Company Profile
AXIS (Athletic eXcellence through Integrated Systems)
Company Overview
“The mission of AXIS is to prepare & repair highly effective athletes”
This is accomplished through the proper implementation of scientifically based training systems that are orthopedically sound and performance driven.
Meet Raphael Ruiz, founder of AXIS Training Systems & Head Performance Coach
Raphael Ruiz is from a military family where he was born in Ft. Huachuca, AZ then raised up in Hawaii and Ft.Hood, Texas. He ran track and played football at Sam Houston State University (Huntsville, TX). It was there where he began his career with the development of the concepts that led to AXIS Training Systems & its many programs.
Raphael relocated to Tampa in 1998 where he began working for the TB Buccaneers, the TB Devil Rays Minor League Program, the MLS TB Mutiny and the Clearwater Tennis Academy. His next career step was becoming the Director of S&C for the University of Tampa where he helped to build an athletic program that resulted in 5 National Championships (M-Soccer, W-Soccer, back-to-back M-Baseball & W-Volleyball, including dozens of All-American Swimmers). In addition, they earned one of the lowest prevalence rates of major & catastrophic injuries in all of the NCAA. During his long service w/ UTampa, Raphael fine-tuned and polished AXIS into an amphibious eXcellence program. It is defined as a dry-land training system specifically focused on the special needs of aquatic athletes required to excel in & out of a competitive pool, open water and Tactical-Rescue theatres. In addition to his 15 years as a S&C coach at the professional and collegiate settings, Raphael started his own company & titled it 1Forty-Four1. After some time, Raphael decided to re-brand and changed the company name to AXIS. He’s been utilizing this training system to coach high level athletes such as Deion Sanders, US Military Spec-Operators, Cullen Jones, Gary Sheffield, Brooke Bennett, Antonio Tarver, Chester McGlockton, Alex Hetland and many more.
On a day-to-day basis, through AXIS, Raphael runs training sessions, teaches seminars and puts on performance clinics for a full spectrum of athletes & communities.
Company History
AXIS continues its evolution, which originally began as a conceptual idea (Fitnecessity Sports Performance) in 1994 on the campus of Sam Houston State University (Huntsville, TX). Raphael Ruiz was an assistant strength & conditioning coach under the supervision of Director Ben Pollard. It was there that many observations were made and countless discussions took place about the true meaning of athleticism. They noted that in the discipline of strength and conditioning, the majority of time and effort is placed on achieving greater levels of strength in the squat, bench press, incline press and Olympic Lift(s), which are standard practices. When they evaluated the strongest individuals in their programs, they tried to correlate that with success in performance-related parameters such as the 40yd dash, short shuttles and vertical jump. They then carried that further and analyzed those measures of strength as they correlate with success in their arenas of play (football/soccer fields, basketball/volleyball court, baseball/softball fields, etc.) When they distanced the variables of proficiency in Olympic lifting and separated sports skills, a remarkable and surprising observation was noted. There was not a significant result of success in traditional strength and conditioning programs (as stated above) that dramatically paralleled successes in whichever activities they took part in. Many athletes lacked an ability to transfer weight room success to useful and purposeful ability in performance.
It was at that point where Raphael first began to examine and list as many variables that were thought to be associated with athleticism. This led to an unending register and was the precursor for the view from outside of the proverbial box. As these variations were noted, research began on each and every one of them. It became very apparent that there was an enormous amount of information being studied in a large number of other disciplines that would have a tremendous impact on Human Movement Science.
Eventually the road led to Tampa, FL in 1998. It was here that Raphael Ruiz focused an unbelievable amount and undeniable quality of resources. These included some of the brightest minds in their respective fields. Seth Gasser, MD, Bill Bonney Ph.D., Robert Belsole, MD, Aaron Mattes, John Small, MD, David Reina, DC, Mark Frankle, MD, Scott Brickett, ATC are among the individuals involved in this flood of information exchange as the Advisory & Program Development Board was developed. Some of the brightest minds in their respective fields like Exercise Physiologists, Orthopedics, Physical Therapists, Myofascial & Massage Therapist, Sports Nutritionist, Coaches, Athletic Trainers, Sports Psychologist, Biomechanist, Neurophysiologists, PhysioTherapists, Chiropractors, athletes, advisors and many more are brought together in order to advance the discipline of Human Movement Science. What results is the constant evolution of one of the most comprehensive, orthopaedically sound, scientifically based and performance driven training systems.
Through its proper implementation, scores of tactical athletes, sports athletes, general fitness population, sports rehabilitation, sports reconditioning and many more have benefited from the “perfect storm” of bringing together many talented individuals for the collective purpose of reducing the occurrence and severity of performance and training related injuries while improving performance parameters. All of these talents, while properly applying AXIS Training Systems, are coupled with the hard work and desire of athletes, resulting in the achievement of their goals, their dreams, the mission, the saving of their lives and the saving of the lives of others.