Glenn

Glenn van Gorcum may be short in stature. But, believe me, you wouldn’t want to have to tackle this guy on the football field. His quickness and compact, heavily muscled build help make him an effective running back for the Lightning Leiden football team. That’s right: American football in Leiden. When he’s not gearing up for football, Glenn works as a fitness instructor at SportCity Steenschuur. Glenn, 23, lives in Leiden with his family. 

“I give group lessons [at SportCity], like boot camp … I specialize in fitness. I’m a little more specialized in explosive training, which is related to my own sport.”

“I’ve lived in Leiden for about 12 years.” Glenn grew up in Breda and moved to Leiden with his family.

Glenn has always loved sports and fitness. “I used to do a lot of sports – soccer, handball, baseball, basketball, flag football. I did everything you can do with a ball while growing up.” (laughs)

When he got interested in becoming a fitness instructor, he took courses at ROC Leiden and earned a personal fit plan A certification. That’s how he ended up at SportCity. “I did a fitness internship here [at SportCity Steenschuur] while studying at ROC … I had a class [at ROC] called fitness.” The class required “going to a gym to do an internship. That’s why I came here … for half a year I did an internship, and then it became full time.”

Glenn works four days a week at SportCity. He’s there for eight or nine hours most days. “The thing I enjoy most is when you’re helping people … to see results is the biggest motivation to keep going. For me, my goal is to go to the next level. And I want to explain to other people that if you see the results you can motivate yourself to go to the next level.”

Glenn doesn’t think people should expect quick results in the gym. “Fitness is a little bit of hype … [people] think it’s easy and that if you do it for like a month you’ll see big results. But you have to work hard to get results … and eventually it’s going to be very hard … [sometimes] they quit because they don’t see results.”

As a next professional step, Glenn thinks he’ll “probably go to personal training … to work personally with people. Now I’m working with people” at SportCity. But he’s using “a program that’s already made for us.” As a private personal trainer, Glenn hopes to have more freedom to design fitness regimens. “I’d like to do whatever I like to do with them.”

In order to achieve this goal, he will need another certification. “I may need a certificate for personal fit plan A and personal fit plan B . Personal fit plan B is personal training, and personal fit plan A is for instructors in a gym … I will try to work toward personal fit plan B.” 

Success as a private personal trainer “depends on how motivated you are, and the quality of your personal training skills.” Glenn thinks Leiden would be a good base for his private personal training business. “I think every place is a good place to start in personal training … but eventually you’re going to [want some wealthy, famous] clients.”

Glenn developed a passion for American football as a boy. “I made a friend in my neighborhood who played flag football. And that’s when I learned that flag football is my thing and I love it. But I wanted to do more contact … I wanted to tackle somebody. But we needed to wait until we were old enough to use shoulder pads and a helmet.”He played organized flag football until he was 15 years old, and then moved on to tackle football.

He trains with Lightning Leiden twice per week in the evenings. It’s amateur football, so most of the players have day jobs. Glenn’s typically plays running back for Lightning Leiden, which is one of eight teams in the Dutch first division. “But I love to play both ways [offense and defense]. I love to play defense. I’m not very big, but I love to play linebacker. I love to play D-line, I love to play safety.”

American football is growing in popularity in the Netherlands, Glenn believes, though progress is slow. “There a lot of athletes and talent … but [American football is] not very famous here … everything except soccer, hockey and ice skating [lacks] money and interest … it’s hard to grow because it’s different.”

Lightning Leiden attracts both foreign and Dutch players. “We have some guys from England. We have some guys from Germany. Last year we had three guys from America.”

Glenn dreamed as a boy of one day playing for the Amsterdam Admirals, part of the now-defunct NFL Europe. “That was my big dream to play there. But they stopped.” NFL Europe was in operation between 1991 and 2007.

Glenn’s comparatively short stature may be due to the fact that “my roots are not from the Netherlands … my family comes from the Moluccas.” As a result of his size, “people always underestimate me … I was like 160 CM and 65 KG [when] I started playing with the A team, and [the other players] were like 190 CM and 110 KG. That’s when I realized I need to go to the gym and I need to train.” (laughs)

For now, Glenn is taking life one day at a time. “I like training and I like fitness … every day is a different day for me … maybe next year it’s different.”

Information about SportCity Leiden Steenschuur is available at www.sportcity.nl/sportschool/leiden-steenschuur.Information about American Football Club Lightning Leiden can be found at www.lightningleiden.nl