← Earn the Right to Live Your Dreams
Earn the Right to Live Your Dreams
04 Interview: 19-Year World Champ Kyle Snyder on Elite Performance
00:20:25
Dr. Coyte Cooper, a motivational author, speaker, and coach sits down to talk the steps to achieve remarkable accomplishments with elite athlete Kyle Snyder. In September of 2015, Snyder became the youngest American wrestler EVER to win a...
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Foreign.
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Welcome to the earn the right to live your dreams podcast. This is Coy Cooper. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the earn the right to live your dreams podcast. We are going to do something completely different on this episode. Usually I come to you and I talk to you about lessons on how you can close that gap and. And earn the right to live your dreams. And today we're going to do. What we're going to do is this. We're going to have a guest. For the first time ever, we're going to be interviewing somebody. And when I first thought about doing interviews, what I thought is I wanted to go out and find people that are. That are going all in to achieve crazy cool things. And when I first thought of this, the very first person that came to my mind was Kyle Snyder. For those of you who don't know Kyle Snyder, he just recently became the youngest wrestler in American history to win a world title, which is just a crazy accomplishment. So I'm super excited to have Kyle on our podcast today. Thank you so much for coming on and welcome, Kyle.
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Thank you very much for having me on. I really appreciate it. I'm excited to talk and it should be great.
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Okay, cool. So I just wanted to start with this. You recently had an opportunity to kind of. To live one of your dreams. Could you tell us a little of what it was like for you to accomplish this?
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Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it was. It's a little. I tell people, they asked me how to describe it, and I tell people it's almost an indescribable feeling. Especially, you know, right after. Right after I got my hand raised and I was running around with a flag on my back. There was almost no feeling like it. I got. I got the goosebumps, I got the chills throughout my body, and I started to tear up a little bit on the mat. But looking back on it now, I think it's just when you accomplish one of your ultimate goals, especially at a young age, it feels really good. I guess in the most simple way, it feels really good. You feel like all the work and the time that you've spent and the suffering that you've put in to becoming the best at something, it's finally paid off. And now. And now it felt great when I was done competing.
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Cool. Cool. Okay, let's backtrack a little. Because I think the truth is that everyone sees the end outcome of a great achievement. You know, they get to see you going around the mat with the American flag on your back, you know, winning a world championship. But they don't often see the sacrifices that you made to get there. What are some of the things that you had to overcome to. To become a world champion at the age of 19?
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Well, I think a lot of people would think that because I'm young, it's hard for me to believe that I would be able to compete and wrestle with these older international competitors. But actually, that wasn't really a big deal or a problem for me at all. I've always been pretty confident in myself, and I've always been able to find belief in myself pretty much no matter what situation I was in. It's kind of interesting. We were just in a meeting the other day. The Ohio State wrestling team was just in a meeting the other day, and they asked us, what's the difference between a guy that can climb Mount Everest and a guy that can. And the only difference, really, is that one guy believes he can and the other doesn't. And, you know, throughout my whole life, I pretty much believe in myself. There's been times of doubt, and there's been times where it's hard, but mostly sticking to having confidence, myself and believing. But overall, I'd say I've been in. I've been in. I've been blessed. I've been in a great situation so far. So far in my life, I've had great training partners, great coaches. Obviously, you know, I've lost some matches that I didn't want to lose, but really, overall, I'd say it was just sticking to the process. But I've been blessed with being surrounded by great coaches and great training partners for most of my career.
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B
Okay, let's go a little bit on that. You're just talking about the process and just kind of going through that. What is the process for you? You talked about confidence and how some of that has come naturally for you. But what type of process do you go through to make sure that confidence is always there and you're always ready to compete?
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For me, a lot of it comes in the preparation for the event. So I prepare extremely hard. I try to work as hard as I possibly can, both physically and mentally while I'm preparing for an event. Basically, the physical part is coming to practice, working as hard as I can in the wrestling, working as hard as I can in the conditioning and the lifting, and then getting rest and recovery and putting good fuel in my body. But the mental part is a little bit more tricky. And the thing that I've started to learn now is what you value, what you value most in your. In your Athletic career is what is. Is how you're going to compete while you're out on the mat. And what I've been. What I mean by that is some people value wins and accolades, and I want to try to do the opposite. I want to try to value wrestling improvement. And basically what I mean by that is valuing wins and accolades is I want to go out there and I want to be the world champion. I don't care if, you know, the number one, two, and three guys get hurt. All I care about is at the end of the day, I have a belt around my body and a medal around my neck. I, on the other hand, I want to value wrestling. I want to value recruitment. I want to wrestle the best guys and teams if I truly am the best wrestler in the world. And that relieves a lot of stress for me while I'm competing. And it helps me focus on just wrestling itself in the most simple way of getting in the wrestling positions and trying to improve.
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B
That's awesome. I mean, because one of the things about this podcast is there's not only are people that follow athletics are going to listen to this, but people in life in general. And the coolest thing about hearing you say that is, you know, the process. You can always control that. I mean, in any area of life, when you focus on performance and doing the best you possibly can do, you can always control that. So I'm awesome to hear that. The next thing I want to talk to you a little bit about is the failure part, you know, because I think most elite performers in sport and life will tell you that failures often teach you far more than success do. I mean, first off, I would say is, do you. Do you agree with this? And second, I would say is, what are the lessons that you've learned that have allowed you to get where you are now?
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I would say. I would say it's just. It kind of depends on how you look at what a failure is. You know, a failure doesn't always have to be a loss or, you know, just basically, I guess, losing a wrestling match, if we're talking in the sense of wrestling. But I would say. I would say I learned. I learned from my wins and my losses basically the same. You know, the losers just. The losses just hurt a little bit more. That's the only thing that stinks about them because, you know, everybody wants to win. Nobody wants to walk on the mat and go, oh, and one or oh, and two. So it just feels a lot better to win. But when I'm. When I'M competing, I'm assessing myself whether I lose or whether I win, whether I finish a single, whether I finish a single for two points, or whether I get sprawled on and he circles around for two points. I'm assessing each position to see whether or not I can improve this way. If I could have done this, maybe this would have happened and just continuing to evolve my wrestling that way. Because basically, if somebody can tell you why you lost, then they should also be able to tell you why you won. Right. That's the way I think. And a lot of times people will say, well, I lost, I need to fix some things. But you can also fix some things when you win. You know, it's not just, well, I won, I'm better than them. No, you also have things to fix. There are positions that you can improve. So whether I lose or whether I win a match, I'm always constantly looking for areas of improvement. And that's pretty much the way I think about it.
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Okay, good. And I think the mental approach is something you touched on briefly. And I got to believe that you're a guy that probably says, sees yourself, you know, competing at a high level before you actually get to the match. I mean, is that something you do on a regular basis as you're preparing for competition?
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Yeah, absolutely. I do. I do. I visualize myself, you know, hitting my favorite shots. I visualize myself hitting setups against different guys. And we kind of. I kind of do two sentence game plan for each guy that I'm wrestling. And within the two sentence game plan, I'll kind of visualize what the match is going to be like before I even wrestle it, for sure.
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Okay, and when you're in a tournament, is that, I mean, is that something you're able to go back and do before every match, or is this something you're more doing before competition? Or is it both? I mean, how does that work?
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It's a little bit of both. I'd say most of it is done before I'm competing because then kind of once you get thrown in there, it's pretty hectic and stressful and you really have to rely on what you have done previously, what your natural instincts are previously that you've created through practice to help you while you're competing. But at the world championships this year, I remember times where I just won a match and then I had another tough guy in about an hour, and my coaches and training partners would come back and they would tell me, okay, this is what he does. This is what you should do. And Then I would visualize myself doing those things before I competed and I would repeat what the coaches said out loud. I would think about it in my head, and then once I was on the mat, it was time to get it done.
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Okay, good. So a lot of our listeners on this podcast, they're not athletes. You know, maybe they were formerly, but a lot of them aren't athletes. And maybe they're out going to, trying to accomplish something really cool in their career or just as parents or something else. So for all the people out there, you know, what advice would you have for someone outside of athletics who wants to kind of go out and pursue their dreams? Anything that you would tell them?
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Yeah, I would say, I would say first, you know, most simple reason. Do it because you love it. I wrestle because I honestly love the sport. I love going to practice. I love figuring out ways that I can score on my training partners in the room. I love figuring out new technique and, you know, and whatever you want to pursue, you want to do it because you love it with your whole heart and it makes you happy when you're, when you're doing whatever that is. And I think if you start, if you start anything on the basis of love, you know, most of the time, most of the time it's gonna, it's gonna grow. You're gonna be more motivated to complete the task or to improve. And whatever you're doing, you're going to just overall enjoy, enjoy what you're doing more. And I think that's, that's a big part of improving or reaching your goal in anything in life. Just enjoying the process, the process that I explained earlier and making sure that you're not just valuing the end product, but you're also valuing the work itself and what it takes to improve in your task, in whatever it is you want to do.
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Yeah, I think that's great advice. I mean, starting with the things that you love. And I think one thing you know, when, you know is when things get hard or they get challenging, I just, you know, that love, that passion for what you do is so important. And, you know, I could. Yeah, I mean, I could feel you just you talking about that and can you talk about that a little bit just before we go to our last two questions is how important is that passion? Like, you've gone through some challenges. How has that helped you get through those challenges?
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Yeah, I mean, you know, one, one event specifically this year, One of my goals for a long time was to be a four time NCAA champion. And this year I made it to the NCAA finals as a freshman, but I ended up losing and I took second place. And that was really hard for me. And I don't think, I think without this basis of just the fact that I love wrestling, it was pretty hard for me to get over the fact that I lost this match. And I can never, you know, become a four time champ or anything like that. But surprising, surprisingly now, it's almost like I never think about it and I can joke around about it with my friends and it's really no big deal because, you know, it's just wrestling and I do love it. But at the end of the day, at the end of the day, if the worst thing that ever happens to you is you, you lose a wrestling match or something goes wrong in your job or whatever it is, you're probably living a pretty good life.
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Yeah, I mean, that's a great perspective. And one of the last things I want to finish with is you're talking about love. And the one thing I would love and a lot of wrestling fans and Americans would love, would be to love to see you go out and win an Olympic gold next year. And you've made the decision to take a year off competing for Ohio State, where you just won a national title as a team, to kind of pursue this dream of being an Olympic champ. So what do you need to do to make that happen?
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Well, I think that I need to keep believing in the coaches and believing that I'm in the right environment here or wherever I'm training at, and keep pushing myself to become not only stronger physically, not only in better shape, but also a better technician in the sport of wrestling. And to all the people who would like me to see, would like to see me be an Olympic champion, I want to just let you know that I haven't lost any fire. Only I think, I think really only the fire has grown inside me. Only the hunger's grown to achieve, to achieve my goals personally. And you know, it's kind of crazy once, once you feel that way after a match, for me at least it's almost like I have to get, I have to get it again. I would at least really like to feel that way again. And I'm excited for the Olympic trials. I'm excited for all the work that needs to be put in before I go out there and compete in April and we'll just see what happens. Okay?
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And one more before I ask you the last question. I mean, Kyle, what do you do for fun? I mean, what do you do to Kind of unleash, unwind, just to kind of stay relaxed.
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Yeah. So actually learning how to play the piano right now, so.
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Nice.
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Yeah, that's been pretty cool. Learned how to play Jingle Bells today, so I'm slowly, slowly getting into some real music. But I like hanging out with my friends, hanging out with my family. I got a girlfriend, so, you know, talk to her FaceTime and stuff like that. But I pretty much do just the normal stuff that you would think college kids would do. I like hanging out with my friends, go to the movies, and I like any form of competition outside of wrestling. I like volleyball, basketball, football, chess. If one person, if it's a competition, then I'm probably going to be in nice.
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And so the future, you will be playing songs on your piano for your girlfriend at some point, right?
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That's the plan. That's the plan.
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Good.
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Maybe play. Maybe. Yeah, play, play some Christmas jams for everybody during Christmas break or something.
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Good. That, that's something most people don't know about. Kyle Snyder.
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He.
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He's going to become a world class piano player.
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Yeah. Yeah, we'll see, we'll see what happens this year. It's easy because I don't have any classes, so there you go. I can just go down, go down and practice on my keyboard, but we'll see what happens. Cool.
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Okay, final question. Anything else you would like to tell our listeners out there?
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Anything else that I'd like to tell the listeners? I think that one thing that I've learned, our head coach at Ohio State told us this last year, and I really believe in it, is that you can't be grateful and fearful at the same time. So what that means is, you know, you only get a couple moments. You only get the same moment once in life. Right. And when you have that moment, you want to take advantage of it. And don't fear, don't fear what the outcome is going to be. Don't fear that this person may be better than me at this. Just be grateful that you have the opportunity to even go out there and do what hopefully you love to do and make the most out of it. That's pretty much all I got.
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Well, awesome. Kyle, we so appreciate your time. All of the listeners, we're going to be rooting for you to go out and win Olympic gold this next year. Hoping you get a chance to just perform at that highest level, get to feel that feeling again. But just thank you so much for your time on this, on this podcast tonight.
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Yeah, thank you. I really appreciate you having me on it was a lot of fun. So thank you very much. All right, man.
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Best of luck with everything.
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Thank you.
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Hey, everybody. I hope you love this episode. If so, make sure that you subscribe to this podcast and tell other people about it. We want to spread the word. We want to impact more. More lives, and so make sure that you do that. If you're interested in personal development resources, head on over to coitcooper.com C-O-Y-T e c O-O-P-E-R.com and check it out. And as always, go out and live a charged life. You know, one where you're going out and you're pursuing your full potential and earn the right to live all your dreams. Have a great day, everybody.