Question about Biles Warm-up Vaults

[Denn]

Hi everyone. Is there any time we have seen Biles do a Yurchenko layout timer while warming up vault before she started doing the double pike? My memory is that she usually did Yurchenko fulls for her first vault and Amanars from there. The only reason I know is that her Yurchenko full is so stupendously huge and gorgeous that I used to like to imagine she could get a 10 if she ever tried and stuck one.



I was watching back the team final and saw that her first timer was an enormous Yurchenko layout, like she did as a warm-up for the double pike. It struck me as odd she would start that way unless she was going to do the double pike, but maybe I just didn’t ever see her do that as a starting timer.

 

[RedBirdie]

Athletes only get two vaults in touch for team finals, so I don’t think we’ve missed a Y layout previously.

We heard Simone was struggling in warm-ups. I wonder if she did the Y layout in touch in hopes of getting her mind and/or body to “reset.”

 

[QuietColours]

Jordan also said at one point that Simone was giving them heart attacks in the back gym before one touch; I wonder if she couldn’t reliably land the full there, so they had her start with just the layout on podium

 

[onodian]

But I mean if she couldn’t land a full in warm ups, how on earth would you send someone out to do an amanar?

Her timers were yurchenko layout and then another 1.5 such as the one that counted?

 

[Denn]

Oh, I really like Robin’s hypothesis. Hm.

The other thought I had is that she was prepping the Yurchenko Double Pike in one-touch (perhaps because of twisting issues earlier, even) and, after the first timer, she felt cautious and then said “okay, I’ll use my second warm-up vault to do an Amanar” and then twistees…

@onodian To whom were you responding? I would not say that her “timers” were those two vaults. But that’s what she did in one-touch. The 1.5 and her assurance to teammates after that she’s fine suggest that she didn’t plan on that 1.5, and probably intended to do the Amanar that run.

 

[Sparklesmom]

sometimes the twisties are related to one particular thing. For example my DD had a very minor brush with them at level 8. She could not find her half. She could find her full and full and a half and double, but not the half. Maybe they were counting on it just being the full and not carrying over to anything else.

 

[onodian]

She could find her full and full and a half and double, but not the half. Maybe they were counting on it just being the full and not carrying over to anything else.

interesting, thx for sharing. I wasn’t responding to anybody, @Denn , more like talking to myself out loud.

 

[Sasha]

Knowing what we know now, it seems like her attempt to compete in TF was a Hail Mary pass, and I assume they were trying to manage the situation the best they could with what they had. @RedBirdie’s suggestion sounds reasonable.

ETA: I’d be real surprised if she were considering throwing the Biles but I suppose it’s a possibility. Not sure why she would have opted for the Amanar in the end though if that were her plan.

 

[RedBirdie]

My best guess is she did the layout because warm-ups had been a mess. Then she planned to do the Amanar as her second touch, but she pretty clearly got lost after the full and bailed out only completing 1.5 twists. Competition she still intended to do the Amanar (hoping adrenaline and muscle memory would carry her through?), but it ended up almost a carbon copy of her touch vault.

I still just shake my head at how poorly Landi managed Simone leading up to an culminating in Tokyo.

 

[mnesiptolema]

I still just shake my head at how poorly Landi managed Simone leading up to an culminating in Tokyo.

Do you say that because of her lost aerial awareness? I thought they were a ‘no rhyme or reason’ thing.

 

[RedBirdie]

No, I feel Landi didn’t coach her well, period. Then again, I feel all the professionals she paid to guide her inside and outside the gym failed her.

 

[Doug1233]

Knowing what we know now, it seems like her attempt to compete in TF was a Hail Mary pass

They probably just did the whole “when the light goes on she will be fine” thing

 

[Hatsumomo]

I wonder, if Simone returns with watered-down routines, the Landis will correct those landing deductions. She won’t have the cushion she used to have.

 

[Yarotska]

She never really had a problem landing simpler passes. I think the lack of control came from going harder to ensure she wouldn’t underrotate. Which in some ways may have worn her down faster in the end. Like, she just tweaked her ankle like a week or two before this.

She showed up in Germany at the start of 2019 with a full twisting double layout for her opening pass instead of the Moors and stuck it cold.

A week later she was in London for a show and nailed her DLO opener, but also came up short on her double double at the end.

 

[Doug1233]

At 1:53 when Simone puts her head in her hands and then says “it’s ok!”

Was that after Chiles’ fall on floor?

 

[RichardL]

Yes! I remember because I very much disagreed with her, lol…

 

[Doug1233]

Chiles is so lucky Biles withdrew. People barely remember Chiles lost like almost two points on floor.

 

[makam]

She never really had a problem landing simpler passes. I think the lack of control came from going harder to ensure she wouldn’t underrotate

Yeah, there were lots of complaints about her “sloppy” landings but i always figured 1. she was overcooking the saltos because over-rotating was better than under-rotating and 2. She didn’t have the time/need to dial them in perfectly like she did in 2016. Might have been a Martha vs Tom thing…nothing short of a cast was going to keep her off the team in 2021 while Martha’s whims (and the significant advantage the us had even without Simone) could have kept her off the team. Could have also been the difference between an anxious, perfectionist teenager and an “i’m only doing this because i kinda want to” abused 20 something year old.