Parents How large are the largest gyms?

[wolf_turn_on_uneven_bars]

Hi. I’m just curious, how large are the largest gyms? A couple in our metro seem to be over 20,000 square feet at their one location. Some are probably a half or a third that size.

I know that the number of square feet (or meters!) does not necessarily correlate with quality of instruction or happiness experienced by the gymnasts, or countless other important considerations. Lately I was reading about a small gym that focuses on producing elite athletes. Of course they can’t teach hundreds of rec kids.

Anyway, just curious how large some of these gyms get at one location. Thanks.

 

[JBS]

40,000+ sq. ft.

 

[MILgymFAM]

The largest my kids have attended was around 25000 sq ft- there were two around that size. Most were much, much smaller- smallest was less than a quarter of that. We prefer small, generally.

 

[JessSyd]

The biggest gym near us has more than 43000 square feet of gymnastics space. I have heard it described as the largest gym in the Southern Hemisphere but I have not verified that fact. It also has permanent tiered seating as it was custom built to host large competitions. It hosts states, state trials etc for most (All?) of the gymsports in my state. It has a large rec program and, WAG, MAG, Acro and T&T programs that produce elites.

It is an extremely nice place to watch a competition as there is lots of parking, an onsite cafe and no bad seats. It is a good place to train because it is spacious and has a lot of equipment and it is fully air conditioned which is rare in Australia. My kid got to train there once when her gym was closed for maintenance - her gym’s management hired training space out there for a few weeks. It was quite an experience.

Some people travel from my local area to train there, but as there must be at least 20 gyms closer, I would not be able to justify it to myself.

 

[wolf_turn_on_uneven_bars]

Thinking about it, a one floor gym is probably 10K or less, so 40K+ plus sounds big. Four or five floors and lots of other event equipment. It might be difficult to see gymnasts opposite from observations areas!

 

[skschlag]

Ours is 32000 sq ft, has room for 3 full floors, although they keep it at 2 and tumbling strips.

 

[JBS]

Our gym is just under 15,000 sq. ft. Actual gym space is around 13,500 sq. ft.

 

[mom2newgymnast]

I had no idea, so I just looked it up. Our gym is a little less than 19,000 sq ft, total building size, not just gym space. There were/are planning on adding an additional 12k sq ft to it (was supposed to break ground this year, but...) I think the 19k seems pretty small. The girls are really excited about the addition and having all that extra space if it still happens..

 

[JessSyd]

Thinking about it, a one floor gym is probably 10K or less, so 40K+ plus sounds big. Four or five floors and lots of other event equipment. It might be difficult to see gymnasts opposite from observations areas!

The gym I posted about has four sprung floors, and (when it moves some training equipment aside) space for rhythmic competition and warm up floors. They only use the floors closest to the viewing area during competitions, and the fourth floor tends to just be used as a warm up area. The stuff at the back is the practice stuff - pit bars and tumble traks and so on. But beam sometimes feels like it is a long way away during competition.

(By ‘large competitions’ in my above post I meant by my state’s standards. There is not enough viewing space to host nationals, or international competitions. They tend to happen in a stadium in another state.

 

[novagymmom]

Our gym is 17,600 sq ft (had to look it up). It has one floor (plus tumble traks, etc.) Our team is fairly large (I think) at about 100 gymnasts.

 

[nlkellum]

Where I coach, it is a bit over 32,000 sqft. We have 3 full floors, 11 high beams, 5 vaults, 4 pits, 6 bar sets, 2 pit bars, 4 tramps, 1 tumble trak and all the boys equipment. But from what I know, our gym is one of the largest in our state. Hope that helps!