#TeamUSATuesday: Men's Freestyle World Team member Tyler Graff

Photo of Tyler Graff competing at the World Championships by Mark Lundy.

Tyler Graff is the No. 1 wrestler at 61 kg on the Men’s Freestyle National Team. In September, he placed fifth at the World Championships in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. This was his first time making the Senior World Team.
While Tyler is not ready to disclose which weight class he’s moving to for his run at the 2020 Olympic Games, he took some time to answer a bunch of other questions for us.
What is your favorite movie?
Men of Honor


Who is your favorite musical artist?
A little bit of everything, but it depends on time and place. I guess classic rock.


What is your favorite food?
I like Mexican food. I also like fried chicken.
What is your favorite sport to watch other than wrestling?
I don’t know much about it, but I like ski shooting, the cross country skiing. I think tennis is cool to watch and really any combat sports too.
Did you play any other sports growing up?
I did gymnastics when I was a kid before I got into wrestling. I started when I was three or four and did it until I was seven or eight. When I found wrestling, I started to split from that. I played one year of peewee football and some tee ball.


Who is your favorite wrestler to watch either past or present?
I love watching Kevin Jackson. Donny Pritzlaff because I’m specifically close with him. Even Reece Humphrey. I like watching guys I’m close with. As far as people I’m not necessarily around, I like watching guys from the World Championships in the 1990s and early 2000s. Those were the guys that were winning titles when I was growing up.
What are some of your other hobbies off of the mat?
I spend a lot of time with my family. We like to go hiking and do outdoors types of stuff. My dad and my brother are big-time hunters. I never really got into hunting, but I enjoy going on the trips. I’m a pug lover. My wife and I have a little pug. We’re thinking about getting another.


What is your biggest fear?
I would have to say spiders.


Do you have any plans once your wrestling career is over?
I like helping people, coaching comes naturally to me, and I like doing it. That’s one of the first things that comes to mind, but you never know.
How did you first get involved in wrestling?
My dad saw that I had a lot of energy. I watched the WWE, the WWF at the time, and I always thought that stuff was real. I had a younger sister, and I started getting curious to see if I could jump off the couch and drop a “People’s Elbow” on her. My dad figured it would be pretty good to get me into something physical and asked me if I wanted to do wrestling or try karate. It was a really tough choice, but I went with wrestling. When I got in there, I was like what is this, there’s no ring or anything. Once I started learning more about it, I fell in love with it pretty quickly.
Growing up near Colorado Springs, did you utilize the Olympic Training Center?
The Olympic Training Center was vital to my growth and development and my basis, mentally, physically and skill-wise. A lot of fundamentals were built from Kevin Jackson. He’s really who I learned from about what it really meant to be a World and Olympic champion. When I was young, he brought his Olympic medal and his belt to a wrestling clinic. I remember holding it, and it was a very special day and a big moment in my life. It showed me really what I wanted to do.
When I was eight or nine years old, was the first time I got to visit the Olympic Training Center. I watched guys like Brandon Slay, Les Gutches, Lincoln McIlravy, and Sammy Henson, pretty much the whole 2000 Olympic Team. They were all being trained by Coach Jackson. It was for one my club teams. It’s a little tour they do pretty frequently, where they bring kids and parents in for tours. We had our whole team there.
I probably started training there when I was in middle school, just for camps. I started making more trips over for high school, for training visits and training camps. Then I made the Junior World Team and had more training camps.
What prompted your move the NJRTC?
I’ve always known Donny (Pritzlaff) since I was in college. I’ve always looked up to him. He’s always been a great role model for me. Even since I was in high school, we were even on international teams where we’d wrestle Russian duals or New York Athletic Club tournaments together. I got to see how he approached it from a competition standpoint when he was an athlete too. He’s here at Rutgers, and getting to know Reese, there’s a lot of great things happening here, with the training partners and just the whole situation. Not to mention Coach Goodale gave me the opportunity to be part of the coaching staff here at Rutgers.


Can you talk about NJRTC Head Coach Reece Humphrey a little bit?
Ever since I started working with him he’s brought to my attention even in critical moments of big matches, to enjoy those moments and have fun. We have a little bit different personalities. He’s a little more outgoing, I’m a little bit more quiet. I think it’s complimenting each other. In those critical moments it helped me really bring out my best and enjoy those moments and have fun. I also think he’s adaptable to a lot of guys. He doesn’t have one coaching style, he can coach a lot of different personalities.


How do you balance coaching with training?
That’s one of the great thing about being at Rutgers University. They see the importance of what my goals are and the challenges it takes to reach those. The support I get from them to do it, they definitely help me with creating a balanced timeframe with everything that I’m doing. I’m still able to accomplish the tasks with the athletes here and the staff, but they’re more then supportive of me doing what I need to do to make those things happen as far as me being an athlete. It really helps. It’s been great, and I’m in a good spot
What can you take away from the 2019 World Championships?
I was grateful to have the opportunity and gain from that experience. There is so much that I have learned and so much that I have improved upon over the course of the summer in preparation and throughout the tournament. I’ve taken that all in. Again I’m grateful for the opportunity, but I’m not necessarily satisfied by any means. It’s a great motivator knowing that it can be done, and I’m going to use that.


What was the best advice you’ve received in your career?
I’ve had lots of moments of great advice in my career. Those moments happen a lot, but every one of them is very critical. One that stands out, after college Donny Pritzlaff reminded me that when I committed to him and Barry Davis at Wisconsin, on my visit I told him that Wisconsin had everything I needed to be a World and Olympic champion. He remembered that, and he reminded me of that. He said you never told me that anything about being an NCAA champ you told me that you wanted to be a World and Olympic champ, and those goals are still ahead of you. When he says something like that he means it.
Kevin Jackson has also given me a lot over the years.


What advice would you give to a younger wrestler?
Enjoy the hard stuff, and enjoy the challenges. Those are the things you will gain the most from in this sport. If you can learn to enjoy them, you’re only going to flourish.


Do you have any pre-match rituals?
No. Some may even say I’m more or less militaristic in my approach. It is maybe, it’s hand to hand combat, and I need to get myself warmed up mentally and physically and ready for battle.
What motivates you during training?
I know that it’s a gift that I’ve been given by from a higher power. I have my faith in Jesus Christ. I believe I was given this and called to do some things, and I remember those things.
What is your best wrestling memory to date?
Making the World Team.
The Graff file
Birthday: June 3, 1989
Hometown: Loveland, Colo.
High school: Loveland High School
College: University of Wisconsin
Residence: New Brunswick, NJ.
Club: Titan Mercury WC/NJRTC
Twitter: TylerGraff_1
Instagram: TylerGraff_1
Website: tylergraff1.com
- 2019 World Championships fifth place
- 2019 Final X champion
- 2019 World Team Trials Challenge Tournament champion
- Third in U.S. Olympic Team Trials (2012, 2016)
- Three-time University Nationals champion (2010, 2013, 2015)
- 2007 U.S. Junior World Team member
- 2016 U.S. World Team Trials runner-up
- 2017 Pan American champion
- Two-time Dave Schultz Memorial International champion (2015, 2017)
- 2015 Bill Farrell International champion
- 2016 Canada Cup champion
- Second in 2014 NCAA Championships for Univ. of Wisconsin
- Four-time NCAA All-American