Meet Will Gilmore, CSCS, RSCC, Kansas City Royals

Will Gilmore, the Texas League Strength Coach of the Year and two-time Carolina League Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Year (2017 and 2018), just completed his 7th year in the strength and conditioning field and his 5th in professional baseball. Prior to joining the Royals in 2015, he gained valuable experience by starting a training company out of his basement gym called LA Power Performance in 2012. In 2014, he was an Assistant Coach and Head Strength Coach at Glendale Community College in Glendale, CA and served as an intern at the University of California – Berkley working with football, baseball and sand volleyball.

A native of Pasadena, CA Will graduated from Loyola High School in Los Angeles, CA where he earned 2 letters in baseball. A high lite of his HS career was driving in the game winning RBI in extra innings at Dodger Stadium to help his team with its first CIF title in 54 years.

After high school, he played baseball at Glendale Community College in Glendale, CA (2008) and Diablo Valley Community College in Pleasant Hill, CA (2009). Will then enrolled at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, CA where played baseball and earned BA in Communications in 2011.

After college, he played one season at catcher and second base in the Belgium Baseball Federation before joining the Royals in 2015 as a Minor League Strength Coach for the Pioneer League Idaho Falls Chukars. In the off-season he worked at Performance Compound in Tampa, FL helping football players prepare for the NFL combine and MLB and MiLB players get ready for the 2016 season. The Royals moved him to the Lexington Legends of the South Atlantic League in 2016 and Wilmington Blue Rocks of the Carolina League in 2017, a position that he still holds today. In the off-seasons of 2016 and 2017, Will worked for the MLB International Development Program. He split time between France and Sweden in 2016 and worked at the Brazilian Baseball Academy in Ibiuna, Brazil in 2017.

He is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) and Registered Strength and Conditioning Coach (RSCC) through the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA). He is also certified in First Aid.

Will is single and, when not traveling abroad or working in Florida, resides in Pasadena, CA during the off-season. His hobbies include weight lifting, surfing and mountain biking.

His philosophy of strength and conditioning in professional baseball is as follows:

“I strive to use training methods that are personalized and designed to reduce the risk of injury while simultaneously increasing athletic power and performance. This is accomplished by evaluating an athlete’s needs and then carefully prescribing exercises and drills designed to improve movement efficiency. I believe that recovery can play as important a role as strength training. Getting athletes to dial in their sleep, nutrition and soft tissue work will help most players perform at their best on a daily basis”.

After my freshman year of college, I trained at P3 in Santa Barbara, CA under Dr. Marcus Elliot. I credit this experience with opening my eyes to a world of training driven by data and scientific methodologies, focused around an athlete’s individual needs.

In 2012 I started my own company and began training my brother and his friends out of our basement gym. I then took over the training for a local high school team and realized I had a passion for training athletes and helping them reach their potential. During this time, I also trained two of my old teammates, who both made it to the big leagues, as well as a high school friend who has played in the NFL for 8 seasons.