Women xcel Gold Questions

[goldengirlie]

Hi! My gym is going to offer Xcel gold next year and I just had a few questions.

1. On bars, I know that there is a cast to horizontal requirement. (I'm currently a level 4 and I hit my casts most of the time.) If I had two casts in my routine, would I get a deduction if one wasn't to horizontal?
2. Is a baby giant an allowable circling skill for gold?
3. I'm curious if I could do a routine like kip, cast, squat-on jump to high bar, long-hang kip, cast, maybe baby giant or back hip circle, tap swing, tap swing, half or full turn dismount?
4. For beam, could I make up a mount or do I have to choose a specific one?
5. For floor, is a round-off a flight skill?
6. Is a front handspring step-out a flight skill? (Sometimes my step-out turns into more of a front walkover kind of thing.)

Thanks so much! =)

 

[KIPSOG]

This might not be 100% correct, I havent been a gold for a while, but I practice with the gold team.
1. As long as one of your casts is above horizontal you're good. I don't think there's a deduction for additional casts not reaching horizontal.
2. I'm not sure about this one, you could check the Xcel code of points. If it's not, you could still do it and also add a backhip circle.
3. The routine you described is very similar to what our golds compete. Some do a backhip circle on the low bar and don't kip on the high bar. Some do a kip and backhip circle on the high bar. Some do a half turn dismount, but our coaches prefer a flyaway.
4. If your coaches allow it you can make up a mount. But most of the time coaches want it to be an actual skill in the code of points so you don't have to add more skills on the beam
5 and 6 I'm not sure about. Our golds do a front tuck and RO BHS BHS or BT.

 

[goldengirlie]

This might not be 100% correct, I havent been a gold for a while, but I practice with the gold team.
1. As long as one of your casts is above horizontal you're good. I don't think there's a deduction for additional casts not reaching horizontal.
2. I'm not sure about this one, you could check the Xcel code of points. If it's not, you could still do it and also add a backhip circle.
3. The routine you described is very similar to what our golds compete. Some do a backhip circle on the low bar and don't kip on the high bar. Some do a kip and backhip circle on the high bar. Some do a half turn dismount, but our coaches prefer a flyaway.
4. If your coaches allow it you can make up a mount. But most of the time coaches want it to be an actual skill in the code of points so you don't have to add more skills on the beam
5 and 6 I'm not sure about. Our golds do a front tuck and RO BHS BHS or BT.

Thanks so much! That was really helpful!

 

[LucyRobinson]

I am not a gold expert here, but I do have a sister in Xcel. I would ask your coaches to clarify everything here before you compete it, though!
1. Not really sure. I can't imagine it would be a big deduction, though.
2. A baby giant (long hang pullover) is an allowable element and used in a example of a gold routine. I am unsure if, like a back hip circle, it will count as a circling skill. I don't see girls at our gym do it.
3. I believe so.
4. "all basic mounts" are A's. What sort of mount are you planning to do? Our coaches never include mounts as a skill with value in our routine in case we fall on it, but gyms are different.
5/6: Yes, if your entire body is not touching the ground at one time it is flight. A front handspring step out would be counted as a front walkover if the above is not true. We've had people lose credit for their front handspring stepouts.

 

[Coach Kate]

I only have the old code of points on my phone, but according to that, a long hang pullover is indeed an A circling skill for gold.

Casts that do not make it to horizonal do not count as a skill. So if you were relying on the casts as one of your six skills, and one made horizontal and one did not, your start value would be 9.5 due to not having enough skills. If neither made horizontal, it would start from an 8.5, because you would be missing two skills and the special requirement. Most of our golds do pullover, cast, back hip circle, squat on, either kip or long hang pullover, sole circle dismount. We have been the number one team on bars at every meet all year. We only have them kip on low bar if they can connect the horizontal cast, and right now they all have kips, but only one of the 20 girls on the team can kip cast horizontal. consistently. For a few girls who have trouble with cast credit, we add an extra A - glide before pullover or tap swing before long hang pullover.

 

[raenndrops]

1. Only 1 cast has to meet the horizontal requirement. If they are low, they just won't count as skills.
2. A baby giant / long hang pullover is an allowable circling skill for gold.
3. You only need 6 counting skills in a bar routine. If we don't count the casts (in case they are low), then the routine: kip, cast, squat-on jump to high bar, long-hang kip, cast, maybe baby giant or back hip circle, tap swing, tap swing, half or full turn dismount would have 7 counting skills.
4. For beam, any mount that isn't in the Code of Points is given an A value in Xcel Gold.
5. For floor, a round-off is a flight skill.
6. A front handspring step-out is a flight skill as long as it doesn't turn into a Front walkover. A lot of our Golds compete front handspring step-out to roundoff and a choice of: Front Tuck or Roundoff BHS or Roundoff Back Tuck or Aerial.

 

[goldengirlie]

I am not a gold expert here, but I do have a sister in Xcel. I would ask your coaches to clarify everything here before you compete it, though!
1. Not really sure. I can't imagine it would be a big deduction, though.
2. A baby giant (long hang pullover) is an allowable element and used in a example of a gold routine. I am unsure if, like a back hip circle, it will count as a circling skill. I don't see girls at our gym do it.
3. I believe so.
4. "all basic mounts" are A's. What sort of mount are you planning to do? Our coaches never include mounts as a skill with value in our routine in case we fall on it, but gyms are different.
5/6: Yes, if your entire body is not touching the ground at one time it is flight. A front handspring step out would be counted as a front walkover if the above is not true. We've had people lose credit for their front handspring stepouts.

Thanks so much, this was really helpful! I ended up with a mount I made up. It's basically face away from the beam, jump to sit, turn to a straddle sit thing, a bit of dance, and stand up on one leg, lever into a handstand. It sounds complicated but it's actually really pretty.

Thanks for the clarification on the step-out, that probably won't be the best pass then.

 

[LucyRobinson]

Your mount sounds like an A then!