Parents Xcel Practice Hours

[TheXcelSilverGymnast]

My gym does 6 hrs for silver and 8hrs for gold

 

[Pfiga]

XCEL Coach here. My old gym had bronze 2x week for 2 hours, total of 4hrs/wk. Silver was 2x week for 3 hours, total of 6hrs/wk. Gold, platinum and Diamond were 3x week for 3 hours, total of 9hrs/wk. We also had an optional 3 hour sunday practice for any of the silvers-diamonds to do and we had maybe 8-20 kids at any given time depending on where we were in the season. Those that came to the sunday practice were the ones that really wanted it, IMO. We didn’t offer JO or compulsory at the time so XCEL was our only option.

The gym I’m currently at has bronze 2x a week for 2hours, at 4hrs/wk. My silver, gold and platinum are all 2x a week for 3hrs giving us just 6hrs/wk which I think is okay for the silvers but I think my Golds and Platinums need more. I would like to see them at 9-12 hours a week. If I had Diamonds, I would want them at 12-16 hours a week unless they were satisfied and feeling successful with 9-12 hours a week.

My current gym’s DP program is very intense, very selective and very big. I’m really proud to be a part of this gym. However, due to the intensity, some girls choose the XCEL route because training 16-24 hours a week is just too much (understandable!) and that’s where I come in with XCEL.

I personally want the 9-12 hours for Gold and up because I’m just seeing slower progress with the 6 hours a week and we don’t get a lot of chances to do event-specific training very much. I feel they need more time to work in the more advanced skills as well as get some more strength and flexibility training in.

However, I should note that I am VERY new to XCEL program and style, I’m a former JO level 8 so that’s what I’m familiar with and I’m trying to switch gears with my XCEL kids.

My daughter's gym also does 2x week for 3 hours for Xcel Silver and up. While we appreciate the low hours because it leaves her enough time to do other activities, she also feels that it's just not enough time to make good progress on skills and would really like to have a third, maybe optional, practice. I have talked to one of her coaches about this, who also agreed that more practice would benefit the gymnasts, but it's not clear why the gym does not offer this.
Could you (and any others whose gyms have optional practices) give me a little more info on how the optional practices work? Are they just drop-in practices? Or do the gymnasts have to decide at the beginning of the season whether they are doing two or three (or more) practices per week for the whole season? I would love to hear what approaches different gyms have to do this, and maybe I'll manage to convince our gym to try one of them!