The Sevan Podcast - #737 - James Sprague & Sam Dancer | Wodapalooza Fiesta

Episode Date: January 7, 2023

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Ford caps and Savon with no hat. Bam, we're live. I apologize I'm late. I have this routine that's like really strict down to the minute, Mr. Sprague. And I washed my butt twice this morning. Normally, I only wash it once. Are you sure it's that? I think you got caught up looking in the mirror at that awesome shirt you have.

And that extra minute of maybe it was 30 seconds of that too. Thank you, Brian. And it was that extra minute of, maybe it was 30 seconds of that too. Thank you, Brian. And it was that extra minute of cleaning, hygiene that caused me a... By the way, I'm throwing it back to the 2019 Wadapalooza attire today. James, did you have your eyebrows done? Dude, no.

I haven't done them in a while. I mean, I don't even think I've gotten them done. I've just plucked them. Can I see what's under the lid? Sure, dude. Yeah, it them in a while. I mean, I don't even think I've gotten them done. I've just plucked them. Can I see what's under the lid? Sure, dude. Yeah, it's just a flow. Yeah, wow. Okay, yeah.

I keep it off if you prefer. No, no, either way, your face is looking strong. It's looking strong. I was like, what is going on? Did you have your eyebrows done or is it just, I mean, you look very chiseled. Dude, thank you very much. Angular, angular. Yeah, I don't know how that happened, but I'll take that.

It's a compliment. Yeah, take it. Take it. He's been benching. That's why. He's been the bench. Speaking of taking it, talk to my wife. No, no, I'm just joking.

She's great at that. She's great at that. I shouldn't. Caleb, hi. Good morning. Mr. Friend, good morning. Good morning. shouldn't uh caleb hi good morning mr friend good morning good morning i i send my uh most sincere apologies to the crew um that's always here every morning for being uh one minute late

um what's in your mouth james oh dude i just threw together a little uh peanut butter bagel it's a pat sprague classic he's been eating them for years. I learned from the best. Oh, your dad's been looking good too. Dude, he's looking sexy. He's got like eight abs now. Yeah, crazy. It's nuts. I saw the video.

I'm proud of him. Yeah, he's competing next weekend too. He's like the only American in his age group. At Wadapalooza, your dad's competing? Yeah. Wow, crazy. You think when you're a couple years away from being all big and buff like him? Dude, I literally just talked to the lady who was dry needling about this,

that my frame is not his at all, but I think he was skinnier when he was my age too. I have potential to hopefully grow into that. my age too so like i have potential to hopefully grow into that um you are looking i i love the the young guys like you because we get to watch the whole you know body transformation as you go from boy to man and there's there are a couple photos you posted recently there's uh one with you with the dumbbells overhead and you look you're turning into a hoss dude they're gonna make down you're gonna make dallin pepper look like the small guy soon he's trying to be the small guy he's uh he that's his goal my goal is to be the big guy so hopefully we do make that swap this is crazy maybe you guys just meet somewhere in the middle for real what are you weighing uh Oh, I'm right. I'm like around 210, 215 usually.

Yeah, you're looking, yeah, you're looking giant. How's the body? How's the knee? Dude, body's great. Knee's great. I got some PRP done about eight weeks ago and never felt this good in my life. It's pretty awesome. You have like a spur in one of your knees, right? Are you getting that thing removed?

No, dude, no spur. No, no. Oh, just some beat up, beat up tendons from poor moving as a teenager. And and I'm moving a lot better now and got a big got a good plan with it. So I don't really have to look back at that much too much anymore, which is good. Oh, bitchin'. Congratulations. Wow. Thank you. Yeah, it is bitchin'. Yeah, competing healthy is huge.

It is. It helps a lot, for sure. Greg Glassman's in the comments. Oh, no. Clegg Glassman. My days are pretty free since I saw you, asshole. Where are you right now? Is your dad visiting you in Florida?

Are you in Florida? I just got back to Florida. I was back in the Pacific Northwest, Washington slash Idaho for three weeks over the holidays. And now I'm back here and getting gearing up for whatever comes next week. And you brought your dad with you since he's competing. No, no. He'll be on his way next Wednesday. We got brought your dad with you since he's competing. No, no, he'll be, he'll be on his way. Uh, next, next Wednesday, we got a little Airbnb together and my brother's coming out to

be our pit crew and should be a fun time. Oh, he's not there in the room with you right now. I thought the way when you said his name and you looked around, like he was in the room. No, no, not at all. He is a, he's back. Uh, he's, he's traveling all the time. He was just in Hawaii. Not at all. He is, uh, he's back. Uh, he's, he's traveling all the time. He was just in Hawaii. He was in Idaho with me. He, the guy lives the dream. It's awesome. I saw that, um, video, your dad's, uh, has, uh, um, sells insurance. He has an insurance company. And when you say he's living the dream, it was apparent because one of the offices, instead of having like a secretary or an associate in there, he's turned it into a gym that video is crazy i'm like is this real it's it's real we uh so his all-state office he started

this it's like near our house um whatever he started this place had like five people working out of it eventually he moved all the people working in that one to another office. We turned it into a huge gym because we moved out of the house. Um, and so our garage gym went into this gym and now we call it the house of pain. And you're doing stuff like prowler pushes in the all state parking lot. Yes. Yes. How are the, how are the neighbors, um, taking that? It's actually great. Cause the neighbors are a CrossFit gym. They're called Snow Ridge CrossFit. So we're their competitors, but not really. Wow, what a trip.

It's always wild when you see athletes doing some kind of training like this outdoors, and then you just see regular people around. I think actually Wadapalooza reposted a video of Ricky Garrard testing out the swim workout and he's just at like some beach there's just kids playing and he's doing 30 pound wall balls and I'm just wondering like what do the families think when they see this guy yeah 100 he's crazy that you're crazy it's the new norm hey I don't know if your dad tells you this um but on on behalf of him he probably it probably can't even be expressed in words how excited he is that his life has turned out this way.

Like that he gets like for you, you're going to water Palooza, but for him, he did, he could give two shits. Like if you pivoted to underwater basket weaving, he'd pivot to like, on behalf of all dads out there, he cannot believe that he's getting to do something with you. I mean, it really is the dream for dads to get to hang uh hang with their kids the way he is it's nuts yeah because you're just like an extent um even though we're what's probably not supposed to be like this for us dads you're just extensions of us yep you know what i mean you're just like a finger or something that's doing something fun i could could see that Yeah. Yeah. You see that?

Yeah. Yeah. I think, uh, I think it goes vice versa too. I'm blessed. I get to do with him, which is, which is awesome. Cause it's like, you know, like I wouldn't be in the sport without him. I would have never found out about it. I'd probably still be playing baseball or swimming or whatever.

I don't know. Um, you were, you were trying to get on a crew team. Yes. And because that didn't work out, that's why you pivoted to – that's how your path just kind of slid over to CrossFit? Yeah. So, I mean, I did CrossFit well before that. I went to the games twice as a teen before the crew thing even was an option. Okay.

But then I was like, hey, like, you probably have a long time until you make the games as an individual. Like, why not just go take these next four years, lift some weights, do some crew, whatever. But doing crew, you also like you can't get really strong. You can't like like just put all your emphasis into getting strong because you have to stay aerobic. You're on the machine all day. You're on the water all day. Like so like your energy is put elsewhere. you're on the water all day like so like your energy's put elsewhere so i was like you know what like you're not gonna you're not gonna make making the games any faster by doing crew or make this time go by any quicker so like why not like like once it once it ended i was like just go all in if it takes two three years whatever because like like let's just make it happen now what what

did they say when when they let you go from the crew team what did they did they do they give you an issue like hey you don't have the endurance or you're too big or you're too small or did they say anything to you i was never technically on it okay because i never showed up for an official practice because i was like they basically cut 18 freshmen down into like four or five and those four or five were all like Olympic, like boat rowers, like insane dudes. Cause I was on this team. That's like notorious for like breeding the best rowers in college.

Um, university of Washington. There's like a book about the rowers there. It's called, um, boys in the boat. If you ever get to read it, you should.

I heard of this picture and they said, this guy has a better two K row than you. Uh, no thanks. I've heard about the, picture and they said, this guy has a better 2K row than you. No, thanks. I've heard about the man in the boat, but I've never heard about the boys in the boat. So you got to read the boys in the boat. That book is it's about how they sent like the team to what was it? The Berlin Olympics. So so when Hitler was in rule there.

Oh, yeah, I remember that. I remember that. The Berlin Olympics. So when Hitler was in rule there. Oh, yeah, I remember that. I remember that. Hitler disadvantaged the America's rowboat and lane. They put them in the outside lane, which was the worst lane because you get hit by the waves and the wind affected you most and whatever. And they still won. And then Hitler got mad.

Don't get Hitler pissed. Don't get hitler pissed don't get hitler pissed and then uh last year you were on the uh demo team yes brian can talk if you have a mouthful he can tell us about you no i can i can talk okay okay okay i won't uh demo how was that how was that the demo team how was that experience oh man, man. It was great. It was great. A lot of learning. Definitely experienced what the games is like from the other side, and it can definitely help you be a better competitor overall going into the games

for the next years, just understanding what goes into it and the amount of time that goes into making each test super specific. I think we got on a call while I was there demoing. And you were asking me all these questions I couldn't answer yet. So, but it was a lot of fun. Like, I had a great time. And all those people. What does the demo team usually do while the elite individuals are competing?

Are you guys in? Briefings. Just briefings all day. That's mainly what it was. It was. No, I mean, like, when they're actually on the floor doing the events, are you guys in the arena watching or out there at North park watching, or do you guys have other stuff to do?

Half the time we'd be in briefings or doing little tests. They're like fixing the next workouts or we would sometimes get to watch, which was really cool. When you were watching, would you guys talk amongst each other and say, see, I'm pretty sure you could have taken this one. There was a few, there was a few of those moments for sure, where I was like, Oh, like we'd be doing well right now, but different conditions, you know,

like some of the workouts we didn't even do the same versions of, cause they changed it so much. So it wasn't even comparable. And I also recall, um, although it was uh it was dave but i'm guessing maybe adrian did the same thing there's a lot of time even if you do have down downtime you're on red alert meaning you're sitting you're you're sitting in a room that has all the equipment and you're waiting for adrian to show up at any minute to give you something that you guys don't expect to test out. It could, yeah, definitely.

It was just be ready for anything. That was kind of the motto. Like, be ready for anything. Just be a good sport, good spirit. Like, I got really sick after day one because of how hard I went. Like, I think I did – that day of training or, like, testing was, uh, probably of training I've ever had in my life, just and my body was not ready for it. I didn't have enough sleep. I didn't have good food and oh man, I got so sick. That's actually an interesting thought. You know, we often talk about how critical everything outside of the competition is if you want to do great at the

games, you know, in terms of having meal prep sleep recovery and for the i haven't really thought about it for for the demo team like that could hold true as well yes yeah like they they said their whole goal was to keep us healthy so we could give the best results and give them an accurate read and i was like dude we're trashed after day one like well and you guys have sometimes have to do the team events as well yeah there was a testing potentially for multiple different competitions there was a uh synchro totobar me and fee were doing uh for one of the team things and uh one of the head judges todd came over and was like looking at my reps and i i had to poop really bad and i kept farting every totobar rep and i felt

terrible but it was it was that was a moment did he say anything to you like you stink no no everyone was just quiet i was just laughing while doing these synchro total bar like come on you're a foot taller than her yeah that's that's challenging yeah yeah hey she's on your she's on your uh brute team too right she's not you train with her oh yeah we're doing a me and her are doing a workout together later today. It'll be a good time. Awesome. When you said you got sick or when you got fatigued at the games,

I think we started on the Sevan podcast, started spreading rumors that you had COVID or something. Yeah, yeah. That was true. Oh, that was true too. I just tried to keep it low key because I didn't want people freaking out. Yeah. true oh that was true too i just tried to keep it low-key because i didn't want people freaking out yeah and then who did they they brought in someone and we started spreading the rumor that they brought that person in because they could do a l-sit to press who was that was that like james newberry or who was that a street street that's right street and then and then both you just ended

up on the team yeah it was it was a good time. Everyone there was just awesome, like just great people, so much fun. Do you talk to your coach about doing a demo team and how it would affect your training? Or by that point, the season's over, it's like, yeah, do what you want. It was over. It was like, you know, like I just did like the LCQ. Like, you know, like I just did like the LCQ. I did the Ken West games. And I really was like, man, I'm taking a big rest after the games anyway.

Like, why not just go in with a bang? And that was the opportunity to do it. So he was all on board. Awesome. Is this your girlfriend, Taylor Crescenzo? No. I just saw blonde hair. I know your girlfriend has blonde hair.

Happy Friday. Love you guys. If it was his girlfriend, I would have said love you, James. And she I just saw blonde hair. I know your girlfriend has blonde hair. Happy Friday. Love you guys. Don't think who has this girlfriend would have said love you, James. And she doesn't have blonde hair anymore. She's actually a brunette now. Oh, wow. Yeah. She made the change.

Wow. Let's see. Oh, there we go. Are you sure that's not Taylor? That is not Taylor. Crescenzo? James Sprague with his girlfriend, my better half. half oh you hadn't seen her in months and she showed up at the um zealous games yes yes that's right you guys were on a live stream and you came

up in front of her parents and said uh how'd you sleep last night james in front oh yes she did not like it yeah hey and you've only met her parents like three or three or four times right we've had a good amount of time now um especially mom she they're both awesome yeah and have they have her parents met your parents yes briefly very very briefly oh well that's cool okay let's get it's getting serious for real is she to move down to Florida? She still has got lots of time in pharmacy school. So it's looking like she's got a year and a half to two years left of rotations. And then we're going to see what happens from there. What state is that?

She's in Washington, in Spokane, Washington. Oh, she got the only good city left in Washington. Good on her. You like Spokane? I mean, it's better than Seattle. It is better. A lot better than Seattle. Yeah.

Those are the only two cities Savon knows there. That's true. That's true also. Spokane is great. The park season is definitely great. There's parts of the city that are like, you're like, ugh, kind of like Seattle. But it's better overall, I would say. It's got a podunk country feel to it still.

Like pickup trucks and like, it feels like country to me. When was the last time you were there? Oh, 10 years ago. Oh, okay. Yeah, much different. Oh, all right. I think everywhere is much different. Yeah, everywhere is different now.

Coeur d'Alene. So next time you come to Spokane, just drive 40 minutes over to Coeur d'Alene. And that's where I'm usually hanging out. My dad's there. Which is in Idaho? Is that right? Mm-hmm. Does your dad have a place there?

He does. Oh, shit. Life is good for your dad. Dude, he's killing it. It's awesome. Wow. You ever see Katrin down there? I think she and her boyfriend are posted up somewhere on the lake.

So she comes to the same gym I go to sometimes, but we've never ran into each other. Because I'll usually go train with Cole at one of his gyms over in Spokane when I'm there. And Cole doesn't come to Coeur d'Alene very often. But I know that Katrin's there pretty full time now. He said she travels a lot. But I'd love to run into her sometime there. It'd be cool. What about James Fitzgerald?

Have you run into him? No. Do you know who that is? No. OPT, that's the 2007 CrossFit Games champ. He lives up there also. Oh, I didn't know that. Yep, yep, yep.

Oh, cool. Good to know. Greg Glassman? Greg Glassman lives there. I've never run into him, but he's been at the same gym I train at, too. Oh, did you? Clegg Glassman? Yeah, Clegg Glassman lives there. I've never ran into him, but he's been at the same gym I train at too. Oh, did you? Like Glassman? Yeah, Clay Glassman.

I know his wife goes to a CrossFit gym there. Is that the gym? If it's CrossFit Coeur d'Alene, then that's the one. But I'm not sure I've ever – I don't know a lot of the people that go to the box there. I've met a few of them, but everyone's really nice. Kim Kardashian, you seen her? She has a place there, right? Yep.

Justin Bieber. Oh, what? You hear Hagedone, the guy who owns the entire place? He just passed away. He owns the huge tower there, the Hagedone Tower. Whatever. We're all just name dropping now. You just one-upped me.

I don't even know who that is. The guy who owns the Dallas Cowboys, he lives there. John Elway? Yeah. know who that is. The guy who owns the Dallas Cowboys, he lives there. John Elway? Yeah. Yeah, that guy. No, but I do know John Elway has a place there too because Greg told me he ran into him. We saw him. We were boating and we waved to him and he waved back to us.

To Elway? Yeah. Do you recall what kind of boat he was in? No, we were in a boat and we went by his house, his big mansion looking thing. And my dad's like, John. And he goes. Wow. Yeah.

Hey, you got to go by there. I just had massive hands. Definitely couldn't miss his hand when he waved at you. Oh, yeah. My dad. And he's got a really loud clap. That's just distinct. You can hear it anywhere.

Dude, John Elway must be up there. Hey, you should go by there with the football and throw one at him that'd be sick it helped your you it would help your youtube channel yeah oh look at this oh my goodness do you know who this is yes this is justin's mom this is the champ sister this is the champ sister sister oh sister no i'm just joking it's his mom what if you if this is mom if you ever feel like taking a drive go see justin and boise just invite and justin's like mom don't do that i don't like that dude oh my gosh i would like that are you friends with justin the champ just consider him a friend i mean we haven't talked much i don't have his phone

number yet i'm not cool enough but uh but I'd love to chat more with him. I love his vibes and energy. Yeah, he's a good dude, and he's training with his girlfriend now. What do you think of that? It's awesome. Pursuing the dream together is very cool. All right, if you say so. You just moved from – I mean, you're in Naples,

but you moved to another place in Naples a few months ago. Is that correct? Correct. And who was your housemate? His name is still Ethan. Ethan Tate, and now it's Nate Ackerman, which he'll be competing here at Waza next weekend. And watch Brian's face. Brian might fall out of his chair here.

And Nate Ackerman is a two-times team champion. Is that correct? Ooh. One time, right? Oh, shit. Is he two? He's one. I think one.

I think only in his last year. Yeah. Nate Ackerman is actually from very close to where I live, like less than 30 minutes from where I live. Dude, everyone's from there. But no one stays here because they're not as dumb as me. Yeah. Because Fee's from there. Nate's from there like like we have no one stays here because they're not as dumb as me yeah um everyone every because fees from there nate from there i think this girl who's moving down here uh she said this on the last podcast this is really funny my future son-in-law um

is he with is he with cat's daughter i don't know i don't know the story behind that she might have to tell us more she either is or she's trying to manifest it. Right. Cute. But yeah, everyone's from Ohio. We have this girl moving here. I think she's from Ohio. Her name's Jessica.

Androsic. Yeah. Who else? The Harper. Some girl named Jessica. She's awesome. She's going to do well here. That's what James and I talked about.

He would say some girl named Jessica so that his girlfriend doesn't think that he knows who she is. And I would say it's Androsic, and I'm supposed to know who she is. Oh, nice. Well done. We planned it. We did that, Brian. Well played. Sorry I screwed that up.

She is wishing Clydesdale Media. Dallin Pepper vouching for Nate Ackerman. Nate's a good dude. I'll tell you this about Nate Ackerman, by the way. Because last year he was only 18 years old. It was his first year out of the teenage division. And when I was working at the morning chalk up, we would do these young guns, picks to watch.

I think that way back in one of the early iterations, Tommy actually chose Dallin Pepper as one of his picks. I think we actually picked James last year as one of our guys to watch. And I reached out to Nate and I asked him, I said, I'm considering picking you for this. And at 18 years old, I was impressed with his response. He said, I think like realistically, I'm two to three years away from even having a chance, which was kind of like, I think that that's a pretty mature perspective for someone at 18. I think that, you know, it's James, you can maybe speak to this, like, you know,

coming out of the teenage division, if you've won it or done well you can feel like you're king of the world you feel really good very fit young but it's a long way it's a long road to get to that same level in the elite division dude he was literally just sitting in the kitchen yesterday and he's like i don't like signing up for a competition knowing i'm gonna lose and i was like i was like yeah man get used to it james you got he i love it that he's that he did the qualifier and he'll be out there i mean this is a good this is a good opportunity for him and for men in general they have to just understand that it's like a two to four year delay relative to women of a similar caliber but this he is in that kind of uh gray area right now but he's got to go out there and see.

I mean, he'll do well on some events. He'll learn from some events, and he'll go back and have a lot of stuff to build upon having done this competition. Yes. I'm very excited to watch him and Emma most, just them two. Like, Nate, this is his first time being on the big floor, and Emma, it's her comeback. Like, everyone here gets to compete, which is awesome in some way, shape, or form. Oh, shit. This is Emma's comeback's comeback yeah it's pretty cool wow is she going individual or team oh she's going indie wow wow wow wow we should reach out to her and try to get her on wow that's fucking awesome james on this subject um if you were talking to the 15, 16-year-old version of yourself, do you have words for him? What do you say to the 15, 16-year-old guys who are hyper-competitive that maybe you wish someone would have said to you?

Enjoy the moment. Always caught up in what's next and what's coming up and how you can do better in the next thing. Like, hey, just enjoy what you're doing now. Take one day at a time because I think as a young kid, you look forward to all the things you can do when you're older in CrossFit and all the opportunities that come with that. And also not rushing your development because I tried to rush my development and do too much too fast. And then I blew up. And that's like why I started coaching is I want to help younger kids like do it the right way. So that's like my favorite group to work with is like young teenage boys who like are exactly like me where they're super ambitious and I can help them kind of harness that in the right way. What do you mean blew up? Basically avoid injury at all costs. You have all the time.

Yes. Like there's a right way and a wrong way to train at that age, and it's definitely different than how I train now. What do you think about this? I thought you might go this direction. Learn to move well, then learn to move fast. Yeah, 100%. That's CrossFit summed up. But the thing is, and tell me if I'm mischaracterizing this,

you're young, you want to go hard. You have the energy. You're willing to push through fucked-up positions. Is it enough just to – I mean it's like just don't do drugs. And it's like what? You know what I mean? Is that enough? Is there – how can we emphasize that more?

That, hey, don't lose your work ethic. Like is there some sort of movements or something that, hey, if you have extra energy, you should put them here? If you want to do the extra training, do it over here. Do not every day be out there trying to set a deadlift PR. Totally. Yeah, I think that body work, you can always do more of that. Like stretching, rolling out, you know, all the good stuff. Boring. Um, like stretching, rolling out, uh, you know, all the good stuff. If people, if you can get a teenager to see sleep as helping their career, they're, they're

winning. Like Dallin was great at that. He was great about at a young age, getting good sleep. And I was like, oh, freak that I'm going to bed at 3am. I love, I love the late nights. Um, and that's why maybe why I'm not as strong as I could be today. Who knows? And that's why maybe why I'm not as strong as I could be today. Who knows?

But the extra stuff teens can be doing is like body work and and sleeping more and putting more into their diet. Most teens have the problem of just not getting strong quick enough because their bodies aren't ready to do that. So eat more support, support growth, like simple stuff. There's not a really complex answers there. Diet, sleep, body work. Yeah. And is there any movement you can't do too much of? What about just run?

You can definitely run too much. You can, okay. Definitely. My brother's a runner. When they add mileage, I think they add maybe a mile to two miles a week when they're trying to really peak. Like say they are on a 40 mile week, the next week they'll do 41 to 42. The next week they'll do 43 to 44. Like, it's not like they take crazy jumps. Um, and they're professionals. Like he's a college runner. It's all he does. Uh, so, so you had, so you had, so you're getting

a new, uh, housematemate why did you switch housemates um why i switched housemates my other one wanted to move home oh okay and and so but you will be going back um well i guess going back uh florida is home for you that's where you're going to start training that's where you're going to be doing at brute the open quarterfinal semifinals preparing for the games the whole yeah i uh yeah i've been i've been here the last almost a year now i moved last year during guadalupalooza i moved over here um right after it was done and now it's all weird because i'm like going through it again but i live here this time i've been trying to ask athletes this they almost always just kind of

shrug it off but when when the new system or the new structure for the season was outlined and you saw, okay, there's going to be an east and a west, did you sit down and say, like, well, these are the guys I know are on the east and these are the ones I know are on the west? I mean, you have a home in the west coast if you want it. So you could kind of make that pick. Yes. I think that whether the field's stronger in the east or west, how the system is sounding, that the spots are going to be allotted based on that.

So I'm not worried about it. I'm going to show up. I don't care who's competing there. I'm going to show up better than I've ever been and be ready for that. Yeah, I think that is kind of the way that the athletes have to think about it. I can't worry about the field. Where's the place that I can excel the best? And if you think that's in naples with matt every day then that's an easy choice regardless of what the distribution of athletes looks like correct correct do you train

with down at all every time i hear but down's name it it only comes out of daniel brandon's mouth like she's like got the monopoly on him as a training partner they definitely got to do a lot together during the the game season because they were the only two ones going to the games out of all of us um but no it's me dallin fee and danielle every day we usually start around 11 ish um we'll go from like 11 to 2 11 30 to 3 whatever um so yeah i'm in there every day with him. My boy. And how new is Fi to the group? Is she the most recent addition? Yeah, she got here about two months ago. And when you watch someone like Fi, it looks like from Danielle's Instagram that her and Fi are hitting it off.

But when someone like Fi comes in, do you and Dallin stand back and it's like dropping like a Pepto-Bismol and a Coke? Like you're like, okay, let's see how this works out. No, no, no. We love Fi. She's awesome. I think that- I just mean, well, I know you might love her, but she got to deal with fucking the person that is Danielle Brandon. Dude, I think that everyone puts Danielle on this pedestal, which yes, she's done amazing things, but she's just a person at the end of the day, which is like, she's just an awesome person. So it's like, you know what? I think that all of us see each other as equals and like we don't try and like have this hierarchy like ever, which is awesome.

And I think that it's just like we all bring something to the table and like we all have laughs and there's times to focus. There's times to laugh. But I'm happy that they have each other because i think having like uh someone in your age dynamic that's the same gender and to train with it's just a lot of fun like i love training with dudes that are between 18 and 22 and i'm sure danielle and v say the same thing they love training with like each other just because the age and they've been through similar stuff you know like well it's good for danielle too i think she needs a i think it's good for her to have a girlfriend totally yeah but i but but you know i i didn't mean to say that she was on a pedestal but that she's a bit of a cactus you know what i mean like

you hug her and you could get like get a thorn in you or something she's a little she could be a little bit of a porcupine dude i haven't seen that much like she's oh good really like she's always been really nice in our sessions. Like, obviously, like we all have our moments where we're like mad at a workout or whatever, but dude, I, I've never seen her as a cactus, bro. Or like a palm tree. Wow. Somewhere you can just kick up your feet and just get some shade. She might, yeah.

She might drop a coconut on your head and every once in a while, but. All right. And those are the things that we always focus on that, that incidental coconut that could fall um during a storm um what you posted the uh 606 row absolutely insane and then is it after that that jason hopper was trying to steal your thunder did he see that and then is that what, yes, that's exactly what happened. And I can't wait until we do it on game day so we can go head-to-head because it will be fun to do next to him when we push each other. I think we could both go sub-six if we did next to each other.

Would you want Roman to be there? He'd make us look silly probably. Really? Dude, Guy is a great rower. He's huge. But you're a great rower he's huge but you're a great rower i am too i i think that it would be very close i think that depending on the time and the place um in the season like it could it could be a great race um you know the thing is that at that at those times like two seconds is a massive it doesn't look like much on paper, but the difference between a 6.02 and a six-minute is huge. It is huge.

It's a lot more energy and a lot more commitment from the start. Rowing that is committing from the start to be in pain. Most people are not willing from the beginning to go into that pain cave until they're in 1,200 to 1,500. not willing from the beginning to like go into that pain cave till they're in like 1200 to 1500. But at this, at these paces, it's like you're committing to full send the whole time and not giving a crap what happens to your body. You said you hadn't done that in three years. No. And, and then you had three days, uh, warning. Yes. It really does. For those of us who've ever even been on a row or can't imagine having a three day notice for that. I mean, that must. Oh, so. Oh, so Hopper tied you.

No, no, no. He got three seconds better. He was a 608 three years ago and I was a 614 three years ago. So he's always been ahead of me. But but didn't you row a 606 also? I did. I wrote a 606. Oh, and he got a been ahead of me. But didn't you row a 606 also? I did. I rowed a 606. Oh, and he got a 603.9. Wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he was 2.2.

This is a good shot, though, for what James is talking about. Look at the first split, 129.6. That was his fastest split. This is Jason's time. But he was going for it early. It's impressive. This is a really impressive, actually a little arc here. You think about a relay, even though it's only one person,

generally speaking on the relay, you want your fastest guys first and last. And Jason was able to have his fastest splits first and last year. Yup. That's mine were fat. Mine was fastest, second, fastest, third fastest. And then my last one was the slowest. Like Ian, I was full sending, like I did it wrong, but I wanted to get sub six and I didn't, but I,

I tried my dang best. Why does he post six Oh six there? Then if you got six Oh three nine, he said, my good friend Spragger posted a six Oh six. I can't slide. So then he wants you to go look at the next thing. Ah,

ah, he should have said my good dude, my good and did you see i don't know if you heard jr jr howell talk about it but he wasn't supposed to do the row that day the the um 2000 meters something else yeah and he broke out of his training and so when he went to celebrate he jr walked in the gym and i guess uh mr hopper said to him, look at my 606 or 603. And JR just said, you weren't supposed to do that. Oh, man. Yeah.

Matt will do the same thing. If we go off program, it's like, hey, like at the end of the day, you did something good, but you didn't listen to me. So it's like, come on, man. Yeah. Horrible three days, right? Building up to that. And then that morning, what time Building up to that. And then, and then, and then that morning, what, what time do you start that row at? 11, 11 ish. I just like didn't sleep the two nights

before. So I had to get it done. I was not feeling, not feeling excited. Didn't sleep for two nights before 10 minutes ago. He's telling us sleep is the key. Yeah, it is. So that's another thing. thing don't don't stress yourself out no matter how bad the next train day is going to be like just like take it one day at a time and i'm not i'm still working on that i'm still young at heart sometimes do you um notice um adept first of all were you sore from that uh no it's lactate builds up you hurt for like 30 minutes and then you're good you and where are you hurting legs every single place every single muscle you have in your body if you do it right wow and then um do you

notice adaptation right away like within a couple days are you like wow i fucking feel something from that workout you feel like you don't want to get a rower on a rower for for months that's all you feel wow it scars you emotionally mentally yeah it's just not fun it's it's all you feel. Wow. It scars you emotionally, mentally. Yeah. It's just not fun. It's, it's like you, it's fun in a sense that you're breaking your best and you're, you're giving your all and you're like doing something you didn't think was possible. But when you're in that moment, like there's, it's not fun. Like, like, like it's fun after knowing like I'm done and it's a sort of big relief, but like, I wouldn't argue that like, like most CrossFit workouts that really hurt, like people are just like really enjoying it in the moment. Do you prep with, I don't know, some hypnosis or a certain song or like you slap yourself in the face or is there any any like protocol?

I hope it's hypnosis. like protocol. I hope it's hypnosis. Yeah, dude. Uh, not hypnosis, but I usually write something like that'll make me mad on like a whiteboard and put it in front of me or, uh, like, like Will Morad's name. Cause he beat me this year at semis. Like I'll, I'll just, I'll just like do stuff like that. Like I love Will. I think he's awesome, dude. But I'll like do stuff like that to just get me hyped. Like, like stuff like that helps me definitely like motivate me a little more you're you're um you're going to water palooza you're on a team your team is uh what what was the process of deciding to make it to do a team competition at water palooza obviously your ultimate goal is to make the crossfit games how do you see competing on a team at water palooza

contributing to that um i see it contributing in a sense of having fun and enjoying a competition and not stressing about it. That's kind of the Zalos games, too. Like, go enjoy it. Like, have a good time because the rest of the competitions this season are on lock. Like, you're going there for business. So, you know, like last year was a lot of, like, go there for business competition. So this year I was like, hey, like,'s do a couple that are just like enjoy yourself. Like and the team thing is like it's a good opportunity for earnings, too.

Like they're they're doing a good payout. Like it's like like athletes trying to make a living like they could if you go in team, it's a great payout. So so, yeah, we actually had a little bit of a roster change. Cole Cole is not able to make it um so we have another guy filling in but i'm not able to say who it is it's on competition corner already it is yeah they've updated the roster oh for real oh we can see his name rhymes with do they really do that already scallion i checked it this morning no way that's crazy that was quick well heck yeah scallion uh was it hard getting uh dallin to jump on board bro i couldn't

i couldn't do it it was all jason i had no way of convincing dallin i i don't think i had any influence on down i think it was all jason what what if you couldn't find someone what would you guys have done uh we had a couple dudes that we were phil tune was phil tune an option we would get like like we we that would have been awesome dude that would have been awesome that would have been sick pull up in the jordans that would be real cool wow it is updated let's go good dudes well there you go there you have it come on i wouldn't i wouldn't mislead you james dude that's crazy i i'm i'm hyped to see that hey that means hopper just hacked in there dallin hasn't said yes yet and hopper just put his name in there called dylan and uh

oh that's awesome yeah so it'll be cool i think that we're all really good friends and like we have we we have so many laughs like individually together and like as a group we haven't hung out much in a group the three of us but i am i am so stoked for what's to come from this is down the shortest one of the three yes yeah make sure he remembers that i'm crazy hey that is that is that is special it's like um it is special because you guys are actually going to have fun because it's going to be just hanging with the boys, right? I mean, it's kind of perfect. Although if Cole would have been there, you guys would have got to glean a lot of experience from a pretty gnarly vet. 100%.

Yeah, dude. He's amazing. He's got a lot more years ahead of him, too. Edward Mao, how many Instagram accounts he has? How many Instagram accounts do you have? Too many. I think like six or seven. Oh, how come just for your different, like for your business and for your personal and.

Oh dude, no more than seven. I made, uh, Spragger's with like one, like three, four, five, six, seven R's. So I have like a Spreggers with more R's. And like I say, the more R's you get, the more edgy Spreggers gets. So like I have like a Spreggers with six R's. I have like five friends following me. Oh, and that account's really edgy. The one with six R's is really edgy.

Oh, it's pretty edgy. He shows the picture of his pinky toe after he subs it on a table in this apartment you want to see that you have to go to six hour account and then i have a then i got like a tiktok that i had to make private because i realized that like crossfit influencers are starting to use tiktok and i i use it for anything but influencing oh i'm gonna have to follow that what's that one called i love i didn't even know you could do private on Tik TOK. Actually, I don't even do Tik TOK. Yeah. I just use it for like, I just be silly on it and do stupid stuff that like, I'm just like, why not?

Like, like not anything dangerous or whatever, but I'm just like, like, I'm just like, let's make a stupid video. And you're doing this stupid dance or whatever. It's it's, I think it's the same as my Instagram. If a team triathlon rolled out of the hopper at Guadalupe, one person runs, one person swims, one person rows, you, Jason, and Dallin, who's doing what? I run, Jason rows, Dallin swims.

Think they'd all say the same? Yeah. I always thought that would be a cool event. Yeah, that'd be sick. I would love to see that. I mean, they have to use machines somehow. Like, when are they going to come in? But they did it last year for teams too, so I don't think they could do it this year.

Right, but wasn't everyone doing a little bit of everything in that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or was it just split up one-on-one? I did a team triathlon when I was in high school. It was biking instead of rowing. Oh, dude, that's awesome. Yeah, I would love to do that. I think I've done a team try with

my brother and my dad before. I did the swim and that, dude, it was really hard because it was a really long open water swim and I did not have a wetsuit and it was gross. It's cool because then you, you know, you get to see everyone kind of excel at their best thing.

Yes. Someone that's good at everything. Totally. Can you guys win water Palooza? I do think we have a good opportunity to do very well. I would love to win. And will anyone give you guys the talk? Like the three, will one of you be like, Hey,

I know we're all friends here, but let's not fuck around to win. Or is it just unspoken that everyone knows that yeah i think it's unspoken like wait like i think that the main thing is going to be making sure like down feels good after the indie comp because me and jason both aren't doing indie so we're just gonna maybe rubbing his thighs give him a little massage friday night yeah his ego like you did so good man carry it in these next two days. Right. Um, before you go,

would you like to, um, have you ever met Sam dancer? Dude, uh, I've met him. Yes. In person. I've met him,

but I haven't talked to them much. We, he works with my manager too. Benji. Oh, he does. He's a Benji guy. Would you like to,

would you like to say hi to him or do you want to run away? Okay. Okay. Let's see. Let's see. I don't want to, I don't want him to intimidate you and take any of this there he is i'm intimidated what's up big boy hey james how you doing buddy dude i am awesome i just got to spend the morning

with these studs so i couldn't be better man how are you i'm really well i'm excited to see you at waterpalooza dude It's been really fun. I've known of you probably longer than you've even known of me, just like kind of through your dad and through Invictus and stuff. And it's been just such a treat to watch you grow into such a competitive young athlete. And you're becoming a young man. And it's been really cool to watch that progression. And I'm just really looking forward to watching you in the future. People aren't just saying that, James, by the way.

People aren't just saying that. It is really fun watching you grow. It is really cool. Thank you. I feel it. I feel it. And Sam, that means a lot to me. Just hearing that from someone I've looked up to for a long time just like seeing your success and and how you've composed yourself and how you just like love what you do

and and don't ever take it too seriously and let it affect other parts of your life so thanks for saying that brother yeah it's incredible what we get to do man like we get to exercise for a living and with or without that being a profession and a paid opportunity, it's something that you and I would both do for the rest of our lives, whether or not we can make a career out of it. So it's such an honor that we get to do this stuff. So true. Yeah, man. Stay healthy. Hope you're well.

Thank you. We'll see you down in Miami. Dude, yes. And look forward to giving you guys a good push. Oh, bro. You guys, I'm scared to see. I'm guessing you're front squatting, yeah? I'm front squatting.

Oh, yeah. I'm not excited to see what you put up there. You're not front squatting, James? No, dude. Oh, my gosh. They were just texting. The boys were just texting like, hey, what are we going to do now? This messes it up.

We're all arguing over who has to front squat. So funny. Yeah, Sam, I'll see you out there, bro. I can't wait to see you in person. Let's definitely catch up more there. Of course. Yeah, that sounds great. Now Siobhan's kicking me off.

I am. James, you the man. We're upgrading our flow situation. You always bring the energy and I love seeing you. Tell your father that he is a role model to all fathers out there. And, uh, thank you guys for being who you are. Hey, you got it. And I will definitely tell him that. And, uh, well, I see you in Miami, uh, Savan just on maybe someone's iPhone. Um, hold so we can talk. That's it. Cool. That sounds great. Well, boys have a

great talk and, um, thanks again for having me on. Thanks, brother. Yeah, see you soon. See you, bud. Mr. Dancer. What's up, boys? Good to see you, dude. What a pleasure. You look like you're in some official office. I have an office. I don't frequent it that often,

but we got some kids over this morning, so the house was a little loud. It looks like a little bit like a war room. Is there a printer in there? I don't know that we have a printer. Yeah, printer here it's in another office oh okay uh you're going to wadapalooza what are you doing at wadapalooza what are you doing at wadapalooza just team just team yeah so and it's it's gonna be um a interesting experience, you know, I just coming off of that bicep surgery and, um, 19 weeks ago. Yeah. Never had a surgery before.

So it's, it's been, you know, kind of uncharted territory for me. Um, so I'm, and I, I haven't quite pushed it like it'll get pushed at Waterpalooza. Can you tell us about the surgery? Can you point where on your arm? Yeah, so you might be able to get a little shot of – let me move my camera real quick. Thank you. I appreciate it. So let me see there.

You getting that? Yeah, yeah. So they went in right in the crack yeah it was supposed to you know an ideal situation it was only supposed to be like a one to two inch incision it ended up being about a four inch incision because they had to go up into my arm to retrieve the bicep. That way? Yeah. Okay. Not good. It was worst-case scenario on all accounts with the injury.

Unfortunately, it got misdiagnosed at the games. So it went – ideally, you should be getting a tendon repaired immediately. And there's about like a four to six-week window where you can still have the opportunity to reattach it. And we were pressing up against the sixth week on that. on that and that because of atrophy you were can you i'm i'm making this up in my head but you were told it was a tear and it was actually a complete rip and therefore it recoiled or no i was i was told it was a hey like a mild strain and okay and that uh and that was by a couple um a couple and and let me preface this with, I don't blame any of the medical professionals that were assisting me during the CrossFit Games that were under

CrossFit's name and or people that I had helping me outside of CrossFit. They did a wonderful job caring for me and doing everything that they could to get me onto the competition floor. And I admire that. As an athlete, that's what I want from the medical help. I want them to do everything that they can to get me back on the competition floor. But with that being said, they misdiagnosed it. they, yeah, they, they misdiagnosed it, um, and, and told me that it was essentially going to be up to my pain tolerance, um, and, and how well I could handle that and in regards to competing, but like deep down, I knew something was wrong. Cause I, I just, my arm wasn't working. Like I can handle a little bit of pain. I've, I've competed under,

um, some pretty significant injuries. And in my past, like back in 2015, maybe I competed with a broken ankle. Um, 2016 competed at the games with a fractured fibula. Um my goodness. I'm no stranger to competing with some pain, but this was just, it was inoperable. I couldn't even pick up my coffee. What was the movement that caused it? What were you doing? Dude, I jumped up to hang from a pull-up bar. Oh, wow.

And so basically there's something in your arm here that broke and then and then it recoiled that way yep and then it started to atrophy because you didn't get it done long enough so they had to cut even further up to be able to grab it and reattach it yeah so it the retraction wasn't necessarily the the major. It was the degradation of the tendon without it being attached to like your body. So at the bottom of the bicep toward the elbow is where that attaches into essentially your forearm. And that ripped off, shot up into my arm and, uh, the tendon, um, was essentially just like, it doesn't get fed when it's not attached. Is that what you mean? Yeah. It's like it, it starts atrophying and dying. And, um, so it, it makes it more difficult to get this like dead tissue essentially to reattach to the arm.

So it was, yeah, we were against the clock on it. Sam, I had a bicep tear repaired and it was stronger at competition six months later. I used the endo button method. Yours was worse, it sounds like. Mine was cut within 10 days. Yeah, I've been able, I would say there's definitely some aspects of my right arm, my injured arm, the one that underwent surgery, that are stronger than my left arm at this point, just because it's been such an emphasis for me to get that thing up and running.

So it's taken precedent over, you know, over training my legs or training my core or whatever part. So like my arm has been my primary focus over the past four months to get, just to get it up and running and hopes to be able to participate, not only just participate, but to be competitive as well for this 2023 season. Facundo, one of the finest people we know from the show, hands out a comment.

Sam Dancer is one of the finest people I have had the chance of meeting since I am involved with CrossFit. I share a similar sentiment for him. But Sam, you love everybody. So what are we going to do? What does that fucking mean? That means that you are a, you are a, you are on the high road. You are on the, as we circle the mountain of life, if it's a spire,

you are a little ahead of most of us and you are able to you've taken the high road in so many places and you're a great role model for so many uh men in that regard so we appreciate you well thank you i've always said um we should love everybody even the people that suck right good i like that i i second that i'm a student that's okay that's a shirt right there. Hey, it seems too quick. It seems too quick, isn't it? Like a piece of your body broke off and then it had to be reattached. Is it attached like with screws and shit like that?

There is. There's a little piece of hardware in there. It's nothing that I can really feel. kind of like a a bridge or essentially just like a um a cap that kind of went over the um so they they braid you familiar with uh your kids had long hair maybe you did some braiding yeah yeah a fishtail braid um i saw dave castro's hair at the games. Cornrows, cornrows, cornrows. Similar to that. They braid in this material with the tendon and they drill a hole into the bone. And they have this like self-anchoring screw that they'll pull that material and fasten it to your arm. And then over the top of that, they put like a little cap, if you will.

But I don't feel any screws in my arm or anything like that. The tendon is a little thicker than my other healthy arm. But it essentially feels the same. I don't, I don't notice any, any difference. It doesn't, I'm not limited with any extension or flexion. Um, there, I have had a little bit of like just stiffness in my right shoulder and my right wrist. Um, but other than that, it's, it's indistinguishable from from my left arm i just have you noticed any you know you said it's sometimes even feeling stronger have you noticed any movement in particular that it feels better or worse than what you were expecting grip grip i'm significantly stronger in my right hand right now with my grip um i have these uh

these wait and that's and that's the one that you had the surgery on yep wow because that's all i did i couldn't for the longest time i couldn't do anything with my arm so i was i was you know quite limited with what was available to me um especially at the elbow like i could still work out my shoulder and do dealt flies and and uh i was able to get into some like tricep extension stuff pretty early um but from the beginning uh my hand was really the only thing that that was operable um so i'd carry around just little grip tools in my pocket all day and i'd just get in hundreds and hundreds of of repetitions do you have them with you can we

see them or can you tell us what they're called what are they actually i'll um which one are you using go out here i have a i have a couple of them um there's these silicone ring um ones that like rock climbers use and stuff that i really really like i don't have one of them with me, but let me pull this kid out right here and take it back into the office. You're a good dude. I'd highly recommend any other competitive athlete who's interested in just kind of filling any holes in their fitness,

that getting a little grip set. This brand is uh any athletes any athletes who are participating by the way in wadapalooza um while supplies last you can get a free ceo shirt at the uh at the paper street coffee booth so head over there oh okay so just okay oh this this way and this way so yeah this is for extension and this is for flexion um and then i like i said i also have these silicone rings that i i honestly kind of more preferred because they were easy to keep in my pocket and uh like this is would be annoying to to keep on you um but this set goes from like 50 pounds all the way to 300 pounds

and my right hand um can do maybe 50 to 100 pounds more than my left holy cow that's crazy hey that's a i see a sponsorship for this one yeah i'll have benji get on it because that that hasn't you know that's an underrated, the extension's underrated. It's helped keep my wrist healthier. I used to have some wrist issues that would come from, like, being in handstand positions and in front racks. And I no longer, like I said, I have a little stiffness in there, but I don't have the pain and ache that I used to have in my wrist. And I would attribute it to these little extension pieces. And I'll even kind of show you, they just go over your fingertips and you just...

It's not a very gratifying movement right no it's not it's a really it's i i call it um fitness fidgeting yeah um so it's like a fidget tool for for fitness enthusiasts so it's um a really mindless kind of act that you could accumulate like hundreds of repetitions with without even in knowing it and And it, it really, it takes nothing from you. And like, I could do hundreds of these and, and it wouldn't like affect my performance in the, in the gym in terms of fatigue, but it would, it compounds, adds up. And, and it's been a really effective tool in helping keep me healthy and, and making me stronger. What about the,

um, uh, psychological damage of having to pull out of the game is the emotional fucking. That sucked, dude. Yeah. It sucks so bad.

We, we made so many sacrifices as a family for that season. Um, last year. Yeah. Financially, um, like relationally,

you know, I, I had to spend some time away from Jen and Star and my family here in Quincy, Illinois. And it was all it, you know, did everything that I could to ensure that I would be able to win a championship and it's always just kind of been a dream of mine since i started crossfit 10 years ago to to to accomplish that and it doesn't change anything i still think that kind of victorious winner's mindset is important and um but it definitely it hurt dude it was sad um it felt like a supernatural season for me like all these doors were opening up like things were just happening so easily i was feeling really good like i i didn't even

feel a lot of contest from and i don't mean that in a bad way i just i was just i'm just saying like i i was poised to to, and I was certain about it. This is the 35 to 39 category. Yeah. How old are you now? I'm still 35, so I'll be 36 pretty much when the games roll around. Will you try again? Man, I'm still kind of up in the air with what direction

I'm going to take. I, there's a part of me, like after that experience last year, there's a part of me that realized, like, I think I still have some room in the tank to go compete on the individual side of things. Um, or at the very least, like when I was watching the individuals, I was like, it was making me hungry and, and excited. And I was like, I, I should be out there. I like, I can be out there. I can not only be out there, but I can be competitive out there. Um, but yeah, in regards to the emotional side of things, the mental side of things,

it, it definitely, it hurt dude. And I was, I was really saddened by it. And I, like, like I was alluding to with just like the supernatural kind of aspect of the way the season was going, I felt like God literally had his hand in it the whole time, just opening doors for me. So at the end of the year, I kind of felt betrayed. And I felt like I had this arrangement arrangement with god that i was gonna be a champion and then when it didn't happen i was like bro what like i thought we had i thought

we had plans and um and then on the on like the like performance into things it's just like i've never had a surgery before so i'm like am i even I even going to be the same? Like, am I even going to be able to come back and, and be even, you know, half as competitive and still be able to, I like, I love CrossFit. I love competing. I want to do this for the rest of my life. And, just I didn't know if there was if I was going to be able to do that anymore. And, and there's still a little there's a little bit of that that still kind of creeps in. But I, like I said, I have that kind of like a winner's mindset. And I'm like, I'm gonna try, I'm gonna keep keep trying and I'm going to keep like working hard to, um, to make it happen. So. Was this, um, was this to compete in at Guadalupe next week with, uh, Jorge and Josh, was that your idea? And did you reach out to him and say, Hey man, I think I want to give us a go or what did we had? We had made plans for this last year. Um, so uh it was it's been arranged for a while um and just there since before your tear yeah so and they're they're my training partners and so we're all

really comfortable um competing with one another um you know a good part of our initial part of the season we were trading together every single day and then once they got closer to like the games and they were more team oriented um every once in a while i'd kind of fill in for for one of them and help out but we all um we all really enjoy each other's company and and we all just love competing together. That's a great name, Joshua Alchama. Alshama. Alshama. Alshama.

God, that sounds like some FBI. It's a good one. What is that called when they have to hide you? Witness protection program shit he looks like he could be in a witness protection uh facundo is uh saying sam promised me that if rich was going masters he would go masters again i i think i still stand by that. Yeah. I still stand by that. If Rich plans on, and it's like in Elijah Muhammad, I just learned that he's going to be doing the master stuff. So that's another thing that has kind of helped maybe me mentally just relinquish any hopes and dreams about competing individually again and just

kind of accept the fact that I am getting older and the master's division is probably a more appropriate place for me to be. Even just like culturally, like Rich has kids elijah has kids like they they're they have a similar kind of a lifestyle that i do you know comparatively like a you know james who is just on like he's a kid like we don't we don't have the same lifestyles and you mean like you mean hobart is that who you meant when you said james james sprager oh oh sprager oh oh okay okay okay sorry as soon as you said kid i just saw hobart's face popped in my head yeah that that happened for me too but i'm glad we clarified yeah and you know hobart hobart i think as i recall hobart said it's just as competitive as individual, but without the, but, but way friendlier, but he said it's crazy competitive, but just the guys, there's a tighter bond between

the guys. Yeah. You know, it's a smaller group of guys. And like I already mentioned, um, a lot of them are in a similar, um, point in their lives to where they're, they're, they're family men, they have children, um, they have children, they're running businesses. And it's just there's a lot more commonality there, I think, for someone like myself than there would be in the individual division. So, yeah, not to downplay how competitive the athletes are. They're freaks for sure. Like it's, those were amazing athletes out there. Um, so I, I, um, yeah, it's, it's, it'll,

I'll probably end up doing the master stuff. Um, I could, I could potentially be potentially be um convinced to go the other direction when i get out to invictus uh and people start chirping my ear a little bit uh like last year i told him hey guys under no circumstances am i going team under no circumstances am i doing individual i don't care how fit i get i don't like i don't care i'm committing to this. So you're going to compete either way. You're going to do something. Yeah. But what he's saying is then when he goes and does the open and he's like 20th in the world and he does a quarter finals and he's like, I don't know, 10th in North America, then the, you know, they're like, are you sure, man?

Cause you're doing pretty damn well. And in that case, I, I will, I'm very open to it and we'll consider, I will consider it. Um, but, um, yeah, if I, if I had to like bet and guess and give you an answer right now, it'll, it'll probably most likely be, um, be masters again. Uh, Benji Hall, Sam could be a pro Tarzan, not amateur Tarzan, a pro Tarzan, a professional Tarzan. Hey, you know what, Benji, He can be Tarzan, not even a lookalike. Fuck the lookalike. Sam could be a pro Tarzan. We're just I edited your post. Thank you, Benji. So who's your homeboy these days? Who's who's in the rotation? Is it Bickle? Is it someone over

at Strong Coffee? Do you have a some cat you rolling with that's like your guy you call three times a day? Who's your – who's in the Sam Dancer rotation these days? That's a great question. Like you get in the car and you just call him. You know what I mean? Like I do that to Hiller sometimes. He's like, what? I'm like, nothing.

Nothing. Just wanted to hear your voice. That would definitely be Matthew Bickle. Okay. Bickle's still a man. He's been around a long time. You're keeping him. Yeah.

I have another dear, dear friend, Jared Stevens. Oh. Who it's – That's Christine Kohlenbrander's husband, right? Yep. Yeah, we had her on the show. She's great. Yeah, they're wonderful.

They're the godparents to our child. And I've always looked up to him and Christine. And they're definitely people that I call on to if I need to talk or want to go hang out with some friends or something like that. just if I need to talk or I want to go hang out with some friends or something like that. But yeah, Jared, Christine, Matt Bickle, those are, I keep a pretty tight, small circle. The Invictus crew, CJ has always been a really good friend of mine. And I just, I really admire him and our friendship. And he's always able to kind of shoot me straight and be honest with me and and so yeah is it victus still they're they're they used to be just all their name you know

they go through these cycles of like who gets the the media attention and victus used to get so much media attention and now i just feel like they've gone a little under the radar, but it's still a powerhouse training camp, huh? Oh yeah. Like it's, there's savages out there. And even people who aren't on the competitive circuit, uh, like their, their, their, their competitors classes is stacked. Like they have some amazing in-house athletes. Um, you know, they're probably one of the few camps that are, um, breeding athletes from the actual, like they're coming from the gym. They're not like, you know, people who are, uh, transports from, from other places.

Like they're, they're building phenomenal athletes from the ground up. And I, I, there's, I don't think there's a lot of gyms like that anymore. Are they still in the same location in downtown San Diego? Yep. Yeah, crazy. That's such a great spot. It's an amazing atmosphere. There's nothing like it.

Yeah, cool. That's awesome to hear. And what about the Strong Coffee thing? How's that going? Going really, really good. It's been a grind. I just had a call last night with Adam. Adam and I, we are not super—

That's a beautiful container, by the way. That is a beautiful— Do you guys sell your coffee in that container? You can purchase that container uh to drink out of off of our oh that's a cup oh okay that's really nice god that's nice man we got some really cool things lined up new products coming out um new lines um we got a lot of awesome things in the works and um we're we're starting to get some good financial backing, too, which has probably been our biggest struggle. Just Adam and I, we're a little financially limited.

And we don't have the financial capacity to be just pouring all our money into this company. So it takes a lot of work, especially on his end for fundraising and, you know, putting back into this thing to help it grow. But we're starting to kind of really, you know, get into a groove here and to where we're not like the company's not living like paycheck to paycheck. And we're actually have getting a little bit more resources that we can utilize for product development and for marketing. Do you guys have any business mentors for that kind of stuff? Yeah, Adam especially. Let's be clear. Adam is strong coffee.

Adam von Rothfelder, he is the, he's the guy who's really made everything happen. I've, I've just kind of made myself available to him and we just, we talk, you know, once or twice a week and, and just kind of, you know, in regards to where we, where we want this thing to go and what we need to do and execute to continue to experience the level of growth that we've had. And, uh, but yeah, we got, we have good help for sure. Um, Adam, Adam's a savage dude. Like no one hustles like this guy and he just, he's a creative genius creative genius and like if we can just continue to find people to invest into the company i there's no doubt in my mind that uh you know even with him alone but with you know with us working together that we're we're gonna build this into um an an amazing, an amazing financially successful entity that will be a household name.

I just want to plug it with all sincerity. So I have strong, Gabe, don't listen to this from Paper Street. I have strong coffee at the house. I have the black and then I have the cafe latte. And the black is just, it it's just you put the tiniest little scoop into a cup and if you're in a hurry you just mix hot water literally in one of these and it's ready to go so if i'm running late for the show and i don't have time to grind a coffee i do that also when my coffee machine needs cleaning and i don't i always use it there is something significantly different about drinking that coffee you uh than beans i just i never get the jitters from it it's just like kind of up i stay up and then i just come down real slow i never miss it

and maybe that's the problem because i never crave another one the rest of the day and then the other thing is is i when i know like to treat myself to a really hard workout i'll put a scoop of that latte stuff in a that latte coffee you guys make, and I'll put it in a mixer with whole milk and I'll shake it up and then like, keep me a fuck. I'll work out for fucking an hour. Just go. I mean, it is, it is a really cool, cool thing you guys have going. Yeah. Thank you, man. The, uh, the, the formula it's, um, you know, there's no secret really behind it, but the, the L-theanine and it really helps kind of level off any of the jitters that you would get. And then, you know, we have some nootropics and adaptogens in there that are also kind of assist and help keeping you up for an extended period of time.

And then we were we have super fast to make. You're just ready. Just add hot water and you're done. And I love I still like to make you're just ready just add hot water and you're done and i i love i i still like to make my own coffee like i have an espresso machine but you know sometimes i need to clean it sometimes i run out of beans so yeah whenever i'm in a pinch and time is of the essence um and and quality is always important to me and and uh is as crazy as it sounds even though it's an instant coffee, like you're going to have a hard time finding a higher quality coffee than what, than what we're

providing. And it's such a little amount you need. At least I need, I just have one little scoop and I'm set podcast time. Thanks. Thanks, Yvonne. I really appreciate that. Yeah. My pleasure. You guys, I really like stuff. I drank the latte until I got pregnant. Can't wait to start drinking again when I'm done breastfeeding. Oh, BF. Okay. I thought you were saying that. No, no, no. I didn't know that you were reading that.

I was like, wow. Yeah. I was just thinking about that, too. When I pull stuff on the screen, you probably can't see it, right? No. No. Any more kids, Mr. Dancer dancer are you using contraception we are not using contraception we never have oh okay and so honestly we never thought we could have kids

oh okay um so we were we were i've probably shared this with you before but it's it's a great story. Young and careless. It's a great story. We made specific plans to not have children. And, you know, we had a sit down talk. We, you know, really wanted to be certain that like we didn't end up in our 40s and 50s and regret that we never had our own biological child. We decided that that wasn't really a big concern to us. And if we ever wanted to be parents that we'd be more than happy to adopt, we had fostered in the past and we really enjoyed that experience. So we had made it up in our minds that we would just adopt in the future if we ever wanted to. And the very next day, we found out we were pregnant. And if you want to hear a really cool story, but it's going to require me to talk for a while.

Please, please. A year, one year to the exact day that we found out that we were having a child. We were in the jungle of Peru. And while we were in the jungle of Peru, we were partaking in an ayahuasca ceremony. And during my vision quest, if you will, and I'll tighten this up a little bit. There's a lot more to this than this particular piece. I'm in another world.

And this world is as real, if not more, than this experience right now. It's like, the only way I can explain it would be like watching TV on one of those brand new 4K, 1080p, you name it TVs, versus one of the TVs you used to watch football on 20 years ago really pixelated like that's the comparison of this experience to like real life experience it was high definition i'm in another world meeting with these two individuals who are just elated that I'm there.

They are so excited that I'm getting to meet with them and that I get to see where they live. And it's a fabulous place. It's just the technology and the decor were just, it was beautiful. Everything was made out of like precious stone and metals and, and all of their technology was like holographic, like interfacing equipment and just magnificent place. Toward the end of this little vision, toward the end of this little vision they have something that they need to show me and they introduced me to my disembodied unborn child star and they specifically said this is your child star what did she look like was it a baby it was disembodied so she was just a i actually have a drug it's not here.

It's at my house. Just like a bunch of sparkly shit like pixie dust. I can – I'll send you a picture of – Okay. I found something online because I was so perplexed by this. I had to figure out like what the hell did I just encounter? Yeah. But I'm an art guy. I have an art background, classically trained artist.

And so I drew a picture of what she looked like. And essentially it was just a swirling ball of light. Um, did it look like a Frisbee? It a three-dimensional like a spherical ball. Okay. I'm trying to help Brian. Cause Brian only knows Frisbees, but okay. Hey Brian, I'm a big disc golf guy. So we'll definitely have to hit the link sometime. Um, but, uh, you know, this swirling ball of light and, um, we had the capacity to still like speak with one another in a way. Um, so we shared just a brief embrace and and just how thrilled we were to

meet each other and and um then they gave me the date of her arrival um and it was the exact day that and month and year that she was born um and so that's fucking nuts dude nuts so hey here let me ask you this real quick why did let me ask this real quick why did you think that you guys couldn't get pregnant because we had been having unprotected sex for the past seven years and not you know not did you ever look into it or no you didn't know you just figured it just doesn't it's not happening yeah but she was she would have menses she would drop eggs she did have a period yes okay wow hey it's similar to the journey that my wife and i went on i mean we didn't get told ahead of time but we were for sure convinced we would never have kids a hundred percent.

We'd like, there was no option, but we also used, I used condoms like a maniac. I'm old school. But then when we stopped, then she got pregnant. Right.

I mean, it was, it was just like, they tell you in the eighth grade, just, I don't think he means that he, that maniacs use condoms. I mean,

I think he was just using them ferociously, like a six seven a day yeah yeah two at a time two at a time like i was scared i was fucking throwing them on yeah yeah yeah three on my wife be like why do you have three condoms on like i don't want to get you pregnant well so that's crazy so when when that date was that the date of conception or the date of birth birth man that is nuts so you knew had you forgotten that story until you got her pregnant yes we kind of brushed it off honestly it didn't really it was honestly more confusing than anything um it didn't really provide us

with a ton of insight you thought maybe it was like a metaphor or something or like something, something that would be birth or something. Didn't even have, I didn't even attach much to it. It was just kind of like, holy. Wow. Drugs are cool. Holy cat. Yeah, kind of. That was wild. Let's get the hell out of here. Yeah. And yeah. So, you know, a couple of synchronicities there a year from the date of that vision, the exact day we find out we're pregnant and then it, we really didn't even start doing the math on it, but as it got, like, we kind of started figuring out the due date. We're like, oh my gosh, it's, it's the date. It's the date that they gave us. Um, so a year to the date of the vision, we find out we're pregnant. And then the date that they gave us was the exact

day, month in, in year, um, that they told us she was going to be born. What makes you think you're not going to have any more kids if you've taken some precautions? We're definitely a little bit more mindful of where Jen is in her cycle. So she uses a thing called a daisy, which she takes her temperature with every morning. Oh, that's cool. So we're able to more kind of accurately track her ovulation, and we just avoid having sex during those times so the old ovulation tracking yeah so yeah that we ended up with twins doing that careful i mean i was what she warned me she warned me i was just being careless i i fucked that one up literally yeah um hey that's that's

and you know once they have one baby it it like turns on the baby factory machine. Oh, man. Okay. Good to know. Yeah, like she's ready. Yeah, they don't – they're not – how old are you, Sam? 35. 35, you said?

Yeah, 35. And how old's your wife? She's going to be 39. Oh, yeah. She's – my wife got the twins when she's 39 they start dropping multiple eggs okay noted and i think they sent i'm gonna tell you this there's no what'd you say brian his heart rate just elevated hey and i think uh i think they start sending out uh from from where i think that they start sending out vehicles down into the uh i don't know wherever wherever the semen goes to help the semen up at that age, too.

Like, there's a lot of, there's some weird shit going on down there. Yeah. They want to get pregnant. They want to get pregnant. I consider it a vasectomy. Don't do it. Viscosity. Viscosity.

Don't do it. I've, yeah, I'm really, I'm really against it. One surgery already on the bicep. Yeah. I just, I think, honestly, I kind of have a problem with it, just like spiritually. Like, I don't, if we have another kid, we have another kid. Right. Or two.

Or two. Or two. And Jenny's a twin, actually, too. So you're really scaring the shit out of me. No, they're not fine, Janelle. They're not fine. My body, my choice. Oh, gosh. I'm getting so worked up right now.

I'm nervous thinking about any of this. But I like your attitude okay so no plans to have the first one but there were no plans no plans to have a second one or a third one but there were no plans to have the first one and it's in god's hands there were plans to not have to not have one yeah um so plans to go to the games didn't go to the games plans not to have a baby got a baby hey wasn't it isn't go to the games, plans not to have a baby, got a baby. Hey, wasn't it, isn't it weird though, how probably not going to the games? I think Sam, many are the plans in the mind of the man, but it is the will of the Lord that prevails. Yeah. Amen to that. And I'm here for it. Like, honestly, whatever he dishes out, like, you know, good or bad, like I'm here for it. And I, I, I will do everything I can to walk that path

with grace. And, um, like it's, although uncomfortable at times, I've, I've never been, never been led astray. So, um, even in the most difficult times in my life where I'm like, why, why is this happening? What is going on? And I'm able to look back at that in hindsight and just see the incredible works. Jonathan Ortega wants to know how the gun training is going. Yeah, I think I did see tapping into sort of that tactical crew yeah i've i've been a little negligent um towards you know some of just like the the basic like white belt stuff that i need to be practicing just like my draws and stuff like that um but i i am planning on getting um a tactical games team competition going with jared here hopefully but like between now and um february march hopefully before the open kicks off and you had your perceptions regarding guns kind of all changed like yeah

was a very very anti-gun yeah me too very very much like not not even open for discussion. Um, so yeah. Very interesting. That's that, uh, as I need to have you back on to talk about that whole journey. Isn't it fascinating as we change how much has having a kid changed your, do you think change is the right word or added clarity to your thinking? Do you think that your brainwashed from having a kid or it added clarity oh man perspective and i'm you know and and this is another really hot topic i used to be in yes i do i do i do own a gun yes i do but um even like um i used to be like a big pro-choice guy um and now after after having a child, I like, I can, I can no longer subscribe to that. And, um, like if, if someone else, if someone else wants to like, cool, like, believe what you want to believe, but I'm just, I'm, I'm, I'm sorry. Like,

I think because you think more clearly or you, or you've been brainwashed by your child. I don't know that I've been. I think there's a clarity. I love. You think you're just swimming in love? No. Yes and no.

You're clearly swimming in love. I love. I do love Star. It's been such a gift and a pleasure to parent her with Jenny and to just to be, you know, a steward for her and just to guide her and help her develop and grow and just nurture that. I've really enjoyed that process. And I'm honored and blessed to be her father and, and to be a parent with Jen. But I'm not like, I'm not brainwashed by the whole baby thing.

It doesn't, it's not super attractive to me. Like I, I do not, I don't want more kids. I'm, I'm not like, I'm not in just like, I don't get it when people, when people would say like, when that baby comes out, you're going to feel the most love you've ever felt. And the baby comes out and we're holding the baby and I'm looking at Jen and she's looking at me and we're looking at the baby and she's like, do you feel it? And I'm like, no, no, no, I don't. Not even close. no, no, no, I don't not even close. Um, and still, I, and still to this day, although I love her,

um, I, it doesn't, it doesn't really do it for me. Um, and I'm not like super, yeah, I'm not super eager to have a bunch of kids, um, or anything like that, but it's, it's definitely changed my perspective and opened my heart up a little bit um i don't i don't do you know when you're brainwashed like that's a good question yeah i don't know but like i feel i feel like completely brainwashed like like if i hear someone if i hear like at three in the morning if someone if i hear uh can you wipe my butt for me like i'll just get up like a fucking zombie and go do it with love. And I'm like – and I'll have this kind of this out-of-body experience like who is this guy? Like 10 years ago, I'd have been like, fuck off.

Don't talk to me when I'm sleeping. Now it's like – now I'm happy to get up at three in the morning and wipe some dude's ass. Yeah. Teaching dudes how to pull their foreskin back. I'm just like, what the fuck? And I'm just like loving it. I'm like, what the fuck? And I'm just like loving it. I'm like, what has happened to me? Dude, yeah.

I had shit on my hands yesterday morning. Yeah, yeah. The shit I was the least, although I love changing diapers because it's a good bonding moment, but the shit was, I was very, yeah, the shit's on another level. Shit can be on another level.

We're getting, we're about out of it. She's, she's starting to be like pretty good about going to the, to the bathroom and, and initiating that. So it's, it's getting better and better. Less, less poo fingers. How old is she? She turned two in November. and so she calls you dad or in october um um she dad or sam sam that's his name that's crazy when my kids call me by

my name i know i'm in trouble they don't do it very often that's crazy she'll call you sam yeah she's a hoot she's been a really sweet fun girl so um yeah i've really really enjoyed our time together and um she got your quads dude it's so wild picking her up. And I'm sure a lot of parents feel this way about their children, like in regards to like how they're different or special or whatever. But when I pick her up and comparison to like when I pick another kid up. Yeah. And I pick another kid up and they feel like a floppy little like Gumby. Yeah. And I pick her up and i have to like brace myself before i pick her up she's just this solid dense she's got some thick legs and

calves and uh who's on your team at waterpalooza it's uh jorge and uh el chama el chama el chama uh so you guys don't you guys don't you guys have a chance to win i mean there's i mean against like these maniacs like james sprague uh uh chad hopper and um down pepper yeah you know what i um george and and Josh are freaks. They are fantastic athletes. Um, and I think what we do have, um, that, that helps us out a little bit is just our tenure and our experience in competition. Um, one of my favorite things when I'm competing against like younger athletes is they just, they don't quite have the, the understanding of how to like manage their heart rate and, and apply a relative perceived exertion that's actually sustainable. So it's, it's nice to kind of watch some of these younger athletes,

like just go out and send it and you know come toward the end of the workout they have nothing left and they they can't they can't finish um so i think just with our the our tenure we we have some advantage there um and just the amount that that we've all competed on uh at the on the bigger stage at the higher level is, um, is something that we have to kind of, um, give us some confidence in this, but yeah, I mean, Waterpalooza as an off season kind of competition, it has, it's, it feels a little bit more relaxed to me. Um, and like when I go down to Miami, I'm, I'm usually going down there to, to kind of have a little bit more fun. Um, and it doesn't, it doesn't like, um, just my mindset's just a little different around it. Um, so we're,

we're going there to have a good time and just to kind of like start the season off right and whatnot, or finish the season off right. however you kind of want to look at it. But, yeah, I mean, we're all competitors. We're going there to compete and try to win workouts. So, yeah. I picked you to win the one that was already announced. I appreciate that, bro. Thank you.

Did you really? Did you really? Yeah, it's just a straight lifting event. These three guys are savages. Yeah. Even Chama? Chama's strong, too, like you and Jorge? He actually reposted or posted something and tagged me and said,

I agree, Brian. We agree on something. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, Josh can throw up some some significant numbers on the shouldered overhead um el chapo is strong that's awesome yeah el chapo can deliver um and i'm honestly i'm super excited to i hope i hope jorge considers um an individual run after next year. I think they're definitely contenders for winning the team division next year, especially just after, like, just kind of, you know,

that was their first time as a team together, so just having more familiarity with one another. They made the podium, right? Were they second? They got third. Third, crazy. time as a team together so just having more familiarity with with one another um they made the podium right were they second they got third third crazy um so yeah i think they got a great shot um even if like rich's team was still there i would still say i honestly i thought they had a shot last year um i i really really did believe it and they did they made it on the podium yeah they did they they just had a few kind of execution errors. And, um, I've always kind of said, whoever wins first made zero to one mistakes, whoever gets second made two mistakes and whoever gets third made

three mistakes. Um, so they just had kind of two little execution errors, two, three little execution errors. And but the their their athleticism and their capacity and their strength and their ability to communicate, work together as a team, like all those things are are there. So, yeah, really looking forward to them and to watching them in the team this year. But and Josh, too, I'm excited to see and Brittany and all watching them in the team this year but definitely and josh too i'm excited to see and and britney and dev all of them like i i'm really excited to watch all of them um oh shit i know the people on that team they're all and they're all i know of them i know of them yeah when you start saying their names i was like oh these are some zealous games people oh yeah yeah that's cool but uh but but jorge, I've just really grown to like him. Again, I have great relationships with all of them.

But just Jorge specifically, I'm really thrilled to – I hope he considers making an individual run in the future. I think he just – his size, his strength, his athleticism. Like he's getting old. He better hurry up. He is. He is getting older. It's like 27 or something, right?

He's coming on the show. We're going to have the talk. You're getting old, buddy. It is. He is getting a little older, but I, he looks like he's 12 though. He's a sweet boy too. He kind of, he kind of acts pretty young too. Not like immature by any, any, any stretch, but he's just such a sweet man.

But, yeah, I think his body will hold up fine, and he's well put together right now, and he's not, like, battling any, like, crazy injuries or anything like that. or anything like that. So I think if he continues this course and keeps kind of working on some of his weaknesses and such, he'll have a great shot at being able to showcase himself as an individual athlete in the future. Thanks for coming on. I'm excited to see you compete.

Thanks, guys. Yeah, it's always great seeing you. It's been five months since you've been on the show too long and I'm glad to have you back. Yeah. I always, uh, I'm always thrilled whenever I get a text from you guys asking to come on the show. This is my favorite podcast to be on. And I just, I absolutely adore both of you and, and, uh, look forward to the next one.

Thanks brother. Uh, please say hi to your colleague over at strong coffee, Adam, and, uh, please, uh, squeeze, uh, Bickle's balls for me. I should be seeing him soon. So I'll give him a big squeeze for you. He's a great dude. All right, brother. Big hug for you next week. Coming your way to Sam. Thank you, man. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks Sam. hug for you next week coming your way too sam thank you man i really appreciate it thank you thank you thank you thanks sam look at caleb's in love

hey caleb i left the camera on in my living room and i'm just really hoping my wife doesn't walk by in front of it naked i saw her come by one time but she she's Was she clothed? You're good. Okay. I can see it down below. I'm like, Jesus Christ. I was late today. I was hustling. I don't know what happened. Brian, let's go over some of the highlights of this. Tell me about El Chama. Who's this El Chama guy who's on the team? He was on the game team last year.

He's legit. Yeah, he's from the UK. He's really good. I mean year he's legit yeah he's from the uk he's really good i mean in uh he's top 20 guy in europe i think still um and probably has been for a couple years uh in the this i don't think that the uh semi-final format is necessarily the most optimal for him as an individual so he's always kind of been just like last chance qualifier 10th place at a semi-final i think he may you know I haven't really gotten to see him do many of these, but I think he might do better at a more tests, more outdoors fitness type of stuff, uh, competition, but he's also like an incredible guy. You would look really like this guy.

I like his personality. yeah yeah i had a chance to sit down with him in london one year after strength and depth and uh him and his girlfriend then i think they're married now and they're just really easy people to get along with um and yeah i think calves in that photo he doesn't even have he he he's just tree stumps for legs he's huge yeah He's a big guy. Uh, he moves pretty well. Um,

and he works really hard and, uh, yeah, him and Jorge are both great. I mean, they're, uh, I had them both in my top 100.

Um, his ankles and calves are the same thickness. Oh, you had him in your top 100, him and Jorge. Yeah, but I won't, uh,

I won't next time because they're not going to be doing individual. So I'm just moving men out as they find out that they're going to actually do on the team side. I think I had him 73rd and Jorge 83rd when I put that out in August. So they're very good. Hey, this is nuts. Is this true what Patrick Clark is saying? He competed in six sanctionals in 2019. Did anyone else do that?

Is that a typo? I think Danny Spiegel did nine. I can check real quick. Wait, there were nine sanctionals? No, sorry. I mean, I think she did five. No, there were more than that. I didn't even know there were.

But he might be talking about teams and individuals. That means he traveled. The sanctionals are basically. How many sanctionals were there? Oh, is that there oh is that the only two as an individual which was strength and depth and down under but he may have competed on a team for some of those and i didn't track all of the team stuff that year how many sanctionals were there was it like 15 or something yeah that year there were there were like 15 oh that's chaos i need it i need a i need someone sent me a dm saying i need to reorganize all my shit back here if someone wants to pay for that let me know like i like a new webcam and someone wants to people are like hey you need to hire someone to design your studio

more it's like hey shut the fuck up like i'm i'm this is like radio shack in here i keep thinking i should do the same but you know people are always making comments that they love it so i'll just leave it cobble some shit together did you see that was the that was the uh did you see the show i did with dave did you see any of that i brought the couch into action brian i did see that you guys are doing that yes are you jealous at all like hey i've never even been to his house i'd like to come visit your family sometime yes yeah that's how you always say it you need a leather casting couch someone wrote in the comments uh how did dave feel uh sitting on all that dna mean, your couch. I was like, Oh, what are you going to say, Brian? Nothing. Uh, he, uh,

Sam dancer referred to water blues as an off season event. Is that accurate? Yeah. Preseason, maybe preseason. Some would say preseason. Some could say postseason. Some could say off season. I don't think there's ever been a real clear definition of that. I like offseason. I consider the season to start when the Open starts. And then everything else, I just consider the offseason. At Morning Chalkup, Justin LaFranco is very particular about what we called it.

I can't even remember what he preferred, preseason or postseason. But the Open kicks off the season. The season runs through the games. Everything that happens outside of the season is offseason. That's how I think about it. If we all gave... Oh, this is an ad lib. If we all give $2... I'll finish the sentence for you.

Sevan will be happy. Oh, what is this? Sevan, go watch the video Dallin pepper posted uh is it in his if it's in his instagram we can do that mr benji uh if it is not then um i wasn't joking by the way about the strong coffee i mean i i don't fuck around with any other instant i do want to i did want to address one thing. I like strong coffee too. A lot of people seem to think I was skeptical or something while Sam was talking about his ayahuasca experience. Actually, maybe we should talk about it some other time.

But I have a lot of experience with spiritual pursuits like that and don't actually talk to very many people who talk about them very much anymore so i was actually pretty interested in listening to what you had to say uh hold on let me send matt let me tell matt to schedule a show uh matt suza here please schedule show with brian regarding spiritual pursuits do you want it to be a series or just a one-off i don't know okay i would like to talk uh brian and matt uh spiritual show spiritual drug show spiritual drug show we can talk about my experience with drugs and then also my uh experience with spirituality as a fallout of that. Oh God, that would be so fucking good.

This is the show everyone's been waiting for. Oh, okay. Uh, so Suze is in the comments. You see that Suze, I sent you a text. Let's,

uh, you know, we are not doing that. We are definitely not doing that. I'll fucking lose the show. Okay. And I apologize. I missed the show with Daniel Brandon the other night.

Oh, that was partly my fault. But thank you. I'll take some blame for sending you the link late. Okay. Action. Look, man. Here's the truth, Alan. I need you.

More than need you. I want you. More than need you, I want you. On my team. You know you are my first option. About 30 years from now, when we're washed up, 50 years old,

talking about this, you're my best friend in the sport. 50 years old, talking about this. You're my best friend in the sport. I know we do well. Handstand push-up workout might eat us up. Be your freaking biggest fan, biggest fan, biggest fan, biggest fan. I give you like $300 in my purse, man, just for you to do this. $300 extra.

I'd do anything. I'd do anything. i'd do anything i'd do anything i'd do anything look man here's the truth hey when was that posted oh 28 minutes ago okay very good he teased it in the comments he said wait for my make it for my announcer video oh who did down oh he down was in the comments down tell your boy jason quit being such a pussy and come on the show he stopped returning my text messages the douche you tell him to jr he will never see the money that money i'm gonna send i'm gonna text jason the underside of my scrotum if he doesn't return a text soon

i can damage him for life yeah great video thank you benji by the way that's about as close as we can get to getting hopper on the show i should have said that that was live uh fraser had him block your number no doubt no doubt yeah Hopper's a good dude. He's funny. That's good. Okay, okay. Look at Patrick conducting. Do you want to watch a Fikowski? How are you on time, Brian?

Fine. Okay, well, let's just pretend like we're at home looking at our Instagram on the couch with 368 people joining us. Mr. Beaver, can we see Fikowski's clip? Is Fikowski going to Wadapalooza? Yeah, individual and team, and this is a preview of what their team experience might be like. God, he's busy. But he has time to make this. Okay.

The decision-making type. As the brains of this organization, I should have made this decision. Oh, I'm sorry. Since when did you become the brains? I'm sorry. I've always been the brains. What are you talking about? I thought I was the brains. What the hell am I? You're the looks. Well, yeah, of course I'm the looks, but I always thought of myself as the brains and the looks. You're the looks. I'm the brains. Charlie's wildcard. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. That's the classic setup. You know this, no? Look, every great crew in history has followed that basic dynamic.

Right? Looks, brains, wild card. Think about it. The A-team did it. Scooby-Doo did it. The Ghostbusters did it. Oh, shit. Yes, right?

Our problem is that we don't stick to that basic format, and it gets us into trouble. So what you're saying is that by breaking from that format, we're actually limiting our ability to be as successful as those organizations totally right dude great on to the matter at hand hey dude that team's gonna win well that team's gonna be fucking hard to say it will they'll be hard to beat but i don't think they're a lot to win and i have a lot to say about it next week uh monday and tuesday we have two of the biggest obstacles that will ever happen in brian friend's life he will have to try to talk to us about wadapalooza with john young in the room it'll probably be two hours show each and uh we will

see you can call the show studying wadapalooza with brian friend while john young pelts him it's going to be a quite the show and by the second i don't even know if brian will show up the second day or he might tell me hey john can't come on the second day it was brian's idea to have john on both shows but something that makes me think that uh brian's a glutton for punishment so it should be interesting go ahead brian you were gonna say similar it's very similar to what bren just spoke about you know when john's on we have the brains we have the the looks, and the wild card. All right.

All right. That's good. Okay. You're the wild card, by the way. Oh, darn it. Hey, that was – Hiller needs to call Fikowski and take lessons. I mean, I know Hiller's got a lot of more dynamic movement and stuff, but that was really, really fucking good. And just the different heads and faces used and take lessons. I mean, I know Hiller's got a lot of more dynamic movement and stuff, but that was really, really fucking good.

And just the different heads and faces used and different looks. I mean, that took Fikowski some time. That was like a six-hour flight on a plane or something. I actually really like the selections he had for Vellner. Vellner said very little in the thing there, but if you just watch it back

and look at the faces he puts for Pat, it's epic. I wonder if Fikowski's dying laughing as he makes it too probably i mean hopefully yeah definitely a podium team it'll be fun it'll be too it'll be really fun i mean they've they have not announced very many of the team workouts yet so i think we'll probably put that one off till tuesday and hope that we get as much as possible there to to look into but even if we don't know a lot of the programming it can be fun to talk about these lineups i don't know if we have it on the um stream yard yet but or on youtube yet but so on monday it's uh the show's at 9 a.m pacific standard time oh then we have a draft show on monday too that's monday night We don't have, oh, okay.

And then Tuesday morning. No, that's not Monday. Oh yeah, yeah. The draft show is Monday. So we have, we have two shows on Monday the 9th. We have Jorge Fernandez on. Then we have Waterpalooza Predictions with Brian and John Young.

And then we have The Draft in the evening. And then on Tuesday morning, God, Tuesday morning. Man, those morning shows with Brian and John, I'm telling you, you guys do not want to miss those. I'll open up the call line too. It's going to be fucking, it's going to be, it's going to be crazy. Hopefully John will be in a bathtub. Has anyone, have you announced that, uh, that programming? I mean the, the fantasy draft thing yet? No. You want to tell people about it? You want to tell people about it? I don't know.

Yeah. Basically, we got six teams of two analysts or personalities, and we're going to do a little Wadapalooza draft and play a competition on lawn chair leaderboarding. And my partners, I'm partnering with J.R. Howell. You're partnering with J.R. Howell. I'm partnering with Dr. Spin. Oh. We got four other teams of two.

How come you guys got two brains that uh that wasn't exactly how it was divvied up and he's actually changed his plan since then that's my we may potentially put us at a little disadvantage he's gonna start his transition uh no we're trying to have basically we're trying to have uh because about half the people are going to be in miami and half are not yeah trying to have one in one yeah people we're trying to have, uh, cause about half of the people are going to be in Miami and half are not. Yeah. And have one in one. Yeah.

People in Miami are, it's a lot harder for them to react on the fly as things are happening or make changes to the roster, especially Jason Biller participating. They'll be commentating one for individuals, one for teams. So we wanted to prepare the people on site with someone offsite, but spin doctor decided to come to Miami too.

I think we can only get 10 people on stream yard. I wonder what we're going to do. A couple of people won't be able to be on. Yeah. Well, the other reason we wanted to have two per team is to increase the likelihood that someone from every team could actually make it. And so we'll have at least one from every team. I actually think that you and I are going to go on, but not draft.

We're going to just like evaluate the picks that other teams are making to fill the dead air while they're thinking about what they want to do oh right yeah yeah i'm definitely i'm going to do whatever jr says i'm going to be like yeah jr is fucking brilliant and they'll like they'll make up the picks for our team and then we'll just kind of fill the time because remember last time we did it how serious everyone got as soon as we started and it was like kind of awkward and quiet so we got it went fast but it went fast it did but i think that it'll be good if you and i are somewhat removed from the draft and we can just talk about how bad the other teams picks are besides our own teams um i think that the the show for i think the bar has been set very low

for draft shows so i think we're I think we come out with the win either way should be fun it should be fun alright oops I just flashed my notes don't do that Sebi anything else oh we have some other shows coming before Monday don't we yeah we have all sorts of shit

I got Retroning coming on in two hours thanks for the invite you're very welcome you're a busy man you can't be on all the shows I've never made a show with Rich actually I'm never available when you have him on Mr. Froning at 11am

you know that Sam Dancer, Rich Froning and I are all born within a month of each other in the same year? oh that's pretty crazy. I think so. It's crazy that you know all their birthdays. Yeah.

When is Rich's birthday? Towards the end of July, 1987. Tomorrow, are you coming on tomorrow's show? I have it on my calendar as a maybe. Paige Powers. Yeah. It's so funny. Almost every time you have someone from Mayhem on, I miss it.

By design. I'm going to do a live call-in show sometime, too. I got too many notes piling up. And then Sunday's just fucking nuts. We have Travis Mayer, then Patrick Vellner, then Alexis Raptus. Do you know that? I was wondering if Sousa did it on purpose and spelled Travis's name wrong. Saw that.

Hey, you know what? He may be copying and pasting. I should take all the blame for all the spelling errors because I just like peck away at my keyboard like a maniac. And he might just copy and paste. Surprised he didn't just say Trevor. Then Monday we have Jorge Fernandez on. I'm excited about that. It'll be my first time meeting him.

Then Monday and Tuesday we have the prediction shows. Oh, Wednesday we have Jay Crouch on. I'm excited about that. I'm scared, though, because he didn't talk much. I won't make that one either. Yeah, I need you. He's got a beard about as big as mine right now. He does? Yeah, pull up Mat. He's got a beard about as big as mine right now. He does?

Yeah, pull up Matty Surt's Instagram from today. I was like, I had to zoom in to make sure it was him. And then Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, the show kicks off. Hey, have you seen my bumper for my new level one campaign, CrossFit level one campaign? I don't think so. Would you like to see it? Has anyone seen it?

Yeah, I've shown it on the show once or twice. Not very often. It's kind of top secret. Oh. Have you seen the Magic of CrossFit campaign that they've started? Yeah. And you know how they have like those graphics that say the magic of CrossFit? Mm-hmm.

So I have some L1 commercials coming out. Caleb, do you want to show Jay Crouch's beard and then I'll show the magic of crossfit so i have some some l1 commercials coming out caleb do you want to show jay crouch's beard and then i'll show the magic of crossfit bumper wow oh they look great i just want to see him getting out of the water in miami with the beard dripping wet i think it's going to be a different side of him than we're used to. Hey, he looks like a pinner there. He looks like a 5'5", 125-pound UFC fighter there. He looks tiny there. What's going on?

Isn't Maddie Sturt like 4'11"? How tall is Jay Crouch? I think she's wearing heels. He's like 5'8". I'm surprised Caleb didn't grow a beard when he was overseas. Thank you. Mr. Crouch, I'm looking forward to seeing you. If you're not going to talk, bring your buddy Rob Forte, please. Jay does have a good smile that goes far.

Okay. So for those of you who don't know, CrossFit has launched the Magic of CrossFit campaign. They have some fancy graphics for it. I'm also going to release a bunch of level one video that that i shot from years past um that showing the importance of taking that one but this is the bumper that we have for uh for ours ryan pay attention okay it's only 17 seconds am i playing it oh i thought you said you were going to play it. That's sage, by the way.

Some people think that's marijuana. That is not marijuana. That's sage that's burning. And then, Brian, then it will fade into like a scene at the level one. Do you like it? Very well done. Thank you. You made that?

I cannot take credit for making it, though. And I provided very little vision, to be honest, also. I might need to know who this person who provided the little vision for is because I try to do something similar with a shirt idea and has not been going well. Yes. Sage, cloves, hemp, whatever. Yeah. I just I just don't approve of cannabis smoking. I just smoking is bad for you.

OK, we will see you guys in two hours. Be good. Caleb, will you still be awake? Should be. Bye-bye.