Introducing Anthony Eggleton

East Meets West with Anthony Eggleton

Anthony Eggleton is a longtime resident of the East Bay and an Oakland Fremont High graduate. He played sports but his focus even as a prepster was an entrepreneurial one. He began his professional life in the physical therapy/sports rehabilitation field working with post-surgical patients and also those in need of regaining usage of their hands, arms, legs and the like. "I developed a good reputation," Eggleton said, "working with injured people who couldn’t walk and getting them back on their feet and developing and implementing plans for those with arm injuries that were limiting them."

He’s been at it for 25 years now and an earlier branching out led to the expansion of his clientele -- he’s working with Bay Area youth and collegians and also professional footballers, basketball players and boxers.

Eggleton’s life is dedicated to bettering others but not only in the physical realm. His prism is a holistic one, viewing not a separation but a congruency between the mind and body.

His plans of action include working on body mechanics to achieve multiple goals and results: greater balance and flexibility, quicker reactions to stimuli, improved strength and lateral movement quickness, plus quicker and more controlled directional changes.

That is the usual.

But Eggleton’s curriculum also utilizes meditation, breathing visualizations and energy and concentration centering exercises, all with the intent of leading to higher level performance, greater mental enhancement and quicker physical rejuvenation.

"We want to turn on the centers of will," he explained.

So how did he get where he is today? A Hollywood script couldn’t top the actual reality.

"I meditated for a short period, then I asked a higher power to help me to choose a new career that would allow to make a difference in the lives of people," Eggleton offered. "While doing this I had a yellow pages phone book in my lap, but closed completely at the time. I then closed my eyes and asked for guidance. With my eyes still closed, I opened the phone book, turned the pages and then placed my finger on a advertisement for a physical therapy clinic. After that I made plans to work in the physical therapy field."

But that was simply an initial step in the journey.

"Then I decided to study the methodology of strength and conditioning coaching after helping neighborhood athletes prepare for sports competition," Eggleton said. "I was doing okay but decided I wanted to get much better at it and to find a way to make it my career."

He continued, "When I decide to do any task, I can’t settle for mediocre results. This led me to hours and hours of research in translated German, Soviet and Bulgarian training manuals and text. I was lucky to read a book that contained the curriculum of the Soviet training methodology for athletes."

It’s been a lifelong study of martial arts, metaphysics, quantum physics and human consciousness -- a zest and a quest for ever greater knowledge.

"The blending in of Eastern methods and philosophy was easy due to my having studied under masters of various disciplines for over 30 years," offered Eggleton. "I took what worked for me, then re-formatted it to fit into my training model."

He’s rightly proud about helping kids enter higher education through sports scholarships but also "about fulfilling my dreams of giving back to my community and to all youth that crossed my path."

Though the body functions and performs better via his methods, Eggleton’s ultimate focus is on "changing people’s reality," a matter he describes as "simultaneously complex and simple."

He continued, "To me, what I am passing on to the kids is that there are no separations of philosophy. Everything began from one source. So what I am teaching and incorporating is just an extension of oneness. In other words, to me there is no East or West, there,just is. I do not go through my daily journey of life with partially closed eyes. Instead, I try to see all existence and all possibilities. It is just natural to me to use all of mankind’s vast wealth of knowledge."

Voracious in learning from the best, Eggleton has studied with a litany of the best and brightest:

* Russian springting coach Remi Korchemny
* weightlifting guru Louie Simmons
* Charles Poliquin, a trainer of Olympic athletes in multiple sports
* strength coach Al Vermeil who was affiliated with the 49ers and other National Football League teams, plus various National Basketball Association franchises and Major League Baseball teams

As for familiar client names, Eggleton has been working with Shane Skov, a Stanford commit and the #3 ranked outside linebacker, as well as three members of the Japanese national basketball team. Other members of his clientele: Duke’s DeMarcus Nelson, Quentin Thomas of North Carolina, Antonio Kellogg, who is preparing to play in Europe, Frank Otis, the Brew brothers, Casey Morris, Dominique Hamilton and a number of Cal and Stanford footballers. Eggleton also works with Salesian High, Piedmont High and Ohlone Junior College, having prepared strength and conditioning programs for implementation.

His work with young athletes begins with sending individuals through a core of exercises from which he makes individual evaluations. Then it’s on to an individualized master plan. "You are only as strong as your limitations so we develop a plan to make weaknesses become strengths, something we tend to resist the most," Eggleton said.

He also times an individual’s program so that it coincides with that person peaking for his or her particular seasonal sport.

But all is not simply a couple of hours in a gym. "My trainees must be willing to accept a challenge and need to take on my mentality as part of the process," he said, "because I’m not taking on theirs. We have a goal in mind for each session."

But beyond the impressive names, Eggelton’s preference is for working out kids. "My purpose is to try and get them into a position to better themselves," he said.

With Buddhism, the bodhisattva or teacher lives a ‘give and you shall receive’ mindfulness. Eggleton claims no such rank but he’s been a longtime fixture in the East Bay, aiding in the development of bettering the individual, not just the athlete.

Here's AE's web site. Here's how to contact him: Anthony D. Eggleton 1237 Channing Way Berkeley, CA 94702 510.841.2137.