Friday Fun. Be like Kobe.
This story was taken from an old Reddit post about the incredible work ethic of Kobe Bryant. In 2012, Bryant was selected as a member of Team USA. During this time, one of the athletic trainer’s for Team USA, a man named Robert, was working with Kobe to prepare for the Olympics. In the story below, Robert describes his first experience with Kobe and reveals one of the reasons the superstar has become so successful.
I was invited to Las Vegas to help Team USA with their conditioning before they headed off to London. I’ve had the opportunity to work with Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade in the past, but this would be my first interaction with Kobe.
The night before the first scrimmage, I had just watched “Casablanca” for the first time and it was about 3:30 AM.
A few minutes later, I was in bed, slowly fading away, when I heard my cell ring. It was Kobe. I nervously picked up.
“Hey, uhh, Rob, I hope I’m not disturbing anything right?”
“Uhh, no. What’s up Kob?”
“Just wondering if you could help me out with some conditioning work, that’s all.”
I checked my clock. 4:15 AM.
“Yeah sure, I’ll see you in the facility in a bit.”
It took me about twenty minutes to get my gear and get out of the hotel. When I arrived and opened the room to the main practice floor, I saw Kobe. Alone. He was drenched in sweat as if he had just taken a swim. It wasn’t even 5:00 AM.
We did some conditioning work for the next hour and fifteen minutes. Then, we entered the weight room, where he would do a multitude of strength training exercises for the next 45 minutes. After that, we parted ways. He went back to the practice floor to shoot. I went back to the hotel and crashed. Wow.
I was expected to be at the floor again at about 11:00 AM.
I woke up feeling sleepy, drowsy, and pretty much every side effect of sleep deprivation. (Thanks, Kobe.) I had a bagel and headed to the practice facility.
This next part I remember very vividly. All of the Team USA players were there. LeBron was talking to Carmelo and Coach Krzyzewski was trying to explain something to Kevin Durant. On the right side of the practice facility Kobe was by himself shooting jumpers.
I went over to him, patted him on the back and said, “Good work this morning.”
“Huh?”
“Like, the conditioning. Good work.”
“Oh. Yeah, thanks Rob. I really appreciate it.”
“So when did you finish?”
“Finish what?”
“Getting your shots up. What time did you leave the facility?”
“Oh, just now. I wanted 800 makes. So yeah, just now.”
For those of you keeping track at home, Kobe Bryant started his conditioning work around 4:30am, continued to run and sprint until 6am, lifted weights from 6am to 7am, and finally proceeded to make 800 jump shots between 7am and 11am.
Oh yeah, and then Team USA had practice.
Woooo, check out 6:30 p.m.💖
Warmup
0:00 – 10:00
Jump Rope/Quick Feet 3 minutes
Instructor Mobility
Strength
30 minutes (15:00 – 45:00)
A. 15:00 – 27:00
3x E4MOM
Level 4
10 Romanian Deadlifts at 225/195
20 T-Pushups
Rest
Level 3
10 Romanian Deadlifts 205/170
16 T-Pushups
Rest
Level 2
10 Romanian Deadlifts 175/145
14 T-Pushups
Rest
Level 1
10/10 DKB Kickstand Deadlifts
12 T-Pushups
Rest
B. 30:00 – 42:00
4x E3MOM
All Levels
8/8 Reverse Lunges
12 Ring Rows
L3/4 – farmer hold, elevate the front foot on a low box (6″ or 45# plate), step back off the box until the knee touches and then return
L2 – farmer hold or goblet
L1 – goblet or bodyweight
Conditioning
45:00 – 48:00
Workout Prep
48:00 – 60:00
(12 minutes total–reset clock to 0:00 to keep track of rounds)
“Feedback Loop”
3 Rounds
Each Round is 3 minutes AMRAP with 1 minute rest.
Levels 3/4
3 Toes to Bar
6 Burpees (jump and touch the pull-up rig overhead)
9 Air Squats
Level 2
4 Knees to Elbows (if you can’t do full ROM legit T2B, you can’t do the L3/4 workout)
8 Burpees
12 Air Squats
Level 1
6 Ball Up Sit-ups
6 Burpees
6 Air Squats