WAG In need of gym recommendations in Atlanta, Georgia area.

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Hello ChalkBucket friends! I recently found out that one of my top athletes is moving to Marietta, GA in July. This city is on the northern outskirts of Atlanta, GA. Do any of you folks know of any high quality gyms in the area? This girl has a lot of talent and is very strong, so gyms that have strong optional level programs are needed.

On a side note, I'm pretty sad about the whole situation. She was the first girl I invited on to my team when I first started it last year, and I've seen her grow over the past two years not only as a gymnast, but as a wonderful young girl. She used to be quite shy and reserved, but now she has a lot of friends and is very outspoken and lively. Very awesome to witness. :) She is very upset about the move too, and has come to me in tears after practice more than once about it. :( I've told her that even though she will be leaving her "home" and gym family, she cannot give up the sport because she has far too much talent, not to mention a deep love for it too. She needs to continue working towards her dreams no matter what.

Man, this is HARD! :( I feel like a big wuss!
 
Here are the ones I can think of and a few thoughts in the ones I know anything about.

It is going to depend on where in Marietta they live, the area is pretty large and has horrible traffic.

GAA (mentioned above). In Kennesaw. More convenient for north Cobb and west Cobb (the county that Marietta is in, all of the towns kind if smoosh together). One of the top gyms in the area. Training is intense. They do have a national team member. Facility is likely the nicest in Georgia. Downsides would mostly be that it is really intense and they will generally only take girls who are the young end for their level. Currently they are using Xcel instead of level 4 (those skills are the first level that they compete), some girls seem to then do a season of level 5, some seem to score out of 5 too. They have boys and girls and a very large rec group.

Integra. A brand new gym that just opened in the winter. It is also in Kennesaw. Small since it just started. The team has more optionals girls than compulsories right now as the owner was an optionals coach and girls went with her when she opened the gym. Because it is still small they can do more individualized attention. They have girls team and boys and girls rec.

Cobb - near downtown Marietta
Great boys team. Girls team isn't as good. Really nice HC who has been in this for a LONG Time; but his focus is more on the boys. Great facility.

Atlanta North Stars - more on the East side of Cobb. Girls only for team. They have strong optionals and do TOPS.

GA All stars - in Woodstock; but could still work if they move to East Cobb. Girls only for team. They have some girls I believe who are hoping to go elite. It is supposed to be a good gym. They do TOPS.

North Metro - also in Woodstock. They have boys and girls teams. Some of the coaches are great. They aren't considered as strong of a gym; but have some very good kids. Definitely a stronger girl's team than Cobb.

Zenit - in Canton, would likely be more of a drive than they would want when there are so many closer options that are good. They have boys and girls. Pretty good optionals girls; but not as good as some of the others. New optionals coaches, so it could change things up.

World of Gymnastics - somewhere in Cherokee; but I don't think that they have optionals.

Roswell - if they live on the east side it could work. Great facility, it is municipally owned. Strong boys and girls teams.

Paulding - could work if on north or west side of town. Really nice owner and coaches. A middle of the road optionals them mostly with a few real stand outs.

Cartersville - there are some areas of Cobb that can work for this gym. Strong optionals for boys and girls.
 
Well she is lucky, there are some great choices which have already been listed above. Depending on what she is looking for, I would definitely check out GAA and ANSG, but keep an open kind and also try some other gyms on the spectrum because those programs might be a little bit of culture shock currently coming from a smaller Xcel team.
 
GAA has a really nice gym but I hear that their team is really intense. Cobb Challengers has a nice atmosphere and I hear that some people really enjoy it. Integra is fairly new but has a small team for lots of individual attention. They have a small gym but they make up for it with a smaller number of people in it at a time. World of Gymnastics has a pretty nice facility and a nice sized team. The atmosphere is fun but serious at the same time. They are also have a cheer side of the gym for their cheer teams. North Metro has a nice facility and so does GA Allstars. I have to say that the nicest facility would be GAA by far.
 
Well, its all according too where they will live. Traffic in that area, during rush hours can be a nightmare! Even though, there's a lot of interstate connections as well as back roads. GAA is a little more north and near KSU.
 
@2G1B | HOLY MOLEY! Thank you so much for this incredibly comprehensive list! I appreciate the time and effort, thank you so much. :D I'm assuming you live in the area, and your kids attend one of these gyms? If I'm correct, would you share your personal thoughts on your gym?

She is a Silver level gymnast, but I train my athletes as if they were JO, mainly because in a year or so I am going to have them score out into optionals. She already has a few Level 6/7 skills. That being said, if she went to GAA it would still probably be culture shock, especially due to their pedigree. Thank you for the advice, @gymdog. Also, by ANSG, you mean Atlanta North Stars Gymnastics, right?

Thank you everyone for your suggestions! You guys are the bomb. :) Any personal reviews and experiences you'd like to share about these gyms?
 
It has nothing to do with "pedigree" but regardless of how you do Xcel I can tell you from what you've posted on this board that the bigger upper optional gyms are a very different environment from your program. That's not a good or bad thing for either side, just to say that the family might not find it to be a good fit. It's also probably more expensive both for tuition and booster fees. Still, it's worth a try if she is interested in upper optionals. She might thrive there. I did mean North Stars.
 
I thought about that, too (the idea of a gym "fitting" a family). I know, pretty much as a fact, that any gym she goes to next will be a huge change for her. She's a very hard worker though, so I know she could probably adapt in most environments. It's good that there are so many gyms in the Atlanta area, because if their first choice doesn't work, there are many others that they can give a shot.

As far as tuition cost, what is it like down there? I heard the cost of living down South is much cheaper than in the Northeast, but since Atlanta is a pretty populated metropolitan area I wasn't sure what that would mean. How do you think it would it compare to NYC?
 
I'm not sure what your meet and booster fees were like, but that's likely to be the biggest difference, along with additional costs for travel, uniform, registration, potentially clinics or private lessons. Bigger and more competitive gyms that go to more and bigger meets tend to be more expensive because the meets themselves are expensive. We discussed tuition on another thread but for level 4/5, it's likely going to be $300-400 a month depending on hours. Hard to tell without knowing the hours.
 
Also, if she doesn't have a kip, she most likely won't be placed in level 4...level 3 might depend on age.
 
GAA has a website and one could pretty much guess about meet fees. I think tuition for Xcel gold/and or level 4/5/6 would be between $220.00 to 300.00 per month depending on the gym. How they treat xcel vs Jo, and hours(again Jo vs xcel). Most if not all of these gyms have both. I will be paying $250.00 for my DD at 15 hours xcel gold(substituting for 5/6). Our gym pricing is pretty competitive with the rest of metro ATL area.
 
What part of Marietta they are moving to makes a huge difference in picking a gym. I am going to assume it is either East or West Cobb and not Marietta city as those are the two most popular areas vs Marietta City proper. East Cobb could be an hour drive to GAA and 10 minutes to Roswell or GA All-Stars, (GASG) vice versa for West Cobb. The good news is that there are several great choices regardless of where they are moving. Personally, I would look at GAA and Integra if moving to West Cobb. Ga All Stars, Roswell or Atlanta North Stars if in East Cobb. I only have personal experience with GASG. They do have a good optionals program, but is not as intense/huge as GAA from what I have heard.
 

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