Simone Biles comeback: latest on US Classic Roster

[Denn]

I actually disagree fairly strongly with you on this one, @ruby and @cats. Four points I’d like to offer:

1. We’ve long had spotting on bars. While some coaches are a bit “extra”, generally speaking, it’s fine, right? Moving forward, Vault can be viewed similarly.
2. Due to the 0 score on vault for assistance, the only benefit to the gymnast of a coach’s presence is safety, which I think we all agree on.
3. While I see your point that the presence of a spotter could make athletes might feel safer to try vaults they should not really be doing, the risk of a 0 is a good counter-measure: if the coach helps the gymnast even a little, it’s a 0. That’s even harsher than on bars, where the rest of the score is not affected except the one element where help was given.
4. I would offer that a coach CAN do several things to support safety. Certainly if she over-flips, that’s an easy spot — one hand on the back to slow down the impact and prevent an injury. If she lacks height /rotation, he can do a couple things, such as pressing her back on the second salto to add rotation. He could also put his arm under her at the end to slow down a crash. Many coaches have tons of experience with this sort of thing across the apparatus. I was never a particularly good spotter myself, but some of these things are standard things you do for double saltos, and even I could do them. LOL

I do think it affects judging a little. Perhaps the spotter could request judges whose view could be obstructed to move or even stand on the other side. Some Judges do stand to view vaults.

 

[Denn]

No, no, I was just kidding. You weren’t snippy at all.

 

[Denn]

One last point — there are programs where a spotter is REQUIRED to be present on vault. The Men’s junior program used to have that rule. Not sure if it’s still in place, but see the section quoted below from a few years back.

 

[irichluck21]

We have seen injuries on vault without a spotter.
We have also seen injuries on vault with a spotter in warm ups/one touch.

Definitely athlete safety is important, but injuries can still happen even with a spot.

 

[RedBirdie]

We’ve long had spotting on bars. While some coaches are a bit “extra”, generally speaking, it’s fine, right? Moving forward, Vault can be viewed similarly.

I think the spotting on bars has gone way too far. It used to be it was only allowed for tkatchevs to prevent another Jennifer Sey injury. Now there are coaches spotting their gymnasts all the way through their routines. When did a pak salto suddenly become so dangerous that it needs a spot? Why are gymnasts suddenly incapable for doing a dismount without their coach standing right there with their arm up as a visual cue?

 

[FrolovasDoubleLayout]

I agree with you completely. For me, there is huge difference in spotting/being in position to spot, and actually assisting the gymnast by providing a visual aid to perform the skill. This is paramount to spotting! Stand there - do nothing - and then get the $%&# off the podium!

 

[Puffin]

In the past couple of years we have seen multiple issues on vt often resulting in baulked attempts that involve the top gymnasts while some of them were gymnast error many others seemed to be a “slippy vault” issue - how many of those did we see at Euros?

So while spotting is not allowed on vt - on UB it seems to be going in the opposite direction with coaches scurrying between the bars with exaggerated spotting. I don’t really understand why spotting is fine for a toe shoot on UB but inherently bad for a YDP?

 

[lovegymnasts]

I also think it should be a rule that springboards MUST be pulled after beam mounts

Right here
Right here
This right here
Drives me crazy!

 

[esta]

Not sure if many might remember this, but at the ‘98 Goodwill Games vault EF warmups when Sang Lan got injured doing her FHS timer vault, was her coach physically at the vault in a spot position? If so, is there enough time to have noticed and prevented that? Would Laurent have enough time to react should hands slip, underrotation occurs, etc? Just trying to see where the rules would draw the line as far as levels of spotting occurs, to be less vague.

 

[makam]

If we are adding our wishes, I wish the landing area of the vault was wider. We’ve seen lots of men (and some women) stumble sideways, fall off the first layer of mats so they stumble more and then almost end up off the podium (or in the judges laps like Hamm did). Make it wider, put up barriers (raise the judges up then) or something.

 

[RichardL]

rich! GTTC! omg memory lane, I’m sure we exchanged tapes back then.

 

[MaryClare]

Err, ask John Holman…

 

[rlayt]

Spotify interview with Call Her Daddy.

Simone Biles: “I thought America hated me” [VIDEO]

Listen to this episode from Call Her Daddy on Spotify. Join Alex in Houston for an exclusive interview with gold medalist, Simone Biles. Simone is here to share her side of the story and what really happened at the infamous Tokyo Olympics when she withdrew from the team competition and shocked...

t.co

 

[CameliasFingerpaint]

Loved the interview. I can’t believe she was thinking about secretly throwing the YDP in Tokyo TF.

 

[Denn]

I listened to about a half an hour, starting a bit before the vault conversation, and ending where she says that Laurent and Cecile Landi told her "no" to going to the Olympics again.

I wonder why she is discussing some of the stuff in the interview.
Does she feel like the general public deserve to hear these things?
Does she want the general public to hear things?
Is some kind of agent pushing her to do it?

 

[rlayt]

Maybe the interviewer decided those were the questions? But I assume Simone and her people had to approve them.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

Are we meaning the reference to that interview her husband did? If I were Simone I'd tell interviewers I'd had enough of that topic now, and not to bring it up again. It always goes the same way.

 

[rlayt]

I wish that subject didn’t get brought up again.

 

[Doug1233]

On bars, a spotter can actually break a fall. What could a spotter do on vault? Do you think Laurent is going to catch Simone and safely put her on her feet. Even someone as small as Simone is generating extremely high forces. Laurent doesn’t stand a chance. I’m guessing he’s standing there because she feels more confident…so a purely psychological spot.

I guess you could give them a bump if they were coming in short/on their head.

 

[Jerkin]

I listened to about a half an hour, starting a bit before the vault conversation, and ending where she says that Laurent and Cecile Landi told her "no" to going to the Olympics again.

I wonder why she is discussing some of the stuff in the interview.
Does she feel like the general public deserve to hear these things?
Does she want the general public to hear things?
Is some kind of agent pushing her to do it?

In a world where so many people get to throw their opinions about her, why wouldn't she want to tell her story from her perspective in a safe space? At the beginning she said she is a listener of this podcast.

Maybe the interviewer decided those were the questions? But I assume Simone and her people had to approve them.

I doubt her team approved questions in a long form, free flowing conversation. But considering this podcast also talks about sex a lot, they evidently made the condition that topics had to be PG.