Hi Slider, and welcome!
I’m Tim Grover, CEO of ATTACK Athletics, and author of the national bestseller RELENTLESS: From Good to Great to Unstoppable.
Thanks for joining our family of pro athletes, CEOs, entrepreneurs, and all-around tough competitors.
Since we haven’t worked together yet, let me give give you some background on myself, so you know how we got here.
Since 1989, I’ve had the privilege of working with some of the world’s greatest athletes, from Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Charles Barkley, Dwyane Wade, and hundreds more in all sports. Today, in addition to training athletes all over the world, I also speak to businesses, leaders, and competitors in all fields who are relentless in their commitment to get to the next level.
Michael Jordan was my first pro client. I was working as a trainer at a Chicago health club—a former college basketball player with a Masters degree in Exercise Science--and I decided to write letters to every player on the Chicago Bulls to see who wanted to hire a trainer. Every player, that is, except Michael Jordan—I figured if he wanted a trainer from outside the team, he’d already have one.
You know how many responses I got? Zero. No one was interested.
Then one day I read a small article about how Michael was sick of being outmuscled by his opponents, and I reached out again, this time to the team doctor and head athletic trainer. What were the chances they would allow their superstar player to work with this unknown trainer who had never trained a pro? None, everyone said. Forget it.
Of course, everything is impossible until someone does it. Turned out Michael had been looking for someone to work with, and I got my chance to meet with him and explain what I believed I could do for him.
We talked for an hour, and I laid out the whole plan, showing him we’d gradually make him stronger, minimize the risk of injury, explaining how every physical change would likely affect his shot and how we’d deal with it. “Try it,” I said, ‘I’ll give you a 30-day schedule detailing exactly what we’re going to do, how it’s going to affect your body, your game, your strength. You’ll see how everything works together.”
He gave me thirty days. Thirty days turned into 15 years.
When he finally retired, he said: “If I ever see you again, I’m going to shoot you.”
We learned from each other. We never saw obstacles or problems, we saw situations in need of solutions. No matter how great he became, he always wanted more, and he was always willing to do whatever it took—and then some—to get it.
For more than two decades, those values have been the cornerstone of my work with the greatest competitors of our time, understanding how they think, how they compete, how they handle pressure, what drives them to excel and improve again and again and again. My whole career has been about having their lives and careers in my hands. If I did it for them, I can do it for you.
Stay Relentless,
Tim Grover