Derrick Yamada is co-owner (with his wife Vianney) and operator of Troy CrossFit in San Diego, Ca, where their Mission is to make health, fitness, and a powerful life accessible to all.

A 3 sport athlete in high school, Derrick opted to focus solely on baseball at the collegiate level playing junior college ball at San Jose City College before transferring to California State University, Chico, to play at the D2 level. It was in college where he fell in love with strength and conditioning. After earning a B.S. in Finance from CSU, Chico, still a competitor, he took the non-traditional route and opted to pursue a career in poker working his way up to some of the highest game stakes he could find over the course of 5 years. Physical fitness served as his primary edge at the tables helping him to keep his body and mind in top notch form in order to handle the adversity presented by a career in the game. As the years passed, the desire to serve others led him to looking at fitness as something he could share with others and pioneer improvements in the direction of the industry.

Derrick now holds a CCFT, Level 3 Certified CrossFit Trainer, one of CrossFit’s highest accolades. He prides himself in doing work that matters, taking a meticulous approach to the development of his coaching team and the programs that his gym offers to their members. He believes that the power of the team is key and coaches his coaches with all that he has in hopes that they become better than him. Building people up by prioritizing safety is their approach and has led to the development and constant improvement of their 6 segment class structure and programming template that they say, ”Builds people up instead of breaks them down.”

Derrick loves people and loves to think critically. Critical thinking and then having the courage to take a leap drive progress.