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Wrestling Changed My Life (Wrestling Podcast)

#169 Bruce Burnett - 4x Olympic Coach, Hall of Famer

Wrestling Changed My Life (Wrestling Podcast)

Wrestling Changed My Life

Sports

4.91.1K Ratings

🗓️ 8 October 2020

⏱️ 70 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Four-time Team USA Olympic Coach Bruce Burnett is our guest today. Bruce is known as one of the great coaches of all time. A brilliant tactician who developed a mastery of studying film. Bruce has been inducted into numerous hall of fames and currently resides in North Idaho. In this episode we talk about Bruce’s coaching career, John and Pat Smith, and the 1992 Olympics. BIO: Bruce Burnett was the U.S. National Freestyle Coach for USA Wrestling from 1992-2000. During his tenure, the U.S. won World Team Titles at the 1993 and 1995 World Freestyle Championships and captured five medals at the 1996 Olympics. The 2000 Olympic squad won four medals. Burnett was named USA Wrestling Freestyle Coach of the Year in 1995 and 1996 and the U.S. Olympic Committee Coach of the Year for 1996. A North High graduate, Burnett was a two-time State Champion with a 55-3 record, winning the state meet's outstanding wrestler award in 1970. He then wrestled at the University of Idaho, where he was a Big Sky Champion and undefeated in dual meets. PHOTO: Tony Rotundo SPONSOR This episode is brought to you by the Wrestling Changed My Life online store. We have podcast T-Shirts, Hoodies, Crew-necks, Stickers and more. Go to Store.WrestlingChangedMyLife.com to shop. ABOUT THE WRESTLING CHANGED MY LIFE PODCAST Hosted by Ryan Warner, the Wrestling Changed My Life Podcast features in-depth interviews with wrestlers and coaches to learn how the sport shaped and molded their lives. By stitching together stories of sacrifice, triumph, defeat and perseverance, the Podcast takes the listener deep inside the world’s oldest sport. New episodes are released every Monday and Wednesday. FOLLOW THE PODCAST WrestlingChangedMyLife.com

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to the show, folks. This is wrestling change my life. Here we go.

0:03.6

I filled up more passports. I've been all over the world and what you find is

0:10.6

the things that drive people as a family and a country, they're the same.

0:19.0

We can adore anything and adapt and pivot and change.

0:24.5

Wrestling gave us that ability. I would say nothing in life has impacted me

0:29.2

the things wrestling has taught me in terms of self-reflection, resilience. Stop

0:34.4

this. Some guys have it, some guys don't. Adversity, 100% how to pick myself up and be a man after I

0:41.0

failed. And everything that has shaped my life and what I'm at today would not be there without

0:48.0

the values and basically the lessons I've learned to the sport of wrestling. For me wrestling

0:53.2

will save my life because it allowed me to focus and channel my energy.

0:59.3

We're fortunate if you wrestled because if you wrestled natural talent helps but it's

1:07.2

5% of the ingredient. It pales in comparison to heart and technique and effort.

1:14.0

It humbled me, taught me humility. Nothing can humble you more than wrestling.

1:19.3

I think it's the learning to adapt, right? You learn how to adapt. You learn how to solve problems.

1:26.0

No, probably back in my time that's good wrestling. If you give me one thing more than anything else

1:29.8

it's mental toughness. Ladies and gents, happy Friday from the Wendy City. Come and do you a

1:36.3

little bit late this week with our second episode. But nonetheless it's here. We have Bruce Burnett,

1:41.8

one of the great coaches of the past 30 years or so. Bruce is coached at four Olympic games. He

1:49.0

was the head coach at Navy for many years. He was the head coach of Team USA freestyle for many

1:55.3

years. But back in 1987 through 1990 he coached Oklahoma State and he had a chance to be around the

2:02.0

great John Smith, the great Pat Smith, Kenny Monday. And I really had a fun time hearing about all

2:07.2

these stories. So I hope you enjoy it folks. Fan of the week goes to my man Nick George who just had a

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