Parents Xcel preteam? What should we expect?

[pullover]

My daughter was invited to join an Xcel pre team. We know very little about Xcel as she is coming from a regular rec class. What should we expect from Xcel pre team? Is it usually fairly similar to the regular (JO) pre team? They said they would expect her to compete a year from now. What sort of skills are required to compete Xcel Bronze? Is it similar to a level 3? How do the Xcel levels relate to the JO levels?

 

[raenndrops]

Depending on the coach, you might just work skills and conditioning and Xcel division will be determined closer to the beginning of the season. The first three divisions are options for a first time competitor. To move beyond Gold, a gymnast has to achieve a Minimum Score.
Xcel levels:
Bronze:
Vault - 2 options... 1) From springboard, Straight Jump on to a minimum of a 16" mat. Then kick up to handstand and fall to flatback.
2) Handstand Flatback onto a minimum of a 16" mat. A lot of gyms use this option and use the L3 vault stack for it... but they do not HAVE to.
Bars- Low bar only... minimum of 4 skills... mount... one a cast (hips leave the bar)... a circling skill (back hip circle, front hip circle, middle circle)... a dismount.
Beam- (45 second time limit) Minimum of 1/2 turn on 1 or 2 feet... one jump or leap... one non-flight acro skill (forward roll, backward roll, 3/4 handstand, cartwheel, headstand)... dismount.
Floor - (45 second time limit) Minimum of 2 directly connected acro skills with OR without flight... 2nd acro pass with 1 acro skill with or without flight... Dance passage with a minimum of 2 different Group 1 VP directly or indirectly connected (one must be a leap with @ least 60º split)... minimum 1/2 turn on 1 foot.
Silver:
Vault - A Flatback, but OVER the vault table with repulsion to the vault stack.
Bars- Minimum of 5 skills... Mount, Cast (hips must leave the bar), a circling skill, a dismount.
Beam- Minimum of 1/2 turn on 1 foot... 1 jump or leap with 90º split... one non-flight acro skill... dismount.
Floor-Minimum of 2 directly connected acro skills (one must have flight)... either a 2nd acro connection (min 2 acro with or w/o flight) OR One acro skill with flight... Dance passage with a minimum of 2 different Group 1 VP directly or indirectly connected (one must be a leap with @ least 90º split)... minimum full turn on 1 foot.
Gold:
Vault- Level 7 Vault Chart (Handspring over the vault table is the standard for L4-L7... but there are other options)
Bars- Minimum of 6 Skills... Cast to horizontal... circling skill... dismount from the high bar.
Beam- Full turn... dance series with 2 skills AND a leap or jump with 90º split... 2 acro skills (one must achieve vertical) with or without flight... dismount.
Floor- Minimum of 2 directly connected flight skills... either a 2nd acro series OR an Aerial or Salto... Dance passage with a minimum of 2 different Group 1 VP directly or indirectly connected (one must be a leap with @ least 120º split)... minimum full turn on 1 foot.
Platinum (6 A skills and 1 B skill):
Vault- Same as Gold
Bars- Cast above horizontal, circling skill, kip, high bar dismount.
Beam- Full turn... dance series with 2 skills AND a leap or jump with 120º split... One acro skill with flight OR an Acro series with or without flight... dismount.
Floor- Minimum of 2 directly connected flight skills with 1 A or B salto... either a 2nd acro series with a minimum of 2 directly connected flight skills OR an isolated B Salto... Dance passage with a minimum of 2 different Group 1 VP directly or indirectly connected (one must be a leap with @ least 150º split)... minimum full turn on 1 foot.
Diamond (5 A skills and 2 B skills):
Vault- Vaults for Gold and Platinum are only out of a 9.6... they have more vaults to choose from.
Bars- Cast to 45º from vertical... minimum of a B circling skill... Release, pirouette, or 2nd different circling skill (minimum of a B)... Salto dismount from the high bar.
Beam- Full turn... dance series with 2 skills AND a leap or jump with 150º split... One acro skill with flight AND an Acro series with or without flight... Salto or Aerial dismount.
Floor- Minimum of 2 directly connected flight skills ...A 2nd acro series with a minimum of 2 directly connected flight skills... 2 different Saltos in the routine (one must be a B... and may be in the series)... Dance passage with a minimum of 2 different Group 1 VP directly or indirectly connected (one must be a leap with @ least 150º split)... minimum of a "B" turn on 1 foot.

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask

 

[Quadqueen]

^^^"middle circle" on bars is also known as a mill circle.

 

[IreneKa]

From my experience, Xcel Bronze is somewhere in between JO levels 1-2-3. Vault is like L2-3, bars - more like L1, beam -kind of like L2 but with handstand, and floor is more like L3, but robhs is optional, although encouraged.
As far as Xcel pre-team goes, I'm not sure, as our gym didn't have Xcel pre-team. DD was invited to join Xcel team directly from rec. They started training in June, then around October the coaches made the decision of who will be competing that season, then they started learning the routines, and the first competition was at the end of January. The girls who didn't compete and the ones who did still trained together twice a week 2.5 hours.
My guess would be that the current Xcel team in your gym is in the middle of their season now, so they don't want to add new girls to it. So, they're starting the new girls as pre team, but will probably move them to team after the competition season is over, and will have them competing next season, a year from now.

 

[Sasha]

I'm sure you'll get varied responses as gyms differ, but here is another example for context if it helps...

In our gym, the Excel pre-team differs from J/O pre-team in these ways:

1. Xcel pre-team is many ages (5-16+), where JO is narrow (ages 5-8). Xcel pre-team welcomes girls of all ages, shapes, sizes, and conditioning levels.
2. Xcel pre-team's main requirement is enthusiasm to learn, and ability to pay attention. JO pre-team requires certain strength, flexibility, and skill competence in addition to the above.
3. While both incorporate conditioning, strength/flexibility, and 'shapes'/form, Xcel has much less emphasis on perfecting these before competing. Xcel has fewer hours to work with than JO, so they focus on skill development at some sacrifice of form. For example, our pre-team Xcel girls may learn the back handspring faster than our JO girls, but the form is often less 'pretty'. Xcel girls are allowed to 'move up' with less perfect form.
4. There is no set time when girls in Xcel 'move up' - they move to Bronze to compete whenever they have shown enthusiasm to compete and coach thinks they have a bare minimum of skills, form, and ability to memorize routines. They can also compete on only 1 or a few apparatus (e.g., they don't have to do beam if that is not yet a strength). In JO, criteria are more strict. For example, our pre-team cannot move to team (L3) until they have all L3 skills, and you may only move up in May (to compete in September). They will then perfect these skills for competition and uptrain L4 once on team.
5. At our gym they are more open to 'non-competing' Xcel Bronze girls who train with the Bronze group, but don't want to compete (yet or ever) for some reason.

Previous replies have accurately compared the levels (e.g., Xcel Bronze is a mix of JO 1-3). Anecdotally, I would say that, at our gym, if you took the new L3 girls and new Xcel Bronze girls and compared their gymnastics side by side, you would see that on floor, vault, and beam, skillsets are nearly identical, but, overall, the JO girls just 'look better' doing them because of all the form work (not to say an exceptional Xcel girl couldn't look just as good or better, but it is the exception due to hours practiced per week). Then bars is the real differentiator. The L3s will have proper pullovers, back and front hip circles, middle circles, shoot-thru's, leg cuts, and good dismounts. Most of the Xcel girls will have a sloppy jumping pullover, maybe a back hipcircle, and really struggle on anything else. I think the biggest issue is arm strength, and perhaps core strength for the shapes on bars. These are hard to get with fewer practice hours.

Ok that was longer than intended, but hope it adds color to the picture you're forming

 

[motigymnasticsmom]

We are in a gym that offers both xcel and the jo program. My dd was on the older side when she was invited to team. She loves the xcel team. I think that it's a good fit for us. I want her to go to school, have time for school and other activities. I want her to want gymnastics more also,and not have burnout. I think with the constant same rotation and same routines of the compulsaries, she would've gotten bored quickly. Our high school just started a gymnastics team this year. We can easily go to the jo side, but I'm afraid that she'll quickly pass through the compulsaries, and go to optionals. After optionals, well the gym requires a lot more time. (so far I do not know what we will do further down the road as she progresses) As far as any pre-team, just sit back and be glad that its just pre-team now. Check with your gym and see if your dd can go to jo after competing xcel or if they train side by side or use them interexchangeably. Xcel is not new, but jo and xcel both just got "remade" last year. Congratulations to you and your dd.

 

[Gymnast4Life]

I know i'm 10 years late, but I'm xcel silver on an xcel preteam(im 13), we also do a competition, and the girls on jo preteam are about 5-10(split to 3 levels) jr level 1- age 5-6, level 1- 7-9, level 2- 7-10, but on xcel preteam we have one team, ages 11-14 on 3 levels ,bronze(11-14) but most of these girls are about 11-12, and silver(11-14) but most about 12-13, and gold, (11-14) most are 13-14.

 

[4theLoveofGymnastics]

We have been at 2 gyms to this point and from everything I’ve seen xcel bronze is comparable to level 1-2 of compulsory levels. Silver is comparable to level 3. Xcel gold is comparable to levels 4-5. Xcel gymnasts tend to be older. They have the option to opt in to competitions and aren’t expected to compete every meet or travel as compulsory or optionals are. They train less and have more flexibility to focus on school or other sports and hobbies. Some gymnasts that start gymnastics late, but have college gymnastics aspirations will do xcel and then drop into optionals at some point. Which is in a shorter amount of time typically than those who would have just started in compulsory, in essence a way to skip levels. In my opinion as far as pre-team goes, I think it’s all the same and don’t see much of a difference because you are still working on similar skills whether it is level one or two or xcel bronze. If your child is young I would ask why the JO or Compulsory route isn’t being offered.