Al Oerter Recreation Center

This place is an absolute mess. The staff are the rudest people I’ve ever met. I really would want to know what their screening or interviews are for new hires. They all walk around like it’s a privilege for you to be here and everyone should just kiss their feet. Perhaps they’re flaunting their pseudo authority to compensate for their own miserable lives. There are a few staff members that are nice and I feel sorry for them to have to work with their egotistical coworkers. The worst ones are the «security guards» who scan your ids and the lady janitors. Why is the security guards in quotes? Because I doubt they can do anything if a real fight breaks. One of them is possibly pushing 60.
The first time, I was helping my younger sister register. When I tried to talk to someone behind the desk, the «security guard» butts in unnecessary telling me that I need to fill in a form. After filling the form and returning to the desk, the «security guard» demands to see my ID which I passed along obediently. He then just passes the form and ID to the person behind the desk. Apparently it was all a waste of time since my sister is the one needs to present the ID and she was not carrying one at that time. I could have saved that time if he let me talk to someone knowledgable and actually responsible for handing registrations.
The second time, I went in with my friends to try out the Adult Volleyball (I don’t understand why it’s called Adult Volleyball when 98% of the participants are under 18. They should just change the name to Teen Volleyball to accurately describe the event). This was the first time for me using this facility so I forgot to bring a lock. Luckily one of my guy friends had one. So I proceeded to pass along my bag and my outerwear until this female janitor bombards me and demand that I put my stuff in the women locker room. I explained my unfortunate lock situation and that my friend was willing to put my belongings into his locker. Instead of being understanding like any considerate human being, she replied that I should go to home depot to buy a lock right then. When I said that was ridiculous and I would rather leave my clothes in the car. She snapped back that I should leave now. Grudgingly, I had to go back to my car but I was not going to let one person ruin my volleyball night.
Now onto the actual volleyball experience. This is the most unorganized volleyball meet ever. If any locals are trying find a decent queens volleyball meetup, avoid this place like a plague. I would much rather trek my way into the city and pay for Big City or Nyurban. Everyone was either in middle school or high school. Being in my mid 20s, I felt like a grandma. There were no lines or queue on which group/​team gets to play. It was basically whoever can get onto the court first and stand their ground can play. Apparently there is a rule that once a team plays two games, they are forced to leave regardless if they won to make ways for other teams to play. No one stood by that rule and stacked teams remained on court the whole night. At one point, one of the «security guards» started to play basketball in the middle of the court when a game was in session. Seriously?
I commend your effort to read my long rant since I want to warn my fellow adult volleyball players. Sadly I’ve already paid for half a year membership (thank god I did not chose the full year) and they do not offer refunds. So PLEASE don’t become a sucker like me. This was $ 50 down the drain.

I came here for a Christmas event run by the city. There is free parking at this center. Inside the facilities look very clean and it is very big inside. I would get a membership here!

Love the place! Staffs are friendly. And they have great classes. I was in there for a spinning class last night, great workout, great energy, and sweat a lot:))

What a horrible place, the weight room is extremely crowded, not enough weights to go around, rude staff. How do they get hired? My car mufflers were stolen in the parking lot. There is no security what so ever. Sign up at your own risk! cheap price is to lure you in!

This place has only 3 rooms to exercise. There are very few machines and materials to work out. Especially, when I use a running machine, an old man forced me to get off. I only use it less than 1 minutes. Not even me, so many seniors forced many young people to get off the machine. Some refused and the old people call the security to pull those young people off the machine. Young adults paid the most money and seniors paid the reduced fare, it’s not fair that young adults have to get off. I never get to use those running machines for 5 minutes. there were so many empty machines available but those seniors still want to use my machine. The securities are even helping the old people. After that moment, I never went back there anymore. To be honest, doctors also says that people have to take care of themselves while they are young. Old people are too late. Giving young people stress is the worst. This place is discriminating young people.

It should be free as I pay a boatload in city, state and federal taxes. I need a water fountain.
Apart from that, no complaints.
Bigger weight room should have been thought of.

This recreation center is the busiest of possibly every NYC rec center. People stream in and out all day. I have been a NYC rec center member for 12 years and could not believe the treatment the staff attempted to dish out to me. I went inside the lobby and the card scanner was not visible. I asked the staff where the scanner was and they pointed to an arbritrary location without actually getting up to show me its hidden location. It was located on the edge of the front desk opposite of where the staff was. I waved the card in front to activate the scanner as I have always done at other rec centers and the staff YELLED at me for doing that and tried to grab my card away from me. There are people that they can yell at and boost their ego and then there are people that will not allow these thugs to step on you. I decided to take the latter course of action and yelled in return to not touch my card and told them to change where the scanner is located so people can find it. They could not believe someone actually did not allow to be stepped on. The front desk manager came out from behind the desk and asked me for my lock. I then proceeded to tell him that I was in sweat pants and tee shirt and did not need to use the locker room. He told me I needed a lock anyway which is not true. I then told him that I am going into the locker room and will be doing a complete inspection for cleanliness before I use it. His step on me attempts then escalated to a point of asking me to leave because I had no right to inspect his locker room for cleanliness. I told him that I will find the locker room and go in without a lock and inspect the locker room and that he can ask security to aide him in throwing me out of the facility. He was silent and I went inside and he followed me to the gym and told me the gym was closed. There were about 20 people in the gym doing different things so I told him to make an announcement to those 20 people that the gym was closed and that they had to leave. At this point he gave up on trying to step on me and went away and I proceeded to do what I originally went there for. When I left 2 hours later I dropped a sweaty towelette on the front desk in front of him and told him to take care of that for me. People do not allow this staff to step on you, do not allow them to make rules that are not real. If the volume of this rec center was not so high the front desk would have been replaced with better qualified and people oriented staff a long time ago. This front desk staff needs to be audited immediately by the those in charge of the Queens and overall NYC recreation center management.

It has affordable price for young adults. If you under 25 years old, you just need to pay $ 25.00. And It is a good place for family and friends. I like it.

You have to make an appointment for when u can use the machine but people don’t listen and take you’re machine anyways. also great employers but very rude people.

Really clean facility. Many classes are offered, a decent amount of machines to work on. The instructors are friendly and will work you out. My only wish is to not change the workout classes so often and make more convenient times. Otherwise, 2 thumbs up!

This is a very nice recreation centre. The facilities really good and clean. Plenty of parking around. It is extremely affordable — more so if you are 62+. Staff are very nice — especially Kevin at the front desk is awesome. He is very friendly and courteous. I would recommend this facility strongly.
P. J. Ram

One step into the weights room will make you forget about the cheap price
1 barbell for 2 of the most popular machines: Bench press & Squat rack.
I just can’t even

This is the worst Recreational Center in the world. EVERY SINGLE TIME I visit the center, I am confronted by angry rude staff who yell and then tell you to leave the facility before they ban you.

Not bad for a Parks Dept. gym. A little hard to get to but fairly clean and close to Flushing Meadows and the new olympic sized pool/​hockey rink across the way which can be bundled with your Parks Dept. membership. They have a running track above the gymnasium and a small weight room. Sign up for the machines first thing when you show up as the spots fill up fast. I mostly come here for the free shape up nyc classes sponsored by the city but not a bad place to go if you wanna get your work out on. They have wallyball and computer classes and lots of classes and activities for kids even table tennis night and jianzi hackeysack for seniors. The staff are always very nice but can be somewhat disorganized at times or it might just be the influx of young summer volunteers. A great place to warm up before heading out for a run or something in flushing meadows.

Al Oerter Rec Center. It’s a pretty nice facility but I really wished the weight lifting room was larger. The locker rooms are bigger than the weight lifting room. Membership fee is pretty cheap compared to gyms like NYSC, Bally’s, and others. There is a indoor track, indoor basketball court, cardio room, ping pong, indoor handball court, racquetball, men and women’s locker room with showers. There’s also a parking lot. If there are no spaces available in the lot, you can always park underneath the Van Wyck Expressway. It’s you get quite a lot for what you pay for.
My biggest problem coming here was always just the weight room. It’s always too crowded. The people over there never wipe the benches or machines after they use it. Many of the members also refuse to share the bench or machine, a lot of them tend to chit chat rather than allow others to use the equipment. The best way I can put this is that the weight room here sucks! Some of the machines here are also frequently damaged. The cables are frequently jammed or not aligned with the machine. The weight room also reeks of ass and armpits during the summer time when it’s crowded with teenagers and geezers.
What I really like about this rec center is their cardio room, indoor track and basketball. It’s great during snowy and rainy days. The cardio room can get pretty crowded but there’s a staff member who keeps track of a wait list and time each member when they use a cardio machine. It’s best to come to the rec center for the weight room and cardio room very early on in the morning or during school days. During the summer, this place can get very hectic.
Verdict — It’s a very clean facility, everything is pretty well maintained except for the weight lifting room. Cheap membership and instead of driving to the rec center, I recommend cycling to the rec center. It’s conveniently located on the outer part of Flushing Meadows Corona Park off of College Point Blvd, next to the Home Depot and near the Western Beef. There are stations outside of the rec center where you can lock your bikes. The Flushing Meadows Corona Indoor Pool is the building running diagonal from Al Oerter. If you’re a meat head and looking to get the best daily intense workout, you might wanna look at different gym. If you’re a parent or individual looking for some light workouts, this could be a great place for you and your family. This is by no means a 5 star gym. It’s a rec center provided by the NYC Parks Department, so make the best out of it.

If I was not in desperate need I would refund my $ 25 and never come back. Thank the Lord my job is taking me out of the state at the end of the month, and if it weren’t for this winter weather I would seriously consider not joining a gym in New York at all (the prices everywhere are steep except for this place.)
The facilities at Al Oerter are very nice, actually. They have two cardio rooms, that so far when I’ve gone have been about half-​full. Parking seems like it could be a real PIA, but again me and my friends go on the off-​times and it’s not so bad then. There is a massive soccer field just alongside the building that looks like you would be better off running around then entering this purgatory.
The dance and raquette ball rooms in the back seemed to be the nicest – not that I would know, considering the instant I stepped past the doors on my first day I was accosted by an incredibly rude security guard that snapped at me STUPID questions (‘what do you want?’ ‘why are you coming back here?’) instead of just telling me the back was closed, which (don’t worry!) she eventually told me after threatening to revoke my gym membership for being in the back.
Jesus take the wheel, if this wasn’t a sign, today certainly was.
There I was, ten minutes into running on the treadmill (after the boy at the front didn’t spare us a hello upon entering. The bar-​scanner for the cards was broken, and he allowed us to fling our cards stupidly around the front of the desk for a good minute and a half before he finally took the proffered card and started writing the code down. I don’t know what to make of this experience, I was laughing too hard at this ridiculous nature of the event to actually be offended that he seemed to be incapable of speech although he answered the phone competently enough.)
I’m on the treadmill, reaching my stride, when a broom handle suddenly appears on my left and taps the middle of the monitor. I slow my pace frantically, trying to turn to the cleaning lady standing behind me while not tripping and take off my headphones at the same time. She’s continuously jabbing at my sweater (small, innocuous fleece thing that it is, tied securely and out of the way to the right arm of the treadmill, just as I did the last time I came here) and then pointing at me. I finally slow the machine to a walk, very confused as to why this hostile janitor has taken to snapping at me, when she shouts «Turn off the machine!» I turn it off, worried that I’ve done something wrong.
This psychotic woman then repeats «Get off this machine! Put this in a locker!» and then swinging her limbs at me as if I was too stupid to understand what she was rudely telling me to do.
Now. Looking around, there are at least three other people with a single sweater slung over or around their machine. Now I’m pissed. She’s inturrupted my workout, treated me like I was trying to burn down the building, and now she was glaring at me like I was the b***h. The woman gestures at me and scowls some more, indicating that I should hurry up, and irritated beyond belief I dash to the lockers, slam my fleece into one at random, and come back just in time for my settings to disappear.
For such a nice facility, the amount of rude, incompetent people I’ve met in less than two total hours being in this stupid gym is infuriating. I know New Yorkers don’t A-​List on polite, but if one more person snaps at me from this gym and treats me like I just broke into their house or impregnated their daughter, I’m going to bark out the manager of this establishment, take my money, and never, ever come back. This place is a hot mess. Do you people understand anything when it comes to customer service? I’ve been in plenty of public rec center, NEVER have I been treated this way! What a travesty. People are just trying to work out, I don’t want the third degree when literally all I am doing is going about my business and not hurting anybody.
Short and sweet: this is the rudest public installation I’ve ever paid to be in, and this place is not worth your time. Invest in a place where people will treat you with respect.

This place gets three stars mostly because of the price. If you are under 24, then you can get a year’s membership for $ 25. Damn, that’s cheaper than a month at some gyms. This place also has a lot of facilities. A weight room, two cardio rooms, a track, basketball courts, handball courts, dance studios, track and a swimming pool.
Now on to the bad. It is extremely difficult to get to this location. I think that there is only one bus that rides through this place. I always ride my bike to the location as many people do, and they have a decent amount of bike stands to lock your bike to. They also have a parking lot, however, the parking lot is often full and it once took me 20 minutes to find a spot once.
The weight room is also very small and is often crowded. I haven’t started my job yet and have experimented with finding the right time to go to lift weights. I enjoy the morning when it is filled with very old people and the random college student. During the afternoon, high school and middle school students come after school and they fill the place and use all the machines and take up a lot of space. At night, there are more high school students and people who are getting off of work. Some of these off work people also seem very suspicious, but I’ve never had a problem with them and they are friendly enough.
The machines are all really old and there’s always at least one that’s broken. The free weights are EXTREMELY dangerous. I would use caution in using them. They are very loose and one time, the plates from one of the weight plates fell off the dumb bell because the screw was loose.
There are no towels, and I’m not even sure if there is a water fountain, but everyone just brings their own bottles of water. This is not a fancy gym, but for the price, you get what you get.

no pain no gain

Ok first things first — bring a padlock and an official ID. No matter what you are doing, even just a free class, you will need both.
This is a great value gym. No its not NY Sports Club but its also only $ 150 a year (including the pool!), not to mention free for some classes. I was a member for a while and really liked it — except the weight room, which always seemed to be full of really intimidating looking guys. The track over the gym is short, but its comfortable to run on, most people follow the rules and its air conditioned.
I recently started taking the free yoga (Shape Up NYC) and really enjoyed the class.
One big downside is the lack of nearby public transit — its about half a mile from Main Street and the nearest buses, and no train is nearby. I don’t mind a mile round trip walk (I’m going for exercise after all) except when the weather is bad.

This place is an ok place to work out, Its worth for 75 for the 6 month, but there are many negatives about this place. Number 1 it is always crowded and there are never any parking spots around 9 on weekdays and the weekend so I would park under this sketchy under which is right across from the recreation center and is there are always homeless people who live there. 2 The weight lifting equipment its all rusty and has blood on them so I warn you dont use the dumbells or weights. 3 There is this rude, annoying angry black lady named karen don’t make piss off her off or she would yell at you (the lady who usually wear hats). Overall its worth the 75 for 6 months but I would not agree more than that PS dont use the showers they have mold and refuse to change the shower heads.