About EPI
2012 – Present
Find out more about our story and journey to date since we launched in Dublin, Ireland in 2012
About EPI
Welcome to Elite Performance Institute (EPI), a world renowned provider of Strength & Conditioning qualifications for fitness professionals and coaches. Since 2012, we have delivered our Strength & Conditioning education courses throughout Ireland. In 2015, we launched our education program internationally and since then we have delivered 400+ courses in more than 12 countries worldwide with over 5k+ coaches certified through in-person education. In 2020, the NCSC course was brought fully online to provide an online option for participants who cannot attend our in-person course. We also launched our Youth Strength & Conditioning Certification (YSCC) course which provides fitness professionals with a specialized course in youth athletic development.
It’s been an amazing journey so far!
EPI Founder
Founded in 2012 by Karl Gilligan, EPI was created with the primary focus of improving the quality of Strength & Conditioning education. To support this, Karl’s goal was to create an education program that would lead to an internationally accredited qualification in Strength & Conditioning. As a result, he devised the National Certificate in Strength & Conditioning (NCSC) course which has become the flagship course for EPI.
Karl graduated with a primary degree in Sport Science and a Masters degree in Strength & Conditioning from St. Mary’s University, UK. He is also a qualified Physical Therapist. He has extensive experience in sport having worked for the IRFU, Leinster Rugby, Irish Institute of Sport (now Sport Ireland), World Rugby as well as various inter-county GAA teams and Airtricity football teams.
In 2015, Karl launched EPI internationally by bringing the NCSC course to Poland. Since then, EPI has expanded to other countries across Europe, Asia, North Africa and the Middle East. It has been an amazing experience meeting and educating like-minded coaches from different sports and various countries around the world where we all share the same goal…to help our athletes get better!
EPI Partners & Accreditation Bodies
To help support our education program, EPI has partnered with globally established sports performance companies such as Under Armour, Flexvit, Statsport and Teambuildr. Given the importance of international accreditation for our courses, we are delighted to have been approved for international recognition with NSCA and ACE organizations. The NSCA and ACE endorsements signify that our education courses meet their high standards for excellence in curriculum, course tutors, and assessment. To date, the NCSC and YSCC courses have been delivered in:
- 2012-2014: Ireland
- 2015-2017: UK, Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania
- 2018-Present: China, UAE, Egypt, Saudi Arabia