Parents switching to xcel because of kip - opinions

[Burtuka]

Hi!! This is my first posting, and I am a 'new' gym mom without any gym mom friends who have been in a similar boat, so I am looking for thoughts...

My daughter is 11 (entering 6th grade). She competed level 3 the last two seasons. The first season was her first time doing gymnastics. This last season she had a lot of growth, and made it to state, metaled, all the good stuff. She has all the skills for level 4 EXCEPT she is very inconsistent with her kip. Long-hang kip works, but glide-kip doesn't always. She is 115 lbs and around 5'2'', and she is solid muscle. She's dense... mentally as well... hahaha.

I watch the practices and the team is quite large for the amount of coaches (we have 1 technical coach and 3-4 assistants, some who haven't done gymnastics). The coaches tend to shuttle girls through drills and the girls have a try and then move on. I know all the drills are designed to help regardless if they're actually putting it together or not.

The gym let me know that they are switching my daughter to Xcel Gold. When I asked why, they said they thought it was the best path for her and it would cater to her strengths a lot more. I think they are likely right, but it is making me nervous to pull her off compulsory because of the not-really-happening-every-time-kip. I read through the forum and it sounds like a lot of gyms are more intense and maybe would have pulled her from compulsory way earlier because of the non-consistent kip. I also keep having that thought of 'are they really doing everything to help her *get* the kip'?

So, as a parent, what's the best thought process here? Would it be your opinion to do what the gym says and trust that when she figures out the kip she can potentially switch back over? It seems pointless to argue with the gym for more help for her to get her kip, so maybe I'm just feeling frustrated or confused about the process.

Xcel seems like a great route to keep gymnastics in the gym, but if my daughter had a rough season she wouldn't quit (again, she's stubborn, she will stick with gym no matter what), so I don't believe the switch is because of a worry of her being happy or anything like that.

Any thoughts or opinions are more than welcome!! In summary, I am trying to figure out how to think about this, so really, anything helps. Thank you!!

 

[HurricaneLR]

Xcel seems like a good option. She can continue to move forward while competing her best skills. Some of the Gold skills are harder (full turn vs half turn on beam) and some are easier (no kip required on bars.) But if she gets her kip, she can compete it in Gold. So she's got options. Whether she can go back to DP later depends on the gym. Some let you move back and forth, some don't. You might want to ask. Also, some gyms train DP and Xcel the same, and some put more time and effort into DP - that's a gym culture thing, and you have to figure out how your gym treats xcel.

 

[TheXcelMom]

I don't know how long your daughter was working on the kip, but it took mine at least 6 months of grit to get it, with a total of 10 months to do it consistently.
A kip is one of those "butterfly skills". You think you've caught it in the net, but it gets away. The inconsistency is so normal. I see it with all the XS girls. (kip at gold is required here)
What helped my daughter is that we have a non-competing gym nearby, and they had free-workout hours during the weekend. Mostly, stuntmen practice flipping around and landing on their backs safely. There was an old set of uneven bars in the corner, and she worked on that kip over and over and over. I have not witnessed another way to do it (though I assume excellent coaching helps, which she didn't have at the time).
If you can find a set of bars for her to grind it out, she'll achieve consistency.
Good luck!

 

[ORgymmom]

Drills and coaching at practice didn’t do much for my daughter when she was a compulsory at her old gym (well-known for its coaching). Don’t tell her coaches, but she got it by doing a million reps and made-up drills at home. We read somewhere on here that it took 1500-2000 tries to get a consistent kip. She had just started division so she turned it into a math project- how many months until the kip deadline, how many days without practice, and how many reps that would take on her days off.

She got it within days of her calculations.

Her old gym didn’t do stem rises or anything similar but she fully believed that she invented them and did a million related drills of her own creation. I’ve gotten the impression that they’re considers outdated but they helped a lot!

 

[Sebastian12]

Xcel gold is the best path for her. She can continue to work on her Kip while learning higher skills. Xcel gold typically competes level 4-6 skills. Although Kip is not required, she will learn fly away, double bhc, cast handstand, etc. Next year when she is 12, with proper skills, she can be petitioned into 6.