The Sevan Podcast - CrossFit Games - Dave Castro Update #2

Episode Date: July 26, 2021

The Sevan Podcast EP89 -THE DAVE CASTRO- UPDATE 2 - CROSSFIT GAMES The Sevan Podcast is sponsored by http://www.barbelljobs.com Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealsevanpodcast/ Sevan's Stuff: https://www.instagram.com/sevanmatossian/?hl=en https://app.sugarwod.com/marketplace/3-playing-brothers Support the show Partners: https://cahormones.com/ - CODE "SEVAN" FOR FREE CONSULTATION https://www.paperstcoffee.com/ - THE COFFEE I DRINK! https://asrx.com/collections/the-real... - OUR TSHIRTS ... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Let's go seize the night. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by card. Other conditions apply. Where is everybody? I thought you guys sold out. Was there a panic and everyone ran out?

It doesn't start until Wednesday. Oh, shit. No wonder. I've been just sitting in front of my TV. Actually, that's not true. That's not true. The age group starts tomorrow, tomorrow tuesday it does start tomorrow the age group and what do you mean by age group no i mean tomorrow tomorrow is monday so the age group starts on tuesday so two days so not tomorrow and age group is old people or young people everyone it's old it's young it's also adaptive this year age group and adaptive

okay and um isn't it weird to say old and they're only like it starts at 35 who said old i did okay uh yeah it's weird that you say old it is weird and and you got people like hobart zach forrest um kyle casper bauer You got just beasts in there. I know. 35-39 division is stacked. Your boy Dan Bailey's in that division too. Who? Dan Bailey, the guy who used to sleep on your couch.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, I remember him. I didn't know he was still around. Yeah. Do you ever watch the Masters or the kids or the what did you call it the modified yeah during the past few years the games have been hard

because they overlapped same time individuals and teams where we're going but since we're going back to it we're using a different format this year where the Masters will start on Tuesday check out Tuesday for sure okay age groups so you will be there in and out do you get to enjoy any of the competition

enjoy is the key word yes i enjoy it when i see it successfully i when i see it played out successfully towards how i envisioned it and towards how I test programmed it and for what intent I created it for. So that's when I see enjoyment, when I see it flowing correctly, when I see it being a good test, when I see it being a good visual, when I see it all coming together, that's what I enjoy. Yeah. Cause I remember, I'm trying to think of a good metaphor here, but in the years that I was there, any event I was there, you were not looking at the same thing I was looking at. I would be watching the competition and you were like, you're more like a person who's like, what are those people called?

Florists, people who arrange flowers. Do you seem more like that? I'm looking for the correct execution of the workout, the judges doing the right thing, the bars in the right places, the floor plan. I'm looking for it all just coming together. We have a plan for it before we even do it, and I want to see that happening once it's started. You used to, because of the position I was in, there was a lot of back and forth between us. And you could say, I think it would be very fair to say there was a lot of tension between us, my team, and the media, and you guys running the show. There was a lot of tension in terms of placement.

Like you would be yelling at us. You would tell us not to go somewhere. We would try to push the boundaries. Our events are unlike most of the other events you see a lot of the events in this space a lot of the other crossfit events are very liberal with their uh thing of cameramen to be on the floor uh we have a fixed number of cameramen on the floor and we have specific places we want them to be and uh that line very we we don't waver on that and that's something i really push hard for on my events because you know it can you can look down at a floor and see bodies everywhere

already you see bodies everywhere much less adding additional cameramen adding cameramen doing those fucking zooming but i'm so over all these experience and budding cameramen in crossfit are fucking doing these ridiculous zoom ins and they think they're fucking being artists and shit um so look i'm not looking for that in our events i don't really like seeing cameramen getting in between athletes cameramen and i've seen it happen where they get in the way of athletes so we have clear guys for broadcast cameras and then on the number of essentially many of your behind the scenes or additional camera men you guys do not typically not do behind the scenes so be careful with just throwing out terminology like that. When was the last time we did a behind the scenes? 2017.

Let me, I want to go back to that about your critique of the cameraman. But first I want to ask you this other question. In the years past, you have been, it's kind of a double-edged sword. Because in the media, you want to get close. You're always trying to push the rules of what Dave Castro and team will allow you to do. But on the other hand, you've always kept the pits so amazingly clear. The media access that we did have was amazing. You gave us the front row seat and you didn't let any VIPs or anyone else in there.

It was strictly for media. Are you still that strict about the pits? Is it still a great place for a videographer or a video guy? Absolutely a great pit for the filmographers and for the video guys. Really what is on the floor access is super controlled. Pits and around that

we have great areas for the videographers. I'm a note of the pits. We've had requests lately for special access for people to get and view from there. That's another thing that's different with our event versus other events um the the pits aren't a viewing area the pits are and the people inside the pit i'm looking at them now are either doing scoring or they're

doing judging or part of the team running the event um roles but it's not an area to spectate from. What do you mean people wanted access? You mean like Danica Patrick's or Tom Brady's or WWE wrestling? Danica's never asked. Actually, she's never asked. She comes to the games every year and she doesn't have access.

Danica, honestly, is probably the most famous person who comes to the games. And since she's only 4'6", she wouldn't be in the way. She's a, I don't know, is she a household name? I mean, I almost think she is. I don't quite know if that's true. But she's very popular in the world, in the U.S.

I know her more from the Go Daddy campaign than from her car racing. Maybe most do, but that's also still a piece of her popularity. But she never asked for pit access. It's interesting that you critique the camera work because you're not a cameraman but yet um there's also people who critique um your um cutting of athletes um you know after nine events there's people who critique the events you choose so i guess it goes both ways right you don't stay in your lane and the fans don't stay in their lane oh the difference is i'm not getting on social media and screaming about the cameraman and how they do their job that's the difference or or complaining or comments or making a big deal about it when I

have an issue with the cameraman what am I doing is that one I'm going to the fucking cameraman and I'm telling him hey no you send over one of your fucking goons and they go hey Dave says if you want to stay in the event you bet he better not see you standing there again. I would be told that even when I was the executive media director of CrossFit. You'd send over a thug and warn me I'm going to get kicked out. Trombley or Scuds? I know it's early, but do you have any regrets in putting in the rookie, Allison Scuds, as the DTC demo team captain? She's not

a rookie. She was on the demo team a few years ago, two or three years ago. This is her second time on the demo team, but no regrets putting her at the DTC. She helped me test a lot in Aromas, and she really worked hard, and she really took initiative, and she

had a lot of characteristics and points of a leader that I like to see. And I appreciated that, that, so I wanted to give, it's a gamble. And it was a gamble. I'm happy with making that she deserves the role. So you were, you were always notorious part of your reputation at CrossFit was always to promote within and to give people opportunity

that uh maybe other people didn't believe in you you really believed in people and so you know you're living up to that but you're also it's interesting on that believing in people i mentioned i it's believing in them and believing also in giving them the chance to rise up, to rise to the occasion. And I think oftentimes we sometimes don't allow people the opportunity to rise to the occasion or fall and take that chance on people more so than I think others sometimes. And on that note, I warn all of you who have aspirations to work close to Dave. He is a prickly cactus. And if you do work closely with him, be prepared for super duper high levels of expectations. I'll ask you again about Allison Scudds as the week goes on and we'll see.

Well, you're making an assumption. We're going to do this on a regular basis basis I'm kind of wavering on that concept but we can play we'll play it by ear don't call me I'll call you I know I know the rules what is has there been any fallout since this

announcement of cuts do you have any regret are you taking any heat no regret the heat I've taken has been the scene and talked about online. It's interesting. We're very passionate about the sport, love the sport and the athletes,

and they have their ideal expression of it. And when their ideal or their ideal or their way, things should, or their way, their perception of how things should be done, it's not working that way. They get really emotional. And in the case of some of these athletes and coaches and whoever,

yeah, it's like it doesn't comport with their vision to go down. And that's, you know, the real world. This is real world this is real life they don't um they don't and they don't understand everything that's going on and they don't understand why those things need to happen and um and people get emotional it's all right to get upset and emotional about things but um to say uh reckless things or to say to plant this seed like i said lucky day that it's a way of

disrespecting athletes again i said yesterday i wouldn't tolerate that probably that i don't i won't accept that for a second because it has nothing to do with disrespect disrespecting athletes but people get people get upset over things not and and here's the thing you go to a basketball game and you know exactly what you're fucking getting you go to a football game you know exactly what you're getting you go to the uh the olympics and events most events the olympics you know exactly what you're getting you go to a cross the crossfit game every year it is changing every year the events are changing the tests are changing the format is changing and so that's what I'm saying. Like this for months, we've known we we didn't have cuts and then before that we cut

every year so cuts have been pretty routine part of this event now you get here or you hear there's cuts and you're really upset because in your mind as an athlete as a coach as a fan i wasn't prepared for that i wasn't like that's not my ideal of how I expected this event to go down. And so it's disruptive of their idealistic view of how the competition It's you should almost think as like

again I just don't want to feel like I'm beating this up. Wednesday, they do four or five events. Four, I think it is. Five, whatever. Thursday, they have a... Friday, they have a full day of competition.

And then we drop 20... It's not that big of a deal. It's really not. They're getting nine events. They're getting more events than you would at a semifinal. One quick thing, note here, some feedback for you, some constructive criticism. I don't mind if you gesticulate with your right hand, but the one that's holding the camera, try not to gesticulate with that one. Because that's the one that we look at you through.

You know, it's interesting what do you think the fact the fact of the matter is is that it's such a heavily participatory sport meaning that so many of the fans participate and that's why there's such strong opinions about it but people like me who don't really i don't even like i don't participate past the open i don't really care about if there's cuts or not cuts i'm just there to watch the games you know what i mean so i think the people you're hearing from are like some of the people that might be butthurt. It's because the fact that, you know, they have games aspirations. Right. But I don't think you're hearing it from the fans outside of like maybe someone's mom or dad or coach. Well, I don't know. I'm not paying attention to like the loud ones.

Like I see the loud ones and that's about it. But I'm not paying attention to a lot of them. loud ones like i see the loud ones and that's about it but i'm not paying attention to a lot of them and i think that i think it's kind of swung i'm seeing a lot of support for the cuts prior to this um uh the months leading up to this you were having a pretty strict diet of um eating avocado is that correct it's not a diet of eating avocado. I'm really low-carb right now. I'm eating a very low-carb diet, high on fat, trying not to be as high on protein. You could unwind that and say you're trying to do keto. I'm not trying to do keto. It could be like someone who's doing keto is, but I'm not calling it that.

I'm just eating a really I'm doing a low, I'm just eating a really low carb diet. And how many months have you been experimenting with that? It's probably been three. And are you able to maintain that while you're there at the, um, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's super easy to do. It's super easy. I mean, I went on this, this, uh, shooting trip to Wyoming and it was a competition that Six Hour put on.

And there, like, there was decent food. There was really good food. I went out on the field for breakfast. There wasn't good breakfast. There wasn't really good options. But even on a trip like that, I made it happen. I just ate the protein. I ate butter last night scuds is making fun of me because last night

at dinner i was eating butter just straight off the butter with my uh fork a lot of people are gonna make fun of you for that good job but it's not hard to do it's not hard i'm enjoying it and i'm performing better i feel better i uh i'm also doing because it's like, you know, the athletes are super influential. And you see how they eat. And they eat the top very differently than a low-carb diet. I talk about this with my team, so this isn't new to them. And they eat a very high-carb diet. And some of them are fat, high-carb.

And it's kind of antithetical to what we preach and the uh average crossfitter or to the average person who is worried about their health um and i think and i believe it's influential on the wrong people so whereas the athletes are eating a really hot high carb diet because because matt eats snickers all day i mean you and I should be eating Snickers all day long. And I think people think, okay, well, I did my CrossFit workout, and I can have a Snickers now too. Now, look, I'm not sure if one's eating. If you want to eat that way, fine, go ahead. But for health, just like we understand for people who need to improve their blood markers or maybe lose some weight or just improve their

overall health. They're probably better off restricting carbohydrates. Or middle-aged Mexicans. Or middle-aged Mexicans like yourself who are heading into their twilight. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Restricting carbohydrates is a good idea for most people. And the way the athletes eat is very different from that. And arguably because they have to because of their volume.

But the wrong people, I think, hear that message, see that message, and then try to apply it to their lives. In Matt's defense, I don't think he's doing the snicker bars anymore. Dave. I don't care. Dave, tell me about the first event. Have you let them know that you've been misleading them and that it's not a paddle board and that you're full of tricks? You're making a lot of assumptions. I know I'm trying to get a reaction from your face. I made presuppositions on purpose to see if I can figure out what prediction that you said paddle and that you want the fans to assume paddleboard, but that it's some sort of other paddle.

Have you released, and now I'm trying to get a reaction from your face to see if, and you're turning away, your brain's thinking how you're going to handle it. What are we going to see? Give us a little something. brains thinking how you're going to handle it what what are we going to see give us a little something tomorrow night uh we clear put out all the details for event one and what time is that at at the athlete dinner and will that be streamed live by crossfit games imagine for sure on someone's instagram do you do you allow will you allow the athletes to have their instagram lives going at the athlete dinner are they allowed to do that yes damn times are changing brother times are changing yeah you have to date on me it was it was never

it was never um not okay right i don't think it's never not okay. Five minutes, five more minutes. That's how much time I have with you? Yeah. When is the first event in the Coliseum that you're in? Well, for age groupers tomorrow. I mean, individual. Wednesday night. And are you excited about that? Super excited about that. super excited about that and which event is going to reveal the new apparatus that you haven't shown us yet what day will that happen stay tuned oh that's good um you Yesterday you said we were talking about whether Rich was the fittest man alive currently, and you brought up a very good point about Sam Wells' proximity bias since he trains with Rich. sort of a correction. You said, I think that Rich was in the top 20 and some people have said, and I haven't verified this, but that he actually finished in the top five in the open this year. Do you, do you, I want to ask you again, do you think Rich Froning could be the fittest man alive right now? What do you, is that a distinct possibility? No, I guess.

Great answer. Great answer. yes great answer great answer um do you have any friends with you a couple years ago i asked you if you had any friends and you said yes and i asked you to name some we never got to any do you so i would like to revisit that it's very stressful uh week for you i'm guessing not stressing a bad way just a lot of moving parts i don't want to like give me some good shit i don't think i'm my fucking friends like talk about the games just refocus ask me something i give a shit about but you want me to you want me to you're my friend is that what you're saying move on not at all not at all buddy i don't want i don't want to pigeonhole you i'm just trying to figure out if d Castro has any. People are interested. People are interested.

There was a comment saying that because that you are. I'm going to hang up. Ask you back on track. You're back on track. Okay. There was a comment saying, suggesting that because you didn't know rich finished in the top five, that that somehow made it so that you weren't.

You weren't the right person to program the games that's exactly why i'm the right person to program the game because like so many uh uh so many of the commentators so many people follow the sport boy out over this thing like i i have a very like i don't follow the athletes like that i'm not looking at their numbers um always seeing where they rank and um paying that close attention i separate myself and i definitely don't become a fan um so that i think is not even i don't know if i think that is a very powerful position to be in. I agree. All the time.

Commentators and people who cover the sport and people who cover the games, they become enamored with things. And talk about proximity bias. This is not a proximity bias. It's a performance bias. This is a bias. like in interviews and how they treat them and how they put them on a pedestal that they they let back in the way of their almost journalistic integrity i mean we even when we were doing some of the update shows with the way some of our people would talk about these all right you get it it's really impressive but like chill out like and a lot of things that i respect and appreciate what they do and how they push the uh envelope fanboy out over them and and i actually think a lot of the people who cover the sport

shouldn't either would you would you say that i ever fanboyed over them? Yeah, for sure. Nico. Not true. Everett. Guilty. You add your significance. Rich. Guilty. Dan Bailey.

What is that on your shirt? What are you wearing? What is that vortex it's a madison-based uh company that makes scopes for for what i want to talk but before you go because i know i can see you're getting your trigger finger itchy i want to talk about what you wear during the games in years past um i've seen affiliates like throw affiliate shirts down to you from the fans and then you and then you just change your shirt and you've been notorious for just wearing as many affiliate shirts as possible are you still doing that yeah sure all right thanks and that my friends is the Dave Castro live from Madison,

Wisconsin. I can't say how thankful I am that he did that. Yesterday he said we do it daily. I do think that I may be rubbed him the wrong way a little bit today. So maybe that's the last one, but I doubt it. But I really, really, really doubt it. Anyway, thank you. We will be going live again

in 40 minutes with James Hobart and Brian Friend to discuss places 1 through 40 at the CrossFit Games, male and female. Brian will tell you who's going to win and who's going to lose.