May 8, 2017

Meet Morey Croson of Performance Lab of California in Sherman Oaks

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Morey Croson.

Morey, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My story begins with Football and trying to become the best player I could. My dad is a football coach at Chaminade High School and was my coach when I was at Birmingham High School. We had some really good teams then but what my dad always focuses on is the science of developing his athletes. This always made me interested in what made me a good athlete as well as how to develop traits to make me better. I have always been interested in strength and conditioning and having a strong well rounded body.

Fast forward a few years, I went to college in Ottawa, Kansas which had a population of about 10,000 people (from the greater LA area where population is around 20 million). One of the best things I ever did, because it gave me the opportunity to reorganize my life and get everything on track. While there, I decided I wanted to be a football coach like my dad and that I was going to be a great coach so I started reading coaching books from Bill Walsh and Nick Saban as well as Leadership books just totally engrossed myself in becoming the best I could be. Additionally, I was an Exercise Science major and the Head of Exercise Science who became a close friend recommended I check out this new technology lab in Overland Park (suburb of Kansas City). I did and immediately thought it was the coolest thing ever (this is the lab we currently use now). I asked to become an Intern and for the last year I was in college learned as much as I could from this company with the idea of maybe catching on with a top school because I have a Strength and Conditioning background as well as goals of being a Coach. However, as time went on I started realizing how far ahead this technology is and that Los Angeles would be the perfect place to bring this technology to. My dad and I did what we needed to set up the opportunity to make it all happen and that is how Performance Lab of California was created.

Has it been a smooth road?
It has not been a smooth road. When starting the business, we thought the technology would be much more accepted by everyone. Also, we thought the company in Kansas would be able to assist in getting the business off the ground. Lastly, it was difficult to build a relationship between trainers and therapists to work with us because of the disconnect between new technology and traditional teaching. There were unsuccessful presentations, there were a lot of almost deals and there was a lot of wasted time and money doing events and advertising. They are all learning experiences though, the business is built on those setbacks, learning and continuing to push through. There were a couple times where we had to discuss if shutting the doors is the best option. As tough as those times were, I am thankful that they happened because we would not be where we are without them.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
Performance Lab of California utilizes 18 motion capture cameras to analyze movement. We started with our functional assessment which is 15 different movements that measures balance, spine range of motion, jumping patterns and more to figure out asymmetries from one side to the other, potential injury risks, your body’s force production, movement pattern dysfunction and much more. There are really two options from there: 1. We give you corrective exercises to implement into your own program or utilize with your trainer. 2. We give you exercises to do on your own to complement our training/rehabilitation work outs. Our focus is on correcting movement patterns which gives us a broad outreach from throwing mechanics, running mechanics, strength improvements as well as fixing/correcting pain in the body.

We specialize in mechanics. There are efficient and effective mechanics for each person to achieve their maximum potential. Our goal is to help you find that perfect combination of effectiveness and efficiency.

We are known for our technology. No one can breakdown movement like we can. For top athletes or people really trying to make change, this is a huge differentiator.

I am most proud of our reputation. Building loyalty and trust is not easy but has been instrumental in the success of the business.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Los Angeles is a great place to start any type of business. People here are looking for the next ‘new thing’ so providing a service like this has worked out very well. I would recommend someone to start here if they had the right goals for the business. Here it is very competitive but the market is always growing so you have to be a very hungry entrepreneur who wants to succeed to make it in LA if you want an easy road with less potential then starting in a smaller market would be better.

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