It’s time for the 95th 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.

Are you worried about China being in the first subdivision at the Olympics and getting really low scores even if they hit? Do you think the judges will be more harsh in this subdivision so they won’t make any finals?

Not really. There definitely does end up being some bias against the earlier rotations, but it’s not so bad that it’ll keep those with truly strong event finals chances out of the finals. Like, Fan Yilin and Shang Chunsong especially are so strong on their key events, they’re definitely going to get in unless they make big mistakes, in which case they probably wouldn’t have made it in had they been in later sessions. When you’re in an earlier session, it’s not so much that the judges are scoring you lower than they would later on, but rather more like they’re using you to set the standard for the day. If Shang hits beam perfectly with no wobbles and gets a 15.5, it’s easier to judge someone later on who has an equally difficult routine and a big mistake.

Judges also tend to generally be good at ranking, so whether it’s someone else being ranked against Shang as the benchmark, or Shang being the benchmark for other routines, it’s probably going to work out for her if she hits. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone in an early session get screwed out of an event final in which they would’ve been a medal contender. If it does happen occasionally, it’ll be a girl who placed eighth in the last subdivision versus a girl who placed ninth coming in from the first, which sucks but generally isn’t a podium decider. Even if things are a little tighter in the first subdivision, I think if the Chinese girls do what they’ve been training to do and hit their events, they’ll definitely get one on vault, two in on bars, and at least one on both beam and floor.

What exactly are “Brestyan legs”? I heard they have killer leg conditioning but what exactly are they doing?

Mihai Brestyan is known for a kind of leg conditioning called plyometrics, which involves lots of jumping, basically…up and down onto high piles of mats, doing split jumps on each leg from squat positions, doing a million back tucks in a row…basically any leg workouts that build strength and muscle to make your legs indestructible, which is why Aly Raisman can drill her knees into the mat on her vault and walk away like nothing happened. The Brestyan girls get this kind of leg conditioning from an early age and think nothing of it, but when Brestyan has the girls at camp go through his plyometrics training, they all say 20 minutes of plyos feels like an entire workout. The more you build lower leg strength, the easier it is to get through leg routines like vault and floor without injury, which is why Aly has basically gone her entire elite career with only minor issues, nothing that’s taken her out completely.

How do some of the Belgians not get deductions for having lyrics when some – like Gaelle Mys – have clear words said blatantly several times? How do judges apply this rule?

They may have cleared it with the FIG…even though words are said clearly within the music, they could likely get away with it not being an obvious lyric, which would be more like a phrase or something along those lines. Some gymnasts have a word here or there in their routines, but they can double check first to make sure it’ll be allowed, which is what Aimee Boorman did with Simone Biles’ music when people brought up the fact that there could potentially be an issue. Given that Gaelle has competed her routine at several meets, including FIG events like worlds and the test event, I would imagine the FIG has okayed it otherwise she would’ve faced a penalty.

Are there any updates on Beth Tweddle’s injury and recovery? I remember seeing a picture with her in a neck brace but I thought initial reports said she had surgery on her back. I hope she’s doing okay!

She actually posted on handstand day over the weekend about not currently being able to do a handstand because of the injury, but for the most part she seems to be doing well considering what a scary injury it was. She’s going to the gym — regular gym, not gymnastics gym — and basically is living her life the way she was before the injury, so I’m glad it wasn’t more damaging or potentially life-threatening when it very easily could have been.

How does scoring work at NCAA regionals and nationals when there are four judges?

They drop the bottom and top score so only the two middle scores are averaged. If a gymnast gets a 9.8, 9.85, 9.9, and 10, only the 9.85 and 9.9 are averaged to come up with a 9.875 rather than the 9.8875 it would’ve been with all four weighing in. A subtle difference typically, and I think I’d prefer averaging all scores because it creates more of a difference between routines, which I think is needed in NCAA where 10+ routines all get the same score at bigger meets. When a separate event finals day was a thing at NCAA, in order to create more of a score difference, they used more judges and averaged a greater number of scores rather than just two, which made it so much easier to differentiate good from great, almost impossible to do when all hit routines are generally within a tenth from one another.

How do individuals qualify to NCAA Championships?

Individuals can qualify as all-arounders or as event specialists through regional championships. The top two all-arounders not part of qualifying teams advance to nationals, as does anyone who wins an event title. So, to use this year as an example, at the Ann Arbor regional, Auburn and Stanford both qualified to nationals and Michigan didn’t. Nicole Artz and Brianna Brown had the two best all-around scores among gymnasts not from Auburn or Stanford, so they qualified as all-arounders, and four gymnasts not from the qualifying teams all earned scores of 9.9 to share the floor title, so Talia Chiarelli (Michigan), Rachel Slocum (Eastern Michigan), Briannah Tsang (Penn State), and Lindsay Offutt (Pittsburgh) all earned floor spots at nationals.

Why are Yurchenko and handspring/tsuk vaults not judged equally in terms of e-scores? Most of the times a messy FTY gets a better e-score than a decent handspring vault. Any insight?

I don’t know why there would be a bias toward Yurchenko vaults, if one exists. What I’ve actually noticed is that those doing Yurchenko entry vaults tend to be stronger gymnasts in general, coming from bigger programs with more resources. A Yurchenko is easier to do than a handspring or tsuk vault, but it’s much more difficult to teach as a coach or master as a gymnast, so it would make sense if you see a more advanced gymnast from a better coaching system doing a Yurchenko with a higher e-score compared to a weaker gymnast on her handspring front pike or something.

That aside, you have to consider that it’s not just about messy but rather also about block, amplitude, and so on. I remember at American Cup in 2013, Gabby Jupp did an FTY about five feet from my face and it was gorgeous. Perfect form, near-perfect landing…and an e-score of 8.866. I remember looking at the two people sitting on either side of me and we were all like “you’ve got to be kidding me.” I seriously wanted to see that vault go 14.4, at least. Katelyn Ohashi’s DTY, meanwhile, was not as clean in the air and was far shorter on the landing with her chest down and knees super bent and she got a 9.1 e-score. But going back and watching, you could see that Katelyn got about five extra feet further than Gabby, and her block was stronger, which really matters. Often, for whatever reason, many of the easier handspring or tsuk entry vaults tend to not be as powerful and so they’re probably hit with deductions there whereas a sloppier but bigger FTY will pick up a few tenths that way.

I watch most of the world challenge cup events where you get to see a lot of the same lesser-known gymnasts competing in finals throughout the season. Since gymnasts have to perform two different family vaults, I’ve noticed that for the most part, each gymnast scores similarly on each of her vaults whether she’s doing a Yurchenko, tsuk, or handspring. Watching how one gymnast gets scored performing two different entries makes it easier to compare e-scores between the two. Generally, if they hit both, they’re super equal in terms of e-scores, so it might just be that the Yurchenko vaulters you’re seeing – while maybe slightly messier – are just otherwise stronger than the handspring/tsuk entry vaulters you’re seeing, who may look cleaner but may have other issues that are more difficult to detect.

I’ve been looking for high quality gymnastics prints from the 70s-90s that I could actually hang on the wall in a frame. Do you know of any photographers or sites that sell these?

No, unfortunately I don’t, but you could probably find images you like online and see if a print company could enlarge and print them for you? I don’t know of anyone who really sells gymnastics photo merchandise though. Maybe someone who reads this will be able to help a little more than I can.

I’ve heard people say Ashton Locklear is overscored on bars compared to Madison Kocian. I don’t really think so, aside from occasional missed handstands and soft knees in her series. What do you think?

I don’t think I’ve ever heard people say that Ashton is overscored compared to Madison…in fact, I think what I usually hear from fans is that Ashton is the preferred among the two because she tends to be cleaner and sharper with her skills! I agree that Ashton is the more technically proficient of the two. At nationals, the only things I could pick out from Ashton’s were super nit-picky handstand issues…and even then, she was typically only a hair shy of being on top of the bar. Madison has some similar not-quite-handstands and slightly late pirouettes, but beyond that she also tends to break her form a bit more. It’s very slight – we’re talking things like ankle separation on her pak and flexed feet on her Jaeger – but it’s still there and makes Ashton the stronger of the two, even if it is by just a tenth or two. But Madison typically is able to make up for those couple of tenths because her start value – a 6.7 when she connects her inbar full to the rest of her opening sequence – is two tenths higher than Ashton’s. They’re basically equal.

With a lot of the Canadian athletes going off to school next year, how do you feel about the future of the senior team?

Canada has some tremendously talented juniors coming up, especially in Jade Chrobok next year and then Ana Padurariu in 2018. Also, while most of the current seniors are leaving for college, Rose-Kaying Woo, Shallon Olsen, and Megan Roberts still have a few years left before college is in their plans. Like, Kyla Ross competed as a first-year senior in 2012 and stayed elite for the entire rest of the quad with the goal of reaching 2016 and then starting college right after, so I don’t think we’ll be entirely done with these girls or several others who turned senior this year and still have potential for the future. In addition, there are several juniors who might not look like they’re on track for superstardom, but many are so young, you don’t know what they might pull out when they reach 15 or 16. There’s a ton of promise and I think the future is very bright!

What do you predict will happen for Team Romania in the next quad?

What I HOPE will happen is that they figure out a way to coach talented juniors to the senior level and then give these girls multiple opportunities to prove themselves as seniors rather than letting them go to one or two meets and then threatening to bring back Catalina Ponor. What I PREDICT will happen is that no changes will be made on a level that would ensure anything more than temporary solutions. That has been their game plan for the past decade now with all energy focused on getting through whatever current competition is happening and no attention to the future of the program’s health overall, and unfortunately I don’t see this changing anytime soon.

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Article by Lauren Hopkins