Love offers private sessions to kids in need of confidence
CITYWIDE Sometimes, gym class just isn’t enough.
Santa Monica mom Emily Liman was concerned that, at 3 years old, her son Zachary was still showing no interest in playing sports.
“Even at 1, he wouldn’t roll a ball to us,” Liman said Friday. “It was difficult to get him interested in doing anything with balls.”
Liman then came across a flier for “Fit 4 Kids,” advertising personal training services in the Westside by Coach Corey Love.
Three years, one phone call and countless personal workshops later, Zachary has transformed himself from a sports dissident to an all-around athlete, orchestrating a double play in T-ball a few weeks ago before turning his focus to soccer.
“He’s been able to participate in all the sports the kids are doing,” Liman said.
Such success stories are common among Love’s clients, who have praised the wonders he has worked on their children since starting Fit 4 Kids in 2003.
The former high school wrestler was working at the My Gym Children’s Fitness Center in West Los Angeles, often providing personal training on the side for some of the gym’s young clients with special needs, when he decided to branch out and start a children’s fitness business.
“I decided I wanted to be proactive in private fitness because I did see the results were more effective than anything having to do with (kids in) a group situation,” Love said. “Every once in a while, I would see a kid getting left while I would teach a birthday party at the gym. I could see visibly that his self-esteem was low and he couldn’t do the activities that we were doing.”
Many of Love’s clients come to him because they need assistance in overcoming a physical barrier caused by such conditions as autism, gross motor skill delay, Asperger syndrome and obesity.
For Zachary Liman, the biggest hurdles to playing sports was a lack of muscle tone and coordination, according to his mother.
Approximately 70 percent of Love’s clients are based in Santa Monica. The sessions are held at either the client’s home or the neighborhood park.
New customers start with an introductory session between Love and the child, assessing the child’s needs.
The 45 minutes to hour-long sessions are structured in a way for the child to enjoy the exercises, focusing on the child’s strengths rather than their weaknesses, Love said.
“My job is to first connect with the child, find anything they are successful at,” Love said. “Once I activate them physically and work with them in that way, I see the kids wake up.”
The sessions aren’t centered around teaching a particular sport, but rather on bringing out the child’s inner athleticism, working on exercises such as hand-eye coordination.
Many children experience the moment in which they define themselves as a person around the age of 5 years old. It is for this reason that Love believes it is easier to mold a young child before they experience this defining moment.
“If a child had a lot of big failures around 5 or 8 years old, they define themselves as ‘I am this’ and ‘I am not this,’” Love said. “If they define themselves as not being an athlete, there’s a bigger hurdle available.”
Serena Levy of the Pacific Palisades credits Love with making sports enjoyable for her two daughters, ages 5 and 8 years old.
The girls have been training with Love once a week for the past three months, working on their upper body strength, endurance, learning how to pitch a softball and kick a soccer ball.
“They were real girlie girls and have always been really shy to try things like soccer and softball,” Levy said. “Their confidence has improved tremendously where they try new sports and play them with enthusiasm.”
For more information on Fit 4 Kids, call Love at (310) 712-5758.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 26, 2007. Read the original PDF.