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Cressey Sports Performance is located in Palm Beach Gardens, and its wide-ranging clientele includes members of all 30 MLB teams and youth baseball players
| Special to The Post
PALM BEACH GARDENS — Earlier this summer, Cressey Sports Performance made headlines when high-profile members of its clientele played a pair of backyard baseball games in Palm Beach Gardens while Major League Baseball was on pause due to COVID-19.
But another look at Cressey Sports Performance shows the facility was not just born to meet the needs of our nation’s baseball stars — but the community as well.
When Cressey Sports Performance made the move from Jupiter to Palm Beach Gardens last December, they did so with grand plans for both the fitness company and the city.
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Those plans kicked off with a 10,000 square foot facility that would serve the needs of everyone from Justin Verlander to your neighbor down the street. It’s the second facility created by the company — the other being a facility in Hudson, Massachusetts.
“We’re very much of the mindset that even if you’re not a competitive athlete in some kind of sport, you’re an athlete at heart,” president Eric Cressey said. “And a lot of what we do in training our athletes, can be applied to train people from all walks of life.”
As a result, the facility’s clients range from members of all thirty MLB clubs to locals of various age groups and other demographics. And while they are located in Palm Beach County, Cressey Sports Performance has attracted a number of visitors from surrounding counties and even further — though Cressey estimates upwards of three-quarters of their regular clientele are baseball players.
People of all ages take part in plans that are geared toward their fitness goals and needs. And in between those daily or weekly doses of conditioning, the facility has become a wealth of knowledge for young athletes and a place brimming with opportunities for growth.
“That’s a really important part of what we do at our facility,” Cressey said. “I think a lot of people hear the term Cressey Sports Performance and it’s all about the skill aspect, it’s all about the strength and conditioning, loud music, heavy weights.
“And don’t get me wrong, those things are part of the process. But we really view ourselves above all as a place of mentorship for young athletes. We take that responsibility really seriously.”
Some of Cressey’s favorite experiences have been watching younger athletes interact with their professional counterparts.
It’s part of a larger goal, Cressey says. He and the rest of the Cressey Sports Performance team have made it a point to help foster a positive environment for their younger clients.
“You want to make sure they’re around unconditionally positive people who are a profound influence on their life,” Cressey said. “We don’t take that responsibility lightly, that people are trusting us with some very important, informative years in their kids’ development.”
The first step, as teachers, is providing an environment that helps develop lifelong habits for exercise. The second step is to surround their younger visitors with people who are heading in the same direction, and more importantly, the right direction.
And on the sports front, they have their fair share of success stories from the ground-up.
“We’ve had 8th graders who have started with us who became big-leaguers.” Cressey said. “They came in not even being in high school and ended up throwing over 100 miles per hour one day. Those are the lifetime relationships we really cherish.”
For now, with MLB back in action but the minor league seasons canceled, Cressey Sports Performances is a go-to facility for minor leaguers. It’s also a destination for countless others as the center continues to serve a variety of communities in Palm Beach County.
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