The Sevan Podcast - CrossFit Semifinals WEST | Press Conference & Day 3 Pre Show

Episode Date: May 28, 2023

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John Young. Bill Grundler. Brian Spinn. Welcome back, Brian. Yo. Good to see you. How are you doing? Doing good.

Been building a basketball hoop all morning. I know that the stro is really stressing you out and you needed a break. The pressures were getting to you. Very much. Very much. It was much needed rest. After a day off, you are back. A couple, John Young was saying we should start with Torian. Okay, let's start with Torian real quick. And then I got some things I want to talk to you about.

Oh, by the way, in 27 minutes, it looks like we will have a live streaming, the press conference. And it looks like it won't be Justin and Adrian this time. It looks like it'll be Don Fall. And it also, it appears that they will be streaming the, CrossFit will be streaming the press conference, not on the web, but to everyone in the venue.

So I think the way I'm picturing it is that everyone in the venue will see it on a big screen. Is there a big screen there? No. I'm going to scratch the idea. He might be on the main floor. I don't know. All right.

Torian Pro, Ellie Turner does what she's supposed to do. She wins it, 592. Were we in doubt for a while, Mr. Young, at any time? No. I mean, she's been, other than that first event, she's been very, very consistent the whole entire time. Does anyone disagree? Was anyone in doubt?

I don't think we were in doubt, but I think we expected some wins out of her. Oh, okay. Mr. Spinn's referring to an 11th, a 2nd, a 2nd, a 4th, a 5th, and a 7th. Which one? The Justin Medeiros effect. She's not going to win events anymore. She's just going to be 5th. You know, that would be cool if there wasn't an 11th in the first event yeah it was third was first we're looking at two through seven right now so she got third 11th second oh okay okay okay okay so that was the second okay

either way i mean she was outside the top three qualifying spots for a bit there so wait I wonder which athlete did the best at workouts if you had to pick well let me ask you guys this let me pick Bill ask Bill this first Bill if you had to pick three workouts that you would want your athlete

to take first place in so you're like yep this is a fucking games athlete uh number uh number two is one of them right i i like that event i mean i i i like what it is i i wouldn't say that that's one of your main ones you wouldn't you wouldn't pick that one and then the max snatch run one those two uh are you talking four you're talking five and then six uh the max snatch one the four i'd pick two four and um six and you get first place in all those and you got a crossfit games champ well i don't think you can't you don't think you have a games champ no you do

no you don't you have someone go into the games with what you have. Because then you have every single base covered. You have everything covered. You have the gymnastics. You have the 500-pound deadlift for reps. And you have muscle-ups galore. Nah. No? Nah.

I think this is a specialty workout test too. Yeah, totally. If we were talking gymnastics or skills, I would take six over two. All day. Yeah. I think five, six, and seven would be the events. If you could pick three. Five, six, seven.

I like five way better than four. Four is just whatever. I like five. I like six. Seven, two. Yeah, I like that. For a games athlete, i like one though too not with the stupid fabric pull but i like i like that a little bit of a specialty too though you know i agree but i i like that mix though i like the mix for a games

for a games level type athlete yeah so if i had to pick mine, I would say one. I would say one, five, and six. Okay. I'm going to stick with two. You suck. I'm going to stick with two, four, and – Get the fuck out of here. Two, four, and six. Hey, this will be fun.

Someone can do this. This is something like spin or halping or – who's the other guy? Someone will figure out for us at the end the correlation between how you did in the semifinals to where you placed in the games. Which workout in the semifinals was indicative to the best guys at the games? Jared, do you have any thoughts on it? Yeah, for a games champion, I would say one, four, and six. For a games champion. That's what I'm talking about.

Because I do think that they're still they still have to be one of the strongest not the strongest but one of the strongest and i think one gives you a pretty big breadth of the grunt work and the aerobic capacity um and then i think you have to be able to perform well on six to win the games for sure i i think you guys are choosing i think you guys are lying to us i think you guys are choosing. I think you guys are lying to us. I think you guys are choosing one because of the machines. The games has so many, the games has so many elements where they do have running involved in the middle of all these types of things and top of,

you know, flipping a pig or anything that's kind of power, super power-based. I think one is a pretty good indication of that type of pathway you need. Well, you have to be able to go long and they're going to go long in at least one, probably two workouts. So to me, you have to pick the long test. The thing that really stood out with me talking about Ellie was when I look at the performances on these workouts compared to the field she's in, i always start to think about

what happens if the field of 40 is a lot stronger it is a lot deeper so if you look like look at something like test six if you want to pull up that leaderboard there's a four minute difference between first and fifth where she finished so wow deroy was 11 30 something she was 15 30 something so at the games that's the chipper workout for those of you who don't know that's the chipper workout with the rope climbs yeah so there's there's no way in a in a deeper stronger field in a games field that four minutes in a 12 minute workout is only going to be four spots. So that's something you really need to look at. Like Ellie would have. Yeah.

Like what happens when a really dense strict upper body push and pull test comes out? Is she going to be able to manage that and finish like top 20 or is it going to be like a 30 to 40? What was Ellie's exact time? 1536. It's exactly four minutes. Four minutes and one second slower than Emily.

I think you're going to see where she's at in the east or the west. She would have been 25th in the east. Which is crazy. It's just the east. Also, too, though, we can pick this apart, but you're only going to do what you have to do in the field that you're in. So if she could she have gone a minute faster and risked a little bit, maybe like we won't know that. But still, compared to the field she was in, she knew that she didn't have to do anything crazy to still qualify and maybe to still win.

to still qualify and maybe to still win. She's in the third tier. There's a first tier of athletes there. Then there's Madeline Sturt all by herself. And then there's Ellie Turner. Bend over. Sevan could play Bill in a Lifetime movie. That is not how movies work.

How movies work is you pick someone better than you to play you. Bill could play me. I could not play him. I need to get a man bun. I wouldn't do that though. Grindr app, Jim Lefebvre. Is it Grindr or Grundr? Anyway, an app to meet up with 50-year-old Dils just to mingle and talk about fitness and maybe smooch if that's what you're into.

Oh, a Grundr app, right, Grundr, named after the handsome CrossFitter, retired CrossFitter, Bill Grundler. Quick hello to Justin from Salty Hive in Utah. That's a good point he brings up. Can we compare it to the West? Oh, we haven't done it yet. Okay.

Thank you, Justin. That sounds like something I'd say. I appreciate it. Steven Flores, at the end of semis, can we take the times and placings and combine all comps and see which Indy did best? I understand there's a little nuance. I'm sure Spin will be on top of it.

Yeah. The problem is, obviously, the first event, I don't think you can compare at all. But some of the other ones... I mean, event by event basis, you can compare pretty solidly,

not like full competition, right, Brian? With the best in the world, though, even a two-week difference, I don't think you should be comparing. It'll still be fun to compare. Here's the thing. What you will be able to compare, even if you shouldn't,

is you'll be able to compare like, hey, how come every single person in Australia beat every single person everywhere else in the world on the sled pool? And we'll say it's not because they're stronger and they're pulling fishing nets in all day. We'll say it's, hey, something must have been up with the sled or with the floor. And maybe, for all we know, we're going to find out their sleds were a little different. Don't rule anything out. You know what I mean?

We're going to find out that the sleds in the U.S. were made of canvas and that the ones in australia were made of a different material because they were sourced from china you don't know any we don't know any of that shit and that always unfolds slowly and then on teams you know i posted a story that showed uh an athlete on the unbroken 15 pistols uh she was bringing her foot to the ground each time and what i've been told is that the athlete briefing for that for in torian pro said that was okay and you're not supposed to obviously it's way fast so some athletes in torian were following the same standards that were happening in north america east and west others were flying through it because that's what the athlete briefing said so we just have so many inconsistencies that

um yeah you can compare to get a broad sense of what's happening but i wouldn't go too granular that's so dumb i'm here you're trying to standardize everything and we have different standards what the heck it's a tough morning for the internet Bill Grundler hasn't am I frozen? you are frozen but your voice is good I feel like I'm dancing around

is he frozen for everyone? he was John I have a question for you when you go on Spins podcast with Tyler is his connection this bad? Tyler's? No, Spin's. I'm just wondering if he's trying to sabotage my podcast.

Is his normal? No, it's usually worse. Oh, good. Okay, that makes me feel better. Okay, so he stepped up his game for this podcast. CrossFit should hire Brian Spin after they hire me. Just kidding. For what?

Who knows? They shouldn't hire me. I don't Yeah, after they hire me. Just kidding. For what? Who knows? Shouldn't hire... For you, you... I don't know why they should hire me. They should definitely hire you. To run their fucking media department. Steven Flores, did Ellie suck the testosterone out of Justin?

I'm still rooting for him. Hey, here's the thing. If Justin shits the bed, it's going to be – that's the first place I would go. If Justin has – the first place I'll go is like, hey, the relationship got more complicated between – I mean when it's just him – I think that's unfair. You think it's unfair to speculate that it's just him and Adam Neiffer, and now all of a sudden you bring in another person? No, I get it. that it's just him and Adam Neiffer and now all of a sudden you bring in another person no I would affect I'm not suggesting that he she took the testosterone from him that's just being just uh crass and a 14 year old boy which I appreciate I'm just talking about just the

complications of the relationship and the programming and and the effort that's being put in I mean he's is he living with Ellie you'd be crazy to think that moving in with a girl doesn't change everything right i mean someone someone this morning in the comments speculated that a catron coming to hwpo was what derailed mal that mal expressed concerns and and fraser even expressed them to mal come that uh catron coming there was stressing mal out i don't know if that's the reason why she's, you know, taking the rest of the year off, but she did express those concerns. Right. And it could just be one more percent.

Go ahead, John. I get what you're saying with Ellie, and it probably does have a different atmosphere, a different effect. But, I mean, I think that's – if he doesn't win the games, I think it's unfair to say it's because of Ellie. No, no, I wouldn't blame her. Like, hey, it's her fault. I'm just saying his inability – it always comes down to the athlete

taking responsibility – his inability to not question his inability to maybe manage a new complex piece to the training camp is worth considering no does anyone disagree it's like having your parents in the training camp right i mean that's weird too for some kids i think to be a high-end athlete it demands a hundred percent attention and if you want to be in a relationship that pulls even what i mean you could say even just a little bit even if you even if you separate everything out it does pull you away a little bit and i think it takes a um a mature head to be able to box each one of those things out so that they don't affect each other i mean you're not gonna have a good you're not gonna have a good training day if you're in

an argument just not i have a hiccup with my wife every single day. Some sort of hiccup. But that's not a bad – I mean, that's just life. That's just what you want to do. So if you decide that you want to get into a relationship with someone, you have to be willing to accept all the things that go along with that. So that just kind of is what it is. willing to accept all the things go along with that so i that just kind of is what it is um you know is it wins the games or not wins the games that that's that's one thing making it

to the games i mean like i i think he's still gonna be fine getting in but um if he if there was to be a an extreme like he didn't make it like he didn't end up on the right side of the cut line today, ooh, that would be something to go back and reconsider. Luis Montoya. There's more things going on than Ellie if that happens. I agree. Luis Montoya, Ellie was there last year. Yeah, you think

about even Katrin back in the day. She would say she doesn't have time to devote to a relationship. Right. She could only focus on a couple of things and CrossFit was number one priority. The crazy thing,

both of them are in that same position. So you would think if anyone is going to understand that they would understand that. For sure. You know, I'll talk to you next. That's a good point. Yep.

Are they the first games, like competitive couple together? The chance were back in the day. Wow. Wow. I mean, I mean, that's modern.

A lonely wolf is predator. High, high end. Oh, high end too. Yeah. Oh, Annie and Freddie.

Yeah. Yeah. Those guys. And it quickly, I and Freddie. Yeah, those guys. And it quickly, I think, from the outside, it quickly became evident that Frederick became the support. Yeah, that's the thing. They're not the same. It did look like Frederick is all in on Annie. He wants to do good himself but i mean annie is the key if it takes if frederick's

got to take the baby over uh so annie can train he's going to he's and it'll hurt his own training um like ellie and justin i feel like they're both like it's not the same lonely wolf is the predator married wolf is the pet let's look at the boys in Australia, if we can. It looks like, and then I got this guy, Douglas, who qualified, who they said was crying like a baby when they announced his name. This guy is like, yeah, this guy is something else. 531 points, 70 points below uh jay crouch worst finish looks like is a 17th although i can't see workout one uh are both these guys new to the games bailey

martin and jake douglas i know jake is yeah um i believe bailey is but he might have been bailey be a rookie also yeah uh bailey rail ty Bailey Rayl, Tyler Christoffel, another couple. I'm talking high end. Tyler Christoffel has not made it as an individual yet. We're talking about the fittest man in the world. The champ. And then 16th best in the world. Not Bailey Rayl and Tyler Christoffel.

Sorry, Bailey and Tyler. Y'all are great. They don't even train in the same place, right? One's in the east, one's in the west. He's a fucking comic book hero. Look at this guy. Dude, he doesn't look real. He's Australian?

That's what Australians look like? That's what that Australian looks like. He looks Scottish. He looks like a movie star. Dude, he's massive. Massive. HWPO training. Jeez.

Jake is getting popped. Oh, meaning for substance abuse? They test this guy as soon as as soon as he finishes he gets tested oh yeah for sure all the individuals do uh uh matt c uh he had several errors and no reps and is only a few seconds back from a much higher places he will be okay damn all right and he's been there he's been trying to make it uh it's just his first year he's kind of breaking through uh jay crouch and maddie sturt uh now we're getting closer that's pretty high level john oh i didn't know there were a couple yeah that's pretty high level four times games athlete two times games athlete

yeah no that's a great that's a great one to pull i just didn't know from an ass region yeah um okay um i just had to say that it's not an ass region i mean women are pretty great i want to uh do a quick little uh just look at a little colton merton's video let us go around uh it's the instagram video i think teddy williams made the video yesterday it's on Colton's Instagram account. Mr. Bieber will pull it up here. Here we go. Quick thoughts, John Young, 30 seconds or so, on what's Colton need to do today?

And can he do it? He needs to be top, at least top five in event six, and then see where everybody else is around him, and then make sure he's ahead of whatever he needs to be in Event 7. You can go ahead and play it too, Caleb. It's okay. You can loop it. Mr. Grundler, is Colton going to make it today? Man, he's going to be so close.

I just think that – I think Cole Sager is going to mess him up on some stuff. Him and Cole Sager are going to have a battle a battle for sure i mean they both can get in there's five guys totally two spots i what i what i feel is that they're going to foul each other up at the line that's what i think is going to happen uh mr spin how's the math looking for colton? The math is fine. I think it's really going to come down to can Jack Rosema and Mitchell Stevenson hold off Colton Cole? Can we go ahead and look at the points on the leaderboard? JR, if you are Colton's coach, if you could talk to him,

and you guys are in a great relationship, you could say anything to him, what would you tell him this morning? Just to trust his fitness and to go for it. Like if he feels it, he needs to go. He even mentioned something, if that was him in the comments last night when I was watching you guys saying, unbroken or die, right? Like I don't think someone like Colton needs to go at it with any kind of anything other than like some reckless abandon.

I think that's when he's at his best, when he's attacking. And he should be amazing on this next event. He should do very, very well. I think he'll be all five of the guys he's in the running for, and then he'll – you know, you can kind of play the points game. I need to be within three places of this guy to make it it's easier to make it that way than to be like i have to send it and win the event to make it right it's much easier to manage those different scenarios and again remember and again remember like we we won't get to see him against jack mitchell and John. They said they reseeded it last.

They will reseed between six and seven. Okay, that's good then. On the last one, but I'm talking about for six. But the plus is Colton will have Cole in right there with him, though. And Cole will be a good – we were talking about that yesterday. He'll be a good marker for him. I don't think Roseman and Stevenson, I think those guys will bump out. I think that there will be someone from the bottom heat that will pop in

and throw a wrench into the work. I don't think those guys will be above Colton or Cole, honestly. How is Mitchell with legless rope climbs? Do you know? Mitchell's pretty good at most all skills, like from what Brian's told me. I think that's one of the reasons why Brian picked him to qualify this week. He was 51st in the quarterfinal event out of that. And actually, he beat Colton in that event, that last semi-event with the rope climbs,

or quarterfinal event with the rope climbs. Let me, let me propose this to you guys and correct me if I'm wrong. The nuance here that we're dealing with, with Colton Mertens, anyone else who would be in Colton Merton spot right now that we were concerned about, we would be concerned because they would get stuck somewhere, right?

Like we would be concerned. Did Ellie get stuck on the ropes? Did Laura Horvath get stuck on the handstand pushups with Colton? He's a hundred% capable of everything. It's just the fact that it's going to be slower because of his size, right? And it's a weird nuance. It puts him in a totally unique category, right? He needs to avoid getting penalized by the refs.

Say that again. Go ahead, Jared. Am I off there? In this workout, though, he will be able to make some of that time, theoretically, that he'll lose on other movements. Like his overhead squat cadence will be faster for 40 reps than anyone else's. Right. His 20 push-ups will be faster, even if someone else goes unbroken, than anyone else's.

And really, I think the seated standard benefits him a ton. Because historically in legless rope climb workouts everyone gets to jump some people jump halfway up the road and he has to take four extra pulls he doesn't he doesn't have that disadvantage here so maybe he misses out on like six extra inches of reach to start the rep but then after that it the playing field is is a little bit leveled on this movement. And back down, he has extra cinches to keep his feet from touching the ground on the way back down too. But normally when we're as worried about someone as Colton, it's because they have a hole.

And it's not that this dude has a hole, meaning he hasn't put in the work to get every skill. The hole is just that he's fucking just not the right size to be at the best level. We're rooting for a fucking pony in the fucking Kentucky Derby. I think you're rooting for Chris Spieler. That's all.

It's, I mean... Even Spieler had some shortcomings, right? And Colton just doesn't. I mean, even his snatch was great. Like, we're happy with it. We're not like, oh, he's small and weak. It's not like that. No, no, no, no. He's not small and weak, but I mean, like you're going to have, every athlete is going to have some sort of a mechanical advantage or disadvantage based on, on your height.

So where he is, he's just on that end of the spectrum. So it kind of is what it is, but yeah, I mean, he's right there. And in event 60 with the overhead squat and the handstand pushups, he will be the best on those movements. The best. He's going to have a shorter reach on the rope. Granted, it's not like you're jumping or anything like that, but there is going to be a little bit shorter. It's going to be how hard. He knows he's on that line, so does he push?

If he does the unbroken and die what is the third what is the fourth rope climb going to look like he's going to touch and go those rope climbs uh peter peter i want to this is a great question why the love for colton he's so solely a spoiler factor if he makes the games is it that he's a specialist that illustrates how some events are 90 genetics no you know what it is he's a walking walking conundrum. He's a walking paradox. He's basically Fikowski. He's probably one of the smartest guys out there in the field. He maybe has the highest IQ of anyone out there.

He's fucking tiny. He is so short in stature, and yet he's out there competing. He's the other end of the outlier of Fikowski. He's a brilliant man, crazy work ethic. Yeah, shouldn't be there, and yet he's doing it with not only fitness but with incredible intelligence, and yet he doesn't talk much. That's what was so crazy about his interview. That's the most anyone's ever heard.

He's strung eight sentences together and three jokes. I mean, you can't get your head wrapped around the guy. He's kind of an enigma, right? He's a very fun underdog to cheer for. Yeah, and a capable underdog. You're not throwing your money away right no not at all he is i mean it is that's actually a really good comment he is the exact opposite of fukowski and that's why we refer fukowski to this stuff yeah fukowski getting fourth in the ring muscle-up pistol burpee workout is massive because watching go over that box jump is ridiculous, right,

with the ruck on? Well, just everything. The range of motion he has on the pistols, the having to turn over on the muscle-up, all of that. That's not a tall guy event until you get to that box jump. Who's this? Oh, okay, yeah. Easy.

Yeah. Wow. Yeah, Colton's doesn't look like that but uh elijah looked hey elijah looked like gee right there didn't he a little bit yeah just a darker version of gee that was crazy look at him wow i thought that was gee at first crazy all right uh i also want to look at patrick velner what a stud what a stud he's about to run away with this too he's gonna crush these two events uh 15 third third sixth first jr why does pat do so poorly at first events is it just the nature of programming that they always put long ones in that's just the way crossfit does it or am i making it up he doesn't always do poor at first? That's just the way CrossFit does it? Or am I making it up? He doesn't always do poor at first events.

What's going on? No, I think there's a lot of people that love to subscribe to that narrative. But I've been told by some people that were there that it looked like that may have been a little bit more of a equipment malfunction versus like a lactate blowing up issue that maybe that there, there was something kind of wonky going on with the sled on the, on the very last three trips on the sled pole. All right. All right.

The end of the day. Can we see that little video of Vellner? I got in the Instagram, Mr. Beaver Vellner is going to win this. Yeah. The, the event. Yeahner is going to win this. Yeah. The event? Yeah.

The whole thing? Yeah. Yeah. And honestly, it's going to be dominating fashion because everybody below him right now is not going to be what he's going to be in event six. Medeiros is the closest one who's going to be similar to his ability,

and he's 100 points ahead of Justin. Body composition in the most superficial sense. Vellner looking as good as he's ever looked? I feel like he's looked like that for years. He's always actually been someone other than the pigmentation that I've, like, wanted to look like. Man, that was the most backhanded compliment I've ever heard i've never heard jr talk like that holy shit i didn't know you were so superficial jr holy shit you've been hiding that dude my

grandmother's from dude my grandma's from bogota colombia so like i'm pretty tan so other than that like matt chan really early on i was like man I want that like trash can midline type look and Pat's had that for years and years and years so like when I look at guys I'm like I want to look like that it's Pat for sure he's got him he's all right hold on guys we'll get back to Pat in a second the the press conference is about to start let's swing over there that was a great note to switch on. Dom, thank you. Dom, can you hear us by the way? Yes, I can hear you. Thank you, Dom.

Great seeking right up in the front. Ladies and gentlemen, Dom Fall. It's the final day of the North America West semi-final. Today we're excited. A bunch of athletes are going to punch their tickets to the CrossFit Games in Madison. They're fighting to have Don looking fit as shit. You're welcome. You're welcome.

You're welcome. He looks like he's against the wall to be like firing squad style. Don follows six foot one, current CEO of Prosper Inc., former Marine recon. I think he has three daughters. day one and what's it like looking at the final day of competition after two very successful North American athletes? First off, thank you guys for being here. I have to maybe if you guys are there with me, I'll be with a little bit of embarrassing story. So I had come over here this morning, excited to spend time with you guys and actually spend a little time with our team. And as I was talking to our team with my cup of coffee, wildly

gesticulating with my hands, which I'm prone to do, I knocked over my coffee and stored a full cup of coffee in my lap 12 minutes before a press conference, which is always a good luck. So you may have seen me doing a mad dash back to my hotel room, quick turnaround to come

back. So I got a chance to test my fitness this morning. Awesome. So, yeah, thank you guys for being here. It's been a really fun and amazing nine months. So my first week in this world was back at the Games last August. Crazy whirlwind, but really amazing for me. And over the course of the last nine months it's been I've talked about

we came out and talked about what we were going to focus on you guys may have heard me or us talking about our goal of getting to 30 million people. So, you know, we at CrossFit, we're in the business of changing lives, right? And having as many people as possible through this amazing thing that we all have to come to discover with CrossFit. And so we entered the year with our focus on that. And over the last nine months, the team's been working super hard. Really, really proud of the work the team has done across a number of different fronts. So, you know, starting first and foremost and foremost how to get to 30 million people our first area of focus for

the company was on growth how do we expose more people to crossfit how do we get more people into affiliates that started with the campaign that we started earlier this year we imagined across it i hope you guys got a chance to see that gosh uh incredible work from our team on that I hope you guys got a chance to see that. Gosh, incredible work from our team on that. And, you know, really proud to say, we've seen that's paid dividends. So coming out of the first quarter of the year, we've seen a 40% increase in traffic to Cospit.com.

These are people that hopefully, we can ultimately hand off to affiliate owners so they can do their work of changing lives. So excited about the momentum there, lots of work to do to continue to expose CrossFit sport people. We've also been working really hard on the education and training front. You guys get a chance to interact with the Red Shirts here, with seminar staff. They are absolutely amazing

and incredible. They've been working really hard to build our next generation of coaches. We know most of the men and women who day in and day out are changing lives doing the hard work. We've got some really cool programs we've been working on with the US Army. So we've got a program that we've been working on for the last few months that is all about helping the Army improve their physical readiness. So how do we better prepare our men and women in uniform?

The results so far are fantastic. Super excited to share more on that front. We've also been experimenting with new education format. So one of the things that we came into gear with was gosh, we have these incredible programs like DL1. How many of you guys have done your DL1? Awesome, all right, we'll get to 100%, hopefully, in the future. We'll figure out a way to make that happen.

But we looked at DL1 and said, gosh, this is incredible. How do we expose this to more people in our community we have you know so many of us for me before i joined the team i've been in this community nine years i love it i never thought of taking the l1 i was with the l1 it was something that was for coaches so we've been experimenting with a one-day course a one-day version of the fundamentals of crossfit we trialed it actually with uh with some of our partners, the feedback's been incredible. We're starting to roll that out now in cities across the U.S. and hopefully that can help us expose CrossFit to more people, especially our most passionate members in the community. We've been also working really hard on the sports run and I'll acknowledge, so coming into last year

we took a look at our priorities and I think the decision actually to reallocate some of our workers. So as you guys know, running these events takes an extraordinary amount of work. We have hundreds of volunteers. We actually have a pretty small team at HQ. We have a bunch of incredible partners. It takes an incredible amount of work to make sure people are exposed to it, for media to get fans in the seats. But I looked at our overall allocation and the amount of time and resources that we were putting towards sport, I felt like we needed to adjust a little bit. And so we put a little bit more of our focus and resources

against our affiliate community. How do we better support them? How do we get more people into gyms? My belief is if we do that work well, that benefits everyone. More people in CrossFit, more fans, more butts in seats. It's better for our athletes, it's better for our community, it's better for our coaches. And I share that because that decision

that I made to focus a bit and move some resources towards our affiliates and group meant that our team working on sport had to pull all of this off with fewer resources i'm really really proud of the work they've done they've done an incredible job now as i look back at all of the incredible work that i thought i also acknowledge um we got a lot of work to do i had the chance to spend a few minutes with sean on the broadcast

yesterday gosh i don't know how those guys do what they do. It's pretty intimidating. When he asked me on broadcast, he said, Tom, what do you guys think you can do better? And honestly, I answered him, everything. So look, we have done incredible work, but I know that we can raise the bar if we talk about this team. Across what we talk about, virtual awesome. Doing the comment on comment well, and I want that to be the spirit that we crave to absolutely everything to how we support affiliates how we train coaches to how we deliver an extraordinary experience for sport for fans for athletes and so part of what i'm trying to do this weekend part

of what we're trying to do is make sure we spend time with members of our community and ask them questions hey what do you love about what we're working on? And just as important, where can we be better? So I promise you, after every one of these events, after every affiliate summit that we do, after every L1, we go home with a long list of things that we think is good, and a just as long list of areas

where we feel like we can do better. Sometimes mistakes that we've made that we wanna make sure we don't make in the future. And so what you can and should expect from us is that you continue to see us raise the bar in the work that we do to support the community across our affiliate community, across coaches, the work we do to get more members in the gym,

and the work we do to deliver and make some experience in the sport. Thanks for bearing with me, I appreciate it. This weekend has been awesome. I don't want to be jumping to questions. As I walk over to Patrick, you had mentioned Bucks in Seats. Can you just talk a little bit about

we are officially sold out for the second day in a row here in Pasadena. So what kind of excitement did you have after the practice? Yeah, it was awesome. I got in on Thursday. Again, I'm one of you guys that have a hard time keeping track of time or days during since all the people were there. But I remember on Thursday, early day of competition, thinking to myself, holy cow, it's already pretty loud in here.

Yesterday, I think we were at about, what were the official numbers? Sorry, we'll get back to you on that. There were a lot of people in that. 5,000 people. And again, I think you guys, during the final meet, for me, I think during the final meet, Velner and Kowalski getting off the runner's sprint, that place was going absolutely bonkers. And so really excited. I think it's a great signal for the momentum and excitement in the community.

I've heard from a lot of folks throughout the weekend, affiliate owners, fans, athletes, that it feels like Rancho knows back in the day and in a great community sort of way. And again, I do want to say a really special thanks. That doesn't just happen. Our team on the media side and the marketing side have been working for months to tell the word, to make sure that everybody in the community knew that we're going to put on a great show here. And so really proud to see that big evidence and the excitement and the participation.

Hopefully he repeats the questions. We can't hear the questions. Patrick Clark, and obviously here at Knoxville, there are some problems, but in the community, can you address that? As much as you came up, obviously you can speak for no one, but maybe you can show us more important, or not show us, but basically the current state of Knoxville when it comes to sponsors, you know, economics. Yeah, for sure. So maybe I can start with, thank you Patrick, by the way, it's a secret.

Let me just start with, you know, kind of some of the decisions that we made and so forth. Really the decision we made about a month ago now to kind of reduce the size of the team, we made some changes in the terminal infrastructure. How we work was one of the decisions we made on the back of a bunch of other work that we had done. So I mentioned a little bit earlier,

Paul spent a lot of time on where are we going? Where are we going as a team? Where are we going as a community? So you guys heard some of that in the 23rd division. That gave us kind of a north star that we're marching towards. What we did after that interim, that we said, great, if we're gonna get there, how do we put a plan and strategy in place

for the next three camps? So our team did a bunch of work to that end. The last step in that process was looking and saying, okay, now we know what we need to go execute and achieve. Let's take a look at how we're structured and how we're set up. Let's look at the environment we're in right now within the community,

but more broadly within the macroeconomic environment, and let's make sure that we are best positioned to go execute against that. Let's make sure that we've got the ability to make some big bets and some big investments in the work that we're doing in and around things like growth and exposing the energy community across it. And so the decision we made to reduce the size of the team was really in service of

those goals. The company's in a really good position financially. We don't know, I don't know if you guys have noticed, we're not the only company within the fitness community or more broadly. Some of the biggest and most profitable, successful companies in history are taking a really hard look and tightening their belts and making sure that their best position for all the changes

that we've seen in the economic climate. We're doing the same thing. We think that's the responsible thing to do to make sure that we can do our job of supporting the community no matter what's to come. As far as Parker goes, I met with Marcus this year. They're an awesome partner. I have confidence they'll continue to be a great partner. And so, you know, we really appreciate all the work that you've done and we're excited to continue to build on the partnership. Scott Zweitzer, Clydesdale,

we didn't have any. Don, you just came on, as you said, nine months ago. You jumped on to local fiction. So when that happens, I know you've been doing mixed-ball tweets since you first got on, and you need to observe. How close to your vision and strategic plan are you to it? Oh gosh, well, great question. So how close are we we toward 2030 vision? 1% there. And I don't mean to be flippant, we have a lot of work to do. But we, that's, you know, I've talked to a lot of people, 30 billion, that's pretty ambitious. It is, and it should be, but I believe it's completely possible. For us in the short term, you know, our focus now is making sure that the shift is on that path.

We are headed towards 2030, and that means we have to do a lot of hard work internally asking hard questions. Hey, let's take a look at everything we're doing. Is everything we're doing the most, represent the most important things in getting us there? In a lot of cases, it's yes. In some cases, the things that we've been doing need to change, and that's hard. Those are conversations we've been having. In some cases it means the way we work internally, the way we work to support the community needs to change. And so I'm both proud of the progress we've made and call it motivating to move faster. We're not moving as fast as I would like.

And so our goal is that I want us to continue to build momentum and I want the community to look and say, wow, it is obvious that the pace of progress and change is accelerating for each of you. And I think if we do our job, that means the pace of progress would be the customers as well. Just one quick follow up. Is it 1% on the strategic plan, or the goal itself?

The goal itself. So the strategic plan is not perfect, but it's in a place where I feel good, we feel good about what's most important in the company. We're starting to hear, and hopefully what you will hear from us when you ask any one of us, any part of our team questions, you start to hear the same things, the same focus. I've had a lot of conversations with people saying, hey, how do we best leverage, for example, this amazing thing that is sport? How do we best leverage this to reach best leverage this we know that we can use drive for the past and so focus on our team and within the community

and thinking about that type of things that gives me confidence that we're heading in the right direction I can't hear this question at all. I can't even help you guys at all. Sorry. That's such a great question. So I have three kids, 10, 8, and 6. I have been encouraging slash forcing them to get into CrossFit. It's a bit more of the encouraging. We know that the youth community is a huge opportunity for us. Look, if you think about where we want to be in 2030, a huge opportunity is reaching

out to our audiences. We have some work that we've been doing around, we have an incredible program across the kids. Our seminar sat down with an amazing session with our kids the other day. That's been a great foundation. I think programs like Fundamentals represent an opportunity to lower the barriers to entry and make it easier for parents to get their kids involved, kids to get excited and inspired with CrossFit. It's early, I'll acknowledge for fundamentals course, I think we've done three of them so far.

But what we're really trying to do is really show up with a philosophy and approach around experimentation. So hey, let's try it, let's see how it works, let's test it with different audiences, let's see what feedback we have. A lot of these will not work hopefully a bunch of them do and then our job sits all down to the ones that do so uh you mark for us for a major priority we'll continue to invest in our resources thank you don't let

I'm not sure if that's a good question. I don't have all the details on it. I believe, and we can follow up on this, I believe it was actually my hand covers. It just wouldn't get participation stored. And look, I'll say more broadly, I spoke a little bit before about resourcing and decisions around SCORM. And again, I think you guys know this, but the amount of complexity it takes to run CrossFit for one division is insane. We have like 7,000 divisions, and that's amazing.

It's incredible and great, but it means that if we're going to do that, and we're going to do that at a level of quality that we feel good about and everyone feels good about, we have to make more decisions sometimes about our resources. And that is, I am asking and expecting our team and our leadership to make hard decisions and that's going to mean there are going to be some things that people love that we choose not to do because when we look at what's most important in reaching 30 million people

we have to make trade-offs if we don't make trade-offs you're going to see a low quality product and that is not something that anybody is going to feel good about. So I suspect that decision was about prioritization. Now what I will say is every decision we make, we're going to look back and we'll stress test it and we'll say, hey, looking back in retrospect, I know there's a lot of luck. I'm a veteran as well and I know there's a lot of passion and a lot of our foundation comes from the military community. We'll look back on our decision and we'll look at it. Not a lot. passion, a lot of our foundation comes from the military community. We'll look back on that decision.

Not a lot, all. You know what? Actually, we're going to reconsider if the Ben-A-Mess could make sense. It's too early to tell you. We haven't done that push-mortem yet, and we haven't looked at it next season. But that was really the foundation of it. I wanted to share a little bit broadly. There are going to be calls that we made to see if this could be

made that are unpopular, that disappoint people. I hope everyone knows, and again, we're not going to have a thousand. There are going to be some decisions, maybe we come back and say, you know what, that was the wrong call. I'm going to reinvest in it. But what I want everyone to know is those decisions will be made in service of his vision and impact on his many lives. That's the goal. will be made in service of his vision and impact on his main lives. We have time for a few more questions. We have time for a few more questions.

Hi, Don. You mentioned that you're leveraging the sports season to try to reach a lot of people in that strategic vision. Can you talk a little bit more about how CrossFit is thinking about semifinals and competitions in general a little differently than we have and how it brings people together and how the team shows up together here, not just for sport but for CrossFit?

How will that be taken into account? I feel like it's easy to answer that question that you asked me because you played a huge role in helping lead this for us. Yeah, look, the... Healthy infatuation. As we think about how we should run the sport again, and I'll say this is true for each of our respective teams. Historically, within the company, we have not done the best job of working across teams. We've been a little silent.

And part of that, I think, with good intention, we have a lot of work to do to support our affiliates. We have a lot of work to do to pull off events like this. We have a lot of work to do to run the hundreds of courses that we run all around the world. But we know that we can do our best work if we show up together and prioritize what's most important. We figure out how do we create create experience here that's not just great for the athletes, it's not just great for the fans, but it's great for our billionaires, and it's great for our coaches, and it's an opportunity and a chance to really truly bring the community together. And we believe that we can do that best if we

start with that internally. So I'll tell you, one of the things we've been really emphasizing is working together across the organization, different teams and functions, marketing, media, partnerships, our sport team, sitting down together, our affiliate team, our staff and media team, sitting down together and saying we have a moment with regionals to bring the community together. We have a moment to inspire existing members of the community. Hopefully it's a moment that we have to ignite an interest across the community of members. We have a moment to put on an incredible experience for our athletes. How do we come together and service each other now? And there has been a shift and increase in our investment in supporting affiliate owners. It's been a shift in probably two parts, storytelling, media, and marketing. Not only highlighting our incredible athletes, but also making sure we highlight coaches and affiliate owners who are making all of this possible. So we're really working hard on this. We got, again, like everything else, we'll get better at it, but that's the spirit of what we're trying to do. I'm Don Scott with Classy O'Hare.

Yesterday, one of the highlights I saw was that a lot of the coaches in the sport were hanging around, I guess if you do a press conference at the games, you're going to get dumb games questions. I'm really grateful to him because he has rejoined the community with a really sincere desire to help. Probably seen him work a bunch of courses. We've got some more work to do on this one. We'll circle back with you. I'm going to make sure I circle with the team. I think those athletes are so important to the community. They're such an incredible asset. And I think we secured your question. That's exactly what we need to make sure we continue to do.

So let me circle back with you on specific plans there. Yep. Thanks so much for being here. My name is Yash. I'm the host of the Coaching the Coach podcast. And one question I just want to ask you is currently the prospects are closing the licensing model. Right now it's giving the jams basic tools and saying is magic and it leads to some really cool things you go to three

different gyms and you can see those out of here is different styles different owners different things and it's great but they are all able to push the same across the great brand and we know that everybody in this room everybody outside of the buddies here knows that the style of the closet is going to be 85% better than anything else you're going to see out there in other gyms. I'm curious as you guys get bigger and bigger, how are you guys going to be able to keep the quality going out there in the gym to make sure you can squash all of those misconceptions

and things? Yeah, so it's a great question. Thanks for asking it. We've been talking a lot about this. So I think there's a couple things just to be thinking about who you might wanna do. One, we do wanna make sure, I think we play a really important role. Like I think about our relationship

with affiliate owners as a partnership. We've got these incredible entrepreneurial, independent-minded, passionate folks who are creating this incredible experience. Our job is to partner with them to make sure they are well-equipped to deliver a world- incredible experience. Our job is to partner with them to make sure they are well equipped to deliver a world class experience. Part of that, I think part of the genius of the model

was making sure they had the flexibility and ability to make, to create a really unique experience with the affiliate. And that's one of the things I love, like when you drop in, every affiliate is safe on some dimensions and really different on others. I think that's part of what makes it really special. So as we think about how do we continue to raise the bar, and I think that's something we should apply here as well, I think about it through the same lens. How

do we think about it in terms of the partnership? Our job is to make sure affiliate owners have the absolute best possible tools and resources they need to be able to deliver an exceptional experience. And there are two sides to that. One is, how do we help support, experience their coaches to deliver on their core? And I think we've historically invested a ton there. We do an amazing job. The other part, which I think is also essential, is how do we help them run a really successful business?

is also essential is how do we help them run a really successful business. If we're gonna build sustainable affiliates that reach times 30 million people, if we're gonna make sure that those owners can deliver an incredible experience, they can't be worried about paying the bills every single month. And so we have a responsibility there.

We have been investing on the business side. We've been partnering with folks in the community to do that work to make sure there's more resources available on the business side. Finally, I'd say I want to make sure we continue to preserve and make sure that our affiliate owners have that flexibility and that we have that richness and diversity of experience that happens inside Jim's all around the world that makes CrossFit so unique and so powerful. inside gym for all around the world that makes CrossFit so unique and so powerful. John, I think that's a great way to close this out. Would you like to send your one fan a question?

Is there one fan that would like to ask a question of CrossFit CEO John Paul? 40 months. All right, thank you. Our competition is just about to start. Thank you for being here. Thank you for being here. Thanks for being here. Thanks for the question. Thanks for being here. It's nice to meet you guys.

I really appreciate it. Thank you, guys. Thanks for being here. I appreciate it. Follow up. I didn't get to meet you guys. It's an important question. That's Dom.

Dom, could you show us the entire room so we can see what it was like there as people kind of mob him? Maybe give us a wide shot? Yeah. Okay. So it's a big venue. Great. Got Scott Schweitzer up in his grill. Yeah, this is just Vendor Village. So Vendor Village is separate. It's like across from the actual venue itself. How did it feel in the room? Just the vibe. How was it received? Don, did you seem nervous at all? Were the people happy to be there? Was it stiff? Did it loosen up over time?

It felt kind of stiff in here, to be honest. I don't know if people are afraid to ask questions that deal with uh the things that are going around crossfit right now but um yeah some of the questions just were were kind of just i guess random in a way and not really uh prodding right like okay fair enough yeah there was a question there how are we going to leverage games athletes to push the games i was like, like I could give two shits. And, and was that,

was anyone else streaming that besides you? Was that streamed anywhere else? I thought it was going to be streamed into the venue. So all the attendees could hear it. So I think the idea for, for CrossFit was to have, to have it in this like little open area right here. So that way the fans can kind of ask questions if they wanted and be present if they really wanted to um as far as it being

streamed i think there was somebody else that was in there uh streaming it on their own podcast but um i don't think they were videotaping it okay you demand dude i really appreciate it thanks don yeah you're welcome thank you guys for having uh thank you bye-bye uh i just want to give you guys a quick review who uh missed it or weren't able to hear i took a a shitload of notes um i i noticed that don always does start with a story uh he told a story about how he spilled coffee on himself this morning it's it's and it's usually an endearing story i thought it was a great story but i've come to expect that of him but he did start with a great endearing story about how he spilled coffee on himself and had to change his clothes last minute um he said

that he started his job last year at the game so so he's basically approaching his one-year anniversary and i remember that thinking that was weird that they brought the new ceo to the game that's kind of was an interesting a day one at the job um in to that it's a huge distraction for the people who are actually putting on the games. I actually had a little sympathy for Justin and Adrian and whatnot. Here you are trying to put on this massive event and your new boss walks in. He talked about the Magic

campaign and increasing traffic on main site by 40%. I cannot fucking believe that for one second. I'm probably wrong, but January is always the biggest month for the fitness industry. Things always explode everywhere. Sites get tons of traffic. I think that there's some conflation there of the numbers.

The Magic Campaign was – if it was good, it was pathetic in its longevity at best. So even if it was the best thing, even if you have the most beautiful cock ever if it only has two seconds of use before it fires its load it's it's pointless and and i feel like that's what the magic campaign was i feel it was a it was a two-pump chump so i don't care if it's attached to jacob what's the guy in australia who won jacob hepner jacob douglas jacob what was that guy oh no no the guy took third jake douglas jake douglas yeah yeah like if that's your husband but he's a two-pump trumpet so it's a it's a waste you'd rather have uh me um uh he gave some love to the l1 team which i absolutely loved there you should

never stop showering praise on uh the level one team the seminar staff, the red shirts, as Greg used to call, they carry the DNA of the company. If everyone would die on planet Earth except for one red shirt, CrossFit would live on. He talked about preparing the army for readiness, which we will circle back in a second to they're doing a course every single day now for 50 soldiers over there, I think at Fort Stewart on the east coast of the North American continent in the United States. It's a fantastic project, but we'll circle back to that in one second. That's the most L1 talk I've ever heard come out of HQ, by the way, from him or anyone in the last three years. And I find it, and this is completely self-serving, but I find it completely disingenuous when it's obvious to me. And I think to a lot of people

that I could help with the L promote the L one better than any man alive in terms of my strategic tactical, my podcast, what I could, what I know about media. Someone said you ran media for a while. I was the second person hired on the media team. I worked there from 300 gyms to 15,000 gyms. And to say that I was just a media director would be an enormous understatement. I was involved in almost every decision for the company for years. Winning to work on a sport, and I take responsibility for the reallocation of funds. I thought that was the highlight of the talk when he took responsibility for reallocating funds from the games to the affiliates. I thought that that was like,

for some reason, I thought that was the highlight to take a little stress off the shortcomings of what we're seeing in the presentation this year. He used the small team excuse again. We don't need to hear that anymore. He had an extremely humble disposition, and yet he was cocksure and confident. I see no kinks in his armor. I'm not as judgmental, maybe as harsh as some of you guys are who were saying it was boring. I don't think he's there

to entertain. That being said, someone did say this is how he speaks to the board, and that is the problem with Don Fall. We came from a charismatic leader, Greg Glassman, who just every – just it was constant wisdom and knowledge and information dumping off of him, right? Just pouring. And now we have a guy who's always speaking to the board, and it's weird because we're not the board, right? Like everyone there would have been more excited if he would have just said, you the judges really need to be more strict on air squats and in getting depth i noticed that all the semifinals i'm watching this and i know everyone what his eyes would have popped up i mean so um you know we got we got crazy shit from greg and now we're getting the guy who's always talking to the board and i guess that's the real world uh um and that's all he knows uh is board meeting talk and it's pretty obvious so so to say it's

boring is like i'm torn i want to agree with you but i also don't agree with you um the event is sold out uh which is cool i think that's cool um uh he was he was he was honest for the first time about finances a crossfit. is hurting for money. He also, though, then threw in that everyone is hurting for money. And, yeah, the thing is is CrossFit is going to have to take a risk. And by risk, I don't mean putting a tranny on a beer can. I mean going the other way. They're going to have to double down on the base.

They're going to have to just go full, like, against the fucking woke narrative and swim completely upstream and just fucking rally the base. And that's going to take some fucking balls. And, um, but, but, uh,

if maybe Don is independently wealthy and he's willing to take a stab at that and make a name for himself, but, um, uh, please quit dick riding him. Fuck off. Um,

and, uh, he's going to have to take a risk. risk he's gonna have to fucking go all in on the base that's uh ambulance drivers police officers uh military guys firefighters uh whatnot there's no the fuck the middle ground let people get in where they fit in thank you david um occupational games uh he shouldn't have defended that at all he tried to defend that by saying that like we have limited resources shut the fuck up on that i apologize it was a complete fucking disaster and a slap into the face in regards especially what we're doing with the army and how much money we're getting from the military right now that was that was just a

fuck up uh anyway overall um I'm going to give him an 8. I'm perfectly fine with it. Matter of fact, I would give him a 10. I don't expect... I'd give him an 8 because I'm afraid what you guys are going to judge me for dick riding him, but I'm going to give him a 10 because I am

dick riding him. Finally, he said that he's concerned that when he came there to the teams weren't working well together and i will say this that it will never get back to the way it was before because they're going to try to fix the teams with stupid ass exercises i'm guessing that everyone works together and rope climb events and shit like that when before uh you had uh me and nicole carroll and dave running shotgun and we had a very open, high-level communication where all the teams fucking ran crazy well together.

And Greg trusted us. And so there's that. Okay. Emily K, 10 out of 50. All right. Fine. Nice to see you, Emily. Great silhouette.

See you in a few days. Okay. Do you want to say anything, Mr. Gundndler about that um about what you just saw as an affiliate owner a games athlete i keep all that shit yeah one i don't think it was appropriate to have a uh a press conference 30 minutes before the actual competition what everyone is there for to do because you're not going to have anyone showing up to that everyone's trying to get their seat to watch what's going on that's first part second part is if you want to get this uh i've heard that a lot of feedback that agrees with bill on that that it should have been done at the end of the

day so and where when most press conferences are done good point i mean you want people there so um the other thing is when i hear we want everyone to see, we want more people to do CrossFit. Okay. So where you go there is what Greg used to talk about, which is we are a media department. And it should be pumping shit out. I'm talking TV stuff. I'm talking commercials. I'm like, that's where your money should go.

Taking the time to say, okay, affiliate owners, we're going to give you the cap program and we're going to make this work out for you. And that doesn't do anything for me. I want people to see CrossFit out there in the mainstream. And I mean, right now, the only time we hear it on the mainstream is when some TV show accidentally says CrossFit because someone, some crazy person, one of the characters says, oh, I'm doing that crazy CrossFit stuff. That's all you hear. But all the other stuff, I like the stuff with the Army guys, cool. I like the one-day class, fine. But the people that see that are the people that already do it, not new people.

Yeah. Media department, get out there. Yeah, it's pretty obvious. And that thing that Bill's saying is going to take three years of crushing to get the needle moving. It's like planting a fruit tree. They better fucking start now. I mean our commercials that they're putting out are amazing, but they're putting it out to me. I already know.

They should just be drowning YouTube with that stuff. I don't think my phone works anymore. Caller, hi. Hello? Caller? Yeah, I don't know what happened. I got a new Rodecaster Pro, and I don't do phone anymore for some reason. I apologize, Travis.

Travis, send me a text. Do you have any thoughts, Ben, on the press conference? Lots of good stuff from Bill Grunner. I think it's less of a board meeting and more of all hands um i'm i'm getting tired of hearing the apologies of every everything is i you know we've not done a good job we're working to get better we see our mistakes you know like let's give us something that's positive and showing where we're going versus kind of always looking back and telling us that the things we know i i agree i agree i agree uh i agree uh

mitchie young any thoughts yeah what bill said as as far as the media pumping out content, so many times if I talk to people, they're like, what do you – they see me working out all the time. They say, what do you do? It's like, well, I'm really big into CrossFit. They go, is that the stuff that's on ESPN sometimes? Which it hasn't been on ESPN in years. Right, right, right.

But that reaches so many people that would not have seen it otherwise. Right now the media is pumping CrossFit to people who do CrossFit, and people who don't do CrossFit are not going to see that on YouTube. They're not looking it up. They're not looking up CrossFit. You have to look stuff up on YouTube to see it. They're not looking it up. They're not looking up CrossFit.

You have to look stuff up on YouTube to see it. It needs to be shoved into their face somehow without them knowing it's being shoved into their face. Well, we used to make so much media also that if you Googled anything regarding fitness, something from you would pop up. Yeah. Push-ups, pull-ups, lose weight, just whatever. We were just crushing.

Dude, I was thinking that I like the idea when you said about going back to how we used to be where it was like some of our mantras. The stronger person is harder to kill. Right. Those type of like things. We've gone so into the gentler, kinder, friendlier, let's stroke everybody that we've now blended into everybody else so we don't stand out anymore right you can be you can be gay trans lesbian straight black white male female whatever and still want to be strong so that you don't die so you can be the strongest motherfucker out there period yes i mean even the times of like pukey like that's offensive now to

to wear that shirt or talk about that that caricature you know what i mean or uh even whenever it was like just who's got the biggest dick contest whenever people would wear shirts like our workout is your warm-up right no like i get that stuff is is is stupid and uh but it still reaches more people than just being everybody else you know what i mean bill do you remember the video that would go around back in the day uh with it showed the taliban doing crossfit and they would be doing overhead squats with the right there with the rifles and we fucking knew where they got that shit yeah we knew exactly where they got it you'd have down man doing overhead squats and then you'd have la county uh like hand crews doing uh overhead squats with

like their saws and yeah oh that overhead squat thing was awesome yeah that thing kept giving but i think that's what's cool if you could have that and that's the edge that's what sets you apart the the idea yes we want everyone to do it and i think that's you can have a couple different avenues of within crossfit of like okay here's one tiktok channel that gives you the hey anyone can do it you're showing like a lot of deconditioned people doing crossfit or older people doing crossfit then you have on another tiktok channel all in CrossFit umbrella of just loud, yeah, infidel. Infidel shirts, you know, no shirts, loud music. Dude, the first thing Rosa did was get rid of Forging Elite Fitness

and take the pukey off the wall at HQ. I remember that. Never even considered the fact that, hey, dude, your employees are watching you pull pukey down off the wall in there. I mean, what was the phrase? Mess you up like good crack or fuck you up like good crack or something like that? I mean, come on. Those were fun.

Smoke you like cheap crack. I've actually had my members ask me in the last few weeks because they've heard that alluded to on the podcast. They want me to make a CrossFit crash and then on the back put smoke you like cheap crack, and I might. Hey, there was an unf cheap crap. And I might. Hey, there was an, there was an unfuck with a bullet shirt.

Unfuck with the ball. Yeah, that's right. I have that. Jeremy, go ahead. Can you hear me? Is the phone working?

Yeah. Hurry up. Hurry up. It's Jr's turn to talk. You're cutting in Jr's time. My bad. My bad, Jr.

What's up fellas? No, uh, Bill just said something that was, it's extremely profound that I've been talking with my coaches at my affiliate about, and it's driving me nuts. We know that not everybody is having the best day ever, right? You know, you come to the gym and maybe your workday was tough. Maybe your life is tough. But what I'm seeing a trend in my gym and we'll go I'll go on the sugar wad leaderboard to see everybody's scores and i'm

having a couple of coaches and now a bunch of members following suit where i would say let's say they work out five days in a week three of those days their score is in the comments always says oh it just wasn't my day wasn't feeling feeling it, just went really easy, took it really slow. And I'm seeing this trend with all of my members where they're following suit. Like everyone's just bitching every day about how hard their life is, how this, that, and the next thing. And I get it because life is hard, right? But dude, let's come here. Let's put in the work. Let's encourage each other. Let's give a, you know, if you are injured or, you know, whatever, you know, okay, yeah, I get it.

But, like, if the majority of your workouts are I wasn't feeling it, I'm this, I'm tired, blah, blah, blah, life is hard, what do you do? Go to a regular gym because I'm sorry. I don't want to hear it anymore. Your life won't get better. You won't get tougher. You won't get stronger until you stop making those excuses and those reasons. And I feel like you said it with, when Rosa came on, that's when the trend sort of took off with the overensitive, like way too sensitive. Your gut reaction when the pilot comes on the airline,

when you're 30,000 feet in the air and your Southwest airline pilot goes, I just wanted to tell you guys I'm having some mental health issues. Your first thought shouldn't be compassion. Your first thought shouldn't be like, I hope he's okay. Your first thought is, you fucking idiot, get someone else in there right now to fly the fucking plane.

And there becomes a, yeah, there needs to be a hierarchy of when to be concerned about. Yeah, we live with idiots. But we could root that out. We could root that out in CrossFit. CrossFit could totally root that out. Your gut reaction should be to make things better. Yes yes anyway thank you yeah thank you guys bye uh jr uh thoughts on um what you heard from don falls an affiliate owner a former games athlete uh pretty hardcore coach you coach i mean you've given your life to crossfit yeah for sure i wouldn't say i have anything

unique to the things that bill mentioned. I mean, I think a lot of that is where I struggle with trying to push for people to get into the doors that don't already know about it. I mean, word of mouth is always going to be the best way. community that I, it is an outlier community in that the mean fitness level is extremely high. And every once in a while, someone that comes in that just want to get off less than a pill, or they went to the doctor and they want to put them on metformin, you know, and we have those situations for people that just walk in the door and say, Hey, I, I was told by someone at church. This is where I need to come. And it's amazing, but I don't have nearly as many of those as I do. Hey, this is someone I played soccer with in college. Hey, this is someone who was a competitive gymnast a year ago. Like, yeah, it's awesome to work with someone who can already hold a handstand for a minute,

but you don't get the same gratification out of taking someone from the depths to life, basically. Jeff, I was not comparing an airline pilot to a crossfit workout it's ridiculous if that's what you thought i was trying to compare it to the fact that the comment was is that when rosa came in this all started and it was rosa who was responsible for 15 000 small businesses on fucking seven continents uh who people were praising for taking fucking a mental health month when these people were fucking struggling through the fucking so-called pandemic to put food on their table so that they could feed their fucking little kids because earlier, two years earlier, they had sold everything they fucking own and went all in with CrossFit to open a fucking affiliate,

and now it's fucking hurting because the leader fucking can't do his fucking job. That's what I was comparing it to. And I think that's a fucking very real story for a lot of fucking affiliates who put everything on the fucking line. That's what I was comparing it to. And I hope that that sheds some light on it. The event has started.

The ass heats are going. I wanted to bring up, do you guys mind if I bring up Brooke Wells real quick? There's a – it's the last – Mr. Beaver, it's the last link down there. I think this is really cool. She writes, I'm so proud of my sister. And there's a good bunch of pictures here. What kind of a cool event we got to see where the um former fucking superstar crossfit games athlete

doesn't make it and sydney wells uh her her twin sister comes into the um is it weird that half the pictures are them bending over they're face down ass up anyway uh congratulations to her and there is a picture floating around I don't know if Brooke posted it or not with Brooke wearing a boot so she is wounded something did happen right

yeah I think she said she tore her plantar fascia during the first event on the run. It's weird. I have – oh, no, I'm looking at the wrong thing. Oh, shit. I don't have the fucking Sunday schedule in front of me. I apologize.

Can we see – can you tell me Sunday's schedule, Caleb? Oh, and that was the boot picture. Good job, Caleb. Damn. I didn't even know you could tear your planter oh oh okay planter fashion okay i didn't know that so the next one next time we'll be on is 105 pacific standard time so 405 eastern standard time and then the next time after that the last one wait say Wait, say that again. Say that again, Caleb. 405 Eastern Standard Time, so 105 Pacific Standard Time. Is the next time we're coming on? Correct.

We don't come on for three hours? Yes. Okay. How can that be? The teams are done, right? All we're doing is event six, men and women? Correct. But I think they're going through the – They only have 10 lanes for this one.

This is a long one. It's 20 minutes per heat. So, yeah. All right. So we will be back at 1 o'clock, and then it's event 7, and then we come back again at what time? 3.55?

3.45 is what it's scheduled for. Oh, that's awesome. All right, guys. Oh, that's awesome. Alright, guys. Oh, we lost J.R. You said you had to step off. No, I don't have time to take the kids to the beach. Because I have to watch. I have to sit down and watch.

I have to sit down and watch. I wish. I'm going to be playing tennis afterwards, though. and watch. I have to sit down and watch. I wish. I'm going to be playing tennis afterwards, though. All right, guys. Everyone, thanks for tuning in. Thanks for CrossFit for letting us stream the press conference. And, yeah, time to go work out. Are you guys all working out right now?

I'm going to do Murph. Yeah, I will be. I did Murph yesterday. Damn. Yeah. You're going to do Murph now caleb yeah did you work out already bill not yet i will are you just checking a little uh accountability from your i gotta get something in i gotta do murph tomorrow though we're doing murph tomorrow

uh mr spin uh finishing up my son's uh basketball goal for his birthday awesome okay oh yeah my mom bought an umbrella for my backyard. Mom, come on over. We'll set up the umbrella and I'll put the TV on loud so I can hear what's going on. All right. Love you guys.

Thanks for tuning in everyone. Bye.