The Sevan Podcast - #65 - Jayson Hopper and Brian Friend

Episode Date: July 5, 2021

The Sevan Podcast EP 65 - Jayson Hopper and Brian Friend @JHOPPER3 @SEVANMATOSSIAN @BRIANFRIENDCROSSFIT The Sevan Podcast is sponsored by http://www.barbelljobs.com Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealsevanpodcast/ Sevan's Stuff: https://www.instagram.com/sevanmatossian/?hl=en https://app.sugarwod.com/marketplace/3-playing-brothers Support the show Partners: https://cahormones.com/ - CODE "SEVAN" FOR FREE CONSULTATION https://www.paperstcoffee.com/ - THE COFFEE I DRINK! https://asrx.com/collections/the-real... - OUR TSHIRTS ... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Make your nights unforgettable with American Express. Unmissable show coming up? Good news. We've got access to pre-sale tickets so you don't miss it. Meeting with friends before the show? We can book your reservation. And when you get to the main event, skip to the good bit using the card member entrance.

Let's go seize the night. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by card. Other conditions apply. When I, so if you want to get on the show and you're an individual games athlete, you should reach out to us. We'd love to build the hype around the games, get to know more and more games athletes. The problem is it's very difficult to schedule so many people

and to be as active as we're being. So if you want to help, go ahead. Don't think it's arrogant. Don't think that we left you out for any reason. It's just that living our lives and then scheduling all these things can be quite hairball. Even Jason knows. We basically scheduled this last minute yesterday.

Hey, Jason, can you get on in the morning so here we are yep constipation i don't understand constipation i mean when i was in college i'll even remember i even remember the cafe i learned this in i was sitting on a toilet in the cafe and all I have to do is take maybe 10 or 15 deep belly breaths and focus all of my attention like around my anus and just breathe. And I even do, I even have like, I have a little talk with myself like, Hey, it's time for you to go poop. Bye. And I'll, and my brain slowly comes to a complete standstill and i just vacate like there's no like i think i could just shit on command anytime like this morning i didn't have to shit but i like to shit before the podcast and it's just like i can just go and just

tell it to leave my body brian who made this man like this just like bye see ya it's my body made this man like this just like bye see ya it's my body like get out like i've i which brings me to this thing about working out the problem i don't know how many crossfitters know this but every time you work out and every time you put yourself into oxygen deprivation you have a chance to cultivate focus and awareness and you shouldn't let that waste and you shouldn't let those times pass and if you don't know what that is, you should start Googling around and looking around. Someone who speaks about it very profoundly is a gentleman named Eckhart Tolle and he talks about energy body. But working out is a free chance to meditate and build awareness. And it was the one little thing that I had struggle I had when Miko

Salo said he doesn't lay down like an animal after a workout. It's actually a great time to lay down and actually watch your breath. Don't control your breath, but just watch your breath and basically surrender. And I know that's his whole point is not to surrender because animals don't surrender, but we have that opportunity as human beings. And don't get me wrong, this isn't a dig at Miko that's cool what he does but anytime you can cultivate awareness it will set you apart from all other human beings and in the interest of it in interest of not leaving you hanging on your own here i have also spent periods of my time where i've i've really or my life where i've really been intentional about being mindful in everyday

activities, such as going to the bathroom. And the reason I first kind of was like made aware of that was when I met someone who did not have the ability to go to the bathroom. They needed, you know, medical assistance, training out a different way. And then I was like, man, I should actually be grateful that I have the capacity to do that. So I started to pay attention to it more. That would be one of the worst things. Can you imagine that? That was why that story Noah told is so profound. I mean, you do not want your junk getting jacked up, your anus, your penis, or your vagina. Brian, speaking of vaginas, are there any female coaches are there any female coaches in the game like elite female coaches cody anderson's uh woman she can coach

at that elite level why are there any women and why are there so many men and not more women well the most prominent is definitely by the way this isn't this isn't some like um like i don't give a fuck about the sexist stuff or like i'm not trying to be like progressive like hey how come there's no black coaches how come there's no chinese coaches how come there's no female coaches this is a this is a catastrophe we need to promote i'm not doing that at all it's just like just a benign question yeah genuine question with no intention. I don't give a fuck if women don't want to coach. But it is interesting to me.

As far as I know, the most prolific female coach is Michelle LaTondra. She's been working with Pat Vellner for half a dozen years now, maybe six or seven years since early on in his career. She used to work with Laura Horvath and James Newberry. They've both kind of moved on. But she had a pretty impressive roster of athletes there. And her programming, there are a lot of people who follow it. It's not as well-known in the United States as some of the states.

Outside of that, I've known Robin, who used to coach with OPEX, that had a couple games or team maybe team members of games athletes but yeah it's a great question there are there do seem to be as well male coaches in the space right now and and that and I apologize for forgetting Michelle because she was an amazing athlete a great interview always cool back there and I did know she was a coach I actually thought it was trippy when she stepped down as an individual and started coaching i thought she had a few more good years you know she's uh i think she's training for a triathlon right now that's the that's the new thing right i guess so but she's uh minimal opportunities but

but meaningful she is a she's a great person. She's a really talk to her. Uh, Jason, we just got a warning saying your computer's low on memory. Yeah, I got that too. I don't know what that means. Uh, that means, can you throw something away that's on your computer? Like that last Peewee Herman, like the season six of the Peewee Herman show. Can you just delete all of that right now because this software we're using needs storage on your computer in order to operate properly is there anything you can throw away on there dude i don't know how to do that dude can you also see me no but that's not what i'm worried about i'm worried about that it's going to stop recording that's happened with brian before

and it actually affects my brian's yeah and it actually will affect our friendship if we get an hour through this podcast and i realize i don't have you recorded because if you're incompetence at your end did you throw something away? Are you on a Mac? I can help you. No, I'm on a Chromebook. Can you see my face right now?

I can. Even when you're blocky, you're handsome. We haven't had any ugly people on the show, have we? It says I have 3.7 gigabytes available. Oh, are you in incognito mode? I don't even know what that is. I am in incognito mode. Oh, can you turn that off?

How do you turn that off? I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means either. Who uses a Chromebook? I didn't realize you were so smart i whenever someone's like on anything besides a mac i feel like i should add 10 iq points to their brain someone say you should oh my goodness maybe it's me who's not smart should i google that for him how you're on a chromebook how to turn off incognito mode on chrome oh there we go um you're going to go to your finder you know what your finder is and then you're going to click go and go to utilities utilities yeah where's go

on a mac it would be on the top somewhere in that in that bar on the top oh this is for mac OS shit on Chromebook. How to disable incognito mode in Chromebooks. Log in with your G Suite account. Wait. What? I have a pixel book. He doesn't have time for computers hey can is there something called g suite account or admin dot google.com do you see something says device chrome settings do you have settings

yes i'm on settings i'm on device okay device and then go to chrome i'm not i don't have a pixel book okay did you change something since the last time we were on I have a Pixelbook. Okay, go to Pixel. I don't have that. Did you change something since the last time we were on? Potentially. I don't know what I did. Didn't you use your phone before? Do I need to use my phone? Have you done that in the past?

No, don't use your phone. Your computer is much better. Maybe there's a video for it. Oh, okay. Let me just type in Pixelbook then. You have to go to devices and then to setting and then type in Chrome. Hold on. Let me try to figure this out.

uh brian um i was i was pretty impressed at how um immediately taylor took responsibility for being um weak like a bird with only a 462 pound deadlift triple deadlift triple but yeah he uh me too he said i could complain about anything and everything but instead i'm i just recognize i'm not strong enough and i'm make sure that i improve on that do you think that's sincere or do you think that like he has to fake that till he makes it like he knows it's the right thing to say so he's trying to convince himself of that instead of blaming the programming no i think it's going to know him like personally and professionally but one thing that i like really his proximity to andy hendel a guy who's been around the block who's seen it all has done it all and he seems to really trust that guy which is great so i think

that that's that's probably a sincere sentiment from him do you think that that is indicative of a good coach that a good coach will be like if he hears his athlete complain like like when i throw a ball to avi and he can't catch it he'll be like you threw it too high and i'll be like dude that's just an opportunity for you to make a good catch don't ever blame me as opposed to yeah i, I fucked that up and I take the responsibility off of them. Do you think there's any coaches who have that ass backwards and while the athlete's sitting around

complaining about Dave Castro's programming, the coach is like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's not your fault, blah, blah, blah. It depends. I think that redirection is important. Self-talk or placing blame in another area. We do know that there are aspects of this athlete's control. And the programming is an example.

The judging can be an example. The weather can be an example. And so whatever the thing is that you can't control, you can't let that overwhelm the things that you can control. And that's where the coach steps in and the separation here about what are we actually talking about. Right. Right. I wonder if all coaches know that, that their job is... Well, to me, it's not...

It's similar. So people are going to be at different stages or evolutions of being a coach. And you're going to have to have learning experiences too. And they'll get stuff wrong. This is always kind of an interesting question for me. If you're a new athlete in the space, do you want a coach that's new in the space that you can grow together? Or do you want a coach that's experienced in the space that can teach the things that they've learned through watching other athletes and working with other athletes, even though you

might be a different style of athlete or breed of athlete? I guess it's like that with managers too. It's interesting. I've heard it now like two or three times in this week that basically Matt O'Keefe as Matt's manager and Matt as an athlete, they grew together. And it ended up being very successful. On the other hand, you would think that you would want someone with tons of experience. But maybe not. Maybe that's not because it seemed to work out just perfectly for Matt. Yeah.

And we got one of the new up-and-coming guys at the top of the sport is Justin Medeiros, and he's chosen to align himself with Adam Neiffer, who's been around for a long time, but hasn't necessarily been around in the role that he's in now, which is the head coach, the guy for one of the top guys. Because if you – Adam Neiffer, where's he out of? Does he own an affiliate? because if you Adam, Adam Knifer is a, where's he out of?

Does he own an affiliate? I don't know if he's the owner, but he's been with, um, forever. Oh, I know who that is. He has a,

he has a, I know who that is. He has a, does he have a mullet too? Yeah. I think that that's relatively new. No, I think, uh, I think he had one before Madero's. I recall new. No, I think he had one before Medeiros.

I recall him. No? I remember him because he was the coach of USA's invitational team one year, and he definitely didn't have it then. Adam Neiffer. I think I actually have been to his gym and filmed with him many, many years ago. I'm not a, I wouldn't say he's up to speed on the team history as the individuals,

but I think that outside of Invictus, that they've had just, they've had the second most number of teams at the games. How do you spell his last name? I think it's n yet okay I wasn't even close I hope I still can't see him see CrossFit oh yeah that's him I recognize, shit. Did Jason just come back on? We got an echo again. That is awesome. I fixed the storage. That is awesome. The echo is back.

God damn it. Do you hear it too, Brian? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You need to switch mics or something? Do it. Oh, it's gone. It's gone it's gone wow i'm glad this podcast started 29 minutes ago and we haven't started yet uh jason how was how was uh your trip to the west coast classic it was amazing yeah it was um it was hot i think it was like 110 degrees out there and it was dry i never

experienced heat like that before i'm from the south so it's very very humid over here but it was fun i got to meet a lot of cool people hung around matt o'keefe sammy um just hung out played top golf it was just cool to be around all those guys and and see like the behind the scenes O'Keefe, Sammy. I just hung out, played Topgolf. It was just cool to be around all those guys and see the behind-the-scenes. That's not on YouTube, how they are on TV and whatnot. So it's cool just to see how those people are, their personalities, and who they are. So it was awesome. Speaking of which, CrossFit games just put out something called

the behind the scenes is it called it's not called behind the scenes it's behind the curtain either way it's fucking blasphemous sorry i don't mean to jerk myself off in front of you guys but it's horrible i hope they don't pay for that shit i don't think it's the girl's fault it's different it's mtv style but dude come on man like i shouldn't be cringing while have you watched it brian no okay and i know you haven't watched it have you jason you don't have time for that shit um i just i i actually saw in one of the comments someone goes how dare you call this behind the scenes? This is nothing like behind the scenes. So then, of course, I clicked it because that was my baby dear to me.

Did your training suffer at all when you flew out there, Jason? Did it suffer? Yeah. No. Why would it suffer? Because you were on an airplane instead of napping, sleeping, eating, reading the Bible or training? No, I actually, I actually took a nap when I got there. Well, I was on the, I actually missed my flight.

I actually missed my flight that night. I was supposed to get there at like 11 at night there and I missed my flight in Greenville. So then I had to wait the next morning. So then I got to sleep, get on a plane. It was a straight shot. The flight that I missed was stopping. So I was supposed to be like in the airport for like nine hours. And then so all that got canceled. So I was supposed to be in the airport for nine hours.

So all that got canceled. And then I had a straight shot from Charlotte to Vegas. Got there. Took a nap. And then what did I do on that day? Wait, I want to talk about your flight a little bit. How did someone miss a flight? So you live in a town.

It's the flight. Okay. He was doing the ruck run against us ah dude i was so mad like when i when i missed the flight that was literally the only thing i thought about was i'm not gonna be able to do the ruck run what town do you live in greenville south carolina so and you have an airport yes and And so you're saying you got to the airport late and so you missed your flight? Well, I got there and it's a small airport. So I was like, surely if I get there 30 minutes before, I'll park my car, I'll get there at the gate. And then I got there 20 minutes ahead.

I walked into the airport like 25 to 20 minutes before my plane took off. And I go up to the, the, get my ticket. And she's like, yeah, you're too late. And I'm, I'm like, ma'am, I have 25 minutes before my plane takes off. And she says, no, you have to go through security and that's going to take 15 or so minutes. And then you have to, the, the, the gate's going to close in 15, the boarding is going to close in 15 minutes. And I'm like, oh my goodness. No one even told me about the boarding closing before the plane takes off.

I don't really fly often. So I was, I'm new to the whole process relatively. So I was pissed. And then I'm like stressing out. I'm like, is there even an option to like get on another flight And then the Chicago, to Chicago and then to Las Vegas was an option. But the flight from Chicago to Vegas was full. And so they couldn't get me on there. And so then I had to book a flight from Charlotte straight to Las Vegas.

Did you have to pay for that yourself? Yes. Oh, damn. So you had a full paid trip to the West Coast Classic. Had you ever been, and you've never been to Vegas before? No, I've never been to Vegas. Man, you shit the bed. How much was that flight?

It was like 800 bucks. Oh my goodness. That's a, for those of you who don't know, if you don't live in the United States, when you live in a town like Greenville, like anytime you hear a word, like a town that has ville at the end, 800 bucks, that's like three years mortgage on a home right there. Oh my God. Yeah. Jason, did you say you're not married?

Are you? I am married. You are married. I can't remember any of that stuff. Grace Ann, I got to meet her. And how does she feel about you spending 800 bucks on a plane ticket? She was with me. Is she supportive?

Is she like, don't worry, Jason? Or is she like, you fucking idiot? No, she's the person who's very stressless in those moments. And she's like, it's okay. It's going to be a great experience. Like, it's going to be worth more than $800. Like, she'll say those type things. And I'm like, oh, yeah, let's just let's get that ticket.

So then you went home and then came back in the morning. Yes. I had to drive. There was no flight out of Greenville to Vegas. I had to drive to Charlotte, which was two hours away. And when did you do that? At 4 a.m. in the morning. Oh, my goodness.

The next day. Yeah, I don't like the sound of any of this. This is not how an elite athlete should be treating himself prior to the largest competition of his life. I know. That is, that's devastating. Okay, so you get to the airport and you go straight to your hotel and you go to sleep. Did O'Keefe offer to pay for it? Does he know or do you hide that from him so he doesn't think you're doofus?

No, I didn't hide it from him. I was supposed to be at the ruck run the next morning and I wasn't going to be there. But no, he was just, he was cool about it. I didn't ask, like, that would have been dumb if i was like hey i just missed my flight could you pay for this one too i agree that shows a bit that shows a bit of class yeah and um and what was it like hanging out with that was that your first time meeting matt o'keefe yeah yeah no no sorry fraser fraser that was my first time meeting both of them and how was that? How was Matt?

Which one? Fraser. Fraser. Fraser. The champ. I'll call him the champ. How was the champ? He was cool.

We didn't really talk day. When we small talked day one, day two, we had more conversation. And then as the weekend went on, our friendship kind of grew um which was pretty cool i know it was like the first time we we chatted um was in o'keefe's room later that night and we were just i was asked that was my time to like ask him like important questions like i didn't know if i'll see him again for the weekend um and it was just like i was asking for tips about like the games and whatnot so he was just giving me that and the next morning we went and worked out. That was the workout we had worked out in front of him. So we got to talk more then. And then, um, I went back to his room after we worked out. So we were at that point, we were just like, we were getting more along with each other. So we were like cutting up at

that point and we play top golf. And then I started laughing at his golf swing. And then at that point we were boys. And then we were actually the Sunday we were betting on events. So it was cool. That's funny. You were betting with Fraser. I was betting with O'Keefe on the same events. I wonder if we had the same fix.

You were in Vegas for less than a day and you started sinning betting i'm pretty sure that's not part of your uh your christian protocol go ahead we'll let you off the hook go ahead brian tell me show me a show me a bible verse that says gambling i cannot i cannot i'm just going off of hearsay I cannot. I'm just going off of hearsay. He did in front of him. Was that a workout that he talked about together? Was there something specific you wanted him to see you do?

No. JR came up with that workout. Yeah. He did not. He must have wanted to. Was he trying to expose something of yours in front of him? This is something that I know stresses you out. It'd be cool to know how well you handle this. No, not necessarily.

We were thinking about, well, one, it was late in the week. So we were trying to think of movements that I hadn't done that week so far. And then we were just trying to think of like, Hey, let's put together like a high skill, but also like grunt work workout. So like five rounds, 21 chest of bar, and then ascending weight on a clean jerks, which I'm really totally good at. So I wanted, I essentially, I wanted Matt to work out with me. That's what I was trying to do. So I was like, Hey,

if I can not necessarily do a wheelhouse workout, but like some of them I'm really, I'm good at, but like also weak at, I know he's really good at both of those movements. It was, I wanted to see if he would work out with me. He didn't work out with me because all he does is deadlift and hammer curls now, but I tried, I tried. now but and stairmaster i tried i tried you were trying to entice him um and and and was this a um were you clearly there's got to be speculation that this was like some sort of interview to whether he wants to choose you as a podium athlete to represent his company slash matt o'keefe and you courting each other, doing the delicate dance of being represented by him. Are those both fair assessments?

Do you have any? I don't think that's a pretty fair assessment. That was never in the plan. The plan was just to get me out to Vegas and hang out with O'Keefe and just be around everybody, meet Matt, talk to him, but

about the podium stuff, that was never in the discussion. But he posted you on his Instagram, giving us all a clue, even though he didn't tag you, which I found fascinating. But he also doesn't tag his wife sometimes. He did tag me. He did? Yeah. All right. I stand corrected.

I'm spreading false information spreading false information let's see it's weird because i don't think he's ever promoted the podcast i do podcasts with matt i don't know if you're familiar with that and i don't think he's ever promoted the podcast and yet he's promoting jason hooper i don't see you no you're not tagged brother dude you got to click on the tap on the picture my name will pop up oh that kind of tagging dude it's too that's what tagging is it's 2021 savon come on man i've never used that feature you don't have to tag somebody in the caption for them to be tagged you all the time. You do? Yeah, that's no good. How is someone supposed to... Can I click on that?

Oh, yeah. It's to make you aware of it. But even if you tag me in the writing, it makes me aware of it. It's subtle. It makes you aware without realizing that you're aware of it. So you never got a chance to work out with him?

Did you work out with Oki for Sammy? No. Did you do any hammer curls with him? Nope. They put us in a – we were in this gym, and class was going on during the moment. So they put us in this little box square, like the size of my living room, which is very small. I live in a duplex. And it was very small.

And they put Matt and I back there. So I had my workout and he was lifting. But my workout was like, I mean, I could like extend my hand and like touch him. Well, he was impressed. Whatever you were doing, he was impressed. He said something on the podcast. He told Josh and I that you were, my words, not his, something special. I think he said you were a phenomenal athlete.

So that's a good sign. I'm just trying to figure out what your next step is. I'm trying to figure out where this bankroll is going to come from so you can do this shit full time. And afford to miss flights. And it looks like you have 17 17 000 more followers since the last time we talked yeah i do oh shucks are you gonna watch the fight this weekend who's fighting conor mcgregor who's he fighting against uh justin poirier dustin poirier dustin poirier? Dustin Poirier? Dustin Poirier? If you cash out me $99 to pay for the pay-per-view, I will

watch it. Wow, you and Matt are cut from the same cloth. That is exactly what Matt would say. Have you spoke with Taylor Self since his last chance qualifier? Yeah. I talked to him this morning.

Not a whole lot. Was he crying? Where is he this morning? He lives in Charlotte. I don't know what he's doing. Oh, I heard he might be traveling soon. Yeah,

he is. He got, he might have a little opportunity to go up to the ranch and hang out with dave do some oh no shit so you guys know that and i don't know that yesterday remember i asked you if you should ask dave about i said seven said you should ask dave but i i asked dave and he said get your ass out here. Oh, that's awesome. He's a, he's a perfect fit for Dave. He's there. You need someone who can, he's got a good, uh, he's like a duck. Water just goes right off of Taylor's back and you need that around Dave. If you know what I mean.

I've never been in that testing environment with Dave, but I feel like, you know, Taylor's the type of guy who'd say like alright this is what we're doing and I need you to find this out for me and he's like yes sir I'll do it that's the kind of mentality I view of Taylor having so there's a chance Taylor will be on the demo team

I contend what I say yes on the demo team he looks good in booty shorts? That's it. And don't complain. When will you go out to Vegas? Do you have anywhere else to go, Jason?

Madison. What did I say? Vegas. How long before you go out to Carson? Where are the games? Shut up, man. When do you go to Madison? The 23rd.

And do you stay home until then? I'm actually going on a little trip this week. Oh, Jesus. Oh, Jesus. Oh, Jesus. What? I just don't like it. I just don't like it. Go on.

I'm going up to train with Chris Henshaw for a couple of days. Okay. That's a good trip. And then I'm going up to Nashville. Who set you up with? What are you doing in Nashville? And who set you up with Henshaw? O'Keefe did.

Sweet. And then I'm going on Wednesday morning hanging out with Henshaw for two days and then I'm heading to Nashville Thursday to Sunday hanging out with T.M. Brooke and Shane.

Oh, that's cool. That's some good mojo. Hey, is there any concern that Henshaw would tweak your running in a way that would be bad for you? Not bad for you in the sense that Henshaw doesn't know what he's doing. Of course he knows what he's doing, but that it's too close to game day to try to change your form and that it could adversely affect like your calves or, or you know what I mean? Like if he gets you up more on your toes or whatever, whatever the hell he does.

We've actually worked together a couple of times. He was in Vegas. So we got some time together and he didn't necessarily, he didn't correct my form a whole lot. He just gave me a lot of technique stuff. So I'm not necessarily concerned about that. And he had, he tried to have me run on my toes and I can't run on my toes.

So yeah, yeah, yeah, not yet, I can't run on my toes. Yeah, not yet. But Hinshaw's great. So Hinshaw will recognize the fact that he met you in the middle of late June, and you have the games coming up five, six weeks later. He's not going to throw you off prior to this year's games. He's going to give you some expectations to have small improvements in your workouts this year. And if you guys continue to work together in the offseason,

then you'll see some bigger changes. Brian, can I ask you a question? Yeah. How the fuck would you know? Oh. Alright. Fine. Did you talk to him specifically? Did you talk to him specifically about Jason?

No, but I guess I'm making a picture of understanding of who and that he's been around sport, competitive sport, and also this sport for a long time. And we'll see both the small opportunity and the bigger scale opportunity with a guy like Jason. both the small opportunity and the bigger scale opportunity with a guy like Jason. I just think he's too wise to try to make too big of a change too close to a competition like this. And I think Jason's too smart to, even if he did make that mistake to, to bite.

There we go. It depends on how good the tip was when you were a client. And by the way, I love Hinshaw by the way. And if you haven't seen the CrossFit, Jordan Gravatt, I don't know, 10 years ago, made a video on Chris Hinshaw about his life as an Ironman athlete and his finding CrossFit and how it changes life. And if you haven't seen that, you should really see that. Matter of fact, since I'm the CEO, I'm just going to tell CrossFit right now, you guys should republish that. But throw that up on the front end, guys.

When you were at Clemson, did you see any bad coaching? Like when we talked, I've talked with Matt and he's talked about just crazy shit he saw at the Olympic weightlifting facility. And I spoke to other Olympians too. I'm trying to remember the guy's name. He was a skier. He was an Olympian. I had him on the crossfit podcast he's a downhill skier and some of the shit he said that he saw would blow blow my mind and basically they were making fun of him for doing crossfit he basically abandoned the olympic lifting facility and just did crossfit and and of course we know what the

outcome was his performance skyrocketed um but did you ever see any bad training at Clemson? Like in regards on the football field or in the weight room? In the weight room or anywhere. Just stuff that you know that like, hey, that's not – by bad, I don't mean like – I'm not talking about like the way they talk to you or any of that. I'm just talking about movement standards, throwing – having guys do heavy back squats without teaching them the form first, things like that along those names, along that nature. Um, and I don't even, did you, did you see it? I don't mean to pick on them.

Was it, was it prevalent? Was it, was there a lot of like, holy shit, that's not right. They need a better, they need a better coach in there in terms of strength and training, strength training. It was kind of a weird weird situation you had a lot of guys who were like super strong i'm talking about like who could clean who could power clean like 405 and they were like they probably weighed 185 to 200 and they were power cleaning like this but it was ugly and it was just like they were just it was just for strength and so they're not necessarily concerned about the form as much as they were concerned about let's get this strength up i saw a lot of that so i saw a lot of crazy form and my form wasn't even good at that point because i'm straight out high school like no one necessarily even taught me this they

were just like hey let's get these numbers up. We have a season. This is the offseason. There wasn't as much time as you would necessarily want to focus on for them. You would have little tips, but again, we're in our window small before the season, and we've got to stay dialed in. So let's ramp up those numbers and just start throwing around like dumb weight. Um, and yeah, so there was not many, but we're also like, we're also very, we're beginners.

We were beginners throwing up like crazy weight because we were like elite football players, athletes who had just raw strength. And so it was a weird dynamic. Did you ever injure yourself in the weight room there? I did not, no. Did you see a lot of injuries in the weight room there? I never saw someone get injured in the weight room. I've seen plenty of people get injured on the football field,

which probably has something to do with what happens in the weight room i've seen plenty of people get injured on like the football field which if you it probably has a something to do with the people like what happens in the weight room it correlates to that so i don't know and you have a lot of young guys in there just like just getting after it and you guys are just feeding off of each other right yeah like you like you walk into the weight room and the guys have already warmed up for 10 15 minutes and they're already at 300 pound clean and you're like, you just jump in and start doing it. Right? I mean, that kind of dumb shit. Dude, our warmups were like, we went onto the field and did some like, some like agility stuff for a warmup.

And then we'd go clean 300 something pounds. agility stuff for a warmup and then we'd go clean 300 something pounds. So no, like nothing, like nothing. You might not, you might not know this. I was, uh, in 2015, 16, 17, I was part of a coaching foot high school football team coaching set. I was coaching the kickers on the team in Texas. And this, the school was very good. They had several NFL, ex NFL players as coaches and a lot of prospects who played in the NFL in the last couple of years.

I used to coach and it was like, I was just, it was my first introduction to football really. Cause in high school I was playing soccer, which was the same time of year here. But about, it was so true. They were just like,

all right, here's these kids. And it was like, put more weight, put more weight, put more weight. Cause otherwise you're going to get your ass handed to you on the field. And I talked to the strength and conditioning coach and I was like, dude, give these guys, like you got to give them some kind of baseline other than this is a number you need to hit. Otherwise they're going to, you know, they might be okay for months to years or maybe their high school career, but they're not going to have any longevity in terms of physical fitness or

capacity. And they just didn't want to hear it. They're just like, no, we need the numbers up. What are you doing? Talking, uh,

um, let me see if I can turn you up i'm having a chat with uh jason hopper and brian who's that hopper's the dude that you mentioned the kid out of um oh yeah yeah yeah greenville he's in greenville i don't know what state it's one of the carolinas i know he's married and he won the competition. And Daniel Brandon doesn't know who he is. And then Brian Friend, that's the guy, the only guy in the CrossFit community who still talks to me, so I asked him to be on my podcast.

You got some reach, Savant, so people want to connect with you. Can you guys hear him? Yeah. Yeah. Can they hear me? Yeah. Jason, you want to ask him about. Yeah. Can they hear me? Yeah. Jason, you want to ask him about any of the workouts for the game? I'll tell him about one.

Oh, he's going to tell you about one. There's a swim long and a paddle longer coming up. I already know about that one. He said he already knows about that one. Well, there you go. Good. He's paying attention. Hey, Dave, these guys are telling me that they know someone is coming out to the ranch to train with you. It sucks that I have to find out shit about the games from these guys, and I'm lost to know shit.

Which guy? Taylor Self. Yeah, he reached out to me on IG. He said he'd love to be involved, so I said, hey, get out here this week, and I'll put him on the testing team. Not the demo team yet, just the testing team. So is this to test games workout, or is this an interview to be on the demo team? To test games workouts.

What are you guys, what's jason doing he asked him if he knows how to swim you know how to swim jason i guess i guess we'll see what do you say he said i guess we'll see who wrong answer he's fucked he's fucked dude he played he played football so that means he never spent the fucking day in the dude he's got he's got so much muscle he's gonna sink straight to the fucking bottom this is gonna be rob orlando too that might well happen like that might just happen i can't give away my secrets too early

he said he can't give away my secrets too early. He said he can't give away his secrets too early. Hey, there's no secrets to give away. The scoreboard will reveal everything. The scoreboard will reveal everything. That's what I like to hear. All right. Later. Bye. Well, that was good.

So now we know one of the workouts and we know Taylor Self is going that's nice and confirmed I can't believe he did that he's been in good spirits recently yeah I can't believe he came he like basically he I texted him this morning I was bugging

him this morning and he said what are you doing I said I'm doing a podcast with Hopper and then he FaceTimed he never FaceTimes me. He must know that Hopper likes FaceTime. Will Taylor tell you any of the workouts or will he be honest with the, because I know he's going to have to sign something. They make you sign some crazy shit. They even made the employees, I think one year at the, someone who was working in like our graphics guy or

someone got caught leaking workouts ahead of time. And he immediately lost his job. It was actually at an open event. Do you know this story, Brian? It was actually a live open event. And Dave just walked into the truck and told the fucking graphics guy, Hey, you got to get the fuck out of here. We're done with you. Someone sent a screenshot of his text messages, basically sent showing that he was leaking workouts. And then after that, they had every employee at HQ signed something. It was like something horrible. I never signed it, but it was like a $300,000 fine and lose your job. I mean, it was some crazy shit, which, which I understand. I, I have heard rumblings of stuff like that, but I get it. Um, you know, people have differing opinions about about need to be kept secret or not and whatever.

But it doesn't matter. It's like if this guy who's running the competition says, I don't want this workout to be known and I'm trusting you with the workout. And if he finds out he can't trust you. Do you prefer? I totally agree. I think the secrecy around the workouts is so fun it makes crossfit cool um jason do you do would you rather know the workouts i mean it's or do you like it that everyone doesn't know do you like just showing up and like everyone not knowing i like showing up

and not knowing and i think most athletes think that way don don't you, Brian? I know that Vellner has told me that he wishes he knew nothing. He's like, the less I know, the better, because I feel like I can adapt to receiving information and then executing better than most. I would have an advantage in that realm. I don't think Brent Fikowski would necessarily agree with that, but I think that he also knows that if you give me more information, I can come up with a plan to suit my skill set better than anyone. Prefer to know in some cases. Has anyone coached you, Jason, on what to say and what not to say? And what?

Like when we ask about your swimming or your handstand pushups, you're like, well, we'll see. Has anyone told you, hey, don't say too much about this or that or this? Or is that just who you are? I just don't feel the need to tell you if I can swim or not. We'll find out at the end of July. Right. Were you a big talker when you played football in high school? Yes.

I taught a lot. You, you were like to the other team. I still talk. I still talk a lot. Ask Taylor. He didn't tell you about the time we were talking. Oh yeah.

Yeah. He did. Where you guys, I think he said, um, I think he took responsibility for it. I think he sent you a nasty, he said he sent you a nasty text message and you guys didn't talk for a little while. Yeah, he did.

And then I said something, I said something really mean to him and then he was pissed. Well, that'll be good. Do you have your hotel room and everything set up for Madison? Yes. And you said you're going to show up there on the 23rd? Yeah. Is that enough time? That's four days, three days prep?

Four days. I'll get homesick. I can't be out there for four weeks. What's that look like? You miss your wife? No, she'll be homesick. I can't be out there for four weeks. What's that look like? You miss your wife? No, she'll be with me. I'm not a huge fan of, like, I like waking up in my own bed, drinking my own coffee from my own coffee machine, eating breakfast from my kitchen, sitting on my couch to chill out.

breakfast from my kitchen sitting on my couch to chill out. So if I can, like, obviously I would be able to adapt. It's just, uh, I'm not a huge fan of, you know, getting outside of my comfort zone and being in a hotel doing all that jazz.

But me neither. I would never leave. I love being home. It's great. Yeah. So I think I'll get there Friday and I'll stay until Monday. I think that's enough. Do you have plans for the days between arriving and getting there

to get assimilated or are you just kind of going to chill and hang out? I'm sure there will be a game plan. We're just trying to, yeah. There's a game plan involved. My game plan involves disc golf. Dude, we need to play disc golf. Only if the weekend turns out pretty good. Then I'll be happy enough to play disc golf with you after.

Have you ever played before? No. When, um, when do you like a month ago? He goes, bro, you got to teach me disc golf. Well, let's play after the games. He goes, that depends on how the week goes. So he's true to his answer. Do you have your tickets home already?

I don't. Oh shit. So you don't have, you don't even know when you're leaving madison nope you bought a one-way ticket yeah because brian said they might interview me on monday if i end up doing good oh yeah have heber and marston reached out to you yet about what coming about it yeah about anything about doing a show on you that means they think you're gonna win if they're gonna do show if they're gonna do a show with you. That means they think you're going to win if they're going to do a show with you. They do want to come up maybe in a couple weeks.

I wonder if that's going to be good for you, if it's going to be a distraction. Has anything gone to your head yet and been a distraction besides the West Coast Classic going to your head and being a distraction? There's been, I wouldn't say necessarily distraction. There's been some other things, stress factors that have come up. Like, I'm trying to figure out

if I'm going to be signing with X, Y, and Z or X, Y, and Z. So that's been in the talk. So yeah, just stuff like that. Do you have an agent yet? Yes, O'Keefe. Oh, so he is your agent. That's a done deal.

Yes. Oh, congratulations. That's awesome. So once you make that decision, the decisions that come after that have to be a little bit easier, right? Oh, yeah. But I still get stressed about it because it's like this is my future if if it works out and and i guess here's the thing you're kind of like you're kind of like a diamond mine like people don't know yet and you don't even know yet no one knows yet no one knows

what like no one knows like someone wants to come know, dig in your diamond mine and you're not sure whether to charge them $100 or $10,000. But as soon as someone – but if you sign a six-month lease and they start pulling out fucking $10,000 diamonds, you're going to be like, shit, I should have just signed a one-day lease. You know, basically what I'm saying is like if you win the games, everything changes, right? Right. And so you might have offers. The issue, basically, you might have offers on the table that won't be there if you shit the bed, but that would be 10 times bigger if you do good. Yes, essentially. Has a rookie ever won the games?

I mean, like, I mean mean and I guess Jason Kaliba but I mean in the modern era Rich got second his first year Laura Horvick got second her first year and

I think that that's it that's like the best finishes any rookie's had has been second place in the modern era. So those are the only ones who've been on the podium even? No, I think I'm trying to remember. I think there might be a couple others, but.

Here's the thing too, Jason. You don't even have to. I mean, look at Josh Bridges. You don't even have to win the games. To do what? To just explode. Do you have a good celebration? No.

You just walk, you just, hey, like if you walked out there with your Bible and just set it down next to you in your lane, and then you finish the workout, and then you just go over and pick it up and walk off? Just all chill? No. Are you going to wear any jewelry at the games? No. Vellner was third. Sarah Sigma's daughter was third, I think, her rookie year. So there's a lot of second and thirds possible.

First since 2008 probably. Is Sarah done? 2009 because I think Miko won his first year also. Is Sarah done? No, I think she'll be back.

People come back from touring ACL in sport. She's not too old to do that by any mean. So think maybe you know i'll be curious to what she's able to get back to next year but by 2023 i think she'll be as good as ever if not better um jason what do you do after the podcast when we get off here in 30 seconds 30 seconds he said he only had an hour and we and took us a half hour to get our shit together and then another 36 minutes to talk

i got i got nine minutes okay what are you doing in nine minutes i have a conversation with a with a company oh that's good man shouldn't know damn so you are getting distracted. No, it's a good conversation. I wonder what. I actually wanted to ask him about this. So since the Mac knew you're going, have you guys had it like when it comes to training in terms of volume or that you don't have to give details, but as much change. Yes, I did not know I would be able to quit my job and not tell you all that. No, let's hear it. Yeah, I quit my job.

I'm not, I don't work at the church anymore. Blasphemy. Yeah. Now he volunteers, now he volunteers at the church it's even better yeah i was able to quit my job now which i did not plan to prior to the mat because i didn't know i wanted to win i just didn't know that like the result like all this would come about this fast, the opportunity would present itself to, to be able to do that. So when I won, obviously I got the opportunity to do that. And now the training has been, obviously it's longer. Now I'm able to sleep more, recover more,

have more downtime and do stuff that I'm able to do without a job. Meaning basically what you're saying is you got a sponsor because of your success, you've been able to generate income to support yourself. Yes. That's awesome. Congratulations. That is so awesome. Did you call, did you tell your mom and dad that? Yes. And how excited was your mom and dad?

Pumped. Yeah. that yes and how's how excited was your mom and dad pumped yeah my mom doesn't really understand the whole crossfit thing so once i told her hey mom like i'm gonna be a full-time crossfit athlete and i'm gonna quit my job she started freaking out like i'm like mom i'm gonna make a little bit more money than I do. It's okay. So do your parents ever tell you they're proud of you? Yeah. All the time. Oh, that's good. I can remember when my dad told me he was proud of me that time. I remember that time. My mom, my mom tells me all the time. Brian, do your parents tell you that they're proud of you uh you haven't you haven't really done anything yet yeah so it's pretty it's pretty depressing that's like not a good i feel bad now seven um you'll get over it you'll throw a few frisbee

golfs and you'll be back in the naked space jason I'm gonna tell you I'm gonna tell you a story that you might like I don't know if I've ever told this story out loud maybe once or twice so I was I went to the University of London for six months out of I went to City College for a year and a half and then I went to the University of London for six months and I was probably like 23 or 24 years old. And I was super duper into, um, like black studies at the time. I read everything that I could about the black Panthers, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela. I was just, and it was because I lived in all, when I was 16, I moved into this neighborhood where it was just my dad and my step-mom and I were the only white people. So I was just like, all of a sudden, everyone I was surrounded from all my friends, all the people I hung out with in my neighborhood were just all black dudes and mostly older dudes.

And, um, so I always wore this, this, uh, Malcolm X shirt. I don't know what the relevance is to that story, but I just loved my Malcolm X shirt. Like it was the kind of shirt, like I would wash it three days a week so I could always be wearing it. And I was walking around downtown London and this guy comes up to me in Trafalgar square and he's, and we're just talking and he says, Hey, will you accept Jesus Christ as your savior? And I'm like, yeah, absolutely. So then like you guys like do that thing, like where like you read from your book, like, and then I repeat what you say, you know, you probably know which part it is, but you basically just sit there out in front of the whole world and you do, do your little thing. Dude, that's, a wrong way to do it, Zavon.

We need to have a conversation about the right way. And so my sister found God, I don't know, 20 years ago. And it's been a huge part of her life. And we talk about it a lot. And I enjoy listening to her talk about it. And she wakes up every morning and reads the Bible and we we shoot the shit about it when we talk and and it's it's it's awesome I love it and I it's done great things for her life but anyway so then I don't know like 10 or 15 years after that my sister was out here visiting

me from Texas and we were somewhere I can't remember where and some guy comes up to me and goes hey will you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior? And I'm like, yeah, sure, absolutely. So he reads that whole shtick to me again, and I repeat the thing again. And my sister goes, hey, I thought you told me a story once where you already did that. And I'm like, yeah, what? Is there like some sort of like limit? Like why not double down on that shit, triple down? Like I'll do it anytime anyone asks me.

They're not asking me if they could punch me in the gut. They're talking about giving me eternal salvation. Like, I'm, whatever. But you should tell your homie tonight. I'm concerned you got booted, too, because you quit the church. But you should tell your homie when you're praying tonight. Like, yo, this motherfucker accepted you twice twice you ain't knocking at his door like that's hilarious bro true story true story actually

a great conversation within the context seven i don't know if you were saying it in jest or not, but the difference between making that decision once and realizing that you have the opportunity to make that decision as often as you want. So you don't believe in Jesus is the question. I don't even is the question. I don't even know. I don't even understand the question. You do believe you, you said last time we taught, you said, you believe Jesus was a real person, but he wasn't God.

Well, any, well, any more than we're not all God. What does that mean? That's a, what I've been, I've been thinking about what you said about we're all, we're all God. Like what, if we're all God, what hope does that bring? Oh, but, but I wouldn't let, I wouldn't let a presupposition, like I'm not interested in like what hope it brings. I'm just interested in the truth. Right. I'm trying to like make sure I get on the right path that I'm not believing

something, but that I'm experiencing something. It's funny. Someone said in the comments, they said something, they made some like attack at me, like some snarky comment about like, hey, I'm tired of Sevan's superficial God jargon or whatever. The distinction between, one of the primary distinctions between where I'm at and where you're at is you, the way I talk about God is I point at God. But other people talk about God as if God is a thing. I think that's the distinction. I don't mean to put words in your mouth, but that's how I perceive it.

People perceive God and they talk about God as if it's something, whereas I talk about God as if it's no thing. Not nothing, but no thing. So, but, but, but pardon me, I guess that makes sense. Jason, have you ever done the style of paddle boarding that they usually tested the games? Yes. You know, practice a little bit more now? You have 60 seconds to ask a question.

Dig in there. Dig into that, Brian. How did you do that? Why did you do that? When did you do that? Hey, and I'm pretty long, so this is going to all work out perfectly fine. I'm pretty long, too. I don't know what that has to do with paddle boarding. Third oar. This guy's got all the workouts perfectly fine. I'm pretty long, too.

I don't know what that has to do with paddle boarding. Third oar. Jason, we've got to get your coach on here. Who's your coach? Jared Shaw. Hey, do you know he's also competing at the CrossFit Games this year? No shit. See, all these signs are not good. Agents, phone calls about money, his coach also being in the games,

fucking living in Greenville. It's not all making sense. It's not coming together. I don't understand how he's so good. It's a mess. I was going to ask Taylor to be my coach there. My real coach is going on the games, and he's going to be on the demo team now.

So, and Jen and Jr is going to the masters game. So it's like, so I don't have a coach. Hey, are you tempted to have your wife do it? And do you think that would be a huge mistake? Uh,

yeah, I don't know if she, talk, talk to her, you know, talk to O'Keefe about it. Cause because he's he's been working with tons of athletes in that capacity he might have some ideas for you and no matter what o'keefe says if he says you've got to get sevon to come and be your coach there no there's no fucking way but thank you o'keefe i want i need you there i need to be there too but I think I'm going to be more potent from here.

Calling you at night, singing lullabies to you, putting you to sleep. Are you sharing your hotel room with anybody? Yes. My coach. But you don't know who your coach is yet. It's going to be someone in the wheelchair room.

Yeah, that's good. You're, you're made from that, from your football days, right? Yes. I'm share a room. Yeah, that's good. You're made from that from your football days, right? Yes. I'm leaving. Goodbye. Okay, brother. Thanks for doing this. Brian, do we have anything else? Bye.

What do you think? Rate Jason's performance today on the podcast. Oh, goodbye, Jason. Will you rate his performance today on the podcast from a 1 to 10? Sure. I thought it was excellent. You can't give him a 10 because he had his shirt on.

Yeah, just thinking about the things that would detract from it. Probably would be that he quit his job and didn't have a shirt on today. So it's probably a nine. Yeah, we got to ask him about that next time. I wonder if that was an emotional moment because you know he liked the job. I don't know. I think he liked the idea of the job. I like the idea of being a coach, but I've coached like coaching there, but now I have an environment that I do

like. I thought you were going to ask more about the swimming, but I guess didn't need to. Anytime he's coy like that, I just make the assumption that he must be great at it. I mean, you know, as soon as they announce an event like that one of the things i do is start to the field and see how how he's just at let's say his average at it well are there swimmers in the field are there 20 good swimmers in the field the average at it but if you happen to be in a field with 25, that's a problem. If there's only 10 of them, then you can still. So that's what I was trying to see. Not so much.

I have no idea. But I wanted to see what's the caliber of swimmers in this year. And I think on the men's side, it's worse than usual. It's better for you if you're not a great swimmer this year. But the women's field, the depth of swimmers is greater than it's ever been. Yeah, the depth of athletes on the women's side is insane. And you've got three girls coming to the games this year alone who have never done a swimming event. So not all rookies because two of them were in the 2019 and make it all the way done a swimming event game so not all rookies because um two of them were in

the 2019 make it all the way to the swimming event that are all very very good they're gonna you know mix that one up a bit and if you're someone like you know catching david's daughter annie thor's daughter who's usually middle of the pack in swimming you might be pushed down a little just because there's happened to be a lot of... I mean, Danny Spiegel's a pretty good swimmer. Sam Brigg had performances in water events in the past. I don't have either of them inside the top 10

for that event because it's so deep. How about Cara Saunders? Is she a good swimmer? Excellent, yeah. And good at paddleboarding. She won the first ever paddleboard swim event at the games which was two mile paddleboard that's the longest we've ever seen dave said we're going even we'll see if it's going to be longer than that or not and and i'm pretty sure i i was at that games and i remember the next day interviewing people and their lats were destroyed

well i said that comment at the end because he was saying how good he was at the paddleboard. And I said, is that fatigue? Yeah. That is a big time lat endurance test to be on that time. Do you think any part I'm torn? I'm torn with Jason. Part of me thinks like from the first time we interviewed him, interviewed him, part of me sees him as this um guy who's not really sure how good he is and he you know which would make sense right you don't know how he it's all it's relative to the pack i mean he knows he's great but it's relative to the pack not how good he is he knows he's great but how good is he compared to the rest of the pack but part of me is like sensing from him now that he really feels like he could win,

but he fucking does not want to talk about it because he doesn't want to put that pressure on himself. And I don't blame him for any of that. That all makes sense to me. I think that he knows he's a good athlete, a great athlete. And like you said, we talked briefly about that workout with Fraser. So he said, I did one chest of our pull-ups. And he said, that's not how of our pull-ups, and he said that's not, it's not a strength, but the increasing weight squat clean ladder would be a strength.

So he knows where he's good and where he's not as good relative to himself and the people he's surrounding himself with. I think what's unknown for him is everything else that is the games. You heard what he said. He likes to be at home. That's going to be very different than a home. People there, people are going to want to talk to him, going to want his attention.

We've mentioned it before. It happens to everyone. Something won't go his way. People have talked about it. Dave talked about it with you. He said a great point. Semifinals are six or seven events. Ten to fourteen events. Now it looks like there are going to be 15 events.

That's a huge amount of volume. How does your body respond after two days? You're bored. You just come off a bad event and your body's feeling beat up. Can you bounce back from that and realize, hey, man, I still got half of the... And so I think that those kind of things, he's starting to realize, I think I can do this, but until I do it once, I don't really know. And it's not unusual. That was Tia, her first two years. It took her two years to figure out, oh, I do belong here. And once she figured that out, it's been scary ever since. A really good point. Do you think that most of the athletes are prepared for that? Like, hey, you're going to have a bad event. How will you react to that? Because how do you train for that? Like, Hey, you're going to have a bad event.

How will you react to that? Cause how do you train for that? You it's really, you have to experience. I look at like the new, new blood in the, then I try to look and see, well, what have they been doing in terms of the game? So you've got a guy like Lazar Jukic, for example, down his opportunity to compete at the games. The you've got a guy like Lazar Jukic, for example. He's had his opportunity to compete at the games the first year he qualified because he felt he wasn't ready. But he has been competing at competitions that are as close to the games as you can get without being there. He's a regular at Dubai. Dubai, I mean, those competitions are beatdowns, 10 plus events. They got the water,

they got the elements, they run in the desert, they do have strongman stuff. They'll take them to different locations for different events. So if you can't get to the games, but you're going to Dubai, you're getting pretty comparable experience in the sense that you're going up against some of the best. You're going to have things not go your way. And you have an opportunity to like have those almost inevitable at the CrossFit Games. almost inevitable at the crossfit games o'brien or emma carey these young girls that are coming up into the i've been to the games as teenagers they've competed against the other people age but they haven't had a four day long world-class caliber

where they take bottom 10 yeah and know what it feels like to bounce back from that. Everyone's the best guy in their high school basketball team. But at some point, you get to the point where you're just as good as everyone else. Jason talked about it. What do you do? So a lot of answers for the young blood to answer this year at the games. And I have a feeling Jason's going to, will respond to that

fine. Um, but you never know until it happens. I may have said this before and I apologize, but, um, Avi, my son's tennis coach was giving it, he, he runs these little mock tournaments. And before the tournament, one time he's giving this lecture to all the parents and to the athletes. And he said something that just blew my name, blew me away. He basically named the three best tennis players in the world. I forget who they were. And he said, on average, they've only scored 55% of the points in their matches. So that means every match is like even being the best, it's still so close. And then on top of that, he said, one of the things about tennis is there's no clock. So if you're on the court, you can still win the whole thing. And I thought, God, that game is such a mental disaster, right? What a crazy mental game. Yeah. Tennis and golf are huge, massive,

massive mental grinds. The thing about the stats, he's probably talking about Federer and Nadal and Joe. I think Serena, he mentioned Serena. Oh Nadal and Joker. I think Serena. He mentioned Serena. Oh, it's women. I think he mentioned I think he mentioned one woman and two men, I think. Well, anyway, you're right. Those are good names. The critical thing in tennis is points.

So when you have a game point or a break. Let those get away from you too often. And the best players. Who have great careers, they just have that mental fortitude to buckle down, focus in, and win the point when it matters most. This applies to certain instances in CrossFit. Obviously, with lifting, you can see it very clearly when you have to hit this lift. Or if it's a, you know, if it's a decision, I have 25 feet of handstand walking that I have to execute. If I miss, I have to go all the way back.

I've just cost myself 50 points in this event. Decide to kick up and execute that 25 feet. If you wait 10 people past you, it's a lot better than if you don't wait those 10 seconds. But being able to make the decision in the moment is a difference between the results you want at the end of the weekend. About that, that as a fan, it's almost impossible to appreciate that. Like we can sit here and talk about it and intellectualize it,

but it's so important to winning and so big but but the camera doesn't capture that right like i i guess sometimes it does i can't remember which event it was but there was some event at the at the semi-finals maybe it was even emma tall but the it was a couple girls did it where they were doing the handstand walk and they didn't come down and they just kept walking through or Or no, maybe it was the lunges. There was something where they kept going where normally other people were resting. And I think both people I saw who attempted that failed. I can't remember what the workout was.

But in those rare instances, you get to sort of see, right? Okay. But if there was no other athletes there to compare it to, it's not like pole vaulting. I know the exact instance you're talking about it's emma carrie not emma tall okay and emma carrie was in a unique situation she knew and her coach and her talked about it that she'd already secured an invite to the games there was no minimum work requirement there and so she'd made it in the moment to push herself in a movement she was unsure of, see what would happen.

And she failed and she failed and she failed. And it didn't cost her a lot of money. She made the same, she accomplished her goal of the weekend for the CrossFit games. And she can say, she made me a fan and she made me a fan to see an athlete do. That's when you see them push through that mental side, right?

That you normally might not even be aware that they're pushing through. And she actually might. She has that experience. Now she has that failure that she can go. But it was a calculated risk. I knew what I was saying. And I now know something about my body that I wouldn't have known. Have you talked to her? No. Oh, so you're just speculating all this?

No, no. I talked to someone who knows her. Oh. How many games athletes do you know? Of all the athletes there? Yeah, just like, yeah, on some level you've said hi to them. You've shook their hand. You've had a phone call with them. You've called them about some article you're writing for the morning chalk up.

How many athletes? There's 30 men and 30 women or is it 40 men and 40 women 40 and 40 yeah i'm counting do you think you know half of them yeah at least 18 19 20 21 two ladies and gentlemen he's counting the athletes are you on the men's 19, 19, 20, 21, two. Ladies and gentlemen, he's counting the athletes. Are you on the men's side or the women's side? I would say at least 26 men that like, I feel if I, that they might even say hi to me. Cause it's like, we've met or exchanged stuff before. My guess is less women. I'm not going to count.

It's probably like 15 to 20 of the women. Gotcha. I wonder how many, I wonder, I'm going to ask you that same question after the games this year. Do you think you can say hi? Do you think you can meet every athlete there? I think that we'll end up talking to several more

between now and then, which will be nice. And I don't know. I mean, it's hard to say, like, it's hard to say what kind of interaction i'll have with uh the russia you know if i don't know if they speak english i don't know if they're going to be in any situation where it makes sense for me to talk to them i might go say hi to them because i can't be a woman train she looks pretty um so i'm kind of excited to see people like that at the games, but I don't know what my level of interaction with them would be. I don't really go to the athlete warmup area.

I don't have any need to usually. I used to live in there. That's where all the behind the scenes gold is. I mean, yeah, but I'm not, I'm not doing that. I know it breaks my heart. Well, I think you should go back there and call people, since I'll be at home, and patch them into the podcast two or three times a day. We do live podcasts from the games.

Any athletes who want to do that, even if you don't think Brian is doing it, just go up and harass them and just be like, hey, it's always been my life dream to speak with Sevan. Can you get him on the phone? And Brian will do his best. Yeah, I mean, there's a – I think there are – I mean, there's a, I think there are definitely, that, I mean, the thing is, the games with the athletes is very different.

You know, Dave will say that everyone should come here thinking they should win, but that's not what everyone's going there thinking. Everyone's coming there with a little different expectation. Some people realize this might be my last time here. I want to enjoy it. So then, you know, other people might realize this is my first time here and I want to gain some experience that are there to win. And those are the ones that probably will away from the most because I don't want to, they don't need distraction from me or anyone.

Just let them do their thing and fight. You know, that's what I want. That's what I'm coming there to see. A lot of stories in CrossFit that are hard and it's hard to tell them all so i'll be on the lookout for some of the lesser known but still incredible you're you're you're so different than me you're like you're like courteous and respectful i i mean in a way that I'm not. I think that it helps the athletes when I go talk to them. Does that make me arrogant or a douchebag?

But I think like... Not help them like... Don't get me wrong. It's going to make the difference between winning and losing. But I think that when I go speak to them, I'm not bugging them that I'm actually giving them some sort of I don't know

what I'm giving them but like I feel them out and I feel like absolutely like I'm like a break for like I'm a break from them for the for like they can pay attention to me for a second instead of like be dealing with their own shit I guess yeah yeah and I yeah but for me it's like here's an example i have a like 2019 at the games i saw him hanging out in the back whatever with with fikowski and they were just hanging chilling and i just i didn't bother them i didn't say hi i was like let them do their thing the next day they come to the competition and he and i happened to be walking up to the venue from the parking lot at the same time and we stopped and had a 15 minute chat it was just organic. Would you ever go up to him?

Let's say it was the final event and be like, right before he's about to go on and be like, Hey Pat, you just so you know, you, the man, you got this. I really, really want you to win or like,

you know, or dude, I love you, man. Go out there and get some, or would you like, would you say that to him? Any, anything like that? know, or dude, I love you, man. Go out there and get some. Or would you like, would you say that to him? Anything like that?

Not. Rarely did I ever try to give pep talks to athletes, but I'll never forget one time we were in Madison and the athletes were entering from the top and it was the final event. And I was just like, man, I need to try to say something to Josh Bridges as he went down. And as he walked by me, I yelled something at him in his ear. I said, don't fuck this up, you. And then I said this word that I know my mom's listening. I won't even say that word. My mom listening.

You're wonderful. And he shit the bed on that workout and I felt horrible. I know what workout it was. So sometimes those happen naturally too. At the Granite Games, for example, I was on the lookout for Tayson. But I didn't seek him out. And then one day I was walking up across the pathway and we just happened to bump into each other.

We, I said, like, how you doing, man? And he, he like immediately and that fucking thruster workout. And I was like,

dude, you got to let that go. You got three more workouts today. He's like, I know, man. And then he would, I think so.

That was interaction. But I tried to like redirect his thought. I was like, why are you still thinking about that? Think about that on Monday. Today, you got a job to do today. So I tried to get him. He wasn't able to shake it that weekend, but hopefully he'll learn from that. And that won't that won't plague him again next time.

I'm so excited that he's going out to the ranch. I'm kind of jealous. Honestly, that's going to be a blast. That's only 20 minutes from my house. I should bug him and see's going out to the ranch. I'm kind of jealous, honestly. That's going to be a blast. That's only 20 minutes from my house. I should bug him and see if he wants to hang out. Yeah, yeah, I will. No, actually, I shouldn't say I will. I'm not allowed over there unless I'm invited.

He's 20 minutes away. You know, say, hey, if you have a couple hours off, let's meet up and get a coffee. Work when my kids are hanging out. Just chat for a few minutes. Or Avi's always welcome there. My son's always welcome there. Maybe I can just drop him off and I could and he could hang out with Taylor.

Yeah. Ever since I started doing the podcast with you, I'm less and less welcome there. Are you putting that on me? No, not at all. I'm just telling you the facts. Well,