Today we’d like to introduce you to Carlos Williams.
Hi Carlos, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I want to start off by thanking the man above for allowing me to still be here, standing on my two feet after everything I’ve been through. My journey started off with my love for sports. I am my parent’s only child and they worked a lot, so I spent a lot of time by myself. Since I was a “loner,” the quickest way to make friends was through sports. I would always play with other groups of kids or even adults. I was super competitive. I hated losing. The adults didn’t mind picking me up on their teams because they knew I had skills and a heart.
Fast forward a tad bit into high school. I was a good linebacker. I made plays, I was one of the leaders on defense, but I was an undersized linebacker. This caused a lot of the big schools to overlook me. After high school, due to lack of resources, I didn’t have much exposure to big colleges and universities for recruitment, so I found a prep school that gave opportunities to incoming freshmen to play against junior colleges and could get full-ride scholarships. There I had a coach known as Coach Flowers who helped me change positions from linebacker to defensive back. His method of training was very difficult because I wasn’t used to working out that way. However, the workouts paid off because, after the season, I ended up getting a scholarship. Fast forward to nine years later, everything I learned from Coach Flowers, I now teach to my athletes.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The road wasn’t easy at all. I had to overcome many trials and tribulations. I had to deal with lack of resources and not to get exposed to big colleges and universities for recruitment, to finally getting into a school that wanted me but I then blew it and got kicked out for fighting, to bouncing to another school, and then later on having a heat stroke and being in a coma for six weeks. Now that the years have gone by, I understand why I had to go through that. Now that I’m a coach, I am able to tell my athletes what I’ve went through so they won’t have to go through the same things I did.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a personal trainer. I specialize in speed, agility, and footwork. There are many different drills and skills that I focus on to target speed, agility, and footwork for athletes. If an athlete needs help on his footwork, I have drills to help with that. If an athlete wants to be fast, I have methods and drills to get them faster. If an athlete wants to get stronger, I teach and show them different workouts that include weights. Different methods for different needs.
I’m most proud when I see my athlete get better after each workout session, and they tell me they can feel the difference from where they started and where they’re currently at. What sets me apart from others are two things, one (1), the pricing, and two (2), that I actually played in college. There are trainers who teach the exact same thing that I coach and charge three times the rate I do but have never played in college. Everything I teach to my athletes is what I learned when I played college football.
Who else deserves credit in your story?
I would like to thank my brothers Rudy, Vinny, Tristen, Cisco, Ivan, Andrew, DQ, Julian, Deion, Oliver and JC for being great friends and for always being there for me through my good times and bad times over the years. I had a lot of great college coaches, but the main one I learned from that I consider as a mentor is Coach Larry Dockery. He’s a wide receiver coach at McMurry University.
I would like to give a shout out to my athletes who gave me a chance and believe in my training methods- Mikey and James Butler, Bella, Michael, Raul Alvarez, Luis Luna, Harrison Black, Isaac Molina Je’lin Samuels, Ian Butler, Isaiah Rodriguez, Nick Guerra, and Erick Garza.
My uncle Elvis was the person I looked up to. He came into my life at the right time. I looked up to him because he was always a great person who just happened to played football in college and professional ball. He taught me a lot about sports but also gave me a lot of great life advice.
Two other people who played a big role in my success are my middle school coaches, Ryan Butler and Doug Sawyer. They’re the reason I wanted to become a coach. Both were always there for me during tough times, and they both always believed in me even though there were times I didn’t believe in myself. I’m thankful for Coach Butler for allowing me to train his two sons, and because of him, I started my business. I wasn’t going to train anyone else but them. However, he saw how much they improved, and he gave me the confidence to go public.
I also want to give a huge shout-out to my parents. We haven’t always seen eye to eye on certain things, but they have always been there for me. I got my work ethic from them. I have seen them work two jobs so I can have a better life than they did. Lastly, I want to give my Donna Grays a shout-out. She helped raise me. She was always positive and very supportive. She once said, “Sometimes you’ve got to take a leap of faith.” That resonates with me when it comes to my business, I go off a leap of faith.
Pricing:
- $15/session for athletes under the age of 18
- $25/session for athletes over the age of 18
Contact Info:
- Email: houstonexplosivefitness@gmail.com
- Instagram: houstonexplosivefitness
- Twitter: @FitnessHtx
Image Credits
Photographs were taken by LeAnna Long (IG:@leethestylist) Logo design (IG: Fractalishious) Custom design (IG: @yarisdesigns_ )
