Parents Does your Xcel team have travel meets?

[Tulip811]

Debated JO vs Xcel for 8yo daughter. Decided Xcel. Practice 6hrs/wk instead of 15. DD seems quite satisfied with gym time. Doesnt ask for additional gym hours. Shes doing well in meets and overall its been a great, yet moderate, foray into competitive gymnastics. She has 6 local meets. Next year the coaches are considering travel meets requiring plane rides, hotels, days off work etc. isnt the point of xcel to be less of a committment? Both financial and time? Do your Xcel teams participate in travel meets?

 

[profmom]

Our Diamonds and Platinums just went to Chicago Style (plane trip for us), but no one was required to go.

 

[MuggleMom]

I believe our Excel team does all local or driving distance meets. But in general our gym does meet packages where you have options to not do the more expensive travel meets or at least less of those if that is what you want. USually you have 2-3 meet packages one with all the meets (most $$) one with Maybe 1 travel meet (medium) one with no travel meets (least $$). I also think you can scratch from any meet if you do it early enough so if there was one meet you knew from the start you didnt want to do you could do the most expensive meet package but let the office person know day one you dont want to do that meet then you have money left over in your escrow account at the end of the year.

 

[Tootsmom]

DD’s old gym they were all local within an hour or less, gym that she has been at for 2 years most are 2hrs away with 1 being 5hrs away (Manhattan Classic) it’s optional and everyone stays over

 

[MILgymFAM]

No plane rides required for any meets for any groups at our gym (JO, xcel, men’s). At previous gyms, xcel had travel meets like everyone else. There were usually one or two per year.

 

[mls529]

When my DD was JO we had travel meets that required a flight (1 per year) and then at least one additional that was a 3+ hour drive away (requiring a hotel typically).
Our new Xcel only gym has a philosophy of no travel meets and no drives more than 1 hour. But we are in a major metro, so it is easy to have a season full of meets locally. I agree that a travel meet, especially if it is required, goes against most Xcel philosophies.

 

[CLgym]

We did a travel meet (Florida -- required a flight) in Xcel Bronze. Only half of the Bronze and Silver gymnasts went. More of the Gold and Platinum gymnasts opted to attend. It was totally optional. I thought it was a fun meet and nice to be included. But I definitely think that big travel meets should always be optional!

 

[SMH]

For both JO and Xcel all meets are within a driveable distance- no more than 3 hours, with the exception of one optional fly away meet for levels 8-10.

 

[Flyaway]

It kind of depends on how your gym uses Xcel. If it's truly intended to be a lesser commitment option to JO, then I would think travel meets should be optional, not required. If your gym uses Xcel as a pathway to JO optionals, I would expect it to be treated the same as JO and therefore expect some travel meets.

Our gym does the latter and we do travel, stay in hotels, take off work/school, etc.

 

[moogacat]

All of our Xcel meets are withing driving distance. We stay over sometimes if she has a very early or very late session, but it's not necessary at all. Our JO optional team does one optional travel meet a year, and in past year Xcel Platinum and Diamond gymnasts were invited, but they were all former JO competitors. I'm sure if we'd asked this year (my daughter is a first year XP, but never did JO) they would have been glad for us to tag along too. I agree that a mandatory travel meet with flights seems to be against the general ethos of Xcel.

 

[Carly]

DDs gym does local meets for Xcel and JO. The furthest one this year, with the exception of state meets, is a 2 hour drive and is an optional meet. There are many gyms within a 2 hour drive so we have many options for meets. The Xcel team at the gym is run as the program was intented - less hours, less expensive, less stress, more fun.

At our old, very competitive gym, the Xcel do the same meets as JO levels 3-8. (Levels 9/10 travel by plane often.) Some are long drives and usually one plane trip a year. It is just a slightly less expensive option with a few less hours of practice a week than the JO team.

 

[LouLou]

Our gym’s Xcel team has one travel meet. All of our meets are optional (except our own invitational). The JO optional team travels quite a bit more. Not many bronze, silver, golds attended the travel meet, most platinum and diamond did.

 

[Pirouette]

My DD's Xcel Gold team does 6 local (1-3 hour drive) meets and 1 optional fly-away meet. We opted out of the fly-away meet the first year due to costs. Last year and this year, we budgeted for it and had a great time. The silvers do the same local meets but did not get invited to the fly-away.

 

[Curlyfry7]

Our gym uses Xcel as a path to JO. This year we have a total of 6 regular meets, then states (and regionals if qualified) Here are the distances:

1. home meet
2. 4.5 hours away
3. 1.5 hours away
4. 6.5 hours away
5. 9-10 hours away
6. 1.5 hours away.

We are not required to attend any of them in particular, although we might have a minimum number? We have always done all of the meets, although this year wishing we had passed on the farthest away as we will be flying so $$. There are several other meets in our area, so not sure how we end up traveling so much. The gym does allow the seniors to pick the travel meets,and we had 2 seniors this year.....

 

[Greatlakesmom]

Our Xcel meets are all within driving distance. Only one out of state meet and the farthest at 3 1/2 hours. Our JO team sometimes travels farther and last year had an out-of-state meet that required a plane trip.

 

[raenndrops]

At our gym, team is team ... so Xcel goes to the same meets (and trains the same # of hours and pays the same prices and has the same leotard, etc).
Our meets are mostly within 1 - 3 hours away, but if the girls qualify for Y Nationals, they CAN go - it is optional. The location changes every year. We opted out the year it was in Kansas, but have gone to Savannah, Tampa, and Toledo (2x). This year, we will be going to Wisconsin. We drive them all because flying is for the birds

 

[Musicmama]

Our Xcel teams generally attend the same meets that our compulsory JO teams attend.

The farthest away meet those groups have had since dd started team gymnastics is a 4-5 hour drive and it definitely sometimes requires a hotel and/or days off work (being scheduled at 8am or on a Friday, for example), but no plane flights.

Once our gym's JO girls are optionals they have at least one travel meet requiring a plane ride (or a ridiculous amount of driving). Most of our meets are 2+ hour drives away to begin with because of where we're located. This year is my dd's first optional year and the travel time/planning has been significantly more intense than when she was Xcel or compulsory.

 

[thefellowsmom]

The XCEL team at our gym does one fly away meet per year. This is our all team travel meet. XCEL, compulsory and optional all go. It may be optional for XCEL, not sure, my experience is that most if not all of them go. Then our optional team does usually one additional fly away meet and one out of state but drivable overnight meet each year not including post season.

XCEL at our gym is a separate path with lower hours and expectations than JO but I think more than some other excel programs in our area. Everyone at our gym does level 3 and then they invite only the highest potential girls to JO. Our JO team is pretty picky and only about half the girls get invited every year. Our XCEL team is excellent and many would be JO at other gyms. Some choose to leave and do JO elsewhere.

 

[Deleted member 17694]

Our Xcel team does 0 plane travel meets. We do 2 meets that are approximately a 3 to 3.5 hour drive. Our other 3 meets are "local" but that means less than an hour to 1.5 hour drive. I'd consider only 1 truly local, the other 2 were 1.5 hours.

 

[GymMom4]

We don’t really have the option of local meets because we are the only gym in town that has an Xcel team, so all of the meets are about a 5-6 hour drive away. They did offer the travel meet (Magical Classic in Florida) to the Xcel team and while some chose to go, they were ok with those who opted not to.