Episode 106 Kyle Pierce - "Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home"

Former US and Ghana Olympic Weightlifting Coach, Kyle Pierce, sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development for the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:

 

0:30 1. Dr. Pierce, you are a world-renowned sports scientist. Let’s start here today. You once said the following:

 

“I wasn’t a very good athlete. It took me five years to get a half scholarship. I wasn’t doing things right. I wanted to figure out how can I do it better, and how can I help somebody else do it better. I’m still learning about how to help people with their performance in sports.”

 

Tell me about some of your day to day work today at LSUS.

 

2:03 2. We had Dr. James Andrews come and speak at the Y a couple of years ago. Like you, I believe, Dr. Andrews is strongly opposed to early sports specialization.

 

Talk to me about the dangers of early sports specialization and your perspective on why our kids should not specialize in one sport at too young of an age.

 

9:10 3. You have been the coach for US athlete, Kendrick Farris, at the Olympics, as well as the Head Coach for Ghana at the Olympics.

 

I thought this was amazing. I read that you had never traveled outside of the US until your 40s but just in recent months you had been everywhere from Saudi Arabia, Burundi, Rwanda, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, and Cuba.

 

Talk to me about some of the work you’re doing when you’re traveling to these different countries.

 

11:54 4. You were inducted into the International Weightlifting Federation Hall of Fame and I believe currently serve as the director of international relations at USA Weightlifting and are a member of the coaching and research committee with the International Weightlifting Federation.

 

On this podcast we often talk about why so many people have self-esteem issues when talking about Shreveport-Bossier being their home. For someone who Shreveport-Bossier has been great to and who has been great to Shreveport-Bossier, how have you managed to see Shreveport-Bossier as a great location for you to use as a home base, as a place that’s not limiting and as a place you can convince great people from all around the world to come to?