WAG need some insight

[mom2agymnast]

I hope this is the right place to post this. My daughter has been competing Xcel for 3 years, started at Bronze and just finished gold. She is training platinum for this coming season. Recently my dd has decided that she wants to do JO...it all started with her starting a new school and all but 1 of her friends do JO. Her current gym does not allow the girls to go between the two and honestly I feel like at our gym Xcel is looked down on even though we have close to 40-50 girls between the 3 levels and we do VERY well at the meets. Sorry...got off subject for a minute. I took my dd to another gym in town to have her try out and see where they thought they would place her...the coach pulled me aside after the tryouts and said they want to train her for level 6 this winter. They said they would have her do a meet as a 4 (or bring a judge in) and score out, same thing for level 5 and hopefully have her ready by January for level 6. First off...is that too much too fast? I'm also worried about how she will score at these meets. This last season she was on the podium (1-3rd) at 4 of the meets and 6th and 9th one other time. I just don't know what the right thing to do is. She of course wants to go to level 6 and said if she doesn't like it then she wants to return to her gym, but once we leave our current gym I know for a fact we will not be welcome back. Thoughts?

 

[munchkin3]

Sounds like more $ and more hours.
I always tell myself, 'be careful what you wish for.'

It is definitely not out of the question though. Moving from L4-6 is not HUGE, but be prepared for some major lifestyle changes.
XCEL allows for much more flexibility. JO is fiercely competitive.....more money and more hours.

You have to ask what you want for your daughter, and what she wants in the sport.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

score and podium have nothing to do with the development of our sport. if you have it right, the coach thinks that she can do more. your daughter wants to do more. when you know more you do more. it's not to much too fast.

any reason you can't ask her current coach why she can't do 6?

 

[AlexsGymmyMom]

Xcel platinum has essentially the same skill set as JO L6. I see no reason why she couldn't pull it off if its what she wants. I hope it works out for ya'll whatever you decide to do.

 

[raenndrops]

IMHO, L6 (as long as she has a cast handstand or really close and has her split jump / leap to 180º on beam) is easier than Xcel Platinum.
Both require 1 B skill per event. L6 only requires 1 beam acro... in Platinum, the only way to only do one is if it is a flight skill. L6 also doesn't require a jump SERIES on beam... just the split leap / jump... so don't have to worry about losing the SR for not connecting a series.

Depending on if the gym requires USAG Minimum for scoring out or a higher number, you don't have to worry much about the scoring out of L4 and L5... USAG only requires a 31.0 ... she already does the needed vault at Gold.

Scoring at L6 seems hard to some ppl because, while the requirement on bars is a cast to horizontal or above, there is a deduction on EVERY CAST that is not to HS. Also, a lot of gyms have their girls doing basically L7 routines at L6 (unnecessary skills and unnecessary deductions).

Good luck with whatever you decide!

 

[mom2agymnast]

score and podium have nothing to do with the development of our sport. if you have it right, the coach thinks that she can do more. your daughter wants to do more. when you know more you do more. it's not to much too fast.

any reason you can't ask her current coach why she can't do 6?

Our gym does not allow Xcel girls to move to JO. They "pick" and train their JO girls from a young age.

 

[mom2agymnast]

Sounds like more $ and more hours.
I always tell myself, 'be careful what you wish for.'

It is definitely not out of the question though. Moving from L4-6 is not HUGE, but be prepared for some major lifestyle changes.
XCEL allows for much more flexibility. JO is fiercely competitive.....more money and more hours.

You have to ask what you want for your daughter, and what she wants in the sport.

Its 4 more hours a week and an additional 100.00 per month. I know fees for meets cost more too. I'm OK with the price increase and hours (she's excited for an additional day at the gym). I'm just worried about her confidence level...she is very hard on herself (from school to gymnastics) and I don't want her getting discouraged if she doesn't do well. She's use to placing in almost every event in Xcel and I don't see that happening when/if she moves to JO.

 

[munchkin3]

It sound as if you both want it, so go for it.
Confidence and motivation is so important.
100 bucks isn't too bad.
How old is she?
Oh yeah, always leave honestly and graciously. You should be able to return.

 

[gymgal]

Scoring/placing is a conversation that you should have to have with your dd to be sure she understands her scores may be lower and that she will be ok with that. As long as she is aware of this before making her decision to go for it, she should be fine. If she would have been ready for platinum in January, she should be able to compete L6 successfully. Scoring out of 4/5 isn't as daunting as it sounds. The routines are very similar so she will just need to add a couple skills (which she should already have if she is ready for platinum).

 

[iwannacoach]

....... I'm just worried about her confidence level...she is very hard on herself (from school to gymnastics) and I don't want her getting discouraged if she doesn't do well. She's use to placing in almost every event in Xcel and I don't see that happening when/if she moves to JO.

Maybe she's just wired to be hard on herself, and how she places will have little effect on her because she'll just keep being hard on herself.

Here's a flip side of worrying about her becoming discouraged......

I'd be pretty discouraged if I had invested time and energy into something and then find there's a limit to what I'm allowed to do. If she moves to JO and doesn't place a single time she'll at least know she put all of herself into the adventure and will eventually find herself rewarded for that investment.

 

[MeetDirector]

Mom2 -

You have a situation where you need to figure out where your dd wants to go in this sport. If she sees herself doing high-level optional gymnastics and maybe looking at college, you need to switch to JO now, not later. Exel will not get her to that point. It is simple - yes or no.

As for the other gym's plan to get her out of the compulsory levels, don't sweat it. If those coaches saw something in her, then let them set the path. Don't fret about scoring in these "score-out" meets; the goal is not to win but just to get the move-up score. Get out of compulsories with solid foundation and onto optionals.

Good Luck.

 

[bookworm]

I'm just worried about her confidence level...she is very hard on herself (from school to gymnastics) and I don't want her getting discouraged if she doesn't do well. She's use to placing in almost every event in Xcel and I don't see that happening when/if she moves to JO.

And you are probably right on that...Excel is a very different system from JO , not better or worse but different. We have girls in our gym who never placed at all in JO and went to Excel and are on the podium all the time in Excel, but still would not be placing in JO....

If your daughter wants to do JO because her friends are , and there's a gym that will train her, I'd go for it....and if she doesn't like it , you could always find another gym to train her Excel again...

 

[gymmomtoo]

Sounds like a good plan for her, I think. Will some of her school friends be at this new gym too?

 

[Deleted member D3987]

Our gym does not allow Xcel girls to move to JO. They "pick" and train their JO girls from a young age.

too bad...some of my best kids that made L10 nationals and at least 2 elite national team members were journeyman gymnasts. took them forever. but they got there. really, that's too bad.

 

[pt coach]

Your daughter wants the opportunity to try JO and she can't do it at the current gym. You have found a gym that believes she does in fact have what it takes to compete JO. I do not even understand why there would be hard feelings from your current gym. I would just say thank you for everything you have done for her, but she wants to try JO. Everyone should wish each other the best of luck and move on. But after 24 years of coaching, the one thing I have learned for sure is that life is too short to hold grudges against people who leave our program, or to refuse to let people come back.

I think level 6 is very reasonable for her if she was training for platinum xcel.

 

[AlexsGymmyMom]

I just want to add that it is very narrow minded of your current gym to not allow girls to switch programs if they are outgrowing or want to switch from the current program they are in. Too bad for them as it looks like they may lose out if you switch gyms!!

 

[sc-gymmom43]

My DD did 2 years of Gold, placed 5thAA at Regionals. She just finished her first year of L6. She loved it. She had to work hard for it, though. Our gym pushes quality practice over quantity. She practices 9 hours per week. She finished 3rd AA at States.
My thought, too, was that L6 would be less of a jump than Platinum.

 

[sc-gymmom43]

It also depends what her personal goals are. Does she want to do JO because her friends are, or because she wants to go collegiate one day? The Xcel program is growing leaps and bounds. If she has no desire to continue gymnastics after high school, then Xcel is a great place to be.

 

[3rd_time_around]

I hope this is the right place to post this. My daughter has been competing Xcel for 3 years, started at Bronze and just finished gold. She is training platinum for this coming season. Recently my dd has decided that she wants to do JO...it all started with her starting a new school and all but 1 of her friends do JO. Her current gym does not allow the girls to go between the two and honestly I feel like at our gym Xcel is looked down on even though we have close to 40-50 girls between the 3 levels and we do VERY well at the meets. Sorry...got off subject for a minute. I took my dd to another gym in town to have her try out and see where they thought they would place her...the coach pulled me aside after the tryouts and said they want to train her for level 6 this winter. They said they would have her do a meet as a 4 (or bring a judge in) and score out, same thing for level 5 and hopefully have her ready by January for level 6. First off...is that too much too fast? I'm also worried about how she will score at these meets. This last season she was on the podium (1-3rd) at 4 of the meets and 6th and 9th one other time. I just don't know what the right thing to do is. She of course wants to go to level 6 and said if she doesn't like it then she wants to return to her gym, but once we leave our current gym I know for a fact we will not be welcome back. Thoughts?

It's not too fast, and depending on her age it is almost a necessity to get her up to a good level in JO optionals. She only needs a 31.00 to score out, so even all 8's will do it, or a combination of 7's, 8's, 9s. A girl at our gym scored two 7's at her score out meet this past weekend and still made the required score. There is not really a track to USA gymnastic optionals through Xcel, so she will have to make the switch and can only do that by scoring out of 4 and 5. What I don't understand is why your current gym won't allow the gymnasts to switch to JO once they are ready. Our gym doesn't have Xcel teams, but if there is a girl who is struggling but still wants to compete, they will allow her to go Xcel so that she can keep training and competing. It has worked wonders for girls with fear issues, as it allows them to relax and enjoy the sport again by tailoring their routines to what they can do, rather than stressing about what they can't do.

Anyway, I think if she really wants this, you have to go where they will allow it. And, if they are offering it to her, then they think she is able to do it. A good gym won't encourage this if they don't think the gymnast can do it. She obviously has some skills. I say go for it, and don't look back.

 

[3rd_time_around]

Our gym does not allow Xcel girls to move to JO. They "pick" and train their JO girls from a young age.

This makes me sad for the girls who are late bloomers in the sport.