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Velocity Sports Offers Supervised Training for Athletes

Posted on: Wednesday, 30 March 2005, 00:00 CST

Mar. 30--Light R&B music plays in the background as, one by one, 15 members of the California State University, Sacramento, rugby club explode into sprints down a 40-yard rubberized track.

"Drive, drive, drive, drive," bellows Victor Hall, their trainer, as the athletes strain for extra speed.

The rugby players aren't working out on campus at California State University, Sacramento, but at Velocity Sports Performance in Rancho Cordova, the newest commercial athletic training facility in the Sacramento area.

Opened earlier this month, it's housed in a gleaming, window-wrapped building that holds a sprint track complete with electronic timers, an artificial-turf field marked off like a football field, a half-court basketball floor and loads of free weights and other training gear.

Unlike most health clubs where people come in to work out on their own, Velocity Sports is a training facility where every session is conducted under supervision.

Rather than focusing on health club standbys such as strength and endurance or on specific skills required for an individual sport, Velocity's program emphasizes speed, agility, balance and coordination -- attributes necessary for just about any sport.

Perhaps the largest difference is the target audience. While it has programs for adults, Velocity, a franchisee of a Georgia-based chain, pays special attention to those ages 8 to 18.

But Carl Bialorucki, the 38-year-old franchise owner, says he isn't establishing a jock factory. "Velocity caters to kids who aren't (necessarily) your top athletes," he said. "It's not about getting a scholarship. It's about participation."

At the younger age levels, Velocity emphasizes movement and technique. If children want to lift weights, they hoist a piece of plastic pipe to learn the correct form while sparing their developing muscles and bones. Movement drills often incorporate games of tag or skipping races to emphasize fun, rather than work.

"We make sure the training is age-appropriate," said David Walmsley, chief executive officer of the parent company in Alpharetta, Ga.

"The physical fitness they achieve is through executing correct technique. Our approach is not run 'em 'til they drop."

Bialorucki can attest to the dangers of bad training. A promising high-school pitcher, he said he ruined his shoulder through a combination of bad advice from a coach and ill-considered weight training.

By the time he got to San Jose State, his fastball had slowed and his baseball career was over.

After college, Bialoruki chose a career in law enforcement. He joined the Santa Clara Police Department, where he became a member of the SWAT team and also worked extensively with school programs aimed at stemming violence and drug use, he said.

After spending a brief time as an El Dorado County sheriff's deputy, he decided in 2003 to open a Velocity franchise, investing about $750,000 for franchise fees, training, leases and equipment.

Bialorucki is betting that the region with its reasonably affluent demographics and its huge core of youth sports -- from soccer to softball to swimming -- will be fertile ground for his business. For example, the California Youth Soccer Association said that more than 54,000 children and teens ages 4-19 were registered to play soccer in 11 Sacramento-area counties for the 2003-2004 season.

"Sacramento is an incredible health- and sports-minded community," he said. "The corporate office did demographics for us and found our area had some of the most potential for success."

Those who sign up need to be both physically and financially dedicated. A series of 24 one-hour group workouts for kids 12 and under costs $600. Teens and adults pay $900 for 24 sessions that each last 90 minutes. There's a maximum ratio of six students to each coach.

Individual fitness coaching, for both adults and kids, runs $1,440 for 24 one-hour sessions.

Bialorucki is confident that clients will see the value. Every coach on Velocity's staff, he said, has at least a four-year degree in exercise science or a related field and is certified by the National Strength and Conditioning Association. The organization, which has about 30,000 members in 52 countries, requires a college degree and a four-hour certification test.

"Your average personal trainer gets $65 an hour and their credentials aren't anywhere near what our coaches are required to have," he said.

Not all clubs charge $65 an hour for fitness training. Alhambra Athletic Club charges $35 an hour for individual training, and 24-Hour Fitness charges between $50 and $60 an hour.

To help spread its message, Velocity signed on Sacramento Monarchs veteran Ruthie Bolton as director of community relations.

Every potential client is offered a free trial session; those who buy a 24-session package and don't see marked improvement in their performance get eight additional sessions free, Bialorucki said.

Joan Neide, a professor of kinesiology at California State University, Sacramento, says expert training can have real value, especially as public schools lop physical education from the school day.

"I'm assuming kids would go there because they are already involved in athletics," Neide said. "A lot of coaches of teams outside of schools don't understand movement. So if (parents)can hire specialists in the area, that's a good thing."

But Neide lamented that such programs increasingly are restricted to the reasonably affluent because of school cutbacks. "Every child in Sacramento deserves this kind of opportunity," she said.

National statistics about the fitness training industry are hard to come by. One Sacramento company, Core Youth Performance Center, had a similar business model as Velocity -- coaching kids in fitness techniques. It failed less than a year after it opened on Auburn Boulevard in April 2001.

Velocity trainer Hall, who also worked for the Core facility, said the operation was doing reasonably well, but didn't hit the financial goals of its investors.

He also said Core had a strong mentoring component, making sure that kids did their homework, while Velocity focuses strictly on fitness.

Velocity was founded in 1999 as a single fitness center in Marietta, Georgia, by Loren Seagrave, a top-flight track coach and former speed coach for the Atlanta Falcons professional football team.

One of his early clients was T.J. Kissane, son of Richard Kissane, a former executive with Sylvan Learning Centers and Wendy's International -- both major franchise operations. Kissane convinced Seagrave that fitness coaching facilities could be franchised. The first agreement was signed in 2002, and the first franchised center opened the following year.

The privately held company now has about 50 franchises operating with another 50 due to open in 2005, Walmsley said. He declined to reveal company revenue, but said fitness centers open at least a year have seen an average 40 percent revenue growth over the previous year.

The CSUS rugby players appear to be satisfied customers. They say their training with Hall has improved their results.

"We're improving all around," said Jason Smith, 20, of Petaluma. "We're 8-2 this year and going to the playoffs."

Asked how the team fared last year, Smith replied, "Let's not talk about that."

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Source: The Sacramento Bee

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