We don't just build bodies. We build people.

Growing up in small-town BC, I was fortunate enough to always be a part of activities. The list of life lessons learned from sport is still growing. For the longest time I took many of these lessons for granted, assuming everyone knew them. That is not the case at all — many of us did not have the privilege of learning through organized competitive sports. At the root of Colonna Coaching is the sharing of lessons and perspectives, born from sport and activity, that increase performance.

Hockey took me from small-town BC to a larger centre in Alberta, and showed me all aspects of organized sports and performance: mental, physical, social. Spending time in divisions both high and low gave me a unique perspective on different mentalities around performance.

The decline in my performance began with some major injuries — four straight years of them, requiring months of physio and what I considered at the time to be workouts to get me back. I never really returned to where I was before. After my third shoulder separation I was fortunate enough to start working with a highly trained athletic coach who completely changed my outlook on workouts, fitness and performance. In three and a half years together we changed my body composition, rehabilitated my shoulder better than years of physio had, and increased my control, speed, balance and power. That is where I realized this was the kind of impact I wanted to have on others — and it became the foundation for the approach I use with Colonna Coaching.

But when sport was no longer part of my life or identity, my habits dictated a large decline, physically and mentally. Without purpose or identity I let myself become someone I would now find unrecognizable: overweight, negative, irritable, seeking distraction through partying. That was my state for the better part of five years.

It took one September — bending over to tie my skates and struggling to do it — to realize how far I had drifted from who I knew I should be. The next day I got to work. I brought food to work, trained over my lunch breaks every day, and cut back on going out and drinking. Twelve months later I was down 40 lbs, with better mood, better performance and a healthier life.

The crazy part is that I had all the tools, all the knowledge and the know-how. I had just lost a part of my identity in sport.