Hey XCel coaches,
I’ve coached XCel for a couple years as an assistant coach but now I’m the head coach. I’m learning the rules the best I can, but there’s been some things on my mind that I didn’t immediately find answered in the CoP that I was hoping to get guidance on.
1. Can a gymnast turn either direction? As in, are ballet turns allowed? Or only ‘jazz’ turns that you usually see gymnasts do? I grew up doing ballet as well as gymnastics but did JO where jazz turns were the only option.
2. Also for turns (specifically on beam) can the gymnast start the turn facing away from the end of the beam (so like sideways if that makes sense) then they’d finish the turn and finally put their raised passé/coupe foot to the side rather than in front? I’m sorry if that doesn’t make sense. Typically in a turn, you start facing one of the beam ends and turn to face either the same one or the opposite one (like any half turn). But I heard a former XCel gymnast say she’d face the ‘outside’ of the beam area. She demonstrated it for me too. Is that truly legal in the code? I didn’t see anything about which way you have to face, just that you have to complete the turn.
3. For XCel silver, I have one girl who is very flexible. She wants to do a leg hold and then let her leg drop a little so it hovers and use that height to step into a cartwheel. So basically, a connection. I was a little unsure of that for silver level. Is that ‘connection’ legal for that level?
Forgive me if the questions I asked are answered in the book and I missed the stipulations. Thanks so much!
I’ve coached XCel for a couple years as an assistant coach but now I’m the head coach. I’m learning the rules the best I can, but there’s been some things on my mind that I didn’t immediately find answered in the CoP that I was hoping to get guidance on.
1. Can a gymnast turn either direction? As in, are ballet turns allowed? Or only ‘jazz’ turns that you usually see gymnasts do? I grew up doing ballet as well as gymnastics but did JO where jazz turns were the only option.
2. Also for turns (specifically on beam) can the gymnast start the turn facing away from the end of the beam (so like sideways if that makes sense) then they’d finish the turn and finally put their raised passé/coupe foot to the side rather than in front? I’m sorry if that doesn’t make sense. Typically in a turn, you start facing one of the beam ends and turn to face either the same one or the opposite one (like any half turn). But I heard a former XCel gymnast say she’d face the ‘outside’ of the beam area. She demonstrated it for me too. Is that truly legal in the code? I didn’t see anything about which way you have to face, just that you have to complete the turn.
3. For XCel silver, I have one girl who is very flexible. She wants to do a leg hold and then let her leg drop a little so it hovers and use that height to step into a cartwheel. So basically, a connection. I was a little unsure of that for silver level. Is that ‘connection’ legal for that level?
Forgive me if the questions I asked are answered in the book and I missed the stipulations. Thanks so much!
