Sevan Matossian (00:00):
Leave it bam we’re live. Oh my goodness. I can’t believe it. Good morning guys. Alyssa, Bruce, Brian. We’re here this morning. Oh, this is gonna be a good one. One of my favorites, as you guys know, uh, my life is dedicated to my sons. When I knew I could get the, to you need to speak to another great dad. Yes, I’m a great dad, too. Daniel Grandy. I was pumped. I was pumped. Uh, Daniel, I’m gonna start the, um, uh, I wanna start the show. I wanna play a little video for the people who are watching live right now that I, I plucked off your Instagram.
Daniel Coach Grandy (00:35):
Absolutely.
Sevan Matossian (00:37):
All righty, brother, give me one second. Here. Here we go.
Daniel Coach Grandy (00:43):
I get up at three cuz it’s silent. It’s easier to be focused when the environment is focused. So a lot of you, you don’t have to be honest, be honest. You’re not playing no games here. Talk to Sam. We got a way to help you after this. How many of you, honest you are knocking on doors and grinding and making moves, but you don’t necess have every single step written down for every single day. Just be honest. Some of y’all you in the dark that see that’s the problem though. So we gonna help y’all I, I got a plan. You gonna work control. I’m gonna do some video, give it to y’all I’m gonna show y’all really how to walk through this because the day I got up and every day now I know exactly what I’m supposed to be doing. Here’s what’s funny. Most of you wake up and you try to make money. Listen to me. If you would make you money would come to you. Okay? You missed that whole thing. I just said, if you would make you a better person, you’d make more money. Now watch what I do the way people spend their money or treat their money is how I treat my time.
Daniel Coach Grandy (01:42):
All right, lemme explain what I mean to you. I get up at three cuz it’s silent. Who is, he’s gonna
Daniel Coach Grandy (01:47):
Be
Sevan Matossian (01:48):
Focused. Who made that?
Daniel Coach Grandy (01:50):
Uh, we got a videographer guy that, that follows us. Yeah, pretty much everywhere we go. So he, he take care of all that
Sevan Matossian (01:56):
He he’s pretty good. Uh, Daniel, uh, he, that guy is one of the luckiest men in the world or, or woman whoever’s doing it. I hope he knows that I was fortunate enough to be a homeless videographer that came across the great, great Glassman. The founder of CrossFit back in 2006 and today, uh, you know, in 2022, uh, man, I killed it, but I just worked hard 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. I, uh, it, I, uh, for those of you who don’t know who, um, the Grande twins are, you should go to their Instagram, um, and check it out. It is a beautiful stroll. Uh, oh, you’ve taken down a ton of posts, huh?
Daniel Coach Grandy (02:38):
Yeah. I usually I be archiving stuff. I, I don’t take it all the way down. It’s just archive.
Sevan Matossian (02:43):
Okay. Yeah. They, um, and, and, and, and check out their YouTube also and their Facebook and just Google their names. You will see some stuff, uh, especially if you’re a parent. Um, if you’re not a parent, it may might make you want to have kids. Uh, and if you are a parent, it will, um, realize that you can do more, um,
Speaker 4 (03:05):
Use the right four lanes to exit 7 63 onto I six, 10 north and I six, 10 south.
Sevan Matossian (03:10):
Yeah, that sounds right. Uh, Grandy. Um, why, why did you have kids,
Daniel Coach Grandy (03:17):
Honestly? Uh, you know, I, I envision having sons, twin sons, to be honest, I come from a family full of twins. Wow. And it’s crazy when I tell people this story, but I always envision that I would have twin sons and mm-hmm, <affirmative>, you know, just my kids in general. Cause I have daughters too. And it’s like, they just made me a better person. They, they made me a unselfish person that we all start off as you know, I have children, but it, it, it opened up my eyes to a lot of things in life.
Sevan Matossian (03:45):
How many kids do you have?
Daniel Coach Grandy (03:47):
A total of seven? I have five girls and the twin boys.
Sevan Matossian (03:51):
Oh, wow. Are the, are the boys, the youngest? Where do they fall? In the line?
Daniel Coach Grandy (03:55):
Uh, they fall in the middle. They’re in the middle.
Sevan Matossian (03:57):
Okay. And uh, in, in all with this same woman?
Daniel Coach Grandy (04:01):
No, no, no couple different mothers.
Sevan Matossian (04:03):
Yeah. Seven.
Daniel Coach Grandy (04:04):
I doubt lucky.
Sevan Matossian (04:05):
<laugh> yeah. Seven kids is a lot. Yeah. Seven kids is a lot. Um, do you have any other twins? Do you have any twin girls?
Daniel Coach Grandy (04:12):
Nope. Just the boys. The, the boys are the only boys and the only twins.
Sevan Matossian (04:16):
And, uh, did you know that you were gonna get ’em into boxing from beginning?
Daniel Coach Grandy (04:21):
Honestly. Yeah. It’s it’s I, I didn’t know how they were gonna perceive it to be realistic. I mean, it’s a family sport, everybody in my family, pretty much in, in endeavor, in boxing at some point in their life included myself. So I didn’t know how they were gonna take it. So I would just take ’em around the gym when they were young, never put gloves on them. I just let ’em hang around the sport. And I’m gonna say around the age of, I wanna say like three, four, they got like real interested and started picking up the gloves and then the rest just did itself. Like it’s never been a time where I actually told ’em huh? Put these gloves on. You’re gonna box. I didn’t wanna introduce it to ’em like that. I wanted them to find it, their self. So we were just literally just hanging around the gym and they picked up on it.
Sevan Matossian (05:05):
I think similarly to how I think my boys are, are, are, are full time doing movement, right? I, my, I have a two, five year olds and a seven year old. They’re not enrolled in school. I homeschool them. And I just have them doing basically movement all day, math and English for a, a portion of the day and then a small portion day. And then it’s movement all day, primarily, uh, skateboarding, tennis and jujitsu, and striking nothing at the level that you do it. But, but you might imagine they’re pretty amazing because that’s what absolutely right.
Daniel Coach Grandy (05:34):
Absolutely.
Sevan Matossian (05:35):
And people thought that I wanted to get them into sports and I have no interest in sports. Like I zero. And, and I, and I feel like kind of in that regard that I’m not interested in them getting into sports. What I, what I hear you say is a little different than what I say, but I’m gonna steal what you, what you’re doing too. My thing is, is I wanted them to be around adults from a young age who are professionals, who would talk to them. And I wanted my sons to, um, be able to take instruction and execute on it.
Daniel Coach Grandy (06:03):
Right.
Sevan Matossian (06:04):
Um, but what you’re, what I’ve heard you say is you’re not interested in your kids being boxers. You’re interested in your kids, um, learning the, on a deeper level, the lessons of hard work and that hard work, uh, um, creates opportunity and, and boxing is just sort of a vehicle for that. Is that, is that true?
Daniel Coach Grandy (06:22):
Yeah. Boxing is pretty much our platform to where the places we, we, we, we are trying to get to in life. It was never, I mean,
Sevan Matossian (06:31):
Uhoh, I lost you. I lost you, Daniel. I lost you. Darn it. It’s car interviews are always hard, right? Yeah. Oh, you’re back. Yeah. Yeah. You’re back you back what I say
Daniel Coach Grandy (06:45):
Take no, I was saying, I said, of course, you know, if they go on to become world champ, man with dad, wouldn’t be happy, but I, I don’t use it as, it’s not. It’s nothing pressured on them because it, the boxing part for us was pretty much, we, we were previously in Philadelphia, which is, you know, a rough city. And it was, it was a lot of crazy things going on outside. And I wanted to keep them away from that first and foremost. And so I felt as though boxing could keep them busy, which it has done over the years and we’ve traveled everywhere and, you know, give ’em an opportunity at life. Like, it, it, it wasn’t more say about boxing more than it was about saving them from the streets to fill out.
Sevan Matossian (07:22):
Well, do they play any other sports
Daniel Coach Grandy (07:24):
At the time? No, they haven’t. They don’t have any interest in any other sports. I actually be trying to swim and play other sports, but they’re just so in love with the sport box and they really, they, they don’t have any interest right now. It probably will later on in life, like next year it’ll be their first year high school. So who knows
Sevan Matossian (07:40):
Did you? Oh, so they are in school <affirmative>
Daniel Coach Grandy (07:42):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep. They just, they homeschooled for a little bit. And then now, since we moved to Texas, they been in school, but we’ll probably go back to homeschooler.
Sevan Matossian (07:50):
Yeah. What do they think of school?
Daniel Coach Grandy (07:53):
They actually like it. I mean, like I said, this, this is pivotal years for them, eighth grade grade going to ninth. So it’s, it’s, I felt as though it was important for them to actually beat in school these years, because these are your years where you, you create your social skills and being kids, like you’ve been in a light since they were seven years old. I didn’t want ’em to get too, you know, far away from social skills. So that was the decision to go to school again,
Sevan Matossian (08:17):
They seem like they’ve developed the, um, quite, um, obviously I, they seem more like adults than children and, and I feel like my children are like that too. And not in the sense of the way they behave or the way they act or the way they move. But just in terms of their maturity of how they, you know, in the videos, when they interact with other people, right. They’re already very civil. They’re already very present. They’re already really focused. They’re they’re not, they’re not goofballs, you know, and, and boys can be goofballs in the eighth grade. Right. I mean, that’s one, that’s one, the goofballs.
Daniel Coach Grandy (08:46):
Oh, absolutely. How was a goofball in eighth grade? Absolutely.
Sevan Matossian (08:48):
Yeah, me too. Me too. <laugh> but, but your, your boys seem to like already show some really, really, I mean, even at a young age, some really high levels of sophistication and attention, I don’t mean that the child’s been taken out of ’em obviously they’re still children. They, and they ooze with that in the videos. But I mean that they’re, um, they’re, uh, they’re highly disciplined and highly focused for, for their age. Wouldn’t you say?
Daniel Coach Grandy (09:11):
I would, I will always tell people. It is it’s like kids are like sponges, so you pretty much become product to whatever you grow up around. And, and for them, I’m, I’m more nervous than them at this point, because for them, this is just life. Like it’s their everyday life. Like I said, they’ve been in the, they did their first big TV show at seven years old, Steve Harvey. They had to go in front of cameras in hundreds of people for a week straight and filming. So it’s like, everything else is, is easy after that. So I think the maturity part you’re talking about, it just comes from exact exactly that like being in that light thus long, like they’re, they’re 14 in July. So it it’s been eight, nine years they’ve been in this light. So they they’ve grown accustomed to, and like I said, it’s life for them. They don’t know anything else. So they, they, they they’re, they’re in situations where they deal with a lot of adults, a lot of, you know, networks and this and that. So yeah, I would say they, they’re definitely pretty mature for the age. And I tell them that because at 13, I don’t know how I would handle it.
Sevan Matossian (10:07):
Right, right.
Daniel Coach Grandy (10:09):
Yeah. And it’s, it’s again, it’s, it’s a walk down the street for them. When we go away to these events, you can imagine how many people stop ’em for pictures. Right. And they take every picture. They never get mad. They hug everybody, they smile. And I’m just like at 13, I was probably a little jerk. I probably wouldn’t be able to deal with it like that.
Sevan Matossian (10:25):
So yeah. My mom told me that I was the greatest kid in the world until I turned 13. And then she basically said, I just turned into a complete asshole.
Daniel Coach Grandy (10:32):
Yeah, me too. <laugh>
Sevan Matossian (10:34):
I don’t remem I don’t re I don’t re that, but I guess that’s when you, when you start to go through puberty, huh? You just start losing interest in your parents.
Daniel Coach Grandy (10:42):
Yeah. You know, 13 year old, 13 year old boys is a rough task. Now don’t get me wrong. We still go through some 13 year old boy stuff, but it’s not to the, to the magnitude of, of, of the, the things I gave to my parents. Nowhere there.
Sevan Matossian (10:54):
Yeah.
Daniel Coach Grandy (10:56):
And how
Sevan Matossian (10:57):
Do you see it as a father? What do they, what do they start doing? What mines are? I only have two, five year olds and a seven year old. What are some of the signs you see when that testosterone starts pumping?
Daniel Coach Grandy (11:05):
It’s the, it’s the question that, you know, they get to that point where they, they, they, I honestly think on some things, my sons think they know more than me. To me. It’s funny. Yeah. Because I was actually a 17 year old boy before, so I mean, it doesn’t get to me, it, it is that it’s that, uh, I’m a boy, I’m a teenager, you know, start getting your little body orders. You smelling yourself now. And it just, you know, it changes the dynamics of Tait. But I feel like if you, if you stay on top of it, it, it shouldn’t be that bad. And the discipline we’ve put in over the years, I still see it showing, cuz even though they’re 13 and hold on, let me throw this in there. And this generation has an influence that me and you didn’t have, it’s called the internet.
Sevan Matossian (11:45):
Right. So I got questions about that.
Daniel Coach Grandy (11:48):
Yeah. That’s a big part of it. But like I said, overall, they’re, they’re doing great with it. I can’t say, Like I said,
Sevan Matossian (11:55):
You, you just made me think of this. I wonder if this has anything to do with it. Cause I was, I was girl crazy. I was a, I was a dumb, yeah, I was so girl crazy. And um, and, and the more and more I I’ve been meeting a lot of great men lately. And uh, even though they really rest that girl, craziness shit. They say, they make it like, Hey, the girls gotta come to me. I’m focused on my task and women should come to me. Like, like they act more like the lion that sits on the top. I wasn’t like that. You know what I mean? I was in the field just chasing shit. Right. Um, but I, I wonder if part of the thing is, is, um, like my boys, all they want is attention from me. Right. So like, I don’t all, all I have to do. If they do something I don’t like, I just don’t give ’em any attention. If they do something, I like, I, I shower ’em with love and affection, go hold them, kiss them. And like, and I just use that game. But I wonder if at 13 you start to realize there’s something that’s better than attention from your parents and that’s girls.
Daniel Coach Grandy (12:48):
Oh yeah. That plays a huge part. I believe so.
Sevan Matossian (12:50):
Yeah. So then they can be like, fuck off dad.
Daniel Coach Grandy (12:51):
Right? Exactly. Because the girls can come into play. I mean, it’s, Testo, it’s something we can’t it’s is we can’t even control just being a little boy, you know, we all went through it. Yeah. But again, I think it’s how we approach it. And I, I, I, I try not to stray away from the realities of life with ’em. So we talk about things like that. Like I’m okay with it, but I, I, I don’t want y’all to go crazy to where it knocks you off your square. I get it. You, you going, you like girls. Alright, daddy’s happy. But you still have to stay focused on the task at hand because it’s like, I, I explain to them many stories of people I’ve known over the years who had all the talent and could have been things. And then they went girl crazy and went left and it didn’t pan out the way it was supposed to be. So I’m like, at this point you got, have your whole life set in front of you. So it’s up to you to control it. Cuz now it’s not about me anymore. Like when, when they were nine, eight. Yeah, sure. That was me giving them a little push. But now it’s all about you guys. I, you can’t make a 13 year old do anything.
Sevan Matossian (13:48):
Wow. Period. Wow.
Daniel Coach Grandy (13:50):
Like nothing. So if you don’t wanna do it, it doesn’t get done.
Sevan Matossian (13:54):
Damn. Is that hard? Is that hard as a father to make that transition
Daniel Coach Grandy (13:59):
From it’s different? Like I said, it’s just a different shift. Yeah. Oh no. Yeah. It’s a task. It’s definitely a task. It’s it’s not easy. And I I’ve found myself frustrated at times. I ain’t gonna lie, but yeah. You know, we bear with it for the love of our children. And I always got a factor in that. I, I think the big thing, the biggest part of a coach child relationship is that you have to grow with them and start treating them accordingly to the age that they’re in. They’re not your little babies anymore. I think that’s where people were rolling at.
Sevan Matossian (14:28):
Yeah. Are, are you, are you really affectionate dad? Like, are you all when, when they were young, were you always holding ’em and kissing ’em and are you, is, are you hands on, you know, with your infection? Oh
Daniel Coach Grandy (14:38):
Yeah, absolutely. I, I, I try to make sure I tell my kids. I love ’em all the time. Like, absolutely. I mean, I, when I’m in a gym, I’m not that guy, I’m not gonna lie to you. Cause I’m a coach in the gym. So it’s different. But outside of the gym, yeah. It, it is back. We, we it’s funny cuz people, I go, they don’t, they like, look at me crazy when I tell ’em this, but we don’t talk about boxing at home
Sevan Matossian (14:59):
Ever. I know. I heard you say that I’m having trouble believing that.
Daniel Coach Grandy (15:02):
No, we don’t talk about boxing at home. They don’t even watch boxing.
Sevan Matossian (15:04):
Yeah. My kids don’t watch any of the sports. They play either nothing
Daniel Coach Grandy (15:08):
Because you have to find that balance. You have to separate the too. So if I give ’em boxing boxing all day long, then it’s like those, those kind of kids usually quit because it’s over pushed. Right? So you, you have to find that balance. It’s a, it’s a thin line between being a coach, dad and being a dad, you have to find a balance. And if you don’t find a balance, you’re just gonna drive him away from the sport. And then you was it all these years trying to put, prepare for whatever, you know, people are trying to prepare for. And it is down the drain. So it’s a thin line.
Sevan Matossian (15:37):
Yeah.
Daniel Coach Grandy (15:39):
I learned it earlier from mistakes.
Sevan Matossian (15:41):
Oh, tell me, can you gimme an example of one of those?
Daniel Coach Grandy (15:45):
I just, you pushed them too hard earlier days. How we had little situations where we would get ready for a, a competition and I would be like over excited of course, cause I’m a father and then you know them, it’s more like, all right, that I prepared, I did everything as opposed to, and then you get closer and you know, we start working a little harder. It’s just like, they lose a little interest. They like, why am I working this hard? I did what I’m supposed to do, blah. And you can, like I say, you can over push, you can over push. And then a kid may go out there and not even perform his best. Cuz he just wanna spite you for over pushing it. You understand what I’m saying? So right. You gotta be careful.
Sevan Matossian (16:22):
I um, I, one of my, one of my kids was uh, rolling on the mats. Um, he, he was seven years old and he got, he got injured while, while messing with, it was a young kid in, in, in jujitsu. It’s probably like this in boxing too. Sometimes the new new people will be just flailing. Right. And they’re a little bit dangerous to the veterans. If the veterans are trying to go easy on him. Absolutely. So this, this kid was new and he was flailing and he did upkick and kicked my boy in the stomach and it fucked up his bladder a little bit. Right. So for like six weeks, one of my sons was like, Hey, I’m not doing anything in group class anymore. No more group, uh, tennis, no more group. Um, uh, wrestling. He’d do some one-on-one stuff with some adults, but he wasn’t fucking with kids at all.
Sevan Matossian (17:01):
And that was a really humbling experience for me. Cuz I went from wanting my kids to do well to, by the end of those six weeks of not seeing my kid participate, to just like wanting them to participate, it made me completely recalibrate. I was like, okay, fuck it. I don’t care if they do well, if I can just make the baby step and get ’em in the game, I’d be happy. And it was a really good learning moment for me. Like, okay, I, I, I need to just set the expectation that he shows up. Not that he goes out and wins fucking everything. Right.
Daniel Coach Grandy (17:30):
And see that, that right there is what we deal with in boxing. From all whole nother standpoint, you have all these overbearing fathers like trying to live through their children.
Sevan Matossian (17:41):
Yeah. I was doing that. I’m I’m doing that for sure. I’m pulling that jackass shit for sure. Yeah.
Daniel Coach Grandy (17:45):
Yeah. I, I deal with that on a regular basis, especially when it comes to the twins. Because when, when we go to events at this point, they’re not even fighting us anymore. Or I don’t know if they ever were fighting us, but they’re fighting popularity. Like, because people have this fixation in their mind that right. If I beat one of the twins, I’m gonna be famous. That’s not how life works. Right.
Daniel Coach Grandy (18:05):
It doesn’t matter if you one or not, the people choose who they choose. But with that being said, it’s a lot of that. It’s a lot of these overbearing dads. We had a situation this past weekend. I mean, it was simple. So it ain’t really nothing to speak on, but they, they do this all the time. Like, and, and they put this pressure on these kids that makes no sense. And honestly, I’m gonna be realistic with you. They help us because they’re sending these kids in the lane saying, oh, are you fight one of the twins? And now the kid is scared to death or nervous or whatever. And it makes our job easier because twins don’t have any idea who the other box of kids is.
Sevan Matossian (18:37):
Right.
Daniel Coach Grandy (18:38):
So it’s like, yeah, you, you, it’s a thin line. Like I said, you, you gotta, you gotta tread this line. Like, like real, real easy, because I’ve seen this story. I’ve been through this. I grew up in a box in town. I seen it. I seen kids that were super duper good. Get over, pushed by the dad and quit. Yeah. And I’m watching it again while I’m doing it with my sons, I’m watching this whole human, you know, action take, take place again. And it’s just, like I said, I try not to be that at all. So even when it comes to like the national tournaments, I, if you pay attention, we only go once in a while. Like we don’t go to all of ’em it’s about for a year. We don’t go to all of ’em. We go to one, we pick ones once in a while we go to them and you know what happens, happens. And then we go back to our life because you can over push these kids. I don’t feel like a kid should be fighting every two weekends every weekend. Like it’s too much. So you have to have, have some time in there to have a childhood.
Sevan Matossian (19:34):
I’m gonna show you guys who are watching live right now. Uh, the, um, Daniel, uh, coach Grandy, um, had mentioned, uh, his sons being on Steve Harvey. And I wanted you guys to check this out. This is pretty incredible. Uh, I, I, I watched this whole clip. Uh, man, Steve Harvey’s cool. I didn’t realize he’s so cool.
Daniel Coach Grandy (19:53):
<laugh>
Sevan Matossian (19:54):
He is cool. Here we go.
Daniel Coach Grandy (19:56):
Oh yeah. Come on. Come on, boy. Yeah, Come on boy. Here.
Sevan Matossian (20:05):
I think they’re six or seven years old here.
Daniel Coach Grandy (20:07):
They were about seven
Sevan Matossian (20:11):
Here’s dad
Daniel Coach Grandy (20:15):
Right here.
Sevan Matossian (20:18):
Steve Harvey moves pretty well for himself. Who’s he kidding? In that suit? I saw him doing a jumping rope.
Daniel Coach Grandy (20:22):
I saw him jumping rope.
Sevan Matossian (20:24):
Yeah. Uh, and, and, and you were saying that that was a great experience for him. Hey, was any of that, by the way, you can, anyone can find that, um, clip on YouTube and watch the whole thing. And I highly recommend it. It it’s a few minutes longer and it gets pretty funny. Are, were the boys coached at all and what to say or is that all?
Daniel Coach Grandy (20:41):
No, actually it was all, it was a, it was, we did a dry run without ’em Uhhuh and everything else was just natural. They didn’t, he, he didn’t want it to be scripted. So everything was like dry run and then straight to the job because he didn’t want it to feel scripted.
Sevan Matossian (20:56):
Yeah. The boys were chopping it up with them.
Daniel Coach Grandy (20:58):
Yeah, it was, yeah. It was just like, like I said, it, for them, it was another day. It’s the conversations I had with him. So they didn’t, I, I honestly I’ll continue to say this. They take this way better than me.
Sevan Matossian (21:12):
<laugh>
Daniel Coach Grandy (21:13):
A hundred times better. I I’m the one that’s uncomfortable most of the time, because I’m the parent. Right. And a lot of times people forget that even with taking pictures, like, I’ll give you an, a, a example. We are out this week at the Nash tournament. Of course it’s a boxing environment. Everybody knows up. So a lot of times people grown people will walk up and just like reach their arm out for one of my children. And I, I get real defensive cause I’m the dad.
Sevan Matossian (21:39):
Right. Right.
Daniel Coach Grandy (21:40):
And I’m not trying to be a Aho or anything, but it’s just like, this is my child.
Sevan Matossian (21:43):
Right.
Daniel Coach Grandy (21:44):
So that part, it, it is, I I’ve got better with it, but it, it, it’s hard when, when you, you’re trying to separate the two, when you’re a father, it’s not, it’s not easy.
Sevan Matossian (21:54):
Yeah. I don’t, um, I don’t, what’s interesting is I don’t leave my kids alone with anybody
Daniel Coach Grandy (22:00):
<laugh> ever,
Sevan Matossian (22:01):
And it’s not. I tell, I tell my mom, it’s not that I don’t, it’s not that I don’t trust anyone. It’s just that it’s 100% my job, everything goes that they’re protected. So, so, and, and I just have to do that. So like, even, even like, if I have people stay at my house, you know, even, even my own parents, if my dad and, and, and, and my stepmom come over and visit anyone, people like I trust with my life, when anyone I’ve guessing the house, my boys always sleep in my room. Always. We
Daniel Coach Grandy (22:27):
It’s our job.
Sevan Matossian (22:28):
Yeah. It’s my job. We’ve,
Daniel Coach Grandy (22:29):
We’ve seen so many stories where kids wind up getting violated by family members, not to say your family or my family’s like that. Right. But
Sevan Matossian (22:37):
We’ve
Daniel Coach Grandy (22:37):
Seen so many stories of that. So we have to be that protection person. And, and that’s the part, like I said, I get misconceived. A lot of times people will look at me as, oh, that dad’s mean, no, I’m not mean I’m just being a father. I’m protecting my children. That comes way before any popularity. Stardom.
Sevan Matossian (22:53):
Yes. I don’t give a fuck. Yep.
Daniel Coach Grandy (22:54):
Yeah. The hell with all that, these are my kids. And I feel like that’s, that’s a big part of me that people don’t understand, or they don’t, they, they just probably don’t wanna understand because people don’t at this stage in our life being as though they’ve been in this game so long, they don’t look at us as a father. And some combination of mine’s starting to realize it’s more like the talent, I think, of the twins and their coach. And like, no, these are my sons.
Sevan Matossian (23:15):
Yeah.
Daniel Coach Grandy (23:16):
So yeah, that that’s, that might be the trying part, the most trying part of this whole ordeal in, in mission of ours, that part right there.
Sevan Matossian (23:24):
How old are you?
Daniel Coach Grandy (23:26):
Um, I’m 42 actually in six days. <laugh>
Sevan Matossian (23:28):
Oh, happy birthday.
Daniel Coach Grandy (23:30):
Thank you for,
Sevan Matossian (23:32):
Um, the other day, my boys were in the shower and, um, and I, and I’m in the bathroom and I, and I’m watching ’em shower and they start, like, they start fighting in the shower and I’m like, Hey guys, you know, no horseplay in the shower. And they start fucking with each other some more. And so I turn the water off, throw ’em some towels drag ’em out to the garage and I make, ’em do a hundred burpees, 10 burpees on the minute for 10 minutes. Right. And it’s, it’s, it’s a, it’s a really good experience. They’re kind of, it’s like on three levels, they get fitter. They understand that I don’t fuck around. But then they built comradery with each other, like, fuck, it’s us against that. Exactly. So, so it was like a win on every level. Right. And I was telling one of my friends this who, who only has one kid and he’s like, yeah, I can’t do that to my kid because it’ll be abusive. And I, and I totally get that. It was like this eye opening. I, I don’t know what the answer is, but like with them, those three, all of a, like, I could do that. Right. Hey motherfuckers, get outta the show hour, get your fucking towel with hunter buries. You’re not gonna listen to me. And we go out to the garage, but they can huddle together. You know, it’s them against me. They got each other,
Daniel Coach Grandy (24:32):
They got each other
Sevan Matossian (24:33):
And I’m, and I’m, and I’m working that angle. They think they’re being slick, but I’m manipulating them. I’m like, yeah, I’m making you guys tighter as a group. You know? But my friend who had just has one kid, he’s like, yeah, I take my one kid out there and fucking do that to him. And he is gonna fucking crumble. Do you notice that with your, your sons too, that you can do some shit to like manipulate them and bring them closer together as a pair and you play the bad cop?
Daniel Coach Grandy (24:53):
Absolutely. I, I feel like this has been their advantage thus far in the sport. The reason they got good. So fast is because of each other. Yeah. Like it’s, it is things that others have to do that me and you don’t never have to do because we have multiple sons. So even with like sparring, for instance, we don’t have to go out for sparing if we don’t want to, we can work with each other. <laugh> so those kind of avenues, like the same thing you just said is along with some of the lines, they have each other. So they’re, they’re gonna put, and I, I, and I’m gonna throw it out there. I grew up with no brother.
Sevan Matossian (25:27):
So yeah, me, this
Daniel Coach Grandy (25:29):
Is, yeah, this is all I have as a sister. So this is new to me, but I I’ve noticed that early that they, they, they feed off each other. Like, it’s just a brotherly thing. It’s a push. And the, the energy, like, if you watch the fight this week, we just add the championship. I sat down the last round and the brother walked up on the April. I never got up there and he didn’t like something he seen. So he cussed his brother out. Wow. Went out there and performed in one unanimously that right there.
Sevan Matossian (25:56):
Wow. That that’s the clip.
Daniel Coach Grandy (25:57):
Yeah, it was, it was at the fight this weekend.
Sevan Matossian (25:59):
Yeah. I’m gonna, I’m gonna see if I can pull up this clip. Is, is it, this is, this, is this it right here?
Daniel Coach Grandy (26:06):
No, I, it, it is not on that one. Okay. It’s actually. Yeah. Cause he made that video. It was actually like the actual rounds. I’m actually see if I can get it up, still running
Sevan Matossian (26:15):
Around with my house. But
Daniel Coach Grandy (26:17):
He, he stepped up on the ring and he told me that he looked at me, said that I got him and he walked in front of me and walked up there and said, I just set that. And he gave him a piece of his mind and he went out there and, and executed everything he talked about.
Sevan Matossian (26:32):
And how did the boys do this weekend?
Daniel Coach Grandy (26:34):
Uh, we won, we won a championship.
Sevan Matossian (26:36):
And are they in different weight classes?
Daniel Coach Grandy (26:38):
Yeah, I actually, I always keep ’em separated because that’s another thing in this crew, unusual world. They’ll try to match my kids with each other. Like, that’s insane.
Sevan Matossian (26:46):
That is insane.
Daniel Coach Grandy (26:47):
Yeah. They’ve done it to us before. So yeah, we keep ’em in different weight classes. We keep ’em five, five pounds apart.
Sevan Matossian (26:53):
And, and what, what classes are those?
Daniel Coach Grandy (26:55):
Uh, Steven is fighting one 10 right now. And then Danny’s fighting one 14
Sevan Matossian (26:59):
And then do you four pounds. And do they ever switch? Just like, Hey, I took one 14 last time now you gotta cut weight for, and then
Daniel Coach Grandy (27:07):
Honestly, I’m probably one of the few boxing dads in the world that I don’t cut weight on my kids, whatever they weighs, wherever we fight at good
Sevan Matossian (27:14):
Job. Good job, dad.
Daniel Coach Grandy (27:16):
They’re too young. Like I, I see these kids that tournaments that they’ve been 80 pounds for five years. Like I’m not doing much.
Sevan Matossian (27:25):
Yeah. I, I do. I did see that some of the kids that they fought were bigger than that looked bigger than them too. Yeah. It’s cuz they cut weight and then blew back up.
Daniel Coach Grandy (27:32):
Yeah. Whatever. Like I said, whatever way we act, we fight, I I’m confident enough in everything that I’ve toured them over the last eight, nine years that they can handle any situation. Like our, our regular sparing partner is a 23 year old hundred and 20 fight three and oh, pro that we spar with. So I don’t really worry about kids.
Sevan Matossian (27:52):
<laugh> um, do, and do you love that guy? Is that guy part of the family?
Daniel Coach Grandy (27:57):
Uh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
Sevan Matossian (27:59):
It must be a weird relationship with the guy who gets in the ring and, and punches your kids. Nah,
Daniel Coach Grandy (28:04):
I mean, you become accustomed to it. You know, box is a strange sport. Anyway, I, we are not gonna lie. This is not normal, what we do. Right. So <laugh>, it’s strange to begin with, but after a while you, you just become accustomed to it. And honestly it’s it’s, it is cruel and unusual, unusual, because as a coach, I’m sending a guy in to go as hardest because I want that push for my child. This, this is another thing I tell a lot of people that everybody can’t deal with this, this is not for everybody. Box is not a sport for everybody. I promise you. It’s not because I have, I’ve had a lot of dads over the past, their kid get hit with a little punch and they get all emotionally distorted. And I’m like, you do know that you get punched in boxing, right?
Sevan Matossian (28:43):
Yeah.
Daniel Coach Grandy (28:44):
Like, do you know, do know this is part of the sport. So it’s like, you, you gotta, you gotta separate the two. And I, I honestly say this isn’t for everybody, everybody shouldn’t step into this sport. You, because every parent’s not okay with watching their child get punched. So,
Sevan Matossian (28:57):
Well, it doesn’t sound like you’re okay with it either from some of the interviews that like, it sounds like something you have to work on. Like I’ve heard you say stuff in interviews where you’re like, yeah, I’m a father first. I don’t want my kids getting hurt.
Daniel Coach Grandy (29:06):
Yeah. Yeah. No, not, no, don’t don’t what I’m saying is I don’t want ’em to get hurt as far as like wrestling and tackling all that stuff that a lot of kids do as far as the competition part. I I’m, I’m a realist. I understand what goes into the sport. Yeah. You, it’s a sport where you get parts. I did it myself. You see what I’m saying? So I, I understand that aspect of it. Yeah, of course. I don’t want ’em to get hurt when kids get like rough in wrestling, this ain’t wrestling. So I try to stay away from that. But as far as the getting punish, it doesn’t bother me nothing because we’ve been dealing with it. And like I said, I’ve taught, ’em so much that I know their defense is on point. I’m a defensive coach, so I know they can get away and, and do everything they need to do. So I I’m, I’m unbothered with it at this point.
Sevan Matossian (29:46):
Were you a tough kid?
Daniel Coach Grandy (29:48):
Yeah. I grew up in the streets of west Philly. <laugh> you? Ain’t got no choice.
Sevan Matossian (29:53):
And, and, and when you say you grew up in the streets of west Philly, meaning your, your, your mom and dad were working or they weren’t around. And so you, if.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
Check out our other posts.
