Women Xcel Levels

[Clover]

A friend of my DDs came over yesterday and told us that she was going to be starting Xcel at our gym. DD is very excited for her, but I realized during the conversation that I really don't know that much about Xcel. Can someone explain to me the colors/levels within Xcel and how those compare to the JO levels?

Thanks!

 

[munchkin3]

I'm so glad you asked this! I am curious myself!

 

[gymbeam]

This is what I understand the level equivalencies to <roughly> be, but I also understand there are more subtle differences in technique, skill & training requirements between the two that someone with more understanding would probably do a much better job explaining than me.!

Level 3-4 Bronze

Level 4-5 Silver

Level 5-6 Gold

Level 7-8 Platinum

Level 8-10 Diamond

 

[gymbeam]

OK- so now that I've posted that, I think I'm incorrect! (Knew I should have just let someone else answer- sorry!) I think maybe these comparisons are outdated.

 

[Gymishome]

This is what I understand the level equivalencies to <roughly> be, but I also understand there are more subtle differences in technique, skill & training requirements between the two that someone with more understanding would probably do a much better job explaining than me.!

Level 3-4 Bronze

Level 4-5 Silver

Level 5-6 Gold

Level 7-8 Platinum

Level 8-10 Diamond

Diamond would not be level 10. Hardly even level 9. I think of it more like Gold in USAIGC, not that many of you know what that is. Essentially it's like level 8 1/2. No D's are allowed in Diamond while certain D's are allowed in level 9 and there are no restrictions in level 10.

 

[gymbeam]

yeah- my source was outdated and inflated! sorry!

 

[AmandaLynn]

I would say that there is a lot of overlap between minimum requirements of each level and the max skills allowed. My best attempt at comparing to JO would look like this:

Bronze: 1-3
Silver: 2-4
Gold: 3-5
Platinum: 5-7
Diamond: 7-8

 

[Pickle]

I think (and I could be wrong since this is DD's first year competing):

Bronze L3
silver L3-5
gold L5-6
Platinum - L6-7
Diamond - Level 8 ish

At our gym the bronze girls mostly do the level 3 JO routines. The silver girls are split between level 4 routines and their own - 1/2 of them kip on bars, 1/2 just do a pull over. All do squat ons and jump to high bar. They all have BWO on beam and tuck dismounts, on floor they either do a robhsbhs or a robhsbt. But other gyms that we have competed against have very different routines. 1 gym had all their bronze doing 2 carthweels and their silvers doing just a robhs.

I gave no idea what the gold and above do, since they practice at a different time.

 

[MILgymFAM]

Our gym trains them as follows, but there is a LOT of leeway in xcel I terms of requirements per level. It's not nearly as structured as JO.

Bronze: 2/3
Silver- 3/5
Gold- 5/6
Platinum- 7/8
Diamond-8 advanced

 

[sportsmommy]

My DD is training to compete xcel platinum this year. She is training the same skills as the girls training for level 7.

 

[raenndrops]

General information about the Xcel program in
Comparison to JO Levels:
JO... has levels 1-10... the first REQUIRED level is L4. Some gyms compete L1 and L2 or start at L2, but a lot of gyms start at L3.
L1-L5 are Compulsory Levels (everyone in the country in a level does the SAME routines on all 4 events and has the same music). L6-10 are Optional Levels... individual routines designed to meet the requirements and showcase the gymnast's strengths while downplaying weaknesses.

Xcel... has 5 Divisions: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond.
All 5 divisions are Optional as opposed to Compulsory... individual routines designed to meet the requirements and showcase the gymnast's strengths while downplaying weaknesses. For simplicity, some gyms choose to have all of their Bronze do the same basic routine... and the same for Silver... and less often for Gold (I have only seen 1 gym have all Gold use the same routine - it worked well for one girl... not so much for the other one I saw).
Bronze - equivalent to roughly L1-L3 in JO, but can do some L4 skills too.
Silver - equivalent to roughly L2-L5... but the vault is the L3 vault OVER the L4-10 Vault Table to the mat stack (I HATE this VAULT)
Gold - equivalent to roughly L3-L7, but they MUST dismount from the high bar on bars... Has the same vault options as L6-7.
Platinum - equivalent to roughly L4-L8. One "B" skill is required on each event (very similar to L6 in requirements).
Diamond (not competed everywhere) - Equivalent to L6-L9. Requires 5 "A" Skills and 2 "B" Skills on each event (similar to L7, but "C" Skills are allowed on all events). On Vault, they have the same options as L8, but Start Values are either 9.6 or 10.0. The basic Handspring is worth 9.6. In L8, the SV range from 7.0 to 10.0, with a handspring being a 9.0.

Requirements:
Cast requirements are lower for Xcel, and there is an "A" cast. In JO, if it isn't Cast Handstand, there is a deduction and if not close to HS, you don't get the "B" credit and there is no "A" option.
Split requirements (split jumps and leaps) are lower for Xcel (a max of 150º in Diamond). In JO, from L6-10, it has to be 180º.

Form:
Form is JUST AS IMPORTANT in Xcel as it is in JO. But in JO Compulsories, the judges know what the routine is SUPPOSED to be... PERFECTION has been established. In Xcel, even if one gym has all of their Bronze girls do the EXACT same routines to the same music, the judges can't compare one girl to another. They have to compare each routine to the requirements... did she cover all of the requirements is the last thing they check. During the routine, they are recording form and other deductions while "marking" the routine in judge's shorthand. After the routine, they see if the requirements were covered to establish the Start Value, then they take the deductions from that Start Value.

 

[Ali'sMom]

Raenndrops! thank you so much for that!!!

I was told in a nutshell (at least for our gym) Xcel is for the girls who are done with compulsories, but not quite ready for optionals. But I was confused when I heard of girls who were doing Xcel then moving up to L3 or L4, it made no sense to me.

Now that I read what you posted, I looked and our gym only has Xcel Gold, which would fit right in with what I was told. So in our gym it's kind of a bridge between compulsory and optional.

Man, I feel like I just learned an encyclopedia of wealth, because it really was confusing me, but I felt stupid to ask! LOL!

Thank you!

 

[Ali'sMom]

I just looked up our optional girls on our team, and YUP! most of them did XG in between compulsory and optionals. Boy I feel so smart today!!!

 

[raenndrops]

Raenndrops! thank you so much for that!!!

I was told in a nutshell (at least for our gym) Xcel is for the girls who are done with compulsories, but not quite ready for optionals. But I was confused when I heard of girls who were doing Xcel then moving up to L3 or L4, it made no sense to me.

Now that I read what you posted, I looked and our gym only has Xcel Gold, which would fit right in with what I was told. So in our gym it's kind of a bridge between compulsory and optional.

Man, I feel like I just learned an encyclopedia of wealth, because it really was confusing me, but I felt stupid to ask! LOL!

Thank you!

You are quite welcome. I am our teams "resident expert" on Xcel. We are in Region 5 and the National Xcel Chair is also from Region 5... last year she was the Region 5 Rep (or something like that). Whenever I had a question, I would contact her because it was our first year with any Xcel gymnasts on team (we had 3... all Gold... 2 had experience with Old L4-6 and the other one was older and only competed Old L4 for 1 season). Region 5 adopted the National rules a year early... and we wanted to make sure we were doing things correctly as far as meeting requirements. It worked and I learned about all of the divisions

 

[Chloe Maher]

i'm so happy that you asked!
Xcel Levels
bronze levels 1-3
silver levels 3-5
gold levels 5-6 or 7
platinum 6-7
diamond7-8
I hope this helps!