From the Garage Gym to Travelling the World Coaching

My first post was an intro to this blog; in this post I’m going to take you back to how I got here.

I’ll try to peel the layers back a bit as I go, so you can get to know me a little. Perhaps if I can do that, I will get to know myself a little better too.

I’m going to begin my coaching timeline in the spring of 2015, 1 year after graduating and completing a degree in kinesiology. Though I had been training people for about 3 years, when I look back, this was the turning point for me. This was when I took the leap and started training people privately - in other words, I found my own clients (a natural step for many trainers).  I realize this was the moment I had enough confidence in myself to stand behind my coaching and what I could deliver.  

I’d been thinking about where and how to start this private thing - I didn’t feel comfortable charging a premium rate, which left me limited by the type of facilities I could work from. Making less money per hour also meant I didn’t want to travel far. So, I decided to train people outdoors at a park nearby. This felt like a reasonable solution and a natural step.  

I had built up a small collection of equipment during my three years as a trainer. I had a TRX, some light dumbbells, bands, medicine balls – the essentials to get started. I bought a sled to offer something fun and unique to the outdoor workouts.  

I already knew who my first client would be – my little cousin Anthony. He lived a short drive away, was in his early teens, and because he wasn’t involved in sports, I knew his family would support him working out to burn some energy and engage in physical activity.

The thing is, Anthony is on the spectrum, and though he loved sports, there were limited the opportunities to engage. So, I went to my uncle and aunt, told them I would train Anthony a couple times a week outside, and that we would spend equal parts on movement skills, strength training, and trying different sports. 

I ran Anthony through all the sprint mechanics drills, jump progressions, and bodyweight strength basics like pushups, split squats and planks. I taught him how to throw a football (which he got quite good at), and we shot hoops and progressed to playing soccer in the street with my neighbours. 

After a few years of training him, he loved it so much he got an internship at a local gym – where he still works today. Like all young boys, he was going through an awkward growth spurt, and it was fun to see him get better, stronger, and enjoy exercise and sports – but nothing was better than seeing his confidence grow. 

It was on full display a year later at my cousin’s wedding where, to everyone’s shock (including my own), he took over the dance floor with a break-dancing routine! He’s sensitive to sound, and growing up, would skip out on this part of the wedding - but not this time. I was especially surprised because I had never seen this type of movement expression from him! I guess all the bear crawls transferred well. 

We were basically on the verge of tears, and though I got a lot of praise for helping Anthony get to that point, this young man put the work in. He would never miss a session, and I mean never. If it rained, we were always rescheduling to another day – not cancelling. 

And because of this, I asked my father if I could use half of the garage and build a gym. I didn’t want to let my clients down and so I needed an insurance policy if it rained. Though a park and a couple pieces of equipment worked for the clients I had at the time, it wasn’t going to work for the athletes I wanted to train.

If I could put a rack in my garage, I knew I could take a step forward the following summer and start training a few athletes in addition to the friends and family who were coming to see me. 

Over the next three summers, I would slowly add pieces of used gym equipment from the places I worked and ads online. Collecting the equipment was an adventure! One of the best parts was stacking the shelf that my grandfather built with the broken medicine balls I patched up, and hanging my mats, bands, and skipping ropes on the nails he lined up on a wooden panel that supported the shelf. It felt like he was lending me a helping hand. 

After much searching, I found a floor model half rack which met my needs (chin-up bar connecting the posts and band attachments on the feet) and built a platform for it. Slowly, but surely, the garage gym was coming together. 

Over the years I would add more equipment - a glute-ham raise, aerobic steps, another sled – which naturally meant the garage gym expanded to a full double car garage. As it grew, so did the size of my training groups. I went from 1-on-1 sessions to small groups up to 4 people. I went from training family and friends, to training my first Olympic athlete and multiple groups of young soccer players preparing for collegiate soccer. 

We would begin workouts sprinting in the streets, throwing med balls in the driveway, and move into the garage to lift. Cars would slowly pass by, sometimes slowing down to see what was going on, with the occasional honk of encouragement – but would never complain. Neither did my neighbours, which is probably because their kids would come by, hang out, and sometimes workout.  

When I began this journey, I was just starting out as a performance coach. What I learned early on in my career was that if you wanted to train athletes, you couldn’t make excuses and you had to be flexible. At every step of the way in my career, I was reminded of that. 

My first internship was at the University of Toronto which I began just a couple months after graduating. They were operating out of a storage closet beside the track (the first, but not last, of my storage closet gym experiences). A month later, they would move into a brand-new facility being built for the 2015 Pan Am Games. 

My second internship was at the Canadian Sport Institute of Ontario, which had also just moved into a brand-new facility built for the 2015 Pan Am Games. The problem here was precisely the opposite – they had an incredible gym which could comfortably fit 100 people (maybe more) training simultaneously – but the staff were travelling all over the world to support athletes during training camps or competitions. 

The lesson here: no matter the age or level of athlete, you must find solutions and be flexible. 

When I started training out of the garage, I was managing a gym full-time. I met an inspiring practitioner named Pedro, who I would share my dreams of working with athletes. He had some skin in the game and a few decades of experience.  

He taught me a lot about training and was my go-to resource during this time of my life. One thing I’ll never forget was how he truly believed in me before I was ever training athletes.

It was what he said in response to me sharing that I was building a garage gym so I could train athletes without renting space, that I'll always remember; he exclaimed (and I’m paraphrasing):

“You have a garage gym?! Joe, those are the best. Do you know how many great coaches began training athletes in a garage gym? Some of the best Joe, some of the best! (He named a handful of OGs). If you really want to train athletes, this is a good start, and who knows where it’ll take you. You’ll go far Joe. You’ll have to leave here – but it’ll be a great adventure.” 

It was in this moment that I first believed that I could realize my dream of working with athletes at the highest levels. It wasn’t only because Pedro believed in me, I began to believe having demonstrated a commitment to this vision by building a gym. It felt real now, and it was up to me to make it happen.

Fast forward almost a decade later, and I am working for two national sport organizations (Canada Soccer, Swimming Canada) and travelling the world coaching. 

It’s been an honour and a privilege working at every level of sport with some of the top athletes in this country. Finding flexible solutions along the way has made me a better coach, and I’ve enjoyed the challenge. 

From running activations, warm-ups and gym sessions with nothing more than a soccer ball, to training in first-class facilities – I’ve learned how to thrive in different environments and scale training to every level of athlete, and across different sports.

Finding solutions and being flexible is at the heart of coaching better. This spirit was embodied in every way by the garage gym. Though it no longer exists, it’s a memory I hold dear. 

It’s a reminder of my modest beginnings, and no matter what level I’m coaching at or where, to remember who I am – someone who believes in making sports and performance training accessible, while providing a high-quality experience regardless of constraints. 

JV