Latest / Clydesdale Media Podcast / Saxon Panchik | Clydesdale Media Semifinalist Series

Transcript

Saxon Panchik | Clydesdale Media Semifinalist Series · Clydesdale Media Podcast

• 0:11
  I was born to kill it.
• 0:15
  I was meant to win.
• 0:16
  I am down and willing,
• 0:18
  so I will find a way.
• 0:19
  It took a minute,
• 0:20
  now it didn't have to ride away.
• 0:21
  When it get hot in the kitchen,
• 0:23
  you decide to stay.
• 0:24
  That's how a winner's made.
• 0:25
  Stick a fork in the hater on
• 0:27
  my dinner plate.
• 0:34
  What is going on, everybody?
• 0:36
  Welcome to the Clydesdale Media Podcast,
• 0:38
  where we're talking to the
• 0:40
  athletes of the 2024 semifinals.
• 0:43
  This guy needs no introduction.
• 0:45
  Saxon Pancheck, what's going on, man?
• 0:47
  What's going on, man?
• 0:48
  Thanks for having me on.
• 0:49
  Yeah, excited to have you.
• 0:51
  You know, we've known each other a very,
• 0:54
  very long time now, it seems.
• 0:56
  I was just telling someone
• 0:58
  in my gym the story of how we met.
• 1:00
  Do you remember?
• 1:01
  Yeah.
• 1:02
  It was a 2016 regionals, right?
• 1:06
  2015.
• 1:07
  You're running security.
• 1:08
  Yep.
• 1:08
  Yep.
• 1:09
  Yeah.
• 1:10
  And you're the first person ever.
• 1:11
  We took a picture together
• 1:12
  and I was telling people in
• 1:15
  the gym and then you came
• 1:16
  and you judged me for the
• 1:17
  rogue invitational.
• 1:18
  And it's cool that, you know, from 2000,
• 1:20
  it's almost nine years.
• 1:22
  So that's crazy to think about.
• 1:25
  And then, like,
• 1:25
  our paths have crossed with, like,
• 1:27
  having similar friends and
• 1:29
  you coming to my old gym to
• 1:31
  do charity work and, like,
• 1:33
  just really crazy stuff.
• 1:35
  But, yeah,
• 1:36
  you're just one of my favorite
• 1:38
  people in the space, of course,
• 1:39
  and you're one of my friends,
• 1:40
  and I love this.
• 1:41
  And I haven't had you on in
• 1:42
  a couple years.
• 1:43
  Yeah, I know.
• 1:44
  It's been a while.
• 1:45
  Last year was a hard year, obviously,
• 1:47
  going through everything,
• 1:49
  and we're back this year, baby.
• 1:52
  I know.
• 1:53
  So I...
• 1:56
  I want to start with a
• 1:58
  performance you had in quarterfinals.
• 2:00
  We're going to start really high, right?
• 2:02
  Yeah.
• 2:02
  And I'm going to pull up a
• 2:03
  graphic that my stats and
• 2:05
  information person, Holly Dugan, did.
• 2:08
  And she just popped in the chat,
• 2:10
  so that's cool.
• 2:13
  Here we go.
• 2:14
  So this is 24.3 of quarterfinals.
• 2:19
  I don't even know if they
• 2:20
  dot them or whatever, but...
• 2:22
  You had such a dominant performance.
• 2:24
  I'll blow this up a little.
• 2:26
  So this was the workout.
• 2:28
  Three rounds, 10 handstand push-ups,
• 2:29
  20 toes to bar, two rounds,
• 2:31
  10 strict handstand push-ups,
• 2:33
  five rope climbs,
• 2:35
  and then one round of chest
• 2:36
  to bar while facing with 20 muscle-ups.
• 2:41
  Your time in North America
• 2:44
  East was 30 seconds faster
• 2:46
  than anybody else in North America East.
• 2:49
  Some would say the most
• 2:51
  difficult region in the world.
• 2:54
  And that person that was
• 2:55
  behind you was your brother.
• 2:56
  And he was ahead of the next person.
• 3:02
  So what's it like when you
• 3:04
  do a workout like that and
• 3:07
  it's so dominant?
• 3:10
  It...
• 3:12
  It's great.
• 3:12
  I needed it.
• 3:15
  But for me,
• 3:15
  I was looking at the other workouts,
• 3:17
  the ones that weren't so good.
• 3:19
  For me,
• 3:20
  I held myself to the expectation that,
• 3:21
  you know,
• 3:22
  that's where I would like every
• 3:23
  workout to be.
• 3:25
  So I walked away from that
• 3:26
  quarterfinals weekend of like, hey,
• 3:28
  you know,
• 3:28
  where can we dial in on these
• 3:29
  other things to make sure
• 3:31
  that we get all of our
• 3:33
  other workouts and our
• 3:34
  movements up to that standard.
• 3:37
  Is it just hereditary that
• 3:40
  panchecks have upper body pulling?
• 3:44
  I just think we've been in
• 3:45
  this space for so long.
• 3:47
  And if you go back and you look at 2012,
• 3:50
  they did Diane in 2012.
• 3:52
  It was the first workout at regionals.
• 3:54
  it was 21,
• 3:55
  59 handstand pushups and
• 3:57
  deadlifts and not one
• 3:59
  single person kept everyone
• 4:00
  just did strict handstand pushups.
• 4:02
  And I think if you,
• 4:04
  if you go back and you look
• 4:05
  at really like the OG error of CrossFit,
• 4:08
  a lot of movements were strict.
• 4:09
  A lot of it was high skill
• 4:12
  gymnastics because people
• 4:13
  were working towards that.
• 4:14
  People were working towards, you know,
• 4:16
  stringing together muscle ups.
• 4:18
  I mean, even if you look at 2000 and 2000,
• 4:19
  13, I want to say it was 13,
• 4:22
  the final regional workout that they had,
• 4:25
  it was five ring muscle ups
• 4:26
  at the end and people were doing singles.
• 4:29
  And that's kind of where, you know,
• 4:30
  you had a lot of big boys
• 4:31
  and the sport at that time, um,
• 4:36
  you had people that were
• 4:38
  playing college sports and, you know,
• 4:39
  you look at the evolution
• 4:40
  of our sport now.
• 4:43
  you know, you look at me,
• 4:43
  I just came up through CrossFit, you know,
• 4:46
  and I played sports growing
• 4:47
  up and everything, but, you know,
• 4:48
  I was able to step into the
• 4:49
  competitive scene in 2015.
• 4:50
  We were just saying, you know,
• 4:52
  it was my first regionals and I was 17,
• 4:55
  18 years old.
• 4:58
  So I think it was just
• 4:59
  coming up through that era and, you know,
• 5:02
  it was more gymnastics
• 5:04
  dominant and barbells just
• 5:05
  kind of happened.
• 5:07
  And now you're seeing that
• 5:08
  evolution start to change where it's like,
• 5:10
  okay, everything needs to be like that.
• 5:11
  And,
• 5:12
  know that's kind of where
• 5:13
  looking at those
• 5:14
  quarterfinal workouts I was
• 5:15
  like all right you know we
• 5:16
  need to stay on the barbell
• 5:18
  we need to stay on you know
• 5:19
  high high volume but also
• 5:24
  heavy load barbell cycling
• 5:25
  like to be able to do 245
• 5:28
  for you know I i was
• 5:30
  looking at you if you go
• 5:31
  and you look at the it was
• 5:33
  the I think it was the fifth or fourth
• 5:36
  sorry four four workouts
• 5:38
  yeah the um fourth
• 5:41
  quarterfinal workout you
• 5:43
  know you had 30 clean and
• 5:45
  jerks to cash in you know
• 5:46
  10 at 135 10 and 185 and 10
• 5:50
  at 225 like that's that's
• 5:52
  uh grace they're alone and
• 5:55
  athletes are doing it in
• 5:56
  three four minute three
• 5:58
  minutes you know and
• 6:00
  if you go back and you look in, you know,
• 6:02
  those older times in the early, you know,
• 6:04
  2010, 11, 12,
• 6:07
  people weren't doing grace
• 6:08
  at one 35 in that time.
• 6:11
  Um, so to be able to see that,
• 6:13
  and not only that, but they hit, you know,
• 6:16
  most athletes hit the 30
• 6:17
  clean and jerks at the ascending weight.
• 6:19
  And then you hit another 30
• 6:21
  clean and jerks at two 45, you know,
• 6:24
  all under 10 minutes and you have three,
• 6:26
  four minutes of resting in it.
• 6:27
  Like that's impressive.
• 6:29
  So I just think the
• 6:30
  evolution of the sport is coming very,
• 6:32
  very far away.
• 6:34
  We might not see it on a day-to-day,
• 6:35
  but if you go back and you
• 6:36
  look at some of these old
• 6:38
  regional workouts, open workouts,
• 6:40
  it's very clear what's happening.
• 6:44
  So it's funny you say that
• 6:44
  because it's been said all
• 6:46
  over the internet that
• 6:48
  these semifinal workouts
• 6:50
  that were released, leaked,
• 6:51
  whatever you want to say,
• 6:53
  you could drop in 2015 and
• 6:55
  it'd be an appropriate workout.
• 6:59
  Absolutely.
• 7:00
  I agree.
• 7:00
  I think,
• 7:01
  and as I'm going through the
• 7:02
  training on this, you know,
• 7:03
  at first I was like, oh, you know,
• 7:04
  we don't have much gymnastics.
• 7:06
  We don't have, you know,
• 7:07
  much handstand pushups and, you know,
• 7:10
  kind of the kind of the
• 7:11
  movements that I really like.
• 7:13
  So it's been very good
• 7:14
  training for me because
• 7:15
  those are clearly some of
• 7:16
  the things that I needed to work on.
• 7:17
  But as I'm going through this training,
• 7:19
  what I'm noticing is.
• 7:23
  My machines are getting
• 7:24
  better because we have a
• 7:26
  lot of power output on the machines.
• 7:27
  My running is getting better
• 7:29
  because we have a lot of running.
• 7:32
  my weightlifting and my leg
• 7:33
  endurance you know we have
• 7:34
  50 clean and drinks at 185
• 7:35
  and then another 50 front
• 7:37
  squats at 225 the next day
• 7:38
  and then another snatch
• 7:39
  ladder it's like okay well
• 7:41
  you have your pulling you
• 7:42
  have your your squat
• 7:44
  snatches which we consider
• 7:45
  more of a strength but even
• 7:46
  mobility test I would say
• 7:47
  for like like you need to
• 7:49
  be able to squat there's
• 7:50
  squat snatches like it's
• 7:51
  not like you can have you
• 7:52
  know someone that just
• 7:53
  comes in and just pure
• 7:56
  strength you know muscling
• 7:57
  these like you got a squat
• 7:58
  snatch and you got to be
• 7:59
  able to do that under fatigue
• 8:01
  um and like I said you have
• 8:02
  the the biking the seven
• 8:05
  rounds of 12 kills on the
• 8:07
  echo bike with high skilled
• 8:09
  legless rope climbs um so
• 8:11
  as I'm going through this
• 8:12
  I'm like man you know I'm
• 8:13
  kind of like I have three
• 8:14
  four weeks doing these
• 8:16
  workouts and uh
• 8:17
  progressions on these
• 8:18
  workouts and it's like I'm
• 8:20
  building a nice foundation
• 8:21
  around these and I was like
• 8:23
  is this gonna affect
• 8:24
  training you know after
• 8:25
  semifinals going into the games and
• 8:29
  I reflected and was like, this is good.
• 8:31
  Like I said, this is good training.
• 8:33
  I feel that there isn't one
• 8:35
  thing that I'm missing in this.
• 8:37
  Maybe a heavy deadlift and
• 8:38
  maybe heavy pulling.
• 8:39
  But you can get that four or
• 8:42
  five weeks pretty easy
• 8:43
  going into the games.
• 8:44
  But us, for everything else,
• 8:46
  these are good tests.
• 8:48
  What blew me away is
• 8:49
  everything that I would say
• 8:51
  a person would be strong at,
• 8:53
  they add something that a
• 8:55
  typical person would be weak at, right?
• 8:56
  Like there's a yin and a
• 8:58
  yang to almost every workout.
• 9:00
  Like handstand walks, but I echo bike,
• 9:04
  right?
• 9:04
  Or rowing.
• 9:06
  Rowing.
• 9:07
  That's it.
• 9:08
  They all blurted.
• 9:08
  I've been doing age group
• 9:09
  and the time and all the
• 9:11
  workouts are just a mishmash in my head.
• 9:13
  But, you know,
• 9:15
  you have the clean and jerks,
• 9:16
  but you have the 800 meter
• 9:17
  runs like everything seems
• 9:20
  to be a yin and yang this year,
• 9:22
  which I find fascinating.
• 9:23
  And it's going to be to see
• 9:25
  to be interesting to see
• 9:26
  how it plays out.
• 9:27
  Well, and if you look at,
• 9:29
  so we have one event on Friday,
• 9:31
  two on Saturday, three on Sunday.
• 9:33
  And I think you're going to
• 9:34
  have a really good gauge of
• 9:37
  what the final leaderboard
• 9:38
  is going to look like going into Sunday,
• 9:39
  given you're only halfway
• 9:40
  through the weekend going
• 9:41
  into Sunday that, you know,
• 9:42
  you got to be able to focus
• 9:43
  and execute on that last day.
• 9:45
  But I mean, you look at that first workout,
• 9:47
  like conditioning, barbell cycling,
• 9:50
  you got to be able to have
• 9:51
  the aerobic capacity to do that.
• 9:52
  Like that's a hard workout
• 9:54
  that comes down to fitness.
• 9:55
  You look at the second workout, you know,
• 9:57
  50 front squats, 100 toes to bar,
• 9:59
  500 double unders.
• 10:00
  Same thing,
• 10:01
  a lot of metabolic conditioning there.
• 10:03
  And then you look at the third workout.
• 10:05
  It's the seven rounds, 10 cal echo,
• 10:08
  one legless, 10 box jump overs,
• 10:09
  one legless, high skill gymnastics.
• 10:13
  high intensity on the echo bike.
• 10:14
  And again,
• 10:15
  your conditioning is going to be up there,
• 10:18
  but when you get to Sunday,
• 10:19
  you see a big shift in that,
• 10:21
  that you have a lot of the
• 10:22
  conditioning front end on that,
• 10:24
  but the back end, you know,
• 10:26
  going through the rowing
• 10:27
  handstand workout,
• 10:28
  you gotta be able to row hard,
• 10:29
  but you gotta be able to also, you know,
• 10:31
  do three, 400 feet on your hands quickly.
• 10:35
  then you look at the next
• 10:36
  workout and I wouldn't say
• 10:38
  the handstand one as much
• 10:39
  conditioning as it is more
• 10:40
  of a skill and execution
• 10:42
  the snatch execution but
• 10:46
  also you have to keep in mind
• 10:48
  what is the fatigue doing to
• 10:50
  you up to that point in 2016,
• 10:52
  when we went through that snatch ladder,
• 10:54
  that was the first event.
• 10:55
  Now this is,
• 10:56
  we're talking the fifth event
• 10:58
  after 50 heavy pulls from the ground,
• 11:00
  clean and jerks, 50 heavy front squats,
• 11:02
  a lot of high output on the
• 11:04
  machines and a lot of
• 11:05
  shoulder endurance on the hands.
• 11:06
  And then we're going to do
• 11:07
  the snatch ladder.
• 11:08
  Uh,
• 11:09
  And I think that that's,
• 11:10
  I think that's a very
• 11:11
  interesting spot to put it,
• 11:12
  that you need to be able to execute.
• 11:14
  You need to also be able to
• 11:15
  recover through those events.
• 11:17
  And then that final workout,
• 11:18
  that's just straight power output,
• 11:20
  gut check execution that
• 11:22
  like that last day, in my opinion,
• 11:24
  is all about execution.
• 11:25
  And that first day is all
• 11:27
  about the fitness or those
• 11:28
  first two days are about the fitness.
• 11:31
  That's a cool perspective.
• 11:32
  Yeah.
• 11:33
  Yeah.
• 11:34
  I saw the snatch ladder in,
• 11:37
  in 21 at West coast classic.
• 11:39
  And it was the first workout
• 11:40
  that weekend too.
• 11:42
  Yeah.
• 11:43
  And so those times that they
• 11:44
  were blown out,
• 11:45
  I don't think people are
• 11:46
  going to do that on the final day.
• 11:48
  No, I think we'll see most people around.
• 11:51
  I think, I think you might see, you know,
• 11:53
  a sub six in, you know,
• 11:55
  one or two semifinals,
• 11:57
  but I think most people
• 11:58
  will be that six to eight minute mark.
• 11:59
  And yeah,
• 12:02
  yeah I think like I said
• 12:03
  it's going to be I think
• 12:05
  it's going to be execution
• 12:06
  on those last two barbells
• 12:07
  for sure and who's willing
• 12:08
  to kind of go for it on
• 12:10
  those um but like I said
• 12:12
  the fatigue up to that
• 12:13
  point it's going to be in
• 12:14
  my opinion about recovery
• 12:16
  and who's recovering well
• 12:17
  over those those days
• 12:20
  before we get into your
• 12:21
  last year um the other
• 12:22
  night on barbell spin they
• 12:23
  did a thing with boz on
• 12:25
  their their top um final
• 12:28
  events of regionals or semi-finals
• 12:31
  And I was surprised that
• 12:33
  2018 wasn't there.
• 12:35
  Yeah.
• 12:36
  And I don't know if it's
• 12:37
  because of what happened
• 12:40
  with you and Scott and
• 12:42
  jumping on each other at the end of that,
• 12:44
  that just, in my mind,
• 12:45
  made it so exhilarating as
• 12:48
  the best final event I'd
• 12:50
  ever seen at a regionals.
• 12:52
  Yeah.
• 12:53
  But it didn't even come up on their list.
• 12:55
  Any thoughts on that?
• 12:57
  I'm a little biased.
• 13:00
  But, um, no,
• 13:02
  I think they're looking for more,
• 13:03
  more of a race and more
• 13:05
  things that are impacting this sport.
• 13:07
  And, um,
• 13:09
  I think people look at it
• 13:10
  from different perspectives.
• 13:11
  I think,
• 13:12
  and this is something that I'm
• 13:13
  really diving into,
• 13:14
  especially over this last year and,
• 13:15
  you know,
• 13:16
  missing last year's games and even,
• 13:19
  you know,
• 13:19
  the back half of semifinals is
• 13:22
  how are you impacting the sport?
• 13:25
  You know,
• 13:25
  are you impacting it through your
• 13:26
  performance or are you
• 13:28
  impacting it through the
• 13:28
  relationships that you're building,
• 13:30
  the community that you're building?
• 13:34
  some people are all about
• 13:35
  you know how many gold
• 13:36
  medals do you have and I
• 13:37
  think that that's great but
• 13:38
  like what can you do with
• 13:39
  that platform uh whether
• 13:41
  you got a gold medal a
• 13:43
  silver medal bronze medal
• 13:44
  maybe you didn't even step
• 13:45
  on the podium before um
• 13:47
  that I think it's I think
• 13:49
  it's just super important to focus on
• 13:52
  Like I said,
• 13:54
  how can we move this sport in
• 13:55
  a positive direction?
• 13:56
  Not just the sport,
• 13:58
  but also the community.
• 13:59
  I think that they're two
• 13:59
  different things completely,
• 14:01
  but they're the same.
• 14:04
  You know,
• 14:04
  I think if you were to go into
• 14:05
  any affiliate and, you know,
• 14:06
  when I ran my affiliate,
• 14:08
  I would say 95% of the
• 14:10
  people that walked into the door,
• 14:12
  never watched the CrossFit
• 14:13
  games before that they were
• 14:15
  in there because of, you know,
• 14:16
  what they heard from the
• 14:17
  community and from their friends.
• 14:18
  And I think that that's
• 14:19
  something that us as
• 14:20
  athletes need to start to
• 14:21
  lean into just a little bit more,
• 14:24
  because if we want our sport to grow,
• 14:26
  we need to be willing to
• 14:27
  grow this community and.
• 14:30
  The sport isn't,
• 14:31
  it wouldn't be anything if
• 14:32
  it wasn't for the community.
• 14:33
  And I think that that's
• 14:34
  something that we don't want to forget.
• 14:36
  Like if you look back at 2012,
• 14:39
  like athletes didn't have
• 14:42
  sponsorships at the time
• 14:44
  that it was all built
• 14:46
  around the community.
• 14:47
  Your income was built around, you know,
• 14:49
  maybe it was coaching,
• 14:50
  maybe it was running an affiliate,
• 14:52
  maybe it was personal
• 14:53
  training or whatever it was at the time.
• 14:56
  I mean,
• 14:56
  the sport was so early on and
• 14:58
  you've seen the evolution
• 14:58
  of the sport that like
• 14:59
  athletes are treating this
• 15:00
  like a full-time job now.
• 15:02
  And I think that is absolutely incredible,
• 15:04
  but how do we bring both
• 15:06
  along to be able to grow the sport,
• 15:10
  but also the methodology as well.
• 15:13
  And I guess going back to your point is,
• 15:16
  i think that those guys
• 15:18
  whenever they were speaking
• 15:19
  of their top five moments
• 15:21
  at semifinals chances are
• 15:22
  they were speaking more
• 15:23
  from a performance thing
• 15:25
  not an impact thing on on
• 15:26
  what's happening in the sport
• 15:30
  So it's cool you brought
• 15:31
  that up because that was
• 15:32
  really where I wanted to go.
• 15:33
  I was watching Hiller's video from Mayhem.
• 15:37
  At the end of it, you become the star,
• 15:40
  cooling down on a C2 bike
• 15:42
  and espousing so much
• 15:44
  wisdom that I just was engrossed in that.
• 15:49
  So I want to dive into that a little bit.
• 15:52
  And it's kind of what you
• 15:53
  touched on right there is
• 15:54
  that your time off last
• 15:57
  year kind of gave you time to reflect.
• 16:00
  And it's the first time since 2015,
• 16:04
  maybe even before that,
• 16:06
  that you weren't
• 16:07
  participating in this sport.
• 16:09
  Yeah,
• 16:10
  it was the first time that I missed
• 16:11
  going to the CrossFit Games,
• 16:12
  whether it was as a
• 16:13
  spectator or as a coach.
• 16:14
  or as an athlete since 2012, you know,
• 16:17
  those 12 years straight
• 16:19
  going to the CrossFit games
• 16:20
  and due to sit back and
• 16:21
  watch it from my couches, that was hard.
• 16:26
  it opened up so many more
• 16:27
  doors for me and it's
• 16:27
  something that needs to
• 16:28
  happen and you know hard
• 16:30
  times lead to some of your
• 16:31
  best times and I think you
• 16:33
  walk away with some of your
• 16:34
  best wisdom and you know I
• 16:36
  went through that for a
• 16:37
  reason and that's really
• 16:39
  what I want to make a mark
• 16:40
  on this year is like okay
• 16:42
  you know I went through a
• 16:43
  really hard time not
• 16:44
  competing last year and
• 16:46
  nothing's guaranteed you
• 16:48
  know what are you going to
• 16:48
  do with the platform us as
• 16:51
  athletes right like
• 16:52
  speaking for myself what am
• 16:53
  I going to do with the
• 16:54
  platform that I have and
• 16:55
  the relationships that I'm
• 16:56
  building you know like like
• 16:59
  I said in hillary's thing
• 17:00
  when I'm 37 38 39 40
• 17:03
  whenever I decide to stop
• 17:04
  competing you know do
• 17:09
  people really want to see
• 17:10
  what I'm doing you know
• 17:12
  every single day and what
• 17:14
  my training looks like maybe um
• 17:16
  But like,
• 17:17
  can we have a bigger impact and
• 17:19
  can I capitalize on having
• 17:21
  a bigger reach now as an
• 17:22
  athlete and growing the sport, you know,
• 17:25
  while I'm competing in it?
• 17:26
  Absolutely.
• 17:27
  And, um,
• 17:28
  I don't want to sit back and waste any,
• 17:30
  any years, you know,
• 17:31
  just sitting in a gym by myself,
• 17:34
  stepping out on the
• 17:35
  competition floor to compete, you know,
• 17:37
  one or two times a year,
• 17:38
  and then go back into my
• 17:39
  cave and continue to compete.
• 17:41
  Can that create champions?
• 17:42
  Absolutely.
• 17:43
  But can a champion also be
• 17:44
  created through an affiliate,
• 17:46
  through a community and
• 17:48
  through relationships?
• 17:50
  I believe so.
• 17:50
  Yes.
• 17:51
  And I think Rich is a great
• 17:53
  example of that.
• 17:54
  Like you've seen him do it,
• 17:56
  like he's done it.
• 17:58
  And yeah,
• 17:59
  for me,
• 18:00
  and that's another thing that drove
• 18:01
  me to Mayhem and getting
• 18:02
  back with Facundo and
• 18:05
  Mayhem and those guys down there is like,
• 18:08
  when I walk into their gym,
• 18:09
  their gym is packed.
• 18:10
  Like,
• 18:11
  I think they're running like three or
• 18:12
  four classes, you know,
• 18:14
  throughout the gym and you
• 18:15
  have a ton of incredible
• 18:16
  athletes down there,
• 18:17
  but like the impact that
• 18:19
  they're having on the community,
• 18:21
  I would say anyone,
• 18:22
  if you live in Cookville,
• 18:24
  you're at that gym that, um,
• 18:27
  imagine if every affiliate could do that,
• 18:29
  that, you know, whatever city you're in,
• 18:32
  like, this is the gym to go to,
• 18:33
  this is the community that
• 18:34
  you're building.
• 18:35
  And it's, it's far greater in my opinion.
• 18:37
  And I I've been into global
• 18:39
  gym fitnesses and
• 18:41
  Yeah,
• 18:41
  it can be uncomfortable going into those,
• 18:43
  but like going into Mayhem
• 18:45
  and seeing the community
• 18:46
  that they have and even
• 18:48
  CrossFit Nolensville,
• 18:49
  the gym that I'm in now,
• 18:49
  like just how welcoming they are.
• 18:51
  Like if we could have these
• 18:52
  in every single city where
• 18:54
  you're building this
• 18:54
  community and people that are willing to,
• 18:57
  like me as an athlete,
• 18:58
  like people are willing to
• 18:59
  rally behind me
• 19:00
  you know they want to see me
• 19:01
  succeed but I also want to
• 19:03
  see them succeed every
• 19:04
  single day in the gym I
• 19:05
  want to see them get their
• 19:06
  first muscle up I want to
• 19:07
  see I want to see that
• 19:08
  entire gym go to
• 19:09
  quarterfinals and anyone
• 19:10
  that wants to go to
• 19:11
  semifinals I want to see
• 19:12
  them go to semifinals and
• 19:14
  you know somebody wants to
• 19:15
  be a better fitter dad I
• 19:17
  want to see them do that um
• 19:19
  and it's a two-way
• 19:20
  relationship and um in my
• 19:23
  opinion like when we want
• 19:24
  to see each other succeed
• 19:25
  we all rise together and
• 19:27
  i think the the bigger the
• 19:29
  group that you can create
• 19:30
  with that movement I think
• 19:32
  that that's where the magic
• 19:33
  happens and that's where
• 19:35
  things start to spread and
• 19:36
  that's where growth happens
• 19:39
  so linda jiri asks wait
• 19:41
  saxon did you say coach you
• 19:42
  were coaching at the games
• 19:44
  and and you were coaching
• 19:45
  oh yeah right yeah
• 19:49
  I don't want to say like,
• 19:50
  I'm not sitting there
• 19:50
  programming for him and
• 19:51
  think coaching is a lot
• 19:53
  different now than it is,
• 19:54
  than it was then.
• 19:55
  Then it was like, Hey man, you know,
• 19:58
  run hard on this first lap
• 19:59
  and then settle it.
• 20:00
  Like just little things like that.
• 20:03
  But yeah, I mean,
• 20:05
  you know,
• 20:05
  and that was something that
• 20:07
  helped me grow as an athlete as well.
• 20:09
  And that was the
• 20:09
  conversations that I had
• 20:10
  with my brother at the time was, Hey,
• 20:12
  you know, I want you,
• 20:13
  I want to see you back here.
• 20:14
  I want to see you to see
• 20:15
  what this is like.
• 20:15
  I want you to see how
• 20:16
  athletes carry themselves.
• 20:17
  And it's something, you know,
• 20:19
  like I was at Waterpalooza
• 20:20
  this last year watching
• 20:21
  Spence compete and I wasn't competing,
• 20:24
  but to be able to sit back
• 20:25
  and watch athletes from a
• 20:26
  different perspective of not competing,
• 20:29
  you can kind of see like,
• 20:30
  I don't want to say tension,
• 20:32
  but nerves with athletes and like,
• 20:35
  you're kind of like, you reflect like, man,
• 20:37
  how do I carry myself when I'm competing?
• 20:39
  And it's a lot easier to see
• 20:41
  that when you're not in
• 20:42
  that competitive zone.
• 20:46
  Yeah.
• 20:46
  And gosh, I have so many questions.
• 20:49
  So this reflection that you had,
• 20:54
  did a lot of it come from
• 20:57
  just being off and taking
• 20:59
  some time off or you're a
• 21:01
  dad now too like when I
• 21:03
  became a dad my whole
• 21:04
  perspective changed in life
• 21:06
  yeah um so was it is it
• 21:09
  more that or just what you
• 21:11
  saw and you had a lot of
• 21:13
  changes also with that year
• 21:15
  off and right before did
• 21:18
  and you said you went back
• 21:19
  to facundo and all of that
• 21:21
  stuff did all of that big
• 21:23
  ball make you see things differently
• 21:26
  Well, here's the thing,
• 21:27
  and this is the truth,
• 21:28
  is when I didn't qualify for the games,
• 21:30
  I was like, man,
• 21:34
  what am I going to do now?
• 21:35
  I support my family through competing.
• 21:38
  And you realize people that
• 21:43
  you had close to you at the time,
• 21:44
  they're nowhere to be found.
• 21:48
  You know,
• 21:49
  people keep moving on with life
• 21:51
  and it's easy to sit there
• 21:53
  and feel sorry for yourself of like, man,
• 21:54
  you know, like, what do I do next?
• 21:56
  You know, I just need some guidance.
• 21:59
  And nobody was there.
• 22:00
  I had no community, you know, I had no.
• 22:05
  gym,
• 22:06
  no coaches at the time that were
• 22:08
  willing to reach out and
• 22:10
  work through me with this of like, Hey,
• 22:11
  this is the plan.
• 22:13
  You know,
• 22:13
  there was one person that reached out to,
• 22:14
  I have, you know,
• 22:15
  my circle was very small at the time.
• 22:17
  And I have a guy, Greg Russo,
• 22:19
  who has been with me since 2018.
• 22:20
  It's him, my wife.
• 22:23
  And then I got a message from Facundo.
• 22:25
  You know, Facundo wasn't coaching me.
• 22:26
  He reached out to me to
• 22:27
  check in on me and see how I was doing.
• 22:30
  And I didn't, like I said,
• 22:32
  I didn't have a gym or a
• 22:33
  community at the time either.
• 22:35
  And it was very, it's very lonely.
• 22:37
  And I didn't like that feeling.
• 22:39
  And it was time to evaluate that of like,
• 22:43
  okay, well, when you're not competing,
• 22:45
  what's like, if I'm feeling this now,
• 22:46
  what am I going to feel when I'm 37, 38?
• 22:50
  And, you know, that same feeling,
• 22:53
  I'm blessed that I had that
• 22:54
  feeling now by missing the games.
• 22:57
  Because when I'm 37, 38, and you know,
• 22:59
  I have these people around me that, you
• 23:01
  you know,
• 23:02
  I thought was going to be the end
• 23:03
  all be all and everybody
• 23:05
  rides off into the sunset and, you know,
• 23:07
  we all win and we love life.
• 23:09
  That wasn't there.
• 23:11
  That's not what I thought
• 23:12
  and that's not what I expected.
• 23:14
  So it allowed me to really
• 23:17
  rebuild a foundation of, okay,
• 23:19
  I want to put myself around people that
• 23:22
  care about me and I care about them.
• 23:23
  I want to see them win and
• 23:25
  they want to see me win.
• 23:27
  And whether that's through
• 23:28
  success or through failure,
• 23:31
  we ride together.
• 23:32
  And I feel that I finally
• 23:35
  have a circle around me
• 23:37
  that believes in that and I
• 23:38
  believe in that.
• 23:40
  And we're in all of this
• 23:41
  together and we have each
• 23:42
  other to lean on.
• 23:44
  And I just think that that's
• 23:45
  super important
• 23:47
  If I was training in my gym by myself,
• 23:50
  same thing.
• 23:50
  You're going to sit there by yourself,
• 23:52
  you know, no one to lean on, no one to.
• 23:55
  um, keep you moving forward.
• 23:56
  You know, that circle was very small and,
• 23:59
  uh, yeah, it was just very eyeopening.
• 24:00
  And like I said,
• 24:01
  it just drove me back into an affiliate,
• 24:03
  back into community,
• 24:04
  back to what allowed me to
• 24:06
  fall in love with,
• 24:07
  with CrossFit and what it was.
• 24:08
  And that's the community.
• 24:10
  That's an incredible coach like Facundo.
• 24:12
  That's, you know,
• 24:13
  mayhem and what they're doing for me.
• 24:15
  And, um, that's, you know, great.
• 24:17
  My,
• 24:18
  my guy that's worked with me since 2018
• 24:19
  and my wife and my kids, like,
• 24:23
  Yeah, man, it was a hard time.
• 24:25
  It wasn't so much like the reflection,
• 24:28
  I had more time with my wife and my kids,
• 24:30
  but it was really hard to
• 24:31
  enjoy that because I wanted
• 24:32
  to be competing.
• 24:34
  And I just kept being super
• 24:35
  mindful of like, listen, you know,
• 24:37
  I've been doing this since 2008.
• 24:38
  It's okay.
• 24:39
  It's okay to take six months
• 24:41
  here and reevaluate and set
• 24:44
  yourself up for success to
• 24:45
  this for another six to seven years.
• 24:47
  And that's really kind of
• 24:48
  what I spent that time doing of like,
• 24:49
  okay,
• 24:50
  how do I set myself up for an
• 24:52
  enjoyable career?
• 24:53
  successful next six years
• 24:55
  not like let's just get by
• 24:56
  this year get by this year
• 24:57
  get by this year
• 25:00
  I love that because it
• 25:03
  sounds like you almost needed the reset.
• 25:06
  And it was a hard pill to
• 25:07
  swallow at the time,
• 25:09
  but it gave you truly what
• 25:12
  was important and what you
• 25:14
  needed to have around you
• 25:16
  and set you up for the future.
• 25:17
  I know you don't have a lot of time today,
• 25:20
  and I have so much I want to dive into,
• 25:22
  but I want to finish up with this,
• 25:24
  and that is that
• 25:27
  in addition to all that, right?
• 25:28
  You said the people weren't
• 25:30
  there that you thought would be there.
• 25:32
  You've been out,
• 25:32
  you've been out one season
• 25:34
  and sports are so harsh.
• 25:36
  You know, the,
• 25:37
  it's almost like the
• 25:37
  internet forgot how good you were, right?
• 25:42
  Two top finishes at the games.
• 25:44
  The last year you competed there at 11th.
• 25:48
  There's,
• 25:48
  there is nobody as good at classic
• 25:50
  CrossFit as Saxon Panchik.
• 25:52
  And this year seems to be
• 25:54
  setting up in that direction.
• 25:57
  Why is it hard when you're,
• 26:00
  when you're so good in this sport and,
• 26:03
  and maybe you block out the internet,
• 26:05
  but the internet is, it's like,
• 26:08
  it's honestly, it's just noise, man.
• 26:12
  And, um,
• 26:13
  you're going to find noise
• 26:14
  anywhere you go and people are going to,
• 26:17
  people want it.
• 26:18
  People will want to jump on.
• 26:21
  people want to be with
• 26:21
  anyone that's succeeding at the time.
• 26:24
  And when you're not there, no, it's, it's,
• 26:26
  it's no different than, you know,
• 26:28
  what I was talking about
• 26:28
  and the feelings that I had.
• 26:29
  Everybody wants to be with the winner.
• 26:31
  Everybody wants to be doing
• 26:33
  the fun things and the
• 26:35
  enjoying things and, um,
• 26:37
  hyping up the guys and the
• 26:39
  people that are, like I said,
• 26:40
  winning and at the top, um,
• 26:43
  But we only learn from failure.
• 26:48
  And it's not failure.
• 26:48
  We're not failing.
• 26:49
  We're learning.
• 26:50
  We're walking away with it.
• 26:51
  Like, if we're always succeeding,
• 26:52
  we're always winning, in my opinion,
• 26:55
  you're never growing, right?
• 26:57
  Like, I think that's great and everything,
• 26:58
  but, like, we need those moments to grow.
• 27:02
  And, you know,
• 27:02
  if people want to root for
• 27:04
  people that are always at the top, 100%,
• 27:06
  like, anyone that's at the top,
• 27:07
  they absolutely deserve it.
• 27:09
  They deserve everything
• 27:10
  that's coming to them.
• 27:11
  And I...
• 27:13
  if anything I learned,
• 27:14
  we're not entitled to anything, you know,
• 27:16
  like what someone's opinion
• 27:18
  is and what they say of like, Oh,
• 27:19
  this is my projection for, you know,
• 27:22
  my top 10 power rankings, or, you know,
• 27:24
  these are the people that I
• 27:25
  projected beyond the mountain.
• 27:26
  That's great and everything, but man,
• 27:27
  we all have to earn a seat at the table.
• 27:29
  Nothing's guaranteed to anybody.
• 27:31
  And I learned that very
• 27:31
  quickly last year that, you know,
• 27:34
  it might give you
• 27:34
  confidence if they're speaking your name,
• 27:37
  but they're not the ones
• 27:37
  stepping on the floor.
• 27:38
  They're not the ones going
• 27:39
  through and the anxiety and
• 27:41
  the nerves and,
• 27:43
  you know,
• 27:43
  everything that the athlete's feeling,
• 27:46
  I guarantee you,
• 27:47
  and I know it every single athlete,
• 27:48
  whether you're,
• 27:49
  whether you're at the top
• 27:50
  of the sport winning year
• 27:51
  after year after year,
• 27:52
  you're nervous when you're
• 27:53
  stepping out on the floor
• 27:54
  and you know that it's not guaranteed,
• 27:55
  you know, anything can happen.
• 27:57
  And that's it, you know,
• 27:59
  and I think a lot of people
• 28:01
  that are projecting these
• 28:02
  things don't understand that.
• 28:04
  And they think that it's
• 28:06
  easy for some of these
• 28:07
  athletes to be able to do
• 28:08
  that just because they've
• 28:09
  done it year after year after year.
• 28:10
  But
• 28:11
  know those athletes have
• 28:13
  gone through hard things to
• 28:14
  get to that point um and
• 28:17
  I'm gonna I'll use ricky
• 28:18
  garrard as an example like
• 28:20
  it's inspiring what he's
• 28:21
  what he's done you know
• 28:22
  like obviously you know
• 28:24
  everything that he's gone
• 28:25
  through and you know I'm
• 28:27
  not saying it was right but
• 28:28
  like to be able to stay
• 28:30
  motivated and to be able to
• 28:32
  come off of a four-year ban
• 28:34
  and then to come step back
• 28:35
  in and be able to compete and and um
• 28:39
  like I said, a lot of noise.
• 28:41
  Like I remember it was the
• 28:42
  first year that he was
• 28:43
  there and people were
• 28:44
  booing him in the crowd.
• 28:46
  And, you know,
• 28:47
  he just steps on the floor
• 28:48
  and he competes.
• 28:49
  And like,
• 28:49
  I couldn't imagine what he was
• 28:51
  feeling at the time,
• 28:51
  but to be able to step on
• 28:52
  the floor and ignore that
• 28:54
  noise and to be able to compete, you know,
• 28:56
  like that's, I think that's,
• 28:57
  I think that's awesome.
• 28:59
  And that's just one example, right?
• 29:01
  I think, you know,
• 29:02
  comebacks for athletes as well.
• 29:03
  You know, you see a lot of Sam dancer.
• 29:05
  He's another great example.
• 29:06
  I think he's 38, 39.
• 29:08
  You know, I'm sure you have people saying,
• 29:10
  oh, you're old, you did masters,
• 29:11
  you did this, you did that.
• 29:12
  But, like, you can see it.
• 29:14
  Like,
• 29:14
  he believes in himself and he knows
• 29:16
  what he's stepping on the floor to do.
• 29:18
  And all that matters is
• 29:19
  what's going on between his ears.
• 29:21
  And when he can walk on and
• 29:22
  step on the floor with
• 29:23
  confidence and be able to, you know,
• 29:25
  shut that noise out,
• 29:26
  you're going to perform and
• 29:27
  you're going to do well.
• 29:28
  And I think any athlete that
• 29:30
  can master that and figure
• 29:31
  out how to block that noise out,
• 29:33
  they're going to do very well.
• 29:35
  Can you use that noise as motivation,
• 29:38
  or is that too short-sighted?
• 29:39
  I think it's temporary.
• 29:41
  I've gone through this, right?
• 29:44
  It's a great example of having a brother,
• 29:48
  oh,
• 29:49
  here comes Saxon in his brother's shadow,
• 29:51
  or he paved the way for him,
• 29:52
  this and that.
• 29:54
  You have people saying things like that,
• 29:55
  and then you go and compete,
• 29:56
  and you do well.
• 29:58
  And then all of a sudden it's like, oh,
• 30:00
  you know, oh, Saxon's here.
• 30:03
  You know,
• 30:03
  and then all of a sudden Saxon gets hurt.
• 30:05
  And it's like, oh, you know.
• 30:08
  we'll see how he does next year.
• 30:09
  Right.
• 30:09
  And it's just like,
• 30:10
  it's this constant roller
• 30:11
  coaster that nobody, nobody knows.
• 30:14
  And nobody knows what an
• 30:15
  athlete's going through.
• 30:16
  And to me, I just think projections.
• 30:18
  And like I said, the noise that,
• 30:19
  that people are putting out,
• 30:21
  it is what it is.
• 30:21
  And, you know,
• 30:22
  I think a lot of people look at,
• 30:24
  I think this is another
• 30:25
  thing I'll speak on it as
• 30:25
  people look at out of season events.
• 30:27
  And as an athlete, I was one that was like,
• 30:30
  Oh man, you know,
• 30:32
  Rogue, for example, it's a great example.
• 30:34
  You step into it and you're like, man,
• 30:36
  this is my redemption time.
• 30:37
  I didn't come off my best games finish.
• 30:39
  I'm going to go step in here
• 30:41
  and I want to win this.
• 30:43
  And I've talked to other
• 30:44
  athletes and they spoke the same way.
• 30:46
  And you start to put this
• 30:48
  pressure on yourself to compete.
• 30:49
  And you're like, this is it.
• 30:50
  Sponsors are looking at this.
• 30:51
  People are looking at this.
• 30:53
  Media is looking at this.
• 30:54
  This is what's going to put
• 30:55
  me back on the map.
• 30:56
  And then you don't perform and it's like,
• 30:57
  oh, well, you know,
• 30:58
  now I'm starting to feel burned out.
• 31:00
  You know,
• 31:00
  maybe I shouldn't have done that.
• 31:01
  And it's like,
• 31:03
  I think people put power
• 31:04
  rankings on these odysseys and events,
• 31:06
  but like athletes should be
• 31:07
  able to go to these
• 31:08
  odysseys and events because
• 31:09
  they want to go one,
• 31:11
  be able to make some money
• 31:12
  and be able to provide for
• 31:13
  their families and themselves,
• 31:15
  because this is where the sports at now.
• 31:17
  Like this is how a lot of
• 31:18
  athletes make their income.
• 31:20
  but also because they love
• 31:21
  it and because they want to
• 31:23
  gain the experience because
• 31:24
  they want to take this
• 31:24
  experience and take it into
• 31:26
  their next season.
• 31:28
  And however they decide to do that,
• 31:30
  they can do that.
• 31:31
  But I think that there's
• 31:32
  just so much pressure and
• 31:33
  people put these power
• 31:34
  rankings on things like that,
• 31:35
  that athletes start to lose
• 31:36
  sight of that.
• 31:37
  And like I said,
• 31:38
  I didn't figure that out
• 31:39
  until this last year that it's like,
• 31:41
  You can't go into a competition because of,
• 31:47
  you know,
• 31:48
  this is my comeback or this is this,
• 31:49
  this is that.
• 31:50
  You need to go into it
• 31:51
  because you love the sport,
• 31:52
  because it's just another
• 31:54
  opportunity to compete.
• 31:55
  And, you know,
• 31:56
  you have this gift to
• 31:57
  compete and that's not
• 31:57
  always going to be there.
• 31:59
  And yeah,
• 32:00
  that's kind of my opinion on that.
• 32:04
  Well, I'm glad you talked about all that.
• 32:10
  But there's so much I want
• 32:11
  to talk about about you
• 32:12
  becoming a part of the community again,
• 32:13
  but I know you have to go.
• 32:15
  So I'm going to have you
• 32:16
  back between semis and the
• 32:19
  games because I'm confident
• 32:21
  in your ability that you'll
• 32:22
  be going to the games again this year.
• 32:24
  And we'll talk...
• 32:26
  Because you have a much
• 32:27
  bigger runway between the
• 32:29
  semis and the games than you do now.
• 32:31
  Absolutely.
• 32:32
  I'm going to have a little longer talk.
• 32:33
  Because I love what you said
• 32:35
  on Hiller about the
• 32:36
  community getting
• 32:37
  reattached to that and all
• 32:38
  the things you're doing there.
• 32:40
  And I want to really dive into that.
• 32:42
  But I want to thank you so
• 32:42
  much for jumping on with me today.
• 32:45
  This was so insightful.
• 32:47
  And I have a million more questions,
• 32:49
  but we'll talk to them at a later time.
• 32:52
  Amazing.
• 32:54
  Good luck at semis,
• 32:55
  and we're always in your
• 32:56
  corner rooting for you.
• 32:57
  I appreciate it, Scott.
• 32:59
  With that, everybody in the chat,
• 33:00
  thank you for being here.
• 33:02
  We'll see everybody next
• 33:02
  time on Clydesdale Media Podcast.
• 33:05
  Bye, guys.