By Rachel Marlowe
As parents, business and finance professional Grant Conness and NFL alumnus Julius Jones coached their kids’ sports teams for years in the Fort Lauderdale area but felt the community lacked a youth sports training facility that offered programs to encourage, empower and equip young athletes with the skills to excel. So, the pair teamed up to open Ballers Youth Sports Training in Oakland Park in March to help young athletes from kindergarten through high school achieve the mantra “faster—one step at a time.”
While the program primarily focuses on speed and agility training, group and private sessions include everything from dynamic cardio workouts and footwork exercises to nutrition management and individual position and team training. Sessions take place at the Ballers indoor facility and local outdoor fields.
“As a former professional athlete, I have lived through what it takes to compete at multiple levels,” says Jones, who was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in 2004 and continued his career as a running back with the Seattle Seahawks and the New Orleans Saints. “We wanted young athletes in the community to have the ability to train like the pros, by the pros.”
“We wanted to create a comfortable, safe place where kids can come to get faster and stronger and enhance their athletic skills for what it takes to compete at any level,” adds Conness of the new facility and program that relies on elite training methods to help young athletes not only improve their physical fitness but also gain the mental strength needed to reach their goals.
“Ballers was founded on the principles of helping every athlete find their very best and empower them to believe in endless possibilities,” Jones says. Fittingly, Ballers’ summer of endless possibilities kicks off this June with the program’s first four-week camp. ballerstraining.com
Originally appeared in the Summer 2021 issue.
