The Sevan Podcast - #495 - Team Division: All You Need To Know ft. James Hobart & Brian Friend

Episode Date: July 19, 2022

James Hobart & Brian Friend join the show to talk through the team division at the 2022 CrossFit Games. Sign up for our email: https://thesevanpodcast.com/ ------------------------- Partners: https://www.paperstcoffee.com/ - THE COFFEE I DRINK! https://www.cahormones.com/ - CODE: SEVAN for a FREE consultation https://thesevanpodcast.com/ - OUR WEBSITE https://sogosnacks.com/ - SAVE15 coupon code - the snacks my k 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

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I'm having a tough morning. Why? Because I can't figure out whether Bigfoot has hair or fur. He has both. And all my bigoted friends just tell me that Bigfoot doesn't exist. And it just really disappoints me. He has both. Oh, good.

You've run this topic by a lot of people already this morning? Oh, it's been just I called like 300 people this morning. And you know what? I just realized that most of my friends are bigots because they think big... Did you get a call, James? Doesn't exist. No friends. No, we're not friends. Yeah, I was going to say me neither. And then

I followed up with, who would win in a fight, Superman or Batman? And they're like, Sevan, that doesn't exist. That only exists between your ears. It's not real and I just I fuck these people I hate them I wish the Supreme Court would pass a law and put them in jail

the Supreme Court just might careful James my show alright alright good morning the teams may never ever reach this status ever again then again i never thought

that there would be a matt fraser or t2 me after what we saw rich dude did dude did dude dude uh done it uh but uh the when we had a annie thor's daughter on this podcast, she said that there was a nostalgia and exciting component to being out on the floor once again with Rich. And I think that's super cool. And I think for me, that is going to be, uh, I just watched, um, Reykjavik's, uh, video that they put out, uh, the training, it looks like the training plan sponsors it. Yami Tinkinen is their coach. And, uh, they-minute video that shows Tola, Tom Porter, Lauren Fisher, Annie Thorslatter, and Björgvin Carl Gudmundsson, who looks like a damn model.

They should make him the next James Bond or something. Oh, that's good. Yeah, he's so handsome. And he looks like a drawing. Even his blemishes look fake. He's too skinny, though, and he's like a drawing he's like even his blemishes look fake he's too skinny though you know he's not and he's not defined enough like i think it's oh oh uh we just put him in a caloric deficit for you know a few days no chance um uh so um it's gonna be it's gonna be great watching watching these guys out there

after watching that video i never thought uh reykjavik would have a chance but but i got a little proximity bias because i watched that video last night and now i think that they they might have a chance um my first question is to you uh and so it's going to be exciting this year i think this is the year if you want to put your toe in the water with the teams, I think this is the year. We're finally there. It's reached that status. James, I believe that Bigfoot has fur. No, I believe that the teams have an easy way out component to them.

Not a lot, but because just that you can hide, and you've done both at the highest level. You've done individual, but just that there's a way you can hide. The implications are that Rich Froney went team so that he could get a little more free time with his kids, maybe a lot more free time. Can you tell us what the difference is is there a difference i mean when i competed to answer your first question to hide i think they're doing a better job in terms of programming

events so it's harder to hide the synchro stuff the amount of worm stuff we see. And you see less and less of sort of like the relay style stuff. I mean, it still pops up, especially at the games across events, but you see a lot more events and you see so much more, like I said, of the team-based synchro or worm stuff that I think it's way harder to hide people. They're getting better at that. James, is there potentially a perspective that you could hide more on a worm than you could in a relay? If you're in a relay, you're forced to do all the work of your section in that relay. Yeah, that's a really good point. And you can see whether you do good for your add time for your team or lose time for your team.

But I feel like you could if you had like three hammers on your team, you could maybe really make up for somebody, um, in a relay or something like that. Whereas like on the worm, if someone's going to drop the worm, cause they're not as fit as everybody else, like you can't, the entire team basically has to stop doing reps. Um, that's kind of my thought process behind that. Yeah. I mean, there, there've been a lot of scrutiny surrounding team programming and how much of each style of workout is appropriate. And I think that you know we talked about it in semifinals sometimes like you know they were mandated to have six tests and some of the competitions had one worm test out of six i thought that was too low you know

if you had four that'd probably be too many and by the same token i felt like if you had you know like i think both of the crossfit pre-programmed workouts, uh, or no, one of them was obviously just lifting. And then a lot of other ones had a relay in addition to that. So you had two out of six where it was just you on the floor by yourself doing something. And again, I, I'm also, I'm not sure if that's necessary in a six event test, but if you're talking about the games where there's likely around 12, you might see that two times. And I think that's okay. Yeah. And I think, you know, where that really stands out, as I was looking at last year's, even this year's, open rankings of teams, and then where they end up,

if they do, where they end up at the games, if they actually make it to the games. And it seems like open performance, except for somebody like maybe the top two teams, doesn't correlate as well as sem-final performance with games performance and i think that's because in the open you really don't see a lot of those classic um pieces of equipment like a worm or something like that but um yeah i see your point there i'd like to see i like seeing i don't know i don't love watching the synchro stuff and that's because i think some of it is getting so hard it's very challenging to judge and um and i think that will get better but like there was a i think it was um was it

at not atlas games maybe granite games it was like a four person was like a four person wall ball shot is that the granite games i don't know it just looked ridiculously hard to judge like that kind of stuff isn't my favorite event from a from a team perspective i think the best team still wins but i don't know about second through five so wad zombie this is not the news hobart's just putting his toe in the water the news would be uh getting in naked he's not not quite there wad zombie's been really it was really sweet to me on instagram the other day flirting a little bit wow what was your other question savon is it it's easier than an individual maybe maybe there's maybe it's not that you can truly hide but there's a psychological component

um of of thinking you're gonna hide meaning it because so if you watch that video that uh the training plan put out and it shows the reykjavik team there's also it's also a thread of bjorgvin and the entire time bjorgvin's stressed to the max and these other guys have each other. It's kind of like when I discipline my kids, when I discipline all three of them, it's not as, it doesn't seem as severe as when I say it. And like someone just imagines if they had one kid, cause they all three have each other, Hey, go outside and run 20 laps around the house. Well, the three of them have each other. You send one kid out there to do it. And it seems a little more severe because he's isolated. He doesn't have the camaraderie with the others. So maybe people join team and they think that they do it for a little

bit of psychological relief, but it doesn't, it's not really easier physically. Yeah. There's definitely a diffusion of responsibility. Yeah. What did you use? You say smart shit, diffusion of responsibility. Yeah. Like there's more to it. It's less on me on a team. And I also think it's easier to get to the games as a team and take last place than it would be as an individual and take last place as an individual. I think that's a fair statement. And I don't know what that actually says about the difficulty between the two, but I definitely think that's the case. about the difficulty between the two, but I definitely think that's the case. I, you know, from my experience and, um, I was, I definitely was never going to be a standout individual games athlete. Um, and so I'd found more success on the teams that way, but from a positive perspective,

he was hoping he would say, yeah, yes, you were James. I'm going to, I'm making a note. I didn't want to say that. Thank you. My, um, my point is that, uh, I forgot now. Oh, that I trained way harder. We trained way harder more on team than I ever did as an individual. And so the point is, I think if you want to win as a team, it's still really, really hard. You know, I think all the stress is there, all the, you know, the physical implications are there as far as, um, improving and being able to stand on the top of the podium.

Savant, do you know, I don't think that the award existed at the time of Most Improved, but I think that James might have been a strong candidate for it. Thanks. What was his lowest ranking at the Games? His first ranking was 70th. Low. And then he came back the next year and finished 18th

how do you finish 70th out of 40 no this was um this 2009 yeah there were 74 oh wow wow he beat four guys including dutch low low low wow i should get dutch on the show i haven't talked to him in 10 years or 15 years. James. 70th to 18th. I mean, that is a really substantial change in one year. It is weird. I agree. And it is weird to hear. It is weird to hear James say I wasn't a standout because as long as you're not, if you make it to the games and you're not from one of those continents that just hasn't developed CrossFit yet god i'm being nice this morning um then i think you are a standout uh james and also if someone is looking for reprieve or for some diffusion of responsibility the teams you don't go to are a team that has rich or annie on it yeah because because there may even be more added pressure there, right?

Because now you have the greatest standing next to you in both circumstances. Yeah, I think if you want to win, all of the stresses and difficulties are there. I just don't think that stuff goes away. Yeah, like I said, if you want to go on a team and just have fun and show up, and it's probably easier to make it to the games on a team that isn't it is easier to make the games on a team than individual but if you want to go and win it's not easy by any means well the math just makes it easier right four people a team 40 teams that's 160 people versus 104 100 uh as opposed to 40 and well i guess 80 because men and women but then on also you've taken out all

the best people theoretically so of course it's going to be easier uh rich has put this this team that's um i'm gonna ask you a question about rich froney maybe you can answer for him rich has put this team together to win true or false true but but annie's team is not put together to win. Why do you say that? Because she doesn't have – Rich has the best women and the best dude. We could split hairs and be like, no, he didn't get Justin McDaniels. Have you said that to Annie? Like, hey, Rich has the best – have you said that to arguably one of the best female CrossFitters ever? Like, Rich has the best women and you don't, Annie. No, no, not – I don't mean just the best i've used that to arguably one of the best female crossfitters ever like

no as the best women and you don't annie no no not no i don't mean just the best women i mean he this team rich if rich thought one of these people on his team would let me ask you this question do you think if rich thought one of these people on his team was the weak link he would toss them and if someone better was. I'm just saying that I think Annie probably could, if she could have possibly found better people than calm Porter, Lauren Fisher and Tola. Yeah. I don't know if that says much. Like you'd fill your team with better people if you could find them.

But I think Annie went out and picked the best people that she believed she as much like you you'd fill your team with better people if you could find them but i think annie went out and picked the best people that she believed she could for that team i don't think anyone on that team is i don't think she's looking at her team and thinking these aren't the best that i could get right okay okay fair fair and shit i don't know and as i say it as i say it herself that way you know yeah and as i say it I can't think of anyone that pops in my head that I'm like, okay, this person's better than Lauren Fisher. This person's better than Tolo. This person's better than comporter.

I can't think of anyone. I mean that guy, but he's going individual. Yeah. What are they doing? I don't understand this game. What is this? What is this game? You put water in your mouth and then you hit someone?

Oh, oh, shit. I slapped you, Tola, and then spit on you. Wow. Isn't Bjorkman, isn't the person who gets slapped supposed to be the one that spits? He slapped Tola and spit on him. I think because he slapped Tola and Tola did not move at all. I think it's, I haven't interacted with Tola a bunch. I've met him a few times.

In my experience, he seems like the nicest person on the planet. It's just funny to watch BKG slap. Look at BKG. BKG hits like my wife. He just takes it and he slaps it in his face. What is wrong with people? Oh, man. I love the internet.

Look, they don't even want to hit each other look how nice lauren is to her look at look at look at bjorn hits like my wife oh this is okay look watch it watch a shot on tola look at it look at it it's like oh if i fly out to your house can you and i do this face oh yes promise yes oh hell yes yes yes done deal yes and and i wanted to put jalapeno water blend jalapenos and water in our mouths and we spit on each other our eyes burn it's like it's like a pep there's a pepper spray component i like it um oh man brian brian who who are their contenders this year or is there just is is is the are the teams have a Tia Toomey component, or is it more like the men? Let's – assuming that Tia has a better chance of winning than Justin Medeiros, where do the teams play out in respect to Rich Froning?

Does it go Tia, Justin, and then Team Mayhem, or does Team Mayhem have a better chance of winning than either Justin or, uh, Tia. I put them in the middle. I would say he is the best lock of the three, then mayhem. And then just no shit. What do you think about that?

Uh, Hobart? I think that's fair. You do. And it's not, it's not, it's not a knock on mayhem at all. No,

no, no, I don't. I think it's a knock on my boy, Justin. I think it's how good, you know, it's not, it's not like I didn't for sure. Uh, it's not a knock on mayhem at all. No, no, no. I don't, I think it's a knock on my boy, Justin. I think it's how good, you know, it's not, I got him for sure. Uh, it's, uh, it's just a, that that's how good Tia is. I've been like, you know, I see the morning chalk. I put it, this thing that 95% of people so far have picked her to win of their top five, whatever they're

doing. And like these other 5% of people, they're just either friends of someone or delusional there's nothing there is nothing i've looked and tried to find it there's nothing that suggests that anyone has a chance against tia but it's not that much different for mayhem despite the fact that there are a handful of really really good teams in this division in fact i personally am interested in up to maybe 20 teams that are competing this year there's there's no one that's on par with mayhem in my opinion um most of the years that they've competed you could look at their roster and say there's the chink in the armor and this year and it's usually the second guy and this year the second guy just podiumed at wadapalooza and he's an absolute beast who's taking the time this year away from his family to do this

with them it's the best sidekick if you will in terms of a man that that I think James is uh uh Rich has ever had alongside him I think Rich thinks that too sorry James and uh and uh and Samwell is a mental giant also he is a that brain of his appears to be a steel trap. Is he a physicist or something? No, he just, his, his head game. He just seems, I mean, that guy thinks he can go out and win the games. He thinks that if he, if you put him in the individual right now, he'd go out and win. He's, he's supremely confident. He thinks that unless you also put Rich in the field, then he thinks he'd get second.

Right, right, right. Uh, and, and do do we do we see that confidence um from uh reykjavik well i you know honestly the reykjavik team in a way reminds me of the brute team from 2017 where like they have assembled themselves and their mission is to dethrone the champs and i know that you know, some people have seen performances of their sprinkled in throughout the season that are like, nope, look at that. They did bad on that one workout and you can't do that badly on one workout and have a chance against mayhem. But in all of those cases, there are other little nuances going on, whether it was them testing something out or

one of their athletes, maybe not being at 100% that year. I mean, Lauren has been progressively improving throughout the season as she recovers from the elbow thing that she had going on. And I watched them in person in Amsterdam at the Lowlands Throwdown, and I was extremely impressed with every single one of them individually and their teamwork. And I think that those things will all only be better versions of that in a couple of weeks. This is the biggest threat to Mayhem that they've had since 2017. When I see Annie out there, I definitely see the star component of her and the energy she brings to the team.

In the footage, they just look different. And when she's out there and she's waving to the crowd, she there's an aura about her that also rich has that a few others have that, that I'm assuming that everyone on their team feels and elevates their performance too. Do you think that they believe they can beat a Reykjavik Hobart? They can be mayhem. Do you think Reykjavik believes they can beat uh reykjavik hobart uh they can beat um

mayhem do you think reykjavik believes it can beat mayhem yeah i don't think you go out there and do what they're trying to do unless you think that uh sam cop alpine reykjavik doesn't have a chance it's all social media hype there you go maybe they don't believe it no i don't i think you take that time to put that team together and they've made those commitments to go, you know, move halfway across the world. I think you have to believe that. and uh nistler then you could say that rich and samuel are better than tola and khan and you have a wash we have a fight on our hands we know i was thinking about this um no brian go ahead go ahead hobart sorry no no no let brian go you want him to talk clearly no no i don't i don't go ahead sorry no i was gonna ask i was looking into his eyes when i spoke i was gonna ask brian this question and that obviously i let's

say that you compare you know you had all the ladies compete and annie would be the fittest individual female out of the entire group let's just say but is there you know is there a stark difference between fitness needed to be the best individual and fitness needed to be the best athlete on the team and which team has that better you know i wonder how much that is a thing and how much that matters here or do you think that matters well in this in this case you know i think andrea and nistler and taylor williamson are very different i think andrea is an athlete you could pull out of the team competition and insert into the individual competition and she would do very well and basically all of her performances support

that from the open through times that she's competed in uh sanctionals over the years when she's done granite games in the past as an out of season competition she's always she's always hung in there and taylor williamson is it's my opinion like the epitome of a of a what you want in a female team athlete where she's still going to do okay in individual competitions, but she really, really, her skill sets lend themselves to the team division very well because she does have a couple, I would say she has a couple weaknesses relative to her strengths that Andrea's more balanced across the board. And those weaknesses are a lot easier to, you know, to your point,

Savan to mask over the course of an entire competition in the team division. Additionally, she's really good with, with the worm. And so she can carry a lot of the burden there. And even so for the men, sometimes you can see her slot to the, to the back of the worm. I think she could probably even do the front if she wanted to. So I think Taylor's, you know, the compliment of them is really good, but she, especially in the team side of things, is a very, very valuable asset.

God dang, did you see her body? She's a statue, Taylor. Yeah, you know. I want to see her next to Amanda Barnhart. I mean, she looks fitter than rich she looks i want her body before i take rich's body what you know one of the other things about the team competition and james you might have uh dude look at her legs look at her ass to her knee what is that one called the femur it's longer than my fucking leg yeah man she's taller she's quite a bit taller

she's bigger than rich they got rich in the front because he's the fucking little crumb well the point i was trying to make here is that height on a team i think is an important factor and you don't want to have outliers that are too tall or too short and andrea is more or less the average height of of the most of the men in the field you can see here she's probably five nine or five ten andrea's a little shorter but she's not she's not shorter than five six and so they don't have a lot of disparity from tallest to shortest on their team which helps when you do have anything that requires synchro and range of motion obviously the worm but also anything like a wall ball we were talking about earlier or even something like a gymnastics move where you don't have to compensate as much for those

big lever differences that i see sometimes show up on other teams um can you go back to that warm a little bit i want to just this is getting into some granular shit and i apologize but i've always wondered this um how do they pick the order? Tell me a little bit about the worm. We're going to see that in the games, right? Yeah. What's the strategy with the worm? Is it different for different movements?

So basically, they're in order of height there, right? No, not quite. James, I've never done this. Let me tell you what I think, and then James can tell me if I'm right or wrong about it. I kind of view it almost as a relay, James, I've never done this. Let me tell you what I think, and then James can tell me if I'm right or wrong about it. I kind of view it almost as a relay, where you're going to put your best and worst at the ends. But in this case, I think most of the teams like to alternate by sex.

So you have your best male with that implement in the front, your best female in the back, and then the other two just filter it yeah because in the past the way the bags were weighted it was like they were alternating in terms of like heaviest to lightest um no shit i didn't know that really the front was typically the heaviest and it definitely is noticeable like the front definitely feels heavier in a lot of cases and you'll probably see teams and i know i've seen mayhem do this switch out they did this at semi-finals and other teams switch out the front person once in a while because there's it's definitely a little bit heavier um i don't think that you know it seems like wait a sec james wait a sec wait a sec so there's there's two there's an idea you proposed or you said it used to be that the bags alternated weight they don't anymore but regardless of that the front always seems a little bit

heavier i think they still do i think the front is still the heaviest bag but i think now it's more they were um i forget what the weights were but it was like heaviest to lightest and the differences weren't enormous but it was noticeable especially in the front um i think the more important thing is what brian said and this shouldn't it's a super tiny point but it shouldn't be lost on anybody. I think teams who have similar heights have a distinct advantage on the worm far and away. So that is something that helps mayhem here. This is one day ago.

I want you to watch Nistler's feet. Man, we're really dropping. I saw her. She stands like Kitty Cornyn. What the fuck is going on? No, no, no. Her you to watch Nistler's feet. Man, we're really dropping into this. Yeah, I saw her. She stands like kitty-cornered, and then her heels coming off. No, no, no. Her right foot is... She's hurt. She's hurt.

It's not necessarily that she's hurt. So I have to do this. Here we go. Single arm overhead dumbbell squat on one side of my body. But yeah, you can see it there, James. Her right foot's coming up. Yeah, absolutely. She doesn't care, too.

I mean, she's working it. You can see, by the way, she makes little micro-adjust i mean she's working it you can see by the way she makes little micro adjustments she's working it she's figuring something out see that she's the only person making adjustments on the fly i think she's hurt man i don't know if she's hurt she just might not have that ankle range of motion there injured 25 minutes into the seven podcast july 19th breaking news andrew Nistler when was this posted uh it looks like one day ago or it was edited one day ago I actually have never paid that kind of close attention to other workouts and this seems like a silly thing to talk about for more than two minutes but

I'd have to watch them do other warm workouts like I've seen a lot of athletes when they do pistols or single arm overhead squats things like, where the heel comes up off the ground because they don't have the ankle flexibility or whatever flexibility to get down there. Oh, look at Matt doing some sleuthing. Doing some sleuthing. Okay. So we didn't really make any progress on why they're in that order other than the front bag generally feels heavier regardless if it is or isn't. And if you're all the same height, you do have an advantage. Oh, you can buy one of these.

Yeah, so it alternates 170. I think somebody already said that in the comments. I think this is one of those things if you buy you regret buying yeah 100 it just takes up room unless you're a games team holy cow what what what is what is the thing do we know for sure this is rich as last year no we don't know yeah we know yeah we don't know i mean he's he's joked around about masters he's but but we've heard this all this just we've heard him postulate before right but why would it my question why would he stop competing well there could be several answers to that yeah one

one is that you know like it or not like it is a toll emotionally mentally physically over time this would be his 10th time doing it or 11th and 12th 12th time doing it 10th time as a champion if he's able and that those are pretty nice numbers to round out a career with additionally you know there's more and more uh program or competitions are being programmed by mayhem for example and i know that there's been like conversations about the potential of rich eventually having a hand in programming, an element of the games, maybe the team division or something like that.

And if he did have that opportunity and wanted to go do it, he probably couldn't also be competing. And then, yeah, exactly. This is maybe, you know, he says that when he steps away from the individual side of competing, it was to spend more time with his family. But my perspective from the outside is he's still training a lot and he's still spending a lot of time in the gym. And, you know, he likes doing that.

I think it's something that he always will do. But he could, you know, he probably could, you know, stand to do, you know, four or less sessions a week or something and have some more family time. I think what Christy said and what Brian was just just saying is i i think i heard him say this also that his kids are starting to get into organized sports and he wants to be a part of that maybe he maybe he's gonna go coach him up in some uh peewee baseball his kids his kids just skip right over peewee uh um. I want to look on Brian's list here.

Brian was kind enough to give us a ranking, and he has third place on the podium, CrossFit Oslo Navy Blue with Nicolade. Oh, I can't believe I'm going to try this. Ingrid, Lena, and Evinde. Okay. That's a good pick. They were second last year, right? And they have a new guy. See? Did my homework, Brian. Okay. That's a good pick. They were second last year, right?

And they have a new guy. See? Did my homework, Brian. Yeah. Nikolaj Bilodel is the addition to this team. The other three are coming back. Nikolaj is the fittest man in Norway, and he represented them in 2019 games. He's a good addition to the team.

I got it. You know, they competed at strength and depth didn't get to see him in person but they were very good there um winning every event obviously and just that you know these two women are they're the norwegian equivalents of uh taylor and andrea and i and i really do think in this case that uh the women's women's side of things is a wash. I think they're just as good as Andrea and Taylor are at this point in their careers as far as team female athletes go. But those two guys cannot keep up with Rich and Sam,

and that's not a knock against them at all. There's no one in this competition that can keep up with Rich and Sam. Who is closer um oslo navy blue and reykjavik or reykjavik and freedom who who's closer in in terms of uh ability i would say navy blue and reykjavik i was really really tempted to put navy blue second on this list okay and and uh and then and then who is closer uh crossfit mayhem independent is it crossing mayhem independence just a totally separate quality of team than these top three are these top three a kind of runaway or is there a line there i think that's i think that's it what's that james i think that's a high pick for independence i think it's cool though

uh yeah i i think that there's a you's a definitive line after the top three teams in the team division. And then I kind of view the next five teams as another group after that. Let me ask you this real quick. Let's go back up to the top. Who's the best person on the – when I mean best, I mean fittest, brings most to the team, most capable. Who's the fittest person on CrossFit Mayhem Freedom? Who's the superstar? Oh, Rich.

And on CrossFit Reykjavik. He finished 13th in the Open this year, 15th, something. Crazy. He's like 60 years old, man. It's ridiculous. And CrossFit Reykjavik. Almost as old as James. No one's as old, man. It's ridiculous. And CrossFit Reykjavik. Almost as old as James. No one's as old as me.

Who's the superstar on CrossFit Reykjavik? Who's the guy? Annie. Annie. And on CrossFit Oslo Navy Blue, who's the guy? I wouldn't say that there is one. Wow. This is more.

This is like has a much more of a feel of a true team where it's like, everyone feels like they're on a, uh, even playing service. I do think that, uh, Lena Richter is kind of like the, the forward facing of the group or the captain sort of speak of this

team. And then, and then, and then a mayhem independence is, is there a standout? Is it, I would say, I would probably say Angelo.

No, it's really not Sasha Nevis. No, Sasha's, I would say, I would probably say Angelo. No, it's really not Sasha Nevis. No, Sasha's, uh, she's definitely the best at certain things, but she's probably the worst at other things. Wow. Okay. And also just the language, like, you know, to be that person, I think you also have to have the ability to lead from a communication standpoint. I think Angelo's the most accomplished and best all around athlete on this

team right now. Alexis may have been, uh, when she was competing individually, but she's gone through some injuries. She's older than the rest of this team. So she has a very valuable role on the team in terms of experience and maturity.

But I think Angelo is the top dog here. Uh, you, you would, would you say, would both of you say it's fair that, um, Oslo and Reyykjavik

plan on beating mayhem yeah in their minds yeah that's definitely their plan okay and so there's another interesting distinction that is not mayhem independence plan no i think mayhem independence is hoping to get another spot on the podium yeah what are the implications of that uh hobart? Is that bad? Are you buying that psychoanalysis, 50-cent psychoanalysis that Brian and I kind of just did? I mean, as good as everyone on that independence team is, I imagine if you're training with that freedom team regularly, you're probably pretty aware of what's realistic and what's not. aware of what's realistic and what's not. And even if you just look at their individual open finishes, I mean, Mayhem Freedom is just a class above. As good as Angelo is, right? Took time off, won teens, took time off, came back, still finishing top 200 in the open individually, helped qualify a team in the games. I just think there is a huge gap. And even if you look at

previous year's points between first place, fourth and fifth, it's like three, 200 points, maybe 300, 200 points. We'll say 300 points down to fifth. So. Yeah.

Who's out of this whole list of 40 teams, which team is the, the biggest unknown, the one that you think, Oh shit, they could take last or fuck. They could be top 10. Who knows?

I'd say move fast, lift heavy. I want to give them a shout out because i thought they had someone on their team they're going to the games didn't they have that was that was last year oh okay they're in the yeah i have them ranked 12th the team that i would actually pick for that category is probably right there number six crossfit selwyn uh maddie shelling marnie sykes and the older of the two followers um i think that all three of them if oceana had five game spots available would have competed in the individual division this year and thought that they had a chance to get spots for and or five and the younger brother of the followers i think is luke would have been probably in the top 10. So they're all,

all four of them are very top 10 at the games. No, in, in Oceana. Oh, okay. Okay. Maybe as high as seven or eight in that region.

But you know, you're talking about the, you know, finishing, he would be just there behind Royce Dunn and Bailey Martin and those types and his brother. It's still, it's still very good.

So anyway, all four of them are very good as individuals, but they saw the writing on the wall this year with only three spots. There was a, you know, slim to none chance. Well, probably a none chance that they were going to get those spots.

So they put this team together. They did very well. That CrossFit urban energy team placed in the top five at the games last year. And Selwyn basically matched them almost event for event at the Torium Pro semifinal. And so I have both of them up here as contenders to maybe be flirting with the podium, but probably in that group with Mayhem Independence

that's just in the next group of five. However, we haven't seen this team outside of that. It's just a new team this year. So I think there is, of course, a lot of questions that they still have to answer. What was the team? You said that the 12 times Rich has gone to the games, he's won 10. We know the first year he lost to Graham Holmberg.

What was the other loss? Was that to Invictus as a team? No, 2017 to Brute's team with Adrian Conway. And are they in here? No. Brute doesn't have a team no they haven't really had a competitive team since then they asked i mean that team was amazing they put that team together with one mission and from the start of the season they were saying you know our goal is

to beat mayhem and they did it who is on that team uh mitch spute and brendan fjord were the other guys manny janowitz and i, I can never remember the women. I apologize. It was a team of six. Yeah. And that's when it was four dudes and two girls. Yeah. Here's this.

It's like, this is the problem with the, I'm not even sure if you see, if we scroll down here, if we'll be able to. Okay. So there they are. They do have them there,

but they have, so there's, um, Tiffany was definitely on the team. And I don't even know. And Mikayla was the backup? I thought – I'm not sure. I thought there was someone else, but I guess so.

She's the only one listed there. Look at that name. That person, Mitch, has an SPJ with no vowel and then a UT that's not even legal and then look at the name below it FJ who are these people the game champions from 2017 yeah I remember that guy Brennan from back in the day he's a fucking horse but this is actually a good example

if you go back to the leaderboard and you look at the event finishes from Mayhem and Wasatch that year, it's just crazy. There's a couple outliers, but especially towards the end of the weekend, I think they were basically just exchanging first and seconds on every event. And every other team is just like, okay. Yeah, as it goes on, look at this at the end. First, second, first, second, third, second, second, third. And there's just not a lot of teams that can do anything in terms of stealing points from them. And I think that we'll see something similar this year.

We're in a lot of the events. There will, of course, be some teams that specialize in certain things. But for the most part, you're going to see first, second, third, or maybe down to fourth place, like just interchanging between Freedom, Reykjavik, and Oslo in a lot of workouts. And look who took third that year, 2017. Yeah. CrossFit for Vancouver.

Yeah. Uh, that's, uh, Adam, Adam, Nafers, Nafers,

Nafers, Adam, Nafers team, Justin Medeiros, his coach. I think that you just ran like a hundred miles or something. No, you know what he did?

I think that guy, there's something called the toughest race in the world. Have you heard of this race? I didn't. He talked to us about it. I can't remember. No, I think someone else talked to me about it.

Someone's like, dude, you got to have Mon. He did it. I think we talked to him about it before he did it before me. Yeah. Maybe before he did it. Knifer.

Thank you, Heidi. God, I don't know why it's so hard for me to remember that. Knifer. Knifer. Uh, okay.. God, I don't know why it's so hard for me to remember that. Knifer. Knifer. Okay. So this,

how many events do the, do the teams do? Do they do 15 events also? It's usually more around 12. So they do less than the individual. By a couple, maybe 12 or 13 is what I would project for this season. But they still go into a no man's land, meaning there's no other competition like this.

Just like for the individuals, there's no other competition like this in the sport. This is this is going to take them. I mean, let me preface this with this. Bjorkman said he was sore going into the final day of the semifinal. And so you just wonder, man, if this was the games, he would have two more, three more days left. That math is accurate. And so thank you. And so, and so seven, yes. And so, and so, so, so the games really takes

people into deep waters and these people all have to get along with each other. I did see in that video, the training plan video, maybe a little tension between Khan and the other guys. Khan may have looked like he was a little high maintenance. Did you guys see that video by any chance? I didn't see it. Did you see it, Brian? I'm not sure if I watched it.

Is this the most recent one that's come out? Yeah, I think it came out yesterday. There's a scene where Khan and and annie and tola and lauren are all together it looks like it was maybe after the semi-finals and lauren says and i don't appreciate you calling me this and i don't i didn't see what happened just prior to that but i think someone had said something to khan like joking and i in khan's response i couldn't tell if he was joking or serious but he said does anyone else have any complaints about me? And he's all fucking wide-eyed and shit, like he just did a bump of coke. And Lauren's like backing up, I'm just joking, I'm just joking.

And I was like, ah, it sounds like it just looked like a little tense. But these guys got to get a little, this is emotional, right? Yeah, for sure. Did you fight with the team, Hobart? No, that was probably one of the biggest strengths we had as a team is how well we worked together when we were out there i always i always felt like that was something we did extraordinarily better than everyone else especially the year later and i've talked about this before when i went and commentated and watched events and watched because i was always like i don't i never felt like we were doing anything different than

other teams but then when i watched other teams out there and it was like you know sally would drop the worm and she would you know flip out and then everyone would be screaming at her and they'd be like just calm down sally i saw some crazy shit at the crossfit games between teams with shit that looked like it was going to come to blows during events yeah and then i realized okay well that's one of the things we did better is like when we had a mistake we didn't turn around and like slap each other and scream at each other, you know? What were you going to say, Brian? And then let's go over and look at Comporter's Instagram. Yeah, they should do a B-roll video of teams having meltdowns.

Sorry. Yes, that actually would be amazing. No, it's just, it just reminds me of, you know, people handle relationships differently. It just reminds me of people handle relationships differently. And in some cases, there's kind of seamless relationships where they don't have to have a lot of confrontations or instigating moments like we might have seen on that Reykjavik video. But in others, I mean, I know some couples that have been together for 60 years and every time around them, they're like yelling at each other and fighting. But that's just a way of communicating with each other. And they are addressing the problem that's just a way of of communicating with each other and okay they are addressing the problem that's in front of them it's just maybe in a more boisterous way

than some makes some people like seven comfortable and so he gets you know a little nervous around it but that's the way of getting you know get it out there get it over with and then move on however you probably don't want that in the midst of an event so it's better to iron out those details in this case in training and then when it comes time the game time that's when you have to you know have the capacity to lock it in so if they can work out well and then deal with those things before or after maybe a positive and i do want to say this nistler and uh and taylor are fucking cool like when i when i when i they're they're, they're rocks, they're solid. You know what I mean?

When I, when I've had them on the show, they were, they were, they're, they're dudes, they're bros, they're cool shit.

They're strong. I would say that they're like, they have a strong sense of independence, like, you know, and they are capable of standing up for themselves and holding their own. And whether it's in the fitness or in just, you know,

a conversation, but that's what I just said. I said, they're dudes. Okay. Okay. in the fitness or in just a conversation. Yeah, that's what I just said. I said they're dudes. Uh-huh. Yeah, okay. Okay. Can we see Con Porter's – I'm looking for a video you guys got to see

that someone sent me. It's a video that we made way back in the day that we were never allowed to release. It's from a games competition in Carson, and someone sent it to me. You got to see it. Okay. Oh, yeah, let's look at to me. You've got to see it. Okay. Oh, yeah. Let's look at Khan's most recent post.

This is interesting. I like what I can see so far. Is it that one where he's holding up the woman's vagina and it says Khan? That's probably it, but I do have the video you're speaking of uploaded in here. It's just going to take over the whole screen if you want to play it. Okay. We'll come back to Khan. I just want to show you this real quick, and then we'll come back to Khan's vagina

in one second, vagina post. Let's, so I don't know what year this was. Brian and Hobart will tell us, but this was a video we made. I've never seen this black and white version before. It was a color video. We made it when we worked at HQ or someone made it, I can't remember.

And we wanted to air it. And it got, I think Dave's like, fuck you guys. Or someone said, no, there's no fucking way you guys are going to show this but it is fucking amazing i'm gonna get in trouble for this probably okay but there's no nudity violence uh or anything like that it's just it shows how far we've come I remember that event. I competed that event. I competed that year. That was 2012. Oh, look at Susan's falling out of his chair.

Hey, wouldn't you love to see an X-ray of everyone's spine when they carried that? Like the shit that people's discs did? That event should have been called Midline Madness. Yes. So, Hobart, you carried that fucking thing yeah oh and did you did you have moves like that where you were like this and fucking did you get i mean a little bit that one who got knocked out he got fucking pile driving into the ground and it looked like matt hewitt may have got pile drived yeah, his head is still, uh, no, it's in the grass still at Carson. It's still there. No, I had a, that was something that Rob Orlando came up with and I used to train with him a bunch and I had used a yoke like that before. I didn't like do excellent with it, but I don't think like I lost all my teeth carrying that thing, but it was, that was one of those moments I remember because I remember I was out there and someone else on our team was carrying it. That's when I was competing for New England.

And that was one of those moments where I was not focused on my team at all. I was just watching the chaos around me. So it was that crazy? Yeah, man. It was a really hard thing to carry. Really hard. Do you think it's time for us to bring that one back? Yeah.

I think we can handle it now. I think it would actually be amazing to see it now. Maybe put it in the individual field and to see the difference of how well people can handle that compared to 10 years ago. And maybe make it a little lighter. You could make it a little lighter maybe. Hey, this is the part in the video

where people are going to rewind it to watch that. I mean, that was nuts. That thing is nuts. Andrew, if you want that, Andrew Hiller, if you want that video, we'll send it over to you if you want to make a video about how far the game has gone. What was that thing called? But there's been a lot of learnings. I forget what it was called. The wobbly yoke?

I don't know. But remember the worm used to be logs? Yes. Probably the same year. Yeah, that was the same year yeah that was the same year yeah that was nasty they were the worst yeah if you wanted to lose all your fingers there was a great way to do that was to carry that thing what what video did i see oh could you go to uh susan could you go to go wads instagram account have you seen this compilation they put together pat velner have you seen this have you seen this brian yesterday all the fails yeah yeah man that that dude yesterday and said uh velner wins the internet today or something like

that wow that dude is fucking tough that is no joke some of the shit that's happened to him at the fucking crossfit games or semifinals or wherever this footage is from i mean he he takes a beating did you know he fucking um he was coughing up blood when he fell off the net uh hobart yeah you didn't know yeah it's crazy right well i wonder if any documentary i wonder if any other um uh athletes ever uh coughed up blood from falling blood at the CrossFit Games. I don't see it. Maybe it's on his Instagram.

Maybe they made it for him. That yoke was 370 pounds for men, 230 for women. Wow. Each team member gets one attempt to move the yoke. Time cap, three minutes. One attempt to move it as far as you could so once your dude gets

pile-drived on the ground the other people on the team pick it up and set it on your back is that how it works oh romwad not go what's the difference between romwad and go wad well are they are they improve your range of motion the other one helps you go oh they Oh, they're not both like stretchy apps? They are both stretchy apps. Oh, okay, okay. So they're competitors. I apologize. For a lot longer, Gowad's made an aggressive move into the space in the last couple years.

Is Gowad owned by Kelly Starrett? Is that his? I'm not sure. Oh, okay. I don't think so. Is this one owned by Kelly Starrett? Play this video. Okay, play this video.

Is this one owned by Kelly Starrett? Play this video. Okay, play this video. What? Where was that weight rolling to? Was that during the total? When was that during? No, no. It was during the anias uh pegboard yoke light thruster yoke carry it's i don't know how that happened it's literally rolled six lanes across the coliseum floor so felt so dumb going to get it that was such a great that workout had such a that was such a great name for that workout. It was a very, uh, clever, clever name. Yeah.

I'd like to see that workout brought back, but in like a rounds type setting. But with those yolks, with those wobbly yolks. Yeah. With wobbly yolks and like, you know, three rounds for, for time. And the pegboard pegs, instead of being made out of wood are made out of rubber. Pegboard pegs, instead of being made out of wood, are made out of rubber. Just kind of bow a little bit. This is what you get with the cat program.

Oh, it's a dildo company offers the pegs their new rigid line. You take the pegs home. So speaking of dildos, let's go back to Khan's post. Why is Khan posting vaginas the week before or two weeks before the games? How far are we until the games? Look at Adam. Yeah, the dildo pegboard. I like that.

Functional in so many ways. This is a fantastic book, Come As You Are, by Emily Nagoski. It's a book about sex intimacy written by a woman mostly aimed at women. It highlights the beautiful renaissance happening at the moment around women's sexuality ladies i highly recommend it i didn't know there was a god i'm 50 i didn't know there was a renaissance around women's sexuality what is what does that mean a renaissance uh ladies i highly recommend it however i also think this is a great book for blokes that's us right that's dudes yeah yeah however i also think this uh if you're heterosexual man chances are at some point hopefully uh you will connect become intimate

have sex and fall in love oh gross uh i'm going to what did you say cooties cooties yeah um that i'm going to the last sentence oh can you scroll all the way down i want to just get to the end here i want to tie this one up. I like the cover of the book. It's a nice drawing. So whilst this book is absolutely aimed at women, it's also a fantastic read for guys. Oh, he translated for us Americans at the end. All right.

Oh, wait, wait, one more. This sentence is for you, I think, Hobart. There's also a little literature around body positivity body positivity performance anxiety and just general chatter around the various insecurities men experience how about we should do a whole series of podcasts on that in relationship to sex and sexuality probably because anything beyond the physical is still taboo for us both blokes blokes means guys i just want to know does bigfoot have hair or fur he has both you know some dogs have like hair and fur yeah here's the layer underneath the fur that keeps the water off the skin or something right waterproof yeah and i would imagine bigfoot has both comporters transforming into emily abbott i think the word is transitioning but whatever you do you

you do when she came on for the new show yeah i think the word is transitioning but whatever you do you you do when she came on for the new show yeah i think she got offended yeah she lived she left abruptly or something something weird happened she just had it was kind of how like the sevon matt and josh podcast ended i thought that was still going uh it is it is we just haven't done one in a while um brian where do you got crossfit rhapsody because they're friends of mine oh renaissance rebirth okay so there was a rebirth women are having sex again there's a rebirth okay women good job awesome awesome awesome awesome uh what who's who's your friend on the team hobartart? Well, I know the folks who own the gym, and it's good people. And how do you know they made it to the games?

Because I followed them throughout the season. Last year, they did not do great at the games. Well, I have them 34th. Okay, that's a bump up. Oh, wow. I have a question for you, Brian. This one's going to sting a little bit. Sorry, Africa.

How bad is this CrossFit Tiger Valley unit team? Are they better or worse than Jason Smith? I mean, do these people – wow. Is it really just a token that they're going to be at the games? Are they going to get embarrassed? Are they going to have all caps and they're going to be capped on every workout? I don't know. I have them ranked last.

I think I have the representative from Africa ranked last in all three divisions. And, yeah, they're just based on the performance. They haven't shown the capacity to compete with these teams. So, you know, you call it whatever you want. They get one spot at the games,

but I think that once they get there, they're going to be bottom three at best across the board this year. So if CrossFit East Woodbridge. Europe named twice. if they don't north america oh they're okay from north america if they right atlas oh no atlas was the canadian one yeah okay if they get beat by any of those three teams they should be put on suicide watch well the so the bottom three teams i have in there right now are the fifth and sixth place qualifying teams from copa sur because the top four teams are ineligible and that makes sense

you're you know how the fuck how the fuck can the african team not beat the the fifth and sixth place team from south america wow brian this is not this isn't looking good this isn't looking good down here this might be these are the teams to follow if you want to go to the games and just drink your ass off and get drunk and try to get kicked out push the limits of getting follow these three teams you know what you do pick pick one of these three teams at the bottom no you know what you do you just pick you just go and talk shit to crossfit east woodbridge they can't even spell crossfit right there they got lowercase f okay that's on me i think we can see that i spelled it right the other 35 times yeah you did 30 37 of the 38 times

you spelled it right uh wow wow you must think this Africa team is shit. Look, this is the CrossFit Games. Someone has to be ranked last. I know, but Akopa Sir, the first 14. Are you telling me that those teams, out of those 16 athletes, someone tested positive? One in four tested positive, and that's why they're not coming to the crossfit games and why we're at fifth and sixth yeah we went over that a couple weeks ago i think yeah i'm just i'm just struggling to believe that do we know how many people from each team

tested positive was it well there was some of the teams announced that, and then CrossFit also posted, and I think it was for Ribeiro, which was second, there was one. I don't know. There were two people on that team. They list both of them. Only two were tested, I think, Hobart. Only two people from every team were tested. So we don't even know.

The third place team had two and then the top team had one and the fourth team had one. The only two were tested. Yeah. They both. So they, and two popped. I believe that's the case. I, you know, I had thought that two members of each team that was, were tested everywhere. Like that, that was it. It was only two, but inrica they tested all four so i'm not i'm not 100 sure anymore hey let we should start a rumor that like their that their drug testing is better than everywhere else's and that's why they got caught like just to give them some breathing room you know what

i mean a little we go to the 11 through 20 teams. All right. If you insist, man, that is, I'm serious. By the way, if you, if you're, if you're going to the games as a team,

I think those are the four teams to watch. If you want to have some fun, pick a winner there and just get behind them. What a fucking mess. It is down there. This team in 14th is a team that I'm personally, I'm super excited to see at the games. It's the team from Russia that won the Far East Throwdown pretty convincingly. And they've, they basically what they've done here with this Kolesnikov program in Russia is the equivalent of what Mayhem's doing in the US where they're just gathering all of the best athletes from their country. Some of them are training as individuals. A lot of them are contributing to the team.

I wouldn't be surprised if they have two teams next year. They have some Masters athletes that train there. And so they're basically just making a Russian training camp that's intent is to have high-level competitors in a lot of divisions. Yes, James? They performed really well in the Open, right? I think so. They performed really well in the open, right?

I think so. The kind of cool thing about this team is they're in Las Vegas right now training underneath Tommy Hackenbrook. So they're leaning on an experienced team competitor from a different era to get an extra advantage. So when you were asking about teams that have variable, you know, potential at the games, this is definitely one of them. Like we really don't know anything about them because they haven't competed against any other team from North America or Europe in a,

in a competition like this, but their athletes are very good. That girl, Alexandra Buzanova, I think would have qualified for the games out of Asia as an individual this year if she tried to compete. And I've been trying to follow some of their stuff over the last year, 18 months. Holy shit, how'd you get in here? Hello, hello, hello. You didn't get the dress code? What's that?

You didn't get the dress code? No, he did get it. I'm just post-session here, trying to get some sun on the balcony uh con welcome to the show i have one question for brian brian is tommy training that team or are they training at his gym or both he i think he trains them and now they're and they've come to the u.s obviously and they're training with him now at his gym wow Wow. Or whatever gym he's in. Wow. Yeah, that's huge.

That's huge. Khan, what's up, dude? Khan, are you in Michigan? Yes, we are. Have you been to Michigan before? No, this is my first time. It's cool. It's quiet.

If there was nothing, if there was no elements in between us, I could drive a car straight to you and be there in probably an hour. Really? Oh, mate, swing on by. Come for a session. Well, there's a lake in the way, so it would take a little bit longer. Fair enough. Fair enough. Khan, is it cold outside where you're at?

No, not at all, especially not coming from Reykjavik summer, which was a balmy 13 degrees at best. Wow. Is it humid where you're at? It's 11am right now for you? Yes. 11am. Yeah. It's hot and it's humid today. There's a bit of a breeze, but it's been, yeah, it's been wild. It was like 90 yesterday and then the humidity was solid as well. And are you enjoying it? Is Australia humid or just hot?

Yeah, no, we get humid in summer, but it's winter there at the moment. So it wouldn't be too bad. And is it, are you glad to be in Michigan? hot? Yeah, no, we get humid in summer, but it's winter there at the moment, so it wouldn't be too bad. And are you glad to be in Michigan? Are you like, okay, this is a good change? I'm assuming you're there because you're getting ready to acclimate to the possible insane heat. I mean, it could always be ridiculously hot in Madison. I mean, it's not guaranteed, but it could get nuts.

Yeah, dude. It's like the – well, coming from Iceland as well, if we didn't come here beforehand or somewhere that was hot as shit, we'd be in a lot of trouble, I think, going straight to the games. Savan, they're at the Pit Ranch or whatever that hosts the teen competition. How did you guys get hooked up over there? We honestly all just put the feelers out on Instagram, and then they contacted Lauren and said,

hey, we've got a pretty good facility. We can probably help you out with some housing you should see the place i'm at now like that's the backyard it's like oh damn flags everywhere there's that many live laugh love signs i'm so motivated it's fantastic that's awesome what about the bugs uh there's a few bugs but that's not too bad compared to back home i'm used to them okay no which is good say that again no mozzies which is good what's a mozzie like you know the little mosquitoes the pest oh yes yes those blokes um i'm just trying some shit out just trying some shit out you'll have the vernacular down pat Wait till you hear the guys on the team. They've got plenty of Aussie sayings ready to go. Good. Khan, we were talking, we were comparing you and Oslo

to the Mayhem Independence team, basically Mayhem Independence team. They know. You guys are the first people to do that all season. They know they can't win. They've already, Angelo has been uh neutered by rich froning and uh all of them have been told to shut the fuck up and stay in your lane bitches now um the question is is do you guys go in there do you think you and oslo go in there and it's like yeah it's it's it's it's just win it's just win win win yeah go in that's that's the idea we

all everyone wants to win like that doesn't i don't think that means that we're sitting here going we can we're gonna get them we're gonna get them we're gonna get them but we definitely want to win absolutely and and um when i was how how is the team dynamics in the video i saw last night that looked like there was a moment where there may have been a small hiccup between you and someone else um what was what was a moment where there may have been a small hiccup between you and someone else. What was the moment specifically? Maybe I can shed some light on it. Cause I would say if there was anything that I think bodes well for our team

and you can feel free to send some links and get some confirmation, it's our team chemistry. I think the vibe amongst our training camp as a whole is phenomenal. So I'm curious what the moment is yeah um hey so so we told when uh when when um bjorgvin not only slapped tola but then followed up with spitting on him i told that was that was all good uh yeah that's actually how they express love in uh iceland you'll kind of find it if you have enough of them on the show for a long enough period of time that's when you know that he loves you.

That's how it is in California too. We slap you and spit on you. I've been waiting for Siobhan to do that for years. Yes. Um, it's a scene where, um, uh, Lauren is filming you with her phone and then there's a camera guy there and Tola's there and Annie's there. And, and Lauren says, you said, does anyone else have anything that they don't want me to say or that offends them or something like that? And she says, I don't want you to call me this. And I forget what it is.

And then she goes, I'm just joking. I'm just joking. But I looked at your eyes and you're all wide eyed and shit. And you're like, you're packing your bag aggressively. I'm like, oh, cons. Cons got his panties in a twist here. Yeah. your bag aggressively i'm like oh cons he's got his panties in a twist here yeah so does the does it show the start of that where that came from about how we've been calling frederick freddy

the whole season and he comes out of nowhere and says you know he hates that and toller and i were like wait what we have like we've been calling him this since day one why don't you guys say anything like we love frederick have so much respect for that dude and then so yeah so okay so it wasn't that you were upset maybe you were a little embarrassed and i read you wrong like absolutely okay thing absolutely and then uh yeah but i just for the record no one else is allowed to call lauren losberger let's just but that's not a thing to stick and don't advise anyone else calling it that what laws burger yes sir as i said mate they've got an indoctrination in the ways of australian slang uh very quickly here in iceland they had a lot of z's to names yeah or a at the end or o got to put an o on the end of them and

then that's that's a pretty good aussie nickname um it's got to be you you were joking about the comparison between you guys and and what's going on with mayhem but it's got to be fun it it definitely injects it's not like oh this is so lame it really injects the team competition with a shit ton of energy right yeah I think it only gets tiresome when I think other people take it a lot more seriously it is so much fun like the ability to have that banter and to have that kind of um back and forth and i know like they must be licking their chops at what with all the media stuff that's coming out of crossfit they're loving it too which is really really cool the only time it gets tiresome is when you get like

the messages oh you think you really think you're gonna beat mayhem you're like okay like cool but that's what messages like that oh dude absolutely i put a video off yesterday i just go out way too hot like just taking the piss out of myself which is a normal thing for us to do and then people in the comments like and you think you can beat rich froning i was like god okay we're like eating a cheeseburger while they're typing it. And it's just like, look at this idiot here. I'm like, oh my God. But other than that, honestly, yeah, it's been a blast. And it's, I think I posted something the other day as well.

Like it's been surreal. I was watching, I was thinking about when I started CrossFit and I was like 2012 and it was Rich and Annie were the pinnacle of the sport. And we kind of were like anytime maybe those thoughts would be like oh i'm so annoyed with people with the constant comparison when it gets negative like that i'm like holy shit you're on a team with annie thor's daughter going against rich froning when you started this sport those people were like they were icons to you and somehow you're in this bizarre scenario

like fuck it's nostalgic as fuck for a lot of us it's crazy seriously yeah crazy i mean to tell you the truth it was almost like that they should have got married like it was really like that you know what i mean it really was like that it was like they were like the king and the queen of our cult yeah they really were and and yeah it's kind of cool to see them go head to head. And I know, yeah, like we're just super duper excited. I mean, we knew that that was going to be the whole storyline throughout the season. And yeah, it's been fun to play up to it at times as well. Is Annie's aura and star power a benefit or is it a distraction um i think honestly we've spent enough time around

each other now as a group that i think it's it's it's her experience is a benefit i think the way that she carries herself both in training and a competition is an unbelievable benefit how i've grown as an athlete and how i know the other guys have grown as an athlete oh that's all here maybe it's totally he's in a massage chair that's who i yeah let's go yeah but yeah we um we i think we've all benefited from it what you doing big guy you want to jump on a call yeah let's look at let's look at the tola there he is there he is we can just admire him while he's making breakfast. Yes. Notice Tola in the wild.

Oh, he takes his shirt off. That's interesting because I was assessing that too, that he doesn't have his shirt off in a lot of videos. But there he is naked in the wild. That's awesome. That's just a rare thing that you get to see Tola naked in the wild on an interview as well. So you guys got treated to something very special just then. You guys weren't friends before you joined the team.

No, we'd met each other before you joined the team. No, we'd met each other when we did demo team last year, but, um, we, we lived together effectively, uh, in two bedroom unit when we got to Iceland and it was two bedrooms,

uh, a small table and a small kitchen between the two of us. And that was it. So yeah, we've become good bros since. And where's he from? Uh, he's Boston Bay, uh, from Boston originally, but based in Vegas. Wow.

Is he an underdog guy? He's an underdog guy? Yeah, he's an underdogs guy. So I knew him also just through Kotler, just because Kotler and I are tight. Okay, bring him over here. Let's find out what the fuck happened with Danielle Brannan. No, no, I'm joking. I'm joking.

I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. Do you have anything for Mr. Kahn Porter, Brian? No, I mean, or maybe I do.

You know, I obviously was there. I saw you guys compete in Netherlands. You guys looked pretty cohesive and pretty smooth. From your assessment your assessment you know has it been a significant progress even from then because i mean it's week one of semis yeah i think each yeah i would have liked that competition i think we all would have liked that competition to have some uh longer and more challenging workouts uh to really put us to a test so i think think we've definitely, as a team, we kind of, particularly the last, I want to say three, four weeks have really, really started to feel like we've got things like the worm really dialed in and all these kinds of things that we didn't get to get hands

on in competition. We only did the one worm workout there. And then there was a lot of the events were quite short or it was very short bursts of effort so it's it was hard to use that as a as a gauge overall of where we're at but um we've gone ahead and done a tested a bunch of workouts from other semi-finals and yeah i think you know we are a new team in the scheme of things we're six six people we're four people that you know for the most part didn't really know each other prior to the season got together moved to a new country uh where there wasn't much else to do except train so we've only gotten better and better as the season's progressed

how good we'll see we'll see when it comes time to throw down but we're just excited man i think yeah we're significantly better than we were at semi-finals which was significantly better than we were at quarterfinals and we'll just kind of yeah we'll see we'll see where that leaves us when it comes time to lay it out on the floor uh hobart do you have anything i have one final question do you have anything hobart um are you guys still doing any of your own programming or is it just all team stuff that you guys determine or how much influence does Yami have on what you guys do day to day? Yami is our Lord and Savior. He does everything. He's present and he's great.

He does everything for us. So we have individualized portions of training to cater to our specific needs as athletes. But I'd say 90% of what we're doing now is team-based so even hey yami really is incredible huh he's putting in like 16 to 20 hours a day i was watching that video and i was watching him tend to toll his calf and i started like doing the math if he tended to everyone's calf once a day the math starts getting fucking crazy like he does do that if you if a little injury that's going on or something that's nagging or even if it's not an injury he is checking in with

everyone physically he's checking every in everyone mentally and then he's providing the coaching on top of that like the dude the dude's on but the other person as well that's very involved is frederick so frederick's input come ah dude he is on to it as well and he i guess yami's seen as the coach but frederick is a super knowledgeable dude and has a huge impact because he's also got bkg here who i honestly think is poised for a phenomenal year like that guy is in crazy shape right now so um it'll be cool yeah like yami's kind of got both of those things going on and so frederick helps out too who's fitter bkg or samuel cornway uh i don't know i just know talk some shit talk some shit i'm gonna say i know that bkg is very

fit at the moment he's up there um final question and thank you so much for coming on um if do is there a chance we could see this team again it's the million dollar question isn't it mate i guess you'll just have to wait and see till uh after the games i think yeah we do get asked it a lot and there has been various conversations, but ultimately rather than thinking about what we're going to do in 2023, I think we've kind of collectively come together to say, rather than having those conversations, let's be super focused, 2022 games, trying to get on top of that podium and then reassess from there. So I think.

Okay. So it's definitely not a no. You're not like you guys feel good you're like fuck we might not trade this car in this could be oh absolutely okay even if you didn't necessarily see the exact same configuration as a team you could probably all come together and train again in iceland awesome like yeah as i said the vibe there is phenomenal awesome all right dude easy guys thank you so much for having me yeah no fuck thank you great to see you guys for the show guys bye that was really cool and i you know the thing that really jumped out to me was what he'd said about the semi-finals you know that they

wanted to see a higher level of programming they wanted to see more challenging or longer tests where they as a team were required to do more work for more periods of time instead of these quick bursts and this one worm workout. And I think it's actually a super challenging thing for the semifinal programmers to program for team competitions because especially the semifinal level, the difference from the top teams, the games qualifying teams, the top heat, and then the bottom heat is really, really drastic. So if you do put those higher level things, you're going to see some teams in heat one that just get obliterated, but you will have a better idea of the teams towards the top and how good they can

actually become the games. If you dive into, I'll put all my rankings up at some point on Instagram for teams. And you'll see that in some places in there, I have teams that were fourth place at one semifinal doing better than teams that were first place in another semi-final because of the fact that i think that their skill set or team chemistry will translate better to game style programming than the semi-final or teams that took um uh six plus six place at their semi-final well i'll give you an example last year at the granite games i watched CrossFit Omnia totally dominate the field and they were so, so good. But then they really underperformed

at the games last year. They, again, were the best team at semifinals this year in the Atlas Games, but I've ranked them outside the top 20 because I think there are several teams that can outperform them in the games. It's, of course, possible that they've improved in that domain and will show a different quality at the games this year,

but that's a real thing. Like in the team division, especially you can do pretty well at semifinals and struggle at the games. Uh, if you have any questions for Brian and Hobart, the window is going to be small, but you're welcome to call in and ask them,

uh, James, what did you think from this 10 minutes we spent with calm Porter about his attitude, his vibe? Um, yeah, like a lot. Um, it's funny. The same thing stuck out to me. from this 10 minutes we spent with calm Porter about his attitude, his vibe. Yeah. I like it a lot.

It's funny. The same thing stuck out to me. That's stuck out to Brian. I'm glad he said that I like when athletes teams, whatever competitors say, Hey, I did this test and I wanted to be tested more. I think that's a really good outlook to go into the games with, because that's exactly what's going to happen.

I also think it's good because if everyone else in the team truly feels that way, you're looking at a team of people who are competing to push themselves to a limit. Not even to a limit. They're competing to push themselves basically to, I don't know, to the podium. I think that's a really cool thing. And it's a good mindset because it's not an unstoppable mindset, but it basically means they're not putting a limit on themselves rolling into the games.

And if you have a team that that's fit like those guys and they are working well together, that's a pretty dangerous thing. Because I think a lot of people going to the games are like, we're just here to have fun or we're here to be in the top 10. If the Reykjavik team is going in there and saying, hey, we're just showing up to, well, yes, get know, if, if the Reykjavik team is going in there and saying, Hey, we're just showing up to, well, yes, get on the podium, but push ourselves as far as we possibly can. That's a good place to be. They have to, they have to, um, right. They have to learn how to take that energy

that's coming to them and use it, right? Both teams. You can't be annoyed by the fans, right? Were you ever annoyed by the fans when you were on the mayhem team? No, I loved, I loved when people talk shit. It just, you know, it was like, Oh, you're going to run in your mouth. You're going to say, we're going to lose. I would be like, cool. We're going to go train now. You know, we're going to go do this better. I really liked it. I remember this one specific moment we were doing a regional and it was a deadlift burpee workout and um it was like we were getting beat and it was like oh such and such team just passed mayhem and the entire place went crazy and then when we finally passed and i was like cool that we're gonna crush these idiots and um they weren't idiots they're great people um i like the aggression i like the

aggression don't worry that's what was going through my head that's what happens when you're on testosterone in the off-season hobart you get a little aggressive like that it's okay i appreciate that finally um someone noticed um and then when we finally passed them it's like the whole place went silent and i was just like that fired me up so much i was like good let's keep them quiet. I think that sounds great. Haley, he's married. That's okay. Okay. Oh, Haley, wow. You should lay out.

You're taking a lot of tea, huh? Yeah, a little bit. Go ahead. You're live. Tell us what you need. James, I was just wondering if you still had a relationship with rich oh i wish you would have just paused a little bit longer there that was really uncomfortable for a second nice though delivery was still good i'll give it a nine but after you would have said if you still have a

relationship if you could have paused and really let him real turn a different shade of red that would have been nice no william my wife just got home from the gym uh yeah rich and i still text each other we haven't seen each other in a long time, but we chit-chat now and then. I text Rich and invited him on the show, and he said he logged on and saw Hobart, and there's no fucking way he's coming on with this fucking has-been. I mean, it's in my text right here. If I'm lying, I'm dying. That's awesome.

Hey, another question for you, Hobart. Do you have a relationship with Hewitt? Yeah, still do. Matt and I talk pretty frequently. So, yeah. You have a third question. I feel like we're getting somewhere. What did you guys trade at Mayhem together?

Oh, at Mayhem together? We went down there for a fundraiser. I think it was like two years ago. It was during COVID. And we all did a workout together it was a while he has his own programming now right i think i went to his instagram account the other day and he has his own programming right yeah he looked great he looks he's checked yeah he's checked yeah yeah it's it's just a consequence of being in cookville tennessee uh hayley thanks for calling uh we'll talk soon bye i was afraid what his next question was going to be did you sleep with uh hewitt uh zach how can i help you brother hey what's up what's up dude i guess this question is for like all of you guys

but uh where do you like i didn't do research for this question but i think it was like 2019 the dubai event the dubai crossfit championship they offered like more prize money than what would be at the CrossFit Games. Do you see like the evolution of the sport, just like different events coming up? Like, I don't know, like we're like, kind of like horse racing where you have like a triple crown throughout the season instead of like one main event every year. Well, there's going to be the California Hormone Games

where you can compete while you're cycling on. And then the CrossFit Games will be when you're cycling off. I mean, that's the way i kind of see the season there kind of already is a triple crown right like that's not a bad that's a good insight right so you have water palooza you have rogue you have dubai maybe i already think it kind of exists like it doesn't have a name to it or a series but yeah there and then there are there's another tier of competitions that are emerging so we had the french throwdown last month we had the canwest games this past weekend and in both cases the winners of those competitions are making as much money as you can make for finishing in the middle teens like 15 16 at the crossfit games and so and i know that like the competition directors of those style of competitions are looking to create opportunities especially for athletes that are just on the fringe or close to making the games,

to have another outlet to express the fitness that they've been preparing for if they fell up a little bit short and also to earn a little bit of extra money. Oh, Zach, I got a question for you. Are you impressed with a Wadapalooza Rogue in Dubai? The what? Are you impressed with those events the what are you impressed with those events like i'm impressed with those events oh yeah with wadapalooza rogue in dubai like i'm like holy shit like not only the events i guess the caliber of athletes they're getting the competition yeah yeah i think they're really entertaining i think they're really good yeah they're really cool cool to watch how about you are you impressed with those uh

hobart those are those yeah brian yeah they're each impressive in their own regard yes yeah but they're with all three very different competitions i mean i mean think about it without wadapalooza without a dubai we never get to see ricky and uh we would never seen ricky and roman laura and not only that we got him up there uh sarah uh yeah yeah Yeah, and we saw Sarah's comeback there. So, I mean, no, wait, was Sarah's comeback, was it Guadalupalooza? No, no. No, Sarah, what I'm saying is those athletes all competed in Dubai before the CrossFit Games. That was like their high level of competition experience and where people were like,

oh, damn, that person did pretty well there. I wonder if they make the games games if they'll do that well. Zach, the question is this. Will there be athletes who eventually just compete at those events and don't compete at the games? What if someone goes there? What if you win first place at Rogue, Guadalupalooza, and Dubai, and for some reason you don't go to the games?

That's what I'm thinking. I know it might be a little bit of a stretch, but you know the NHL, right? National Hockey League. They have like crazy sponsors like Coca-Cola, like all these companies. Like if they started sponsoring and just throwing money into these events, do you ever see that happening? I mean, there's companies that could just buy the fucking could overtake the CrossFit Games overnight if they wanted to. For some reason, they must not think it's fiscally smart.

But for the $30 million you could put on a market destroys that leaves the CrossFit Games in the dust. And that's like and just to put that in perspective, every year Gatorade spends $300 million just on billboards. Yeah, I mean, a little cheeky there. It's it's it's it's on just their propaganda machine is 300 just for that one drink Gatorade. And so if they wanted to, you know, someone like that wanted to fuck with a rounding error, they could step into the space. I'm sure Bill could do it too. There's no question that Rogue could do it, but for some reason they don't i mean the entire ecosystem maybe it's because of the relationship rogue has with that ecosystem too because they also you know they do very well off of the affiliates right because they sell equipment to the affiliates so they don't want to damage they specifically rogue doesn't want to damage the ecosystem they want to see it flourish but fuck nike might not give a fuck yeah all right thanks for calling man thank you thank you guys

did you guys ever read that book um espn book why do those guys have all the fun or what was the name of that book susan did you ever read that come as you are no is that no this is a this is um uh god what was the name of this book? They have all the fun in the room, or it's the history of ESPN. But basically for the first 20 years, ESPN was just getting money, oil money, just pumping in. The thing was not making any profits. It was just some dude's side hobby. He thought it would be cool to have a television station that played sports 24 hours a day, and it took off.

If you got someone like that at CrossFit to pump that shit up i mean fuck it could be their own like that's what everyone oh yeah this book this is a great book those guys have all the fun inside the world of espn great book have you read that hobart i haven't but i'm gonna make a note right now i'm gonna i won't read it i'll listen to it to be Yeah, me too. I just like that there was a pictogram of his eyes related to somebody's body of the book. It's kind of weird. Mr. Rich, how are you? What's up, Sam? How are you? I'm living the dream. I see that. You're awesome. Great job.

Hey, I got a question for Brian and Jay. Are you from New Jersey? Are you from New Jersey? Wait, wait, before you say anything else, let's all guess where he's from i'm gonna say he's from jersey hobart i'm gonna say from uh new york uh brian connecticut delaware okay uh where are you from delaware no way i wouldn't be coming from joe biden state come on boom um roasted it was worth the guess for that response. I'm from Connecticut. Oh, it's New Jersey. Okay. What, did I get an accent or something? Yeah, you definitely, you sound like, you and Hobart sound like you could be brothers.

I know James very well. Or should be great. James both. I think if this is the Rich that I know from Connecticut, then this is the, does your last name start with an H? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Hey, what's up know from Connecticut, then. Does your last name start with an H? Yeah. Hey, what's up? Not much, brother. Are you that baby face killer?

Yeah, good to hear from you. He calls you baby face killer. You guys are close. You didn't recognize his voice? It sounds different when he's in bed whispering in your ear, Hobart? Yeah, it's deeper. How can I help you? Hey, I got a question. We're going back and forth

about thank yous and stuff. You know, Ryan's thing about finding the fittest for the CrossFit Games. Why won't CrossFit consider just putting out six workouts and the thank yous run them in a certain order like they used to do at regionals. Then we can find

out who the fittest is no matter where they're coming from or what region, and just take the best time. Yeah, Brian, he said that's your thing, trying to find the fittest. I like it. I can't. Yeah, I don't know why more people don't want to have the best of the best at the top level of competition. No, you know, it's just a question of what's the priority. And I think that CrossFit has a two-pronged priority in this regard, one of which is they do want to find the fittest person on

earth. And additionally, they want to create an opportunity for global reach within the sport as well. And the sacrifice that you get from number two is that you won't have the top 40 fittest for now worldwide, because some of those spots are going to be occupied by certain regions of the world that they do want to have representation from. I'm okay with that. You're not rich? The latter part. A little bit. Yeah, I'm a little bit okay with it too.

I'm not sure if I'm a lot okay with it, but I am definitely a little bit okay with it. It depends on how much you value the quality of the competition, because if you're, you know, it, it, it affects the scoring and it affects the potential scoring. If,

because I, you know, I will, I have said before, and I will contend that I could hand pick 10 athletes to replace the bottom 10 finishers of the games that I think would have a greater impact and performance at the games in terms of scoring and place overall placing.

And then specifically in events to events that would, I think further legitimize the claim of the eventual winner that, yeah, I did win this competition and I did it against the other 39 best men in the world or women in the world. Well, yeah, I agree with that because you look at the seats,

one and two are usually like, ah, you know, normally watch them in three and four. Everyone's up to the arenaas and start watching those teams. And the thing could be that 13. Let's get rid of that shit show at the bottom and put the best there so that keep one and two are going to be watched more than just as equally as three

and four. And you're going to have that competition. That leaderboard can be taken up like, you know, you're spraying one egg. Fair enough. All right. Thanks, dude. Good question. Thank you. You're welcome. Later. Bye. Are all the drug tests in? Well, I don't think so. Did CrossFit put out a list? No? Okay. There's potentially a variety of different answers to that question.

So when we were looking at the bottom of the leaderboard earlier, there was one team in yellow. There's actually two teams that are in yellow that have not formally received they either haven't received an invite to the games yet formally from crossfit or they um they haven't showed up on the leaderboard meaning that they haven't accepted their invitation but uh additionally there's like i don't know there's been no communication from crossfit to say like all of the drug failures have been announced now and this is the the slate of athletes and teams moving forward. So I think there's still some room for error in that regard. So like Phil Toon is still on the leaderboard for the games. Yeah. I have

no idea why they haven't removed the athletes and teams that have already been, you know, failed their drug tests from those lists. It could potentially be because appeals process is open, but I'm pretty sure that once the appeals process closed, that's when they send the formal invite. And so in that case, there should be some of those athletes who've been removed. And I, and I really think that CrossFit should get on and do that ASAP. Hey, um, caller, I know you're there. Sorry. One second. Um, I, I'm tripping on the drug thing. Cause I don't care what the policy is either way. But are they supposed to – do they have a policy in place that says what they're supposed to share with the public? Like they do tests, and like all the – does CrossFit, every test that they do, do they post somewhere on their site that we did a test with James Hobart last week and it comes back negative? Like what – do they have a policy on whether they're supposed to tell us negative

or positive or anything like that? Or we don't know anything? No. So first of all. And it's up to them. I'm not being critical at all, especially with James here. Last week, Chase Ingram hosted a podcast with Justin Berg and Curtis Bowler where they investigate many of these questions.

Morning Chalk Up released an article this morning that highlights two of the most important elements of that conversation. It want to chalk up, release an article this morning that highlights two of the most important elements of that conversation. It's about an hour long. If you're a competitor in the sport of CrossFit, you have to listen to that. Like you must listen to that podcast. And the fact that like,

that's not well known. And there's some stuff that's communicated within that podcast that are must like they've, they say, if you're a competitor in the sport of CrossFit coach, athlete, whatever, and you're not subscribed to and reading the hopper email that CrossFit sends out once a month, that you're not up to date on what you need to know to compete in this sport.

The problem is, I don't know that anyone knew that until they said it on that podcast. And I don't know that that many people are listening to that podcast. So, yes, they're communicating that. But it's in the middle of an hour long podcast. It's not that well promoted that this is something that you should have been doing all season. That's not right or fair to the competitors. If you want them to know that you have to communicate that in a very direct and meaningful way at the start of the season, not in a hidden message in the middle of a podcast two weeks before the CrossFit games. And what is that message one more time?

That if you're a, if you are competing competing in the sport of crossfit you need to be up to date with the hopper meaning you have to subscribe to that and that's a checklist of things that you want to receive from crossfit and you have to subscribe to it and be reading it thoroughly they're providing information there about uh about drug tests about drug sanctions what is the hopper what do you subscribe to the hopper what is that it's a monthly email that's sent out by CrossFit, which is apparently a mandatory and must read for people who are competing in the sport. The problem is someone like me sign up for it. Can someone like,

yes, I receive it. I'm not exactly sure. All right. But it's, it's, that's okay. If that's the means that they want to communicate things.

But the problem is CrossFit needs to have one stream of information where people know, okay, if I'm competing in the sport this year, this is where I have to go. And right now that's varied. There's stuff that comes out in some end of day emails. There's stuff that comes out in the hopper. There's their Instagram. Sometimes there's an alternate version of rules posted on someone else's Instagram. Then there's the CrossFit Games site that doesn't match the CrossFit Games Instagram. Sometimes there's a podcast that has important information. It's way too confusing

for people. You need to simplify that process and you need to do it at the start of the season. By the way, I did hear a rumor, and I don't know how accurate this is, but I heard a rumor that this year Dave will be starting the games. So basically the Jets are going to fly over. Dave's going to walk out onto the floor with the microphone and he's going to say, three, two, one, go. Welcome to the 2022 CrossFit Games. to say three two one go welcome to the 2022 crossfit games three two one go that is a rumor i did hear a caller go ahead yeah hi patience is here um i had a question in regards to one of andrew hiller's video and i want to know what fuck that guy do you not know that this is the sevan podcast what the fuck is wrong with you

well i want to know what are your' thoughts on the Z-score that he proposed to find the fittest on earth that rewards when someone does better and punishes when they do actually worse. That Hiller proposed? Come on, man. Listen, listen, listen. Without Tyler Watkins, Hiller wouldn't even exist. I mean, sorry. Yeah, without, without. Sorry Tyler Watkins, Hiller wouldn't even exist. I mean, sorry. Yeah, without, sorry, I said that all wrong.

Without Hiller, Tyler Watkins wouldn't even exist. Tyler Watkins. There's plenty of resources out there about Z-score that Tyler Watkins and I have written. We've talked about it on some podcasts on some bottom lines.

And if your source of information about Z-score is Hiller, then please go back and do your research before calling and asking. Damn. Damn. Look at how hostile everyone is Hiller, then please go back and do your research before calling and asking. Damn. Damn. I mean,

look at how hostile everyone is towards you. Call her. I apologize. It was not my idea. This is Tyler Watkins idea. He worked on it in conjunction with some other very knowledgeable people from the training think tank team who have been investigating different scoring systems for years.

And so the basic premise for this idea is that if I beat you by a minute, or if I beat you by a second in the current point scheme, I'm rewarded the same. And that's not a relative expression of my fitness compared to yours. Also, you know, by the same vein, like a minute in a three minute workout is a lot different than a minute in an hour long workout. And so this is a way to reward and punish athletes according to their performance relative to each other in a non-uniform way. There's a lot of complications about using that scoring system in certain styles of workouts. It doesn't translate as well. There are some competitions that are going to be testing Z-scoring over the next six to 12 months, I think. And we're continuing to gather data

regardless of if they're using it or not to see how it would affect potentially the leaderboard either way, like if you use different scoring models. So no how it would affect potentially the leaderboard um either way like if you use different scoring models so no it's a good it is a good thought it is something that we're working on um but i would i would credit that idea to tyler watkins not to anyone else uh caller i will say this i've heard it explained by brian and i've heard it explained by tyler watkins and both times that my wife had to put me on suicide alert. And when Andrew Hiller explained it, I just was just like, I got all googly-eyed and warm and fuzzy. So I understand.

Hiller has a way of dumbing shit down for us Tards, and I appreciate it. I get the hopper in my email, and it comes on the games app. I was under the impression that if you signed up for the Open, you'd definitely get it, but it didn't start coming out until semis, I believe. Sorry, caller. Go ahead. No, I was just going to say thanks for your time, yall yeah thanks for that speed up on you okay thank you bye guys uh any closing we've been on here 95 minutes um although my bladder is still not full i think we've done our uh our job here is there anything you guys like to add whether you win by an inch or a mile winning is winning i like it i like it uh will both of you be going to the crossfit games will both of you be going to the crossfit games i'll be coaching workouts in the spectator area so

awesome workout okay meet james hobart uh james if i if i if to, by the way, if at any time during the week at the CrossFit Games, you're tired of working and you'd like to just stop working, all you have to do is take, you can't call twice, Haley. All you have to do is point your phone at an event and go live with me and you'll be dismissed. You get to stop working for a week. Are you going to be at the games? No, I am not.

But the 7-on-Podcast. I thought you were going to hold the mic for Dave when he says 3, 2, 1, go. But I want to tell you guys this. If you wear any 7-on-Podcast. I am going to. Thank you. I am going to be there in spirit. But I'm not going to hold the mic for him.

I appreciate you recognizing that I said that. There is a booth there at the games uh the paper street coffee booth um it it will be selling um seven podcast shirts amongst other shirts uh colton merton shirts other athletes if you want to sell something there and you're an athlete who needs to make some spare change to fucking pay for gas to get to the event contact me and and maybe i can i can help you out that also being said if you wear a seven podcast shirt on sunday at the crossfit games we will be giving away a rogue echo bike to one of those people so all you have to do is uh be there at the games wear the shirt take a picture yourself post it to social media. And then I think we will be doing some sort of gathering.

You probably have to tag something in order for you to recognize that they're doing that, right? Yeah, thank you. Good. I don't know how to run competitions. Yeah, you're going to have to tag something. Anyway, pay attention. Bring your Sevan podcast shirts to the games this year. I'll say this, by the way, because this woman, Rachel, in the shirts to the games this year. Okay. I'll say this by the way, because this woman, Rachel in the comments did make a good point.

Yes. It's nice that Tyler, that a Hiller is talking about that and that that's another opportunity for people to become aware of the Z score format. I think what I got offended by was the fact that he thought it was Hiller's idea and I didn't see that video. So if Hiller was presenting it as his idea, I would say that's inaccurate,

but if Hiller is talking about it as a potential opportunity to score, you know, the athletes performances differently, then, yes, that's a good thing. The owner of Vindicate, Travis, wants to thank Noble for the for basically selling out all of Vindicate's gear. The shirts over there are really cool. And there's a ton of there's a ton of, there's a ton of good stuff. This shirt's over there, the TD CEO shirt. And I think that's it.

I think we're wrapped up really excited for the CrossFit games. We have a ton of athletes coming on in the next two weeks. Get ready. A ton of athletes, a ton of people involved with the games. We're going to start trying to do a four a day, two, two 45 minute, uh, no,

basically four 45 minute videos with athletes every day of the week building up to, uh, the game. So it should be fun. All right. I will see you guys, I think next Tuesday, I don't know what show we're doing, but it looks like this is going to be a regular for Brian and I, um, and we'll decide whether we'll keep inviting Hobart. Peace.