ROUND LAKE BEACH – Looking through the viewing room window of the American Eagles Gymnastics facility in Round Lake Beach, you can see clusters of girls between the age of 9 and 15, with buns and pony tails in their hair, each charging toward you in brightly colored, pink leopard print leotards and patriotic red, white and blue.

Look beyond that and boys are performing sommersaults before falling onto an ocean of varicolored foamy blocks that gently break their fall.

Even further down, deep into the 12,000-square-foot gym, balance beams are getting gripped tight by other young gymnasts before being let go, sending their aggressors flying high into the air and onto a mat.