People on this sub who were in the arena said that OU's vault warmup was flawless. So obviously they had the training and preparation. One freak bad meet at the very worst possible time. Happens to the best.
When you’re focused on sticking so much unfortunately it is really easy to sit down that vault. The warmup being perfect may have in fact worked against them. I feel badly it ended this way- I wanted another team to actually beat them not for them to implode.
The more I think about this the more I come to the conclusion this might be on the trainers. Vault is probably the event you can do most to minimise the risk of a second fall. Tell the athletes to go for more power and accept a sizeable step forward if necessary. It’s not like they needed sticks on vault to advance.
Given that they even had a fall on vault not too long ago, I’d say this is probably something they should even have discussed before the meet. Anyway, I don’t know what if any instructions they gave to the gymnasts when but I think this kind of a melt down on vault must be pretty unique for a top team. I certainly can‘t remember seeing anything quite like it for L10/College.
I think that's precisely what Audrey did (went for overrotation). Ultimately that was better than coming up short. The falls (esp kat and Jordan) were 100% mental and so so unusual for this usually unflappable team.
If you overrotate a bit on purpose you can generally take a step forward and stay on your feet. If you go for the stick and are slightly off that could happen anyway, no big deal. But if you end up slightly underrotated so that your weight is behind your feet you have to take a much less natural and much quicker step backwards - or you sit it down.
It’s got a lot to do with it being a blind landing and essentially trying to titer down your power to time your rotation to slow down and aim for the angle you need to stick being challenging so if you’re powerful enough (ie somebody like Faith) and trying to do that if you’re even a little bit off you underrotate and sit down. If you underpower your yurchenko full or double you can at least see it coming and pike down to avoid underrotation causing a fall. You cannot do that with a blind landing.
The footage on TV showed a solid warmup, I started to wonder if there was a problem with the vault equipment and if that was part of the reason there was a big whoop about moving mats before they started on beam.
When I was watching it happen I realized that their usual perfection means they are never put into a situation where they have to come back from multiple errors and maybe they just weren't prepped for it mentally like some teams might be. And how would you even try to prepare for that?? In real time I couldn't stop myself from thinking omg is she going to fall too? No, she couldn't. And then it kept happening!!! I imagine their mindset could have been similar where it just creeps in that you might fall too and then of course it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. I also did think they needed to be more crisp than they were at regionals if they wanted to win the title and I'm sure that was in their mind too, and must have been stressful. In any case, it's interesting that they seemed to be so focused on vault according to this article. I just hope they can move on without dwelling too much. They are all incredible athletes and accomplished so much!
That's something I've been wondering about too. I know teams do intersquad competitions, but how exactly would that work to prepare for something like this? Does a coach say to a gymnast, the two athletes before you have fallen, now you have to compete? I just can't seem to visualize how one prepares for such a stressful, pressure fueled situation. I'd love to know more about what teams do exactly.
Yeah, I really don't know!! As someone who is not a coach or expert in any way, and at most an extremely low level athlete, my only thought is that working with a sports psychologist would be the best way to prep. But I have no idea. I assume the level of pressure would be impossible to actually replicate.
But the team might be so confident, it's like they've broken NCAA scoring records this year and haven't counted a fall all season, why would they need to use their time to meet with a sports psychologist?
Basically just saying that after regionals they knew they needed to be focused and consistent to start on vault. And that they have been practicing for that while working on confidence in it.
So dumb at this point. VPN to the rescue!
'Lou does what he does': OU gymnastics working to improve on vault before NCAA Championships
As Oklahoma women’s gymnastics exited the Lloyd Noble parking lot on Tuesday, it headed towards its 18th consecutive NCAA championship semifinals.
The No. 1 ranked team in the nation will compete against No. 4 Florida, No. 5 Utah and No. 8 Alabama in the second session of the semifinals. All four teams have won at least one national championship.
“(These are teams who have) all had great sessions, all were expected to be here,” OU head coach K.J. Kindler said. “There’s no upsets in the groups of our session.So, the strength is very high. We’re going to have to be very consistent starting on vault.”
In the Ann Arbor Regional Final on April 6th, the Sooners posted a score of 49.325 on the event. However, to improve on vault and prepare for the national championship, vault coach, Lou Ball, has been working with the team to improve their landings and confidence.
“I mean, Lou does what he does, you know, he’s a great vault coach,” Kindler said. “He’s one of the best I’ve ever seen. I think that he’s just been working on landings, working on awareness, working on their confidence. That’s all you can do is keep pushing forward.”
The undefeated Sooners can see the end of their season, and a goal they set is to keep the energy up in the gym. With only a handful of practices left, the team continues to prepare for the national championship.
Earlier this week senior Meilin Sullivan received the Elite 90 award for the 2024 NCAA Division 1 Women’s Gymnastics Championship. The Elite 90 award recognizes the student-athlete who has reached the national championship in their sport while also achieving the highest GPA among their peers. Sullivan was awarded for her 4.0 GPA at the NCAA Championship banquet.
“It speaks to her character,” Kindler commented. “It speaks to her dedication and commitment to be a student-athlete and to excel in the classroom the way she has a perfect 4.0.”
Oklahoma will compete in Semifinal II at 8 p.m. on Thursday at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas on ESPN2.
How long has Lou Ball coached vault for OU? Just wondering because they were stellar on that vault last year, but it seems to have been their most problematic event this year.
Alright, well there goes that theory.
My backup hypothesis is that all their vault sticks belonged to Olivia Trautman, who took them with her after her last season.
They lost their two most consistent vaulters in Trautman and Sievers. Trautman was a stick machine, and Sievers did the exact same vault every week for a 9.875. They would have killed for a 9.875 last night.
It’s due to injury. They never said what was wrong, but she was in a boot during the preseason. Last night was the first floor routine she’s done all year, but she never made it back on vault. They definitely missed her.
You are pretty close with your stick theory. OU was solid on vault last year but Olivia sticking almost every vault she did last year gave the perception they stuck all the time when it was mainly just her boosting the score each meet.
It was also the lineup that saw the biggest turnover, with Trautman and Stern retiring and Sievers injured. And if you look back at it, those would have been the 3 most consistent vaults in the lineup. Bowers and Kat, over their time, have multiple short vaults in a season so last night was both of them hitting their worst at the same time.
interesting to me. at an oregon state meet this year, a vaulter tried her 1 1/2 and sat it... another was in the lineup... someone who will hit or sit down.. no inbetween.. and Tanya pulled her for a yf by someone else. she didn't want 2 falls. not sure if you can change your lineups at nationals though. we never saw that first 1 1/2 again. she went back to the full... sometimes you have to play it safe
you can swap gymnasts out of lineups (ie substituting Ava for Audrey) but you can’t shuffle the existing lineup (ie move Jordan into the leadoff spot and have Faith take Jordan’s place later in the lineup)
You can change your lineups at Nationals, as long as Person B still goes in the same slot as Person A was, rather than changing order. Audrey Davis got put in for Ava Siegfeldt on vault yesterday.
People on this sub who were in the arena said that OU's vault warmup was flawless. So obviously they had the training and preparation. One freak bad meet at the very worst possible time. Happens to the best.
When you’re focused on sticking so much unfortunately it is really easy to sit down that vault. The warmup being perfect may have in fact worked against them. I feel badly it ended this way- I wanted another team to actually beat them not for them to implode.
The more I think about this the more I come to the conclusion this might be on the trainers. Vault is probably the event you can do most to minimise the risk of a second fall. Tell the athletes to go for more power and accept a sizeable step forward if necessary. It’s not like they needed sticks on vault to advance. Given that they even had a fall on vault not too long ago, I’d say this is probably something they should even have discussed before the meet. Anyway, I don’t know what if any instructions they gave to the gymnasts when but I think this kind of a melt down on vault must be pretty unique for a top team. I certainly can‘t remember seeing anything quite like it for L10/College.
I think that's precisely what Audrey did (went for overrotation). Ultimately that was better than coming up short. The falls (esp kat and Jordan) were 100% mental and so so unusual for this usually unflappable team.
So I hear this a lot, that it's actually counterproductive try to stick it, but I can't really grasp why exactly?
If you overrotate a bit on purpose you can generally take a step forward and stay on your feet. If you go for the stick and are slightly off that could happen anyway, no big deal. But if you end up slightly underrotated so that your weight is behind your feet you have to take a much less natural and much quicker step backwards - or you sit it down.
It’s got a lot to do with it being a blind landing and essentially trying to titer down your power to time your rotation to slow down and aim for the angle you need to stick being challenging so if you’re powerful enough (ie somebody like Faith) and trying to do that if you’re even a little bit off you underrotate and sit down. If you underpower your yurchenko full or double you can at least see it coming and pike down to avoid underrotation causing a fall. You cannot do that with a blind landing.
The footage on TV showed a solid warmup, I started to wonder if there was a problem with the vault equipment and if that was part of the reason there was a big whoop about moving mats before they started on beam.
When I was watching it happen I realized that their usual perfection means they are never put into a situation where they have to come back from multiple errors and maybe they just weren't prepped for it mentally like some teams might be. And how would you even try to prepare for that?? In real time I couldn't stop myself from thinking omg is she going to fall too? No, she couldn't. And then it kept happening!!! I imagine their mindset could have been similar where it just creeps in that you might fall too and then of course it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. I also did think they needed to be more crisp than they were at regionals if they wanted to win the title and I'm sure that was in their mind too, and must have been stressful. In any case, it's interesting that they seemed to be so focused on vault according to this article. I just hope they can move on without dwelling too much. They are all incredible athletes and accomplished so much!
That's something I've been wondering about too. I know teams do intersquad competitions, but how exactly would that work to prepare for something like this? Does a coach say to a gymnast, the two athletes before you have fallen, now you have to compete? I just can't seem to visualize how one prepares for such a stressful, pressure fueled situation. I'd love to know more about what teams do exactly.
Yeah, I really don't know!! As someone who is not a coach or expert in any way, and at most an extremely low level athlete, my only thought is that working with a sports psychologist would be the best way to prep. But I have no idea. I assume the level of pressure would be impossible to actually replicate.
Oklahoma definitely have sports psychologists on staff.
Yeah I'm sure they do!
But the team might be so confident, it's like they've broken NCAA scoring records this year and haven't counted a fall all season, why would they need to use their time to meet with a sports psychologist?
Can someone summarize what it says? Can’t open it due to EU data protection rules 🫠
Basically just saying that after regionals they knew they needed to be focused and consistent to start on vault. And that they have been practicing for that while working on confidence in it.
So dumb at this point. VPN to the rescue! 'Lou does what he does': OU gymnastics working to improve on vault before NCAA Championships As Oklahoma women’s gymnastics exited the Lloyd Noble parking lot on Tuesday, it headed towards its 18th consecutive NCAA championship semifinals. The No. 1 ranked team in the nation will compete against No. 4 Florida, No. 5 Utah and No. 8 Alabama in the second session of the semifinals. All four teams have won at least one national championship. “(These are teams who have) all had great sessions, all were expected to be here,” OU head coach K.J. Kindler said. “There’s no upsets in the groups of our session.So, the strength is very high. We’re going to have to be very consistent starting on vault.” In the Ann Arbor Regional Final on April 6th, the Sooners posted a score of 49.325 on the event. However, to improve on vault and prepare for the national championship, vault coach, Lou Ball, has been working with the team to improve their landings and confidence. “I mean, Lou does what he does, you know, he’s a great vault coach,” Kindler said. “He’s one of the best I’ve ever seen. I think that he’s just been working on landings, working on awareness, working on their confidence. That’s all you can do is keep pushing forward.” The undefeated Sooners can see the end of their season, and a goal they set is to keep the energy up in the gym. With only a handful of practices left, the team continues to prepare for the national championship. Earlier this week senior Meilin Sullivan received the Elite 90 award for the 2024 NCAA Division 1 Women’s Gymnastics Championship. The Elite 90 award recognizes the student-athlete who has reached the national championship in their sport while also achieving the highest GPA among their peers. Sullivan was awarded for her 4.0 GPA at the NCAA Championship banquet. “It speaks to her character,” Kindler commented. “It speaks to her dedication and commitment to be a student-athlete and to excel in the classroom the way she has a perfect 4.0.” Oklahoma will compete in Semifinal II at 8 p.m. on Thursday at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas on ESPN2.
thank you!!
Thank you! My VPN let me down 🫠😭
well, I guess firing Lou would be just a wee bit awkward. LOL.
How long has Lou Ball coached vault for OU? Just wondering because they were stellar on that vault last year, but it seems to have been their most problematic event this year.
They are married, he's been there the entire time with KJ.
Alright, well there goes that theory. My backup hypothesis is that all their vault sticks belonged to Olivia Trautman, who took them with her after her last season.
They lost their two most consistent vaulters in Trautman and Sievers. Trautman was a stick machine, and Sievers did the exact same vault every week for a 9.875. They would have killed for a 9.875 last night.
Why is Sievers not vaulting? Is it due to injury or just lineup?
It’s due to injury. They never said what was wrong, but she was in a boot during the preseason. Last night was the first floor routine she’s done all year, but she never made it back on vault. They definitely missed her.
You are pretty close with your stick theory. OU was solid on vault last year but Olivia sticking almost every vault she did last year gave the perception they stuck all the time when it was mainly just her boosting the score each meet. It was also the lineup that saw the biggest turnover, with Trautman and Stern retiring and Sievers injured. And if you look back at it, those would have been the 3 most consistent vaults in the lineup. Bowers and Kat, over their time, have multiple short vaults in a season so last night was both of them hitting their worst at the same time.
Followed her from ISU as well.
I think the whole time KJ Kindler has been the head coach!
interesting to me. at an oregon state meet this year, a vaulter tried her 1 1/2 and sat it... another was in the lineup... someone who will hit or sit down.. no inbetween.. and Tanya pulled her for a yf by someone else. she didn't want 2 falls. not sure if you can change your lineups at nationals though. we never saw that first 1 1/2 again. she went back to the full... sometimes you have to play it safe
you can swap gymnasts out of lineups (ie substituting Ava for Audrey) but you can’t shuffle the existing lineup (ie move Jordan into the leadoff spot and have Faith take Jordan’s place later in the lineup)
You can change your lineups at Nationals, as long as Person B still goes in the same slot as Person A was, rather than changing order. Audrey Davis got put in for Ava Siegfeldt on vault yesterday.
Ultimately vault wouldn’t have mattered anyway with the beam fall counting, even if they got a full point back on vault would have still lost.