How does one start to become one of the best athletes in their sport these days? By watching YouTube, of course.
 
Welcome to this generation of athletes.
 
And Texas State track and field's Alyssa Wilson is using her foundation of online how-to's and throwing tutorials to put up marks this school has never seen and strive for goals only achieved on the world's biggest stage.
 
Not bad for the first thrower in her family who originally wanted to play basketball.
 
Wilson arrived in San Marcos this past January as a graduate transfer from UCLA. The Toms River, New Jersey native spent her first four years in college on the west coast, earning All-American honors - nine total - and reaching the NCAA championships in all three years when they were held.
 
Long before she set foot on a campus with a rich basketball tradition (12 national titles across the men's and women's programs), Wilson was a basketball player herself. Her favorite sport, she started playing basketball in recreational leagues as early as second grade.
 
When she was not on the hardwood, she was competing in track to stay in shape.
 
"Up until (freshman year of high school), I pretty much used track for cardio," said Wilson.
 
However, in sixth grade, she tried out for her school's track team and ended up running the 100 and 200 meters as well as participating in the shot put and discus "for fun."
 
"I just kind of found a love for throwing," said Wilson. "I remember telling my dad I really love throwing discus."
 
Enter: YouTube.
 
Wilson's dad, Jamie, who was not a thrower in his own athletic career, ended up looking up videos on the platform because he thought: 1) throwing was cool and 2) he could work with his daughters in the sport. For Wilson and her sister Bryanna, who is currently a teammate of Alyssa's as a freshman thrower, the way of learning through YouTube was normal operating procedure.
 
"Any sport we did growing up, we would learn it off of YouTube," said Bryanna. "(Dad) was always there to help us as a coach. Mainly it was (Alyssa) at the beginning because I was so young. She would go to the basement with him and do turns relentlessly for hours."
 
In addition to persistent viewing of YouTube videos, Wilson worked with a club coach on a weekly basis. Her dad, however, ended up becoming his own expert after all the video sessions.
 
"My dad developed into a coach himself," said Wilson. "It got to a point, he was so invested in it, which wasn't a bad thing at all because he made (Bryanna and me) into the athletes we are today. He would watch videos every night. We'd have YouTube videos up on our TV and he would say, 'See how he comes into the middle pre-wrap?'"
 
By the time she was in eighth grade, her track career was beginning to take off. She was competing in Junior Olympics meets and eventually added the hammer throw to her repertoire. One thing, though, that was no longer in her capabilities was the time to play her first-love in terms of sports.
 
"It was then I realized I should quit basketball because there are so many injuries involved," said Wilson. "I had ankle injuries five times in the matter of three years. I gave up basketball and it was the hardest decision of my life, and honestly, that's still my favorite sport to this day."
 
While she had to quit one sport to grow in another, she credits her time playing basketball as helping her develop early on. When one throws in the fact she was always among the taller and stronger kids in school, and she felt throwing was more of a natural fit.
 
"During my freshman year in high school, that spring season, I was kind of like the star on my track team," said Wilson. "I was getting a lot of publicity. I felt natural at (throwing). It kept me going. I wanted to keep excelling in something that was fun."
 
As a junior in high school during the summer of 2016, Wilson ended up trying out for the U20 World Junior Championships. She won the shot put for the U.S. and, for her efforts, earned the opportunity to travel to Poland for the world juniors. It was the first time she had left the country, but despite the unfamiliarity with being in a foreign country, she was a bronze medalist in the shot put.
 
When all was said and done in her high school career, Wilson was the all-time national high school record holder in the indoor and outdoor shot put – a record she still holds today by one-and-a-half feet. She was also a 15-time All-American across shot put, discus, hammer and weight throw. She added a gold medal in the hammer and silver medal in the shot put at the USA Junior Nationals in 2017.
 
She earned an opportunity at UCLA, working with current Texas State head coach John Frazier.
 
"She understands how to make things go far," said Frazier about what Wilson does well. "She understands the rhythm, the flow. She's done a better job from the time I had her as a freshman of communicating. So we can get on the right track earlier, as opposed to waiting because she didn't communicate to me. Communication has been the key to her success."
 
She not only excelled in a Bruin uniform but has also achieved unprecedented success in competitions throughout the summer months.
 
In 2018, after her freshman season, she became the first junior woman ever to qualify for the World Junior Championships in three throwing events. She earned a silver medal that summer in Finland, representing the United States for the second time in an international event before she turning 20 years old.
 

Nothing like hearing a crowd full of track fans!! Brought me back to Tampere, Finland when I was running out for 2018 U20 World Champs. #memories pic.twitter.com/8Lnj6N2EPF

— Alyssa Wilson (@alyssa_wils0n) March 1, 2022

As a sophomore, she was an NCAA champion in the hammer throw. As a junior, the COVID-19 pandemic struck and her indoor and outdoor seasons were wiped out.
 
And last year, as a redshirt junior, she dealt with her own bout of COVID. She was in off-campus isolation for 22 days and lost weight and valuable training time. She still managed to qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the hammer and discus, but despite entering as a second and fourth seed in those events, respectively, she placed 10th in the hammer and 19th in the discus.
 
Coming off a disappointing result, Wilson still had eyes set on the next level. She qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore. in the hammer and discus. While she was ranked in the top-10 and top-20 at NCAAs, she wanted to be among the top throwers in the world in the pinnacle of the sport: the Olympics in Tokyo.
 
At the Olympic Trials, she shined. She unleashed the fourth-best hammer throw all-time and surpassed the Olympic standard with a 73.75-meter (241 feet, 11 inches) mark in the prelims. She went on to finish eighth overall in the discus in the finals and sixth in the hammer.
 
"It was a completely different mindset," said Wilson about the Olympic Trials experience. "I was coming off NCAAs, coming in ranked second and had a really bad day. I had a week or so to get my head mentally prepared to go out on an even bigger stage with all these professional women I look up to on a daily basis. To be there and realize I'm one of them, too."
 
In addition to her time coming to an end at the shot at the Olympics in Tokyo, her career at UCLA was winding down, too.
 
Frazier was named the new director of track and field at Texas State in August 2021. Wilson went on to finish her bachelor's degree in psychology in December 2021, but she still wanted to develop and work towards her goal of becoming a world-class thrower. She also felt she had achieved all she could at UCLA and was in search of a fresh start.
 
Wilson eventually chose to transfer to Texas State and continue working with Frazier.
 
"I wanted to finish what I started with Coach Frazier," said Wilson. "He really developed me and got me to that next level from high school to college. I wanted to finish it off with him."
 
For any athlete, the relationship with a coach can unlock all the success. Wilson and Frazier are no different.
 
"He has that personality he can be serious when he needs to but other times, he knows how to joke around," said Wilson about Frazier. "And then there's those days when your classes are not going well or something is really bothering you. He'll get to the bottom of it. It's good to have that person there that supports you, to talk to you, know when to take it down a notch when you're having an off day."
 
"When to take it down a notch" reared its head in the summer of 2021 after the NCAAs. Both were disappointed in the outcome. But neither side knew how to handle it after achieving so much so far in Wilson's career.
 
"(Coach) Frazier and I did not talk for two days," said a laughing Wilson about the 2021 NCAA aftermath. "He gave me the silent treatment. But I think that's what we needed."
 
From Frazier's perspective, it was a little different. He was trying to balance coaching with the mental side of being an athlete.
 
"She exaggerates a little bit," said Frazier mid-chuckle. "She did not do well at NCAAs, and I didn't know what to say. I didn't want to say the wrong thing. I wanted to show her support, but I wanted her to deal with it first. It was literally a whole day-and-a-half that we didn't talk. And then finally the midday the next day, I said, 'Alyssa, let's get on track. And we're going to start from zero. And we're going to get ready for Olympic Trials. Whatever happened at NCAAs, forget about it. Now we got to focus on Olympic Trials.'"
 
Wilson amazed at Olympic Trials. And Frazier believes the lead up to the opportunity was the difference.
 
"I told her those two weeks were the best coaching of my life because I had to mentally prepare her for what she did at the Olympic Trials," said Frazier.
 
Due to its individual nature and the smallest details affecting a throw by several meters, throws – like most events in track and field – require a fierce focus and dedicated mental preparation. For Wilson, that means using the Headspace app to meditate and the practice of visualization the night before a meet. She also looks to CrossFit athletes for motivation.
 
And while she mentally prepares day in, day out, the pressure of what she is attempting to achieve in her career does come to mind time to time.
 
"Growing up, I had a lot of pressure around me from the early success in my track career," said Wilson. "Everyone saw you do great and you want to continue to get that praise. But then it changes to, 'Am I happy with my performance?'
 
"That's the one thing I like about track and field compared to the other sports. Since it's not necessarily a team sport, it's more individual. As long as you go out there and do what you know you got to do, you'll be fine. At the end of the day, you can be happy with yourself."
 
She is also open to the idea of pressure and sharing her thoughts on social media. It was a way for her to be transparent in the process to be one of the world's greatest athletes.
 
"On a daily basis, I always put this added pressure on myself," said Wilson. "But these past couple of weeks – and (Coach) Frazier helped me put it into perspective – if I do all the little things that I need to do, I'll be there when it really matters."
 
In her brief time at Texas State, Wilson has put up top-10 school marks every time she has competed (19 across five implements to be exact). She has even set three different school records and is currently the only collegiate thrower to have top-10 marks in the shot put, discus and hammer this season. She values putting her stamp on the program and being in a place so comforting.
 
"Texas State has been the most welcoming staff for athletes," said Wilson. "I don't know if that's southern hospitality, but everyone here is so nice."
 
But for Wilson, while she feels she has been the most consistent she has ever been since arriving in San Marcos, she knows she is working to something even bigger.
 
"My goals are a lot bigger because my PRs are still further than what I have yet to hit (while at Texas State)," said Wilson. "I think I'm capable of throwing much further than I did in the past. I hit those PRs before I got COVID when I was at UCLA. I slowly climbed my way back up."
 
She is aiming to make the U.S. team for the World Championships held in Eugene, Ore. this summer in either the hammer or discus. Eugene, of course, is the site of the NCAAs, where she could be competing in a Texas State uniform a few weeks prior. It is the first time the World Championships will be held in the U.S.
 
All of which ties into Wilson's ultimate goal: to represent her country on the stage she almost made as a senior in college.
 
"I'd like to make an Olympic team one day."
 
For Frazier, who has seen her on her good and bad days, he can see the difference in Wilson as she sets towards that goal.
 
"Confidence," said Frazier when describing how Wilson has grown over the years. "Growing in the fact that now she really believes she can be amongst the best. After throwing the fourth-best mark ever at the Olympic Trials last year, knowing she had a shot at making the team, and then now, having to wait to know that she can do it. Between last year (and now), she's worked harder than she's ever worked."
 
Wilson is currently working on her master's degree in elementary education with a minor in criminal justice. After her athletic career is over, she's torn between going into teaching or coaching.
 
And while that decision may not have to be made for a while longer – the next Olympics are in Paris in 2024 while the 2028 iteration will be in Los Angeles, a place she knows full well – Wilson has already realized others are watching her, just like she has been doing with other throwers her entire life.
 
In January, in one of her first collegiate meets with Texas State, Wilson had a surreal moment.
 
She tweeted:
 
"3 younger college athletes came over to me and asked to get a picture with me at my meet this weekend…brought me back to when I was younger and did the same. You never know who is watching or how much of an impact we have on others. So cute, it made my day."
 

3 younger college athletes came over to me and asked to get a picture with me at my meet this weekend…brought me back to when I was younger and did the same. You never know who is watching or how much of an impact we have on others. So cute, it made my day ??

— Alyssa Wilson (@alyssa_wils0n) January 24, 2022

Wilson has much ahead of her. But moments like that – where those competing against her are already in admiration due to the ever-connected world and early success – show while Wilson may not be thinking about it yet, many are watching her throw. Learning. Developing. Moving from their first sport to track because they are discovering it's not "for fun" but actually fun.
 
Who knows? Maybe there is some father and daughter working together in their basement by watching YouTube videos, trying to become the next Alyssa Wilson.