Coaches I'm a new coach, and I'm starting an Xcel team.

[Aero]

Hello everyone. I've been teaching gymnastics at a recreational level for four years and I've really fallen in love with it. I wanted to really coach a team, as I think it would be the best way to challenge myself and really take my job to the next level. A good number of my rec kids have gone on to team, and I've been thanked on multiple occasions by parents for bringing their kids to a more serious level in the sport, so I know I've got to be doing something right.

Anyways, I talked to the club owner with the idea of starting an Xcel team and he agreed. I'm always studying the sport on my own time, and I have tons and tons of knowledge on drills for skills, biomechanics, progressions, strength and flexibility conditioning, and even a bit of sports psychology. The only thing I don't have is experience coaching a team. I know it's very different from teaching a recreational class, but I think I have everything else on lock. It's the idea of having studied as much as I can, and now all that's left is to take the first real step and actually go through with it.

Here are some things I have questions about:

1. Pricing/costs for the parents
2. How often practices should occur and how long (I'm thinking twice a week, at three hours each)
3. When it comes time to learn routines, would I need a choreographer?
4. How similar are Xcel competitions compared to JO competitions?
5. How do I learn to set the apparatus for each level?

There's also one more big question. Eventually, my ultimate goal is to teach a full USAG Junior Olympic team. When the time comes, can I convert my Xcel team into a JO team. Both programs are part of USAG, so how much mobility is there. Also, is there an official code of points for Xcel?

Any help, advice, or anecdotes from personal experience would be very valued. I figured Xcel would be a great way to get my feet wet in a competitive program without overwhelming myself, and I already have a couple girls who are interested in joining, with others still that I'd like to invite. I've just never went through this process before, so any help would be excellent. Thanks.

 

[gymdog]

Our first Xcel level goes 4 hours a week 2 times 2 hours). I think two three hour practices might be a lot for Xcel bronze, but probably about right for silver. So I guess it depends on what you want to compete. I would say the tuition would be the same or similar as any existing group that goes about that many hours (likely a preteam group already does

 

[coachmolly]

First, awesome job on your dedication to coaching. Your gymnasts are lucky to have you!
Xcel is a great place to start when beginning a new team for you as a coach, but also for the athletes as well as the parents. For pricing, I think most gyms tend to keep costs for their Xcel programs as reasonable as possible. Look at the number of hours they would be practicing and compare it to other groups practicing similar hours. I would also suggest talking with the gym owner as they would probably have a better sense of costs from a business standpoint. Beyond class costs, I would recommend trying to keep costs for team leos/warm-ups and meet fees as low as possible when you are starting out.
I think USAG gives some guidelines for training hours in the Xcel program. I think 6-9ish is pretty typical for Silver, not so sure about the other levels.
A choreographer would not necessarily be needed, especially if you have a parent/sibling, fellow coach, or older team member with some dance ability. Xcel routines are very short on both beam and floor, so there really is no need to pay big bucks to bring in a professional.
Xcel meets are usually hosted in conjunction with JO meets, so are essentially identical.
For settings for VT/UB- are there more experienced coaches in the gym? It would be helpful to have them look at your kids, see their skills and capabilities, and advise you from there.
Best wishes!

 

[Aero]

Thank you gymdog, and thank you for the kind words coachmolly! I really enjoy working with children, and I really enjoy gymnastics. Coaching a team is the next logical step!

I'm probably going to run the practices two hours for a while to see how they handle it. I certainly don't want to overwhelm them. My main goal is to make it fun for them and to really inspire that intrinsic motivation that all great gymnasts have. As far as costs go, I don't have anything to go by, really. My gym was downsized recently to reduce rent, so we don't have a full 40' x 40' floor area, nor a satisfactory vault runway. It's basically just a rec gym now. However, I also work at another gym under the same owner which is much bigger and has a team, so I could inquire about their costs. The club owner basically gave me carte blanche with the team. He said he doesn't want to be involved (he's a very ornery man, and doesn't like dealing with the parents), so all control of the team is on me. This can be good and bad I suppose. I'll have a lot of freedoms, but less guidance.

Also, you mentioned I should keep my costs low, including meet fees. How do meet fees work? I can set them?! I thought competitions required a set fee to register as an athlete.

All the kids will be brought in at the lowest level, which I believe is Bronze. Copper is only for USAIGC programs, right? I have no intention of rushing them into competition; I'm going to spend a lot of time on basics, body shapes/form, and conditioning. That being said, if I plan on skipping competitions for a year, when should I get certified?

I don't really know anybody good with choreography, but I suppose that's not important at all yet. I do know some other coaches that are more knowledgeable on setting equipment, so I'll definitely ask them.

 

[gymdog]

Also, Xcel is USAG so the meets are the same. At many meets sessions are mixed Xcel and numerical level. Thee is no mobility to the level stream though.

Bronze is the lowest level.

You should get certified whenever you can. Even if you don't go to meets, you'll find out and be able to attend state clinics and such.

6 hours is about $200 a month if you had to average it out but it depends on the region. Try finding out what the team tuitions are at the closest gyms and scale it as well as you can from there.

 

[gymdog]

Your other option, if you don't want to deal with choreography and think the kids can eventually go to numerical levels, is to see if there are any level 1 and 2 competitions in your area. You can also use the level 1 and 2 routines in Xcel and tweak the floor thumbing a bit to meet requirements, then you don't have to deal with choreo.

 

[Aero]

I like the idea of getting certified early for clinics and such. Definitely a good idea. I'm always down to shove more knowledge into my brain!

As far as mobility goes between JO and Xcel, since there is none, what would the process be like if I wanted to take girls that competed Xcel for, let's say two years, and have them start training/competing JO? Is there a test or something? Is it a pain?

 

[coachmolly]

As far as meet fees, you can't control those, it's just a matter of choosing the smaller local meets that typically have lower fees than the huge invitationals that tend to charge big bucks for all of the extra bells and whistles that come with the meet.
I think mobility requires an Xcel athlete to get a mobility score at levels 4 & 5 before they can move into USAG optional levels. You could transfer them over to levels 4 and lower easily without mobility scores at all. So not terribly difficult to move from one to the other.

 

[gymdog]

As far as mobility goes between JO and Xcel, since there is none, what would the process be like if I wanted to take girls that competed Xcel for, let's say two years, and have them start training/competing JO? Is there a test or something? Is it a pain?

Generally, you would have to start in level 4. Since level 4 requires two kips, a handspring vault, two back handsprings and a cartwheel on beam, if they are beginners in the Xcel system that is probably where they would be in two years anyway .

 

[AmandaLynn]

I concur with gymdog. Level 4 is the first level with a required mobility score. And it will take most kids about 2 years to go from beginner rec to being competitive in level 4, on average. There are always exceptions, but that is a realistic timeline for most kids.

 

[raenndrops]

@ Arron I sent you a PM. Hope it helps.

 

[Aero]

All right, so once a gymnast is a gold in Xcel, it's the equivalent of level 4 in JO? And at that point, what is the "score out" process? How does one score into level 4? Do they compete a JO meet? Or is there a special process to be completed during the Xcel portion of the meet (since Xcel and JO are usually held together)? Should I be training them the compulsory level 4 routines in tandem with their gold optionals?

 

[AmandaLynn]

Personally, I feel like gold is easier than JO level 4 if you only meet the minimum requirements. However, there is the option of doing skills to make it more difficult than level 4. Level 4 has a front handspring, RO-BHS-BHS , back extension rolls, etc. on floor. Cartwheel, vertical handstand, side handstand - 1/4 turn dismount on beam, front handspring vault over the table, and kips on both the high and low bar, tap swings, swing 1/2 turn dismount on bars, etc.

To "score out of level 4", you simply need to enter them in a level 4 meet and they must attain a 31.0 all around score. Easy peasy.

I would construct their lower level XCEL routines so that they feed toward eventually competing levels 4 and 5. So, on floor, leap to the leg swing hop, on beam, get them used to the compulsory arm path on jumps, etc. ya know?

It is entirely feasible (and some would argue preferable) to compete bronze and silver, then go level 4, 5 on the path to optionals. The level 1-3 compulsory routines have skills that a lot of coaches feel are time wasters, and in the XCEL program at that level, you have more flexibility to choose not to teach skills that go nowhere and spend more time on basics and fundamental skills that will build strong optional gymnasts.

 

[gymdog]

Personally I would decide if they have the flexibility and strength to do the full compulsory requirements and then go from there. If you're starting from scratch, I think competing xcel on the way to level 4 is fine, but stay with the compulsory 1-3 progressions overall for the most part, and strictly for dance. You should also recommend them to take a weekly ballet class.

 

[raenndrops]

Here's my opinion on this:
If your girls are competing Xcel Gold and are competing more than the minimum, they would be ready to score out of Level 4 once they learn the routines. HOWEVER, I would wait until they have the skills for both Level 4 AND Level 5.

You would probably be training all of these things anyways, but here are the highlights:
Vault: Won't be a problem since Gold, L4 and L5 all compete Handspring Vault.
Bars: train sips, big casts, back hip circle, long hang pullover, clear hip circle, squat ons, the 1/2 turn dismount and a flyaway.
Beam: train Leaps, Jumps, Handstand, Cartwheel, Back walkover, Back handspring, Handstand 1/4 turn Dismount, and Front Tuck / Back Tuck / Front Handspring / Roundoff dismounts of choice
Floor: Train Front Handspring to 2 feet, Front Handspring step out-Front Handspring to 2 feet series, RO BHS BHS, RO BHS BT, Front Tuck, Split Leap, Side Leap, Jumps, Back Walkover, Standing Back Handspring, Back Extension Roll to Handstand, Splits

The reason for this is because the routines are so similar that you could teach them the L4 Routines and the L5 Routines at the same time. They only need a 31.0 to score out of each level. That is less than an 8.0 average. They should be getting better than an 8.0 on vault, so that will give them some leeway (I like that for Bars especially at L5).
You could register them for a meet at L4 AND the same meet in a later session at L5. Or you could host an in-house meet for them to score out at... and then, it would only cost the price of the judge(s) and coaches... divided by all the girls competing. We once had an in-house meet with 5 girls and 1 judge and the entire meet took less than a half hour with each girl competing once per event. you have to pay a judge for a minimum time, so we could have had twice as many girls each compete twice for the same overall price. It is something to consider (especially if you get friendly with a judge in your area during the meets as you begin the Xcel team).