Illinois Gymnastics Institute

Please do not send your child to this school. They threw my 4 year old son out of the school in front of my children referring to my son as «your boy.» I was told I could not bring my children back to the school even though I had just enrolled them again in another session. My son is a very active 4 year old. I told the school this prior to enrolling my children in the school. My son attends school all day at a wonderful school and has never had a single incident at his school. The teachers and staff love my children. Since this incident my son has had terrible nightmares and continues to ask why he was «thrown out of gymnastics.» I was told that I would receive a refund, but to date I haven’t received a refund nor an apology for how badly my son was treated.

I can only comment on IGI as a resource for young children, not elite gymnasts.
We have attended quite a few sessions with our grandchildren, and have observed:
1) The place is filthy. I can’t compare to others in this area, but on an absolute scale, it’s bad.
2) The «coaching» is inattentive at best (I’ve seen them completely ignore younger kids, even to the point of not noticing when they’ve wandered off).
3) There is very little content to the sessions — given the size of some of the classes, and the fact that many of the exercises are done individually on equipment, it is not uncommon for a child to get no more than 10 minutes of actual activity during a session.
4) The staff is often dismissive — there appears to be no concept whatsoever that we are the clients, and they are the service providers. Rather, it is more likely to be treated like you are interfering with them.
My conclusion is that, at the early introductory levels, this is nothing more than a money-​making enterprise. If you are committed to turning your young child into a gymnast, then if you can’t find any alternative, this place is a start, but don’t expect much for your (considerable) money.

My daughter loves coming to gymnastics class here. She started as a bronze student and now silver both once weekly. She hopes to move up soon, which would be twice a week. The coaches are great and kids friendly yet all learn the tricks over time. I wish the bathrooms and lockers were cleaner but just dropping off and pick up in no big deal. Great equipment a and great to see older accomplished kids in the gym which really can be inspirational!

My daughter has been doing gymnastics here for 3 sessions now and absolutely loves it. Had I wrote this review after the first session I may have left 1 or 2 stars. She had a different Trainer every week which I did not like and neither did she. She never had a connection and never wanted to go to class.
The last session she was with coach Kyle and he was phenomenal. She was super excited every single week to go to class. She learned so much about gymnastics and how to do several different things that she never knew before. When that session ended she wanted to continue and Kyle recommended the next level for her since she was doing so good.
The current session that we are in she has learned so much already. She is learning how to do a cartwheel at 4 years old and has her backwards summersault perfected. I am excited to see what this session has in store for us.
Some room for improvement: The gym could use an update. I went there as a kid for cheerleading practice and nothing has changed since then. It’s also VERY hot in there so be careful what you wear if you are going to stay for class.
The staff is awesome and seem to really care about the kids. I hope this can turn into a permanent institute for us!