Parents Xcel advice for Bronze/Silver dd

[motigymnasticsmom]

My dd is in Bronze. We have one more meet bf states and regionals. Then next year is Silver! I've looked online and most of the time I see that once a girl is in Xcel, she is stuck there. I am very much confused. Can my dd go to jo at some point later (after platinum). I really want her to stay in and go to college with gymnastics scholarship. She is doing really well now and does not want to quit. I don't want to waste time and money if Xcel is going nowhere. Were are in region 8 in Ga. Please guide me....Thanks

 

[gymmomtotwo]

in our gym and state, the only realistic path to college scholarships is the JO Program. Our XCEL Bronze girls are Level/2/3 and 7-10 years old. Our 7-8 year olds in the JO program start competing at Level 5. They have 3 years of preteam training under their belt before they ever compete. There is no comparison between the track of the two programs. It's a great program where alot more kids get to compete and enjoy gymnastics, but its not the program if you want to be a high level gymnast.

 

[gymgal]

My dd is in Bronze. We have one more meet bf states and regionals. Then next year is Silver! I've looked online and most of the time I see that once a girl is in Xcel, she is stuck there. I am very much confused. Can my dd go to jo at some point later (after platinum). I really want her to stay in and go to college with gymnastics scholarship. She is doing really well now and does not want to quit. I don't want to waste time and money if Xcel is going nowhere. Were are in region 8 in Ga. Please guide me....Thanks

My dd went through xcel and is now a strong L7. There are a few others on chalkbucket with similar stories but it really depends on your gym's set-up. GA is in region 8, and many gyms in this region have chosen to use xcel in the lower levels and then transition to JO with very good success. But all gyms use it differently. Some just use it for bronze/silver then transition them to L5/6. Others go through platinum and then go to L7. Some gyms just do xcel and if girls want higher, they have to switch gyms. And some gyms have separate tracks for JO and xcel.

I know that you are a new comer to team, but do you know how your gym is setup in terms of levels? Do they have upper level gymnasts (L7+)? Do they also compete compulsory (L4-6)? The best thing to do is to talk with someone in the office or a hc to know for sure what your gym does.

I also want to say that very few girls make it to level 10, (about 10% gymnasts who started at L4) and of those, only a small percentage of them will compete in college. Gymnastics is great for lots of reasons but banking on a sports scholarship is not one of them. Seriously, it would be better for you to put her in a less expensive, less time-intensive sport and put all the money you have spent on gymnastics into a college fund. It works out about the same.... Just food for thought. As parents we always strive for the highest for our kids but we have to be aware of the reality as well....

 

[Natasha]

Currently Region 8 requires girls in the Xcel program to "score out" of L5 before they are allowed to compete Gold, so any girls who continue in Xcel end up doing L5 anyway- at least one score out meet. This actually makes it easier for girls to transition to JO as then they can score out of L6 as well and then go to optionals. This may all change this summer however with the Xcel program being nationalized. We do have several girls from our gym that have competed gold or platinum in Xcel and then transitioned to Optionals after scoring out of L6.
But, to echo gymgal, college scholarships really only work out for a tiny minority of girls. Gymnastics is A LOT of time and money and does not lead to college gymnastics for most girls, so you really need to be in it for all the benefits that your daughter will get out of it as she is on her journey as there is no predicting where or when her journey will end.

 

[maddiemei]

We are in Region 8. Our gym competes JO in the fall and Xcel in the winter/spring. My daughter did two years of silver (she finished level 3, competed silver and then finished level 4, competed silver). This year she did two level 5 meets, scored out and is competing gold. She will compete the new level 5 in the fall this year and then do gold again. There are some gyms in my area that just use Xcel as a tuition filler for their gym. They have older girls on the level and know that they aren't going to let them compete JO. It really does all depend on how your gym is set up. Good luck to your daughter.

 

[AlexsGymmyMom]

My DD has been competing xcel platinum for the last 2 seasons. She is doing a Level 6 meet this weekend to hopefully score out so she can move up to Level 7. She has really loved the optional routines that she gets to have in xcel and may have left gym if she had to do 2 years of level 6 compulasaries.

So that being said your DD can def move from xcel to JO if she scores out of the levels (assuming your gym works this way).

Just for kicks I went to look at our state meet information. Here is a statistic that I noticed when I was looking at the schedule for the state championships.

Level 4 literally has 6 sessions devoted to just level 4. I would imagine that there will be about 60 - 80 girls per session so that would equal about 360 to 480 girls . Level 5 has 4 sessions so roughly 240 to 320 girls .
Here is the breakdown of the other levels:
140 girls at Level 6 - 2 sessions
145 girls at Level 7 - 2 sessions
106 girls at level 8 - 2 sessions
84 girls at level 9 - 1 session
53 girls at level 10 - 1 session
xcel platinum 112 - 2 sessions
xcel silver and gold 74 - 1 session

I would imagine there are a few girls out there that have not qualified for state yet but I imagine that these numbers are fairly accurate.

 

[raenndrops]

Region 5 has already adopted the National Standards. According to these standards, a gymnast in Xcel Bronze will be an "in-house" level that states can choose to compete (similar to how some states compete Levels 1-3 now).

The only time JO level matters is when the gymnast begins Xcel.
Currently (adjust accordingly for the new levels) a level 3 could compete Bronze or Silver. A level 4 could compete silver or gold. A level 5 or level 6 could compete gold or platinum. A level 7 or level 8 can choose to compete Platinum or Diamond. A level 9 who wants to make the switch has to compete Diamond.

Once you are in the Xcel program, there are no USAG decided mobility scores until you reach gold. Then, you have to score a 31.0 AA (or 8.0 IES) to move to Platinum. And the same for Platinum to Diamond.
The minimum ages are Silver - 7; Gold - 8; Platinum - 9; and Diamond - 10. If a girl chose to compete Xcel and progressed through Diamond, once she was in high school, she could petition to compete the upper levels of JO ... or, since Level 9 and Level 10 are so similar, she could potentially catch the eye of a college gymnastics coach (maybe at a D2 school or even a D1 school if she has an event or 2 that are EXCELLENT) even if she continued competing Xcel.

We will have to see how it all shakes out in the future.

 

[motigymnasticsmom]

Wow, thank you!!! I hope that we adopt the national standards soon. I told dd coach one day about Xcel diamond...said shed never heard of it.


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[emorymom]

If you want her to get a college scholarship for gymnastics, you make her a springboard diver. THAT is realistic. Otherwise put your money back in your pocket, write a check to a college savings account and have her compete super cheap sports.