Parents Xcel practice question

[texasgymmama]

My daughter started gymnastics a year ago and is on her first season as Xcel bronze.

This is how a normal 2 hour practice goes... 30 minute stretch/warm up, 1 hour practicing routines on 2-3 events, 30 minutes of conditioning at the end. They have not learned any new skills since October, which is when they created their routines and began practicing them. Is this normal? The lack of learning new skills is what I am questioning. We are considering switching gyms after this season (for a few reasons) but I was just wondering what other xcel practices are like.

 

[BusyMomof2]

Our practices for Silver are 3x per week for 3 hours. They spend the first 30-45 warming up/conditioning and then practice 3 events for about 45 minutes each. They take a 15-min snack break. While they do spend the majority of their time on routines since it's meet season, they do work on uptraining each week (primarily on beam/floor/bars, not so much on vault). This is our first season but I've heard they pick up new skills much quicker in the fall where the focus isn't on routines, but we've seen our DD pick up several new skills that are beyond the Silver requirements. This is true for almost all of our team. All that to say, I know she's looking forward to the summer training where she can focus on a few skills more heavily without the pressure of perfecting her routines!

 

[Deleted member 26368]

Yep, during meet season, not a lot of new skills are "completely" learned - that is, the girls may begin working on drills/progressions for new skills, but the whole skill has not yet been learned. They will finalize the progressions and drills leading up to the skill after meet season is done. Most of our uptraining occurs in late spring and over the summer "off-season".

 

[gymgal]

If she is in season right now, then yes this is common, especially in the lower levels where the gymnasts are just beginning to learn form and the minute details that count in routines. As they become better competitors, less time is needed perfecting the routines. After season is over your will see them working more on progressions for the next levels.

 

[Coach Kate]

I know for us, when we are in season, we are pretty focused on routines. However, when it's not a meet week, we do continue working drills and progressions for new skills. It's not uncommon for kids to compete slightly different skills at the end of the season as they perfect them. With a lot of our kids who are scoring extremely well, I don't want them to get bored, so maybe we hit 5 bar routines and then work on our up skills (kips, cast handstand). Same with beam (cartwheels, walkovers). And on floor, we are always working towards the next thing! I also like to use a bit of a reward system - if the xcel golds get a 9.5 on their front handspring vault, for example, I let them st
art working the twisting vaults.

 

[cogymmom2dd]

If she is Bronze, the goal should not be to rapidly learn new skills. The goal should be to perfect the basics because Bronze is what I would consider ‘entry level’ gymnastics. In season, the goal should be to build strength and get really good at basic gymnastics skills. Those handstands may seem remedial now, but are needed in every single event on every single level at some point. For our gym, uptraining is focused on in the off season, which is in the summer. Typically, practices are a little longer and they spend June-August learning new things and then perfecting them for the next 9 months.

 

[For Flip Sake]

My daughter is Xcel Bronze and practices 3 hours a day, 3 days a week. Most of the practice time during competition season has been spent conditioning and perfecting their routines, although the last few weeks my daughter has started training some new skills, but the focus remains heavily on their routines. It’s our first year, but I believe they use the summer to learn new skills.

 

[RomyJ22]

My daughter is Xcel Bronze and practices with Silver, Level 2 and Level 3 for 10 hours a week. They warm up for about 30 minutes, then spend about 40 minutes per event (which includes conditioning), then they all come together again for conditioning and stretching. The week before the meet they really only practice routines, but as our season is wrapping up they have been moving on to learning and practicing new skills.

 

[WV Gym Mom]

Pretty common for lower levels I think...and I bet some of that conditioning and drills is working towards new skills. Once season is over is when the focus switches to new skills. Our gym has started working in new skills for the past couple months, but we only have State Meet left now and all are pretty familiar with their routines.