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To give some back story, I did gymnastics for 18 years of my life. I started at 2 years old and went all the way until I was 20. My first year of college was spent at the Air Force Academy competing for their gymnastics team as well.

Similarly, my brother was a gymnast, but he took it even further. He competed all 4 years of college, and even competed in the college NCAA’s for the Air Force Academy on Pommel horse. It is safe to say that we know a little bit about the sport and even still help out from time to time at local gyms.

Gymnastics in Atlanta

From my multiple years of training in Atlanta, and many long nights, I had to privileged to train at many different gyms. Particularly, three gyms come to mind for gymnastics.

To preface this, these gyms are for guys and girls which is rare. Most small local gyms will not have all of the guys equipment needed for upper level gymnastics. For those reasons, here my my top three gyms in Atlanta that you can take your boy or girl to learn and train at!

Atlanta School of Gymnastics

This gym, the Atlanta School of Gymnastics (ASG), is close to my heart. I spent most of my earlier days as a gymnast here, and even came back to coach and train after leaving the Academy. The gym is mostly run by a former cheer leading coach, Rochelle, and has plenty of culture and history behind it.

This gym is particularly good for younger kids and here is why. The coaches that work with the small kids, ages 10 and younger, have been there for a long time. All of these coaches have devoted years and years to their craft and understand how to work with children. On top of this, they know how to safely train younger kids all the while pushing them to greater heights.

Team Coaches

When you get past the younger ages, you may want your child to move up to a team position. This will typically happen by one of the coaches doing a try out for your kid and accessing their skill level. Afterward, the coach will have a meeting with the parent to discuss the potential level that their skills meet.

Sometimes kids will excel and need to be moved up quickly, and other times they may not be ready. Gymnastics is not a natural sport to most kids, so do not put a lot of pressure on your kid to be great. Although, for those that do excel, there is plenty of instruction and talent at the gym to take your kid as far as he needs to go.

ASG Gym

The gym is right off of I-285 in Tucker, Georgia and seems to be in the middle of no where. That is pretty much the same for most gyms. Over the years, the owners have been trying to renovate the gym and add new equipment. The gym has been open for easily 50 years, so you can imagine the history behind it. Overall, the gym is well run and has plenty of potential for any level of gymnast.

Roswell Gymnastics

At a certain point while training, my team moved from ASG to Roswell Gymnastics which is not surprisingly in Roswell, Georgia. There were multiple reasons at the time, but the moved worked well for us. In transitioning from one gym to the other, you never really know what to expect. Luckily, Roswell was a well run and up kept gym that we thrived at.

One of the best things about the Roswell gym is that it is partially funded by the city. This means they will always have to most up to date equipment, new pit, and air conditioning. Also, the gym has plenty of coaches for all ages and is more run like a business at times which can be a positive and a negative.

Roswell Gym Classes

The benefit of having so many coaches and a different coach for each event is that kids get more attention and proper training. When you have one coach running from event to event, things can get muddled and the focus can be off. At the same time, with multiple coaches the kids may like some and dislike others. It is bound to happen because each coach my have a slightly different style to coaching.

This is entirely dependent on how well your kid adapts to changes and adjusts to each coach. Some kids love it, while some kids would rather just have one coach they work with throughout the day. Personally, it does not matter as much because in gymnastics, success is entirely up to the kid. You can train hard by yourself, with a good coach, or with a bad coach. Although, I personally liked to work with the same coach from event to event.

Gymnastics Levels

One of the great things about Roswell Gymnastics is that there is plenty of room and equipment for everyone. You kid will rarely not have space or time to get their workout in, and they will make plenty of friends as well.

This gym is on the list because they boast a great girls and boys program for all levels of gymnastics. While they may not have as many elite gymnasts, the coaches here can most certainty train kids to any necessary level since some of the coaches are former Olympians.

Cobb Gymnastics

Another good gym in the Atlanta area is Cobb Gymnastics. Like Roswell, Cobb is also partially funded by the city which means good equipment and no trouble with parking, hopefully. This gym is not as aggressive as the other gyms. This means they do not have as many gymnasts or as big of coaching staffs, but there is still plenty of talent for all ages.

Cobb Gym

While this gym has plenty of funding, it does not have the strongest upper level gymnastics teams. This is a good and a bad thing. While there are coaches at this gym who can train at all levels, it seems the gym is just out of the way for most people. Due to this, there is plenty of space and resources for your kid if you can get to this gym regularly.

They have a great rod floor and tramp both into the pit and a vault that also goes into the pit which is good for training. The people who run the gym are very nice and flexible with all needs.

While this gym may not have as big of a following or history behind it, it has both guys and girls teams which makes it stand out from most other gyms already. In addition, it has good equipment for all levels to train on.

Atlanta Gymnastics

Gymnastics is a sport that not many people will do for very long, but almost every person I know did as a kid. If you have a young one and want to get them some basic training, make sure to check out one of these gyms! Get your kid signed up, and who knows, you may have the next Olympian.

Atlanta United Review

The 2018 MLS soccer season saw the Atlanta United winning the MLS cup. With all of the success, let’s take a moment to review how Atlanta United FC got here.

Atlanta Soccer Team

Atlanta United was established in 2014 by the owner of the Atlanta falcons and co-founder of Home Depot Arthur Blank.

This saw the first professional soccer team in Atlanta. Still, the city is one of the most culturally diversified cities in the U.S. ATL has a large number of Hispanic, Asian, and European people living here, and their favorite sport is soccer, making Atlanta a hot bed for a soccer team.

Atlanta United FC gave these immigrants a home team to cheer for and support. Something they have been missing since leaving their home countries.

2017 Season

The inaugural season was 2017 and the team hired Gerardo Martino as their first head coach in franchise history. Martino is an Argentine former footballer and season coach. Particularly, Martino was head coach for some of the best national and club teams in the soccer world Paraguay, Barcelona, and his home country Argentina.

Undeniably with his great resume, Atlanta United FC knew he was the man to help build a championship environment within the organization.

First Game

The first game was played on March 5, 2017 at Bobby Dodd stadium with a record 55,297 fans attending the game. Furthermore, Atlanta has shown the MLS world that they can fill a stadium up, setting records for highest single-match and average attendance.

First Goal

The first goal scored in franchise history was by Yamil Asad and saw the team losing 2–1 to the New York Red Bull’s. Even in defeat, Atlanta United FC saw the potential they had in the team. The following week Atlanta opponent was Minnesota United another team of in their first season.

First Win

Atlanta secured their first win with a 6–1 final score against Minnesota. Additionally, on March 18 2017 Atlanta won their first home game against the Chicago fire, 4–0 was the final score and gave a sold out Bobby Dodd stadium reason to cheer.

Mercedes-Benz Stadium

The team moved to the Mercedes-Benz stadium shortly after the first month of the 2017 MLS season, with the move Atlanta United FC went on a row and secured a playoff spot the third seed.

2017 Playoffs

Atlanta was only the third team in MLS history to secure a spot in the playoffs in their inaugural season. Due to tie-breakers Atlanta was giving the fourth seed and faced the Columbus crew in the first round of the playoffs.

The stadium seated 67,221 fans and fans saw an epic game that went into penalty shoot-out. Columbus won in a result of 3–1 eliminating Atlanta out of the playoffs.

Off-Season

After the first season, Atlanta focused on the off-season with confidence knowing that they were a playoff team, and looked to add players to help them win the cup.

2018 Season

The 2018 season saw new faces on the team which added fire power Atlanta did not have in their first season. Josef Martinez scored 31 goals making him the leading scorer in the league.

Atlanta United had a strong season defeating teams by large margins, the new players, great coaching, and a crazy fan base all contributed to Atlanta securing the second seed in the playoffs.

2018 Playoffs

Atlanta’s first game was in the conference semifinals against the New York City FC. To point out, the first game was a close one with the score finishing 1–0. In contrast, the second game of the semifinals Atlanta blew New York out 3–1. Atlanta advanced to the conference finals with a 4–1 aggregate score.

The eastern conference final saw the two top seeds facing each other. The Atlanta United FC vs. the New York Red Bull’s, the first team Atlanta played in their inaugural season, but this time the outcome was different.

Eastern conference final

Atlanta dominated New York booing the doors open in the first game 3–0 giving them a lead that the Red Bull’s couldn’t come back from, Atlanta advanced to their first MLS cup final in only their second season.

MLS Cup Final

Atlanta had to face the power house of the west, Portland timbers, one of the biggest teams in MLS history. Atlanta was up for the challenge. The leagues leader in goals scored the opening goal and Escobar add another in the 54’ minute. On December 8, 2018, Atlanta won the MLS cup with a final score of 2–0. The win gave Atlanta their first city championship since the Atlanta brave won the MLB World Series in 1995.

Atlanta United FC Champions

A city starving for a championship finally had one. A city that has seen their NFL team blow a 28–3 leading in the super bowl against the New England Patriots, and the Braves only win one championship in their golden era. Atlanta had a reason to cheer and to have a parade Atlanta was finally a champion.

Gerardo Martino

The season saw success but still had a sad note the head coach Martino was leaving the club. Martino announced at the beginning of the season that he will be leaving the club following the 2018 MLS season. On December 23 the team announced that their next coach would be Frank De Boer.

Frank De Boer

De Boer is a former soccer player for the Netherlands playing in two world cups. Frank coaching resume’ is not as impressive as Martinos’s, but the goal is the same, win the MLS cup.

2019 Season

The 2019 season has started and the champs have started slow not winning a game and being the tenth team in the standings. In summary, the season is still young and Atlanta has time to climb up the standings to make the playoffs.

In conclusion, New Coach Frank De Boer has a challenge to re-group the team and lead them back to the MLS cup final. Can Atlanta United FC win back-to-back championships? Only time will tell if Atlanta can become a dynasty in the MLS.    

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