The Sevan Podcast - #84 - Jayson Hopper and Taylor Self

Episode Date: July 22, 2021

The Sevan Podcast EP 84 - Jayson Hopper, Taylor Self & Brian Friend @JHOPPER3 @TAYLORMIDSELF @SEVANMATOSSIAN @BRIANFRIENDCROSSFIT The Sevan Podcast is sponsored by http://www.barbelljobs.com Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealsevanpodcast/ Sevan's Stuff: https://www.instagram.com/sevanmatossian/?hl=en https://app.sugarwod.com/marketplace/3-playing-brothers Brian's Stuff: https://www.instagram.com/brianfriendcrossfit/ https://morningchalkup.com/author/brianfriend/ Support the show Partners: https://cahormones.com/ - CODE "SEVAN" FOR FREE CONSULTATION https://www.paperstcoffee.com/ - THE COFFEE I DRINK! https://asrx.com/collections/the-real... - OUR TSHIRTS ... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We're recording. All right, so so we got change the subject can't talk about i have to go i have to go get my coffee you can't talk about that girl anymore all right well or we're we are recording we're not supposed to be on the show right now dude that's insane that's stupid okay yeah well one every time i've been on this show so you go ahead sorry but you didn't specify pst or eastern time you didn't specify so i thought 10 a.m us oh jesus where does brian live we've seen lesson learned he's in chicago he's in Chicago. I'm going to text him right now. These guys are on. Oh, shit.

You know what? I have an echo. I'm going to fix that right now. So what happened was I thought I had a podcast with Patrick Vellner at 7 a.m. I got up, and then he – fuck, I hear an echo. So he got up. I got up. You guys hear an echo. So he got up. I got up. You guys hear the echo?

Yeah. I don't. I hear my echo too. Jason already has a hard work pays off shirt. Did O'Keefe send you that? I commented on that. I FaceTimed him. I have no idea who sent me these. They showed up on my doorstep.

Did you get five of them, all different colors? You're a liar. He ordered those. Of course. No, because him and I know the same guy. We probably each got the same package. I got five, too. And then Dave asked to borrow my black one, and when it got returned to me,

it had a TDC logo on it right here. Dang. black one and when it got returned to me it had a tdc logo on it right here dang i got my dude the white one's my favorite and i accidentally got pin on it and it won't come off i'm pissed i like white shirts i'm a i like white shirts a lot but i still hear an echo from do you hear an echo from me no it's all better kinda kinda's kind of better i don't know i can't do anything else about it hopefully it doesn't fuck the whole show up hey um hard work pays off shirt oh this is gonna this is gonna be really weird this next question what size shirt do you wear jason xo oh thank god because i wear a large but it fits me in

the shoulders but everything else it looks like a fucking nightgown. What are you going to do without your right hand? It doesn't fit you in the shoulders. It does not fit. Large shirt doesn't fit Siobhan in the shoulders. Look it. No, it doesn't. Look it.

This is a large. A kid's large? No, I think it's a woman's large. Siobhan, you about to work out? You got wristbands on. No. No, it's a, it's a, I think it's a woman's large. So long, you bought a, you bought a workout. You got wristbands on. No, I don't work out with these. I don't want them to get sweaty. He sleeps with them. What are they for? What are they for?

Just for keeping me warm. I do every, I try to do every podcast with these wristbands to keep me warm. And then I take them off. I get a little sweaty. And then also wear socks too you know what I was tripping on today I'll be 70 when you're 44 that was like one of my first thoughts this morning when I'm 70 you won't even be as old as I am now how old are you I'm 49 doesn't that seem old to you when I when I was your guys age if someone said they were 49 I I was like, shit, they're old. Yeah,

well, you have kids and stuff old, but not like, you're not like old, old. Jason, you don't have to be nice like Taylor. Tell me how old I am.

How old do you look? You look about 58. Perfect. That's a good number. So I asked you to be on the podcast and you said, no, you're too busy. And then I see that you're with the buttery bros. Explain. Hold on.

Are we, so are we doing the show right now? Is this like live? Like is Brian coming on? Like what are we doing? I have no idea if Brian's coming on. I'm telling you, I thought I had a podcast with Patrick Milner at seven. Then I was wrong. It was at 830.

That's actually the first time that's happened in 80 shows. And then so I was like, fuck. So I went back to bed and then I was wondering why Taylor asked for a link and I send the link and I'm in bed

and I say to my wife, do you hear someone in the house? And she goes, I did hear someone fucking running in here to my computer and you two dudes are on my fucking computer. I'm like, what the fuck is going on? Did you just leave your podcasting open, dude?

Yeah, I guess I did. I guess I did. And then I had made this cup of coffee for the Vellner podcast and I was going to save it. So you could have been walking around the kitchen farting and burping and we could have heard all that. Yeah, the good thing is I do like to drop a deuce before the podcast and like at 6.58 I hadn't dropped a deuce yet. Oh, let's see. Brian just wrote back. Hold on. Okay. How did you rationalize being around the buttery boys, Jason?

You're like okay this will get me some this will get what this will get me some exposure and so i already did the seven on podcast and that already got me enough expert that gave me 12 new followers i'll do the buttery boys and now i'll get another 12 is that how did you realize it that was pretty much it exactly right well that's they play to a different they play to a different crowd than you do so long they do well i don't watch the buttery bros on youtube but i do watch you so like he would have so if jason was going to gain a follower it wouldn't have been me but other people for sure you know just a different crowd yeah dude trying

to trying to expand the horizon did they did hanging out with them affect your training at all do you think it made you better or worse worse dude i was so distracted serious no oh okay the main reason why we're on the show is we want to know what happened to taylor they actually they actually made me go harder because I was on camera. Here it comes, dude. That's good. I believe that. So what's – well, before we get to Taylor because this is – I think that's the climax of the show.

You know he went out and you know Taylor knows some of the games workouts, right? I know a lot of them. I know all of them. Yeah. Have you actually straight up asked asked him can you tell me the workouts no has he told you any voluntarily no he won't tell me he signed a whatever form i don't know what it's called yeah he doesn't care what are they going to take from him dude they could they could a lot sir they're gonna take away his 400 followers on instagram they're gonna take away his honda civic jason drives a shittier car than i do let's get that straight out of the gate here dude i live frugal bro look at that hyundai out there you know you you don't frugal baby dude are you serious i'm i'm repping a free shirt that was dropped off at my doorstep

and what did you do before mac what did you do before mac though huh how many shirts how many how many clothing and shirts did you buy before at mac like three or four all right so that's me same thing i live in i look do i have two roommates i live frugal hey what do you mean you bought shirts before the mac you mean just like nice clothes so that like you present well the cameras stuff like that like you were going to a wedding or something yeah dude i had it was like buying a it was like putting on my jersey like i had a yeah look good play good man um man. What shirts did you get? I don't know.

A few Nike shirts. Are you sponsored by Nike? No. I wonder, is Matt still sponsored by Nike? I know he sells their shoe. Yeah, he is. Or they sell his shoe. Do they sell his shoe or he sells their shoe?

What? I don't know. Does Nike sell Matt Fraser's shoe? Yeah. You don't want to answer that one in case you get a sponsor one day? Yeah, I don't know. So, Taylor, tell us about – so you reach out to Dave. Should we wait for Brian?

No. You get a call. You, you reach out to Dave. Should we wait for Brian? No. So, so you reach out to Dave and say, Hey,

can, can I come out to Aromas or how does that work? How did you, how did you demo the, the games workouts? What do you mean? How did I demo? How did it,

how did it happen? How did you end up in Aromas? Like we know how Jason got to the games. He worked hard. He was so upset after the Granite games that he felt so bad for himself that he wanted to be a part of the CrossFit games in some kind of measure. So he reached out to Dave. That's true, but it was after the last chance qualifier. So you got that really fucked up to start.

Well, I texted, I Instagram messaged Dave and and i said hey uh i'll do whatever you need i'll be your indentured servant for a week um as long as it doesn't involve any heavy deadlifting but i can beat everyone else in all the workouts oh you did do that you put a caveat on it no heavy deadlifting no no i didn't say that i said i'll do whatever if you need somebody to help. And he said, could I fly out and test workouts? I said, yeah. Flew out. And the deadlift comment was just a joke because that was what held you back from making it to the CrossFit Games and competing against the great Jason Hopper. The Jason Hopper, yeah. And the prodigy, the chosen one.

He said he got hurt lifting that freaking pig. So he got hurt deadlifting. Yeah. Dude, listen to this. He came in sixth or he came in seventh in the Granite Games. He came in fourth in the last chance qualifier. And then he got hurt on event one of testing in the CrossFit Games. And he came last at the demo team trials. Oh, my God. in the crossfit games and he came last at the demo team trials oh my god i'm fucking so so i've never heard of anyone getting hurt demoing the uh the in aromas like demoing workouts like you legitimately got hurt

what is legit well describe legitimately like it like you got like you didn't continue yeah yeah i mean what was the point my season was over it wasn't like i couldn't i wasn't it wasn't like oh i held back like i could if i wanted to but it was a freak accident slipped and ate a big old pile of dookie so can you tell me exactly what happened so you so you have this pig and you're and you're starting how high off the ground did you have it like how did the injury did your back just seize up like the way uh no i so they announced the workout that has the pig flip in it so i can say i was flipping a pig. And basically the way it was set up was I was flipping it on this turf strip. And it was in the dirt though.

So like I had flipped it a few times. I had it like halfway up in this position to flip on the next time. Wow, dude. So Jason, let's take a quick pause's he's talking shit about me right now but he texted me before the show he goes hey dude let's build each other up on the savant podcast let's not talk shit about one another let's talk about how great we are now look what he's doing well that's funny because i called brian last night and i said hey tomorrow's your lucky day he goes what i go because all i'm gonna do is talk shit to taylor

the whole time and that'll give you some reprieve. Oh, dude, you don't talk shit to Brian. But yeah, dude, I knew this is what this was going to be, dude. You guys trying to make me the butt of your jokes, but it's all good. Okay. So, so you, so you, you're like on your third flip and you're lifting it up. Um, I didn't say a number. I was on a pig flip. I was a few flips in and you said you said you were in the dirt but also on turf. So we got a little – Well, I was on turf but there was like – it was basically like a line of stall mats or whatever. And so I was flipping this pig and I stepped just barely off like half on half off the turf and my foot slipped in the dirt and went into the splits and just tweaked my hamstring a little bit.

You went into the splits? Yeah. I can get into the splits, but like with like a 15 minute warmup, not, not right into it. Not with like 300 pounds, just forcing you down into them within a one second. However heavy it was. Yeah. So, so I picture you like with your hands up over the pig and the pig basically resting on your head and hands and it pushing you down into the splits. Is that correct? I didn't see it. It happened really fast. They pulled the pig off of me and I stood right back up.

Oh, really? Who pulled the pig off of you? I don't know. I think Dave was one of the persons who pulled it off. So I popped it right off. I popped back up and took my first step. Just felt my hamstring was tight. How much of a doofus did you feel after like, like, did you feel like.

It was probably one of the most embarrassing things that's ever happened to me. I'm not even. Did you feel like you, did you feel like you let down Dave, like asking if you got out, and then you kind of screwed him over the first event? I definitely felt like that. It was so embarrassing. It was beyond embarrassing. Did the crowd, did the other athletes go, did the other athletes go, oh, like, did you hear audible

gas from the... I think they thought I was really fucked up. I think they thought that, like, they, that, like, I broke my back or neck or something. What did Dave, what was the first thing Dave said? He asked if I was all right. Wow. Yeah, Dave's a great guy.

Wow. So that means you won't be on the demo team? Correct. Damn. And that was kind of the goal. This was a tryout to get on the demo team so you could cheer Jason on. I don't know that it was a tryout. I guess that. I of the goal. This was a tryout to get on the demo team so you could cheer Jason on. I don't know that it was a – I guess that. I mean, yeah.

You could phrase it like that. Do you think this will affect your future in CrossFit in terms of your injury? Like is it something that you'll have the rest of your life? You know like when you throw a softball as hard as you can cold when you're like 30 years old and then it stays with you the rest no i don't know what that's like at all no this is not an injury that's i wouldn't even consider it an injury i'm just pulled my hamstring a little bit have you trained since that happened huh have you trained since that happened i've done a little working out. What do you think, Jason? Sounds injured to me. He does sound injured.

He does, yeah, I don't know. He should be working out like 12 times a day. Brian, someone finally DM'd me about all the pecking you do on your computer, on your keyboard. I kind of like it. It's a good sound effect. It makes it look like someone's doing research and gives a shit about our guests. But just so you know, we had our first complaint about all that pecking you do on your keyboard. I kind of like it. It's a good sound effect. It makes it look like someone's doing research and gives a shit about our guests. But just so you know, we had our first complaint about all that pecking you do on your keyboard. Well, we're going to get it. We're going to get a complaint about the echo. Hopefully I can take that out. Is that also my fault?

The echo? No, no, no, no. I don't know what the fuck's going on. This software has a feature that helps take the echo out. Usually, usually it doesn't matter. it's actually echoed or not. He just blames me anyway. Well, that was happening before you got on. If you weren't injured, would you go to Jason and help him train? Would that be something you'd be doing? I don't think he would want me to.

It would be bad for morale if you beat him in some workouts. No, that's not what I said. He just didn't invite me. Sorry, that was a question mark. I know I didn't phrase it like a question. I have no idea. How come you haven't invited Taylor to come work out with you and push you and help? I don't know.

Honestly. um i don't know honestly yeah um i didn't ask to go work out with him either yeah i think i'm the real reason is because i want to head to madison pretty confident and i from history i know taylor and i get we get pretty close to finishing at the same time in workouts. So I didn't want any finishing second in training. And then me going to Madison and having thoughts of, oh, crap, if I can't beat Taylor, who's not in the CrossFit Games, how am I going to beat the rest of the guys? Is it weird to you that he didn't make the Games? Like when we first interviewed you i hadn't

met him and you were like yeah dude's fucking good he beats me in some workouts is that his fault he didn't make the games yes did he shit the bed and fuck it up yeah i don't think it was a direct reflection of his fitness man um i mean it really did come down to the first event in granite games like if he just tweaked that. He knows it was a rookie mistake. If he comes in a couple places more or better than that, the whole dynamic changes. But it helps me because I was telling him this the other day.

I said, I'm kind of glad you didn't make the CrossFit Games because you're the only person that i would be worried about there because i know i know how hard he works he's like the only person i know like personally there i know his training i know how hungry he is and that stuff will mess with me if i'm competing against someone that i know that well so what what were you saying brian it was well. What were you saying, Brian? It was the second event. Were you correcting Jason? Second event.

Yeah, it was second event, first workout. The first event was a snatch. The first event was a snatch. He did great. The second event was a dumbbell thruster. Started quickly and faded to 19th. I really think if he would have finished even like 15th, it would have been good enough.

I think 16th is the number. Yeah. It didn't need to be that much better than it was. Um, then that's of course looking in hindsight, but I think it, it was mostly a mental thing for him. I mean, despite that finish, I think he could have still rallied and made it, but that was weighing on him over the next two days. So he could have either gotten like four or five places better in that event or uh just like one place better in each event yeah it was i mean just a couple points kept them up what a mess hey will it be even worse for you taylor if jason does really well at the crossfit games we'll be like oh fuck that could have been me seven or is the bad shit or does it just not

get any worse than it already is well i think framing it a bit being worse or it being well i mean i guess there's a couple ways to look at it i don't think whether he does well or bad will really affect me at this point. I think before going into Granite, it was like a little bit of pressure knowing how well he did at the MAC. We talked about this a little before, but, I mean, this is my first full season and coming off a knee surgery. So, yeah, I had really high expectations, but also framing it in that lens is like, I've come a pretty long way despite some other big stuff. And not that those are

excuses, but you know, we did seven. I was Brian, Brian. Um, I don't know if you heard this part, but Taylor was lifting the pig at the ranch, um, trying out to be on the demo team and he slipped on some uneven surface and it folded it landed on his head and folded him in half and dave and some of the healthy i'm about to fold you in half and that's why i'm not going to madison because I don't think you're the only one who wants to fold me in half. Yeah, your wife probably. That's the way. Anyway, he got squished and went into the splits.

That sounds awful. Taylor, there was a – Do you love that visual, Hopper? Do you love that visual? I'm really glad it's not on video because that it would 100 viral i love that visual of you just getting just pushed down into the splits that's amazing that sounds really kind of weird when you say like that it's a thought a thought for you here or a question maybe um a few weeks ago as the semifinals were finishing i was doing some

analysis because in some of the competitions there were six events and some of them were seven events this year and this guy named this guy brian quinn did a bunch of uh data compilation and sent me this the stats obviously it's impossible to like superimpose a seventh event into a competition like the mid-atlantic but what he did, for all the live competitions that had seven events, he took each one away individually to reveal how it would have shifted the leaderboard. And in the case of the Granite Games, if event two had not been scored, you would have placed third. And if event four had not been scored, you would have placed fourth.

And if event five had not been scored, you would have placed fifth. So in three different scenarios, if we just omitted one event, you still would have had enough points to get into the games if it was only a six competition event. And that was also true for Nick Matthew on three different occasions, he would have got in. And in one of those occasions, you both would have gotten in. So it was actually kind of a cool study to see how if you just take one event out, it could have had a drastic impact on up to four people just on the men's side the remainder of the season. Well, I guess my question there is that less – that seems like –

when you say it like that, it seems like, though, when you make it a smaller test of fitness that I had more chance of making it. But the more you broaden the test, the less chance I have. I mean you could interpret it that way. I don't think that's an interpretation. That's an observation. Yeah. No, I don't think – I'm not mad there were seven events. I think in most scenarios, the more tests, the better for me.

And I think that – What about Jason? Did they do that same thing at the Mid-Atlantic, Brian? Like if you were to take – is there any way, any event we could have taken out so that Jason wouldn't have taken first? We'd have to add an event. Well, we were talking about it. Yeah, they only had six sort of events there.

And, you know, so he didn't do it for the competitions that had six events. He only saw it because I don't know how you'd add one. But anyway, it was just kind of an interesting thing, and it was true for all the competitions. If you removed an event, there were often, you know, small changes in the game's qualifications. I thought I had pretty good finishes at the Met. Yeah, you had great finishes. I think my worst finishes were Taylor's best finishes.

Oh, that's a good question. But the workouts were also very, very different. It wasn't the same programming. And we weren't head-to-head. I'm glad. I didn't have to go there, dude. You went there. Hey, do you wish you would have chosen a different semifinal in hindsight, Taylor?

No. I think everything happened the way it needed to happen. I'll go to the Mac next year I think for sure just to reduce travel. If they, if you know, I'll make my first choice

the Mac. It's not that I get. They're not doing the Mac next year. All of them are changing. Are they? Yeah, Hopper knows all that shit.

He's in now. Now that he's like butt buddies with O'Keefe, he's going to have all that he's like butt buddies with o'keefe he's gonna have all he's gonna have all sorts of intel he's gonna have all sorts of intel yeah let's hear about that elaborate they're not having it what do you mean is it gonna be why would they yeah they were just i thought they were just chosen like they're gonna probably go around like next year will probably be another um competition just like they're what were all the sanctionals a couple years ago oh so they're gonna rotate it so it'll be like rogue next year wadapalooza

uh i don't think it'll be those i think it'll be like some smaller ones matt wasn't matt wasn't i don't know if insinuating is the right word or stating fact, but Matt was mentioning in the podcast that we did with him that the reason why it wasn't Dubai, Wadapalooza, and Rogue is because CrossFit HQ had put a limit on the prize money that semifinals could give out, and those three events weren't willing to lower their prize money. I don't know if that's true or not. That makes sense. And I don't know why CrossFit HQ would limit the amount of prize money you could win in a semifinal. None of that actually makes sense to me, but, but I'm sure it does. I'm sure there's some reason behind it. I just haven't asked Dave. I'll ask him on that, on the next podcast I do with him and get back to you guys.

Um, Jason, so how, how, tell me about your experience with the buttery boys. Like what, what, what did you guys do? Like, did you do that paddle thing? Did you open your legs and do the paddle thing? I did that one time. You opened his legs for sure. I did that once. And, uh, and when you work with them, do they, do them, do they give you stuff for your Instagram?

Do they give you good photos? I mean, they're amazing photographers and videographers. Do they give you good photos and give you any slow-mos? All of it, the whole nine yards. And they already send it to you? Shots of you doing pull-ups where your lats look twice as big as they really are so you can pump that shit out during the games yeah they sent me some i'll show you some have you posted any already yeah my last one did you they posted me look at

this i put him on mute so i have to search him oh here we go yeah that's a great photo man they sent me a bunch they sent me a bunch of stuff which was cool they had me running with these their glasses on so they made like glasses so they made me do a whole workout with these on um matt would have never done that for free i know you're a good dude don't worry that'll go away you'll stop being a good dude at some point yeah probably and and who's helping you with your instagram these days nobody because look at your last processed food big sugar crap all and it's right on his cock and balls too did you notice that

dude i don't know what that has to do with anything that was on my close friends list dude there was only a select few that saw that really i never do that um i also said i've gotten a bunch of dms that matt's pushing some product that coke makes now broke my heart i have no idea monster energy are they owned by coke i have no idea that's the that's the new product i don't know that he's pushing it but he posted about yeah what were you saying about my last post um so you said uh well um taylor that dude's not doing anything for free the only the only charity that matt actually that's not true matt does a lot of charity but one of the things yeah exactly that's one of them that's the only reason why you guys are on

that's the only reason why you guys are on i have a podcast that's all three of you brian's trying to keep his head down low he knows what he's up to too okay so jason you wrote anyone excited to see some heavy lifting in a couple weeks question mark any guesses on the on what lift will test question mark i mean this is like this is like female crossfit game girl post. This is like what the girls do. Athletes do to engage there. It's like someone coached you. Hey, you need to engage your followers and ask them questions.

And that's what I'm getting from this. Like someone's coaching, you know? Well, I think the backstory was what? Go ahead, Taylor. No,

I want to hear the backstory. I was, I was in Vegas and Sammy was doing stuff for Matt on his Instagram and then I looked up I started looking at his comment or his um his post and I'm like I don't think Matt would ever say that but it was also like like there was one and it was like him and Justin Medeiros running around the track. And the, the caption was like, would you rather run on 800 or 400? And there was like a bunch of engagement.

And so I'm just learning, you know, like it doesn't have to be all like crazy, but yeah, it does sound like girly. Like, Hey, not that there's anything wrong with being girly. I mean, it fits you well. It's good. It's a nice side. And then the post before that is, whose form is worse, mine or Mars Media? And I'm like, yeah, this guy is getting coaching. But it's not that you're getting coaching.

You're just learning. Just learning, dude. Just learning. And do you read all comments? You have 26 comments on that. Do you read all those? Sometimes. 26 isn't a lot.

That takes about 60 seconds to go through. I think my first post on Instagram had 26 comments. Your first post? Yeah, I was like 13 maybe. No, that's how many followers you had, Taylor. You got to understand. you gotta you gotta understand um

today we're releasing the 10 best male crossfitters of all time at 11am are you sure about that? I thought we were releasing scuds, are we releasing both? scuds gets released at 9am sorry, I was thinking 11 and then

um what Brian, what does Hopper have to do to get on that list? How quickly could he get on that list of the 10 best crossfitters of all time? Dude, I have a really strong case. Let me hear yours. Well, I didn't consider anyone until they'd been to the games three times. Well, I didn't consider anyone until they'd been to the games three times. So, you know, if you happen to go this year and win and then never showed up again,

then I'd have to consider making an exception for that and figure out how to assess it. But I do think that there's some value in being able to be excellent over a period of time. So probably minimum of two great years at the games to even be in consideration. Or winning. That is the question. I mean, you know, Savan asked me the same thing on the women's side. He's like, what if Mallory O'Brien wins the games this year and beats Tia? Then is she immediately in the conversation for the best of all time?

And I was like, I still don't think I could say that um but she would be top 10 for sure if that was the only thing she ever did in her career and never showed up again no no I hear what you guys are saying but it's just you know when you when you look at the people who've made the top 10 and everyone on the list has at least five games experience you know and then most of those are also having top five finishes in a lot of the years that they're there. It's pretty tough. Like the 10th place person on the women's field, for example, went to the games four times and finished second, third, fifth, and fifth.

That's pretty impressive. Is that a better resume than just, who's that? Um, watch the episodes. Is that a better, uh, than just Josh, Josh, Josh bridges, Josh bridges, Josh bridges in the women's field. Oh, my gosh. Anyway, so. Oh, was that the women's field you were talking about? Yeah.

Come on, dude. Yes. OK, what's your argument, Mr. Hopper? Tenth place was Julie Foucher. Boucher. Come on. My argument is I am the only as of now I'm the only one

I'm the only one undefeated in the games I'm going into the games this year I'm the only one that hasn't lost yet wow that's your first semifinals without having, like, I'm the only one that hasn't lost yet. Wow. Was that, that's your first semifinals this year? You didn't do sanctionals last year?

No, I'm 1-0, dude. Holy shit. So, yeah. Yeah, Brian, that's. Was, is Rich Roening, I don't know, I'm asking, has he ever lost? Like an individual? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

His first year at the Games, he didn't win, right? Maybe he didn't win his second year either. No, come on. Come on, Brian. Don't make fun of him. He's only 20. He doesn't know all the... He wasn't around in the Stone Ages. You know this from...

Are you sure about that, bro? Are you sure about that? Homo erectus? Stefan, you know this from UFC. He is quite chiseled, isn't he? You know this from UFC, Stefan. How much credence are you going to give to a guy who's coming in 1-0, 2-0, 3-0

compared to a guy who's 20-1? Right. I mean, I agree. Don't get me wrong. There's arguments to both, but also, yeah. But it's still pretty cool. It is cool and it's true and I can't dispute that. Taylor, what do you think? Like his skull is like three inches thick all the way around. So his brain's only like this big inside.

Is that what you're... He just walks like... He just walks like... His head's off his midline by six inches. I'm going to have to dig through his Instagram and see if I can find that. Holy shit, dude. That's not even my joke. You can't be mad. I got to pee real quick.

Whose joke is that? Hey, what's up with the sword? Is that Photoshopped in there? Or were you really holding that sword? I was really holding it. That's what we got. The Mid-Atlantic CrossFit Challenge or whatever they were previously called has always given those to the winners of the competitions.

Is that a pretty cool sword? Do you still have it? Yeah, it's upstairs. And is your name etched on it or anything? No, I don't think so. That's an interesting gift. How's your training going? Are you injury-free?

Yeah, I got something on my eye. It kind of hurts. gonna hurt a sty that's what they call it are you taking you got a sty on my eye are you taking medicine for it no if you were injured anywhere would you tell us no no yeah I have an infection on my stomach, a scab infection. A staph infection? Scab infection. I don't know what a scab infection is. There was a scab and it got dirty and I never put anything on it, so now it's big and red and infected.

Can we see it? Yeah, if you want. I just see pixels. That's an ingrown hair. That's an ingrown hair that's an ingrown hair do you do you uh wax or shave where's all your hair at i don't shave i used to i used to nair at your own house i used to nair at my own house yeah yeah. Yeah. Oh, man. Put the whole cream. This was back in the day. Put all the cream on and then stand around naked for about 15 minutes and let it burn off. Yeah.

I've done that probably like five or six times. I used to do that once a year, but I would only do that when I would go to hotels because I didn't want to. What is this? It's just some chemical you put on your body and all your hair falls off. I would put it on my chest, stomach. But there would always be like a patch this big on my back that I couldn't reach. I think someone did that to my head in my sleep. It's possible.

That's why your wife helps you out, bro. What did you say, Jason? You're supposed to get your wife to help you out. Yeah, it would always be I'd go to the hotel by myself. I would be like on a work trip and I would just run down to the CVS and it would be like a spontaneous thing. I think it's probably pretty bad for you. It smells horrible, like something's not right. It does.

Have you ever nared yourself, Brian? Well, my sister was in cosmetology school one time and she had to do this. She had to meet these requirements for all these different things. And one of them was waxing. So I allowed her to wax my chest and I went into shock. It was one of the worst experiences I've ever had. And I don't plan on doing it again. And I give credit to all the people who voluntarily do that regularly.

I can never do that. Yeah, it hurt like hell and it was terrible. I mean, I was like laying there and I didn't really know what was happening. I never had been in shock before. It was that painful when she waxed you that you went into shock? Yeah, this hairy chest, man. Yeah, it sucked. That imagery is crazy.

Brian going into shock. You're still in into shock you're still in shock you're still in shock dude i don't think you came out of it oh shit there goes brian you're gonna have to think of a good question my my alarms going off that's that's was supposed to wake me up for the pat velner interview jason when uh when Mars and Heber were out there, did they have to leave early because they needed to go? Where did they go next? Did they go to Panchic? Yeah, they went to Ohio. Did they leave early?

Well, I mean, maybe they would have liked to stay for longer, but they had another place to go, another guy to follow. Yeah, they told me that. Where did they stay? Oh, sorry, go ahead. Right, two days. I asked them because I think they've now left Ohio as well, and, I mean, they're just making the rounds.

But I asked them how did Panchik look compared to Hopper when you guys were training with him, and you know what they said? Nothing at all. They just liked it. They always do that. I always try to get information out of them. So they probably know better than anyone who's – I don't know, though. Well, they have that firsthand experience.

I mean, they're there for a couple days training with Jason, and they're there for a couple days training with Jason, and they're there for a couple days training with Scott, and they've seen all of the best athletes train, and all the guys that are outside of Jason, all the guys that are really in contention for a podium or championship this year, they've trained with them or watched them train a lot. So they know what it takes to win, and that's why I try to ask them stuff like that.

But they're usually pretty close to the vest. They don't give much away. Are they going to go see Vellner? No, no. He's way too far away. They might catch up with him once he gets to Madison, but they definitely won't go out there. They'll do something with Vellner for sure, somewhere, somehow. Look, those guys aren't picking people because they're only picking people that they think

are going to be on the podium. They're not going to pick. They know you're not coming to the games. They haven't visited you, have they, Taylor? They actually tried to. I had to turn them down. I had too much stuff going on. Which makes me wonder why we have you on the podcast.

That's why we have 5,000 subscribers on my podcast. And should take a... That's why we have 5,000 subscribers on my podcast. And those guys have 200,000... And those guys have 200,000 subscribers on their YouTube channel. I got to... I should pay them a consulting fee. Have them give me some direction.

Dude, this is my fourth podcast with you, Savant. I should get cut after this. You should. After you win the games, I'm going to ask Matt to step down from the Josh, Matt, and Sevan podcast and put you in. Let's do it. This thing's a business.

This thing isn't for fun. Hey, but speaking of that, can you get Josh to send me or maybe you can send me some good dude's coffee? You mean like for free? Yeah, I can can't afford that it's really fucking strong can you handle strong coffee yes dude i make my coffee and my own pour over every morning okay and will you how many followers do you have on your instagram uh 38 okay that's probably he'll probably send you two tablespoons of beans i think that i spoke to his agent cooper and he said you get one tablespoon for every hundred followers or something with a with a minimum of two tablespoons because that's what you need to make a cup of coffee can i I calculate for every 100 followers?

What are you most excited about, Jason, at the games? Is it the heavy lift? Is it the swim? Is there some modality that you're most excited about? Yeah. Anything that's pretty much

just like a mindless just go, go, go. Who wants it the most? Anything over like 15 minutes. Is your coach going to be there? Yeah. And is he good at strategizing? Because yesterday Brian and I were talking,

and athletes have made big errors at the games that have cost them the games. We were specifically talking about Sarah Sigmund's daughter. Will he see a strategist? Will he be watching that, or will he be in the back just starstruck? We talked through it together, but a lot of the strategy is basically I come up with the strategy for the most part. The example Brian and I were talking about yesterday was the year that Sarah Sigmund's daughter was doing handstand pushups. Do you want to tell them about that, Brian? Yeah, it was the 2015 Games.

It was the final event. She was in the lead. Pedal to the metal. Pedal to the metal, too. She was in the lead. Tia and Katrin were close behind her, and they started on the workout and get to some deficit parallel handstand push-ups, and Tia and Katrin were doing fairly well on those,

and so I think Sarah felt some pressure to try to keep up with them. It ends up that Tia won the event, I think, or maybe Katrin won it, and the other one got fourth, so they both did very well. And Sarah basically just didn't take the rest she needed between parallel handstand pushups and failed the rep, failed the rep, failed the rep, failed the rep, ends up not just falling behind those girls, but behind the majority of the field. She finishes 22nd and ends up conceding, I mean, a lot of points to both those girls. And she could have easily, I think if she had just run her race on that workout,

she would have been the Games champion that year. But she fell into the trap in the last workout, and it cost her not just first, but also second, and she ended up finishing third. What do you think of that? Yeah, I think, I mean, he's right. For me, I learned that lesson of running my own race at a local comp last year at Myrtle Beach when me and Taylor were throwing down together. Because it was my first comp ever, like ever, ever, like a local comp, and I had never competed. Did you do a competition before that, I thought?

No. A little in-gym competitions? Nope. little in gym competitions nope um i did a team one time back in the day but i never done something other than that and i literally it was uh the second workout on a echo bike at the beach and i it was a 21 15 9 workout and i thought it was to be smart if I put the pedal down for 21 cows and do like 100 rpm for 21 and the whole thing with my whole my mindset was if I can get out in front of people I don't know where everybody else's fitness is at but if I can get out in front of people I can just basically watch and first I'll make sure that they don't catch up. And that strategy was terrible,

you know, cause I did 21 cows at a hundred RPM, cut off the bike, like 30 seconds ahead of everybody and then died. And then I learned that lesson. And then a Mac, I was, I kind of like did reverse. I said, okay, like, I don't, I need to worry about only me. Like I'm believing that I'm the fittest one here. I have to have that confidence and each workout, I have to believe that my fitness level is better than everybody. And I'm going to run my race. I'm not going to worry about anybody else's race, how hot they come out or anything. Now, granted, I did look around at everybody, the entire workout, but that doesn't mean I wasn't running my race and holding my pacing. And so for me, it's, I've learned, I feel like I've matured in a lot in a big way in that,

in that regard, because I'm not worried about how fast people come out. Cause at the end of the day, about how fast people come out. Cause at the end of the day, like science, science is behind the theory that you're at some point, your capacity and threshold is up. So if you come out a hundred percent in a workout and not come out 90%, that means you're not going to be able to hold a hundred percent if it's 15 minute domain. But if I hold 90 the entire time, I'm going to catch up because you're not going to be able to hold that the entire time. So just knowing that, hey, I'm going into every single workout knowing I'm the fittest one here or believing that whether I am or not. I'm going to believe that I'm the fittest one here. My pace is the best pace and I'm going to increase my intensity over time.

And then the last 60 seconds or whatever the workout is, I'm going to put the pedal down and finish strong. And so I'm not necessarily concerned. Like if you go look at the Mac, I wasn't concerned about when Travis Williams got off 15 calories ahead of me on the skier or when Justin Medeiros got off or when Ben Smith beat me by like a hundred meters off that true form. Like I knew the time domain was, they weren't going to be able to keep up that pace because we're all not at that fitness level yet in life. And so I knew that if I just ran my race and increased the intensity, I'll be all right. So I'm glad I learned that lesson.

So you'll probably see me in the middle of the pack for the majority of the time at the CrossFit Games in each workout until pretty much the last last little leg until i can make my move i guess i guess the concern would be that what you think is their 100 is really just their 90 well yeah like i i know i'm just believing that my fitness level is the same or if not better. So if I'm hurting in a workout going 90%, I'm telling myself that if I'm hurting, they're either hurting the exact same way or they're hurting way worse. Yeah. And I know what I can't keep up and what I can't keep up. And I guess if I see your point now, it doesn't even matter whether it's true or not. You have to have that mindset so you don't

let the wheels fall off the bus. Right. Yeah. It's interesting you learn. Yeah, I learned that lesson at Granite Games. You learned it at Myrtle Beach. Bummer. Bummer. I beat your fucking ass at riddle beach bro that's because i got penalized well dude i got penalized in the same workout i don't want to

hear that i came in first in that workout dude yeah i came in 13th drop the dumbbells bro so did i she made me hold the dumbbells over my head for a minute i'm sitting there with these dumbbells bro so did i she made me hold the dumbbells over my head for a minute i'm sitting there with these dumbbells over my head like where am i can i go she's like no no not a minute bro you're exaggerating dude it was it was a long time it was 15 seconds taylor how how is your uh how is your diet and your fitness and all that since this thing has come to a halt for you? I'd say my diet's normal. I don't eat shit, but I'm also not tracking my macros. And I've been wrestling pretty hard.

What did you say? Wrestling? Wrestling. Oh. Wrestling. And that's all because you're nursing that hammy. No, I would be wrestling either way what for well why am i going to train five hours a day i'm not going to the games you think jason are you going to take rest after the games

me yeah yeah exactly so i mean it's like if I haven't had more than two or three days in a row of rest in two years, now's the time to take it before this next season. Is it hard resting? It's pretty hard. Is it going to be hard for you to rest, Jason? No. no do you believe oh it depends if i if i win then no but if i come in second i'm sure i'll come back pissed and wanting to do something yeah i wonder if you mean like punish yourself i wouldn't say punish that's more of taylor's i wouldn't necessarily punish myself i would would be thinking, okay, like.

I need to start now to get better. Yeah. Like I didn't win. So I would be thinking, okay, I don't deserve the time off. Like it's time to get back. When are you going to Madison? Friday. And what hotel are you staying at?

I have no idea. And what room number are you? I have no idea. And what room number are you? I have no idea. And are you sharing a room? Me and my wife have a room. Do you really not know the hotel or you just don't want to say? I have no idea. You don't know whether you don't know?

I have no idea where I'm staying on Friday. Who did all that um who made your reservations and all that i got people wow wow so i'm stressless right now dude oh man stress this but but so then your stress must be coming from the fact that so many people believe in you. I wouldn't say that stress. It's more of a pressure. Pressure.

Is he stressed, Taylor? No idea. Do you have an opinion on it? Can you make something up for the show? I'm nervous. If I were in his shoes, I'd be nervous. That's it. And not a bad nervous, but his first games, he, I'd be nervous. That's it.

And not a bad nervous, but his first games, he wants to do well. He works pretty hard. The same way I was nervous when I was sleeping in bed just now and I heard you guys talking, voices coming from my computer. I would say he was probably a little less nervous. You were probably rattled like shit. You thought somebody broke into your house and was about to fold you in half. You thought I was coming to fold you in half you thought i was coming to fold you in half dude you heard me in your bedroom you heard me in your living room

dude you thought i was coming for you bro hey you should post a picture of yourself under a pig with your hands like this doing the splits my demo team experience dude so i posted picture. I was at a pig roast. We roasted this whole pig. It was awesome. And this girl who was there DMs me and goes, what did she say? You mean who was there on the demo team? Yeah, yeah.

She goes, smarter to eat pigs than get trapped by them. Wow. So you made friends while you were there uh i made friends with a few people there were some pretty cool people there was there were there any assholes there hey savannah i will say this do you want one of these shirts savannah oh hell yeah hell yeah fuck no i would cut that up into four inch squares. I need it so I can remember how to spell your name.

Who the hell spells their name Jason like that? Come on, bro. J-A-Y-J. So tell me, what were you going to say about the asshole who's there? No, no, no. I wasn't going to say anything about the asshole, and I also didn't specify that it was singular and not plural. But I was going to say the U.S. Army Warrior team,

or specifically Jacob Pfaff and Rachel Bondrock, they were really funny. They were awesome, really fun. I mean, when I meet someone, sense of humor is the first thing for me. I'm a raunchy guy, so I enjoy laughing a bit. Do you think maybe they were intimidated by you? That maybe people might have just been standoffish because they were intimidated by you? No, I think they felt bad I got hurt and just didn't know what to say.

But I wasn't bitching about it. Right, right. I just meant when you got there, if there were some assholes there. No, no. Everybody was really nice. Oh, that's good. Even Dave? I'm like bitching about it. Right. I just meant like when you got there, if there were some assholes there. No, no. Everybody was really nice. Oh, that's good. Even Dave?

Yeah, Dave was cool. He was the whole time, really. Did you play knockout with him? No, I would have destroyed him in knockout. And I'm not even exaggerating. I'm good at basketball. Have you ever played Jason at basketball? I'd beat the shit out of him too.

The only person I know I probably wouldn't win in a game of knockout is JR, but you haven't had him on the podcast yet. Is he going to the game? Yeah, he's going to the games 35-39 division, dude. You got to get him on there. So here's the hierarchy. Here's the hierarchy. Oh, no. Here's the hierarchy. Oh no.

Here's the hierarchy. Individual men and women. Um, and then, uh, I think the only charity we do is you, Taylor. I think that's just like,

yeah, cause I was about to say you've had me on more times than you've had most of the games. Yeah. Well, let's, let's explore that a little bit. I must say I just have a rocking personality personality i don't know what it is i was hoping maybe you would bring out a different side of hopper because we've already explored his entire mental landscape

already so i was hoping that maybe you being on the show would bring something else out of him well no so this is what happened this is why i was i was telling him to reign it in earlier as he texted me before the show and he he was like, Hey man, you know, men build men up. Men, men support men. Let's not make fun of each other. I was like, all right.

Is that really true? Did he send you that? No, no, no. Taylor, is that true? Did he send you that? No, he didn't send me that specifically.

Damn. That would be amazing. Then I would be like, wow, he really is getting into self-help books. His management has really gotten to him. Hey, Jason, do you think you're making too many changes prior to the games? I mean, you have a successful formula that got you to where you're at, and it sounds like now this team around you could be negatively affecting you, making you soft.

What team? Just whoever's making hotel room reservations for you and sending you clothes. I don't think that affects me in a negative way at all. Yeah. I think that helps me. Probably Conor McGregor didn't think flying around in a G5 affected him negatively either. Jason. Are you flying first class to the games, Jason?

No. Jason, it's flying first class to the games, Jason? No. Jason, it's been since 2009 since a rookie has won the CrossFit Games. And that's true for both the men and the women. In that time span, four people have finished second place in the rookie season. Their names are Rich Froning, Josh Bridges, Matt Fraser, and Tia Claire Toomey. Would you be upset if you ended up taking second place in your rookie year and put your name alongside those athletes? I would be upset in the moment, probably.

I would not be upset if I had looked back later on and had won a couple of times or however many times and then thought, oh, second place was almost like a stepping stone to get where I'm at. But in the moment, I don't want to come in second. I don't want to come in third. I don't want to come in fourth. I don't want to come in anything but first. So, yeah, I'd be pissed.

Are you prepared to go into the final event behind and win it in the final event? Because we've seen that happen. We've seen it won and lost in the final event. Are you mentally prepared to stay in the game no matter what? I like to think I am. I've never been in that situation before, so I don't really – I mean, I'd like to tell you that I'd be great in that moment, but I can't tell you how the pressure would feel.

I don't know how mentally I'll be. I don't know any of that stuff. Have you ever done 15 workouts in over a four-day period? Nope. But in training you have. I forgot Laura Horvath also did that in her rookie or second place. Someone will obviously catch on to that. And Pat Belner was third in his rookie year?

I think in Nashville we did close to 15 when I went up there a couple days ago. Jason, when the athletes are back there, they start forming little clicks. Clicks is too harsh because it has negative connotation, but Rich and Josh would always sort of be in this group together. Do you already know who you're probably going to hang out with or chill with? It's going to be interesting with Matt gone because it's going to kind of shake up who everyone hangs out with and i'm guessing that velner will kind of be

the veteran cool kid back there when you say hang out i've never been back there so like is there are you talking about right before we go on no there's just a ton of time where you guys will be back there just together like hours and hours throughout the week where you guys are like warming up together you guys are like taking weights off the same stack you guys will be on rowers next to each other assault bikes ice baths and they kind of like these groups kind of form not they're not really rigid you know um yeah i know what you mean i i've been talking to i've been messaging velner a little bit so he seems pretty cool so i'm sure me and him will hit it off me and will morad are pretty close he's cool

i'm sure i'll talk to him a lot um i met justin met travis scott panchuk um but for the most part i mean mean, that's all I know. Yeah. You definitely see back there the pecking order. Like there's a – you definitely see it back there. It'll be interesting. It'll be great to get your perspective. Well, it's like it is partially true, but also it's – there's a little bit of geography.

Like the Australian guys will probably all, you know know know each other a little well and hang out um but then it's also to the training camps is now a big thing like uh you know royce dunn has come over and he's been with the mayhem crew so when he has a chance i'm sure i'll hang out with with the guys and girls from that crew so it's a lot of different things but the individuals i don't the individuals are usually pretty much together and then the teams are usually together. I didn't see the teams and individuals mingling much. I don't know if things have changed. No, they have separate warm-up periods.

It's usually the more lighthearted guys that are talking shit to each other kind of stay in one group, and then the quieter guys stay in one group. You'll see the years I've been back there, the think tank group, they kind of stay together. I mean, not that they're exclusive, but you know, you'll see Noah and Travis and whoever else they have. They'll kind of be everyone.

I don't even stays in their own shit. I don't have a crew though. So probably gonna be alone. Hey, thanks for coming on both of you. We have a podcast in three minutes. I apologize for the scheduling error. In the future, when we do podcasts, it's always on my time,

Pacific Standard Time. Are you serious? We're done for an hour? We're leaving 30 minutes out? He's got it on, dude. It's never on your time. I think he's going to get us more views than, well, that's not true. He won't get us more views than all of your appearances combined,

but this one's going to be big for us. This one's going to be big for us.