The family locker room could be weird. Certain times of the day grown women without children were allowed in the family dressing room, but mostly they just went in whenever they felt like it, & the fact that it was after their allowed time was never challenged by anyone who worked there. I found that extremely weird, given that there's a women's locker room which has all the same "amenities", just without little children... They have rules but don't enforce them.
Loved child watch. Never left the kids with anyone other than family, but always felt like my son was in great hands here.
Swam at the pool, both laps alone & with the whole family, for fun. Often there weren't enough lanes open & had to share with other folks.
Perfect.
Great gym, pool and family oriented activities.
My main problem, however, was their gymnastics program & the disrespectful, unprofessional way that it was run. Heather Goodwin ran it the year before we joined. Before she ran it, they only did Y meets. Yes, there are Y teams & Y meets, but they are no where near as organized & competitive as USAG. Y-meets are a step up from recreational gymnastics, but no where near as challenging & competitive as USAG. The first year Heather Goodwin took over the Y team, she had the girls competing USAG meets, & they WON STATES (tied with a private gym). For their first year competing USAG, this was huge. We had no idea the Keene Y even competed USAG until we were at states & they WON! We left the private gym where our daughter had gone for 7 years & went to the Y specifically so our daughter could be coached by Heather Goodwin.
One day, Heather was just gone. No explanation or even warning from the Y. Our daughter simply showed up one day & she was GONE. They did tell us she wasn't allowed back at the Y, so the girls never got to say bye to their coach. There were some "everybody gets a trophy, don't push the kids at all" parents who disliked her, they thought she was too tough on the kids. As a team parent whose child has been in both rec classes & on teams, from years of experience, Heather did NOT push the kids too hard. She was the nicest team coach! If the other parents did like their children being pushed, they should have taken them off team & put them in rec classes where it's all fun & games! Our daughter spent 9 hours/week under Heather's coaching, it was beyond unprofessional that she was not allowed to say goodbye. I have a feeling the Y forced her out, although I've never gotten any explanation. We left because of that, & they told us they were going back to only Y meets, NO USAG meets, which is garbage b/c Heather & USAG were the ONLY reasons we went there! Plus the parents originally voted to do USAG only, then the Y came in 1 yr later & vetoed what the parents wanted. Ridiculous. So yeah, they do Y meets, & the team practices a whopping 4 or 5 hours/week (what a joke), but if your daughter wants real gymnastics, go to a private gym.
Used the gym (just the treadmills) a few times, & the track. Another rule they NEVER bothered enforcing - walking lane, running lane, passing lane. You get these folks who just think the rules don't apply to them (why not, since the Y never enforced the rules) & they walk, side by side (2 folks), just chatting, completely oblivious to the folks trying to RUN in the RUNNING lane (which one of them would be WALKING in). Then there were the geniuses using the track as their own personal "go-between" to walk from the courts/studios in the back to the front & step out in front of folks who are RUNNING on the track without bothering to look first. Can't tell you how many times I had to come to a complete stop for some oblivious jerk with his/her giant duffel bag just taking their sweet time walking mid-track.
Loved yoga here. Took different classes from different instructors, the only time I wasn't crazy about it was when there was a sub. instructor who didn't know what they were doing. The fact that the child care play area was outside & below the windows where yoga classes were made it interesting, trying to ignore screaming children.
5 stars for rich people, 1 star for middle class. I loved the old YMCA and was volunteer fitness staff for 26 years at the old Keene location. But today--essentially $1000/year for a couple? As I said, great for those who make over $100k but for the common person the Y is seriously out of touch.
You have so many options to find something you enjoy doing. The people there are great too and very helpful
Keene Family Ymca is a US Gym based in Keene, New Hampshire. Keene Family Ymca is located at 200 Summit Rd, Keene, NH 03431, USA.
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