Women Looking for Gym Recommendations

[bljfan1]

Hi! I am a long-time lurker but a first time poster - I actually just created an account so I could finally post and not just eavesdrop! Anyway, I'm looking for gym recommendations but my search is kind of open-ended and therefore complicated. I've been trying to do research on my own but most of my Google searches keep taking me to old CB threads anyway so I thought I would just come here. Anyway...

My daughter is 10 years old, currently training level 8. We live in a small town in the midwest and she attends a small gym with an amazing head coach who has taught her a lot. She is a pretty strong gymnast, she does very well in competitions (top 1-2 places all around and usually top 1-3 placing in all events) in our (admittedly) not incredibly competitive area. She's also traveled to larger out-of-state meets and done pretty well against the increased competition (top 4 all around, top 3/4 in most events,). She has huge aspirations, the typical dream of going to the Olympics and competing in college, and I'm definitely biased but I think she could do amazing things in this sport (her coach has said the same). Her first ever time in the gym was about 3 years ago in June 2016, she's obviously flown threw the JO levels (skipping level 2 to start at 3, then skipping 4, with plans to, potentially, score out of level 7 this summer). She's hard working and very talented.

I say all of this not to brag (too much, I actually brag about all of my kids all of the time :0) ) but to give you all some background info because we're looking to move. Her father works for the Forest Service and he has recently decided that it's time to leave his current forest for look for opportunities elsewhere. However, I'm finding the challenging of picking a new location and a new gym pretty terrifying, because although her current training program might not be the most competitive in the country, at least I know that she is with coaches that treat her well, communicate decently with families, and are working with her in a safe, nurturing environment. If I've learned anything as a gymnastics mom, it's that good gymnastics programs aren't always healthy places to be, so I'm hoping to get recommendations from families who are in good gyms or have experience with good gyms.

Essentially, we're looking for a good program, with the potential to at least eventually get my daughter into a competitive level 10 program at the best give her the opportunity to reach for her more lofty goals of training elite or at a competitive collegiate level. The catch is the gym has to be within about 60 miles of a national forest. I know this is a broad but also weirdly specific request, but I'm hoping that some of the amazing, incredibly knowledgeable families on this forum can at least give me the names of a few gyms/cities to research. We're particularly interested in Washington State or places along the east coast. Thank you in advance for any advice you can give !

 

[amlfbaba]

You should use mymeetscores as a reference for finding a big list of gyms and locations.

You've got the Top Teams pages - search many years and all levels
You can look at years past L10 Nationals and / or L9 Eastern and Western Regionals - you can sort by team name. You can also see the state that each team is located.

I'll take a simple example -- any of the above searches will probably lead you to Southeastern. That comes to mind because it's in North Carolina and there are lots of trees in NC -- (forestry humor, haha).

From there you can see what meets Southeastern competed in and find other gyms that did well at those meets. Taking another step, say you found another gym that showed some good results - you can visit that gym's page and see how extensive the list is of girls on the Top 100.

Another idea is to look at college team pages and see the gyms where D1 schools recruit from. I happened to be looking at UCLA the other day and they have gymnasts from 3 well known gyms in Orange County. Take a look at the rosters of Florida, Alabama, LSU (some top SEC schools that come to mind).

These are all quick ways / ideas to get an idea -- BUT BUT BUT -- this is a results ONLY type of search. As you said and you know, this gives absolutely no feedback on the gym's culture.

Once you have specific names on a list you can ask (privately) here on CB or -- have you heard of the "Mama's" FB group? While it gets very mixed reviews here on CB - I've found it to be a good group. The reason I mention it is because you can ask for knowledge of specific gyms or areas. I see it once and a while and it seems people use private messaging successfully. You can also do "anonymous" posts....

Good luck.

 

[Dahlia]

Sending you a message.

 

[Rockygym]

We are in Washington State, feel free to send me a message if you have a general idea of location in WA state I can point you in some directions.