David Sabi, CSCS
Founder of Kid to Athlete
Helping parents raise happy, healthy, high-performing athletes.
Without the burnout, the pressure, or the broken relationships.
I Have Been An Athlete For As Long As I Can Remember.
It started with my dad. He wanted my sister and me to be athletes, so he put us in everything - football, soccer, running, drills in the backyard. This was before the internet. Before YouTube. If my dad wanted to learn how to train us, he went to the library. He hunted down books and magazines. He found coaches. He watched film and tried to apply everything he learned.
He worked for that information. And honestly, he did a great job with what he had.
Today we have the opposite problem. Too much information. Every app, every program, every highlight reel is telling parents what their kid should be doing. So which information actually helps? What is noise? What is harmful? How is a busy parent supposed to know the difference?
That question is a big part of why I do what I do.
The Lesson That Changed Everything
I played football, soccer, and track and field growing up, and I was recruited to compete in college as a decathlete. I was not great at any one event, but solid across many. However, I injured my knee in the previous year and I could not train well enough to compete. I had to walk away from the sport that had defined me.
I will be honest with you. That was one of the hardest things I have ever gone through. I had wrapped my entire identity around being an athlete, and when that was taken away, I went into a real low. It took time to climb out.
But that low taught me the most important lesson I now build everything around: your child is not their sport. They are an athlete. And an athlete can compete in anything they choose, for the rest of their life.
I never want a kid to feel like they are nothing without the game.
From Athlete to Coach to Dad
While I was still studying Kinesiology at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, I started coaching. It kept me close to the sports I loved, and it changed everything.
Because as I coached, I met hundreds of parents. And they almost always asked the same question: What can we do to help my athlete?
Most of the time, they meant more. More training. More running. More practice. More go, go, go. As a young coach, I would tell them to eat healthy... which I still believe in, but deep down I knew the answer was bigger than that. I just did not have the full picture yet.
Then I became a dad.
The System I Wish Every Family Had
I have two girls. And everything I had learned as a coach, studying Kinesiology, an NSCA-Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (since 2005), and an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach (since 2017) collided with the most important role of my life: being their parent.
I do not want my daughters to be athletes for the sake of sports. I want them to be athletes for everything sports can build in them off the field - confidence, resilience, connection, and the strength to lead their own lives.
So I built the system I wish every family had:
- The BIG4. A real athlete is developed across four areas: physical, mental, emotional, and social. They are all connected.
- The GPB Formula (Goal = Process + Be). Most athletes chase goals. The best ones become them. We pour our energy into the Process, and into who we have to Be.
- The Home Team. Family is the first team, the longest-lasting team, and the most important team a kid will ever belong to. Parents raise athletes. Coaches coach them. When the home thrives, the athlete thrives.
Why I created Kid to Athlete
I have lived in the youth sports world long enough to see both sides - the beautiful and the broken.
I have seen sports bring families together. And I have seen sports tear relationships apart. I have watched kids burn out and quit, never wanting to touch a ball or a bat again. I have seen athletes turn down college scholarships because they were simply done.
I want to change that.
I created Kid to Athlete to help parents do this differently. To raise happy, healthy, high-performing athletes. To build Home Teams that connect and thrive. To make youth sports a vehicle for raising remarkable human beings - and for bringing families closer, not pulling them apart.
I live and coach in San Diego, where this is not just a philosophy - it is how my family lives. Outside, active, and together.
That is the youth sports culture I am building. One where the athlete comes first, and the sport is the tool.
Let's build your Home Team
If any of this hit home, you are exactly who I built this for.
Home Team Advantage is my flagship program - a step-by-step game plan that helps you support your athlete without the pressure, strengthen your family, and raise a kid who thrives in sports and in life.
Every great team has a game plan. Let's build yours.
Join Home Team Advantage
