Gabby Douglas: From 2012 to Now

Gabby Douglas: From 2012 to Now

To continue our post from earlier this week on the comebacks of the 2012 Olympians, we are focusing on Gabby Douglas​. She has been quite vocal about her go

Jun 18, 2016 by Justine Kelly
Gabby Douglas: From 2012 to Now
To continue our post from earlier this week on the comebacks of the 2012 Olympians, we are focusing on Gabby Douglas​. She has been quite vocal about her goal for 2016—she not only wants to make history by once again making the Olympic team, but she also wants to compete for a medal in the all-around final. Like Raisman, Douglas’s routines have changed quite a bit since 2012. She has removed some skills, added new skills, and changed her overall composition.

Check out our breakdown below of how her routines have evolved over the years.


Vault - Consistency is Key


In 2012, Douglas was one of the few gymnasts in the world competing with the Amanar, which was worth 6.5 in the 2009-2012 Code. She executed the vault very well, and she was one of the three gymnasts who competed on the event in the team final. She scored 15.966; the second-highest behind McKayla Maroney.

Since 2012, Douglas has been training the Amanar, but she has only performed the double twisting Yurchenko in competition because she knows she can score consistently high on this vault. The last time Douglas vaulted in competition was at Jesolo in March, and she scored a strong 15.3 for her double. It will be interesting to see if she decides to bring this vault back for Nationals and/or Trials in the coming weeks.


Bars - Still one of the best


In 2012, Douglas was known for her work on uneven bars, and that has not changed today. She flies high on release moves and executes every difficult skill with precision. Her highest potential start value in 2012 was a 6.6, and she scored a 15.733 during the all-around final. Connection value was calculated differently in the 2009-2012 Code, and the 0.60 that Douglas was able to get at the Olympics would only be worth 0.40 in the current Code.

Douglas has changed her routine quite a bit since the last quadranium. One of the big skills she removed from 2012 is a Healy (a forward giant in reverse grip with full turn on one arm), which she used to perform as her first element. Instead, she has added several new skills, including a stalder with flight backward to the high bar with a half turn, valued at an E. She’s carried over most of her other major skills, including her piked Tkatchev (which she now connects into her Pak Salto), her double layout dismount, and her endo in L grip with a half turn, which she now performs on the low bar, directly connected into her flight to the high bar.

Douglas’s routine at the Secret Classic a few weeks ago was performed with a 6.5 D-score, which puts her up at the top of bar workers in on the U.S. team. Much of her D-score comes from connection value, totaling 0.50. Check out her routine from Classics below:


​Video courtesy of USA Gymnastics


Beam - New Connections and New Skills


On balance beam, Douglas changed up her routine to get to the same D-score she competed with in 2012: 6.5. Her series from 2012 was an aerial walkover connected to a back handspring, layout step-out. This connection got her 0.20 in the old Code, but she would only receive the series bonus (three acrobatic moves in a row) in the new Code, totaling 0.10. Douglas also sometimes struggled on this series in competition, so she changed it up in her new routine. Now, she’s performing just a back handspring, layout step-out as her series, which does not give her any connection value, so she’s added in points elsewhere in her routine.

Instead of connecting her switch leap into a back pike, and a switch half into a back tuck as she did in her old routine, she now connects the switch leap into the switch half, which gives her 0.10 in connection value, and she’s dropped the back saltos. The main connection she kept in her routine is her dismount, which gives her 0.10 in series bonus.

In 2012, Douglas performed a front tuck as a stand-alone skill. She now connects this into a wolf jump for 0.10 in connection value. She also kept in her aerial walkover, but she now connects it to her jump series, which gives her another 0.10.

Douglas has kept in some of her tougher skills, such as her standing full (an F skill) and her switch ring (an E skill). She has two major new skills which help raise her D-score: a front pike (an E skill, her first element in the routine) and a full turn with leg raised at horizontal (a C skill).


Floor - A New Composition


Douglas’s D-score in her current routine is back to around the level it was in 2012. Her maximum potential D-score from her floor routine this year is a 6.1—just shy of what she was performing at the Olympics. The composition of her routine has changed slightly, with less difficult tumbling, but more difficult dance moves.

On tumbling, Douglas has kept three of her passes from 2012: her double arabian, full twisting double back, and double back. Her first pass from 2012 has been taken out: a 1.5 through to triple twist, which could give her 0.20 in connection value, not to mention the value of the triple, an E skill. Instead, she now performs a double pike, a D skill.

To make up for the downgrades in tumbling, Douglas has added in more difficult dance moves. Of particular note are her turns—she’s kept her double spin with leg at horizontal, and she now connects this to a single spin with leg at horizontal, giving her 0.10 in connection value. She also added a Memmel spin, a D skill. Lastly, she’s added a switch ring leap 1/1 (Ferrari), another D skill. As a result, the top eight skills counted in Douglas’s routine total 3.4—a tenth higher than what she did at the Olympics.

Her connection value has gone down slightly, as she only has two connections she counts in her current routine: the spins at the beginning and the double arabian to stag jump. It’s possible she will look to add a jump out of her double back, which is what she did in 2012, which would add an additional 0.10.

Check out Douglas's floor routine from Jesolo below:




Related:
Aly Raisman: From 2012 to Now