WAG How far is your gym?

[billise]

5.6 miles. Takes 10 minutes!

 

[proud-gym-mom]

We are only about 5-10 mins away. It's great. I couldn't do 1.5 hrs each way. There's no way. Even 30 mins each way would be tough.

 

[3gymgirls]

We drive 1.5 hrs each way. However, we are centrally located between the three closest gyms and chose the best for us. Classes are often back to back or overlapping. Three kids attend there with two twice a week and we make three trips per week. Gym is the best sport for my kids right now, and ours is very family-friendly so siblings can come along and watch.

 

[windydays]

My dd's current gym is about 15 min away. Its a small gym, I admit not very good coaching at times, athletes are in and out, lots and lots of drama, etc.. My question: there is a great gym that is 1.30 hours away (each way), known olympian coach there. I want my dd to try out team there but the travel and everything else scares me. Is this even possible? anyone else here has driven that far just to get their dd to gym? My dd is 7 yrs old and a lv4 this season and I have 2 other kids.

I budget 30 minutes to drive to my current gym. I have looked at driving more than an hour to have her train at a different gym, but our family can't do it at this time. We have other children and I would not see them. We talked about carpooling and getting outside help with the other children. We just decided she was too young (10) and too many variables that all have to work out perfectly to make it work long term.

 

[Empowered]

Been just over 5 years since we started commuting my daughter to gym. Commute has never been shorter than 35 minutes and as long as 75 minutes depending on where we've lived. It's not something I've ever liked doing, but you do what you have to as a parent.

 

[Seeker]

23 miles -- takes 45 to 60 mins depending on traffic.

 

[samsmama]

We drive 30 min (45 in rush hour) and that is the closest possible gym. I used to do all the drop-offs and pick-ups (3-4 days/week) and that was really hard on my daughter, who has a lot of homework, instrument practice, and her own sports to do every day. My mom and DS's dad started helping with pick-ups for DS and that has made things much easier on all of us. I don't think I could do 1.5 hours away... I'd rather move closer to the gym!

 

[emilykatherine]

30 minutes from home 15 from school

 

[flips123]

30 minutes here! I use to drive 10, but switched to a better gym.

There is a girl who use to go to my school who drove over an hour to practice 6 days as a week as a level 10. There are many, many, many high level gyms in my area so she must really love that gym. She was able to carpool with another girl from my town, but after that girl quit it got difficult. Her family ended up moving to that town this year to make it easier on the family.

 

[Pineapple_Lump]

If many are displeased with the current gym, there might be a few carpool opportunities available. Is it 1:30 in good traffic or max? what time does practice start? Will your kid be missing the start? or will it mean that they are getting home really late?

I think travel time is relative to your situation. I grew up in a small city, for those who lived in the south of the city, many did not stick with gymnastics long because the 20 minutes across town was too far for their parents to drive. Meanwhile our country friends would drive 50 minutes into town and back three times a day sometimes without batting an eyelid for their kids sports and activities.

 

[GymMomXcel]

I could never do 1.5 hours away. I think it would be miserable after a while! I'm spoiled with DD's gym being literally within 1 minute from my house.

 

[Faolmor]

An hour away...3 times a week...

 

[Freckles]

We drive an hour and a half each way four times a week. It's nice one-on-one together time, but yes, I sometimes feel like I'm cheating my other kids of my time and attention.

 

[bookworm]

We've done the hour and a half drive (each way) for several years and I will say, it does get old...we didn't start with a long drive ( around 40 minutes way back when) until my oldest was a level 8...no way would I do it for a Level 4

 

[flippingtogether]

We started with a gym 15 min. from home - old L3. I quickly saw the gym wasn't good once we got to meets. No other decent gyms in that town, so we switched to a gym 1 hr and 15 min. each way. This is a strong gym, and builds strength and fundamentals which she could NOT have gotten at a gym closer to our home. It was clear if she were to have a shot at this sport, she needed to do the better (MUCH better) gym.

She did that commute almost 3 years. We carpooled as much as we could (if schedules permitted); some days my DD had to wait for a ride home if the fellow carpooler's practice times did not match up perfectly. Somedays she had to get to the gym early and wait. I myself drove 2 or 3 a week. In the summer she would spend 1 night a week with a teammate, as there was a late PM followed by an early AM practice back to back. We figured out how to make it work.

While I didn't do all the driving, my DD was in the car a ridiculous amount of time each week. Ridiculous. She ate, did homework, took tests, listened to books on CD, and watched movies in the car. She left school early a couple of days each week, with a great teacher's support. I don't want to share how many miles I put on my car. But I can tell you, if we hadn't done this, she wouldn't be the gymnast she is today - not by a longshot.

I have 2 other kids. They were great about this - I had to really work to make sure they got enough of my time. No, they never made the trip to the gym. No, they didn't like me being gone 2 nights a week and their sister gone even more.
And I would do crazy things to balance all the kids - yes, there were days I would drop off DD at her gym, drive back towards home, watch another DD play basketball, then drive back to get gymnast DD and drive home again. Not often, but it happened more than once so I could be there for my other kids and DD could do her thing too. I was willing to do this. My husband was willing to do his part to make it happen - without him this never would have worked.

Several people from our town tried out at DD's gym and decided they couldn't make the commute work, although they REALLY wanted it to. They really thought it through. Those of is already driving tried to figure out ways to helps potential families however we could, but in many cases it just wouldn't work (for a wide variety of reasons).

We have since moved 1/2 way across the country, and her new gym is 8 minutes away. My life is transformed.
EVERYONE in the family is much much happier. But I wouldn't trade what we did for those 3 years for anything. That dedication paid off in spades.

Feel free to PM if any questions.

 

[mimi]

We are about 45-1 hour. I have a carpool so I drive half the time. It is still very disruptive to our family and I held out switching gyms as long as I could for that reason. My daughter is a level 8 and has a lot of natural talent and unfortunately the local gyms didn't have the level of coaching that she needs. It's hard, but when I see the progress she has made in such a short time, and the resurgence in her excitement for the sport, it is totally worth it. It is hard though!!

 

[flippingtogether]

One other thing to think about. Several people have stated they would NOT drive a long distance for a lower level.
I take the opposite viewpoint. In some cases this might be the smart thing to do.

The sooner I was able to get my DD into a solid gym, teaching excellent fundamentals and building strength and a great foundation, the better off I knew she'd be.
If she hadn't started old L4 at an excellent gym with excellent basics, I question if she'd have had the ability to get to optionals at all - and if she had gotten there, I know she'd be frustrated and unsuccessful. For me, it was helpful to look at the long term picture and see how to best get her from point A to Point B.

Of course, every situation is different - there might be a gym with an excellent compulsory program but lousy optionals, so them you have more flexibility as to when to start making a commute.

I didn't have that option..... Sigh......

 

[Mrs. Puma]

Did you move for gymnastics? (If you don't feel comfortable answering that, no problem! Just curious )

 

[flippingtogether]

Did you move for gymnastics? (If you don't feel comfortable answering that, no problem! Just curious )

No, that is a fair question! But absolutely not the reason behind the move. A decade ago a job offer had taken us to a part of the country where we were not from. It was very hard being away from all family for so many years, and when another job opportunity arose to take us back to our roots, we jumped at the chance. There are many many benefits for us being in our new location.

A close gym was an added bonus

 

[Judybird]

I am fortunate to have a nice gym 5 minutes from my house. My daughter began rec gym there and is in her 3rd year of team. Although we are about 90% happy with our gym, once in a blue moon I will get upset about something (usually when I suspect my daughter isn't being given as much up training time as I'd like). But, as a 7 year old level 3, I can't reconcile driving 30 minutes to the next gym that may prove not to be any better. So it ends up being like any other decision. You have to weigh your daughter's love if the sport plus your endurance for the drive plus the fact that any gym will have some element of "the unknown".