Parents JO v. Excel

[Pineapple_Lump]

This gym would really do itself a favor by being more open and organized with communication. It really cuts out a lot of the speculation and drama that results in good kids leaving/ blow ups.

 

[LCsMom]

I've never heard of this before and it's creating a lot of confusion among the parents.

My daughter made team in May, along with 10-15 other girls. There are obviously differences in talent, though they all made team. We were told this summer would be to get to know each other etc.

I just found out that the team that just moved up (the 10-15 girls) are being evaluated. At the end of the summer, the coaches will decide whether to put the entire group into excel bronze or level 3, regardless of whether a particular athlete can meet the requirements of level 3.

This seems ludicrous to me. No other sport moves all abilities to varsity, for example. It wouldn't just be that they may move to excel bronze, but there is already an excel bronze and they're making a separate one for these girls. They'd have to remain there a year.

Does this make sense to anyone? I'm new to this, my daughter is 6.5. I don't get the 2nd round of "tryouts" or why they have to stay in wherever they put them in for an entire year.

I don't know enough about the excel program, but they're obviously making it sound that it's not as good as JO, or why else put an entire group in it? Are there any downsides?

Our gym uses Xcel for the lower levels instead of compulsories and then will sometimes have move up meets for the kids who want to make the switch to JO optionals (for whatever reason). It's a little less pressure and there's the fact that you don't have to listen to JO compulsory music all year (bonus!!). Also, during the pandemic our gym had everyone compete Xcel because it was just easier on everyone.

 

[ZB55]

Thanks- her coaches are fairly unfriendly and don't have time to talk with you. They're too busy I guess. The gym has stuffed in more classes and the coaches seem stressed.

Anyway, after reading the posts, my only concern is that, after 2 of her coaches (from before team, much friendlier) said she's good enough for level 3, and she goes to excel with everyone else for a year, will she have the skills to meet level 4 requirements? I've read excel doesn't teach those.

Clearly would depend on the gym and how they use the programs, but for perspective, our Xcel silvers would definitely not be prepared for level 4. Most our Xcels don't get a kip until gold, often 2nd year, and it isn't required of them until platinum.

 

[4theLoveofGymnastics]

I've never heard of this before and it's creating a lot of confusion among the parents.

My daughter made team in May, along with 10-15 other girls. There are obviously differences in talent, though they all made team. We were told this summer would be to get to know each other etc.

I just found out that the team that just moved up (the 10-15 girls) are being evaluated. At the end of the summer, the coaches will decide whether to put the entire group into excel bronze or level 3, regardless of whether a particular athlete can meet the requirements of level 3.

This seems ludicrous to me. No other sport moves all abilities to varsity, for example. It wouldn't just be that they may move to excel bronze, but there is already an excel bronze and they're making a separate one for these girls. They'd have to remain there a year.

Does this make sense to anyone? I'm new to this, my daughter is 6.5. I don't get the 2nd round of "tryouts" or why they have to stay in wherever they put them in for an entire year.

I don't know enough about the excel program, but they're obviously making it sound that it's not as good as JO, or why else put an entire group in it? Are there any downsides?

Does this gym not have a level 2? My daughter did pre team, level 2, level 3 and is now in level 4. As far as xcel bronze goes, it's equivalent to level 2, silver is comparable to level 3. I wouldn't rush to have your daughter on level 3 unless she has mastered all of the skills for the level. If you do bronze this season, you can still do level 3 next season or continue to xcel silver.

 

[Milomom]

The gossip and negative talking were the worst in the early levels (until L7-L8). Until then gymnastics is relatively ‘easy’ and parents still believe their kid is the next best thing to hit the gymnastics world. Combine this with the fact that it takes parents awhile to even learn the sport and well, it can create an environment of competitiveness. It doesn’t help if the coaches are not that approachable (which is common, BTW). Eventually the kids of the most annoying parents leave the sport and parents start to fully realize how difficult the skills are and all you want is for all the kids to be successful and healthy.

I still think the biggest problem you’ve mentioned is a lack of high level (L9-L10) gymnasts. Unless your gym is new this suggests your gym can’t progress kids or they leave to other gyms.

I agree with this, especially about the parents not knowing the sport until later on. Our coaches would tell us not to worry about scores, but I think the best thing I did was to sit down and reading the scoring/deductions for level 3/4 routines. Before I did that, I could not understand where the scores came from and there were lots of parents complaining about the scores at the meets, which leads to people thinking the judges are unfair. Once I read the deductions and watched a few high scoring routines on YouTube, it made so much more sense - and I could help shutdown some of the negative talk - both from other parents and my girls. You realize the judges are not being unfair and are actually pretty consistent across the board.