Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
By Ben Westcott, Chronicle Staff Writer
Hudson Falls native David Martin has come home from Wisconsin to open ETS Performance — a 3,000 square-foot gym at 75 Carey Road in Queensbury geared to helping young people excel.
ETS Performance has more than 40 gyms across the country. This is its first in New York.
Mr. Martin was running an ETS gym in Eau Claire, Wis. “We’re trying to expand and I wanted to come back home…” he said. “There’s a ton of potential in the Queensbury/Glens Falls area. There’s a lot of great athletes and great schools that really take sports seriously.”
ETS, based in Minnesota, stands for Englebert Training Systems. Ryan Englebert founded it in 2010 after a life-threatening automobile accident during his sophomore year of college.
ETS’s website says doctors told him he’d never walk again, but through “non-traditional” rehabilitation, training and research he was able to get back on the football field, both at college and at Cincinnati Bengals training camp.
The website said Mr. Englebert created ETS “to provide unmatched speed, power, deceleration, energy system development, movement and performance mastery training for serious athletes who are fully committed to maximizing their genetic physical and psychological potential.”
It says current Carolina Panthers and former Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Adam Thielen, a two-time Pro Bowler, is on ETS’s executive team and that “facility partners” include current and former NFL players and former NHL players, including Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins and Vikings fullback C.J. Ham.
The Queensbury gym opened on Dec. 2 in a building that also hosts Firetek Sprinkler Systems, Legendary Auto Salon and Orkin pest control.
Mr. Martin was a 1,000 point scorer at Hudson Falls. He played four years at the now defunct College of Saint Rose, then was strength coach and assistant basketball coach at Hudson Valley Community College for five years. Two of those years he also coached JV and freshman basketball at Troy High School.
He went on to be the strength and conditioning and assistant men’s basketball coach for St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas for three years.
“Then it got to a point where I was spending my life in a gym, traveling the country, recruiting, but I was really falling in love with working with the kids in the weight room,” he said. “The personal development, helping them reach their goals, helping them get strong and fast, and not having to worry about the stresss of trying to win college basketball.”
He moved back to Hudson Falls and opened S.W.E.A.T. Revolution which he ran from 2012 to 2019. “It took off,” he said. “It was a fantastic thing for me.”
Then Mr. Martin says he met the ETS owner at a leadership conference in Nashville, Tenn. “It kind of changed the trajectory of my life,” he said.
When COVID hit, he closed S.W.E.A.T. Revolution and sold the space. It is now Triads Music Center.
He joined ETS to open the gym in Wisconsin and remained for four years.
“We had tremendous success,” he said.
“Now here I am coming full circle, coming back home.”
Mr. Martin said that growing up, “I had great coaches that really poured a lot into me, and it was really the difference in my career. So that’s kind of where my motivation comes from — just giving back what was given to me.”
He said he’ll train kids of all ages and abilities across the sports spectrum.
“They don’t even have to play in sports,” he said. “This could be for anyone that just wants to learn about weight training or exercise or just improving their bodies.”
“Usually we start around age eight, and we go all the way to the professional level,” he said. He said ETS has trained over 2,500 college athletes, and has over 200 professional athletes on its roster.
“It’s just really taking any athlete, wherever they’re at, and putting a plan together for them to improve,” he said.
Kids start with a free evaluation. Then Mr. Martin puts a plan together for them. Granville native Taylor Bourn is also a trainer at the gym.
Currently the gym works strictly with kids, but Mr. Martin says he plans an adult program that he hopes to have open by February.
He said notable athletes he has trained include Tyler Mattison, a Fort Ann grad who is now a pitcher in the Detroit Tigers’ organization. Mr. Martin Mattison was just 13 when he started working with him.
Since the gym opened in December, so far Mr. Martin says, “It’s going great. The community support has been awesome. I think the kids are really excited about it.”
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