SoulCycle: Sam Y

Who

Sam YSoulCycle instructor, New York

From

MinnesotaHockey country

Before

Ice hockeyUntil injuries ended it

Proudest of

Getting soberThree and a half years

His ride

Great musicChoreography and a great time

The film

3-minute docufilmSoulCycle, 2018

Sam is from Minnesota, where his first life was ice hockey.

Injuries ended that career. Without that, he says, he wouldn’t be standing on a SoulCycle podium in New York, and he wouldn’t change a thing. His father put a guitar in his hands when he was three and drums in front of him at five. Music has been there the whole way, and he’s clear about it: without it, he wouldn’t be here.

SoulCycle•Instructor docufilm•3:07•2018

Collective joy

His favourite part of any class is the moment the whole room lands on the same wavelength, raises a towel and starts waving it. There’s nothing more gratifying, he says. Expect great music, a lot of choreography and a very good time, and expect to be told to do your own thing: let go, express yourself, be a little vulnerable.

Be ready to work, though. His own SoulCycle profile calls the workout challenging, athletic and intense, and the choreography comes stacked on top of it. In the film you can hear him driving the room: “Crunch it down, let’s go.” “We’re tough, we’re tough, come on.” “Unstoppable you!” Then, in the same breath, he tells you to be what you need to be.

Off the bike

When he isn’t teaching he’s playing guitar, seeing live music, dancing, bowling, watching movies, playing hockey, tennis, table tennis. You name it, he’s doing it. We tried to keep up along the Hudson.

His happy place is the Exuma islands in the Bahamas, swimming with the pigs or the sharks, under a sky full of stars. And for the record, the five things he loves most: his mom, his dad, his grandma Doris, himself and SoulCycle. In that order.

The right track

The achievement he’s proudest of is getting sober. When we filmed he was three and a half years in, and he was candid that three and a half years earlier there was a good chance he wouldn’t have made it to today. Now part of the job, as he sees it, is sharing that story and helping other people through what he’s lived.

What drives him is watching someone fight towards a goal, even before they get there. Seeing that belief in somebody else makes him want to reach higher himself.

Alongside the films, we shot a portraiture loop of every instructor against a white backdrop, made to sit beside their name and story on their SoulCycle profile. This is Sam’s.

Our Instructor Portrait Series

Sam Y’s film is one of a whole series of instructor portraits we made for SoulCycle: Charlee, Karyn, Sue, Claire J., Jenny, Sydney, Victoria, Emily T, Samantha Jade, James, Francis, Laurie, Melanie, Trammell, Mike Press and Souereya. Each one is a different person and a different ride, filmed the same honest way.

ServicesDocumentary·Branded Content·Editing·Color