Toronto · Ages 7–18

Built on a
method.
Not a workout.

Private athletic development for young athletes.

Real sessions · Real athletes · Toronto
30
Years developing athletes
7–18
Ages coached
CSCS
Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist
Athletes training on the gym floor at Inner Athlete
Inner Athlete · Toronto
The Method

One system.
Scaled to you.

01

Force

Bilateral maximal strength. The foundation.

02

Agility

Unilateral, lateral, single-leg power. Where athleticism lives.

03

Flow

Rotation, Olympic lifts, skill, explosiveness.

A young athlete lifting with a hex bar
Force
Two young athletes performing split squats with kettlebells
Agility
A young athlete pushing a weighted sled
Flow
Athletes training outdoors on turf
In season and out
Ages 7 to 18

Three stages.
One method.

Foundation · 7–11

Move well before anything gets heavy.

Growth · 12–14

Built around the growth spurt, not in spite of it.

Performance · 15–18

Strength and speed for a body ready to hold them.

Young athletes on assault bikes
Young athletes training at the rack
A taped stick blade resting on a bench
The unglamorous part
A worn sprint shoe on a starting block
Earned, not bought
The Coach

Coached by
Daryl Devonish.

Thirty years across hockey, football and soccer. CSCS. Eight years teaching neuromuscular conditioning at the University of Toronto. Athletes he began with as juniors include Eric Lindros, Max Domi, Tyler Toffoli and Josh Ho-Sang.

He has coached NHL players. He has also spent thirty years coaching seven-year-olds. The second one is harder.
Daryl Devonish with a group of Inner Athlete athletes
Daryl and the group
For Parents

The honest
version.

Most programs promise to make your child faster. Fewer will tell you whether your child is ready to train for speed at all.

We start with an honest assessment — physical, developmental, seasonal — and build from there. Sometimes the right answer is to do less this season. You are welcome to watch any session, and we will tell you plainly if we are not the right fit for your athlete.

Athletes working through a floor circuit
A group of Inner Athlete athletes
Daryl Devonish with athletes after a session
An empty ice rink at dawn
Hockey, football, soccer, multi-sport
Access

Two ways in.

Membership

The method, programmed and delivered through the season.

Private coaching

One-to-one. By application, and the roster is deliberately small.

The weight room before a session
The room before it fills
Questions

The obvious ones.

Is my child too young to lift?

Almost certainly not — but that is the wrong question. Under 11 the work is coordination, landing and control, not load. Properly supervised, age-appropriate strength training is one of the better-evidenced ways to reduce youth sports injuries. The risk is not weight; it is bad weight, unsupervised.

My athlete already trains with their team. Is this extra?

It is the layer underneath. Team practice builds the sport. This builds the body that plays it, programmed around the season so the two do not fight each other.

What if they play more than one sport?

Good. Multi-sport athletes generally develop better and burn out less. The method sits under several sports at once rather than forcing early specialisation.

Can I watch?

Any session, any time. If a program does not want a parent in the room, that tells you something.

By application · Limited roster

Request an
invitation.

Tell us about your athlete.