October 2014: the start of Sports Performance.
Dr. Chris Garcia and Dr. Stephanie Garcia founded Sports Performance in 2014. Prior to 2014, Chris worked for the United States Olympic Committee and elite sports performance companies, preparing professional athletes to perform at their best.
2012: Chris in Wellington, New Zealand traveling with the USA Rugby 7’s team. Chris served as the primary physical therapist and helped keep the team healthy to compete against the world’s best teams (including a match against the New Zealand All Blacks).
2013: Chris in Lyon, France with Team USA at the Paralympic Track and Field world championships. Chris would travel with these incredible athletes and provide medical coverage so they could compete at their best.
After years of traveling around the world to care for professional athletes, Chris wanted to bring this vast experience and knowledge back to his local San Diego community. Born and raised in San Ysidro, a suburb of San Diego, Chris came from humble beginnings and wanted to contribute to the south bay.
In 2014, the company started with an idea, a foldable treatment table and one client. Chris would pack up the table in his car and go to local gyms as a mobile concierge physical therapy service, offering personal training and sports rehab. One day, the first client referred his friend. That friend referred their neighbor…and so on and so forth. Sports Performance slowly built into a large community of active people who wanted elite level care to help them stay healthy.
January 2015: This was the first community event for Sports Performance. Chris provided treatment at the CrossFit Barracks event in San Diego.
Fast forward to 2016. Stephanie was 8.5 months pregnant (due date of September 7) and they were approached with an incredible opportunity to open up a physical location (where it resides today). The caveat was that the offer to open the building was to begin in two weeks (September 1), which was one week before their due date (September 7).
They thought long and hard and decided it would be the best for their future to take the plunge. Surprise! Their son, Zachary, arrived one week early on August 31. The next morning, on September 1, Chris and Stephanie received a phone call to inform them the keys to the building were available. So two days after the birth of Zachary, Chris and Steph embarked on a journey to renovate Sports Performance with a newborn baby.
Chris and Stephanie begin renovations two days after the birth of their first child, Zachary. Chris was treating clients 6am – 7pm and renovating at night, while Stephanie coordinated the administrative projects and cared for their newborn.
One of many late night renovations. Zachary was such a trooper. He would allow them to work in 1-2 hour shifts before waking up.
The blank slate. This is what the front entrance looked like before Sports Performance opened. There were several post-its and note pads used to create the front design of the building.
This was a dream in the making for Chris and Stephanie. Working long nights with a newborn was an incredible experience that required patience and communication. Chris and Stephanie are now stronger because of it.
Designing the floor layout came down a game of inches. Every inch of the facility had to be considered to maximize the space and flow of the facility. Chris and Stephanie went back and forth on different layouts but finally agreed when Stephanie’s mom put her two cents in.
The carpet was removed and the front desk area was finally designed. Soon after the walls were ready for paint. Who would have thought patching holes in the wall would take so long.
Things piled up quickly. Do you know how many shades of grey there are? They debated between 5-8 shades. Long nights were spent coordinating just the right combination of grey and red.
The dark grey to the far left was almost painted black. And the crevices on the mat flooring had to be installed air tight with a 2×4 and sledge hammer. Chris was averaging 4 hours of sleep per night. And Stephanie? Less than that with a newborn baby.
Floor installation: each one of the mats weigh 90 pounds so they had to carry them in one by one into the facility. Several box cutters were used to trim the mats and a sledge hammer was used to knock each one into place.
Logo installation: this took several attempts and precise measurement. There was one small error in size with the first attempt, but they figured it out when it was on the wall. This is tougher than it looks.
After painting, cleaning and preparing the facility for 1 month (with a newborn, if we didn’t mention it), Sports Performance officially opened October 1, 2016.
Dreams truly come true. From traveling with a foldable treatment table… to an integrated performance facility with a variety of services, Chris and Stephanie have built Sports Performance from nothing into what it is today.
Chris and Stephanie managed the day to day operations on their own for 10 months, before hiring the first team member, Erica. At the same time, Chris had a waitlist of five weeks to schedule an appointment with him. Stephanie quickly jumped in to help with providing treatment and on goes the story of the expansion of Sports Performance. Since opening, Sports Performance has grown from one person to 10 awesome team members and we are excited to continue to keep San Diego healthy and happy!
Team Sports Performance is built with humility and passion. Each member depends on the group to collaborate to upgrade the lives of our community.
We are one fun group of hard working people, striving to help our clients stay active and healthy so they don’t miss a workout.