Does anyone here do the Xcel program at their gym? It seems like this is starting to become the new trend. I'm worried it might take over the Girls Competitive program if we add it. Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions for this?
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i got news for you. excel will overtake within 2 years.
We have Prep Op at our gym, and it's exactly as Krystan describes it. It does not replace JO for us...it's an alternative for the girls who want a less serious program with fewer hours in the gym.
We're in Region 8 as well, but the usage in our state is largely just a substitute for level 6. There are gyms that prefer level 6, but given how many other gyms do Prep Op instead, they're practically forced to do Prep Op to have other gymnasts at meets (you go to a meet for level 6, and you might have one or two other gyms show).This is exactly how we use Xcel. However, we are in region 8 and are finding that it is becoming VERY competitive.
Can u elaborate? Are u talking about the dumbing down of gymnastics, like a few months ago when a similar topic was raised?
I think it will happen too, but I think it will take longer. And I don't see it as a bad way to go. Look at the other countries. Most of them have "optional" routines from the start. I think the main reason we have compulsory here is for the judges benefit, not the girls. It makes it a lot easier to score the girls across the board if they are all doing the same routines.
The way I see it is that skills are skills. As long as coaches are adhering to a high level of mastery, it really doesn't matter whether those skills are placed into a predetermined routine or an individual one. But that is the predicament - for most of the country, xcel is a program using less hours and less emphasis on high mastery. These type of programs will not produce the caliber of gymnasts that can continue to move up the ranks to 8-10 and college. But if you look at region 8, you will see this happening frequently (well, not college yet because the program isn't old enough yet).
They are nationalizing xcel next year and there also seems to be talk about it gout under the JO umbrella. So they obviously have plans for this program. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that they have stardt collecting data on it to see whether it can produce similar results as the traditional compulsory levels.
well i hope that it doesn't dumb down anything. i just believe that the 'registration numbers' are going to skyrocket and surpass any numbers that we have at level 7 and above.
It's interesting how xcel varies between regions though. We did one travel meet to a state in region 8 thinking that it would be the same since the levels had the same names. This was not the case, and girls there were basically competing skills that would be found in a lower level of xcel in our state, so it made for an interesting meet to get deductions for doing higher level skills and being outscored by girls doing the bare minimum but with very good form. They were throwing out some very high scores at that meet. Basically you had to score at least a 9.3 or more to place on anything, and there were several scores in the 9.5 to 9.8 range so it certainly seemed pretty competitive there to me.
i got news for you. excel will overtake within 2 years.