Parents Relocating to northwest Chicago.

[Laurita]

Hi everyone, we’re planning to move to the northwest suburbs of Chicago, IL, this late summer. My daughter is currently on the Xcel Silver team in Texas. We hope to settle around Barrington, Lake Zurich, Hoffman Estates, Schaumburg, Streamwood, or the surrounding areas. Could you recommend some of the most reputable and highly-rated gymnastics gyms?

 

[Tulip811]

There are many many gyms in the NW suburbs of Chicago
You can find a list here https://ilusagymnastics.com/clubs/

As far as best? That's a trickier question.
Xcel is very very popular around here. So I'd recommend calling a few gyms, finding ones that are convenient to your new home, finding out their practice schedule and see what works for your family.

The area you laid out is really quite big, these are within that range 0-10 min of one of the towns you mentionned.

Bartlett Gymnastics (in Bartlett)
Cary Gymnastics Center (in Cary)
Corkscrew Gymnastic (in Woodstock)
Crystal Lake gymnastics in Crystal Lake
Elite Core Gymnastics In West Dundee
Gym Stars Etc in Itasca
Gymkhanna Gymnastics Club in Hanover Park
Huntley Unlimited Gymnastics in Huntely
Kiaga in Lake Barrington
Prarie Gymnastics in Batavia
Signature Gymnastics in Schaumburg
US Gymnastics Training center in Lake Zurich

then depending on where you end up there's a whole bunch more a little further East but still 20 min from Schaumburg
American Academy of Gymnastics Wheeling
Buehler YMCA Palatine
Lake Shore Academy Mt Prospect
Palatine Park District Palatine
Professional Gymnastics Center Mt Prospect
Rise Up Academy Arlington Heights
The Gymnastics Shop Mt Prospect
United Gymnastic Academy - Carol Stream

And if you want to branch out further are there so many within 30min. Although I wouldn't recommend driving that far as there is bound to be close to home options.

I'm sure there's some I missed. I'm not familiar with all of these programs so not sure if all of them have Xcel, but most do. My daughter has competed Xcel for years and we've seen most of these gyms at one meet or another .

There really are so many options. I'd pick your home and then find a gym nearby.
If your daughter had high hopes for level 10 and College teams I'd recommend
Legacy Elite, City Club, Aspire and IK (all of which are reasonably far from the area you outlined above). I'm sure there are other gyms that turn out competitive level 10's with college scholarships but I'm not so knowlegeable there.

 

[Lynn08]

I've got experience with a couple gyms in the area:

(Used to be FLIPS but is now) Lake Forest Gymnastics Academy:
Owned by the same people as Libertyville Gymnastics Academy. I had a really abusive coach that I didn't realize was abusive until after I had transferred gyms - this was my first gym. All the other coaches were great. They have a pretty good Xcel Program.
*EDIT: Upon pulling up the website this coach is no longer there. Her name was Tabby if you do choose this gym and come across her.

Cary Gymnastics:
I was there for a year. They have a very over-crowded Xcel program that tends to skew very young, think mostly elementary school age. The coaching was good. The only thing was that they wouldn't really work with you on mental blocks or injuries; everything was a very one-size-fits-all approach. Which didn't work great for me, but would probably work well for your average gymnast.

Crystal Lake Gymnastics Training Center:
I did a tryout at the gym and decided it wasn't for me. They wanted 4hrs 3x a week for Xcel Gold. I wasn't willing to give up that much time. This is where the D155 HS team trains, so if you're in that school district, that could be good, because you would already know the environment if she intends on doing HS gymnastics. During the tryout they did for me, they moved the springboard on me, refused to move the height of the vault table, and screamed at me when I missed the vault table because things weren't set up right. I also heard some scary stories about the Xcel coach. They had one coach for about 6 girls, though apparently there were like 10 on the team, and they had no expectation that you consistently show up for practice on time, or at all. Their team tends to be mostly older middle and high schoolers.

Huntley Unlimited Gymnastics:
Did a tryout here too. They never got back to us after the tryout despite calling and emailing. They have a beautiful and large facility. Not sure about team size or coaching as the tryout they had me do was one on one during an open gym.