Today we’d like to introduce you to Dara Depaolo.
Hi Dara, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Michael and I worked together at another ninja and parkour gym in Marietta for about 4 years until it closed after covid. Before the gym closed, we were coaching hundreds of Kids during the week and had grown a competitive team with around 40 kids on it. When that gym closed, it left a lot of athletes without a place to train. The gym closed down in the middle of our team’s competitive season and MJ and I were traveling to families’ homes and other gyms just to make sure our athletes would continue to be competitive while they finished out their season.
After their season ended, we didn’t know what we were going to do. We had been offered jobs all over the country, and we ultimately decided that we couldn’t leave the community that we had helped create and been around for so long. The idea of opening our own gym was something we had thought about but didn’t think it was realistic until we started getting encouragement from other people in our lives. We had the support of so many families, so we started to figure out the details. We knew we wanted a space that we could grow into. We wanted to have a large build-out for ninjas one we could continue to grow and create new obstacles for years to come, and we wanted the same for our parkour area, but we took a leap of faith on an up-and-coming sport and decided to get a World Chase Tag quad. We became the first gym in the US to have an officially licensed quad.
The second that we found our building, we hit the ground running. We secured our building in June, moved in in August, and opened on September 4th of 2022. We pulled 12-16 hour days up until the day we opened to have everything ready to go. We had so many volunteers come in to help build and set everything up. The support from our community was incredible and the exact push we needed to get everything done.
From there, we worked hard to build our classes and camps and start creating a new community. The gym has opened up so many opportunities for us, and we would like to continue to give back to those who supported us and build a thriving community.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Getting the gym’s name out there and bringing new people into the gym has been difficult. We are a niche sports gym tucked away in the back of a business complex. We work hard to push ourselves out and into the community, but we don’t always see new faces coming in.
We’ve been impressed with NYX Training Center, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We are a Ninja Warrior, Parkour, and World Chase Tag gym. We offer ninja, parkour, chase tag, and tumbling classes. We also offer homeschool classes and events, camps, open gyms, and competitions. We have classes for kids starting at age four, and we have classes for adults 18+ and everyone in between. Michael and I are professional athletes in our respected sports and have been coaching for over ten years combined. We are one of only four gyms in the country to have a world chase tag quad.
What were you like growing up?
Growing up, we were very similar. We were in competitive sports we were hard-working and not easily deterred from our goals. We both started working at a younger age and continued to work until we achieved what we wanted. We did not have the easiest lives growing up and knew that the only thing that was going to get us to where we wanted to be would be our hard work and persistence. We separately received kindness and opportunities from people in our lives that allowed us to continue to grow and experience new things.
Pricing:
- Open Gym Drop-in $20
- Class Drop in $25
- 10 Class Pass $200
- Annual Membership $125
Contact Info:
- Website: www.nyxtrainingcenter.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nyxtrainingcenter/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=nyx%20training%20center
