WAG Xcel or JO

[luvtospin]

What is the difference between Xcel and JO

 

[MeetDirector]

If your dd has goals beyond just club gymnastics, she needs to be in a JO program.

To be blunt, the difference between the two programs is level of effort and commitment. An athlete in a JO program can get to the upper optional levels of the sport and keep the doors open for college gymnastics. An athlete in an Xcel program can do gymnastics at a lower level of training and skill development but really has no chance for college gymnastics beyond club gymnastics at the college level.

 

[Mish]

Supposed to give an opportunity for competitive gymnastics to girls who don't want such a time-intensive commitment. It seems (from learning on here), that in some regions there are gyms who have their girls do both tracks, or have their girls train just as many hours as JO. This seems like it is not what USA gymnastics had in mind in creating the two tracks.

 

[Gymmommy71]

Around me XCel is used as a lower commitment, less-intense and more flexible program (as in less stringent requirements to be at the same level on all 4 events, and less specific event requirements). XCels do fewer hours (prob half than similarly skilled JOs), do less conditioning, and have a routines that aren't always at the same "level" for all events (like it's common for an XCel to not have a kip on bars, but still be doing layouts in a floor routine, where a JO would have way higher bar skills to go along w/ that floor layout because it is required).

JO is for those girls who want to live and breathe gymnastics and have goals of college gymnastics, etc. XCels will often do other activities like dance, soccer, cheer, etc., cause their time committment to gymnastics is much lower.

Some gyms funnel girls who start gymnastics late (as in 8 years old = late sometimes ) into XCel and rarely let them cross into their JO system - where other gyms will let older girls eventually move in JO if they show the skills and dedication. Some, but not all, gyms will also funnel girls w/ form and flexibility issues into XCel as allegedly XCel scoring is not as tough on those types of things as JO. XCel is also commonly used for kids w/ a specific fear issue - for ex. girls affraid of back tumbling or flyaways on bars that have many other strong high level skills because the XCel program is more flexible on routine requirements.

 

[cadybearsmommy]

It really varies from region to region. Xcel was created to be a less intense program,but in our region it has become immensely popular (due to being able to have individualized routines from an early level, which isn't possible in the compulsory levels 1-5 b/c everyone does the same routines.) Since it's increase in popularity in our region, it is very competitive and many gyms use it as an alternate route to JO optionals. At our gym, girls compete levels bronze, silver and gold instead of levels 3, 4 and 5. They do a score out meet for level 4 and 5 along the way and then they go to level 6. We have girls that are doing very well in optionals using this path. Not sure about the college path, but there are really no gyms in our state that get girls recruited to college gymnastics regularly as of right now, regardless of whether they use Xcel or compulsory to get to optionals.

 

[Mish]

I don't have personal experience with it, but to me it seems as if that ruins the purpose of what it was created for. If the Xcel girls are doing "JO hours" then it puts the girls who are doing it as intended at a disadvantage.

 

[2G1B]

In our area it seems that USAG Xcel is used as an alternate path to optionals. Some gyms just do one level 4 and one level 5 meet for scoring out, some choose to only compete one of those levels. The hours for Xcel are generally no different than those for JO.

For the girls looking for an alternate, lower hour program, it seems AAU and AAU Xcel are what is used.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Supposed to give an opportunity for competitive gymnastics to girls who don't want such a time-intensive commitment. It seems (from learning on here), that in some regions there are gyms who have their girls do both tracks, or have their girls train just as many hours as JO. This seems like it is not what USA gymnastics had in mind in creating the two tracks.

This also there are gyms that use XCel to by pass compulsories. Also not how Xcel was intended. USAG is making adjustments though.

 

[gymcat]

This also there are gyms that use XCel to by pass compulsories. Also not how Xcel was intended. USAG is making adjustments though.

Would you happen to know what kinds adjustments? Just curious!

 

[Gymmommy71]

This also there are gyms that use XCel to by pass compulsories. Also not how Xcel was intended. USAG is making adjustments though.

Do you know what adjustments are they making? I'm interested.

 

[Mish]

There is a rule that you cannot compete in state meets for both (I think), or something similar. It explains it on the NYS gymnastics website, but not sure about the other regions
.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

In Region 6 (only region I can speak to), you can not compete at States for JO and at States in Xcel in the same season and still qualify for Regionals in Xcel. 2 State meets in a season, excludes you from a regional meet.

 

[Gymmommy71]

Eeh. The state meet thing won't stop people from skipping compulsaries, it will just make the state meet more fair. Regular meets true XCel gymnasts can face JO hour-ed kids and make for unfair competition. ETA - or actually if the JO-track gymnast doesn't care about doing JO states, they probably will still do the XCel states and score out of L4 and L5 at a regular meet - thus making states still unfair.

Has there been any evidence that skipping compulsories negatively effects JO gymnasts long term?

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Eeh. The state meet thing won't stop people from skipping compulsaries, it will just make the state meet more fair. Regular meets true XCel gymnasts can face JO hour-ed kids and make for unfair competition. ETA - or actually if the JO-track gymnast doesn't care about doing JO states, they probably will still do the XCel states and score out of L4 and L5 at a regular meet - thus making states still unfair.

Has there been any evidence that skipping compulsories negatively effects JO gymnasts long term?

Can't speak to compulsory skipping.

Another thing to keep in mind is "less hours" and "less competitive" is different for individual gyms.

I know gyms around here where the gyms Xcel team may train less hours then their JO team, but more hours then other gyms JO team.

So you really can't assume JO kids are training more than Xcel kids.

If you do search on training hours both JO and Xcel, there is a big range in how gyms train, in both JO and Xcel.

Just look at one of the recent L2 threads for an example.

 

[Musicmama]

In our gym it seems to be used as USAG intended for the girls who want to compete but want a less expensive and less intense option than JO. I know there's at least some mobility between Xcel and JO because my dd has been invited to move over to JO from Xcel, but I don't think it's a regular thing to switch between the two either.

I know that some gyms don't allow any movement between the two programs at all - so it would be worth it to find out whether that's the case at your child's gym.

 

[cadybearsmommy]

I don't have personal experience with it, but to me it seems as if that ruins the purpose of what it was created for. If the Xcel girls are doing "JO hours" then it puts the girls who are doing it as intended at a disadvantage.

It's definitely controversial, but in our region it seems to have become almost the norm. I don't personally know of any gyms that have girls compete both at the same time, but there are many gyms who have done away with compulsories all together or keep the compulsory group very small and selective for girls who they think will do well at compulsories. I think the thought process is that compulsories are just not for everyone, you see talk all of the time about gymnasts who were just average-ish or even score poorly in compulsories but went on to do very well in optionals when they can do routines that are geared to their strengths. My dd is silver and she does 6.5 hours a week, I think that is still probably less than what most girls do for levels 3 or 4. And when we do our score outs they are always in house, so they wouldn't be going to state for both or anything like that. I agree that I don't think it's what USAG intended, but I can see the reasoning if it gets girls who would probably struggle through compulsories to optionals if that's what they choose and keeps them in the sport longer. Depends on the gym though, from the posts I've seen here a lot of gyms keep JO and Xcel completely separate and will not consider moving an Xcel gymnast to optionals later on, even if she shows good potential.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Again, hours and how the gyms use Xcel varies widely. And many gyms are not using Xcel the way it was intended. It was intended to draw the IGC folks over to USAG.

 

[cadybearsmommy]

Again, hours and how the gyms use Xcel varies widely. And many gyms are not using Xcel the way it was intended. It was intended to draw the IGC folks over to USAG.

I didn't know that. I've never seen IGC competed around here, I've seen AAU but only rarely. I heard AAU used to be bigger around here than it is now, wonder if that's b/c of the popularity of the Xcel program? Either way, good info to know!

 

[cassafrass]

DDs gym uses Xcel in several ways. There is complete mobility if the gymnast is capable. There is an Xcel training group with less hours, another group level 6s mixed with Xcel Golds and Diamonds who train 16hrs, and a young Tops training group who go 20+ hrs and just tested out of 4 but not ready for 6. It's kind of interesting when they go to the same meets and compete with each other. Sometimes the lesser hours girls score/place better!

 

[gymgal]

Again, hours and how the gyms use Xcel varies widely. And many gyms are not using Xcel the way it was intended. It was intended to draw the IGC folks over to USAG.

It was developed to nationalize prep op programs that already existed in individual states and regions. Nationalizing it allowed gyms to compete in different states and regions without having to wonder what level they should enter and have to change routines to fit the rules. It also placed all these programs under USAG's control instead of in the state/ region control.

The reason why some gyms in certain states/regions (mainly region 8) use it as an alternative path toward optionals is because this is partially why their original programs were developed before xcel came into being. In many of these regions, the programs were called prep-op as in - prepping for optionals. It was developed for girls who were not quite ready to make the jump to L7. It only had 1 level (between level 6 and 7) but it grew quickly into 2/3 other levels depending on the state. in the description it stated one of the reasons for the program was for compulsory gymnasts who want to experience optional routines in the off season. Even USAG had this on their website when they first nationalized xcel. I realize that most states never had/used a program like this but some did and continue to do so today. To say that the gyms in those states are not using the program as it was intended is just inaccurate.

Also, the difference in hours isn't a good argument. It happens in compulsory and optionals as well. You will have gyms using minimal hour competing against the power gyms who use max+ hours.