No Other Course in the Country Gives you This Experience
By Sean McGarrity · 27 May 2026
Darragh Butler (owner DBK Fitness) on why he's hired 7 staff from Elite Academy
Most gyms in the country were shutting their doors during CONVID.
Darragh was opening his...
That's not a marketing line. That's just what happened. Check what he says in the video
What he was actually walking into
Darragh was already a qualified PT when he came to Elite. He didn't need another cert.
What he needed was to learn from people who'd actually done it.
Elite isn't a course bolted onto a classroom. It's a live, members-only coaching facility — 16 years in, built from scratch, survived the financial crisis, survived COVID, still here, still full.
Prices way above the market. A style of personal training way ahead of it. Taught by the people who built the business — not academics reading off a slide deck.
So he wasn't learning to pass an exam.
He was learning to see the fitness industry through a completely different lens — the lens of the people who'd already built the thing he wanted to build.
"No other course in the country gives you the experience Elite Does" (Darragh Butler)
Most PT courses sell you "practical modules."
Practical modules are bullshit.
Learning a deadlift doesn't make you a coach. Learning a dumbbell row doesn't make you a coach. You can watch those on YouTube for free.
Here's what happens at Elite instead:
A master coach shows you how to deliver safe, effective work. Then you're handed a real client, in a real gym, with real expectations — and you coach your way through it. Right there. In front of them. In real time.
Every day. For six weeks, or twelve. (depending on whether you study full time or part time.
Real people. Real stakes. Real problem-solving on the floor.
That's where confidence comes from. Not a certificate on a wall. Reps under pressure, with someone who's actually paid to be there.
Why every coach at DBK is from Elite
Darragh's got seven coaches working under him now.
He could have hired from anywhere. He tried.
What he kept finding: people showing up with the paper, but none of the practical ability the paper claimed they had. Couldn't read a room. Couldn't run a session. Couldn't hold a client.
So in the end, every single hire came from Elite.
Because what we teach them is exactly what he lived.
We're the only PT course in Ireland that actually owns and runs a small-group personal training facility — and teaches people how to do it. Not a syllabus. A working business showing you how to build one.
So — what kind of coach do you want to be?
If you want to know how to get people the kind of results they'll pay real money for — we're for you.
If you want to dance around a step in low-fat Lycra, or deliver classes for minimum wage at the back of some Global Gym — we're not.
Figure out the kind of coach you want to be. Figure out the kind of facility you want to own in five years.
Then find the people already doing it, and pay them to show you how.
That's all Darragh did.
Success leaves clues in this industry.
The people building real gyms didn't get there guessing. They went and stood beside someone who'd already done it.
That's the whole story.
Darragh's still down in Glasthule. Still filling the place. Still hiring our students.
Funny how that works.
If you want to know more about the course Darragh did, checkout the download below
