Latest / Clydesdale Media Podcast / Adrian Bozman - Clydesdale Media Podcast | What's New This Season?

Transcript

Adrian Bozman - Clydesdale Media Podcast | What's New This Season? · Clydesdale Media Podcast

• 0:24
  what is going on everybody
• 0:25
  welcome to the cloud cell
• 0:27
  media podcast my name is
• 0:29
  scott switzer I have my
• 0:30
  co-host amy radowski with
• 0:31
  me and we are privileged to
• 0:33
  have with us adrian bosman
• 0:38
  the man the myth the legend
• 0:41
  oh man I don't know if I'm
• 0:43
  deserving of a myth myth
• 0:45
  status at this point but I
• 0:46
  appreciate it thank you
• 0:49
  well one of the one of the
• 0:51
  questions I had for you off the top
• 0:53
  People have been talking about this,
• 0:55
  that in some form or another,
• 0:58
  it'd be cool to bring back
• 0:59
  Roe versus Boz.
• 1:01
  Now,
• 1:01
  I know that you may not be able to do
• 1:04
  that because of what you do now,
• 1:07
  but in some form or fashion,
• 1:09
  it gave people a realistic
• 1:12
  view of an open announcement.
• 1:15
  I mean, I'm all about it.
• 1:17
  I love Rory McKernan.
• 1:19
  You know, he's a good friend of mine.
• 1:20
  We've been friends forever.
• 1:22
  And yeah, that would be a lot of fun.
• 1:25
  Even if it was just
• 1:26
  something that was kind of unofficial,
• 1:27
  those were always good times.
• 1:30
  You know,
• 1:30
  we do have the custom leaderboard
• 1:32
  function and I have created
• 1:34
  that in the past.
• 1:35
  So maybe we can, you know,
• 1:36
  just get one of those going
• 1:38
  and people can look in on it.
• 1:39
  But if I'm perfectly honest about it, dude,
• 1:42
  he's fit right now.
• 1:45
  I think it might not go so well for me,
• 1:47
  but that's okay.
• 1:48
  That's not the point, right?
• 1:51
  Yeah,
• 1:51
  you moved away from California where
• 1:54
  you got to hang out with
• 1:54
  all your buddies at the gym.
• 1:56
  Now you're in Nashville kind
• 1:57
  of doing it on your own.
• 2:00
  That brings me to like,
• 2:01
  what are you doing today to stay fit?
• 2:04
  It's a good question.
• 2:05
  I would say that the last
• 2:07
  year or two have not been
• 2:09
  at the highest peak of
• 2:11
  fitness for me personally,
• 2:12
  but that's all right.
• 2:13
  You ebb and flow with such things.
• 2:16
  I do a lot of jujitsu these days,
• 2:18
  if I'm honest.
• 2:18
  That's my three, four days a week routine.
• 2:22
  Then I had been catch as
• 2:24
  catch can with CrossFit,
• 2:26
  but come the new year,
• 2:27
  I started getting a little
• 2:28
  bit more dedicated that way.
• 2:30
  And so right now,
• 2:32
  I'm trying to get two lifting sessions,
• 2:34
  two kind of more
• 2:36
  traditional CrossFit sessions,
• 2:37
  and then jujitsu on top of that.
• 2:39
  So that's what I've been
• 2:40
  doing since January.
• 2:41
  Hopefully,
• 2:42
  that'll put me in a decent
• 2:44
  enough position when the
• 2:45
  Open rolls around that I can do okay.
• 2:47
  But you will be doing the Open?
• 2:49
  Oh, yeah, of course.
• 2:50
  I do it every year.
• 2:52
  And how many years of the
• 2:53
  Open is this for you?
• 2:54
  Every one?
• 2:55
  Every one, yes.
• 2:56
  So this will be 14th year.
• 2:56
  Nice.
• 2:57
  Nice.
• 3:01
  I have a an offbeat question
• 3:06
  I know you're a vinyl
• 3:06
  collector those are my
• 3:07
  favorite kind you're a
• 3:09
  vinyl collector you're now
• 3:10
  living in Nashville the
• 3:13
  music capital of the world
• 3:14
  does it make collecting
• 3:15
  vinyl harder or easier being there
• 3:19
  It's a dangerous tightrope
• 3:20
  to walk right by my house.
• 3:22
  There's a really cool place
• 3:23
  called Vinyl Tap,
• 3:25
  which hopefully that
• 3:28
  tickles a few people out there.
• 3:29
  I think it's pretty great.
• 3:31
  But they are a used record
• 3:32
  store slash music venue
• 3:35
  slash kind of local pub.
• 3:38
  And that place is very dangerous,
• 3:41
  as you can imagine,
• 3:42
  because it's within walking
• 3:43
  distance of my house.
• 3:44
  So I got to remember I have
• 3:45
  a mortgage to pay.
• 3:48
  when I get around places
• 3:49
  like that so it you know
• 3:51
  I've been pretty good
• 3:52
  lately um but yeah it's uh
• 3:56
  I would say on net it's um
• 3:58
  it makes it easier because
• 3:59
  there's so much happening
• 4:00
  here there's a lot of cool
• 4:01
  record stores and frankly
• 4:04
  like every second person
• 4:05
  you meet is doing something
• 4:07
  musically which is really
• 4:08
  cool and so I like to
• 4:09
  support people that I know
• 4:11
  directly like that whenever
• 4:13
  I can so that that's always fun
• 4:15
  It seems like a nice place
• 4:16
  where you can go and
• 4:17
  connect with other people
• 4:18
  with those similar
• 4:19
  interests outside of CrossFit as well.
• 4:21
  Yeah, for sure.
• 4:22
  Dude, Corey, you know Vinyl Tap?
• 4:26
  Oh, no, he's just saying Post 11.
• 4:27
  I get it.
• 4:30
  Yeah, Grimeys.
• 4:31
  Grimeys is a good one, too.
• 4:34
  Not a taxidermy deer, says Adrian.
• 4:37
  No, that's not the one I wanted.
• 4:39
  You don't want to answer that question?
• 4:43
  Adrian,
• 4:43
  could you be Petra Wood and Helen today?
• 4:46
  Can we get a very random showdown?
• 4:48
  Would I beat Pat Sherwood and Helen today?
• 4:50
  Absolutely.
• 4:51
  Yes.
• 4:51
  Cause he's like nine weeks
• 4:53
  post hip replacement.
• 4:55
  So yes, I would beat him today,
• 4:56
  but that's not a really a
• 4:58
  reflection on Pat's fitness
• 4:59
  so much as like,
• 5:00
  he's had a major reconstructive surgery.
• 5:02
  That's been, you know,
• 5:03
  a decade or two in the making.
• 5:06
  Um, at Sherwood at his normal,
• 5:08
  I would not want that heat.
• 5:09
  He's a good runner.
• 5:12
  That he is.
• 5:14
  Amy, I know you got something for,
• 5:15
  for Boz.
• 5:17
  hypothetically,
• 5:19
  let's just say somebody
• 5:20
  who's been coaching
• 5:21
  CrossFit around CrossFit
• 5:22
  maybe 10 years or so was
• 5:25
  thinking about going for
• 5:26
  their level three.
• 5:28
  What advice would you give
• 5:30
  them to pass or to down that pursuit?
• 5:36
  Take your time.
• 5:36
  I think that for something like that,
• 5:38
  especially if you've been
• 5:38
  in the game a long time,
• 5:40
  everybody does this where
• 5:41
  they start to build up a
• 5:43
  certain level of kind of
• 5:44
  tacit knowledge where they say things,
• 5:47
  they do things,
• 5:48
  they have certain practices
• 5:49
  that they're kind of
• 5:50
  automatic at this point and
• 5:51
  they don't really think about them.
• 5:53
  And for a lot of us,
• 5:54
  that means that you can't
• 5:55
  really articulate them if
• 5:56
  you were to be asked why
• 5:58
  you engaged in something.
• 6:00
  And by contrast,
• 6:01
  I think if you have
• 6:02
  somebody who's like really
• 6:03
  a little bit fresher and
• 6:06
  still kind of has that
• 6:07
  first wave of enthusiasm,
• 6:09
  they're the people that, in my experience,
• 6:11
  tend to be able to answer
• 6:12
  questions like that a
• 6:14
  little more readily because
• 6:15
  it's top of mind and it
• 6:16
  hasn't become just kind of
• 6:17
  absorbed and automatic.
• 6:19
  So for the crew that's been
• 6:21
  around a little longer,
• 6:22
  I think you need to take
• 6:22
  your time and go back to
• 6:23
  the drawing board.
• 6:25
  Not necessarily with what you're doing,
• 6:26
  but just can you explain it
• 6:29
  as well as maybe you did in the past?
• 6:31
  Have you thought it through recently?
• 6:34
  And not only just because I
• 6:35
  think that's the right
• 6:36
  thing to do to pass the test,
• 6:37
  but honestly, I mean,
• 6:39
  it might shake some things
• 6:40
  loose that you've kind of
• 6:41
  ingrained that maybe
• 6:42
  they're not serving as well anymore.
• 6:43
  Yeah.
• 6:44
  But yeah,
• 6:45
  I think that's the thing is to
• 6:46
  take your time and just
• 6:47
  kind of reevaluate, like,
• 6:48
  can I still talk about these things, um,
• 6:52
  as well as maybe I could in the past?
• 6:54
  And, uh,
• 6:54
  am I still thinking about them
• 6:55
  with the same kind of granularity?
• 7:00
  Nice.
• 7:02
  So my last question in this
• 7:03
  kind of intro part is,
• 7:05
  and it kind of goes back to
• 7:05
  row versus pause.
• 7:07
  You're in a unique situation
• 7:08
  in CrossFit where.
• 7:12
  the sport is growing.
• 7:13
  We want it to grow.
• 7:15
  And, um,
• 7:18
  but yet everybody wants you to pay
• 7:21
  homage to the past.
• 7:25
  So how do you balance the
• 7:27
  two or are you still trying
• 7:29
  to figure that out?
• 7:31
  I mean,
• 7:32
  I think it's an experiment every year,
• 7:33
  right?
• 7:34
  I think there's enough
• 7:36
  framework and enough
• 7:37
  expectation that people
• 7:38
  kind of know what they're getting,
• 7:39
  even when there's season changes,
• 7:41
  et cetera.
• 7:42
  You know,
• 7:42
  you have a good sense of what the
• 7:45
  athletes are going to be
• 7:45
  required to do and when.
• 7:49
  But it is tricky, you know,
• 7:50
  because you can't go back.
• 7:52
  And I feel like everybody's
• 7:53
  kind of victim of this at
• 7:55
  some point where, like sooner or later,
• 7:57
  all of us,
• 7:58
  we kind of have nostalgia
• 8:00
  for a time that maybe never
• 8:01
  really existed.
• 8:03
  You take a look back and you
• 8:04
  kind of idealize it.
• 8:06
  But for those of us that lived through it,
• 8:08
  you're like, yeah,
• 8:08
  there were some amazing times there,
• 8:09
  but it was not perfect.
• 8:12
  There was some awesome
• 8:13
  things that we developed on
• 8:15
  the fly that we experimented with.
• 8:17
  It worked out well.
• 8:18
  But man,
• 8:18
  there were plenty of things that
• 8:19
  didn't go to plan that
• 8:21
  weren't really good
• 8:22
  successes that we had to
• 8:24
  learn the hard way from too.
• 8:26
  So I think for anybody who's
• 8:28
  kind of opining for the past,
• 8:31
  like you have to take that
• 8:32
  good with the bad.
• 8:32
  It was not just sunshine and
• 8:34
  roses from start to finish.
• 8:37
  So I'm rambling a little bit,
• 8:40
  but I think it is trying to
• 8:42
  find that tightrope of like, hey, man,
• 8:43
  it should be classic CrossFit.
• 8:45
  It should be classic to the
• 8:46
  roots of what we know this thing to do.
• 8:48
  But we have to...
• 8:50
  know where we are I mean
• 8:51
  it's 2024 things have moved
• 8:52
  past 2012. uh we're just
• 8:55
  not there anymore no matter
• 8:55
  how how much somebody might
• 8:58
  wish it to be um speaking
• 9:01
  of tightrope will we see
• 9:02
  one no okay I can I can I
• 9:05
  can uh I can absolutely put
• 9:07
  that one out there no slack
• 9:08
  lines this year no time
• 9:09
  we're not going that old
• 9:10
  school for those of you
• 9:12
  that you know pour over the
• 9:14
  old journals looking for
• 9:15
  things that we haven't done
• 9:16
  yet that are referenced
• 9:17
  there no slack rope this year
• 9:20
  I love how you said that.
• 9:21
  At least in the open, you know.
• 9:22
  Yeah, okay.
• 9:23
  The open, yeah, sure.
• 9:25
  Quarterfinals, no promises.
• 9:27
  All bets are off at the quarterfinals.
• 9:30
  Yeah, I'm glad you said that because...
• 9:33
  I want nothing more than
• 9:34
  this sport to grow and move forward.
• 9:37
  And I feel like there's this
• 9:39
  tug pulling us back.
• 9:42
  And in order to grow,
• 9:44
  we have to reach a new audience.
• 9:46
  So if we keep speaking to
• 9:49
  the audience we already have,
• 9:51
  we're not going to move
• 9:52
  forward in that way.
• 9:54
  And so I'm glad that you put it that way,
• 9:56
  that the past wasn't perfect.
• 9:58
  Yeah.
• 9:59
  And, you know,
• 10:00
  we were all complaining in
• 10:01
  2013 and 14 just as much as we are today.
• 10:05
  Maybe about some different things.
• 10:08
  Right.
• 10:08
  Right.
• 10:11
  So talking about a big change,
• 10:15
  we're moving to Fort Worth, Texas.
• 10:17
  Yeah.
• 10:17
  Yeah.
• 10:18
  which is a massive change.
• 10:20
  Tickets went on sale today.
• 10:22
  If you didn't get yours,
• 10:23
  they were moving fast last I checked.
• 10:26
  So make sure you get out
• 10:27
  there and get your tickets.
• 10:31
  How does having the CrossFit
• 10:33
  Games be 90% indoors affect
• 10:37
  the way you're going to
• 10:38
  program and tell the story
• 10:39
  throughout this year?
• 10:41
  Well,
• 10:42
  I don't want to put a percentage on it,
• 10:44
  but you're right.
• 10:44
  I mean,
• 10:44
  we are going to highlight that venue.
• 10:46
  It's an amazing venue.
• 10:48
  It's the nicest venue that
• 10:49
  the CrossFit Games have
• 10:51
  ever been hosted by, bar none.
• 10:53
  It was built in 2019.
• 10:55
  So, you know,
• 10:56
  that gives you just kind of a
• 10:58
  sense of the modernness of it.
• 11:01
  And, you know,
• 11:02
  one of the things that is unique about it,
• 11:04
  number one,
• 11:04
  the competition floor is huge.
• 11:06
  So that gives us a lot of utility.
• 11:09
  But there's also a lot of
• 11:11
  technical things in the
• 11:12
  back end that the broadcast
• 11:13
  team doesn't have to worry
• 11:14
  about because the venue is so new.
• 11:16
  They can basically plug in and show up.
• 11:17
  And so that'll give us some
• 11:18
  more opportunities on how
• 11:19
  we present the games,
• 11:21
  which is kind of nice.
• 11:23
  So to answer your question
• 11:24
  about programming,
• 11:26
  um you know really it's just
• 11:28
  trying to maximize that
• 11:29
  competition floor that we
• 11:30
  do have um and then when we
• 11:32
  do go off-site you know for
• 11:35
  some of the things that may
• 11:36
  occur we just have to be
• 11:38
  really conscientious about
• 11:39
  when we're doing that and
• 11:41
  what effect that's going to
• 11:41
  have on the athletes I
• 11:42
  think that's everybody's
• 11:43
  top of mind right we get
• 11:44
  reminded regularly that uh
• 11:46
  hey it's hot in texas like
• 11:48
  oh we hadn't noticed we had no idea
• 11:51
  yeah exactly um and you know
• 11:53
  so obviously there's a
• 11:54
  responsibility on our part
• 11:55
  that we're not putting
• 11:56
  athletes in a position
• 11:58
  where it's just like
• 12:00
  unreasonable to compete
• 12:01
  under the conditions they
• 12:02
  find themselves in um and
• 12:04
  you know we're looking at
• 12:05
  ways that we can do that
• 12:06
  creatively but yeah the big
• 12:09
  the big one is that
• 12:10
  competition floor I mean it
• 12:11
  is awesome it's a it's a
• 12:13
  huge canvas with a lot of options
• 12:16
  Yeah,
• 12:17
  I talked to Heather at MFC and she
• 12:20
  was saying the plug and
• 12:21
  play atmosphere or the plug
• 12:23
  and play ability,
• 12:25
  it just is game changing.
• 12:28
  And it's nothing they've
• 12:29
  ever had before as you
• 12:31
  CrossFit going into a
• 12:33
  location and it'll save a
• 12:35
  week's worth of time.
• 12:38
  Yeah, I mean,
• 12:38
  the prospects are really exciting to us.
• 12:42
  And again,
• 12:42
  it's one of those things where
• 12:43
  it's kind of strange to
• 12:45
  talk about with an audience that,
• 12:47
  you know,
• 12:47
  they may never have been
• 12:48
  involved with a big event.
• 12:49
  And it's difficult to kind
• 12:51
  of wrap your head around
• 12:51
  what actually goes into
• 12:53
  something like that and how
• 12:54
  many people it takes to
• 12:55
  pull off and the coordination around it.
• 12:58
  And so when some of those things are
• 13:01
  alleviated,
• 13:02
  sometimes people may not notice
• 13:04
  that initially because
• 13:05
  they're just watching the
• 13:06
  competition and enjoying it
• 13:07
  as they always have without
• 13:10
  maybe as much knowledge as
• 13:12
  to how much of a difference
• 13:14
  it really made for the team
• 13:14
  that has to run it.
• 13:16
  So hopefully it translates both ways.
• 13:18
  I really hope and I think it will.
• 13:20
  that we can do some pretty
• 13:21
  spectacular things in there
• 13:23
  that we probably wouldn't
• 13:24
  have been able to do elsewhere.
• 13:25
  And it's also easier for the
• 13:27
  team to pull that off.
• 13:28
  So in my opinion,
• 13:29
  that's what we're all
• 13:31
  driving at is kind of this win-win.
• 13:34
  So I have a big question
• 13:37
  because you told me on a previous podcast,
• 13:39
  riding your bike between
• 13:41
  the venues was your way of
• 13:43
  clearing your mind.
• 13:45
  You don't have multiple venues now.
• 13:48
  Oh, I hadn't thought about that, Scott.
• 13:49
  You're stressing me out now.
• 13:53
  So we should figure something out.
• 13:56
  Yeah, maybe.
• 13:57
  No, no.
• 13:57
  The whole point is that you
• 13:58
  have to travel.
• 14:01
  The echo bike's not going to do it.
• 14:03
  Yeah,
• 14:03
  I think I'm going to have to figure
• 14:05
  something out there.
• 14:06
  Maybe it'll just be like a
• 14:07
  hot lap around the parking lot.
• 14:09
  You know,
• 14:10
  just like a fake travel somewhere.
• 14:12
  I don't know.
• 14:12
  I got to put some thought into that.
• 14:14
  Well,
• 14:15
  is a venue big enough you can just
• 14:16
  ride it through the venue?
• 14:17
  It could be.
• 14:18
  Yeah,
• 14:18
  maybe not when it's in full swing and
• 14:20
  everybody's running around.
• 14:23
  Whip through Vendor Village real quick.
• 14:25
  Dave and I could do races
• 14:28
  around the parking lot.
• 14:29
  There you go.
• 14:30
  Charge admission.
• 14:31
  Make some more money.
• 14:32
  Yeah, perfect.
• 14:33
  Sideshow.
• 14:33
  Yeah.
• 14:37
  that'd be your rovers boss
• 14:38
  right there I i more
• 14:40
  confident that I'd be able
• 14:41
  to hang with roe on a bike
• 14:43
  so maybe that's a maybe
• 14:45
  that's an option I don't
• 14:46
  know he's there mayhem all
• 14:47
  they do is bike now right
• 14:49
  yeah but you know he's old
• 14:51
  and banged up and he's got
• 14:53
  a little little mileage on
• 14:55
  him so um my next question is
• 15:01
  You had to, you know,
• 15:02
  moving to a place where Dave,
• 15:05
  and I use the 90% as Dave's
• 15:06
  comment from his week overview, right?
• 15:09
  To an indoor venue.
• 15:11
  When you saw the off-season
• 15:12
  events be affected so
• 15:15
  tremendously by weather this year, Rogue,
• 15:18
  Guadalupalooza,
• 15:20
  both got torrential downpour.
• 15:22
  Yeah.
• 15:23
  And you guys with alpaca in two years ago,
• 15:27
  totally changed like the,
• 15:29
  the feel of the games that year.
• 15:32
  Does that give you more
• 15:35
  confidence about your test
• 15:38
  going into a place that's,
• 15:40
  that's environment controlled?
• 15:43
  I wouldn't say confidence.
• 15:44
  I mean, it definitely, you know, it's,
• 15:47
  validating to some degree, I guess,
• 15:49
  but I don't want people to
• 15:51
  read into that to think
• 15:52
  that me personally,
• 15:53
  that I feel that's the
• 15:54
  direction that CrossFit
• 15:56
  competitions need to go.
• 15:57
  I don't feel that personally.
• 15:59
  I think that that's one of
• 15:59
  the coolest things about
• 16:01
  the CrossFit competitions
• 16:03
  broadly is that there is a
• 16:04
  range of ways to approach them.
• 16:07
  And I think the unique
• 16:08
  elements that some of these
• 16:10
  big events bring to the
• 16:11
  table is really what makes
• 16:13
  them awesome and what draws
• 16:14
  people to them.
• 16:16
  And yeah,
• 16:17
  some of those things bring some
• 16:18
  risk of having to change in
• 16:21
  the middle of the stream, so to speak.
• 16:23
  But that's OK.
• 16:24
  So as far as us, yeah,
• 16:26
  it is nice to know that you
• 16:27
  have that kind of security
• 16:30
  with the venue that you've selected.
• 16:34
  But honestly,
• 16:35
  I hadn't really thought about
• 16:36
  it and framed it in those ways that like,
• 16:38
  oh, wow,
• 16:38
  look at how difficult it was for
• 16:39
  these other events.
• 16:40
  Obviously,
• 16:40
  it's not easy to navigate your
• 16:43
  event that way when Mother
• 16:44
  Nature has other plans.
• 16:46
  But in some broad stroke,
• 16:48
  I didn't take that to like, oh, well,
• 16:51
  right choice for us to move
• 16:52
  to Fort Worth even more so.
• 16:53
  Not in those ways.
• 16:56
  On the athlete side,
• 16:57
  I could see it being one
• 16:59
  less thing than that they
• 17:00
  would have to kind of worry about, again,
• 17:02
  with the readapting to that.
• 17:05
  Yeah, it's interesting, though.
• 17:06
  You hear both sides of it.
• 17:08
  And I think that's true for
• 17:10
  most of the decisions that we make.
• 17:11
  You have some people that get it.
• 17:14
  They love the direction that you're going.
• 17:15
  And then you have others
• 17:16
  that are skeptical right away.
• 17:18
  And that's fine.
• 17:20
  But for this one in particular,
• 17:22
  we saw that
• 17:24
  and continue to see that
• 17:25
  where you know people are
• 17:27
  happy I think that we're
• 17:28
  choosing to have like a
• 17:29
  pretty consistent weather
• 17:31
  option but on the other
• 17:33
  hand it's like well how are
• 17:34
  you going to test all the
• 17:34
  things that you need to how
• 17:36
  are we going to make sure
• 17:36
  that we have a complete
• 17:38
  picture of the athlete
• 17:39
  that's on the top of the
• 17:39
  podium and I think that's a
• 17:41
  valid question you know we
• 17:44
  do have to solve for that
• 17:45
  that not everything that
• 17:46
  you want to test in a broad
• 17:48
  test of fitness is going to
• 17:50
  be available in a coliseum setting
• 17:54
  And in taking it a step further,
• 17:56
  the spectators, in 21 and 22,
• 17:59
  you had to evacuate the campground.
• 18:03
  That's right.
• 18:04
  To get people and take them
• 18:07
  into the Align Energy
• 18:08
  Center for safety reasons.
• 18:10
  Amy and I were in hotels.
• 18:12
  The one hotel,
• 18:12
  the water came through the window.
• 18:14
  It rained so hard that one night.
• 18:17
  And then the second year,
• 18:19
  like it woke everybody up
• 18:20
  in the hotel because of how bad it was.
• 18:24
  It's got to be good from a
• 18:26
  spectator's point of view,
• 18:28
  knowing you're not going to
• 18:29
  be sitting in the rain or
• 18:30
  being evacuated from a
• 18:31
  campground has got to be a
• 18:33
  luxury as well.
• 18:35
  I would hope so.
• 18:36
  I mean,
• 18:36
  that's definitely something that
• 18:38
  you never want to have happen.
• 18:40
  It makes a good story in retrospect,
• 18:42
  but at the time,
• 18:43
  it's definitely pretty stressful.
• 18:46
  And it is wild that one year we came in,
• 18:48
  I think it was Sunday morning,
• 18:50
  I believe it was 22.
• 18:53
  And, you know,
• 18:55
  there are people sleeping in the kind of,
• 18:58
  you know,
• 18:59
  employee areas of the Coliseum
• 19:01
  underbelly because there
• 19:02
  was nowhere else to go and
• 19:03
  they were all evacuated
• 19:04
  from the outdoors.
• 19:05
  So, yeah, I mean, it's, yes,
• 19:07
  I hope it results in a
• 19:09
  better experience for everybody.
• 19:12
  So.
• 19:14
  Going to this new venue, it has a new,
• 19:17
  it's going to have a new feel.
• 19:18
  Are you excited about the
• 19:20
  prospects of what you guys
• 19:23
  are going to be able to do
• 19:24
  in that environment?
• 19:26
  Anytime you have a new frame
• 19:30
  on your picture,
• 19:30
  you can do some different things.
• 19:35
  Yeah, for sure.
• 19:35
  I think it's kind of like I
• 19:36
  said when we were talking
• 19:37
  about the level three where, you know,
• 19:39
  you get into a groove of doing something,
• 19:41
  you adopt these habits.
• 19:43
  Maybe they're great habits to adopt,
• 19:44
  but sooner or later you
• 19:45
  might stop thinking about
• 19:46
  them in such scrutinizing terms.
• 19:49
  And I think that's certainly
• 19:50
  true for remaining at a
• 19:51
  venue for many years.
• 19:54
  You know,
• 19:54
  like we've been in Madison since
• 19:57
  2017 and we know that venue
• 19:59
  really well now.
• 19:59
  We know how to operate that
• 20:00
  venue really well.
• 20:02
  But anytime you move to a new location,
• 20:05
  you know,
• 20:05
  I've been lucky enough now that
• 20:06
  we moved from Aromas to
• 20:08
  Carson and Carson to Madison,
• 20:09
  now Madison to Fort Worth.
• 20:11
  And seeing those transitions,
• 20:13
  it's like it always makes
• 20:14
  you reevaluate what has
• 20:16
  become business as usual
• 20:18
  and does it need to be business as usual?
• 20:20
  And in doing some of that,
• 20:22
  you uncover some things that you're like,
• 20:23
  oh,
• 20:23
  why didn't we think about it this way
• 20:25
  and approach it like this sooner?
• 20:26
  That's really cool.
• 20:28
  So not only is the venue, I think,
• 20:30
  really going to support the event,
• 20:32
  it does put our team in a
• 20:33
  position to rethink some
• 20:35
  things that they may have
• 20:36
  been great and an awesome fit for Madison,
• 20:38
  but they might not be the
• 20:39
  best fit for Fort Worth.
• 20:41
  So how can we make that even better?
• 20:42
  And that's fun to me.
• 20:43
  It's like a giant puzzle.
• 20:45
  you get to kind of
• 20:46
  re-examine all the pieces again and say,
• 20:47
  OK,
• 20:48
  does it actually fit together best
• 20:49
  this way,
• 20:49
  or is there another way that we
• 20:51
  can do it?
• 20:52
  Well, thinking about your team, you know,
• 20:54
  now that Dave's back,
• 20:57
  how have things kind of
• 20:58
  changed with that?
• 21:00
  It's been great.
• 21:01
  It's really nice to have
• 21:02
  another head that we can
• 21:04
  bounce ideas off of.
• 21:05
  It's really cool because
• 21:08
  there are certain
• 21:08
  responsibilities that are
• 21:09
  kind of more in my domain,
• 21:10
  and obviously he's got his
• 21:11
  own responsibilities in his domain.
• 21:14
  But every once in a while,
• 21:15
  they'll kind of overlap a
• 21:16
  little bit and all change.
• 21:17
  take something and run with it,
• 21:18
  or he'll take something and run with it.
• 21:20
  And like,
• 21:20
  we had a conversation just the
• 21:21
  other day where he's like,
• 21:22
  called me up and he's like, Hey,
• 21:23
  I'm running with this thing.
• 21:24
  Don't do any more work on it.
• 21:26
  I want to take the first stab.
• 21:27
  I'm like, cool, awesome.
• 21:28
  You know?
• 21:29
  And other times it'll be the inverse.
• 21:31
  Um, and so it's fun.
• 21:32
  It's really nice to bounce
• 21:34
  ideas off of each other that way.
• 21:36
  And.
• 21:37
  i mean man dave and I have
• 21:38
  had a working relationship
• 21:40
  since 2006 and uh you know
• 21:43
  dave's a friend of mine um
• 21:44
  we get along really well
• 21:46
  and we have the type of
• 21:47
  relationship where we can
• 21:48
  shoot each other really
• 21:49
  straight you know there's
• 21:50
  not a lot of pulled punches
• 21:52
  like if it's a dumb idea
• 21:54
  that dave doesn't like he's
• 21:55
  going to tell me right away
• 21:56
  and same thing like if he's
• 21:57
  talking about something I'm
• 21:58
  like dude I think there's a
• 21:59
  way better way to do this
• 22:01
  we're not going to beat
• 22:01
  around the bush and we're
• 22:02
  going to try to get to that best outcome.
• 22:04
  So it's great.
• 22:05
  Like I really enjoy.
• 22:06
  And I'm actually really
• 22:08
  thankful that I get to work
• 22:10
  with Dave in that way.
• 22:11
  Because I don't, you know,
• 22:14
  I got lots of great people
• 22:16
  that I work with.
• 22:18
  Some of them for a long time,
• 22:19
  some of them not so long.
• 22:21
  But it's rare that you find
• 22:22
  somebody that you can
• 22:25
  I don't know,
• 22:25
  just kind of be that
• 22:26
  unfiltered with to get to
• 22:28
  the best result.
• 22:30
  I think it's a rarity.
• 22:31
  I think that takes a lot of
• 22:32
  trust with somebody.
• 22:34
  And that takes time to build
• 22:35
  that relationship in order
• 22:36
  to have that kind of trust.
• 22:40
  Yep.
• 22:42
  And the other...
• 22:44
  dave has admitted that he
• 22:45
  never got to mentor anybody
• 22:48
  into kind of what he did do
• 22:50
  you feel like that's
• 22:51
  happening now like he's
• 22:54
  becoming more of a teacher
• 22:55
  during these times or are
• 22:57
  you still just friends and
• 22:59
  shooting it straight that's
• 23:01
  a great question uh I without
• 23:05
  putting it in those terms, yeah,
• 23:07
  I guess some of that has happened.
• 23:10
  Some of it's just the nature
• 23:11
  of Dave's got a lot of
• 23:12
  responsibilities and he can't,
• 23:14
  no single person can do it all.
• 23:16
  And so some of those
• 23:17
  responsibilities that I
• 23:19
  inherited and have still
• 23:20
  maintained since 2022,
• 23:24
  there was kind of questions about like,
• 23:25
  well, what do you want to pick back up?
• 23:26
  What can you pick back up?
• 23:27
  And some of those things
• 23:28
  that I've retained, it's like, yeah,
• 23:31
  it's nice to have that kind of
• 23:34
  I don't know if it's
• 23:34
  necessarily directly mentorship,
• 23:36
  but that sounding board for
• 23:38
  from somebody who's been in
• 23:39
  that hot seat for that long.
• 23:42
  So yeah,
• 23:42
  I guess it is kind of a de facto
• 23:44
  mentorship.
• 23:46
  One time to go through shit together.
• 23:48
  True.
• 23:51
  Yeah.
• 23:53
  You guys have been through a
• 23:53
  lot in 1617 years.
• 23:57
  yeah it's crazy to think
• 23:58
  about that you know when I
• 23:59
  first started crossfit and
• 24:01
  it was just like a really
• 24:02
  awesome thing that I was
• 24:03
  fired up on and that's all
• 24:05
  I wanted to do with my time
• 24:07
  And they started expanding
• 24:10
  the seminar team and asked
• 24:12
  if I would intern, which I did.
• 24:14
  And eventually, they said, hey,
• 24:15
  we're going to pay you to show up.
• 24:17
  It blew my mind.
• 24:18
  I was like, well, awesome.
• 24:20
  I'll be here anyway, but yes.
• 24:22
  And so the point I'm trying
• 24:24
  to make is I never expected
• 24:25
  to have a career in anything, period,
• 24:28
  never mind
• 24:30
  doing this really crazy
• 24:31
  thing called CrossFit.
• 24:34
  And so like I do look back
• 24:35
  sometimes and it's kind of
• 24:36
  mind blowing to me that A,
• 24:37
  it's been that long and B, like, you know,
• 24:40
  I've managed to stick it out.
• 24:43
  Yeah, it's been really great.
• 24:46
  Couple quick questions from the audience.
• 24:49
  Predictions on open signups this year?
• 24:52
  Lots.
• 24:54
  I bet we get 350,000 people.
• 24:58
  Wow.
• 24:59
  That's, I think, where we're going to.
• 25:00
  That's my hope.
• 25:03
  And you can choose to answer this or not.
• 25:05
  Do you still talk to Greg?
• 25:07
  I don't talk to Greg regularly,
• 25:09
  but I did see him at Legends in December.
• 25:13
  So that's cool.
• 25:13
  He and Sevan showed up,
• 25:14
  and so I got to catch up
• 25:15
  with him a little bit there.
• 25:16
  Yeah, that was great.
• 25:18
  I'm trying to think the last
• 25:19
  time I talked to him prior to that.
• 25:21
  It had been a while.
• 25:22
  So, yeah, it was nice to catch up.
• 25:25
  Cool.
• 25:27
  So the other person that
• 25:28
  came into your life about a
• 25:30
  year and a half ago is CEO Don Fall.
• 25:35
  And I want to ask just the
• 25:37
  overarching question,
• 25:38
  what kind of support do you,
• 25:40
  cause I've been a very
• 25:42
  staunch supporter of Don
• 25:44
  since he took over.
• 25:45
  Um, I like what he says.
• 25:47
  I know that some of it is CEO speak,
• 25:50
  but I'd like to like dive
• 25:51
  into it and try to figure it out.
• 25:53
  And I've been a very staunch
• 25:55
  supporter of him.
• 25:56
  What kind of support do you get from Don?
• 25:59
  Um, this is a great question.
• 26:01
  And I would say that number one,
• 26:03
  Don was put in a really hard spot,
• 26:05
  you know, like I think it's, um, man, I,
• 26:08
  I could not imagine coming
• 26:10
  into CrossFit in the modern
• 26:12
  era and being plunked down and said,
• 26:14
  and being told, Hey,
• 26:15
  you gotta figure this business out,
• 26:18
  you know, like this, uh,
• 26:19
  there's a lot going on there.
• 26:21
  Um,
• 26:21
  and he inherited a lot of good things
• 26:23
  with that.
• 26:23
  And he inherited a lot of things that,
• 26:25
  you know,
• 26:25
  maybe weren't as smooth as they
• 26:26
  could have been.
• 26:27
  And so I think to Don's credit,
• 26:29
  what he's really tried hard
• 26:30
  to do in my eyes is get the
• 26:33
  different groups talking to
• 26:35
  each other more and
• 26:36
  soundboarding off of each other.
• 26:38
  Kind of my point about how
• 26:40
  important that is between Dave and I,
• 26:41
  it's like, yeah,
• 26:42
  if you have the seminar
• 26:43
  team and they're not
• 26:44
  talking to the affiliate team,
• 26:46
  that's a real problem.
• 26:47
  And so when people have
• 26:49
  plans interdepartmentally,
• 26:52
  the people inside the
• 26:53
  company can't be the last ones to know.
• 26:55
  And unfortunately, in the past,
• 26:57
  that has been the case.
• 26:58
  And so I think he's done a
• 26:59
  lot of work to help build
• 27:01
  trust within the team that, hey,
• 27:03
  we're going to talk about
• 27:04
  these things together.
• 27:05
  We're going to move forward together.
• 27:06
  And in that way,
• 27:08
  I think that's very supportive.
• 27:11
  because like I said in the
• 27:12
  past sometimes it's like
• 27:13
  hey you hear something and
• 27:14
  the next thing you know
• 27:15
  it's out in the open public
• 27:16
  and that's the direction
• 27:17
  you're moving you're like
• 27:17
  wow I didn't work here for
• 27:19
  10 years and I didn't know
• 27:20
  that that was coming down
• 27:21
  the pipe so so I'm going to
• 27:25
  try to phrase this in a way
• 27:26
  that makes sense but you've
• 27:28
  been around since the
• 27:28
  beginning well not quite I
• 27:32
  I'm like second wave kind of
• 27:34
  So this whole thing started with,
• 27:36
  with as a barbecue at Dave's ranch.
• 27:39
  Oh, we're talking the games.
• 27:40
  Yeah.
• 27:40
  Yeah.
• 27:42
  Um, and through that, as you grew,
• 27:47
  there were missteps taken
• 27:49
  in the way things were
• 27:49
  communicated in the way things were done.
• 27:52
  Now we're going through this
• 27:53
  wave with Don fall and he's
• 27:55
  learning on the fly as well.
• 27:57
  And it's almost like a repeat,
• 28:00
  in my opinion,
• 28:01
  from the early days of the games.
• 28:04
  Do you feel that being
• 28:07
  inside for both waves?
• 28:10
  I'm curious what you mean.
• 28:12
  I'm not sure I follow.
• 28:14
  It's a repeat from the early days.
• 28:16
  In what way?
• 28:18
  So I think,
• 28:19
  and Don himself has admitted
• 28:21
  that communication could
• 28:23
  have been better on this
• 28:25
  announcement or that announcement.
• 28:27
  Sure, yeah.
• 28:28
  And it's almost like
• 28:32
  Because you almost have to
• 28:34
  be ingrained in this
• 28:35
  community to understand the
• 28:38
  feedback you're going to
• 28:38
  get and how instant it is.
• 28:42
  And it's almost like he's
• 28:45
  going through what you all
• 28:46
  went through in the early 2010s.
• 28:52
  I see,
• 28:53
  meaning he personally may not have
• 28:56
  been ready for the kind of
• 28:58
  just immediacy the
• 28:59
  community brings to the table.
• 29:00
  Is that what you're saying?
• 29:01
  Correct.
• 29:02
  The criticism,
• 29:03
  it bounces back on every announcement.
• 29:06
  Right.
• 29:07
  Well,
• 29:08
  I guess that's kind of where our
• 29:10
  responsibility, our meaning, you know,
• 29:12
  myself,
• 29:14
  all of the other old school people
• 29:15
  that are still working for CrossFit,
• 29:17
  you know,
• 29:17
  people that have been through
• 29:18
  these kinds of ups and downs.
• 29:20
  You know,
• 29:21
  I do think that that's part of
• 29:22
  our responsibility
• 29:23
  professionally is to let them know,
• 29:26
  you know,
• 29:26
  when things like this can happen
• 29:29
  and what's to be expected.
• 29:33
  Because yeah,
• 29:33
  you can't be privy to all conversations,
• 29:35
  especially if you haven't
• 29:36
  been there in the past, right?
• 29:37
  So I think that's the give and take.
• 29:41
  If he's going to be an effective leader,
• 29:44
  back to this theme of trust,
• 29:45
  it's like the only way that
• 29:47
  you can effectively lead is
• 29:48
  if you have people under
• 29:48
  you that are willing to
• 29:50
  work with you and to help you.
• 29:54
  Leadership isn't just a one-way street.
• 29:55
  It's not a dictate, right?
• 29:57
  And if it is,
• 29:58
  it's probably not a very
• 29:58
  healthy organization.
• 30:01
  Yeah, I just,
• 30:04
  I want to get to a place
• 30:05
  where we're not cleaning up
• 30:06
  messes and we're just moving forward.
• 30:10
  And not that they're big messes,
• 30:12
  it's just when they happen,
• 30:15
  it's just frustrating,
• 30:16
  especially when you're
• 30:17
  embedded in this community
• 30:19
  of people who react.
• 30:21
  Yeah, it can get loud, that's for sure.
• 30:23
  Yeah.
• 30:25
  Well, let's move on from that.
• 30:26
  I want to get to rule changes,
• 30:28
  but real quick,
• 30:28
  I just noticed in your background,
• 30:31
  the alpaca trophy,
• 30:34
  and there's two of them.
• 30:36
  Did Roman give you both?
• 30:39
  I got to say, I mean, what a sweetheart.
• 30:41
  Yes, he did.
• 30:43
  He won the one this year and
• 30:46
  gave it to me on the field, and he said,
• 30:47
  I had the other one with me
• 30:49
  so that if I won them,
• 30:50
  I was going to give them both to you.
• 30:52
  I was like, oh, man, what a guy.
• 30:54
  So, yeah, it was really sweet, actually.
• 30:56
  At the end of the games this year,
• 30:57
  a lot of the athletes had
• 31:00
  put like – they took his
• 31:02
  locker room sign off of the –
• 31:05
  the changing, you know,
• 31:06
  athlete area and they all
• 31:08
  signed it and they got some
• 31:09
  of the key staff to sign it as well.
• 31:10
  And they presented it to him.
• 31:12
  And then, uh, you know,
• 31:13
  we had the spirit of the
• 31:14
  games award obviously for him.
• 31:16
  And then he had those for me
• 31:18
  and we kind of like
• 31:19
  exchanged signatures on some things.
• 31:21
  Like I signed a spirit of
• 31:22
  the games and he signed those for me.
• 31:23
  So yeah,
• 31:24
  it was a pretty cool moment for sure.
• 31:25
  Oh, very cool.
• 31:28
  so looking at some of the
• 31:30
  changes for the season
• 31:32
  we've now changed our
• 31:33
  quarterfinals right so now
• 31:36
  we're the top 25 percent
• 31:39
  with that um so do you
• 31:41
  think this is going to push
• 31:43
  people beyond their limits
• 31:45
  are we going to make it a
• 31:46
  more doable thing for the group
• 31:50
  A little bit of both.
• 31:51
  I mean,
• 31:51
  there will certainly be some things where,
• 31:53
  I mean, look,
• 31:55
  I'm like the perfect
• 31:56
  candidate for somebody that
• 31:57
  can skin of their teeth,
• 31:59
  get into the quarterfinals
• 32:01
  and knowing what I know and
• 32:02
  doing what I do for, you know,
• 32:04
  the competition.
• 32:06
  you know,
• 32:06
  am I going to be able to make it
• 32:08
  through each one of those workouts and be,
• 32:10
  you know, just cruising,
• 32:12
  but just get beat by
• 32:13
  somebody who's faster?
• 32:14
  No, you know,
• 32:15
  there's going to be some
• 32:16
  things that are going to be
• 32:17
  difficult and challenging for sure.
• 32:20
  So what I've really put out
• 32:22
  to our team and what's
• 32:23
  really important to me that
• 32:25
  we're looking at when it
• 32:26
  gets to quarterfinals is, okay, you know,
• 32:28
  we want everybody to be
• 32:28
  able to get to the start
• 32:30
  line and begin the race and
• 32:33
  even if not everybody gets
• 32:34
  to finish the race.
• 32:35
  So if you're a
• 32:36
  quarterfinalist and you qualify,
• 32:38
  you'll be able to start,
• 32:40
  you'll be able to get some
• 32:41
  work under your belt,
• 32:43
  but there's going to be
• 32:44
  some instances where, yeah,
• 32:45
  only the best are going to
• 32:46
  take it all the way.
• 32:50
  Before we move on, Wadzomi asks,
• 32:52
  is that a hint that we'll
• 32:53
  see Alpaca again this year?
• 32:54
  You just have to wait and find out.
• 32:56
  A three-peat, you never know.
• 33:00
  Um, and, uh, Kenneth has a name for it.
• 33:03
  The tribe.
• 33:04
  I like it.
• 33:06
  Um, so with the 25%,
• 33:10
  that's a lot more people.
• 33:12
  It was announced recently
• 33:13
  that you are putting together a,
• 33:15
  an online judging team to
• 33:18
  help with review.
• 33:21
  Can you briefly walk us
• 33:22
  through what their responsibility is?
• 33:24
  Is it final decision or just
• 33:26
  like a sorting group to get
• 33:28
  to the main judges?
• 33:30
  Yeah, great question.
• 33:31
  So this is something that is
• 33:34
  not constant every year.
• 33:35
  Like we always look at our
• 33:36
  review plans and they're
• 33:37
  always evolving based on a
• 33:43
  number of factors, right?
• 33:44
  How many days do we have to
• 33:45
  resolve the leaderboard?
• 33:47
  How many reviews can we
• 33:48
  support within that time?
• 33:50
  How many athletes do we have progressing?
• 33:52
  How many people do we have available?
• 33:54
  There's all sorts of
• 33:54
  questions that go into structuring that.
• 33:58
  But broadly,
• 33:59
  the process for the person
• 34:01
  working is relatively
• 34:02
  similar year over year.
• 34:03
  So if you're just a review
• 34:05
  judge that's on that team,
• 34:06
  you are not making final
• 34:07
  decisions in most cases,
• 34:09
  unless it's complete
• 34:13
  catastrophe,
• 34:14
  what you are doing is making notes,
• 34:16
  making sure that you are
• 34:18
  accurately assessing what's
• 34:20
  happening in front of you.
• 34:22
  And if you believe that a
• 34:23
  penalty needs to be levied,
• 34:24
  then that's going to be put
• 34:25
  up to the next layer of team lead.
• 34:28
  And so then the team leads
• 34:29
  will take a look and they'll, you know,
• 34:31
  make a determination.
• 34:32
  If they still can't make a determination,
• 34:34
  then it gets pushed up to
• 34:35
  one of our senior staff and
• 34:37
  they can take a third look at it.
• 34:39
  And regardless of the outcome, you know,
• 34:41
  the athlete can always
• 34:42
  appeal the decision and all
• 34:43
  they have to do is contact
• 34:44
  us and let us know.
• 34:45
  There's a timeframe that
• 34:46
  they have to do that.
• 34:48
  And if that happens,
• 34:49
  then that'll trigger
• 34:50
  another review from a
• 34:51
  separate person that has
• 34:52
  not already been involved
• 34:54
  in those initial reviews.
• 34:55
  So all that to say,
• 34:57
  I think the misconception,
• 34:59
  because things happen,
• 35:02
  there's no way for somebody
• 35:04
  to have full visibility of
• 35:06
  that process because of the
• 35:07
  decentralized nature of it.
• 35:10
  I think that leads people to
• 35:11
  fill in the blanks.
• 35:12
  with information that's not
• 35:13
  correct sometimes, where it's like,
• 35:15
  oh yeah,
• 35:15
  I just have some judge firing off
• 35:18
  a decision on me and it's
• 35:19
  just some faceless person
• 35:20
  that I'll never get to contact.
• 35:21
  It's like, no,
• 35:21
  the process is more involved than that.
• 35:24
  And there's going to be
• 35:25
  multiple people looking at
• 35:27
  your video if a major penalty is levied.
• 35:30
  So that's really important
• 35:31
  for people to understand.
• 35:33
  And also important for
• 35:34
  people to understand that appeals process,
• 35:35
  we take that really seriously.
• 35:37
  And we do make sure that
• 35:38
  it's not the same person
• 35:40
  that was involved in any
• 35:41
  step of that review along
• 35:43
  the way that fields your
• 35:45
  appeal so that it's a fresh pair of eyes.
• 35:48
  They get to see it again in
• 35:49
  the light of day.
• 35:49
  And it does happen sometimes
• 35:51
  where there's a disagreement.
• 35:52
  The person that fields the
• 35:53
  appeal looks at it and they say,
• 35:54
  you know what?
• 35:55
  Yeah, I think this judge was incorrect.
• 35:57
  I think this was the wrong decision.
• 35:58
  And it does get overturned.
• 35:59
  So yeah.
• 36:01
  Speaking of the judging,
• 36:03
  this year's judging course, big fan.
• 36:06
  Oh, good.
• 36:07
  Thank you.
• 36:07
  I thought it was great.
• 36:08
  It was very comprehensive,
• 36:10
  but it just flowed together
• 36:12
  so much smoother than the years prior,
• 36:14
  I think.
• 36:14
  Yeah, credit to the team on that.
• 36:15
  Dave Eubanks was a big
• 36:18
  driver of that project this year.
• 36:21
  And hats off to the team.
• 36:22
  That was a big focus was, hey, you know,
• 36:24
  we've heard feedback from
• 36:26
  the judges course year over year.
• 36:27
  And I think the most
• 36:28
  frustrating thing about it
• 36:29
  is having to retake some of
• 36:30
  those sections again and again.
• 36:32
  If you get the wrong question,
• 36:34
  that can be pretty infuriating.
• 36:35
  So how can we alleviate that?
• 36:37
  It sounds like from a lot of
• 36:38
  the feedback we've got that
• 36:39
  we did a pretty good job
• 36:40
  with that this year.
• 36:41
  I think so for sure.
• 36:43
  And just to finish up the online judging,
• 36:46
  it's not just like you sign
• 36:47
  up and you do it.
• 36:48
  It's an application process.
• 36:50
  Correct.
• 36:50
  These are people that have
• 36:52
  done it in the past who
• 36:53
  have a history of judging.
• 36:56
  And so it's not just me and
• 36:58
  Amy in there just picking who we like.
• 37:01
  Correct.
• 37:02
  Yes.
• 37:03
  Right.
• 37:04
  Yeah, there's a whole process.
• 37:05
  And that's one of the things that, again,
• 37:08
  it's a tough part of the
• 37:09
  season because of the timing, right?
• 37:13
  We,
• 37:14
  meaning the team resolving this
• 37:16
  competition,
• 37:16
  we're always at a bit of a
• 37:17
  time disadvantage.
• 37:19
  because the scores get
• 37:20
  submitted the competition's
• 37:21
  over everything's kind of
• 37:22
  said and done and then it
• 37:23
  takes us a long time to
• 37:25
  sort through the volume of
• 37:28
  video reviews and to do it
• 37:29
  correctly meaning yeah it's
• 37:31
  not just a judge making
• 37:33
  decisions unilaterally and
• 37:35
  there are multiple people
• 37:36
  in this process yeah it
• 37:38
  takes a long time and
• 37:39
  that's why we have this uh
• 37:40
  you know period where the
• 37:41
  competition's over
• 37:43
  But we still have that 10, you know,
• 37:46
  sometime shorter,
• 37:47
  depending on how quickly we
• 37:48
  can through things,
• 37:49
  period of time where the
• 37:51
  results aren't final.
• 37:52
  And I get that that's a
• 37:53
  little unsatisfying because you're like,
• 37:54
  man,
• 37:54
  the competition closed on Sunday or
• 37:56
  whenever it was.
• 37:58
  And it's now the next
• 38:00
  Saturday and we still
• 38:00
  haven't gotten final results.
• 38:02
  What's the deal?
• 38:02
  Well,
• 38:02
  that's because we're taking the time
• 38:04
  to go through it and, you know,
• 38:06
  execute that process.
• 38:09
  Sarah Cooper asks,
• 38:10
  what are the red flags that
• 38:12
  would trigger a review?
• 38:14
  It depends on, I mean, there's several,
• 38:17
  I mean,
• 38:17
  there's the video submission
• 38:18
  standards that are outlined
• 38:19
  in the rule book.
• 38:20
  So if those aren't followed, that's,
• 38:22
  that's a red flag right out the gate.
• 38:24
  You know,
• 38:25
  there's obvious ones like not
• 38:26
  doing the workout in the
• 38:27
  right order or with the
• 38:28
  right weights or with the
• 38:29
  right rep scheme.
• 38:30
  That's obvious stuff right away.
• 38:33
  And then the more routine
• 38:34
  stuff is just the movement
• 38:35
  quality itself.
• 38:37
  Are these repetitions being
• 38:38
  done to standard?
• 38:40
  You know, and if, if there's a,
• 38:43
  a problem there,
• 38:44
  then that's going to get
• 38:45
  flagged and more people are
• 38:46
  going to have to take a look.
• 38:49
  So I want to move on to semis real quick.
• 38:51
  And that is a couple of
• 38:54
  things I really like and
• 38:55
  one thing I really don't.
• 38:57
  So I'm just going to be transparent.
• 38:58
  Yeah, cool.
• 39:00
  So semis, first of all,
• 39:02
  back to the event organizers.
• 39:05
  I love that.
• 39:06
  These are people that do
• 39:08
  this year over year over
• 39:10
  year and are really good at what they do.
• 39:12
  You have loud and live doing,
• 39:14
  and these are just examples,
• 39:16
  loud and live doing, uh,
• 39:18
  the Carson semifinal.
• 39:19
  You have the 12 labor's crew
• 39:21
  doing syndicate crown.
• 39:23
  Those guys are good at what
• 39:25
  they're incredible.
• 39:26
  Yeah.
• 39:27
  What,
• 39:28
  why was that decision made just after
• 39:30
  a year doing it?
• 39:31
  We're like, we're done.
• 39:34
  I mean, it really just comes down to,
• 39:36
  you know, we have people that are,
• 39:38
  as you pointed out,
• 39:39
  they're skillful at what they do.
• 39:41
  They've done it in the past.
• 39:42
  They've got a track record
• 39:43
  of being able to do these
• 39:44
  things really well.
• 39:45
  And then the reality of the
• 39:47
  size of our team and, you know,
• 39:49
  semifinals last year being
• 39:50
  involved with the larger
• 39:53
  semis that we hosted.
• 39:55
  It was a big stretch for the team,
• 39:57
  you know,
• 39:57
  and there was a lot of impact on
• 39:59
  that that we're like,
• 40:00
  we had to take a hard look and say, okay,
• 40:01
  is this something that we
• 40:02
  can realistically support
• 40:04
  year over year over year?
• 40:06
  And getting back to the
• 40:07
  thread that we talked about before, like,
• 40:09
  do we need to commit to
• 40:10
  doing this the same way?
• 40:12
  And, you know,
• 40:12
  after re-examining it and looking at it,
• 40:15
  you know, a bunch of different ways,
• 40:18
  that was the best outcome was to,
• 40:21
  let's again,
• 40:22
  tap into some of these people
• 40:23
  that have a proven track
• 40:24
  record of throwing great
• 40:25
  events and have them run with it.
• 40:29
  at the games dawn during a
• 40:30
  press conference said,
• 40:32
  you guys are really
• 40:33
  financially stable during
• 40:35
  the open and really
• 40:36
  financially stable at the games.
• 40:38
  It's the middle stuff.
• 40:40
  And that seems where like
• 40:41
  the most changes happened.
• 40:43
  And so I love that he said that.
• 40:46
  And now the actions taken
• 40:48
  are matching that up.
• 40:51
  But here's the one I don't like.
• 40:53
  Yeah, give it to me.
• 40:55
  The cuts in North America
• 40:56
  and Europe from 60 to 40.
• 41:01
  Yeah, fair enough.
• 41:02
  I think that that's a fair criticism,
• 41:04
  you know,
• 41:04
  especially given the competitive depth.
• 41:06
  Totally understand that argument.
• 41:08
  I can see where people, you know,
• 41:09
  they're going to have issue with that.
• 41:11
  You know,
• 41:12
  one of the things that Dave was
• 41:14
  very big on was, OK,
• 41:16
  we've got all these different stages.
• 41:18
  Each stage is run a little
• 41:19
  bit differently.
• 41:20
  Even within each stage,
• 41:22
  there's discrepancies from
• 41:23
  region to region.
• 41:24
  It just makes the whole
• 41:25
  thing really hard to follow.
• 41:27
  as a fan and, you know,
• 41:29
  sometimes as an athlete.
• 41:31
  And so one of the big
• 41:32
  directions that he gave, you know,
• 41:35
  at the end of last year was
• 41:37
  we need to look at ways
• 41:38
  that we can be more
• 41:38
  consistent across the board.
• 41:41
  You know,
• 41:41
  so you know the number of qualifiers,
• 41:43
  you know, the number of seats available.
• 41:46
  et cetera, et cetera.
• 41:48
  That transcends even to,
• 41:49
  if we look at the
• 41:50
  competition structure for quarterfinals,
• 41:53
  the last couple of years
• 41:55
  you had one competition
• 41:57
  schedule for the teams and
• 42:00
  one for the individual groups,
• 42:01
  and they all had slight
• 42:02
  variations to them.
• 42:04
  This year it's like, no,
• 42:04
  we're going to run them all
• 42:06
  in a similar fashion.
• 42:07
  They open on the same day of the week,
• 42:09
  they close on the same day of the week.
• 42:11
  There's about as routine
• 42:14
  execution of that as possible.
• 42:15
  And so we're really kind of
• 42:18
  stemmed out of those conversations.
• 42:20
  It's trying to make things
• 42:22
  more consistent.
• 42:23
  But I do understand that argument of like,
• 42:24
  hey,
• 42:25
  you have a lot of depth in these
• 42:26
  regions and there's
• 42:27
  athletes that were on the
• 42:28
  bubble that they're not
• 42:30
  gonna be there this year.
• 42:30
  So I do understand that.
• 42:34
  Yeah.
• 42:34
  And we,
• 42:37
  I mean,
• 42:38
  this show really embraces the
• 42:40
  semifinal athlete.
• 42:42
  So I think that- And bubble athletes,
• 42:44
  yeah.
• 42:44
  It really hits us hard that
• 42:47
  that will be taken down a bit.
• 42:48
  But you're going back to Carson for semis,
• 42:53
  which I really dove in both
• 42:56
  volunteering and then media
• 42:58
  after you left Carson.
• 43:00
  So I've never been.
• 43:02
  Oh, wow.
• 43:03
  So I'm super excited to finally get there.
• 43:06
  But I have this question,
• 43:08
  are we gonna have
• 43:11
  consistent programming
• 43:13
  throughout all the semis again?
• 43:16
  Yes.
• 43:17
  So the semifinals will all
• 43:18
  be the same program.
• 43:19
  Yep.
• 43:20
  Now, obviously,
• 43:21
  there's going to be venues
• 43:22
  that have various footprints,
• 43:25
  like the Carson Tennis
• 43:26
  Stadium is a little bit of
• 43:27
  a different size than, say,
• 43:30
  maybe a convention center somewhere else.
• 43:32
  So there may be minor
• 43:34
  concessions given to each
• 43:35
  region so that they can fit
• 43:38
  it within the confines of their venue,
• 43:39
  but the program will be the same.
• 43:42
  Okay.
• 43:42
  Because in my head, I'm like,
• 43:44
  how logistically are you going to be?
• 43:47
  One, it's outdoor.
• 43:49
  Two,
• 43:49
  it's a different shape than like a
• 43:51
  basketball court.
• 43:53
  And so how are you going to
• 43:55
  be able to pull that off?
• 43:57
  Yeah.
• 43:57
  And again, it's just looking at, you know,
• 43:59
  the floor layouts may
• 44:01
  change slightly from region
• 44:03
  to region based on their
• 44:03
  venue restrictions,
• 44:04
  but the program itself is
• 44:05
  going to be the same.
• 44:06
  Okay.
• 44:08
  Sounds good.
• 44:08
  And I'm excited.
• 44:09
  That's going to be a blast.
• 44:11
  Uh,
• 44:11
  and it's so cool that they're going back,
• 44:14
  um, those West coast region athletes,
• 44:16
  like that's going to be such a fun event.
• 44:18
  I can't wait.
• 44:20
  Corey says, in other words,
• 44:22
  it'll be regionals.
• 44:23
  Exactly, yeah.
• 44:24
  That's one of the hidden
• 44:25
  most difficult things of
• 44:27
  running CrossFit Games season,
• 44:29
  in my opinion.
• 44:30
  That's always been one of
• 44:32
  the hardest things.
• 44:32
  Like the games,
• 44:33
  you get to the games and
• 44:34
  you literally have an army
• 44:35
  of people that are willing
• 44:36
  to make changes on the fly,
• 44:38
  adjust as needed.
• 44:39
  It's not to say it always goes perfectly,
• 44:42
  but there's a willingness
• 44:44
  to adapt and it's only one show.
• 44:47
  And so if a change of plan happens,
• 44:50
  sometimes people don't even
• 44:51
  know because they didn't
• 44:52
  know the original plan
• 44:53
  until the updated plan was executed.
• 44:56
  Right.
• 44:57
  When you contrast that with
• 44:58
  something like semis or regionals, man,
• 45:00
  regionals were very,
• 45:01
  very difficult to run
• 45:03
  because the game was replication.
• 45:05
  You've got, you know,
• 45:07
  at one point we had like 12
• 45:08
  different semi or regional events,
• 45:11
  you know,
• 45:11
  and we're running different
• 45:12
  venues in different countries,
• 45:14
  often in different time
• 45:15
  zones with different layouts.
• 45:16
  And we're trying to be as,
• 45:18
  consistent as possible,
• 45:20
  replicating that with different staff,
• 45:21
  different volunteers, very,
• 45:23
  very challenging thing to do.
• 45:25
  And so that's always the
• 45:27
  goal is to try to get it to
• 45:28
  be as close across the board as you can.
• 45:31
  But I think the more mature
• 45:34
  approach is like understanding that, yes,
• 45:37
  certain venues are going to
• 45:37
  have certain limitations.
• 45:38
  And that doesn't mean that
• 45:40
  we have to try to force it
• 45:41
  into the same box.
• 45:45
  And the programming can
• 45:46
  still remain the same.
• 45:47
  It just looks maybe a little
• 45:48
  bit different.
• 45:50
  It's so funny you talk about
• 45:51
  that because my first games
• 45:53
  volunteer experience was
• 45:54
  very different than regionals, right?
• 45:57
  At the games, I was working North Park 17,
• 46:03
  Strongman Sphere.
• 46:05
  That changed like three
• 46:07
  times before we ever took the floor.
• 46:10
  And we're back in one of those barns,
• 46:11
  like just practicing how to
• 46:14
  load the equipment, get it ready.
• 46:16
  And then there'd be a change
• 46:17
  and we'd have to do it again.
• 46:19
  um and you're right there's
• 46:20
  just a super team of
• 46:21
  volunteers and people all
• 46:24
  willing to practice that
• 46:25
  and do that on a moment's
• 46:27
  notice yeah and again you
• 46:30
  know contrast that in the
• 46:31
  semifinals regionals um
• 46:34
  kind of sphere any decision
• 46:36
  like that has such a long
• 46:38
  tail you know not only in
• 46:40
  executing it on site but
• 46:42
  trying to communicate to
• 46:42
  the other regions so they can do the same
• 46:45
  updating the documentation
• 46:46
  so everybody's looking at the same thing.
• 46:48
  There's a lot more involved
• 46:49
  to try to get that many
• 46:51
  people on the same page
• 46:53
  across different areas than
• 46:55
  it is to have to do it once.
• 46:58
  Even if it is on a huge stage,
• 47:00
  obviously the games,
• 47:02
  doing it once is a different thing.
• 47:06
  so we're going to get into
• 47:06
  age groups now and Corey
• 47:08
  says Scott tell Boz I said
• 47:10
  thank you for making
• 47:11
  Masters semifinals top 200
• 47:13
  again so you're saying
• 47:14
  there's a chance yeah right
• 47:15
  on Corey go get them um you
• 47:20
  did visits to the pit to
• 47:22
  Legends um to wheel wad
• 47:25
  yeah and I saw Heather at MFC even
• 47:29
  What were your takeaways and
• 47:31
  what were you trying to
• 47:33
  achieve by making those visits,
• 47:36
  knowing that they're going
• 47:37
  to be split off and running
• 47:39
  it for the first time?
• 47:41
  Yeah, I mean,
• 47:41
  really just wanted to show
• 47:43
  some support to those event organizers.
• 47:45
  I mean, it's not,
• 47:47
  it's a little bit of hubris
• 47:48
  to think you're gonna show
• 47:49
  up and like help them out.
• 47:50
  It's like, they know what they're doing.
• 47:52
  That's why we've selected
• 47:53
  them as events to take these divisions.
• 47:57
  And so really it's like, hey,
• 47:59
  if we're onsite and we can
• 48:00
  connect the dots on some things,
• 48:02
  or if they do wanna talk
• 48:03
  and pick our brains about
• 48:04
  ways that we approach things,
• 48:06
  we were happy to do that.
• 48:07
  And in some instances we did.
• 48:10
  But really,
• 48:10
  it was just about relationship
• 48:12
  building and making sure
• 48:13
  that they understand that, like, yeah,
• 48:14
  we're taking this seriously
• 48:15
  and they're really
• 48:16
  important partners to us.
• 48:17
  And so we're going to show up.
• 48:19
  It was as simple as that.
• 48:21
  What will your involvement
• 48:23
  be with the programming there?
• 48:25
  For each one of those events,
• 48:28
  they are largely
• 48:30
  responsible for their own programming,
• 48:32
  but they're going to
• 48:32
  soundboard off of us.
• 48:33
  And we've already started
• 48:34
  that process with a couple of them,
• 48:36
  which is really fun.
• 48:38
  And, uh,
• 48:39
  from the initial conversations we have,
• 48:41
  it sounds like it's fun
• 48:41
  both ways because you know,
• 48:43
  you don't always get to
• 48:45
  have people with experience
• 48:47
  that love to run events.
• 48:49
  Uh, you know,
• 48:49
  take a look at your stuff and,
• 48:50
  and kind of go back and forth with it.
• 48:52
  So, um,
• 48:53
  so far it's been a really fun process.
• 48:57
  at what point will they pick
• 48:59
  up the programming during the season?
• 49:02
  Because the Open is their qualifier,
• 49:04
  just like it is for the elite athletes.
• 49:07
  Yes.
• 49:07
  Yeah.
• 49:08
  So if you think about,
• 49:11
  Wheelwod's a little bit more unique.
• 49:13
  They'll run their secondary
• 49:14
  stage after the Open,
• 49:15
  and it'll be mostly their program,
• 49:19
  almost exclusively.
• 49:20
  And then the games, they'll do that too.
• 49:23
  We'll soundboard with them.
• 49:24
  We'll help them review that
• 49:26
  as much or as little as they'd like.
• 49:29
  The age groupers for both Legends and Pit,
• 49:34
  when we get to the semifinal stage,
• 49:36
  so that's still online, that's the 200,
• 49:38
  like Corey just mentioned,
• 49:40
  that'll be a joint effort.
• 49:41
  So the Legends and Pit...
• 49:45
  They're going to take the first swing,
• 49:46
  and then we'll kind of come
• 49:47
  back and forth and craft it with them.
• 49:49
  We're going to be doing the review on it,
• 49:51
  so we want to make sure
• 49:52
  that it's something that's
• 49:52
  viable for online
• 49:53
  competition and makes sense
• 49:55
  in that format.
• 49:56
  But they're going to take first swing.
• 49:57
  And then, obviously,
• 49:59
  when they get to the finals,
• 50:00
  it'll be them generating
• 50:02
  the program with our kind of overview.
• 50:07
  this is my personal plea.
• 50:09
  It's been my, my thorn in my side.
• 50:12
  It,
• 50:13
  you guys do it so well and it makes it
• 50:16
  so noticeable at other events.
• 50:19
  People should always finish
• 50:21
  opposite the chaos.
• 50:25
  What do you mean by that?
• 50:27
  So if at the end of the lane, I mean,
• 50:30
  I like it as a statement,
• 50:31
  but illustrate it for us.
• 50:35
  Finish line.
• 50:37
  right so and I've been
• 50:39
  critical of legends and mfc
• 50:41
  and and all of that because
• 50:44
  a lot of times you can't
• 50:45
  tell who's going for chalk
• 50:46
  or who just finished yeah
• 50:48
  because the chaos the chaos
• 50:50
  of the workout is going on
• 50:52
  in that same spot as the
• 50:53
  finish line got it yeah so
• 50:56
  rather than have they
• 50:57
  should run down the floor
• 50:59
  away from the chaos so you
• 51:01
  can see who's finishing when
• 51:05
  Well, I love that point.
• 51:06
  And hopefully,
• 51:06
  that's one of the things
• 51:07
  that we can help them with
• 51:09
  that's kind of adjacent to programming.
• 51:13
  A floor layout, ultimately,
• 51:15
  if the test makes a lot of
• 51:17
  sense and it's appropriate
• 51:20
  holistically when you look
• 51:21
  at everything else that's going on,
• 51:24
  The way it's laid out
• 51:26
  probably shouldn't take
• 51:27
  priority over some of these
• 51:28
  other important factors,
• 51:29
  but there's always ways to
• 51:32
  approach things that a
• 51:33
  fresh set of eyes can help out with.
• 51:36
  Again, to Dave's credit,
• 51:37
  I think that's something
• 51:37
  he's always been very critical of is,
• 51:39
  what's the race?
• 51:40
  What does it look like to
• 51:41
  try to follow this thing?
• 51:43
  And so that's one of the
• 51:44
  ways that we can help to
• 51:45
  support these groups.
• 51:48
  Even if we're not like
• 51:49
  changing the program per se,
• 51:51
  we can at least filter it
• 51:52
  that way and say, okay, well,
• 51:53
  what does it look like when
• 51:54
  we actually have to spectate it?
• 51:56
  How can we make that better,
• 51:57
  even if the program isn't
• 51:58
  really changing?
• 52:01
  So here's the difficult question,
• 52:02
  and I know you probably
• 52:04
  don't have a lot that you can tell us,
• 52:06
  but we don't know the dates
• 52:09
  for Pit and Legends.
• 52:11
  We don't know the location for Legends,
• 52:13
  and I know that probably
• 52:15
  wasn't your intent at this point.
• 52:18
  Yeah, I mean, it's the... Oh, sorry,
• 52:20
  I'll let you finish your question.
• 52:21
  No, go ahead.
• 52:22
  I'll let you answer that part.
• 52:24
  Yeah, I was just going to say, I mean,
• 52:26
  that's the large event...
• 52:30
  difficulty you know like
• 52:31
  securing a venue that makes
• 52:33
  sense to the organization
• 52:34
  financially that supports
• 52:36
  the dates that are you know
• 52:38
  reasonable from the last
• 52:40
  qualifier uh that your
• 52:42
  staff can attend that you
• 52:44
  can you know have a good
• 52:46
  confidence that you'll have
• 52:46
  a volunteer pool available
• 52:49
  You know, like,
• 52:49
  that's not an easy thing to do.
• 52:52
  And it's not a decision
• 52:53
  that's that's taken lightly,
• 52:55
  at least if you want to do it well.
• 52:58
  So again,
• 52:58
  it's like it's unsatisfying when
• 52:59
  you have these divisions
• 53:00
  that don't know exactly
• 53:01
  where when their final is going to be.
• 53:02
  Yeah, nobody wants that for sure.
• 53:05
  But do I want the diligence
• 53:08
  to be done so that the
• 53:09
  right venue is selected for
• 53:10
  the right reasons?
• 53:11
  Absolutely.
• 53:13
  I'd rather that, as imperfect as that is,
• 53:16
  that that's not a hasty
• 53:18
  decision that's pressured by like, hey,
• 53:21
  we need to know immediately.
• 53:22
  It's like, no,
• 53:22
  let's get to the best outcome first,
• 53:25
  and then as soon as we know,
• 53:25
  we can announce it.
• 53:28
  So I had a talk with one of your coworkers
• 53:32
  that said that something
• 53:34
  that's exciting them is
• 53:35
  that you guys are talking
• 53:38
  in blocks of years future
• 53:40
  wise as opposed to year to
• 53:42
  year so my question about
• 53:44
  what's happened with these
• 53:45
  dates is are we putting
• 53:48
  systems in place so that
• 53:50
  we're not dealing with this
• 53:51
  year after year
• 53:53
  That's the hope.
• 53:54
  And that's across the board.
• 53:56
  So I think we have to recognize, excuse me,
• 54:00
  that the decision to have
• 54:04
  these events take on some
• 54:07
  of the divisional finals,
• 54:09
  it happened pretty quickly.
• 54:11
  And we were right before
• 54:15
  2024 when everything was
• 54:16
  getting finalized.
• 54:17
  That's not a lot of time for
• 54:19
  an event planning cycle to
• 54:20
  secure a venue and to have
• 54:21
  all that ready to go.
• 54:23
  So yes,
• 54:25
  I think now that this is an
• 54:27
  established path forward
• 54:29
  and we haven't run it yet,
• 54:30
  so I'm speculating a little bit.
• 54:32
  I think it's going to be a great outcome.
• 54:33
  I think it's going to be the
• 54:34
  right thing for those divisions.
• 54:38
  And so all that being said, yes,
• 54:39
  it allows us to be earlier
• 54:41
  with all of these types of
• 54:42
  decisions in future years.
• 54:46
  So I have two good questions
• 54:47
  from the crowd.
• 54:49
  First one is Wadzombie.
• 54:51
  Will there be any changes to
• 54:53
  media access for the game
• 54:54
  season this year?
• 54:55
  Less restrictions, more restrictions?
• 54:58
  That's a great question.
• 54:59
  I don't have a good answer
• 55:00
  yet because we're still
• 55:01
  sorting through a lot of that.
• 55:02
  So I don't know.
• 55:03
  I got to plead the fifth.
• 55:04
  Sorry, man.
• 55:05
  Clydesdale gets everything.
• 55:06
  Everybody else.
• 55:09
  Yeah.
• 55:10
  Yeah.
• 55:10
  Special access for Scott
• 55:11
  because he invited me on
• 55:12
  and we'll figure the rest
• 55:13
  of you guys out later.
• 55:17
  Carolyn Prevost.
• 55:19
  Hi, Boz.
• 55:19
  Hey, what's up?
• 55:21
  Just getting on here right now,
• 55:22
  wondering if you guys
• 55:22
  talked about putting age
• 55:24
  group events in adaptive
• 55:25
  divisions prior to the
• 55:26
  games to showcase it during
• 55:28
  commercials or between events.
• 55:32
  Yeah, I love that idea.
• 55:33
  And no, we hadn't talked about it.
• 55:35
  Those event organizers have
• 55:37
  looked at dates on both ends of things.
• 55:41
  And internally,
• 55:43
  we think that either way is
• 55:44
  a win for exactly the
• 55:45
  reasons that you just mentioned.
• 55:47
  It's like if they go earlier
• 55:49
  than the individuals and teams, well,
• 55:51
  great.
• 55:51
  We'll have things to talk
• 55:52
  about with those divisions.
• 55:55
  And if they go later, well, then great.
• 55:56
  They get the entire spotlight.
• 55:58
  And we can really hype up
• 55:59
  during the games that, hey,
• 56:00
  there's more to come.
• 56:01
  So either way,
• 56:02
  I think it's going to be a good look.
• 56:08
  Well,
• 56:09
  that's all the grilling I have for
• 56:10
  you today.
• 56:10
  Oh, man, that's it?
• 56:13
  Yeah.
• 56:14
  Yeah.
• 56:15
  What part of the season do
• 56:16
  you get most excited for?
• 56:20
  Man, that's a good question.
• 56:24
  I'd like if I had to pick one,
• 56:25
  which that's the question.
• 56:27
  The games, for sure.
• 56:28
  There's just nothing like it.
• 56:31
  And we've been in so many
• 56:33
  situations with the games
• 56:35
  over the years where it's like, man,
• 56:36
  can we even pull this off?
• 56:38
  And then we do, and I don't know,
• 56:40
  there's something about the
• 56:41
  games that's really special.
• 56:43
  So if I had to pick one, that's it.
• 56:45
  But every stage has its own
• 56:48
  really cool aspect to it, in my opinion.
• 56:51
  The open is the open.
• 56:54
  I love the open.
• 56:56
  What's to be said about that?
• 56:58
  Just getting that many
• 56:59
  people fired up about this
• 57:01
  fringe thing I think is so cool.
• 57:05
  Quarterfinals is where you
• 57:06
  really start to get to see
• 57:07
  people separate.
• 57:08
  And to me,
• 57:09
  that's always fun where you're like, hey,
• 57:10
  I do CrossFit and you do CrossFit,
• 57:12
  but wait a minute.
• 57:13
  maybe you're doing something
• 57:15
  a little bit different.
• 57:18
  There's levels that start to
• 57:19
  emerge at that stage.
• 57:21
  And then the semis is just
• 57:23
  kind of a continuation of that.
• 57:24
  I think the live format
• 57:26
  can't be beat in my opinion.
• 57:27
  So like getting to that where you're like,
• 57:31
  all right,
• 57:31
  now we get to see these people
• 57:32
  away from their comfortable
• 57:35
  training environment,
• 57:36
  away from their routine.
• 57:40
  How does that play out?
• 57:41
  What does it look like when
• 57:41
  you get these people all in
• 57:42
  the same room competing on
• 57:43
  the same floor?
• 57:45
  That's really great.
• 57:46
  Then culminating in the games is awesome.
• 57:49
  So you brought up levels.
• 57:51
  So speaking of levels,
• 57:52
  are we doing anything with these levels?
• 57:56
  We're going to run the same
• 57:58
  basic program that we have run.
• 58:01
  Meaning, yes,
• 58:01
  you'll get a level out of the open.
• 58:05
  If you're at that level
• 58:06
  where you're moving to the quarters,
• 58:07
  you'll be able to refine
• 58:08
  your level at quarters.
• 58:11
  And we don't have a huge
• 58:13
  expansion on that for this season.
• 58:15
  But again, we're looking at hopefully...
• 58:18
  back to the point about years out,
• 58:20
  that this will be something
• 58:21
  that we can continue to
• 58:22
  slowly evolve over time to the point that
• 58:26
  it trickles down into the community,
• 58:28
  even with events that maybe
• 58:29
  aren't directly tied to us.
• 58:32
  Because I do think that
• 58:33
  there's a need for local
• 58:34
  events to just have a
• 58:36
  better handle of who
• 58:37
  they're putting these events on for.
• 58:40
  I've heard it at the local
• 58:40
  level many times where you
• 58:41
  have somebody who's like, man,
• 58:43
  I was really excited to
• 58:44
  compete until so-and-so
• 58:46
  showed up and they just
• 58:47
  blew everybody out of the water.
• 58:48
  And it kind of dampened the effect,
• 58:50
  knowing that we're not
• 58:52
  really playing the same game.
• 58:53
  Exactly.
• 58:56
  Yeah,
• 58:56
  I think there's lots to be done there
• 58:58
  with that system.
• 58:59
  We just haven't been able to
• 59:01
  prioritize that yet.
• 59:03
  Still developing.
• 59:05
  Yep.
• 59:06
  That's what Amy used to do all the time.
• 59:08
  She'd show up at
• 59:08
  competitions and crush everybody,
• 59:13
  take all the prize money, all the fit aid,
• 59:16
  walk away.
• 59:17
  Love it.
• 59:19
  Yeah, she's ruthless that way.
• 59:21
  Hey, man, somebody's got to do it, right?
• 59:24
  That's right.
• 59:25
  It's tough winning all the time.
• 59:26
  Until they get a better handle on it,
• 59:27
  I'm going to keep showing up.
• 59:31
  Well,
• 59:32
  hopefully we get to see Roe vs. Boz
• 59:34
  again this year in some form or fashion.
• 59:37
  It'd be awesome to see it live again.
• 59:40
  Oh, man.
• 59:42
  You're giving me all sorts
• 59:44
  of anxiety just thinking about that.
• 59:48
  Apparently, that's my job this show.
• 59:50
  Nobody gets the games.
• 59:51
  Roe vs. Boz live.
• 59:54
  Yep.
• 59:55
  No, I'll recover.
• 59:55
  It'll be all right.
• 59:57
  Well,
• 59:58
  I want to thank you so much for being
• 59:59
  on and answering our questions.
• 1:00:01
  I look forward to seeing you
• 1:00:02
  out on the road as we get
• 1:00:04
  through the season this year.
• 1:00:06
  I can't wait to get back to
• 1:00:08
  to get to go to Carson for
• 1:00:10
  the first time ever.
• 1:00:11
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:00:12
  Thank you guys for having me.
• 1:00:13
  I really appreciate it and
• 1:00:14
  appreciate what you guys do.
• 1:00:16
  You know, to anybody out there listening,
• 1:00:18
  hopefully you'll see some
• 1:00:19
  of these events and come
• 1:00:20
  say hi if you're there.
• 1:00:23
  Yeah,
• 1:00:24
  Wadzombie said you ignored him last
• 1:00:26
  year at Semis, and he expects more.
• 1:00:29
  I saw that on some,
• 1:00:30
  I can't remember where he
• 1:00:31
  made that comment,
• 1:00:32
  and I don't recall that.
• 1:00:34
  So it was an unintentional snubbing,
• 1:00:37
  if that was the case.
• 1:00:39
  All right.
• 1:00:40
  Well, we'll let you go, Boz.
• 1:00:41
  Have a great time.
• 1:00:43
  Stay away from the vinyl shops,
• 1:00:44
  because I'm already
• 1:00:45
  spending enough money for both of us.
• 1:00:48
  Just a little, just a little bit.
• 1:00:50
  We'll catch everybody next
• 1:00:51
  time on the Clydesdale Media Podcast.
• 1:00:54
  Bye, guys.