Ignite Your Passion.

Reach Your Potential.

Overview of ignite

Ignite Hoops (“Ignite”) provides comprehensive training services to high level young basketball players.

We offer:

We cater to athletes ages 12 to 18 that are already playing at a high level for their age group and are interested in developing their game and their body to be able to play at the university/college/professional level.

On-Court Training is in small group format.

Private Strength Training is all private / 1 on 1.

To train with us please reach out by filling out the form here.

Years Experience

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Staff Bios

Strength training is led by David Rudnick / Progressive Performance Training (PPT)

On-court basketball skill training is led by Rudy Talarico

David Rudnick

David is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) and the founder and head strength coach of Progressive Performance Training (PPT). He is a co-owner of Ignite Hoops along with Rudy Talarico. He has over 3 decades of experience in basketball: as a university and master’s level athlete, a head coach at various levels of basketball including elementary school, high school, and rep/club basketball, as a basketball camp owner and director, as a strength coach for young basketball players, as a basketball dad to high level university and prep athletes, and as a lifelong athlete dedicated to constantly improving his performance (project dunk until 50!).

He takes pride in continuous learning – learning and certifying from global leaders in strength and conditioning and bringing it all together into the PPT methodology.

Through Ignite, and PPT he aims to help young athletes:

Begin their strength training journey
Learn to strength train properly and safely for sport, and for life!
Get stronger, run faster, jump higher, player better and feel more confident on the court

Rudy Talarico

Rudy is the co-owner and co-founder of Ignite Hoops along with David Rudnick.

He is the Director and founder of the Elite Advanced Basketball Academy (EABA) and Technical Director of Basketball at Elite Camps Ltd where he has worked with young basketball athletes for 20 years!

Prior to his 2+ decades in coaching Rudy had an international playing career that included NAIA Basketball for the University of Maine Machias (where he was named Rookie of the year) and Canadian College basketball at Seneca College. Rudy then signed a contract in Germany to play professional basketball, and also signed a contract with And1 Mix Tape Tour as an opposing team player. Rudy also fulfilled his goal of playing professional basketball in Italy, but it was in England while playing in the EBL that Rudy developed a passion for teaching basketball to children.

Rudy retired from his professional basketball career to help establish the Elite Advanced Basketball Academy (EABA), a European influenced training program designed to transform the way athletes are trained in Canada. Rudy is on a never ending quest to search for and learn new ways to teach skill development. Rudy searches so he can bring back the best information to the athletes he coaches and place them in a better position to succeed.

Through Rudy’s work with Elite on the floor with athletes and our staff he impacts thousands of athletes annually by giving them a fun way to get quality basketball instruction and introduction to the game.

Through his EABA program he trains 100s of athletes per year and has helped dozens of them develop into college/university players based on the foundation of technical basketball skills and IQ developed in that program.

Through Ignite Rudy focuses on training higher level athletes and helping them refine their technical skills and integrating them into strategic gameplay within a competitive atmosphere in order to achieve their goals of succeeding at their current level of play and moving on to higher levels of play.

Facility info

Elite Training Centre (ETC)

All ignite training takes place at the Elite Training Centre (ETC), in Toronto, near Leslie and York Mills.

Click here to see more about the ETC.

Progressive Performance Training (PPT) Centre

Strength Training is done in the PPT Studio, located inside the ETC.

Click here to see more about the PPT studio.

Registration Criteria

Registration for Ignite is by invite only.

To train with us please reach out by filling out the form here

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For on-court training you will need to provide some video footage of game play as we need to ensure that you fit with the group currently training with us.

For strength training you can request a free brief (15-30 min) in person consult – to meet us, see the studio, learn how we train, and ensure it’s a good fit for you.

Once we determine you are a good fit for ignite we will send you the registration link.

For on-court basketball training you purchase passes and use them to put yourself on our schedule. Our on-court training days/times varies by season. Currently they are: school year: Mondays, Wednesdays, Friday mornings at 7am. During school breaks we add more hours including: Monday to Friday 7am, and Mon/Wed/Fri 5:30pm. All training sessions are 1 hour in duration.

For strength training you purchase a multipass of passes based on a desired training frequency ranging from 1x to 4x per week. You then put yourself on our schedule. While consistency is important we understand the need to be flexible with athletes that have constantly changing game and practice schedules. Our registration process allows for this flexibility. The first session is an assessment that includes a biomechanical assessment and an exercise assessment whereby we figure out where the athlete is at, gather baseline measurements and gather enough data to build a custom warmup/corrective exercise program as well as out the first phase (3 weeks) of training. Strength training hours vary by season. Currently, during the school year we offer Tuesday and Thursday evening timeslots as well as Sunday morning timeslots. During the summer we typically train athletes Mondays to Thursdays daytime hours only. All training sessions are 1 hour in duration.