re: Remove

Just watching most of the routines from the meet now. Agree with all the sentiments here about routine construction and very odd lineup choices. I don't know why extra difficulty has been aded to routines that don't need it, especially on beam (eg Kiya - why oh why). The more difficulty there is, the more chances for deductions.

Think Alyona is a bit overwhelmed - she should have been eased in more slowly. Competing 3 events is a lot when she has been out of competition for awhile and her first year at LSU, was, frankly, not as good as it might have been. At this point I think they need to just get her doing a full on vault to give her confidence and rework the bars routine with an easier dismount. The longer that she goes on with major errors on that dismount, the more difficult it will be to get it right. If I had to guess I'd say the dismount is getting in her head - as Tigerbait has pointed out, she was much more confident on bars as an elite even with way, way, way higher difficulty. Poor routine construction last year also screwed her over with confidence. This is so frustrating. She could be so great but the coaching and routine construction is really doing her dirty.

I don't see Alyona and Ruby in really the same position despite both having slumps in sophomore year. With Ruby I understand the slump a lot better - she was riding the high off the Olympics for freshman year and she was in practically elite shape but healthier. But it's not uncommon for the exertion to catch up, even say, Madison Kocian was very worn down in sophomore year after a stellar freshman. But Alyona should not have those same issues and should be physically and mentally in good shape.