John Orozco<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThey return to show John Orozco crumble on the vault. \u00a0His foot placement on the springboard was not great \u2014 he was far to the back, where there is little spring-power to return all the force you punch into the board. \u00a0He generated little in the way of power or rotation off the board, came in low and under-rotated and so he was unable to explode off the vault. \u00a0The contact with the vault happens in the blink of an eye. \u00a0You don\u2019t have time to bend your arms and then push. \u00a0You need to be mostly extended already, in position just to pop or explode off the event. \u00a0Orozco had all the momentum from his sprint down the runway, and it just folded into the horse. \u00a0He pushed off with all his strength, but there was no way he was going to get the height and rotation he needed to perform the vault successfully.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve had my share of bad vaults. \u00a0Once, when I was about eleven years old, I ran full-speed down the runway, leapt completely over a half-sized springboard (I blame it on the bad equipment!) and slammed full-speed into the vault. \u00a0Yes, just like that famous video of Brian Meeker:<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6DouLGt-Sgo<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve also had plenty of occasions when I couldn\u2019t get my steps right. \u00a0Halfway down the runway, you start to feel as though you\u2019re either too far back or too close to the springboard. \u00a0So you shuffle your steps or you cut short your jump, and you end up with your feet badly placed on the board. \u00a0Your chances by that point are virtually nil. \u00a0You need all your speed and all your power to perform these exceedingly difficult skills on the vault.<\/p>\n
Now, you might find yourself wondering: these gymnasts have performed these skills and these routines hundreds, in some cases thousands of times. \u00a0Why can\u2019t they do them perfectly, every time?<\/p>\n
When I was a child, I used to ask the same thing about NBA players. \u00a0Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had shot tens of thousands of free throws. \u00a0Why couldn\u2019t he hit it every time?<\/p>\n
In gymnastics as in most sports, there\u2019s an irreducible element of chance. \u00a0You could compete a routine you\u2019d hit every time, but it would be too easy a routine to win a high score. \u00a0You have to push yourself \u2014 and others push themselves \u2014 and you have to push yourself harder. \u00a0The sport progresses until everyone is just on the edge. \u00a0Everyone is doing the most difficult routines they can, within reason, and the person who perfects the routine and performs it in the crucial moment wins.<\/p>\n
But there are other factors as well. \u00a0In the Olympic Games, you\u2019ve traveled half way around the world, you\u2019re dealing with time zone changes, different foods, different atmospheres, a body full of jangling nerves, an incredible amount of pressure, and quite often you\u2019ll find the equipment and the facility itself are different than what you\u2019re accustomed to. \u00a0I traveled to Brazil for the Junior Pan American Games and we competed in an arena where there were chickens in the corner and pigeons flying overhead. \u00a0In another competition, these massive spotlights were directly overhead and they were causing a lot of confusion amongst the gymnasts, who need to be able to see the world as it rotates and twists around them.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve also had\u00a0lots<\/em>\u00a0of competitions where the pommel horse felt peculiar. \u00a0You would think that the equipment \u2014 at this very elite level \u2014 would be so standardized that you wouldn\u2019t notice a difference. \u00a0But it\u2019s not. \u00a0Sometimes the pommels (the handles) felt thinner, sometimes they felt lower and closer to the horse, or sometimes the horse itself feels slippery. \u00a0On the floor, some are more bouncy than others. \u00a0The rings are more or less the same wherever you go, but there\u2019s a fair amount of variety when it comes to parallel bars and high bars.<\/p>\nIn any case, Orozco scored a 15.8 in the qualifying round, and now had a 14.6 on the vault. \u00a0He\u2019s having a terrible meet. \u00a0I feel awful for him, and he\u2019s clearly fighting back tears. \u00a0Most gymnasts really dream of the individual titles \u2014 the all-around or the events. \u00a0But before the Olympics, you spend a lot of time with your team, and this team had high hopes. \u00a0Every gymnast is going to feel horrible about letting the team down, and John has melted down on the pommel horse and the vault both. \u00a0That\u2019s tough.<\/p>\n
A 15.966 from Sam Mikulak will help with their average. \u00a0And another Tsukahara-triple-twist from Jake Dalton, and a 16.066. \u00a0Great second and third vaults. \u00a0John Orozco will be happy for that, and yet feel even worse.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NBC mysteriously and without comment skips past the rings for the American men. They return to show John Orozco crumble on the vault. \u00a0His foot placement on the springboard was not great \u2014 he was far to the back, where there is little spring-power to return all the force you punch into the board. \u00a0He […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":2302,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[913],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gymnastics-2"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/46\/2012\/07\/John-Orozco.jpeg\" "\\"John")
<\/a>