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• Quick question, on the bar routine do you need to get up on the high bar?

  • Yes, you do!

    • Well it all depends are level and you skill ability. I´m gold and I do a kip cast above horizontal back hip circle cast above horizontal monkey giant jump to high bar 3 tap swings and a fly away. But my teammate does not go to high bar, due to her level and skills she has. So it really all depends.

  • yes

  • you do a squat on

• can you compete a roundoff back handspring for 1 pass and a front tuck for the next? Thanks.

  • Yes

  • A roundoff is not considered an acro skill, so you will have to add a back tuck to the end of your roundoff bhs. The front tuck is fine though.

    • You can do a RBHS without a back tuck, because I am competing that this year and I am in gold level. Not trying to be rude tho it might be different at your gym.

  • No you have to connect three skills in gold, two have to have flight

    • Its the same at my gym with emma
      we have to do RBHS and a front tuck not two flight skills connected

      • Actually a round off is a fight skill.

  • At are gym one person is competing ROBHS and they rest are competing ROBT and some are doing ROBHSBT. I’m competing round off back tuck. And front tuck this was made 6 years ago but yeah your fine

• hi

  • Golds is the perfect spot for my kids to go

• My daughter is under the impression that on the beam routine that there is a maximum amount of skills they can do. For instance.. She can do a cartwheel and a backward roll but isn't allowed to have a hand stand in the same routine. Is this true?

  • I think so, yes. Also, having less skills gives her less of a chance of falling. There won't be any benefit to the score from having 3 acros.

    • So just a follow up if you have any thoughts. What if she fell doing the first skill but did the second and "third" right. She would get deduction for the fall but wouldn't she get points for completing the other two skills.

      • So the program there depends on the exact nature of the fall (and how she's been coached).

        For a skill to count for SR, you have to land it on the beam. Let's consider the example of a back walkover. Say that the gymnast completes the back walkover, wobbles on the landing and falls. This scenario nets her a .5 fall deduction (max score possible now 9.5). Now let's say she starts her BWO, gets to handstand, loses her balance and falls before she steps down. This results in both the .5 fall deduction AND, if she only has two acro in the routine, a .5 deduction for missing SR, as the BWO is not considered completed and won't be counted as an acro skill (max score possible now 9.0).

        Now there are two ways to deal with this -

        - you can build redundancy into the routine by having three acro, but this gives the judges an extra skill to find deductions on. Nothing the gymnast does on the third skill can "earn back" the .5 she lost for falling, but she won't get the extra .5 taken off for missing SR. (Note - if one particular acro skill is a consistent problem, it is a better idea to substitute it with something that the gymnast is confident with, that way there is no fall AND no third skill to find more deductions on. This strategy is more for gymnasts like me who are scared to death of beam in general and will randomly fall on anything, including choreography.)
        - or you can teach the gymnast that when she has a fall like this, she needs to repeat the skill and land it before she moves on with her routine, but this relies on her to remember what to do when still shaken up by a fall, and runs the risk of her falling a second time as well.

        A lot of coaches actually do neither, composing the routine with the minimum number of skills and relying on the gymnast to hit. Admittedly, it's Xcel and not the Olympics, but not having a strategy can turn a fall from a .5 mistake you can recover from, to a 1.0+ mistake that can cost you the whole meet.

        • Hi
          I'm 12 and I'm in xcel and I am in diamond is it okay if my floor tumb ling passed are

          1.roundoff backhandspring double back
          2.Fronthandspring front full
          and am I to young to be competing diamond cause most of the people I competed against are alot older than me?

        • Rebecca you are not too young the minimum age for diamond is 9

        • Slay Rebecca I wish I was your level at 12

  • There isn't a maximum number of skills they can do, but most coaches choose to limit the skills because as Kaitlyn said, it will help her have a higher score since there are less chances for her to earn deductions.

  • No, but coaches will likely only include her two best acro skills in the routine. If you would like her to have all three, you can just talk to her coaches about that.

  • You can have a handstand in your routine. my two acro skills are cartwheel and a handstand. You do NOT need a backword roll you can have one but you dont need one. You only NEED a cartwheel and a cartwheel.

  • she needs a handstand it is a skill needed in gold in the beam routine.

    • No, a handstand is not needed. I do a backward roll and a backwalkover.

    • You do not need a Handstand, but is often used meet one of your criteria. ONE must pass through vertical...so if your handstand isn't vertical, but you do a FWO, BWO or CW, you are cleared. :)

• Thank you for sharing this great internet site.

• On a Gold Bars routine there are 6 A level skills required. We have:
  1. pull-over
  2. cast back hip circle
  3. cast
  4. stoop-on
  5. tap swing
  6. tap swing
  7. tap swing dismount
  Are each of the above considered A level and, if so, are we getting a deduction for having an extra A level skill?
  Thank you.

  • No, but you can get very tired from doing extra skills, so you should stay away from that.

  • Is it possible to have to many non A skills there for getting a deduction for having bar skills beyond the xcel Gold level? . Ex. my daughter's routine for xcel Gold is Kip - squat on - high bar kip - cast to 90 - back hip circle - fly away.

    • If somebody in Xcel Gold does certain advanced skills (giants, clear-hip-circles, etc.) that are used in optional levels, then yes, they would receive a deduction. However, I have seen many girls doing the same routine as your daughter's. A kip is commonly used, and almost every girl does a back-hip-circle. Fly-Aways are less common, but you are still allowed to use one. I would trust her coaches; they know what's best!

      • You can do clear hips in Xcel gold but not giants.

• gymnastics is thebomb.com and this is a great website for bigginer gymnasts

• Hello! I'm curious, do gymnasts ever do the level 4 or 5 compulsory floor routines in Excel by choice? My daughter is 8 years old and an Excel Gold gymnast. Her gym doesn't do JO until level 7, but I would love for her to progress to level 7 the right way.

  • The gymnast is allowed to, since the xcel levels allow you to have your own routines, but you are not required to and coaches likely will not give your daughter those routines unless it it is requested by you.

• Can you do a round off-back handspring for one pass and an ariel for the other?

  • No u have to have at least one salto (backtuck or frontuck)

    • You do NOT need a back tuck. back tucks are optional until level4/5 and above. You are allowed to do a tuck but it is not required.

      • Back tucks are a requirement for gold, gold is excel and a back tuck for level 4-5 are optional (gold and level 4-5 arn’t the same thing)

  • You'll have to add a back tuck to your roundoff back handspring, because it is required to have a pass of two acro skills that both have flight, and a roundoff is not considered an acro skill. You can do a regular aerial though, because you are required to have a pass of either an aerial or a pass with a salto (back tuck and front tuck) included.

    • A round off is a flight skill. The hands and feet leave the floor/beam at the same time. So is a dive cartwheel for that matter. There are many options for passes. Xcel is all about getting creative.

  • Yes, because an aerial is a flight skill. I’m competing a round off back handspring back tuck for my first pass and then a front tuck for my second pass, but you don’t need a back tuck. I competed a round off back handspring and front tuck and got first place with a 9.4

  • You can compete a RBHS and a side aerial, I have competed that several times before without deductions.

• Can an Xcel Gold gymnast do a switch leap for their leap?

  • Yes they can do a switch leap as long as it reaches a 120 degree angle

  • You can do any kind of leap (including switch leaps), as long as it reaches a 120 degree angle.

  • Yes, I do a switch leap and I'm in gold.