Tim Grover’s name probably doesn’t ring a bell to most fans. However, he is an indispensable figure in understanding the careers of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, other stars of the NBA, NFL, MLB and Olympians in various disciplines.
He was the one who molded, strengthened and perfected athletes’ bodies into perfect machines.
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Grover, of Indian parents, seemed predestined to be a doctor. It was the wish of his parents, who worked in a Chicago hospital after moving from London. But the young man bucked them, became a fitness trainer and found work at a small gym.
“I was making $3.35 an hour in the 1980s. That was my minimum wage,” he recounted during an interview on the ‘Jimmy Fallon Show’.
Then a newspaper article changed his life. It read that Jordan was tired of suffering the physicality of the Pistons when they faced each other.
“There were no cell phones, no messages, so I wrote 14 letters by hand. There were 15 players on the Bulls roster, but I didn’t write to Michael. He was the best. He wasn’t going to answer me,” he recalled.
But one of the letters fell into the hands of ‘Air’ and he was intrigued by what the stranger was proposing.
30 days turned into 15 years
They met and Grover exposed him to an unconventional work philosophy. There was a 30-day trial period. Their union lasted more than 15 years.
“It’s a lesson that the best of the best always want to be better,” says the fitness trainer, to whom Jordan demanded absolute exclusivity. While he was playing, he worked with no other player, not even for the Bulls. It was just for him.
“The work sessions were very intense. We did the craziest things,” recalls Grover, who has captured his methods in two books: ‘Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable’ and ‘Winning: The Unforgiving Race to Greatness’.
Among other things, they recorded Bulls games on Betamax, an old video system, and counted the steps Jordan took to see how many times he went left or right, how many times he landed on one foot, the other or both….
Methods of a man ahead of his time
“If he used one part of his body more than the other, we had to train it more, not equally,” explains the trainer. Rudimentary methods to get the data that are now more easily available.
His were those of a man ahead of his time. There was specific training for the fingers, wrists, ankles and even the eyes, which were made to work with distraction maneuvers. Everything was welcomed by Jordan: “He told me he didn’t want to do what everyone else was doing because he didn’t want to be like everyone else.”
Grover, in an interview with MARCA during the 2007 Euroleague Final Four, did not hesitate to say that “Michael was the best athlete of all time. For his athletic ability and how he prepared for games both physically and mentally”.
The trainer was making Jordan sweat even after he retired, although at a slower pace, of course. He later worked with Kobe and Wade, two other stars he helped earn rings.
“I’ve worked with many players who have succeeded in the NBA, but obviously I can’t feel responsible for their success. One hundred percent, certainly not. The players themselves are an important part, the coaches, the teammates…. We all work in the same direction,” he said during that talk.
