Sokol New York

Sokol’s younger classes in the Toddler-​Kindergarten gym downstairs are fabulous. Judith, the main teacher for the kids is absolutely the best gymnastics teacher! She has great command of the kids, always good spirited, genuinely caring, and really knows how to teach and engage the kids. There’s a lot of joy in the rooms. She loves those kids and you can tell. I have two daughters who have learned for years from Judith and she’s remarkable! The price can’t be beat either.

The gymnastics classes here are full of potential but end up entirely disappointing. The instructors seem to know their stuff, sadly, they have no control over their unruly classes. A big part of the problem here is that the classes seem to be used as some sort of overly expensive babysitting for some parents. They come, drop off their little hellions, and vanish until pick up time.
Classes are supposed to run ninety-​minutes, but the children wind up receiving only about half that time from their instructors once you count in the constant stopping for reprimands. Useless reprimands, mind you, since there’s no actual punishment for misbehaving in class, or even for outright disobeying an instructor. Trouble-​making students aren’t so much as asked to sit on the sidelines so that class can continue. They’re simply spoken to over and over again, without consequence, thereby eating up precious class time.
Nothing is stable or predictable here, instructors switch out week to week without warning, their assistants are just older Sokol students who don’t really care about helping with posture correction, or anything at all really. The school deserved the embarrassment that it faced a little over a year ago when a competition they hosted had to be stopped twice because the parents were as noisy and rowdy as their children, making it difficult for judges and participants to hear each other.
Dear Sokol, wake up. You have potential. Start kicking unruly students out of class, start telling parents that their little hellions won’t be welcomed back if they are not ready to get serious. Start caring.
In the meantime, this place is a waste of time. Children who come wanting to actually learn something will leave sad, frustrated, and disappointed.

Sokol Rocks. I love playing volleyball here on fridays. great group of people