Parents Moving to Northern Maryland - - Looking for a Gym

[Gympops]

Hello, my family is moving to Northern MD (Darlington area) and my daughter is a L8 optional gymnast (pretty good too). Can anyone recommend any good gyms in Maryland (of course, it would be great if there was a great gym for Optional gymnastics in the area but we are willing to drive, north or south.) She is serious about the sport and very competitive so she wants to be a part of a good team.....anyone with knowledge about local gyms and their strengths and weaknesses would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[gymdog]

ACPR is the closest gym to there I think, and they have an optional program. I think you'd have to drive pretty far to go anywhere other than ACPR or Harford. If you drove maybe 20 miles you could go to First State in DE

 

[SignHere]

Northern MD (darling ton) is ACPR or Harford. Both have Optional teams and have trained Level 10 gymnasts. Both, focus, I believe, on a strong JO program and prepping girls for college gymnastics. Both get girls college scholarships.

Next closest is Win win which would be prob an hour or so away from Darlington (a bit more) and arguably a more winning optional team if you look at their record on mymeetscores . Then you have others which probably aren't worth driving that far for, you might as well go to ACPR or Harford. I think there may be some Pennsylvania gyms, and North Shore, but I don't know how strong their Optional programs are. I do know there is a gym in Kennett Square PA, KMC - check that out, and one in West Chester that may be worth looking into that has a good optional team AJS Pancott.

Good luck!

 

[Gympops]

Thanks for the input! More options in that area than I anticipated! An hour drive would be ok for us I think but it would all depend on coaching styles etc. any insight on this? College scholarship opportunities are important and we have been told this is definitely a reasonable option for our daughter. She is still some years away but we want to be sure her coaching/training remains at a high level....from your experience do all of these gyms in MD that you speak of have these types of coaches? Thanks for the advice.

 

[SignHere]

ACPR has level 8 and 9 gymnasts - just a few tears ago trained Emily Heller- she's on the Maryland gymnastics team. She was Maryland's JO level 10 gymnast of the year her senior year of High school. The optional team is pretty young right now. ( think several 9 year olds, 10s, plus a good amount of high schoolers).

Harford has quite a few 8, 9, and 10s ( some quite young , think 13 year old level 10).

ACPR and Harford are probably about the same coaching- wise, both good. it would just be what you like in atmosphere. Try out the gyms and see what you think.

Win win has a pretty big and young (talented!) optional team - they don't take everyone. - I know of one 11 year old level 8 who was asked to come back multiple days for try outs. They take only the strongest, most talented girls, and thus, the team is quite good - but the coaching is good, too, I hear. You couldn't go wrong if your daughter was accepted there and was okay with the strict style of coaching.

I'm not too sure about North shore - they may not go over level 8, but I don't know.

 

[gymdog]

ACPR has level 8 and 9 gymnasts - just a few tears ago trained Emily Heller- she's on the Maryland gymnastics team. She was Maryland's JO level 10 gymnast of the year her senior year of High school.

Wow, I remember this girl when she was about 10 years old, and that memory is what made me think of ACPR. I had no idea she was still doing gymnastics. That is great!

 

[Gympops]

Thank you so much for this information.....looks like I have some homework! I checked mymeetscores.....and I'm thinking that Harford may definitely be a possibility. They definitely seem to have a solid optional program.....more so than ACPR, who seem to fall off in scores as kids get older. If I'm reading that site correctly there is one kid that is a L9 at Harford that used to go to ACPR and it seems like she has soared since she left, performing extremely well at states and regionals. I'm thinking when it comes to optional gymnastics in the area that harford is the place. You are right though too by saying that Win Wn looks exceptional but being new to Maryland and all that comes with that, I'm thinking that may be a bit much at first. My kid is 11 in L8 and scored a 37.350 personal best last year. So she is well on her way, at least her Mom and I think! . We just want to see her continue to grow! Although ACPR seems closer to Darlington (I may be wrong), I think that Harford seems like a better fit as a successful optional program. One more question and again thank you.....do you know if these gyms steadily put through kids to college yearly or every few years? You mentioned a girl at ACPR.....is this the norm at that gym or was that a special case in which they may not normally send kids to college, etc? What I'm hoping to accomplish is we make the right call from the beginning instead of joining a gym only to find out they aren't the right fit or the coaching isn't up to speed etc....