WAG Finding more Xcel competition

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GymRays

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How do I find out what gyms in my state compete Xcel and what levels? This is my gyms first year with Xcel and so far at all our meets are either us against ourselves or us and one other gym. For next season I'd like to find where to look for meets that may offer more teams competing Xcel. I'm in NY BTW.
 
have you looked on the meets on the state website, it tells you who attends xcel meets.
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I think there's less Xcel in NY because of USAIGC. I guess bigger meets would be a good bet.
 
Xcel really varies from state to state. Where I am, even the smaller invitationals have pretty good Xcel competition because it's a pretty popular program around the state. However, if we were to travel to large meets in nearby states, our girls would likely have far less competition. I'm not really sure what causes Xcel to take off in some areas and not others, but like Gymdog said, the presence of USAIGC in NY could be part of your problem.
You could check neighboring states and see if they have a greater level of Xcel participation. I just did a quick check on My Meet Scores and it looks like the Chelsea Piers meet had pretty good Xcel competition, as well as some smaller meets in MA & CT.
I think your best bet would be to talk with other Xcel coaches- perhaps at the state meet- and see what meets they have really liked for Xcel and pan to attend in the future.
 
Good luck with that. We were at a pretty big meet last weekend, in NYC. It was pretty much us and 2 other gyms for Xcel Silver.
 
It seems that Cartwheels Gymnastics, World Class, Galaxy Gymnastics, Team Ultimate, and GymStars have big Xcel teams... if you aren't one of these teams... STALK them and go to the meets they go to :)
 
How do I find out what gyms in my state compete Xcel and what levels? This is my gyms first year with Xcel and so far at all our meets are either us against ourselves or us and one other gym. For next season I'd like to find where to look for meets that may offer more teams competing Xcel. I'm in NY BTW.
Look on meetscoresonline for meets that happen in NY. For example, this meet: http://www.meetscoresonline.com/2015-NY-Sweetheart-Invitational had a lot of gyms compete Xcel. Not sure if it's too big a distance form where you are though.
 
Thanks for all the help! I will look and keep them in mind for next season:). Its good we had such little competition this year since this season was the first time competing for most of my team. It made for low pressure meet experience.
 
USAIGC has had a larger presence in New York State for the last few years. I've noticed, however, that outside of the NYC area, the number of USAIGC teams seems to be shrinking now. At least two of the good sized programs we have competed against no longer have IGC teams. And, the Hudson Valley Winter Classic meet (held at Bard College) actually dropped their IGC sessions this year. I'm not sure if gyms are going back to JO or are moving to XCEL. That said, we know some XCEL girls in our area and they do not seem to have a shortage of meets to choose from -at any of the XCEL levels.
 
I think gyms were allowed to have both USAG/Xcel And USA IGC at one time, then rules changed and gyms have to pick one or the other. Our HC/owner was going to have us do both but had to choose when they changed the rule. Is this maybe a contributing factor?
 
We did all three last year. This year no IGC. Only Xcel and JO. Our coach said it was the expense, number of meets required for IGC states (again an expense) and a rule change.
 
Since IGC and XCel are basically competitor programs, that makes sense.
 
USAIGC has had a larger presence in New York State for the last few years. I've noticed, however, that outside of the NYC area, the number of USAIGC teams seems to be shrinking now. At least two of the good sized programs we have competed against no longer have IGC teams. And, the Hudson Valley Winter Classic meet (held at Bard College) actually dropped their IGC sessions this year. I'm not sure if gyms are going back to JO or are moving to XCEL. That said, we know some XCEL girls in our area and they do not seem to have a shortage of meets to choose from -at any of the XCEL levels.

I think probably when USAG made the formal Xcel program some gyms decided to drop other leagues and do Xcel. In my state we had another program that was considered USAG prior to 2013. But that was it. No non-USAG leagues. So of course my state adopted the Xcel program. But a neighboring state still uses a pre-existing league they had before Xcel, that was made to serve mainly the same purpose (a more flexible option) and that league still exists. Consequently, this state still has low Xcel numbers. I noticed a lot of meets in New York have USAIGC sessions so I assume it could be a similar phenomenon. But I think eventually, Xcel will become the predominant program in all of these states.
 
If you're willing to travel there are many gyms in region 6 that do Xcel meets. CT, MA, and RI for example have many gyms with Xcel teams and those states have lots of meets with Xcel sessions and JO sessions.
 
Personally, I'm willing to travel. Not sure that will fly with the parents. We are a small gym and no booster club in place or fundraising to help with costs. One meet had a $10 spectator entry fee and that caused some drama, I can't imagine what travel cost would bring out. Maybe I'm wrong though and they would do it if it meant more competition for their kids. Thank you everyone for your input. I'll keep an eye on the other NY gyms and hopefully get some more competition in meets next season.
 
If I were you, I'd do more than that. Why not call up or email some of the coaches at the gyms mentioned above and pick their brains? I'm sure most of them would be more than happy to give you some ideas about what would work best for you in your situation.
 
Wow you had drama over a spectator fee. We live in NY, I have been to one meet in 4 yrs that didn't have a spectator fee. Even our gym has a spectator fee/gymnast entry fee for the yearly fundraising meet they do.

The one meet we didn't pay for was sponsored by a Foundation and we needed to fill out an intake form, which I am guessing will be used for future fundraising
 
One meet had a $10 spectator entry fee and that caused some drama,
What?!? Tat is a low entry fee for meets where I am. We just expect to drop a fair amount of money every meet weekend.
 
Agreed- I didn't know there were meets without entry fees in artistic! We drop way more than that for meets. My t&t dd has had two meets without a fee though- yay!
 
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