Dawes 'Not Surprised' About Biles

Chance Seales: Simone Biles is backing away — team competition, now all-around. Dominique, are you surprised?

Dominique Dawes: I am not surprised, based on day one of the team finals and her having a bit of a mental block on a Yurchenko Amanar vault and she did a 1.5 and got a little lost in the air and then made that decision, listened to her inner voice and made the best decision for her mentally as well as physically. It's really hard to shut everything out and then 48 hours to compete again and I think she recognized that it was best for her to make the decision sooner rather than later so that her teammate could step in in her place.

Chance: You just said she kind of got lost in the air and I think a lot of us watch this and we think, “Oh my gosh, they're so graceful, it's so easy,” and it's not. Going in. Simone said, “I feel like I have the way to the world on my shoulders,” and then there's something that some of us are learning about called the twisties. Basically the yips is what they call it in other sports. And one gymnast, Jacoby Miles online said she actually got paralyzed because she tried to push through the twisties. Can you explain what that is?

Dawes: Yes, I remember always hearing “analysis paralysis” from my coach where I would overanalyze things and then I would be frozen and I couldn't do anything and that can lead to a serious injury. I had never actually heard the term twisties, it didn't exist maybe back in the ‘90s. It's something that I think they've coined this year. But it's a mental block, it's overthinking, it's not letting go and just relying on your muscle to have memory to do a particular gymnastic move. And you try very hard and many times you get lost and it's a bit — it's very — scary, and usually you have to push through it and you have to force yourself to compete. That's back in the day when the sport was filled with fear, intimidation and silence and control. Today, Simone Biles uses her own voice. She listens to her own voice and I commend her for that. That is very courageous and it's also very humbling for her to do that.