Thank you for taking the time visit our website. My name is Robby Stewart and I have been in the sports performance training business for nearly thirty years.
My coaching experience started back in 1988 when I was asked to develop the University of Georgia’s first Olympic Sport Strength and Conditioning program. This soon led to the responsibility of developing and implementing the strength and conditioning program for the Bulldogs Defensive Front. In 1996 I left the University of Georgia and co-founded one of the first and most successful performance training companies in America - Competitive Edge Sports.
I have been blessed to assist in the performance development of over 1,200 professional athletes across the NFL, MLB, NBA, and MLS, as well as Olympians from 9 different countries. In 1995, I had the opportunity to spend time working with the Swedish National Federation Olympic Weightlifting Team prior to the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. A few MLB athletes include Jeff Francoeur, Tim Beckham, Matt Carpenter, and Michael Barrett.
I have also trained athletes that have collectively won every major collegiate football award including the Heisman, Outland, Nagurski, and Unitas Trophies. Professional football athletes include more than fifty All-Americans, over forty Pro-Bowlers, one NFL Comeback Player of the Year, two Defensive Rookies of the Year, and the NFL Defensive Player of the Year. Some of these players include: Brian Urlacher, Marcus Stroud, James Harrison, Jared Allen, Tyrod Taylor, Brandon Marshal, Jay Cutler, Jon Stinchcomb and Matt Stinchcomb.
The past few years I have felt God leading me in a new direction. This direction will enable me to use the talent, experience, résumé, and client list in which He has blessed me with to better serve Him. In the spring of 2016, I began the development of Uplift Sports Ministry (USM). I am excited to announce that we have recently finished the build out of this new sports training facility. It is my desire to use Uplift Sports Ministry to combine the thirty plus years of training experience, both as a player and coach, with sound biblical teaching. Our athletes will be expected to prepare spiritually as well as physically in order to become the best leaders possible both on and off the field.
Looking back over the years, I’ve realized how God has placed special people in my life and provided special opportunities that have led me to this place and His ministry. Working with so many professional athletes not only provided the perfect opportunity for professional development, but also taught me crucial life lessons in success and failure. I have witnessed athletes that worked their entire lives for a dream only to see it cut short before it could be achieved. The devastation that follows is real and understandable. I have also observed very successful athletes fall victim to their successes which often leads to even greater devastation. I have watched as success often provided the thorns Jesus discussed in
Luke 8:7, “Other seed fell among thorns that grew up with it and choked out the tender plants.”
Jesus later explains in
Luke 8: 14, “The seeds that fell among the thorns represent those who hear the message, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the cares and riches and pleasures of this life. And so they never grow into maturity.”
It is through these experiences that I began to realize that athletes don’t have to be at the professional level to fall victim to either of these circumstances. Often young athletes begin to assess their self-worth by the praise or criticism they receive through sports. The window of happiness begins to close when we begin to identify who we are by our athletic accomplishments rather by who we are in Christ. All talents are to be respected and developed but more importantly they are meant to serve, not to rule. There is no doubt that athletics in this country and around the world has the power and ability to have both positive and negative effects. It is of the upmost importance to build on a strong foundation.
