High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 467: Dreaming Big and Going For It with A.G. Kruger, 3-Time Olympian and Track Coach, University of South Dakota

Episode Date: November 22, 2021

Three-time Olympian A.G. Kruger III took over responsibilities as the University of South Dakota's throws coach in 2015. He enters his seventh year with the team this year. In his own competitive career, A.G represented the United States at the 2004 Athens, 2008 Beijing, and 2012 London Olympic Games in the hammer throw. He competed on a total of five World Championship teams and qualified for 15 U.S. National Championships. He holds a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) certification. In 2014, A.G. broke American records in the 35-pound weight throw and 56-pound ultra weight throw. He also holds the 35-39 age group World record for the throws pentathlon, a combined event consisting of the hammer throw, shot put, discus throw, javelin throw and weight throw. A.G. is a graduate of Morningside College where he was a NCAA Division II national champion and NCAA DII National Outdoor Male Track and Field Athlete of the Year. Fun fact, he went to the same high school as Cindra, the host of the podcast.   In this episode, A.G. and Cindra discuss: How to achieve success on the big stage How the best respond to adversity Why hard work will always pay off How the mindset of always getting better is key to success What to do when you feel like you don’t belong HIGH PERFORMANCE MINDSET SHOWNOTES FOR THIS EPISODE: www.cindrakamphoff.com/467 FB COMMUNITY FOR THE HPM PODCAST: https://www.facebook.com/groups/highperformancemindsetcommunity FOLLOW CINDRA ON INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/cindrakamphoff/ FOLLOW CINDRA ON TWITTER: https://twitter.com/mentally_strong TO FIND MORE ABOUT PETE AND HIS WORK: www.drkcoaching.com Love the show? Rate and review the show for Cindra to mention you on the next episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/high-performance-mindset-learn-from-world-class-leaders/id1034819901

Hey, my name is Cindra Campoff and I'm a small-town Minnesota gal, Minnesota nice as we like to say it, who followed her big dreams. I spent the last four years working as a mental coach for the Minnesota Vikings, working one-on-one with the players. I wrote a best-selling book about the mindset of the world's best and I'm a keynote speaker and national leader in the field of sport and performance psychology. And I am obsessed with speaker and national leader in the field of sport and performance psychology. And I am obsessed with showing you exactly how to develop the mindset of the world's best. So you can accomplish all your goals and dreams.

So I'm over here following my big dreams. And I'm here to inspire you and practically show you how to do the same. And you know, when I'm not working, you'll find me playing Miss Pac-Man. Yes, the 1980s game Miss Pac-Man. So take your notepad out, buckle up, and let's go. This is the high performance mindset. Oprah said, follow your passion. It will lead you to your purpose. Tony Bennett once said, if you follow your passion, you'll never work a day in your life. And today I have on the podcast A.G. Kruger, who said no matter what you do in life, hard work and dedication will always pay off. Welcome to episode 467. This is your host, Dr. Cendra Kampoff. And thank you so much for joining me here for the episode to listen to

A.G. Kruger talk about his success on the big stage and how dreaming big and going for it is key. So thank you so much for joining me. I'm grateful that you're here. A.G. is a three-time Olympian who took over the responsibilities as the throws coach at the University of South Dakota. He enters his seventh year on the team this year. In his own competitive career, A.G. represented the United States at the 2004 Athens, 2008 Beijing, and 2012 London Olympic Games in the hammer throw. He competed on a total of five world championship teams and qualified for 15 U.S. national championships. He also holds a certified strength and conditioning specialist certification. In 2014, A.G. broke American records in the 35-pound weight throw and the 56-pound ultra weight throw.

He also holds an age group world record for the throws pentathlon, which is a combined event of the hammer throw, shot put, discus throw, javelin throw, and weight throw. A.G. is a graduate of Morningside College, where he was the Division II National Champion and the NCAA Division II National Outdoor Track and Field Athlete of the Year. Fun fact, A.G. and I went to the same high school. I was just a few years ahead of him. And in this episode, we talk about how to achieve success on the big stage, how the best respond

to adversity, and why hard work will always pay off, how the mindset of always getting better is key to your success, and what you should do when you don't feel like you belong. For the full show notes and description, you can head over to cindracampoff.com slash 467, where I also have the transcription of this interview over there. Without further ado, let's bring on AG. Thank you so much for joining us here on the High Performance Mindset Podcast. To Sheldon Oroves, we went to the same high school, which is pretty cool. Yep, that's for sure. Many years later, we get to talk about mindset and getting to the Olympics. So how's your morning, Ben?

Not bad. You know, every morning, get kids ready for school, drop them off at school. Luckily, I have them going to the same school. They're 10 and 8 or 10 and 7. So I drop them off at the same school this year. So that's way easier. So it's good. So nice. Well, as we dive into your journey and the lessons we can learn from you, give us a sense versus kind of start us off and tell us a little bit about your passion and what you're excited about nowadays. You know, when I first started doing athletics and stuff like that, you know, I enjoyed football, basketball, track, and truly probably starting off football was my first passion of what I would love to do and things like that. But then as I went through college and I got down with college,

all of a sudden this track and field thing started going better and better. And throwing a hammer, which is a 16 pound ball on a four foot wire with a handle, became more and more attractive. And I kept on doing that. And throughout my years, decided to do that and kept on doing it. So now after my career is done, I decided, OK, let's let's start coaching it. Now, where I was at before with working with Joe Logan, he was he was a throws coach. So I was actually a strength coach there, but then got the opportunity in 2015 to move out here to USD and, uh, start, uh, start being a throws coach. Um, and now I get to teach what I've learned throughout my years to teach that to

younger kids. And that's been a lot of fun and being able to see, uh, some of that same passion I've had to be able to, of what I had to put into throwing it very far to getting other people to understand what they want to do to throw it far and stuff like that. It's been a lot of fun. And so, besides that, I like to hit a golf ball far, a long ways. It's not necessarily straight, but I can hit it pretty far. And then, you know, also spending time with the family and things like that. You know, we bought a new house last year, working on that, things like that. So, I just love doing a lot of stuff with family and things like that. And my group here, I try to make them more like a family and, you know,

just like a family, you have good times, we have bad times, but it's all good all the time. So. Yeah, I love it. I love it. Thanks for giving us a little snapshot of your journey. And we were on the same track team several years apart. I remember hearing about everything that you did in track when I was in college. So give us a sense of a little bit, you know, how you went from Sheldon, Iowa. So that's where AG and I both grew up to Morningside College, which is a Division II school to, you know, being a three-time Olympian. That seems like a big jump. So just kind of give us a sense of what that journey was like for you. Yep. So, you know, I decided I was kind of, my two choices of schools by the time I got done with high school was either the University of Iowa to walk on,

play football, or go to Morningside and be able to do track and football both. And I'm actually dyslexic. So having that as a part of what who i am um i decided to go morningside with a little bit smaller class sizes and be able to do that and that ended up working out really really well to be able to do that um and then went to morningside did football and track both throughout my four years there um but then at the end of my time there track and field just kept on going better and better, and so I was like, okay, and I needed the next semester then, so that was four years, and then the next semester, I student taught at East High there in Sioux City, did that, and then was still there for a semester

of substitute teaching and doing different things, worked at Sears and stuff like that, just trying to get, make ends meet, but I was still training and stuff like that trying to throw a hammer for um once i was done with that um i actually was at the u.s national meet um and judd logan who's my my mentor my coach my friend um god love him and appreciate everything he's done for me asked me to move out to ohio he's like i don't have a job i don't have a place for you to stay i don't have food for you nothing like that come out here and let's make an olympic team in 04 um and i knew that's what i needed i needed uh instead of me trying to do everything and and use all my energy to figure out what i was doing for training let's just listen to someone and do what they say and there we go and if i if i do that and i give it my effort that will that will work out the best and

so i'm moving out to ohio in fall 2002 um my mom still thought i would never get in my car and go but i knew that was my next step that what I needed to take. I needed that next guidance, you know, himself being a four-time Olympian. I figure, okay, he's the guy. And if I'm going to say any guy in the United States to go to that's the guy to go to. So we had about a training group of about nine post-collegiate athletes there at Ashland, which was a lot of fun.

But all worked out there. All trained, pushed hard. And really funny enough, throughout the first about year and a half, I was kind of sitting there going, OK, I'm doing good, but I'm not to that level. Next step level. And then then I still remember there's a practice in like March when all of a sudden all my hammers practice hammer started going further than everyone else's. And I just start boom, boom, boom. And even just like, are you doing OK? I'm like, oh, no, I'm doing great. it just feels it just feels easy he's like awesome okay keep it going like it just it just started flowing and then and then had this big big push through that and and uh one of the known unknown facts was so i didn't have the standard i got second the olympic trials but i didn't have the standard well you still could chase the standard about three weeks after the trials

were done so i literally hit the standard with like two days to go or something like that for the when you could still do it so i hit it got it got everything submitted i'm on a plane i'm flying like so literally like four days later i'm on a plane heading over to athens so head over to athens i get there i go to check in the village oh you're not in the system sorry you you're not go to check in the village. Oh, you're not in the system. Sorry. You, you're not allowed to be in the village. USA track and field USA track and field didn't send the one paperwork over that had my mark submitted on that. So here I am calling in Athens, Greece, calling back to Judd,

trying to get that figured out. They're trying to fax it over all these different things at this point too, with all changes. I've been up for like 26, 28 28 hours i don't really know what's going on they're like go to the village we're getting you a pasture leg go take a sleep be here by nine o'clock in the morning of course i overslept guards are coming to find me but finally get checked in everything like that and then kind of the rest is history so yeah well that's an interesting story it also makes you realize just how flexible and adaptable you have to be. I think especially in high level competition like that and how it can be really, I guess you can get you can let things really get under your skin.

Right. I could imagine you could have gone to the worst case scenario in that moment. And it's like, well, you're going to be able to compete at the Olympics and, you know, all that kind of trash talk. And let alone that, most people, especially when you get to like a bigger track event or especially the Worlds or Olympic Games, what you don't realize is you're used to doing your whole process, boom, boom, boom, right to the point you go and get on the track or get in the ring and throw. Well, what they have there are call rooms. And call rooms, you go and you sit in there for like 30 minutes. And, you know, here's 24 very large human beings in this tiny, tiny room that's not much bigger than my office here.

And you all have to sit in there and wait for 30 minutes. So you can't do anything. You can't warm up. And then you go back out. So it's a whole process of things, which, you know, when you first start doing this, you kind of understand it. But then until you do it, you're like, oh, wow. OK. okay you know it's like my always biggest suggestion when when uh new athletes make the olympic teams i'm like hey guys just go walk a lot in your training go get ready to walk a lot in your training because that's all you do when especially you're in the village you're going to different venues things like that you you don't get rides everywhere you have to you're walking extra miles that you're not used to so just get used to doing that just around when you're training and things like that and stuff like that just to get yourself used to that because it is also you're like oh wow like i'm not used to doing all this i'm used to driving right up to my ring getting out right there i throw and stuff like that and

this way you you have to walk with three hammers carrying them around and stuff like that so it's a lot different yeah that makes complete sense that it's like, okay, you know, replicate everything in your training so that you aren't too exhausted at the games and you can't perform your best. So AG, at what point did you feel like the Olympics was possible for you? Like, do you think it was just, can you give us that point where it was like, oh, wow, was it the point that you're just kind of describing where everything just

kind of clicked or when was it? You know, funny enough, it was that March date. It was like March 22nd or something like that. And I remember because me and my one main training partner that I threw against and he was Derek Wutzke. He's from Canada. And so we were training together. And I remember I threw one out the right sector and I'm like, ah, OK. I'm like, oh, that was like 68, 69 meters. And he's like, like dude that was like 73 50 74 so which was like a three meter PR for me overall and this was just in training and just kind of happened and I remember measuring that out and Judson they're going that was that far I'm like I guess so I don't know and it just like all of a sudden holy cow it just kind of things started to kind of click and kind of like oh all these things he's

been telling me for the last year and a half all these things I've watched in video and things like that started kind of coming together, you know? And it's like, you know, you sometimes look at a puzzle, this big old puzzle you have in front of you and you kind of can get the corners, you kind of get the edges, blah, blah. But then all of a sudden, when all of a sudden you get like this bigger part in the middle there, like, oh, now I see it. And then you just boom, boom, boom, boom. And you just finish the puzzle because you start to see the full picture come together and like, oh, now I see it. And then you just boom, boom, boom, boom. And you just finish the puzzle because you, you start to see the full picture come together and like, okay, now I get it and I can do it. And that's kind of when that puzzle started all coming together and it just, I just hard pushing that I kept on going. So.

Yeah, that's wonderful. I could imagine that felt really incredible for it all to come together in that moment. That's great. So tell us a little bit about what mindset principles that you think that it took to, you know, it? Seventh grade year of football. And it's funny enough, I still remember this and stuff like that. But here at our practice, and we're doing a practice, in seventh grade football, you know, it's kind of herd and calf. We're all kind of going around everywhere, you know, stuff like that. But I remember back then, a coach there for me, and I'm not going to name his name, but a coach there for me,

sat there and looked at me and he's like, all you're going to ever be is a big, fat, dumb lineman. Don't worry about it. And I remember taking that to heart being, and I wasn't a big guy at the time. I was, I think I was only 5'10", 5'9", kind of skinny. But I remember sitting there thinking, I'm like, well, I'm not being pigeonholed that way. There's no way you can tell me exactly who I'm going to be for the rest of my life. There's no way you can do that. And in the back of my head throughout so many years, I always took that as a like a little bit of a like spur on like I'm going to use that because I'm not I'm not just that person. I can be a lot of different things. And so

for all my years, I mean, I, you know, from when I through high school and and being so active in all those different sports, but then to college and, you know, Morningside wasn't the greatest back then. And I'm glad they're doing well now. Coach Ryan's doing a great job. But back then we struggled at the Division II because we're still going against NDSU, USD, UND, all these same schools that now are doing well in the Division I FCS era.

But I remember saying, well, it doesn't matter what they're doing. I can train, I can work as hard as I possibly can and good things will happen. And all I can do is as much as I can for myself to help the team out. But that's where that's where it kind of shifted my love a little bit more from probably football more to track and field, because in football, you're when you're on one time, you're banking on the fact that 10 other guys are thinking that same way for you the great thing with track and field is when you're a thrower it's you in the ring and that's all you got and so whatever outcome good or bad it's on you and i appreciate that and i and i always say that track and field is kind of still the last purest sport because you either throw further or you don't you run faster you jump higher whatever it is or you don't it's pretty straightforward and that's what I love about it because it all comes down to you

now with that comes a lot of pressure into what that is but I really think from my my gap from there going up to making Olympic games and continuing making Olympic games I think I think it more was probably the confidence and what I did and the confidence from when I especially competed. Now, I'll be honest, I'm the first one to say I struggled at the international level. But a lot of people don't know was when I was at the international level for a month and a half before that, I was a strength coach full time. So I'm working with football for 60 hours a week, all the way up to the point I get on a plane, then I head over and stuff like that. So I wasn't physically getting myself the best place that I could have been. But it mainly was the focus of what I was trying to do was the confidence in what I was doing and when I competed, knowing what I could do. And that came from my

preparation, you know, and with that, it wasn't just physical preparation, but it was my mental preparation, my mental reps, all these different things. You know, people, people always laughed at me or were kind of just like, dude, you're insane. Cause you're like this, this, this, this, this. And, and my wife would probably say, you're a little insane. I'm like, yeah, because I set myself in a rhythm with exactly what I wanted to do. And, you know, I started being a head strength coach in 2008. So from 2008, all the way through that, I had a full time job and how I did it was every 10 minutes of my day counted. And I had a purpose for every 10 minutes of the day. And, you know, especially one time I was in church. And what what the pastor said to us was, you know, have to have purpose and direction. I'm like, literally, that's my life, because everything I do has purpose and direction.

I don't go out and drink on the weekends because that doesn't help with my purpose and direction. That only hinders me. I'm not the most talented athlete, especially when I'm talking about hammer throw. And the group of guys I was against internationally, I was the low end of the totem pole when it came to genetic gifts. I wasn't the high end. So for me to ever become competitive, I had to do everything right and try to treat my body the best I possibly can. Because if not, I'm not going to make it. And I knew that.

And that was part of my preparation of saying, hey, you know, those guys are going out. But guess what? I need to be back. I need to get my good eight to nine hours of sleep. I need to be ready for training the next day so I can keep on building these blocks to make my base bigger and stronger and be able to be better at it. So that's the biggest thing about it. It's having, you know, and knowing within you did everything you can to be the best. And that's, and that's, that's basically what I think you need to try to do. Excellent. There's a couple

of things there, AG, that I heard like trust in yourself and you get a lot of confidence in your own self commitment to your big dreams. And regardless of, you know, what other people were doing around you, you stay committed. And I appreciate that you gave us that comment in seventh grade football. It's a really interesting thing that I see with athletes that I've worked with at the professional level. It's like they've all had comments like that. And instead of taking it to heart and believing it, they've had this sort of like watch me mentality, meaning that they've taken that comment and said,

watch me, I'm gonna prove you wrong. And that's what I heard. And it's really interesting that that fueled you instead of allowing you to believe that. And I guess what would you give, what advice would you give other people who may be, because I think we hear things like that, unfortunately, right, where people put us down, maybe not as strongly or as boldly, but, you know, other people might limit our potential or say, yeah, that's, that's, that's, it's too big of a dream. You know, there's no way you can get to the Olympics or whatever that Olympic size goal might be for you who's listening. Yep. You know, the biggest thing about it is like,

you know, people that are trying to put you down or try to make you second guess yourself aren't there to help you. And that's the biggest thing is like, and I knew that guy wasn't there to help me, but I use it as fuel to say, okay, I'm going to prove that person wrong. The biggest thing about it is get yourself with it. And this is the easiest thing to say, okay, I'm going to prove that person wrong. The biggest thing about it is get yourself with it. And this is the easiest thing to say. Get yourself with a network of people that believe the same way you believe. You know, and one thing is me as a coach now, you know, the one thing I'm going to say is like, hey, listen, I'm going to get you to the highest potential that your body can do that you can do for what you can do. Now, some of you might stop at the collegiate level and that's okay,

but I'm going to try to push you as hard as you can to get yourself to that level because not everyone's going to make the Olympic games. Not everyone's going to do that. But if you have those dreams, let's talk about what's actually capable of within your dreams. And, you know, honestly, when I moved out there to Ohio and I started working with Judd, that's the biggest thing about that was he was able to unlock in my own mind more than even thought I could be. And that's a person I put around me. My parents are, I put around me that the person I started dating and now married to and have kids with, that's the person to help me really say, okay, I can do this. Give me the confidence and,

and a good structure around me to be able to say, I can do these things and I'm going to help support you in those things. Because I tell you what, being an Olympic thrower, which is, you know, you make the millions and millions of dollars. Wait a second. No, you don't. Yeah, exactly. But the sacrifices, the boys training on Sundays and things like that, that, you know, are probably spending time with your now fiance and now wife. All these different things going to different meets stuff like that um all these different things when we're doing all these things in training and oh we're gonna go see your family okay i need to find a gym i need to find this i need you know and all these different things are all these different stuff but if you're around the right people that supports

you within that it makes it a lot easier and that's the biggest thing about it i still remember back so i'll tell you my bad case scenario when I was in. Well, now I'm in my good case scenario, which was and I'm going to say his name, Terry Aarons, Mr. Aarons. You remember Mr. Aarons? Who was probably one of the toughest teachers at Sheldon and one of the toughest coaches. But what I realized from him and what I really can take from him that I really learned and kept with me was that no matter what hard work and dedication will always pay off you know and that's the biggest thing about it is like no matter what you do in life hard work and dedication of what your craft or whatever you're trying to do will pay off now I'll be honest in his classes I did not do well I'm dyslexic so I sucked at

English classes it's okay but within coaching with him and understanding that and, and watching how hard he pushed me to try to be the best I can be, you know, that really kind of spurred me on to say, okay, I can, I can kind of do some neat things if I keep on pushing myself and things like that. And I, and I really appreciate a lot of those coaches throughout my line of when I, you know, in college, I had three different throws coaches. So, I mean, even in there, I had three different throws coaches. So, I mean, even in there,

I had three different views and things like that. And so, I really appreciate all these people that have been in my life that really helped push me on there. But that's the biggest thing is get around people that believe in you. And if they don't, well, then guess what? They're not there for you anyway. So, don't worry about it. Yeah, I love that. And I love that, you know, you're talking about coaches and just the power of coaches, which you are one now, kind of shows you just, you know, how it can really shape your mentality to get around people that support you. So, A.G., I know you mentioned that you were dyslexic a few times. And I'm thinking about how, you know, people who are listening might be overcoming some kind of similar type of adversity or, you know, just we all experience adversity and setbacks.

So tell us a bit about how overcoming that and dealing that helped you, you know, get to where you are now. You know, when I first found out about that and, you know, throughout my whole, you know, for us, we have Iowa tests of basic skills. And for it was, I always did very, very well in the math and science portion of it. And then the reading and comprehension stuff I did very poorly on. And most of the time it was, when I especially first started taking those, it wasn't the fact that I couldn't understand the content. I couldn't do it.

It was, it took me so long that I never could finish the test. Like that part of it, I always did poorly on because I never could finish it. And probably the hardest thing for me, like my wife loves to sit down and like she read your book. She loves reading your book. That is one of the most hard things for me to do personally is sit down and just read a book and enjoy it because it's not enjoyable because I have to read it so slow to comprehend it. And it's not that I can't read it. I can read anything fast. Then they say, well, what is that about? I have no clue, it's just my comprehension, because of, I have to go so slow to be able to make sure the words, all the things aren't flipping in my head, and things like that, that it takes a lot for me, and what I learned was, it's not something I'm going to take as a

detriment, it's going to something, okay, this is something that God gave me to work on, and I need to be better at it, I need to keep on working on it. And that's what I did. You know, I, I graduated college. I am now coach. I'm professional. I'm a coach. Um, you know, I'm actually getting my MBA right now. I mean, I'm able to write papers. I'm able to do all these things. Now, what I got to do is once I read my rough draft, I got to make sure I look through it because there are some crazy stuff that goes on with first draft, but that's okay. I, but it's taking me time to refine my skills and refine my tool. I'm never going to be as fluent a writer as a lot of people, but I can do my things and it's hard work again. It's not, it's not taking

it as a, you know, the biggest thing I think is a lot of people want to use certain things as excuses. You know, I could easily use dyslexia as an excuse and say, okay, I don't need to do these things or I'm going to have someone else do all the work for me. No, I'm going to use it as something as a tool to say, OK, this makes me work harder and challenge myself. So now I have to be able to do things a little bit better. And that's what I use it for. And that and I would say that kind of battle started me up to what athletically I try to do and try to try to try to overcome and do. Yeah, I appreciate you saying that. So I'm hearing also just like accepting

of the dyslexia, right? And not using an excuse, but seeing as a way that you can continue to grow and improve and still be your best. So thanks for sharing that. You know, one thing, A.G., I'm curious about is three Olympic games. So the three you went to, let's see, were Athens, Beijing and London.

Do I got that right? Yep. Yep. Tell us a little bit about the differences between those three competitions. And, you know, were there any differences from a mindset perspective or what you had to overcome? So funny enough, in 2004, you know, Judd and I would sit down and talk, and he's like, you know, our whole goal is to make that one throw, to make the standard, to make you to the Olympic team. And so when that finally happened, I was like, okay, good, blah, blah, blah.

The whole thing we kind of, and it's not we, it's kind of I, I forgot about it. It's like, okay, now I've got to compete again, and I've got to do this whole other competition. And the craziest thing, I sort of vividly remember this i remember sitting in the sitting in the um the seats for athletes at the at the venue at the hammering i'm sitting there i remember sitting around looking because these are all the people around me that where i watch videos on to say this is how i'm going to make my technique look this is

i'm going to use seismic zeoloski i'm going to use koji marifushi i'm going to use all these guys which i know the the regular listeners and they're going like who but these are all these people i watch videos on to be able to say this is what my own my technique to kind of look at so yeah and i remember it was probably right before my first throw i sat there and i remember thinking about like okay when do i get these guys autographs like oddly enough like it's like because it still hadn't clicked to me that i was a part of that group you know it was like more of like I was just kind of like that oh hey this is awesome you know something like that I was only I think what 24 25 something like that so it's really kind of newbie kind of coming in and you know when I get done and I I'll be honest I can

remember almost every throw in my life and every competition I had I don't remember a single one from that competition I don't remember anything because it came so fast. It, you know, Judd said, oh, you'll have maybe eight, 10,000 people on the stands. There's 25,000 people on the stands watching us at nine o'clock in the morning for hammer, hammer qualification, all these different things. I'm like, oh my gosh, you know, doing Olympic ceremonies, all this stuff, you know, besides my children being born, me getting married, walking out of the tunnel in 04, chanting USA with Team USA with 500 plus people was absolutely amazing. And just all the emotions, all these different things, because that's, again, what I built my whole trying to do and do for. And it's just absolutely amazing.

But so that one was more a spectator. In 08, it was better because I was, okay, more focused and things like that. Um, probably the thing that hurt me the most there was I probably still, I was, so I was there as a competitor, but I still didn't see myself as a competitor there yet. I still didn't see myself as, okay, I have the confidence and really to be able to do that and stuff like that. At 2012, I would say I was better with that. I tried to compete at a better level.

I was in a better situation there. Unfortunately, physically, I had a few things that were just kind of boogered up with me. My right knee was kind of, uh, things like that. And within hammer throw, if your right knee is boogered up and you're a right-handed thrower, it kind of, you just don't have it. So, but it still was good. I felt like it was, I felt finally there was kind of putting things together to finally be able to there compete um but just three great experiences three great times being there um you know again my wife hit

me in the head saying you know it's amazing the things you've accomplished being from where you from and like without a doubt you know I mean I can't I can't say that there's let alone a lot of people that say I want to try to go do olympic trials let alone make olympic teams do these things like that so i feel very fortunate in doing that and that in my retrospective coming back through and looking at all those i feel very fortunate you know felt good about what i did in 2016 i just got fourth at trials instead of third and that's why i didn't make olympic team in 16th so it's what it is and and that's again what i appreciate about track and field if i would have got third i would have made the team if i got i got fourth okay what it is so but still a lot of fun great journey you're absolutely accurate i mean i wish i would go to

the olympics three times or have gone there so yeah so uh yeah yeah appreciating what you've all the experiences and i could only imagine what it was like in 2004 to walk in the opening ceremonies with the U.S. team. And, you know, just like all your hard work and dedication, really, like, you could probably, you could feel it in your body in that moment, I could imagine. You know, one thing I'm kind of hearing, AG, is that maybe in 2004, it was, you know, maybe, maybe you didn't feel like you quite belong yet. You know, that was like, oh, wow, all these, these are the people I've been aspiring to be. So, and I think a lot of athletes might feel that way. Maybe they don't recognize it in the moment. Maybe it's retrospective, but what advice would you give athletes or just, you know, I think this also can happen in business, in the board or just, you know, I think this also

can happen in business, in the boardroom where, you know, you're sitting around the table and you look around and you wonder really, do you belong here? Even though you've worked your tail off together and you clearly have the skills and the ability. So I'm curious, you know, what, what advice would you give people? Cause we can all experience that where we don't quite feel like we belong or, you know, that so many more people are more successful than we are. You know, my biggest thing and what I did and what, especially what Judd told me to do too, is like, start talking to people, start asking people, start asking those same people questions

and seeing their journey, their things. Cause he's like, oddly enough, it's going to be the same as you. It's really going to be very similar to what that is. And, and, you know, I would say probably almost every one of who are successful people will always ask questions and always ask if they don't know, they're going to find out because that's part of searching for being great is if I don't know the answer, I'm going to find that out, you know? And, and the funny enough, you know, with the, with even in the training of what I'm doing with my athletes here, you know, I always tell them if we're doing something and you ask me the question, why? And I can't answer the question. We probably shouldn't be doing it. But then also when I that kind of looks back into when I was training and when I was competing and I'm against these guys and we sit there and we'd be after the meet or something like that.

We're sitting in stands like, hey, so what kind of things are you doing right now? Like, what are the things like, you know, in training and things like that? Or what what do you like to do on the outside? Because oddly enough, you start there and figure out like all these guys are going through these similar paths and things like that. And so it was fun to be able to do that. So really, I would say, don't be afraid to ask someone a question. And I think, you know, everyone gets set in to think that what they're doing or how they're doing it is the perfect way of doing it. And yet there's so many different ways to be successful at all these different things we're doing in life. You know, there's not just one path. There's multiple paths of getting there.

And so don't be afraid to ask that question. And, you know, I used to have a lot of different people when I'd go to meets and, you know, Judd was a full-time coach with the university. So I was usually at meets by myself. So even in the United States, I was at meets by myself. So if there was a coach watching me after the meet, I would go ask them, what did you see? What, what, what things do you see I need to work on? Or, you know, when I, I love working, you know, Stuart Toggers passed away, but I love working with Stuart. He was a great man of knowing the knowledge of hammer. And anytime he had something to say, I would write it down and know what that was, because

that was important. That was important things to look at and say, how can I use that in my throat? Not the fact that I'm going to totally change my technique. That's the biggest thing. I think, think, I think people asking questions to people, a lot of times think they have to totally change what they're doing when they find something new out. No, you don't need to change things. And I'm taking from Judd here. You have your wheel, 90% of your wheel stays the same, 10% changes every year. And you work all your time to figure out that 10%, but 90% of that wheel stayed the same. And so you try to find these little things and add that 10%, 5% maybe really works. 5% really doesn't work. And so you keep on adjusting your wheel a little bit.

And some things you add into that 90%, some things you take and say, Nope, we're not doing that ever again. And I've done that as a coach. I've done that as an athlete. Oh, let's try this. Nope. Doesn't work. Let's throw it out. Like within one session, we're sitting there, Judd and I looking at each other like, yeah, let's not ever do that again. That was just stupid. You know what I mean? But it's trying things out and don't be on top of that when you're trying things out, don't be afraid of failure. You're not supposed to be good at everything right off the bat. You know, it's just that's

the way you have to challenge yourself to become great at things and really work at yourself to be better at something. And I think that's very important too, is don't be afraid of what a failure is. Failure is just another chance to get yourself better. Because I always say that, especially young athletes, don't work on the things that you're good at. If you're good at shooting three-pointers in basketball, don't keep on working on three-pointers all the time. Work on maybe trying to rebound and see the ball come off.

Work on the things in your game that aren't good, because those are the things that are going to make you better. Working on things you're not good at is what's going to make you better. Working on things you're good at. I love throwing hammers. I hated the weight room, but I learned to say, okay, I need to love the weight room a little bit more. Heck, I became a strength coach for a while. Learn how to love what that is because that's what's going to make everything better for me. Yeah, AG, love that. Failures is another chance to get better. And you were always asking for advice. And I thought what you said about just tweaking that 10%, you know, getting better.

But it's not about reinventing the wheel. And I think sometimes people do think that where they have to change up their whole technique. But maybe it's just really about tweaking these small things. Great advice. So when you broke the American record in the weight throw and I guess both weight throws, right, the 35 and the 56. Tell us about what that was like and just to have your name as you know attached to an american record yep so so those those ones are for the master's world record so lance deal still holds a big world record or the american record for that but for that uh i did a throws pentathlon which i broke the the world record in the throws pentathlon from age 35 to 40 um basically judd was doing it for his age record

for his master's world record and i was kind of done with my season he's like well I'm going to do this you want to do the throw spin task and I'm like ah sure I'll try it and I kind of did it at a whim but I kind of trained for all four events so I was actually training throwing javelin discus chop it and then hammer and weight um knowing that my hammer weight was going to be my strong ones and things like that so doing that was a lot of fun and and just kind of enjoyed um but actually it was kind of fun because the guys who had the American record and stuff before me came to that meet and competed against me. So it was fun to kind of do it against it. It was just a lot of fun. Just let's throw things far.

Let's have fun. And, you know, that's the fun thing about the throwing community is like everyone wants to just throw far. It's just whoever comes up on top at the end of the day, okay, great. If you don't, whatever, it doesn't matter. So it was a lot of fun. You know, it was probably one of my more of my enjoyable moments of just going out there and throwing against a bunch of guys having fun doing it. Judd got to break a couple of award records there too. And when he was thrown with that too, and it was a lot of fun, just kind of fun day and had a pig roast afterwards, stuff like that. So it's just, you know, of course,

a thrower thing, just a bunch of bunch of throwing things for yelling in and and eat a bunch of food so it's a lot of fun that sounds awesome well what great advice today ag that you've given us um here's kind of some of the things i wrote down that we chatted about it's always nice to uh summarize this at the end for people and they can jot some notes down i appreciated what how you defined failures is another chance to get better and that you gave us some examples of ways that you were always just tweaking that five or 10 percent and asking questions. I also appreciate your vulnerability of just telling us about that seventh grade football coach. You know, you were you were able to kind of take that and use that as fuel and develop this kind of like watch me mentality. I also appreciated hearing, you know, just how things started clicking for you. And I think that gives athletes a lot of hope or just all of us a lot of hope that we're,

you know, every day we're grinding and we're putting in the time and it all said, boom, you know, it all fits together. And then, you know, just what you said about surrounding yourself with people that really are there to support you, to build you up. What what final advice would you give to people, you know, that you think is in your heart today? You know, the biggest thing about it is I'm going to say whatever passion you have for what you're doing. And that could be in your job, could be your family, stuff like that. Whatever passion you have, don't be afraid to work hard at it. You know, I think so many people look at a job, like I could look at my job here and say, oh, this should just be a 40 hour a week job and things like that. But I love coaching. I love working with my athletes. I love being able

to find new athletes to be able to be a part of this group and become great and better. Whatever that realm is for that person. For some people, greatness is making sure they get their degree. I have a kid that I'm trying to talk into coming back for his fifth year, but he's going to med school, and there's no way I can talk about going to med school, but yet he's going to hopefully be an All-American this year, but he wants to go, he's going to med school, and he's not going to come back for the fifth year, so whatever that realm of greatness of what that needs to be and whatever passion you have for that, just make sure you're around people that will help you with that passion, grow that passion and be able to make sure that you can just achieve the greatest

things you can. And, you know, don't, don't let people that are trying to say bad things about that. That's just fuel, man. Don't, don't let that bother you. Don't, I've had people second guess what I've done, say bad things. And this is not just from back in seventh grade. This is all the way throughout my whole career and things like that. All these different things. And it's just just don't listen to them because guess what? They're not there for you. Be around people that are there for you and great things will happen. Awesome. Love it. Well, keep up the good work there at University of South Dakota. I was reading about all of your athletes accomplishments and I'm like, whoa, you know, that's the best place to be. If people want to follow along with you or connect with you, how might they do that, A.G.?

You know, honestly, you can get right on the website. My cell phone and email is right on the website there for you. USD.edu or goyotes.com and be able to do that. Or I do have a facebook page where i which probably i checked probably the most i'm just my regular name in there it's probably the best way i have a twitter account or something like that but i don't i i'm bad at social media so facebook's about my go-to that i go to every day other than that i'm tough with instagram and all that other stuff so uh just yeah shoot me a message on that too and it's not a problem i love talking about

i love talking about journeys and passion and things like that or whatever it is. Yeah, shoot me something out and I'll be able to respond. Awesome. Thank you, A.G. I'm so grateful for your time today. And thanks so much for gifting us

with your time and your wisdom. Not a problem. Thank you very much, Sandra. Way to go for finishing another episode of the High Performance Mindset. I'm giving you a virtual fist pump. Holy cow, did that go by way too fast for anyone else? If you want more, remember to subscribe.

And you can head over to Dr. Sindra for show notes. And to join my exclusive community for high performers, where you get access to videos about mindset each week. So again, you can head over to Dr. Sindra. That's D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A.com. See you next week.