Absolute Human Performance (AHP) has been training elite athletes in the St. Albert community since 2017, but founder Taylor Burns said the business was set in motion by misfortune.
Burns, who played college baseball at a junior college in Kansas, and at Division 2 college Central Missouri, cited suffering an injury as his inspiration for AHP.
"Rehabbing got me really interested in athletic performance and movement," Burns said. "Then, after I began coaching, I fell in love with developing athletes, and was more geared towards the injury-prevention side. I wanted what happened to me to not happen to them."
In 2017, Burns created AHP, and moved into a 500 sq. ft. building, where he trained four athletes. Business grew quickly, resulting in Burns moving AHP to a 3,000 sq. ft. building in 2019. Even through the COVID-19 pandemic, AHP was able to expand, finally moving into a 16,000 sq. ft. facility in 2023. Burns attributed the success to his approach with the athletes.
"Early on, I was focused on bringing more athletes in," Burns said. "But then I shifted my focus to going above and beyond for the athletes I did have. Then eventually, we started to grow, and once it started, it just kept coming."
The growth has been exceptional for the past seven years, resulting in them currently having over 150 athletes training at AHP. The athletes range from 11 years old to professionals, each with their own tailored, specific strength program. AHP also has different programs for certain sports. Hockey players are provided with an on-ice skills development program, while baseball players get hitting, and pitching skill development.
Additionally, AHP has an elite baseball academy, the AHP Renegades, that serves as a college placement program for grade 10-12 players. It is a year-round program that has a fall showcase baseball schedule, a spring showcase schedule, and trains together six days a week in the off-season.
"The goal of this program is to prepare the players to play college baseball, and have success there." shared Burns.
AHP also trains elite level athletes. In baseball, these athletes include Cleveland Guardians AAA pitcher Erik Sabrowski, Chas Wheatley a University of Iowa pitcher, and Owen Pote, who was recently drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in the 19th round. AHP also trains elite athletes in a number of other sports, including Los Angeles Kings 2023 third-round pick Koehn Ziemmer, and Kendra Giesbrecht, a Team Canada skier. This is what Burns thinks the selling point of AHP is.
"The two unique aspects of our place is the true customization of their programming, and even more important than that, is the atmosphere and environment" Burns said. "If you talked to our athletes they'll talk about how fun it is here. I've been lucky enough to have athletes here who started when they were 14 and are now 20. They now have really deep friendships with people they met here or got to know more here."
"I think its really valuable for kids to be around around other like-minded people, who have a goal. The older athletes can kind of mentor the younger ones, which is special."
For more information on AHP, their programs, and athletes they train you can visit their website.
