Parents Xcel Practice Hours

[LongHoursNoTime]

How many hours do girls practice each week for Xcel Silver and Gold? And what are the benefits of practicing more or less?

 

[Coach Kate]

It really varies widely depending on the gym. Some gym use Xcel to bypass compulsories so they tend to do more hours. The gym I coached at was intentional about being low commitment so low hours, low cost, and silvers and golds did 5 hours (2.5 hours twice a week) and golds had an optional third day that about 10 total athletes would choose.

The benefit to this is that we saw kids staying in the sport much much longer - platinums did 2x2.75 hours with the third day option and diamonds did 3x3. Kids who otherwise might have quit gymnastics in junior high or high School stayed. We even had burned out athletes come from higher intensity DP drop back into Xcel and find love for gymnastics again. It allows kids to have other interests and activities and gives an opportunity to more people who might not be able to afford a more expensive program. We really tried to make it as accessible as possible.

We did have kids tend to repeat levels, and it's tough to be the very very best while training half the hours as some other programs, but we have had different levels win state and have plenty of individual and state titles each year. All of the kids come up through the rec program so the gym has strong training on coaching basics and xcel coaches learn to be efficient. And then a lot of our Xcel athletes turn around and become rec coaches for those kids to look up to. It really is fun to see.

I was a high intensity DP kid and it was a good fit for me, but I really loved what I saw and experienced as a coach in our low hours Xcel program and grew to appreciate it.

 

[LongHoursNoTime]

Thank you, @Coach Kate. Super helpful. I’m curious, what would you think is the most hours that a silver or gold should practice? (We do much more than what you mentioned, and I’m trying to figure out why. I do fear burnout.)

 

[gymnast17]

I did 4.5 hours in silver and 6.5 in gold. As a platinum I will be doing 7.5. Personally, I believe a silver or gold should not practice more than 5. I was really burnt out after my silver year. Gymnastics is a sport that focuses on perfection, and being in that atmosphere so much so far in platinum makes me feel burnt out.

 

[GymCAMom]

Our bronze/silvers do 2days X 3.5hrs but silvers now have the option for 3days X 3.5hrs. This years silvers are foregoing that optional day.

Our gold/plats do 3days X 3.5hrs. My daughter is a new gold and was allowed to continue her second sport so she's been training 2 X 3.5 but with an addition of a weekly private. This is just through her second sport season.

 

[superNova08]

I did 2 days X 3 hours for both silver and gold. It was definitely a lot for the younger kids.

 

[Mthegymqueen]

Both gyms I did Silver at were 3 hours a week (2 days at 90 minutes)
In gold, I practiced for 9 hours a week (3 days for 3 hours; If I stayed at my old gym, I would have still only been doing 3 hours a week)
I am currently a platinum and will be training 11 hours a week (3 days of 3 hours, + 2 hours for HS gymnastics)

 

[Coach Kate]

Thank you, @Coach Kate. Super helpful. I’m curious, what would you think is the most hours that a silver or gold should practice? (We do much more than what you mentioned, and I’m trying to figure out why. I do fear burnout.)

I personally like to see Xcel as a lower hours option so definitely under 10. I think 3x3 is a good Xcel max in general

 

[NYGymfamily]

For us:
Silver/Gold/Platinum- 2 x 3 or 3 x 3 (6 or 9 hours)
Diamond/Sapphire 3.75 x 2, 3.5, 3, 4, optional +3 (18 or 21 hours)

Last year gold and platinum had the option for 12 hours a week. This year they said they were going to do that again but so far it's still only 3 days max. For a little comparison to our DP program, we don't have any DP level that trains 6 hours. Our level 3's do 9. Our Level 8-10 do 18 or 21.

 

[mstaruk]

How many hours do girls practice each week for Xcel Silver and Gold? And what are the benefits of practicing more or less?

My 9 year old did Xcel gold last year and practiced 11 hours a week. It was M/W/F 4/4/3 hours. I think that was perfect amount of time. Now she has a 4th practice that is 4 hours this season as level 6.

 

[Pfiga]

My daughter's gym does 2 x 2.25 hours for Bronze, and 2 x 3 hours for Silver and up. She would like to have a third training day option.
As @CoachKate said, some gyms do xcel instead of the compulsory levels, so the kids train more. @LongHoursNoTime, is it possible that this is what your gym does as well?

 

[LongHoursNoTime]

@Pfiga we have Xcel and DP options. For Xcel silver it’s 10 hours. Gold is 13. I’m not sure how many hours the comparable levels are doing - a little bit more.

 

[Pfiga]

That does seem like a lot of hours for Xcel, but clearly some gyms run their Xcel programs that way.
This is only anecdotal, but last year before a couple of her meets, my daughter's coach told her team that some of the teams they would be competing against "train as much as our DP team". Not surprisingly, those teams did really well at the meets. It was a bit frustrating and discouraging for my daughter and her teammates.
In my mind, this "high hours" approach somewhat defeats the purpose of the Xcel program.

 

[GymnastPotterhead]

Our gym is 3x3 for silvers, 3x4 for golds and platinums, and 4x4 for diamonds. Same as the corresponding DP Levels.

 

[JBS]

Check out the "hours" tag at the link below for more threads from ChalkBucket on the subject...

hours

chalkbucket.com

 

[MontanaMamma]

Our gym evaluates training groups every spring and fall and adjusts the amount of hours based on the needs of the kiddos enrolled (age, level, work ethic, athlete goals, etc.). Last year we had two groups of Silvers, one group was comprised of mostly younger/newer silvers that practiced 4-6 hours a week, and the second group was a mix of older silvers and golds that trained 8 hours a week (during the school year). During the summer kids usually train more - I think most the silvers and golds were training between 8-12 hours a week. My DD did 16 hours a week her first summer as a silver (8 years old). She never complained and was always excited to go to practice, but I could tell she was just burnt out and overstimulated (overly emotional about everything). Sometimes less is more with hours in the gym (better to have less hours, and have kids be there 100% physically and emotionally, than more hours and a kid that’s always running on empty).

 

[charsgymnastics]

Thank you, @Coach Kate. Super helpful. I’m curious, what would you think is the most hours that a silver or gold should practice? (We do much more than what you mentioned, and I’m trying to figure out why. I do fear burnout.)

my gym personally does practices that are an hour and a half in length 3 times a week, I find shorter practices multiple days a week are better for me

 

[gym_mama88911]

How many hours do girls practice each week for Xcel Silver and Gold? And what are the benefits of practicing more or less?

How many hours do girls practice each week for Xcel Silver and Gold? And what are the benefits of practicing more or less?

My daughter was 4 hours x 3 days in silver and will continue that in gold. I think for our gym the requirement is 2 days for silver and 3 days for gold. She plays rec soccer in spring and fall so we probably won’t be adding a 4th day for gold right away, although it is an option.

 

[raenndrops]

2.5 hours/ 3 days a week ... Xcel Gold & Platinum & DP L2 - L8.
LSS only goes 1-2 days because she has competitive dance the other day ... and she has only gone the entire practice ONCE in the last 2 years (for various reasons).

 

[GymnastPotterhead]

L8 and only 7.5h/week? Wow.. Do they do well at meets?

2.5 hours/ 3 days a week ... Xcel Gold & Platinum & DP L2 - L8.
LSS only goes 1-2 days because she has competitive dance the other day ... and she has only gone the entire practice ONCE in the last 2 years (for various reasons).