Andrew Katz has a nice article in Dime about Blake Griffin’s journey to the NBA. There’s a lot of talk about Griffin’s character and work ethic. Here’s an excerpt:
If Blake was Bruce Wayne before the summer, trainer Frank Matrisciano pushed him to transform into Batman. Like Batman’s fictional trainer, Matrisciano is also shrouded in a veil of secrecy. Literally. He won’t let a camera flash before his face without disguising himself, and he doesn’t do interviews. Dubbed “Hell’s Trainer” in a San Francisco Chronicle article, Matrisciano’s calling card is the ability to re-program his students to blow through thresholds of pain with a body-numbing workout on his Bay Area beaches.
“Everything we did was on the sand, wearing a weight vest while carrying bags of sand, running up and down the sand hills,” says Blake. “It’s like nothing else I’ve ever done before. There’s a place called Moraga Hill — it’s just wooden stairs all the way up, 116 stairs. We have a weight vest on, carrying sand bags or a med ball up and down. Frank pushes you like no one else can.”
The physical torment of these workouts helped Blake become one of the most explosive 6-10 specimens the college game has ever seen. But more importantly, the physical dominance that Blake gained through this process helped to free his mind. And while Blake was eating up the daily challenge of workouts that could make even the most well-conditioned athletes puke, Matrisciano also drilled him on the concept of being the puppet master on the basketball court.
“Either you’re the puppet — the one being controlled by other people,” says Blake, “or you’re the puppet master, and you’re making people do what you want.”
Click here to read Katz’s article.
