This reflection comes from an IMG Academy alumnus who now competes at the NCAA Division I level (with the final note written by the parent). Here's his firsthand experience of what it was really like to train, learn, and grow at one of the top athletic institutions in the world:
IMG was an absolutely surreal experience for me. Coming in, I honestly didn't know what to expect about the whole place. It has this allure to it, and everyone always hyped it up, and it definitely wasn't cheap. So going in, I could only help thinking "I hope this is worth it." Within the next year there, I found that it wasn't simply worth it. It was worth more.
The moment I stepped onto campus, they made me feel like I was the main character. As a student, you have everyone's attention, and it is your job to perform. However, they didn't just throw us in there with no preparation. IMG had every possible training and resource you could ever imagine or dream of as an athlete, in any sport... Have any aches and pains coming up to our big meet this weekend? Go see the top-of-the-line athletic trainer. Not sure what to eat throughout the week to be able to perform? Go see the athletic nutritionist. Feeling uneasy about your performances or how practices have been going? Go see one of the two highly credentialed athlete mental coaches. Or maybe you just need a break from all the schoolwork and practices? Find an open yoga session time to unwind.
The weight room was an entirely different discussion. You walk in, and there's just rows and rows of weight racks, each with everything you could ask for in a weight room. There were kettlebells, dumbbells, cable machines, and all sorts of other functional equipment to help us be able to perform at our best. On top of this, each rack had an iPad hooked up to a camera at the top. This camera would be programmed to track your speed and power and whatever else during the specific movement that was being performed during the workout. This helped us keep track of our progress as we went along. After the workout, you could go to the side and get a free protein shake or bar and fill up on some Gatorade. There were racks of massage guns and rollers if you were feeling sore, or you could walk to the training room that was right next door.
More than just on the athletics side, IMG made sure everyone was well educated and kept school a focus as well. All the teachers knew that everyone at that school was an athlete of some sort, and so they worked around these schedules seamlessly. You simply just had to let them know your schedule and they would help work around it, whether it was a competition or college visit, and find a solution for you to still get your schoolwork done. However, you were not able to just skip class and use practice as an excuse. Your attendance in each class was reported to your coach, and if they saw that you were skipping for a non-excused reason, you would have to face certain consequences. Coaches also checked grades from time to time, and would talk to athletes that weren't achieving well in the classroom so that they could improve before this affected their athletics.
Even though it was a goliath of a campus, it still felt like a community. Tight knit, and diverse. Everyone knew people from other sports and from other parts of the world. There were people from El Salvador becoming friends with people from China. All these athletes from all over the globe in one place, this led to some of the most unique friendships that I have ever made. When you go to an environment like IMG, you learn that you're all going through pretty much the same thing, and it makes it easier when you have your crowd to walk through it with. We would hang out after practice and talk for hours, go play beach volleyball, play pickup basketball, or just hang out in the pool. At night, everyone would come out and you would see all these different people and personalities. Then the day would end, and you'd wake up ready to do it all again.
The coaches for the track team were incredible. They were all top-notch track athletes in their discipline at one point, if not still currently competing at a high level. These qualifications made all of us feel safe and trust in them without a doubt, because we knew we were going to get the best training there was, and they definitely came through. As for college recruiting, my coach started reaching out to some places for us. He would help set them up and match us to certain places he felt would best fit our style and our level. It helped that each coach had a bunch of connections to several different places, so if they felt one school would be good, they could call them up and talk to someone they already knew. This made the process so much easier, because otherwise I would've had to figure everything out myself, not entirely sure where to go with this new process. But thanks to my coaches I had a hand on my shoulder helping guide me through it, so I could make it to where I am today.
All of these points just to say one thing: IMG is worth it. It may be pricy up front, but everything that gets put into that school does exactly that and gets put into that school. All the facilities, the staff, the teachers, the coaching staff, all go above and beyond the standard that you would expect even for a place of that caliber. Every single day there feels like you're living in an athlete's fantasy, like it isn't even real. But it most definitely was real, and I think more aspiring young athletes should take advantage of the investment.
A Final Note from a Parent’s Perspective:
Sending our son to IMG Academy was a big decision, and a big investment. But looking back, it was worth every penny. We’ve watched him grow not just as an athlete, but as a student and a young man ready to take on the world. The structure, support, and sense of community at IMG helped him thrive in ways we could only hope for.
It’s also important to share that IMG Academy does offer scholarships to ensure they can recruit top-performing student-athletes from all backgrounds. It’s clear they’re not just building athletes—they’re shaping future leaders on and off the field.
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Jessica
ACTOS Performance Innovation
Jessica holds a B.S. in Kinesiology and an MPH, with a strong background in health and wellness. She’s worked as a personal trainer, bootcamp instructor, as well as a Health & Fitness Director, leading large-scale wellness programs. As the former owner of a successful personal training business, she also partnered with local gyms and the military MWR Department to deliver customized fitness solutions.