Competitive Gymnastics
Unify Athletics offers a competitive gymnastics experience unlike any other – both in Men’s and Women’s Artistic Gymnastics. In fact, the competitive team and their families were the primary driving force for the founding of Unify in 2021, and have helped champion a shared vision of training at all levels that values the wellbeing and growth of an individual in all areas of life!
We are currently training XCEL, Optionals and AAU. While these divisions are defined by their governing bodies, gyms can approach them with different philosophies. Click on the drop-downs below to read more about each program.
AAU
Who is it for? Driven, passionate athletes who want to push themselves to new heights in the sport, but who also want to have schedule and time flexibility. AAU practice hours stay somewhat capped so that kids can explore other activities and passions alongside gymnastics! The strength and skill requirements are also designed to fit a lower-hour training regimen!
XCEL
Who is it for? Earlier levels (Bronze-Gold) are designed to track towards optionals gymnastics. This is for athletes who are more interested in gymnastics being their primary activity, and the strength and conditioning, skill and schedule requirements are a bit more rigorous than AAU.
Upper levels (Platinum-Sapphire), while maintaining rigorous strength and conditioning requirements, have more flexibility in skill requirements. The goal in these levels is to build routines that play to the strengths and personal goals of the athlete, and to compete against other athletes doing the same!
OPTIONALS
Who is it for? Optionals gymnastics is Levels 6-10, which begins after completing XCEL Gold. This is for gymnasts who have shown the highest degree of strength, skill, mental toughness. Skill requirements are less flexible than upper-level XCEL – we think of it as gymnastics with much tighter boundaries, where athletes compete to see where they stand against others operating withinin those same boundaries!
Program Fluidity
Most gymnastics programs are inflexible with fluidity between programs. For example, if an athlete were to switch from XCEL to AAU, the door would be closed to return to XCEL. At Unify, we recognize that an athlete may take many twists and turns.
- Did they take the first couple years to have fun and explore many activities to later decide they want to get really serious about gymnastics? Maybe they’ll move from AAU >> XCEL
- Did they push really hard for a few years, want to explore other things, slow down the gymnastics but not lose it entirely? Maybe they’ll hop from XCEL >> AAU
- Are they going into Junior year, overwhelmed with academics, needing to have a slightly easier season in gymnastics, and will return to optionals in senior year? Maybe they’ll take a gap year, doing Optionals >> XCEL >> Optionals
This fluidity is only possible with lots of open communication and collaboration between parents, athletes, and coaches. The transitions can be difficult, and sometimes not possible, but as long as the skill and efforts match the goals, we are always ready to get creative to find the perfect balance of challenge and success for the individual.
Soft Skills
Unify has soft skill requirements to advance from one level to the next. You heard that right – gymnastics is already the toughest sport in the world, and we’re making it tougher! We did a deep dive into this on the PerformHappy Podcast (link here), and we encourage you to listen if you’re thinking about joining Unify’s competitive programs. These position athletes to succeed at higher levels in and out of the gym.
Some of the soft skills include: independent physical effort, independent mental effort, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration.
Interest form
If you’re interested in more information about Unify’s team, please fill out the form below and we will be in touch!
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