Parents Criteria for Xcel vs DP

[scb838]

What criteria do coaches use for choosing which track to start a gymnast on? Assuming a gym has both, how do they decide which girls are right for each?

 

[JustAGirlWhoLovesGym]

Probably one of the most widely-recognized reasons is skills. If a kid is still working on consistency on lv. 7/8 skills or if they are super advanced in one/two areas vs. the others, the coaches may move them to Xcel Diamond vs. DP lv. 7 or 8.

Also, there are a lot of gyms who use Xcel to help girls who may be more academically focused. If you are in an area with lots of AP/IB coursework, schools may be less willing to accommodate gym, so Xcel can have reduced hours and school-friendly practice times.

Age is also another reason I've seen. Xcel programs in my area tend to skew older/have a larger variety of ages than their DP equivalent. If a gym has a lv. 5 team and an Xcel Gold team, the lv. 5 team might be mostly 9-10 yo and Xcel gold could be 8-12 or 13. So gymnasts who start late might be a great fit for Xcel because they will likely find peers closer to their age in their level.

 

[JBS]

What criteria do coaches use for choosing which track to start a gymnast on? Assuming a gym has both, how do they decide which girls are right for each?

We only have 1 team track at our gym right now... everyone starts Xcel Bronze or Silver.

We are considering starting a second team track. In this scenario age... ability... and physical abilities would be key. We would not switch our DP team to start with L2/3... we would still start them with Xcel Bronze and Silver because as a head coach I am not a fan of L2/3. The difference would be something like the following...

DP Bronze Team = 5 & 6 year olds at 5 hrs/wk
DP Silver Team = 6 - 8 years old at 9 hrs/wk
DP Level 4 = 7+ years old at 14 hrs/wk
Up to L10

Xcel Bronze Team = 5 & 6 year olds at 4 hrs/wk
Xcel Silver Team = 6 - 10 years old at 5 hrs/wk with an option for 7.5 hrs/wk
Xcel Gold Team = 8+ years old at 9 hrs/wk
Xcel Platinum / Diamond = 9+ years old at 12 hrs/wk

 

[BusyMomof2]

More and more I am not seeing many gyms who even have compulsory around our area (major southern metro). Many gyms use Xcel until level 6. The criteria at that point for who moves over to DP and who remains in Xcel is sometimes talent but mostly appears to be who is interested in the time/cost of optionals. Although, my daughter started in Xcel and is now in optionals and the cost and time isn't really that different - yes, more, but at what you'd expect within a 4-year competitive progression.

 

[ORgymmom]

More and more I am not seeing many gyms who even have compulsory around our area (major southern metro). Many gyms use Xcel until level 6. The criteria at that point for who moves over to DP and who remains in Xcel is sometimes talent but mostly appears to be who is interested in the time/cost of optionals. Although, my daughter started in Xcel and is now in optionals and the cost and time isn't really that different - yes, more, but at what you'd expect within a 4-year competitive progression.

More and more I am not seeing many gyms who even have compulsory around our area (major southern metro). Many gyms use Xcel until level 6. The criteria at that point for who moves over to DP and who remains in Xcel is sometimes talent but mostly appears to be who is interested in the time/cost of optionals. Although, my daughter started in Xcel and is now in optionals and the cost and time isn't really that different - yes, more, but at what you'd expect within a 4-year competitive progression.

How do they time the score outs for levels 4 and 5 before making the decision to put girls in 6 vs staying in xcel? It seems like the girls going to 6 could lose a lot of training time to learning 6 routines + the vault in quick succession?

 

[BusyMomof2]

How do they time the score outs for levels 4 and 5 before making the decision to put girls in 6 vs staying in xcel? It seems like the girls going to 6 could lose a lot of training time to learning 6 routines + the vault in quick succession?

Since the rules changed a couple of years ago, they've only done level 4 routines, 2 meets, to obtain the 36 mobility score twice. Girls start the level 4 learning late summer, scoring out in the fall and started competing 6 in the spring. No level 5 routines or score out.