Parents Elite Gym

[Issagymnast]

Hi, located in Encino CA 91316. Looking for an elite gym. Can anyone advise?

 

[GymDadWA]

Relax Mum, it's a long ride and your DD is just starting. Find a gym that works well logistically for the family and one she enjoys being part of (likes the coaches, other kids, the facility, etc.), then keep your eyes open when you go to meets and familiarize yourself with the teams that are doing well and have coaches that would work well with your child. If you need to switch in the future you'll know where you want to look.

I know you want to give your child the best chance possible to take advantage of all of her gifts, but you can very well burn her out before she even gets near that potential.

 

[Issagymnast]

We are happy at our gym, just wondering how you find an elite gym. Is there a list?

 

[Mthegymqueen]

You can look at meet scores for competitions with national qualifiers, or elite meets (US Classic, Us Nationals, Trials, etc.)

Here is a link of all elite meets in the world that happened in 2024, when you click on one of the meets that say "national qualifier" you can get the results of the meet and it lists the gyms each competitor goes to, to give you an idea on what gyms currently offer elite programs and how many elites they have

2024 Gymnastics Calendar

Welcome to the 2024 gymnastics calendar on The Gymternet, where you can find all WAG and MAG international and domestic elite meets listed chronologically. For more information for each meet includ…

thegymter.net

To find gyms in your area, you can use the USAG website to find gyms, then look at meet scores to see if they have elites

USA Gymnastics | Find A Gym

members.usagym.org

 

[CA_GymDad]

Same response as above, just look at the results from elite comps/qualifiers and see which gyms the gymnasts belong to. This list has the event result PDFs attached:

2024 • USA Gymnastics

usagym.org

Speaking as a fellow SoCal resident, you will be a bit hard-pressed to find an elite gym in the immediate area. The closest to you would be All Olympia in Calabasas. Arthur coached McKayla Maroney and Galina is a former Olympian. They do still train elites, I think, but that comes with caveats: They settled a lawsuit a few years ago from Maroney and Mattie Larson, which forced them to close down their Hawthorne location (where my daughter went, which forced us to switch gyms), and they really haven't been the same since. Both coaches come from the Karolyi coaching tree, FWIW.

You also have West Coast Elite in Arcadia, but I'm not sure how good they are. There's Gym-Max in Chino, but I think Jenny is retiring, if I'm not mistaken. Gymnastics Olympica in Santa Clarita trains senior elites Chloe Cho and Jazmyn Jimenez.

If you want to go outside SoCal but stay in-state, you might want to check out Airborne in the Bay Area.

 

[Issagymnast]

Same response as above, just look at the results from elite comps/qualifiers and see which gyms the gymnasts belong to. This list has the event result PDFs attached:

2024 • USA Gymnastics

usagym.org

Speaking as a fellow SoCal resident, you will be a bit hard-pressed to find an elite gym in the immediate area. The closest to you would be All Olympia in Calabasas. Arthur coached McKayla Maroney and Galina is a former Olympian. They do still train elites, I think, but that comes with caveats: They settled a lawsuit a few years ago from Maroney and Mattie Larson, which forced them to close down their Hawthorne location (where my daughter went, which forced us to switch gyms), and they really haven't been the same since. Both coaches come from the Karolyi coaching tree, FWIW.

You also have West Coast Elite in Arcadia, but I'm not sure how good they are. There's Gym-Max in Chino, but I think Jenny is retiring, if I'm not mistaken. Gymnastics Olympica in Santa Clarita trains senior elites Chloe Cho and Jazmyn Jimenez.

If you want to go outside SoCal but stay in-state, you might want to check out Airborne in the Bay Area.

Thank you. Very helpful!

 

[Dahlialover]

If there isn’t an “elite gym” close to you, you could also look for a gym with a “strong Optionals program” or a gym that offers tops/hopes.