Interview with Coach Tim
| https://youtu.be/cDZTCZraVJE |
Hi, this is Bill Chan again with The 5 Elements of a Fulfilling Life at 5Element5.com.
Today I'm speaking with Tim Glenn about college athletes making a lot of money. Tim Glenn is a professional basketball coach with the NCAA.
Tim, please tell us a little bit about your background.
"Sure, thanks for having me, so I'm Tim Grant. My company is building basketball players, we're based out of Atlanta, and that's where I started. I started in the Grassroots, like AAU youth basketball, and developed a passion for training players there. I did it for about six to eight years in Atlanta, helped develop a lot of kids from middle school to varsity basketball, then college scholarships, and a few of them were blessed enough to make it to the NBA. Then after that, I moved to China for about four years, where I started working with Nike and Adidas doing a lot of camps, developing youth basketball, and working with CBA players. I move back to the States because of COVID-19; now I'm in Tampa still doing the same thing, doing what I love, just building basketball players."
That is great, "so, how did you get interested in basketball?"
"Man, I started back when I was three in my neighborhood; all of my neighbors played basketball, and so it just kind of stuck; once I picked the ball up, I was just hooked for life."
"Amazing, so you born with the ball in your hand?"
"Some would say that."
"That's great! Yeah, so did you play college basketball yourself?"
"I played junior college basketball two-year program!"
"Excellent! so you've been all around the world teaching basketball."
"Yes, sir!"
"Wow! It's amazing, so let me ask you: could you name some of the successful people or athletes you have coached in your past?"
"Well, one currently on the Utah Jazz G League team is Isaiah Miller; about three years before him, Tyrus Walker was division two, a player of the year, and he signed a two-way contract with the New York Knicks. Those are the two who made it to the highest level, I say, and then I have a couple more that play college ball, and you know, overseas Pros. So I answered your question.
"Yeah, fantastic basketball is catching like wildfire worldwide; I know in China it is enormous. It's a massive game; some kids may not make it that far right, and they may not make it to college level or Pro level; what are the benefits of um learning basketball when they're young? Are there any other benefits besides making big dollars?
"So from my experience, the thing about basketball, it teaches social skills, discipline, and what I mean by social skills, I've had kids who were like shy, just shy, kind of to themselves, and you put them in an environment where they're learning, and they're competitive, and then they start being around other kids who do the same, and it just opens them up and then a lot of times. Basketball can put you in different places normally that socially you wouldn't be in. Just like I said when I was in China, normally, all you hear is military. We get you there overseas like that. Still, being able to go overseas and train puts you in a different atmosphere you normally wouldn't get into, and it just opens your social aspect, learning just everything. I think it's, uh, Just Sports, in general; it builds kids up socially."
"Tell me about your son; I understand that your son's very successful; he's getting a lot of awards and accolades from basketball?"
"He works hard, and I'm very proud of him; I would say he's an example of the social part, just being in diverse cultures, being able to play in China, Taiwan, and the Philippines, and then in the states, it just opens his Horizon.
You know what I mean, so too everything, and now I can see that he can be in any social uh Community, or whatever and blend in, and that's all because of basketball."
"Amazing; that opens the world for kids. I agree it does enormous things for them as they grow up and work; assimilating into any culture and communicating with anybody is great. Many coaches are coaching basketball; what makes you different from the other coaches?"
"I think, uh, number one is like experience and experience with working with players from the Youth Level and then stand with them and training them on every level, so my knowledge has increased in the game and how I teach the game, but just being able to I guess.
I think it's a pretty big thing where you can take a kid who is considered like a wreck recreational player beginner and groom them to step by step, and so they make it to a varsity High School level and then, like I said, a college level and some to Pro.
So with me, my style is very detailed, and I have a particular eye. I can see what players are comfortable doing, and I can enhance what they're relaxing at and build from there if that makes sense.
"Yeah! That's amazing, that's good now for someone interested in basketball, but maybe they lack that physical Talent or other coordination requirements; what would you recommend for someone like that? can they still play basketball?"
"Sure! Everybody will not be gifted with, you know, athleticism and our strength.
So the thing is you have to build players up, you know, you have to see what they're good at, that could be a high IQ player, you don't have to jump out the gym to be successful in basketball, but if you're smart, you can kind of play and relate to anybody on any level.
But I also recommend that all players participate in some strength training to develop those muscles so they can compete, you know, on any level, right?
"So for someone who, like me, that's 5"5", a little short for the basketball team, still have hope?"
"Yeah! It's going to be tough."
"Yeah, Americans traditionally dominate the basketball arena right in the Olympics; Americans outperform everyone else. Do you think that it's because of the athletic makeup of the Americans, or do you think that it's the training behind it? That means other countries may be able to catch up with Americans if they have the same training?"
"That's a good question because that can go either way, so in the past, it's the training, the competition, the environment that players are brought up in, which helped Americans succeed. However, you have players from all over the world now, and you have like Greek; Freak was the MVP. He won the finals.
You have a guy from Jordan for the Denver Nuggets, he won back-to-back MVPs in the league, and these guys are from Greece, and Jordan, from I don't want to mess it up somewhere in Europe, I'm going to say that okay.
So you have players worldwide that are catching on and developing fast in other parts of the world.
So it's very Global and competitive, but a lot of players do, you know, train in the states even though they might be from a different country.
So I think the training and that competition, because in America, you have so many players that are gifted physically and mentally, and then you have them all in one place.
Every state you can go is so many hoopers, so many, you know, so many skilled players, so that develops a different type of grit.
I believe, and that's why the US has been successful for many years. Besides physical training, what counts as mental training?
"Diet, does that have anything to do with athletic performance?"
"The diet part first is the key, you know, you have to put the suitable fuels in the engine, so the machine can go, you know, so uh recovery everything.
So diet plays a massive part in the game, and then the mental aspect you hear about, like mental health, players' mental health, and everything, is just as important. You can have all the physical gifts, but it will be hard to succeed if you don't have the mentality or the mentally strong.
So both of those factors are key in development.
"What type of diet would you recommend professional athletes consume? What type of food would be best for them?"
"I think what I've learned in my years is eating according to your blood type, which is inflammatory and inflammatory for you.
Some people are plant-based, and some do Meat, but you must get the desired results to sit well with your blood type.
So first, you must educate yourself on what foods suit your blood type and then form a diet there because everybody's different, okay."
"So it's bio-individual, and you wouldn't recommend it on a processed food, right?"
"No, no! not; we know that's unhealthy."
"What's your vision of basketball coaching in the future?"
"Well, for me currently, I have a fifth-grade team that I'm developing correct, and I want to reinvent the cycle that I did before, and I just want to create, uh, Pro players from this age group and just develop and see them, you know growing Blossom, but in the next five I could see myself working with the NBA team Player Development coach skills training or if not an NBA team working with different international players of all over the world.
I'll do both, and basketball has helped many people, including the less privileged in our communities, to have future opportunities.
"Did you see that as an Avenue for many less privileged populations?"
"I mean, basketball gives you an outlet, like a way out. If you're less fortunate but good at basketball, it will open doors you wouldn't have opened before.
I've seen it countless times, you know what I mean, so it helps; it's not the only way, education comes first, but if you can play, it will open up doors for you no matter where you are right."
"I wanted to talk about the NCAA right now with college student-athletes allowed to receive huge compensations from endorsements; I heard numbers like in the thousands or even in the millions. Does that create opportunities, or how do you see that affecting the sport?"
"It's good, so it's not the NCAA. It's the nil; they're the one working with uh players and getting them deals, so for me, the NCAA was and is a good platform.
However, there were always restrictions; you couldn't have your own business and everything.
So you have these players playing for these colleges, but they needed compensation. Still, they were making the schools millions of dollars, so now the table is turned, so the players can make millions of dollars, even before they even go to college.
I see now, uh, LeBron James and saw Brownie. He signed a deal with Nike and a contract with Beats by Dre, and he's just a senior in high school.
This year he's not the only one. So few more and even women athletes, they're able to sign these deals as well, so what I think is that it's an excellent opportunity to be able to Brand yourself and start your own business off the work that you've been doing since you were you know a kid, and getting paid and compensated for that.
So it's excellent, and it will become a lot more competitive.
You're going to see a lot of players, and you get better faster because they know the money's out there, right? I think that with some high school player, as I said, Brownie receiving a deal now, that's good, but in the future, you'll start to see kids even younger, probably Middle School, within the next few years, get compensated, and that's going to be crazy.
You know what I mean, but I think it's good."
"Why it's amazing! So what's your suggestion for parents if they see their kids have sports talents?"
"My suggestion is don't chase the money, don't chase up the rankings, you know, wanting your kid to be ranked so fast. I think to trust your work, you see if you continue to put it in and it's genuine. I believe doors will naturally open for you.
I don't think you have to force anything, you know, don't over-push and over-stress kids; you learn to allow them to be kids, you know what I mean.
But everybody's different, you know, everybody's different, so I do understand that. Still, I think that, as I said, trust the work and let the doors come organically, and everybody will be okay."
"Wow! thank you, that's excellent advice. The last question, if our audience is interested, where can he find you?
"You can find me on Facebook and Instagram; my pages are https://www.facebook.com/tim.grant.3110 and https://www.instagram.com/net_sports @Net_Sports.
I'm on there and have a YouTube channel: "I build basketball players," so you can catch me on Instagram and YouTube."
"Oh, thank you so much! It's been an honor having you at our show. It's been a great education for me, and I'm sure, for the audience, and I want to thank you. Thank you very much!"