Latest / Clydesdale Media Podcast / Lunch with Friends - Justin Cotler | Where is Alex Gazan in her Come Back

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Lunch with Friends - Justin Cotler | Where is Alex Gazan in her Come Back · Clydesdale Media Podcast

0:02
This next guest told me about a
0:04
bulletproof athlete.
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What does that mean?
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We're gonna find out next on Lunch with
0:09
Friends.
0:29
the game is in trouble I've been in
0:30
my death for the piece of the puzzle
0:32
I got it from
0:54
What is going on, everybody?
0:55
Welcome to Lunch with Friends.
0:57
We've got Justin Kotler in the house
1:00
playing catch up from a long... Gosh,
1:03
we haven't had you on since you made
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the move to HWPO.
1:06
So we've got a lot to catch up
1:08
on.
1:08
Rogue just happened.
1:11
But before we got on the air,
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we were actually talking about...
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You were the first coach we ever had
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on this show.
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And we were trying to come up with
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the actual date that was.
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Yeah, I can't remember.
1:24
I don't know.
1:25
Was it just after the games when Kerry
1:26
podiumed in twenty twenty?
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Was it in twenty twenty one when
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underdogs, you know, was underdogs?
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We had like Bethany and Danielle and
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Carrie here, and I'm not sure.
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It was before that because Kat and I
1:41
came out to the West Point Classic.
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We had dinner with you and Ash,
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and we had already established a
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relationship before that.
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That was in the backyard.
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I think you had just moved to Vegas.
1:54
Yes.
1:56
yeah we were we moved to Vegas in
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July of twenty twenty so I it could
2:00
have been that yeah it could have been
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could have been twenty twenty and we were
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probably talking about the covid games
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with you and five athletes at the ranch
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and the bubble yeah yeah it's wild to
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think uh about all that all that's
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happened since then man so yeah it's cool
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though happy that we're still uh we're
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still buddies man it's good
2:23
Yeah, it is.
2:23
Love, love catching up with you at events,
2:25
especially getting to hang out.
2:27
We got to do that at the age
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group games this year.
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When you,
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when you have athletes at the age group
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games and you have athletes at the elite
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games,
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what is the stress level difference or is
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there none?
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Honestly,
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the stress level at the age group games
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was crazy because I had five.
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So I was running around like a,
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like a nut job, you know,
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between having a teen and then,
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different divisions in the masters.
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I was nuts.
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And then I got so sick.
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I don't know if I got COVID or
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flu or whatever, but I, I, uh,
3:00
the last night prior to the final day,
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I started feeling it.
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And then when I flew home,
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I had like a hundred and three fever
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and I was in bed for three days
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and yeah, it was, it was terrible.
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But, uh, I had pneumonia that weekend.
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Yeah, that was rough.
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But I think in general, I mean, listen,
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I think the stress at the games is,
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you know, for everybody is pretty high.
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But obviously, you know, as a coach,
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you're trying to help your athletes do the
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best they can, right?
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So I think stress level,
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if you're giving it your all,
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is always going to be high.
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That kind of comes with this job.
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And
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um that's my favorite thing though man
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in-person coaching is my favorite i think
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there are a lot of great programmers in
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this space uh but but being a great
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like game day coach i think takes a
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lot and uh that's i've been doing it
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forever you know sixteen years of doing
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this um at a high level i feel
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like that's definitely a strength of mine
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mentioned the teen athlete yeah the teen
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athlete became the talk of the town yeah
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uh at the age group games because she
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outlifted i think all but maybe one person
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in the adult age group she did she
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she did she outlifted everyone but
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christine middleton who i also coach it
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was in the thirty five to thirty nine
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division and obviously if people know
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christine middleton um
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you know, Zeoli,
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they know that that she has been one
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of the strongest female CrossFitters for
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for a long time.
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But yeah, Talia, who you're referring to,
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my the fourteen year old I was coaching,
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Hit a cleaning jerk of two sixty,
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which is pretty outrageous.
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And she's she's just better.
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She's fourteen and she finished sixth.
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So she can do other things besides just
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lift.
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And I think coming into this season,
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she's definitely be one of the favorites
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in that division to win the games.
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Fourteen, fifteen division.
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So.
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Yeah.
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It's pretty cool.
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So the big question is you,
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you've moved to HWPO.
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We know Alex went with you.
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Yeah.
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How many of your athletes went with you?
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Did you lose any in the process?
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Yeah.
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No,
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we didn't lose any where all of them
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came.
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So, um,
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It's been great, Scott,
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I gotta be honest with you.
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I know that we put out a few
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videos on reasons why and obviously kind
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of discussed a little bit of it on
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Coffee Pods and Watts,
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I think the week after and have been
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very open to kind of discussing the
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reasons why and between
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um, you know, the diagnosis of, of, uh,
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rare kidney disease with my daughter, Ivy,
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uh, just, um, you know,
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a lot of changes as far as coaches
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and athletes and things.
6:01
And, you know,
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I think part of it was just the,
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I didn't want to have to do a
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lot of the backend work anymore with,
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with, uh, running a business.
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I really want to focus on the things
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that I love, prioritize coaching,
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prioritize my family, um, you know, and,
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and,
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HWPO has just been amazing.
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I had a very strong relationship with
6:22
several people in HWPO prior to and now
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that I've gotten to know the entire team,
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I just, you know,
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I feel so good about the decision that
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I made.
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I feel like a weight's been lifted as
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far as
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just having to do a lot of the
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stuff that I no longer love to do,
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running a business and being able to
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really focus on coaching,
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being able to come in and work with
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a team, you know,
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of just fantastic and intelligent
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individuals and feel like I'm being
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supported by a crew has been awesome, man.
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I mean, at the end of the day,
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you're a coach.
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You didn't get into this to be a
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business person.
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And you were...
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our talks off the record at the age
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group games were about like that.
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You needed to find something that made you
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happy and that gave you the time to
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spend with your family.
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Yes.
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And a hundred percent.
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And and you didn't tell me what that
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was,
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but just that you you needed to find
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a way to make that work better.
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And yeah,
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we that you were able to do that.
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Yeah,
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we were we were in the in kind
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of like the final stages of finalizing
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things.
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And, you know,
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I know I had hinted to you that
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there might be some some news coming and.
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You know, I, I tell you, man, like,
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listen,
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I'm so proud of what we were able
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to create with underdogs and obviously the
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reputation that,
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that grew from that and
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all of the accolades and and you know
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the athletes accomplishments because
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really it's not about me it's not about
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that it's about helping athletes reach
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their potential right and if you do that
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then everything kind of comes back to you
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tenfold and about how you treat people and
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your reputation i feel like we did all
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those things um very well and i feel
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very proud about how we did it um
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But, you know,
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this opportunity allows me to do,
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you know, really focus on,
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on the things that I love and to
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do it with people that I really,
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really like.
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And it also, you know, it's cool.
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It's kind of like reinvigorated me and
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it's incredibly motivating to come in and,
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and
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you know,
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try to push us to the top of
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the hill, you know,
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and we had a fantastic showing at Rogue,
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and I'm excited about that,
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and we're just going to continue to move
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forward and have a lot of things that
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I'm going to be doing for HWPO and,
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you know,
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starting their individual coaching
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program, you know,
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which will be launching soon,
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and we're bringing in some incredible
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coaches,
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a lot of them who I was really
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lucky to work with at Underdogs, you know,
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and
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So it's just great, man.
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It's a great situation.
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I'm excited.
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And yeah, so it's good.
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Um, on the flip side of the,
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of the transfer over to HWPO,
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they were an entity that I think,
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and correct me if I'm wrong,
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that Matt may not have wanted to be
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the coach.
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He just,
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it was this idea that he wanted to
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start.
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And really he's the guy that one,
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it seemed like from the video,
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especially with Alex,
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he wants to be that guy that comes
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in and just kind of assists.
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I think so.
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Yeah.
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I think he understands that.
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that he has a lot of knowledge to
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impart, right?
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I mean,
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when you're the most decorated individual
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male athlete ever, right?
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I mean,
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he's won the most individual titles.
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Obviously,
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you have a lot to offer and a
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lot to give as far as inside knowledge
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is concerned.
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But I think that, you know,
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with him having a two-year-old and a
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four-month-old, you know,
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and
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And with him really enjoying that,
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that part of his life right now,
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being a father, you know,
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he's looking at it where,
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wherever he can help give guidance,
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I think he's, you know, and,
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and so us going to Vermont and us
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being able to spend that time with him
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and to see him kind of, you know,
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you could see a little bit of that
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light starting to shine where he was,
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you know,
10:23
getting the juices flowing as far as,
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you know, kind of watching Alex and, and,
10:29
Alex has to listen to me every single
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day.
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She's here in Vegas.
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We're together all the time.
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I really wanted to go there and just
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shut up and sit back and let him
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watch and do his thing.
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I think it's very important to surround
10:43
yourself with other perspectives and other
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coaches who are incredibly knowledgeable.
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We'll do that, obviously,
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with other coaches here that we'll get to
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work with,
10:55
but
10:56
Yeah, it was really, it was really great.
10:58
I think for her,
10:59
it was even more exciting to kind of
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spend time with him and his family.
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They had never really spent time before,
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you know, you got,
11:04
she got to spend time with the kids
11:06
and, and, uh, you know,
11:07
hang out with Eddie and Pearl and Sammy
11:09
and, you know,
11:10
we did bonfire and just hung out and
11:13
it was, it was great.
11:14
And, um,
11:14
so it'll be nice to travel sometimes to
11:17
Vermont.
11:17
Hopefully next time it'll be a little
11:19
warmer.
11:20
um and uh but but yeah um it's
11:23
it's been it's been great uh and i
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think she's really enjoying it as well
11:27
And from their perspective,
11:28
that you give them an instant face of
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the program,
11:32
of the coaching aspect of the program,
11:36
and your resume speaks for itself,
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what you've done with elite athletes.
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And so you take two entities that were
11:46
trying to compete against these big boys
11:48
like Mayhem and Proven, and together,
11:51
underdogs and HWPO kind of coming together
11:55
makes you guys competitive, right?
11:57
in that realm to some degree?
12:00
Oh, yeah, I think so.
12:01
I think, you know, listen,
12:02
I think as far as a business is
12:05
concerned, I think HWPO is, you know,
12:09
more than competes, obviously.
12:11
I mean, they have an incredible, you know,
12:13
business model and
12:15
But I think, you know,
12:16
I think when it comes to the elite
12:18
roster, you know,
12:21
I don't think that it's wrong to say
12:24
like in the last year or so, right,
12:26
that they've taken a noticeable dip.
12:29
And I think, you know,
12:32
One of the things that I was brought
12:34
in to do is to help bolster that.
12:36
But we're going to do it a little
12:37
bit differently.
12:38
I think in the last few years,
12:41
you've seen camps.
12:43
And honestly, we did this at Underdogs,
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where sometimes people want to join,
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and they're excited.
12:50
And you're just like, OK, come on board,
12:51
come on board, come on board,
12:52
come on board.
12:53
And before you know it,
12:53
you have all these athletes that are
12:55
pinned against each other fighting for the
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same spots.
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And, you know,
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I don't know that that's necessarily the
13:02
best model.
13:03
And we're going to be incredibly
13:05
selective.
13:05
And our goal is going to be to
13:08
work as coaches to, you know,
13:11
for the collective good and to push our
13:13
athletes and to help them maximize their
13:15
potential without creating a situation
13:18
where
13:19
We're just pinning them all against each
13:21
other.
13:21
And listen,
13:22
that may work for another camp.
13:24
And I'm not saying that what I'm saying
13:27
is right or wrong.
13:28
I'm just saying that I think it's a
13:29
little bit of a different philosophy.
13:31
And I'm excited to slowly build it into
13:35
where our goal is obviously going to be
13:38
to create champions,
13:39
not to just have five million athletes in
13:42
the elite division.
13:44
The goal is going to be to create
13:46
champions.
13:47
uh and and and and to help maximize
13:51
those athletes potential it's not going to
13:53
just be like how many athletes did you
13:54
have at the games no that's that i'm
13:56
not too interested in that i'm more
13:58
interested in in in how are they doing
14:01
at the games you know how are they
14:03
doing at semifinals how are they doing it
14:05
you know these competitions uh and and i
14:07
think we're going to look to do that
14:09
in all divisions we're going to look to
14:10
do that in the elite division and then
14:12
obviously in the
14:14
in the age group divisions as well.
14:16
So any, anywhere where we can find, uh,
14:18
competitive athletes who are interested,
14:21
who are a good fit for us,
14:22
that's something that, that, um, you know,
14:24
we're going to be looking at.
14:26
I know you're still in the honeymoon
14:27
phase,
14:28
but it sounds like that this is better
14:31
than you anticipated on this transition to
14:34
be.
14:34
I, I can't tell you how, um,
14:39
know everyone's gonna be like well what
14:40
else you know of course that's what he's
14:41
gonna say no i and this it's it's
14:44
been phenomenal it really has been i'm i'm
14:47
excited uh i'm motivated um i feel like
14:52
i said like a weight you know a
14:53
little bit of a weight was lifted off
14:55
um just as far as you know kind
14:57
of
14:58
doing everything for the business,
15:01
you know,
15:02
and having that ability to be able to
15:04
focus, having a role,
15:06
being able to work with a team,
15:09
you know, it's been great.
15:11
And also just being around people that I
15:15
find to be
15:16
incredibly good at what they do in all
15:18
aspects.
15:22
We had four coaches deep at Rogue and
15:27
every one of them is just great.
15:29
And having those meetings each day about
15:33
events and being able to bounce ideas off
15:36
each other and all those things.
15:38
You know, that's awesome.
15:40
You know,
15:40
the last year or two with underdogs,
15:44
you know,
15:44
a lot of times I was by myself.
15:47
And you just, that's not, for me,
15:50
I just didn't love that feeling.
15:51
You know,
15:52
I like being part of a team.
15:54
I like being, you know,
15:56
part of a crew.
15:57
I like being able to work with people
15:59
who have great minds, you know,
16:01
for the sport.
16:02
And, you know,
16:04
the ability to be able to do that
16:05
now, man, is really, really motivating.
16:10
so oh gosh can you remember where it's
16:12
going to go now um no i want
16:16
to go to rogue eventually but yeah
16:17
something else i wanted to jump into um
16:20
oh yeah so the reason i i asked
16:21
you on is wednesday you jumped in our
16:23
chat yeah i've been beating this horse all
16:27
week
16:28
Yeah.
16:29
There's this narrative out there that
16:31
Laura is avoiding Tia.
16:32
That's ridiculous.
16:35
So ridiculous.
16:37
Laura is looking for the opportunity to
16:39
beat Tia.
16:40
tia because that would solidify her
16:42
greatness if she could just if she could
16:46
get that win in a major competition that
16:49
would help her tremendously and there's
16:52
there's this big big narrative that she's
16:54
trying to avoid that you jumped in to
16:56
say there's no way that that woman is
16:58
afraid of anybody no laura's not afraid of
17:01
anybody laura does what laura wants to do
17:04
that's what people need to understand
17:05
whether they like it or not
17:07
That's up to them.
17:08
You're allowed to have your opinion.
17:10
You're allowed to talk shit about people.
17:12
That's on you.
17:13
You can say whatever you want.
17:14
She doesn't give a shit.
17:15
She's going to live her life.
17:17
She's going to do what she wants to
17:18
do.
17:18
She's going to compete where she wants to
17:19
compete.
17:21
And that's her.
17:23
whether whether you like her or not that's
17:26
fine that's up to you you know um
17:29
but laura ain't afraid of anything i mean
17:32
she's a monster you know she's great um
17:36
i mean she has been for what six
17:38
seven years two thousand eighteen i think
17:40
was you know twenty eighteen uh european
17:43
semifinals where people are like who the
17:45
hell is this i think she was twenty
17:47
one at the time
17:48
Took second at the games that year.
17:50
Yeah, I mean, she was incredible.
17:52
And obviously,
17:54
what she's done in the sport speaks for
17:56
itself.
17:56
I mean, she's a CrossFit Games champion.
17:59
She's won Rogue a couple times.
18:02
I mean, she is who she is,
18:04
and she beats her own drum.
18:06
And I've always liked Laura.
18:08
She and I have always gotten along.
18:10
uh you know she's allowed to do what
18:12
she wants i mean this is a free
18:14
country or i'd say you know this is
18:17
uh the sport allows you to do what
18:19
you want to do you can compete where
18:20
you want to compete um and uh you
18:24
know i don't think she needs to apologize
18:26
to anybody and anyone who thinks she's
18:27
afraid of anybody is nuts
18:29
you can't be as good as she is
18:31
and be afraid of anyone.
18:32
That's crazy.
18:33
You just can't like,
18:35
you can't be in the point zero zero
18:37
zero one percent of the world and
18:40
something and be afraid.
18:41
No, she's not.
18:43
She's definitely not.
18:46
You know, she's she listen,
18:47
she's one of the best who's ever competed
18:50
in the sport without question.
18:52
You know, she's top five for sure.
18:54
And, you know, I mean,
18:59
Tia is Tia.
19:00
There'll probably never be another Tia,
19:02
right?
19:03
But Laura's really, really good, you know,
19:08
and one of the best to do it.
19:09
And trust me, she's not afraid of anybody.
19:13
a couple of years ago,
19:13
you introduced this term to me,
19:15
the bulletproof athlete, right?
19:16
Yeah.
19:17
And,
19:18
and I want you to explain what that
19:20
is, but in my opinion,
19:21
there's only ever been two in the two.
19:23
I agree.
19:24
One man, one woman.
19:25
Yep.
19:25
There's only been two.
19:27
Bulletproof athlete is essentially where
19:30
programming doesn't matter.
19:32
You show up at a competition and you're
19:35
going to win no matter what.
19:39
Matt Frazier and Tia Claire to me.
19:42
Hey, what's up, dude?
19:43
Matt Fraser,
19:44
Tia Claire Toomey are the two bulletproof
19:47
athletes and the only two.
19:49
And people will say Rich.
19:51
Go back and look at events,
19:55
especially when Rich was an individual.
19:57
There were a lot of events that he
19:59
struggled in.
20:00
He wasn't good at, wasn't a great runner,
20:02
wasn't a good swimmer.
20:04
Um, wasn't great going long.
20:05
Uh, you know, he was incredible.
20:08
Don't get me wrong.
20:09
I mean, anybody who says he's not,
20:11
I mean,
20:11
I think what made rich so endearing was
20:14
the fact that like he always had to,
20:16
to make those, you know, third day,
20:18
fourth day pushes to win.
20:20
And he always did.
20:21
No one has been more clutch than rich.
20:23
I would say he's the most clutch athlete
20:25
that there has ever been in CrossFit.
20:28
Uh,
20:28
and obviously he proved that as well on
20:30
the team side and he's the most decorated,
20:32
uh,
20:33
You know, when you combine the two,
20:36
but as far as bulletproof individual
20:39
athletes, where it does not matter,
20:42
the programming doesn't matter, you know,
20:44
they were going to come and just wipe
20:46
everybody up.
20:47
There's only been two,
20:49
and that's Tia and Matt.
20:51
And as a coach, you know,
20:52
your goal obviously is to try to get
20:56
someone to that level.
20:58
And it's not easy.
20:59
You know, generally speaking,
21:00
there's going to be a weakness, right?
21:02
And for most people,
21:04
that weakness is something that tends to
21:07
carry on for their entire career.
21:09
Maybe they improve a bit,
21:11
but the problem is that the field also
21:13
improves and the numbers get better.
21:15
So, you know,
21:17
you don't see that they improve, right?
21:21
And so as a coach,
21:26
that's what we're striving for.
21:29
We're striving to create bulletproof
21:32
athletes where it doesn't matter what
21:34
comes up in the programming.
21:36
And right now, I would say,
21:39
other than Tia,
21:43
there are no bulletproof athletes in the
21:45
sport currently.
21:47
Tia is the only one.
21:49
uh and and anytime she's not in the
21:51
field um you're going to see that uh
21:55
whoever wins it's extremely programming
21:57
dependent which i think makes it really
22:00
exciting right i mean like it's pretty
22:03
cool that way uh but yeah that's that's
22:05
what a bulletproof athlete is well i think
22:08
on the men's side it's evident like the
22:10
leaderboard changes after every event like
22:13
because of that that exact fact
22:16
but you back to Laura just for one
22:19
second.
22:19
She has one hole.
22:21
Yeah.
22:22
She has one hole.
22:23
She's as close to bulletproof other than
22:25
Tia.
22:25
There is right now.
22:26
A hundred percent.
22:27
And,
22:28
and I would argue that she could beat
22:31
Katrin or Annie in their prime because of
22:34
that, because she has one hole,
22:36
unless that event comes up three times,
22:39
she's going to do deliver.
22:41
Um,
22:44
Alex now.
22:45
Yep.
22:45
Your job.
22:46
You told me you this theory like two
22:49
years ago.
22:50
Yeah.
22:50
You have been working to make Alex
22:53
bulletproof.
22:54
Yeah.
22:56
Where are we at on that path?
22:59
Well, listen,
23:00
I think you started to see that, um,
23:05
we were we were making good headway right
23:08
i mean look at first wfp which i
23:11
would say is the one wfp where you
23:14
got everybody's best right i mean i think
23:18
it was a little bit different the first
23:19
one comparatively to what we saw with two
23:22
and what we're gonna see with three
23:23
because the season had already started the
23:25
games had happened now rogue has happened
23:28
people are beat up and i'm not sure
23:30
what we're gonna see in the third one
23:32
but in that first one she won she
23:34
won comfortably um with laura in the field
23:38
uh you know yeah program is massive i
23:42
agree yeah hundred percent programming is
23:45
incredibly important especially with the
23:48
the field nowadays you know like i said
23:50
because we don't have bulletproof athletes
23:52
in the field um
23:56
I would say that obviously with, you know,
23:59
I mean,
24:00
look at Alex's three competitions this
24:02
year and one of them just happened after
24:06
a major accident slash injury that we
24:09
weren't sure wasn't going to be career
24:11
ending.
24:13
She won against, you know,
24:16
the best women's field that we've seen
24:19
this year, excluding Tia.
24:25
She then, you know,
24:27
handled NorCal pretty easily and then just
24:29
came in second at Rogue with everyone in
24:32
the field except for Tia and Amy Kringle.
24:37
So, you know,
24:38
but beat Amy Kringle at the first WFP.
24:44
That being said, she's not bulletproof.
24:48
And we're working towards that.
24:52
I would say that right now she's in
24:54
that discussion of top three,
24:58
top four in the world without question.
25:00
It's shocking to me listening to a lot
25:02
of the post Rogue stuff.
25:06
I'm listening to the analysts and most of
25:07
them are not giving her much credit,
25:09
which is wild.
25:11
It just makes me laugh.
25:13
She got cleared to do everything five
25:15
weeks ago and goes to Rogue and got
25:17
second really comfortably.
25:19
um you know but but people are talking
25:21
about everybody else so it's fine we use
25:23
that shit as motivation you know um we
25:26
know what we need to do there's no
25:27
doubt in my mind she has the highest
25:29
trajectory of anyone um you know that
25:32
that's uh and you talk about tia and
25:35
then laura and there's no doubt in my
25:37
mind she has the highest trajectory uh and
25:39
she's just turned
25:42
so you know you got you'd have to
25:44
take into account the last five months um
25:47
without question she was not a hundred
25:48
percent at rogue you know as far as
25:51
um you know just as far as where
25:53
we are
25:56
after the injury i'd say she's eighty
25:58
percent maybe eighty five definitely not
26:01
where we need to be squat volume wise
26:03
she and you can see that in the
26:04
back squat workout and the overhead squat
26:06
workout where she struggled and we knew
26:09
that going in we knew like okay if
26:11
there's going to be
26:12
A couple of workouts that have really
26:14
heavy squat volume,
26:15
we got to manage those.
26:17
Like those are workouts.
26:18
If we can middle there,
26:20
we know you're going to hit home runs
26:22
in a couple of workouts.
26:23
So how good is that when that's typically
26:26
a strength for her?
26:27
Yeah.
26:28
The injury, like she can squat great.
26:31
Now all of a sudden –
26:33
Nelson, because of the injury,
26:34
it's become a weakness temporarily.
26:37
Yeah, it's just temporary.
26:38
I give us a couple of months,
26:40
you know, that by, by, uh, by February,
26:44
March, that'll be back to,
26:46
that'll be back to a strength.
26:47
Like that workout would be a top three,
26:49
you know,
26:49
that back squat workout overhead squat
26:51
workout.
26:52
I think she probably, you know,
26:54
it would have probably been in fifth,
26:56
sixth, somewhere around that.
26:57
She's just long.
26:57
She has really long femurs.
26:59
So her squat cycle time is not going
27:01
to be,
27:01
but the thing about it is right now
27:03
that the volume squatting just takes a
27:05
little bit more out of her because we
27:07
haven't had a chance to do it.
27:08
You know,
27:08
I was very cautious going into row because
27:10
I wanted her body to feel good.
27:12
I didn't want to,
27:13
it was like when we got cleared to
27:14
be able to squat, it wasn't like,
27:15
oh yeah,
27:15
now we're going to kill you with squat
27:17
volume.
27:17
No, that wasn't the case.
27:18
It was like,
27:19
Okay,
27:19
let's make sure you feel good going into
27:21
road.
27:21
That's the most important thing.
27:23
But yeah, I think, you know,
27:25
where she's becoming a much better runner,
27:27
she's still,
27:28
I would say she's upper middle in running.
27:31
That's the key, Scott, to me.
27:33
If we can make,
27:34
and I believe she's built for it,
27:35
I think she can be a great runner.
27:37
I think if she can be a top
27:38
five runner,
27:39
she'll have a period of dominance in the
27:41
sport.
27:42
I think she'll win the games multiple
27:43
times.
27:45
If she doesn't get to that level,
27:48
then I think she'll be in the mix
27:49
still,
27:50
but I think it'll be much more programming
27:52
dependent.
27:53
But I think if we can – and
27:55
you saw that with Jeff Adler.
27:56
Jeff Adler was on the brink,
27:58
and then all of a sudden Jeff Adler
28:00
became like –
28:01
the best runner or top two in the
28:03
sport and then all of a sudden you
28:04
saw like bam wins the games bam wins
28:07
rogue like he just you know um he
28:10
became the guy I think when Jeff is
28:12
healthy he's probably still the guy you
28:14
know but but in general I think that's
28:17
what we're gonna see with Alex I think
28:18
if we can get to that level I
28:20
don't think she needs to be the best
28:21
because she's got more home runs but I
28:23
think if if you go from being the
28:25
tenth to the fifth or the fourth or
28:27
the third um she's gonna be real tough
28:31
How much,
28:33
how much development was stunted in the
28:36
running aspect with the accident?
28:38
Well,
28:38
she wasn't able to run for four months.
28:40
So a lot.
28:43
Did she lose any ground?
28:44
Like, did you have to go,
28:45
do we have to go back or is
28:47
it just pick up where you left off?
28:49
I probably took a step back.
28:51
Um, but, but you know,
28:52
we were able to really work hard on,
28:55
um,
28:56
her conditioning with machines, you know,
28:58
machines and swimming,
28:59
we were able to really work hard.
29:02
And,
29:03
and so I think we were able to
29:04
keep a lot of,
29:05
a lot of her capacity.
29:07
But, but, you know, anyone will tell you,
29:09
you know, you can't like,
29:13
yes you can you can keep your your
29:15
conditioning um impeccable but but you
29:19
gotta run you know you want to be
29:21
a really good runner you gotta run um
29:23
and and she wasn't able to do that
29:25
for for almost four months so yeah we
29:28
took a little bit of a hit there
29:30
um but again i feel very confident that
29:34
um you know where she's at now and
29:36
where her body's feeling that
29:37
that that's gonna come back fast and then
29:40
obviously you know that's going to
29:41
continue to improve that's that's number
29:44
one probably number one number two and
29:46
number three on the list of of you
29:49
know priorities so oh she was on the
29:54
savan podcast right before rogue yep and
29:57
she was talking about how she she wanted
30:00
to be able to squat without pain that
30:03
was her main concern going into the event
30:07
I know that mindset has been a big
30:09
thing that you guys have been working on
30:10
for years.
30:12
And I think she was getting to that
30:14
point where her confidence was growing to
30:17
a level that it needed to be to
30:18
be great.
30:19
Yeah.
30:22
How much of that has regressed during the
30:25
car accident?
30:25
Or is it just learning when the body
30:31
comes back to full strength?
30:33
I actually think it's progressed,
30:35
not regressed.
30:36
I think her mindset was the best I've
30:39
seen it ever at Rogue.
30:41
I think she understands how good she is.
30:44
And I think she understands that even
30:46
events that aren't great for her are still
30:48
going to be pretty good compared to the
30:51
field.
30:52
And I also think that she looks at
30:54
things now in a little bit of a
30:56
different way.
30:56
I think there's an incredible amount of
30:58
gratitude
31:00
for being able to do the things that
31:02
she's able to do,
31:03
to have a working body,
31:05
to be able to,
31:07
the fact that she gets to do this,
31:09
not that she has to do this.
31:12
And I think prior to the injury,
31:14
even at WFP at NorCal,
31:20
there was a lot of weight on her
31:23
shoulders because of expectations.
31:25
I think there was a lot of pressure.
31:27
and i think the way that i think
31:29
i think there was a lot of anxiety
31:31
and uh i could tell that um there
31:33
were a lot of times that she wasn't
31:35
having a lot of fun in the gym
31:37
on the competition floor i think she was
31:39
very stressed out um because of the weight
31:44
of expectations um and i think after the
31:49
accident uh i think there's been a a
31:52
complete shift in mindset which is that
31:56
man, this is like,
31:57
I get to do this.
31:58
This is stuff that people dream about.
32:00
And the fact that I was able to
32:03
get through what I was able to get
32:04
through,
32:04
the fact that I'm able to compete and
32:09
travel the world and make money and be
32:11
a professional athlete.
32:14
And that's something that
32:16
that i will never take for granted again
32:19
because it was almost taken away from me
32:20
you know i think that's the mindset now
32:23
uh and i've you know obviously listen
32:25
you're gonna be stressed and and on road
32:27
was hard bro i i feel like this
32:29
is one of the hardest competitions they've
32:31
had to do in a long time um
32:34
i think the workouts were really
32:35
challenging i think anytime you travel to
32:37
another country you know sleep's not gonna
32:40
be great food's not you know your
32:41
stomach's messed up all those kind of
32:43
things
32:45
I think all those things are a challenge,
32:47
but mentally,
32:48
she was so excited to be back on
32:50
the floor.
32:50
I think she was incredibly grateful.
32:52
And I also think that she understands
32:57
like, hey,
32:58
I did this after not being able to
33:01
train
33:02
full out for four months.
33:06
We had basically five weeks full go prior
33:08
to this and I still was able to
33:09
achieve what I was able to achieve.
33:11
I know I can do so much more.
33:14
I know I can be that much better.
33:16
And I've heard her say in the last
33:20
couple months things that I've never heard
33:22
her say before.
33:23
I've heard her say things like best in
33:25
the world, win the games,
33:27
stuff that I think she was afraid of
33:29
talking about before.
33:30
I don't think she's afraid of it anymore.
33:32
I think she recognizes that it's
33:34
realistic.
33:35
And I think it's very powerful.
33:37
When an athlete starts to go to that
33:39
place and recognize that that's possible,
33:43
That's very,
33:43
very powerful because I think until you
33:45
talk about it and put it out there,
33:47
then you don't really believe it.
33:49
But I think she believes it now.
33:51
And that's exciting.
33:53
Well, speaking of that,
33:54
there was a post that was made on
33:56
Instagram by Tia talking about her
33:58
leader's jersey.
34:00
And Alex commented that I'm coming for it.
34:04
That was fucking great.
34:05
I had no idea she was going to
34:06
do it.
34:07
And when she did it,
34:08
I called her immediately and I was like,
34:10
who are you?
34:11
I was like, what the hell?
34:12
This is so out of character.
34:14
And I love every second of it.
34:17
It caught me off guard.
34:18
I double checked that it was her that
34:20
said it.
34:21
Yeah, it was great.
34:22
It was great.
34:23
I could see you saying, no, I know.
34:25
Yeah.
34:26
I never thought that she would jump in
34:28
and say that.
34:29
I had absolutely no idea she was going
34:31
to do it.
34:31
And somebody actually like texted me and
34:34
was like, did you see what Alex said?
34:37
Yeah.
34:38
Yeah.
34:40
I was very surprised.
34:41
It was out of character and obviously
34:43
she's messing around, but you know...
34:47
There's always the truth to that.
34:48
Yeah, a hundred percent, right?
34:50
There's truth in just one.
34:53
I loved every second of it.
34:55
And listen,
34:56
we're under no illusion that she's better
35:00
than Tia.
35:01
Tia's the best to ever do it.
35:03
I also feel like...
35:05
And hindsight's twenty-twenty.
35:08
I feel very confident that Alex would have
35:12
done some really special things at the
35:14
games if she was healthy.
35:16
I think she would have won some events,
35:19
and I think she would have pushed Tia
35:21
in places that no one else was able
35:23
to do it.
35:24
uh and you know but i can say
35:26
that until i'm blue in the face and
35:28
people can either agree or people can be
35:30
like yeah whatever she wasn't there you
35:32
can't say that that's fine um i've been
35:35
doing this a long time and i and
35:36
i know uh what people can and can't
35:39
do uh and there were events there that
35:41
that were um massive home runs and not
35:44
just one multiple
35:47
The hardest thing about making that
35:48
comparison right now is that bulletproof
35:50
thing, right?
35:51
Tia never finishes low enough to get
35:53
people in between.
35:54
A hundred percent.
35:56
She just never does.
35:57
Nope.
35:57
She never does.
35:58
She doesn't have a weakness.
35:59
So, you know, and honestly,
36:02
the one event where she did was the
36:03
pegboard,
36:04
which was extenuating circumstances.
36:06
You know,
36:07
if that is equal across the board and
36:09
you've got pegboards that aren't slippery,
36:11
there's no chance that Tia finishes
36:13
sixteenth.
36:14
I think she finished sixteenth.
36:15
you know, uh, she's very good at pegs.
36:17
So, you know, in that field, she,
36:20
she's top, top three at worst top five.
36:22
So there's another event she wins by even
36:25
more.
36:26
Um, yeah, I mean, listen,
36:28
there's no doubt, you know, she's, um,
36:30
I mean, she is who she is.
36:32
Um,
36:33
train all of confidence of her coach
36:35
rubbing off on Alex.
36:36
Love it.
36:38
Yeah.
36:38
I don't know.
36:39
I don't know.
36:40
I don't know if it's confidence in me
36:41
or just the fact that like when you
36:43
start to see yourself being able to do
36:45
things and you start to see yourself in
36:47
fields against the best in the world and
36:50
you're able to do what you're able to
36:52
do.
36:53
I think that's the thing that really
36:54
reinforces confidence.
36:56
You know,
36:56
I've been talking about this for a while
36:58
that I felt like she could get to
37:00
here.
37:00
And I think for a while she was
37:01
like, shut up, you know?
37:03
Like you're making this worse for me
37:05
because if I don't go out there and
37:07
do it, people are going to be like,
37:08
ah, you know, she's, she's mid, you know,
37:11
but she's backing it up.
37:13
So it's good.
37:15
So going back to when you first made
37:19
a name kind of in the CrossFit space
37:21
with Carrie,
37:23
Carrie was like the great American hope to
37:25
podium at the games because we had a
37:28
long stretch where the Americans had not
37:31
reached the podium.
37:32
Yeah.
37:34
now with alex we're not talking podium
37:37
we're talking championship yeah do you
37:40
feel a difference between the two you mean
37:46
between carrie and alex yeah like in their
37:49
careers at the times that they were in
37:51
their prime yeah i mean listen i think
37:56
carrie is someone you can look at and
37:59
say nobody ever got more
38:04
Out of what they were given.
38:07
Like God given ability.
38:08
Nobody got more out of there.
38:10
Out of what they had.
38:12
Than Carrie did.
38:14
She was.
38:17
she was robotic and approach.
38:19
And I say that in the best way
38:21
possible, like Carrie was like this,
38:25
no matter what, you know, um,
38:27
you would never know if things were going
38:30
well, if things were going badly,
38:32
there were no highs and lows.
38:33
Um,
38:34
she was the most emotionally and mentally
38:37
tough athlete I've ever been around.
38:39
Um, you know, she, uh,
38:42
She had the same routine every single day.
38:44
She ate the same things every single day.
38:46
She went to sleep the same time,
38:48
woke up the same time,
38:49
never missed training sessions.
38:52
There was never drama.
38:53
There were never highs and lows.
38:54
I mean, it was wild to see.
38:59
And there's never been anyone that I've
39:00
coached in sixteen years who was like
39:03
that.
39:05
She just was different.
39:08
But Carrie had physical limitations that I
39:14
think prevented her from being in a
39:18
position where you could say like, oh,
39:21
she's going to win the games, right?
39:24
uh, there were, you know,
39:26
she was five foot two.
39:27
Um, she wasn't a very strong squatter.
39:30
Uh, she wasn't a great runner.
39:33
Um, she maximized those things though.
39:35
She,
39:36
she did the best that she could possibly
39:37
do, you know,
39:38
with those things and obviously became one
39:40
of the best in the world and one
39:41
of the most decorated American females to
39:44
ever do it.
39:45
Uh,
39:47
Alex is a little bit different.
39:48
She doesn't have those physical
39:50
limitations.
39:51
She's built like a brick shithouse.
39:53
She's five foot six.
39:54
She's one hundred and sixty pounds.
39:56
She's brute strong.
39:59
I think she has the capacity to be
40:02
a much better runner than Carrie ever was.
40:08
You know,
40:09
I think she's got just as many or
40:11
more home runs.
40:12
I mean,
40:12
Carrie had home runs when it came to
40:14
obviously handstand pushups and, you know,
40:16
any, you know,
40:18
anything that came with pressing,
40:20
obviously Alex has that,
40:21
but it's even a little bit stronger.
40:24
I think.
40:26
very different as far as just mentality
40:32
and lifestyle and those types of things.
40:36
Alex is just never going to be the
40:38
way Carrie was as far as,
40:41
like I said,
40:42
as far as approach is concerned.
40:44
She does a lot of other things that
40:46
she likes to do.
40:47
Her life does not revolve around CrossFit.
40:50
It just doesn't.
40:51
That's just as much as I would want
40:53
her to be more obsessed
40:55
she's not and maybe that type of balance
40:58
is why she hasn't gotten burned out like
41:00
a lot of the young athletes that we've
41:02
seen over the last few years but what
41:04
i do think though is that i think
41:06
she she wants to be the best that
41:08
she can be and she works hard and
41:11
and she works her butt off uh and
41:14
i think now that she understands that she
41:16
has a chance to be the best in
41:18
the world at some point
41:20
that that motivation is very strong and
41:24
powerful for her so very very different
41:27
athletes very different mindsets very
41:29
different as far as approach is concerned
41:32
very different habits um you know but
41:36
both athletes that have you know become
41:38
part of my family and athletes that as
41:41
a coach you know you hope you get
41:43
one of those in your career i've been
41:44
able to get two and that's i mean
41:46
i feel pretty damn lucky to to get
41:48
that you know yeah and the one thing
41:51
they have in common is they both have
41:52
home runs that are out of this world
41:55
and train all the points out if people
41:57
don't remember carrie's performance they
42:00
won't understand you know just go watch
42:02
atlanta i mean
42:05
I usually want to talk about someone who's
42:08
as tough as it gets.
42:10
Carrie would raise her level when the
42:14
workouts would get harder and when the
42:16
situation was more challenging and
42:18
tougher.
42:19
And you just had to endure.
42:21
And she was able to do that.
42:24
She was able to pull out her best
42:26
stuff in those times.
42:28
And that's not easy.
42:31
That's not easy as an athlete.
42:35
Yeah, she was amazing, for sure.
42:39
So on another subject,
42:42
you've been around the sport a very long
42:43
time.
42:44
Yep.
42:46
We have the earliest release of
42:49
information going into a season maybe
42:52
ever.
42:53
Do we, though?
42:55
Well, we have a structure.
42:58
Yeah, I...
42:59
Yeah, we do.
43:01
You're right.
43:03
We know when the open is.
43:04
We know when quarterfinals are.
43:05
We know when this series of semifinals
43:08
are.
43:09
How that all works, I don't know.
43:12
And does that all stay the same if
43:14
sale goes through and the owners come in
43:16
and want to change it, right?
43:17
I didn't want to get into the sale
43:19
thing.
43:19
That was my next piece.
43:20
Yeah, yeah.
43:22
I think there's a lot of stuff that
43:25
we're seeing.
43:27
I think right now a lot of it's
43:28
in pencil.
43:30
I know you like to do pencil, pen,
43:31
Sharpie.
43:34
I think that's still pencil.
43:36
I don't think that it's pen or Sharpie
43:38
yet.
43:39
I think that just depends on the sale.
43:41
It'd be awesome if we knew it and
43:42
that was definite,
43:43
but I don't know that that's the case.
43:46
What really sucks is it's the first time
43:49
in a few years that I've been optimistic
43:51
that
43:53
someone's finally listening to some of the
43:56
feedback like getting information early
43:59
and all of it may not even matter
44:01
because of the sale yeah right you're
44:06
getting it and you want to be optimistic
44:08
about that but it's hard to be overly
44:10
optimistic because you don't know what the
44:12
when the shoe's going to drop yep yeah
44:15
i think we're all in the same boat
44:17
i think we're all like
44:19
That's looming.
44:20
And, you know, we don't know, you know,
44:23
I guess it's one of those things where
44:24
we could get news any day that something
44:27
has dropped and, and then it's like, okay,
44:30
like now what's happening, you know?
44:32
And,
44:32
and you and I have no control over
44:34
that whatsoever.
44:37
And then the other thing is there's there,
44:41
there, the WFP tried to be an alternative.
44:43
Yeah.
44:44
Not sure it met the expectations it needed
44:47
to be that.
44:48
Yeah.
44:50
I don't think it holds the illustriousness
44:54
of the championship that the game still
44:57
holds at this point.
44:58
Oh, for sure.
44:59
No.
45:00
Rogue is awesome.
45:01
Awesome.
45:02
It's not the games.
45:04
No.
45:05
And it never will.
45:05
And I don't think Katie and Bill want
45:07
it to be.
45:08
No,
45:09
I don't think they want it to be.
45:10
I think they have a very clear
45:12
understanding of what it is.
45:16
It is absolutely an elite event.
45:18
It's one of the elite events in our
45:20
sport, but it's a showcase.
45:24
It's a great way for them to showcase
45:26
themselves.
45:26
their brand as well.
45:27
And it's a great way for them to
45:30
challenge the athletes in many different
45:32
ways that we don't get to see at
45:34
the games.
45:35
Still an incredible competition, but yeah,
45:38
I would say different than the CrossFit
45:39
Games for sure.
45:40
Well, Katie said herself,
45:41
they're not there to find the fittest.
45:43
Yeah.
45:44
They're there to showcase the athletes.
45:47
Meanwhile,
45:47
you still got to be pretty damn fit
45:49
to finish in the top five.
45:51
Like you got to be pretty awesome no
45:53
matter what.
45:54
But yes, correct.
45:56
Yeah,
45:56
but that is not their goal going in.
45:58
And because of that.
45:59
So here we are.
46:01
And those are probably the big three
46:02
events during the year.
46:03
We have WFP.
46:05
We have the CrossFit game season.
46:06
We have Rogue.
46:07
yeah yeah you've got wadapalooza but a lot
46:09
of people that's just like a measuring
46:11
stick yeah if you look at the fields
46:13
to a wadapalooza the last two years that
46:15
i i would say the individual fields have
46:16
certainly not been um you know comparable
46:20
to the field that fields we saw in
46:23
wfp um you know uh uh the games
46:27
and and rogue for sure yeah for sure
46:30
now maybe it will be this year i
46:31
i don't know could be because my
46:33
understanding is prize purse is going up
46:35
and
46:36
know but it happens during the crossfit
46:38
game season and it's part of the crossfit
46:40
game season open as an individual event
46:46
for everybody there correct and we don't
46:49
really know what's going to happen with
46:50
wfp next year we don't know the type
46:52
of you know how many events the
46:54
participation all those things you know um
46:57
i still think you get everybody in a
46:59
room you you know the games
47:02
WFP, Rogue, Waterpalooza,
47:06
you try to get everybody in a room
47:08
and you put together a really incredible
47:11
comprehensive season that incorporates
47:15
everything.
47:16
That would be my dream eventually.
47:18
I don't think it's going to happen for
47:20
next year, but that would be, you know,
47:22
what I would love to see.
47:23
And maybe the,
47:24
maybe the new owners can facilitate that.
47:27
I don't know.
47:28
But we'll see.
47:29
We have water Palooza and the games now
47:31
in the same room,
47:32
which we've never had before.
47:34
Yeah.
47:35
Right.
47:35
But again,
47:36
what does that mean if there's a sale?
47:38
Yeah.
47:39
I don't know.
47:39
All these steps taken.
47:42
Yeah.
47:42
Yes.
47:42
Finally.
47:43
Yes.
47:43
Finally.
47:44
Yeah.
47:44
What does it mean?
47:46
yeah i don't know scott i don't know
47:49
i don't know question is where do we
47:51
stand like
47:53
you have this athlete that could be the,
47:57
uh, uh, multi-year champion.
47:59
I think so.
48:00
Right.
48:01
Yeah.
48:02
But the uncertainty as to how does she
48:04
display that?
48:06
Yeah.
48:07
Is out.
48:08
And for, so,
48:09
so how do you deal with that as
48:10
a coach, a friend,
48:12
a mentor with her and you,
48:15
or do you just keep moving straight ahead?
48:17
Like everything's going to be the same.
48:19
You keep moving.
48:20
Yeah.
48:21
i think that at this point in time
48:24
we've established that that we are going
48:27
to have opportunities to showcase her
48:30
fitness right and and and the athletes
48:33
will have opportunities to showcase their
48:36
stuff uh this past season they had
48:40
opportunities to showcase it a lot
48:42
probably too much right i think i think
48:44
we all went into the season looking at
48:46
it like
48:47
know what's gonna happen do you know is
48:50
it going to work um you know i
48:53
i certainly went into it saying hey you
48:55
know like let's give it a shot see
48:57
where we're at and um i think one
49:00
of the major things that i look at
49:03
you know from this past season is that
49:06
as a coach with a young athlete who
49:08
you feel is is not yet reached their
49:12
peak right they still have room to build
49:15
you have to find time
49:17
them to train to get better not just
49:20
train for maintenance during the season
49:23
and basically what i mean by maintenance
49:24
is you're just maintaining what you got so
49:27
that you can go and compete and you
49:28
compete and then you deload and then you
49:31
maintain and then you compete and then you
49:33
deload and you can paint you know what
49:34
i mean like you're doing this it's this
49:36
dance of you know train taper compete
49:41
deload train and you never have time to
49:44
get better because you're just making sure
49:46
the body is okay to to to you
49:49
know compete that's what we saw this past
49:52
year um and in a lot of cases
49:54
it didn't work you saw people's uh you
49:57
know you saw their performance really dip
49:59
in a lot of cases uh i'm very
50:02
curious to see who shows up next month
50:05
i don't know you know
50:08
I really don't.
50:09
I'm not sure.
50:13
I think you could see significant
50:14
dropouts.
50:15
I think it's possible.
50:16
I hope not, but who knows?
50:18
I don't know.
50:20
I think a lot of people are thinking
50:22
about how do I train to get better?
50:25
How do I train to be ready for
50:27
next season?
50:30
I'm not sure, man.
50:32
I don't know what the answer is except
50:34
for the fact that it's my job to
50:36
put my athlete in the best position to
50:38
succeed in the events that they consider
50:42
to be the most important events for them
50:45
during the year.
50:46
And we will have discussions,
50:47
and I obviously have opinions on those
50:49
things.
50:49
But ultimately,
50:50
this is their career and their decision,
50:52
right?
50:53
I'll be dead honest with you.
50:56
I don't know what the date is right
50:57
now.
50:58
Maybe six weeks ago, seven weeks ago.
51:02
I was definitely leaning against Alex
51:08
doing Rogue.
51:10
i didn't think she we had done the
51:14
volume necessary to be ready for a
51:17
competition of you know that is that
51:20
challenging and that demanding on the body
51:22
and i was nervous to put her in
51:24
a position where perhaps her body would
51:27
break down i just wasn't that i didn't
51:30
feel great about it and then all of
51:32
a sudden like she got
51:36
She got healthy where she wasn't having
51:38
any pain,
51:39
and we were able to make about a
51:42
four-week push to where I was like, okay,
51:47
I don't know that she'll win or even
51:50
podium,
51:51
but I think she's able to go and
51:53
do well enough that this is going to
51:55
be a positive.
51:57
And I think in her mind,
51:59
she had her mindset.
51:59
She wanted to do it no matter what.
52:02
Um, obviously she did great and, and,
52:05
and performed extremely well,
52:07
but it was very touching though,
52:09
without question.
52:10
You know, I would say even five,
52:12
six weeks ago, you know, we were,
52:14
I was having no,
52:16
something that was keeping me up at night,
52:17
you know?
52:18
Yeah, I know, dude.
52:19
I know it is.
52:20
It's crazy.
52:22
Listen, she's a freak.
52:23
I think,
52:24
I don't think she gets damn near enough
52:25
credit from, from, you know,
52:27
the powers that be.
52:28
I mean, I just, it's wild to me,
52:31
but anyway,
52:32
Um, I, I don't know.
52:36
I don't know what next season looks like.
52:38
And,
52:39
but I think a lot of the athletes
52:40
are going to have to really sit and
52:43
evaluate, you know,
52:45
what is it that they want?
52:46
You know, what are the things that they,
52:48
if,
52:48
if you are looking to make a living
52:51
and you're trying to make money and like,
52:53
you know,
52:54
You have a great opportunity to do that
52:56
right now in the sport.
52:58
It's pretty great.
52:59
You know,
52:59
like you have the opportunity to show up
53:01
at a lot of places,
53:02
be able to make money.
53:03
You know, if that's your priority,
53:06
then then that opportunity is out there
53:08
for you.
53:10
I'm looking at it from a slightly
53:12
different perspective.
53:14
when you have an athlete that's,
53:16
in my opinion, that's this good,
53:18
you have to look at it from two
53:20
perspectives.
53:20
Yes,
53:20
obviously she's looking to make a living,
53:24
you know, and did, even missing the games,
53:27
did extremely well in earnings this year,
53:30
if you look, right?
53:31
Maybe, you know, at first WFP, at NorCal,
53:38
at Rogue.
53:39
Three competitions did extremely well,
53:41
right?
53:42
Yep.
53:43
But to me,
53:45
I'm looking at not just where can we
53:49
go to make money?
53:50
I'm looking at what do we need to
53:53
do
53:54
for her legacy and her career and putting
53:58
her in the best position to to be
54:01
in the discussion as best in the world
54:04
and ultimately at the end of her career
54:06
you know uh the goal is to to
54:09
be one of the best of all time
54:10
i mean that that to me if i
54:12
didn't look at it that way i'm doing
54:14
a disservice to her because i just think
54:15
she i just think she could be that
54:17
good
54:18
And so for me,
54:19
I have to prioritize and look at the
54:23
season in a way that's like,
54:25
how do I look at it in a
54:26
way that I can
54:28
help her perform her best peak for,
54:32
you know,
54:32
a couple of those big competitions where
54:34
we're, where we're making money,
54:36
but also we're putting her in the best
54:37
position to, you know, continue to,
54:40
to that push,
54:41
to be the best in the world.
54:42
And also for longevity, right.
54:44
We want her to be in the sport
54:45
a long time.
54:46
I don't want to set her back,
54:48
you know, by,
54:49
by just smashing her the entire season.
54:53
So there's a lot of things to consider,
54:55
man.
54:56
You know,
54:56
I feel like at this point with Alex.
55:00
So I listen to Boys Interrupted because
55:02
it's a way to get an idea of
55:04
what an athlete thinks, right?
55:07
Athletes talking to athletes.
55:09
We don't get to peer in on that
55:10
very often.
55:12
We're the only ones that have really
55:13
maintained a podcast where that has
55:16
allowed us to take a peek inside.
55:18
They seem to be questioning the volume of
55:21
the year.
55:21
James Sprague has said,
55:23
I have no time to do any cycles
55:25
of anything.
55:26
And that has to change.
55:28
You did something last year that was kind
55:31
of different from everybody else,
55:32
and that was you didn't do the online
55:35
semi.
55:35
No.
55:37
You did the very last in-person semi.
55:40
Yep.
55:41
And you were like, hey,
55:43
in the old days, you got one shot.
55:45
We're taking our one shot at NorCal.
55:47
She's good enough to get her spot there,
55:50
and we're not putting that extra stuff on
55:52
her.
55:52
Yeah.
55:54
Are those the decisions you're talking
55:55
about?
55:56
Yeah, a hundred percent.
55:57
I think so.
55:59
I think you're looking at the season in
56:03
a way that you say to yourself, okay,
56:07
we know that you can only peak a
56:13
certain amount of times, right?
56:16
Until, again, Scott,
56:17
you get to the point where you're just
56:18
bulletproof and you're just that good.
56:20
And you don't even need to be peaking.
56:21
You can show up at a competition and
56:22
still kick everybody's ass, right?
56:25
Like that's the goal eventually.
56:27
Eventually you get to the point where it's
56:28
like it don't matter, right?
56:29
Like you go and you still kick everybody's
56:32
butt.
56:34
Yeah, for sure.
56:34
I felt like...
56:36
The beginning of the season, you know,
56:39
you saw people chasing spots, right?
56:41
You saw people on semis, multiple semis,
56:45
like just beating each other down.
56:47
By the time they got to an in-person
56:49
semifinal, they were destroyed already.
56:51
Like even prior to, you know,
56:54
the beginning of the season.
56:56
I think, you know,
56:57
we also didn't do a lot of Palooza,
56:59
you know?
56:59
I mean, like...
57:02
You know, I think there's got to be,
57:04
I think you've got to look at things
57:05
and you've got to assess it and you've
57:07
got to figure out what's best for your
57:08
athlete.
57:09
And that doesn't necessarily mean just
57:11
signing up for everything.
57:12
You know,
57:13
I think that's a disservice to them.
57:16
And one of the coolest events of the
57:17
year, I would say, is Waterpalooza SoCal.
57:20
I love that team kind of aspect,
57:23
the old invitational type of thing.
57:25
But dang,
57:26
like you're getting no rest right after
57:28
the games.
57:29
and anybody who doesn't think that those
57:31
athletes are putting out oh my gosh so
57:34
you're gonna put out even more in some
57:35
cases because you're accountable to your
57:37
team you know you you're you want to
57:39
you want to you don't want to be
57:40
the one who lets anybody down um you
57:43
know so that that's another thing that
57:45
that's not a break in the season you
57:48
know and I don't know man I think
57:52
um
57:52
I think we're in a situation where,
57:55
you know,
57:56
you really have to consider all things.
57:58
But you also have to consider where you
58:00
are, like as an athlete in the sport,
58:02
those types of things.
58:03
I think a lot of those goes into
58:05
your decision.
58:07
What's important to you, right?
58:09
Like what ultimately is important to you?
58:12
So, yeah, I agree.
58:16
I think it's cool that we have a
58:18
lot of opportunities as far as competition
58:22
is concerned.
58:26
I wish people would talk and communicate
58:29
so we could make things a little bit
58:30
more cohesive,
58:31
because I am assuming they won't be again.
58:34
I'm assuming it'll be a situation where if
58:37
you decide to do everything,
58:38
you're going to be in a really tough
58:40
spot.
58:42
I don't know.
58:43
I don't know exactly what it's going to
58:45
look like.
58:46
But I know that it's my job to
58:51
help my athlete and athletes in general,
58:54
whoever that person is,
58:56
to make the best decision for them.
58:58
And that doesn't necessarily mean that
59:00
everybody's making the same decision
59:02
because the athletes are in different
59:04
places.
59:05
So in some cases,
59:06
what Alex decides to do may not be
59:08
the same from what somebody else decides
59:10
to do.
59:10
And we've got to look at it on
59:11
a case by case instance and see what's
59:15
best for that person,
59:16
where they are in their careers.
59:17
What's their priority?
59:19
Is it making money?
59:20
Is it legacy?
59:21
Is it, you know,
59:21
being the best in the world?
59:22
Is it, you know, I don't know.
59:24
And that depends on that specific athlete.
59:28
And if you're making a blanket decision
59:29
for everybody,
59:30
then you're not doing your athletes any
59:32
justice whatsoever.
59:35
Well, this has been a great conversation.
59:37
Of course, I have a couple more questions,
59:38
but I am out of time because I
59:40
do these on my lunch hour now.
59:41
You got to go back to work, bro.
59:42
I do.
59:43
I do.
59:44
So I want to thank you so much
59:45
for hanging out with us, Justin.
59:47
Everybody in the chat for hanging out as
59:49
well.
59:50
Can't wait to see where Alex is going
59:52
to go.
59:53
And you have so many other athletes we
59:54
didn't even get into what's going on with
59:56
them.
59:57
So I guess I'll have to have you
59:58
back and we'll talk about those guys too.
1:00:00
Anytime, dude.
1:00:02
All right.
1:00:02
Thank you, everybody.
1:00:03
We'll see everybody next time on Lunch
1:00:06
with Friends or Lunch with the Clydesdale.
1:00:08
Bye, guys.