Anon Xcel only gym that refuse to add diamond (just curious what you think)

[Anonymous Post]

In my state, there is one gym that is Xcel only. In their area, there is one other gym that offers DP and Xcel, but has less good coaching from what I can see and a really small team with athletes that place well below most others. Location wise, the gym is in a small town in a more rural area, so driving elsewhere would be highly unlikely.

This Xcel only gym only offers through Xcel Platinum and does not offer Xcel Diamond. There are girls on the team who have had 4-5 years at platinum and looking at their skills would most likely be ready for diamond at another gym.

IMO, if it's a no qualified coaches work there, I get that. But I've never seen them advertising to hire more advanced coaches either. And while I don't know their rationale for topping out at XP, I don't understand why any gym would limit their girls this way. It just seems odd to me, and unfair to their athletes.

What do you think?

 

[Anonymous Post]

It is VERY difficult to hire and retain coaches. Coaches are often not paid very much and often have other jobs besides being a coach. Maybe they don't see the poinit in advertising? SO many gyms in our state were advertising for coaches over the summer so there is plenty of competition! My daughter attended a gym that was just xcel before moving over to DP at her current gym (which offers both). at the Xcel only gym Platinum was the highest level. They were not able to hire anyone qualified to coach Diamond and any gymnast that wanted more than what the gym offered just moved to a different gym. Do they have the equipment necessary to train beyond Platinum? That was another issue at our old gym. There was no pit at all, so it really limited the ability to train many of the harder skills.

 

[Anonymous Post]

That is interesting. Perhaps one reason is that they want to score well as a team at platinum. And perhaps to make it easier at meets to eliminate one additional session at least. We have been at Xcel Platinum meets where it definitely seemed like other platinums were more than ready to compete diamond. Would be curious to know if the gymnasts wanted to move up or were content to compete platinum. My daughters are always eager to move up to the next level.

 

[Coach Kate]

That seems strange. Until very recently, I coached at an Xcel only gym and we are the opposite: we are hoping that sapphire gets extended nationally after this year's pilot because we have young diamonds who would definitely love that opportunity!

 

[Anonymous Post]

That seems strange. Until very recently, I coached at an Xcel only gym and we are the opposite: we are hoping that sapphire gets extended nationally after this year's pilot because we have young diamonds who would definitely love that opportunity!

I'm hoping the same for sapphire. My gym has 2-3 diamonds that would probably be ready. My Dd is on the younger side for platinum and I think she'll make diamond in another year or 2. She may top out there, but it'd be nice for sapphire to be there if she gets the skills and it gives her more to work towards.

 

[Anonymous Post]

My gym only has silver-platinum because nobody is ready for diamond yet. One girl almost moved up but couldn’t get one of the skills and decided to do one more year of platinum. She would definitely be allowed to move up though, the coaches were pushing her to.

 

[Anonymous Post]

To add to this, at our meet this weekend there was a gym from a different state that had a gymnast who moved there from another gym and went from L9 to XP (this gym did not offer diamond either). It's like having a gymnast move from L9 to L6 or 7!