both the world championships and Pacific Rims and same for the leos at the Pac Rim team finals…they were also used in Glasgow. Wouldn’t they want to wear different leotards?

Basically leotards are incredibly expensive – like $300 apiece, sometimes more – and the U.S. brings out about 8-10 leos a year, most of which are debuted at worlds or the Olympics and then worn by the entire national team for the remainder of the season until the next set is debuted a year later. So if there are 10 leos a year at $300 apiece, that’s about $3000 per national team gymnast, so we’re talking upwards of $50,000 a year just on leotards. If they had to whip out a different set of leos for every international competition, there wouldn’t be any money left. Most countries do something similar with leos debuted at worlds and then worn for years later in some fashion. Many debut only one at worlds and that one leo design is worn pretty much everywhere, like Japan’s 2014 paint splatter leo which I think we saw in podium training, qualifications, team finals, individual finals, and at a bunch of meets after that.

Do you think Simone Biles’ new routine violates the lyrics rules regarding floor music?

It does! I believe Gymcastic alerted Aimee Boorman to the issue and she immediately set to work fixing it so that Simone wouldn’t incur unnecessary penalties.

Are you concerned that some gymnasts were pulled from finals at Pacific Rims and not others? Do you think they are dealing with injuries?

No. There was literally no reason for Simone to compete in event finals when she has nothing to prove, and Laurie was apparently dealing with a nagging injury and they didn’t want to make it worse by having her compete and possibly aggravating it. The goal this year is “make it to the Olympic Games,” not “compete in Pac Rims event finals.” That’s what Martha and the individual coaches are thinking when they have to make these decisions…do we want to injure a knee trying to win Pac Rims gold, or do we want to make it to the Olympic team?

When you come up with a new skill, how is the value determined? Do you think MyKayla Skinner will add in her new beam skill and her quad wolf turn on floor?

A panel of judges determines the new value. They look at the skill in comparison to other similar skills and rate it accordingly. For example, a back tuck with a full twist is rated F and a back layout with a full twist is rated G. Ragan Smith has been competing a back pike with a full twist, which is not in the code, so judges have to determine if it should be rated the same as a tuck full or a layout full, since there is no skill letter between F and G. Because a back tuck and a back pike on beam are both rated D, they might decide that a tuck full and pike full should thus both be rated the same as an F skill, but they could also justify it as a G by saying that the pike position in a full twist is much more difficult than a tuck position. The technical committee will probably conference about it and then determine based on a vote or something. Often there are problems with what they end up deciding, which is why the code is reviewed every four years and why many skills are either devalued or raised in value. It’s an imperfect science, basically. I think we could possibly see Skinner give her new skills a try, but only if they’re looking clean. I think the layout stepout full is probably more likely than the quad turn, since I think she was just kind of playing around with the turn and not doing it seriously, but from what I’ve heard she really wants to debut the new beam skill.

Rachel Baumann competed at P&G Championships but also at the Nastia Liukin Cup. What level does that make her?

Rachel was an elite last summer, but opted to drop back down to level ten this year. She is currently a level ten and competed at J.O. nationals earlier this month.

Will Gabby Douglas unveil a new floor routine or is it too late? What upgrades do you think we could see from her?

I don’t think we’ll see a brand new floor routine from her, but who knows…she had new routines between Jesolo and Classics last year, so I wouldn’t count it out! I think we’ll definitely see the Amanar this summer, probably another skill or two on bars, and hopefully at least one slightly upgraded tumbling pass on floor, but I’m not sure what.

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Article by Lauren Hopkins