At EFT Sports Performance (EFT), vomiting is rewarded. In fact, the Highland Park athletic training facility has its own “Victim Board,” where a tally is kept of over 500 people who have puked after a training session, for which they then receive a free T-shirt.
“We’re like airline attendants,” said Jacob Ross, general manager at EFT. “We always point out the extra trash cans.”
While junior Brandon LaBunski has yet to earn his shirt since joining EFT in Nov. 2011, he said his private athletic training has made an impact on his performance, particularly in football.
LaBunski said he is now an entirely different athlete than he was before he began training.
“Freshman year I was just weak, not fast, not explosive,” said LaBunski. “The gains I’ve seen between freshman and junior year are just tremendous. This year I was all-conference and all-area. I don’t think I could attribute that to anything besides EFT.”
LaBunski also started private training at TCBOOST in Northbrook last December. Tommy Christian, co-owner of TCBOOST, said its training aims to transform athletes by improving their power and speed. Meanwhile, Ross said EFT is specialized, but less so than other facilities due to its diversity in the types of training offered.
Both EFT and TCBOOST have trained Olympians and professional athletes such as NBA all-star Luol Deng and NFL running back Rashard Mendenhall. Yet Ross and Steve Breitenstein, speed and strength coach at TCBOOST, said they believe a majority of their respective clients are high school athletes.
Breitenstein said the constant feedback and evaluations that a professional trainer provides are mainly what makes private training so beneficial.
“[There are] a lot of things that go on in the fitness industry that are gimmicky sometimes or just a hot-trending item or a fad,” said Breitenstein. “We try to avoid any of that and really focus on the things that we know are backed by science. That’s something we really, really push.”
Christian said TCBOOST was hired by the Glenbrook North Athletic Department in 2008. Since then, TCBOOST representatives have come to the school to help people in the Fitness Center with their workouts. TCBOOST also helps form an offseason workout program for any team that requests it, including the boys lacrosse team.
According to Justin Georgacakis, head boys lacrosse coach, there has been a growing trend of high school athletes gravitating toward private personal training.
“The biggest advantage of working out with [a personal trainer] is that you have a knowledgeable individual that’s also going to motivate you,” said Georgacakis. “If you lift solo, you go into your weight room in your basement [and] there’s no one really pushing you besides yourself, and everybody has limitations.”
Christian said kids are getting involved earlier with personal trainers because there is more of an awareness now of the benefits of athletic training and also because of the growing interest in sports.
“You have a big high school like [New Trier High School] or [Adlai E. Stevenson High School] with over a thousand kids in a class, you have to be pretty good just to make the team,” said Christian. “When I played high school sports, most sports were no-cut sports. So it’s just a different environment that high school athletes are in, especially in this area.”
Georgacakis said he does not necessarily think the affluence of the community is the reason why high school students are more willing to pay for private training.
“I think in our area, I don’t know if it has to do with wealth as much as it has to do with drive and motivation,” said Georgacakis. “[There are] a lot of motivated kids here, both academically and athletically. So when you take that motivation and put the tires to the ground, then you look to make yourself better, however it is, whether you find a tutor or get a personal trainer.”
David Weber, head boys basketball coach, uses TCBOOST trainers for his team’s offseason basketball training and thinks private training can be “extremely beneficial.” However, he said it does have drawbacks.
“I like it when [players see private trainers,]” said Weber. “What I don’t like is sometimes these [trainers] get in [players’] heads and tell them they’re better than they really are, so that’s the part of it that we’ve always had to fight. They’re telling them, ‘Hey, you’re a Division I player.’ Well as long as they pay that trainer, the trainer’s not going to say negative things.”
Ross said private workout facilities like EFT create a family feel.
“I moved here from Texas to work [at EFT] and it’s because, when I came to visit, I kind of caught on to the atmosphere and the people that were here,” said Ross. “To me, that makes all of the difference in the world.”
According to Ross, he has seen a growth in membership for all sports since he began working at EFT about four years ago. He said with the amount of kids looking to play collegiate sports, there is now almost a need to train at a private facility, whether that be at EFT, TCBOOST or at other places.
Weber said it is “unbelievable” how much private training is now available as opposed to when he first became the varsity coach nearly two decades ago.
“I remember some of our players had a jump rope,” said Weber. “They did push ups, they did sit-ups, and that was their lifting program. Now it’s much different.”