Taylor Self (00:01):
Yo, what’s up everybody? This is episode five, shut up and scribble. We’re gonna talk today a bit about, we’re gonna extrapolate on our past two episodes of programming. We’re gonna talk about programming for competitions today, but we’re gonna start, uh, probably with what we were just talking about. Cause I kind of want to explore that a little bit, the odds of sev on going to the games this year. Um, and then we’ll jump into kind of the big hot news of Dave returning to the game scene as a GM of sport.
JR Howell (00:34):
Yeah. And I think it’s probably impossible to talk about one without talking about the other, right? Yeah. Due to the recent events, we know the relationship Savon has built with Dave over the years. Um, a lot of people have been trying to push him to get out in the crowds, shake hands, kiss babies, all that kind of stuff. And he’s been really reluctant to since he was removed. But I, I wouldn’t, I would, I would bet more likely that he does go to the games this year and, um, I don’t know, possibly be given access to get around the athletes, which is what we all loved to watch and what some people still go back and, and watch on the behind the scenes episodes.
Taylor Self (01:13):
Do you think the behind the scenes wrote to the games and the fittest documentaries, which is kind of in Sev On’s podcast with Bergeron, what he was talking about is kind of the heyday or the glory days of the CrossFit games. Do you think, how much of a driving factor do you think that bit of media was behind out? To me the year 2017 just seemed like, wow, this is such a huge deal and then bam, 2018, all these changes and then bam, 2019 and it just seemed to tank. Do you think, how much of a part do you think Savon played in it being perceived to be as big as it was?
JR Howell (01:49):
Yeah, I think it, I think a lot of things, uh, worked together to kind of, uh, deflate the balloon, so to speak. But yeah, I think when you take away such an integral part of the experience that the fans don’t get, that they can look forward to going back and experiencing a month or two down the road kind of in that dead time where there’s not anything really going on in the this sport. There’s some off season big competitions coming up, but everyone’s like, okay, what do we do now until the open starts again? Oh, well, at least I’ll get to watch the documentary that comes out. And then it becoming available, like on Netflix I’m sure was like a, a huge boost. Yeah. But especially that, especially behind the scenes stuff, because you couldn’t really consume it in a day. Like you could binge it, but it was gonna be something maybe you could watch over the course of a week or
Taylor Self (02:31):
Two. Yeah. Yeah. That and the Road to the Game’s insane, I think to, and, and again, they talked about this on the Bergeron podcast, but how he was doing it with CrossFit years before any of these other big sports were doing it like Formula One or, and the one thought I had was, well, there’s HBO’s hard knocks, and that’s one of my favorite shows ever, and that’s been around for like fucking 20 years. Um, but aside from that, I mean, it truly was just put you in a position to kind of the culture and what happened that otherwise you wouldn’t get a chance to understand as a fan.
JR Howell (03:06):
Yeah. What’s really cool to me about like shows like hard knocks is kinda like every second counts, right? Like you didn’t know, and unless you followed the games that year, you didn’t know that murky and, um, John Welborn, like you didn’t know where those guys were gonna finish. So you didn’t, you, it was the story, it was the backstory of all those guys that you loved to hear about. Like one of ’em came from like a military background. The other one came from just like whatever kind of fitness background you had O P T and he was already training clients out of his garage and you didn’t know that. Like, okay, one of these guys has gotta win. That really wasn’t the point. The point was getting to know the journey. So now when you have Road to the Games, everyone knows that these guys are all professionals. You kind of miss out on that now where you’re not like following a fringe semi-finalist that’s just trying to get into semis. Yeah. And then following someone like Pat who like is trying to win the games and then following someone who’s a new up and comer, like if they brought back things like that, I think it would be so cool where they followed someone throughout a season and not just in the two months leading up to the games.
Taylor Self (04:12):
And, and the biggest part of that that I think is missing now is you go to all of these athletes’, Instagrams or wherever you’re seeing the media from them, and it’s all the shine and the flash, and there’s none of that behind the scenes hardship or the pieces of adversity, uh, the bumps in the road that happened inevitably to any professional in any sport. And you see the stuff like that in hard knocks. I think that’s what makes a show like that so compelling is you see the guys that you get attached to in the first three episodes get cut. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> in episode four. And uh, that’s what makes it cool and allows people like us to, um, relate to it and become emotionally invested. And I think that’s missing in a big way. And I hope Savon goes to the game so we can get dinner together and maybe get him fucked up and, uh, <laugh> have some fun. So we’ll see.
JR Howell (05:01):
Yeah. So we have Dave as GM of Sport, and a lot of people are speculating what that’s actually gonna mean. Um, I’m sure you have your, your thoughts on what it means from a, um, relationships, um, marketing sponsorship perspective, and then what it might mean as far as just like the execution of the competition as a whole. Yeah. And then the programming, which is what a lot of people will think that, okay, it’s really gonna be Dave programming now until they see the games programming, they don’t like it and then they’ll say, well, no, no, that probably wasn’t Dave. It was something else. So <laugh>, you know, that’s how people will play it. Um, I actually don’t think he’s gonna have that big of a hand in the programming, not because I’m sure a lot of it is 90% done, but because I do believe that Dave will respect the position Boaz is in. And although he’ll probably provide feedback and he might, he might even provide recommendations on certain things. I think he, it, it is his and I think he wants to let him have his shot, right? Yeah. Like one year. And this being the full full, the first full year, I don’t think he’s just gonna be quick to just take the reins from him
Taylor Self (06:09):
At all. Uh, yeah, I don’t think he’s gonna be involved. Uh, that’s a strong statement. I don’t think he’s going to in the programming per se. Um, and, and I tr I think more than anything, I’m curious about what this means him being GM of sport, cuz it’s totally different from him directing the games. But I agree, I don’t think he’s going to have a heavy hand in the programming in any way. I do think that 90% might be a little generous to say. My gut says they’re probably more like 65, 70% done with the programming, with the big pieces in play and probably a few handfuls of minor tweaks, um, left up in the air. Um, I, what comes to my mind is how when Dave was director of the games, it seemed like all he cared about was making the games the best possible.
(06:57):
It, the athletes weren’t the priority, the fans weren’t necessarily priority. He wanted the test, the spectacle, all of that to be as perfect as he could make it in his vision. Um, and you would often see, you know, there were people who were upset by the way. He, I don’t wanna say treated other people, but he just was not highly concerned with other people’s feelings or, you know, complaints or feedback from the athletes. He really just had one sole concern that was making the games as best as possible. I think he did a great job of that. And I’m curious to see how he will approach the role of GM of sport. Cuz we could assume that it’s quite a different goal. If, if Bo’s goal now is to handle all that other other stuff. What is Dave’s goal now and is that to grow the sport and if it’s to grow the sport, what kind of face are we gonna see from Dave now? Like, is he gonna, you know, just, just curious. I’m just unsure of what it’s gonna look like. I I have no idea.
JR Howell (07:55):
Yeah, it’s interesting too. I mean this is, we could do a whole show on this, but, uh, there’s been a lot of talk that, you know, when Dave was put into his most recent position prior to GM of Sport, that it was like to make sure that all the pieces in training were working together, right? And what I think that means is what we’re putting out on main site, what Cap is putting out, what we’re putting out at the open quarterfinals, semi-finals games levels. Is there a clear direction? Is there some cohesiveness? Is there, is it, is it gonna be difficult for a one to two year affiliate owner to look at what’s being provided and say, okay, cool. I think I know what I think, I know what direction we’re, we’re, we’re trying to push the community in because whether you wanna separate the two or not methodology from sport, that’s a, that’s a whole can of worms.
(08:47):
People are going to try to make it the same thing. Yeah. Affiliate owners are going to see pirouettes and think, huh, maybe I should start to try to learn some progressions to administer that to my members because it’s something that you can do pretty safely. Yeah. Something that, it’s a skill people can learn all that kind of stuff. Um, from a programming standpoint, I think if you meddle in it too much, then any kind of open quarter semis games, okay, let’s see if we can see the natural progression goes away. Mm-hmm. So I think you have to just let it, let it be what it’s gonna be, at least until these games are over.
Taylor Self (09:24):
Yeah. And I, and I think he will, and I think my, I where my curiosity broadens is in the realm of like media. Like, will behind the scenes be brought back? Will he bring Sev on back? Will he reach out to Sev and say, Hey, I think it’d be good for you to come to the games. Cuz I think most fans or most people familiar with sev on or behind the scenes or Road to the Games would really like that. Um, and would agree that I think, you know, there’s a huge part they’re missing. Is that what he’s gonna be more concerned with, like, growing the games and increasing the engagement with the fans, fixing the mistakes of the Instagram media team, whatever, um, fuck even the standards packets released in the open and quarter finals in the age group, online qualifier. Like, are those the things he is going to be attacking? Um, and do you think he’ll just take more of a leadership role over all of them and maybe institute a bit more diligence in being mistake free? Because it seems like this past year there’s just been mistake after mistake after mistake.
JR Howell (10:26):
Yeah. I’m not sure you can put any of that stuff on any one person, but, um, from what we know about Dave, his, uh, communication method, his, um, um, seemingly, uh, reluctant nature to accept anything other than perfection is gonna be a good thing. So, um,
Taylor Self (10:50):
Yeah. You think he’ll be more open to feedback as Jim of sport than he was as director of the games?
JR Howell (10:55):
Oh, I think the idea that, that he hasn’t grown and matured, um, not only in like a leadership position, but just as a person is crazy. So I, if you just, if you’re expecting to see the same old everything, I, I don’t think that’s, I don’t think that’s justified at all, I think in the new position. Um, whereas before it was just, I’m worried about the programming, I’m worried about the show I’m putting on, that’s it. I’m not worried about what other people think about it. I’m not worried about input from others. I think that he’ll take a big step back from that. Okay. And I think it’s, uh, I think it’s a net positive for sure.
Taylor Self (11:29):
I think most of the fans see Dave coming back as a good thing because they’re tired of being, they’re tired of like the <laugh> the fucking, this is a good example, like the press conferences with Justin Berg where he talks for 45 minutes and says nothing. People are tired of that. I think not just with CrossFit, but in society as a whole. People are so fucking sick of just being talked to. Um, and I think for the most part, fans me as well see Dave coming back as, okay, things are gonna have some direction now, um, we’re gonna see growth, we may even see some excitement. Um, but then you see someone like Kotler, Justin Kotler with Underdogs kind of had his take was it on tucking Elite fitness?
JR Howell (12:13):
Yeah.
Taylor Self (12:13):
Um, their round table where he talked about him not being sure that this was a step in the right direction, um, from the athlete side of it and athletes being scared to go today with feedback or to speak out for listed being blacklisted.
JR Howell (12:28):
Yeah. And if, if you’re an athlete or you’re a coach and you’ve only had one specific kind of interaction, you’ve only witnessed one kind of interaction, which doesn’t, which a lot of people have described as not very symbiotic. Right. It’s usually just like, no, maybe I’ll think about it, but there’s not a whole lot of back and forth then. I mean, is it their fault to assume it’s gonna be the same thing all over again? No, but I think it’s, it’s also, um, in everyone’s best interest to just wait and see and have that mentality until, until they see that, oh, okay, things are just gonna be the way they always were, then yeah, we should wait to jump to those conclusions.
Taylor Self (13:06):
Cool. And do we know if is Justin Berg let go from CrossFit or did he just get transitioned outta that
JR Howell (13:11):
Hole? I have no, no clue. Okay,
Taylor Self (13:13):
Cool. Yeah. All right. Well you think good thing or bad thing overall, Dave coming back?
JR Howell (13:18):
Oh, I think if I, I think it’s gonna be a net positive for sure.
(13:22):
Yeah, me too. Um, yeah, and what’s cool is that, you know, today we’re talking about programming for competitions with that kind of being on, uh, on the cusp of, of everyone’s thought process, thinking about the games where we talked about affiliate programming and we talked about programming for, for competitive athletes previously. It’ll be kind of good to go from the opposite into the spectrum from affiliate to competition, the kind of things we’re looking to do, the kind of things that we’re, um, making sure that we don’t do. Uh, I think there’s a lot to talk about here. So first of all, I would, I think it’s important for people that maybe are gonna be programming for competitions or interested in it, you have to know who you’re programming for. That’s maybe the biggest thing, right? You’re doing a in-house competition. You, you don’t need to pro try to program it like it’s the CrossFit games. And if you’re doing a competition with semifinals level athletes, there’s a certain m level of difficulty with movements that you kind of need to have, or else it’s really hard to create separation and workouts. Mm. And we can, we can get into stuff like that.
Taylor Self (14:32):
I think it’s also important to note that unless you’re the CrossFit games, it’s highly unlikely you’re going to find the whole and everyone’s weakness regar, you know, whether even if it’s eight events, there are people that are gonna be able to sneak through. It’s just impossible to test everything in eight workouts and it’s, fuck, it’s almost impossible to test everything 13 workouts, and that’s why you have the open and quarter finals and semi-finals before it. Um, but I, I guess my question and leading us to where we would start is where do you begin with programming for a competition Crucible for say, or where, where does it start? Do you just have an idea? Does it pop into your head? For me, it’s pretty creative. It’s, it’s based in creativity and I’m just curious to hear how the ball gets rolling for you.
JR Howell (15:14):
Yeah. So I think outside of this year where I’m kind of choosing to take a small risk and, and reprogram some old CrossFit games and semifinals workouts to create a whole test, usually it’s, it’s really impulsive. It could be driving down the road and think about something, um, I could just be hanging out with the kids and just think about something and then quickly get it into my phone, like into my notes. I, I don’t say, Hey, I’m gonna take two hours and program, um, crucible because it, what I come up with won’t be good. Yeah. And I’ll just end up changing it a lot. So it, it is really impulsive. Um, Dave’s talked about this before, and I’m sure Adrian does the same thing, where they’re these kind of like, um, they’re these pillar type workouts throughout a competition. And at the games obviously you have a lot more, but I would say in Crucible, I usually try to do seven score tests.
(16:03):
Generally I’ll do a back-to-back, but there’s usually two workouts that I’m really set in stone on. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, those are the ones that are like really important to me. The year you won, it was the Belt and Run, which was a play on the burden run. It was a lot of sled work, a weighted run, a non weighted run, and then flip sled. And so that was like a workout that I knew I needed to make the rest of the competition around. Right. Likewise, that year I programmed the finale really early, so I had those two workouts the shortest of the weekend. Really, the
Taylor Self (16:35):
Finale was one of the pillars that year.
JR Howell (16:38):
Yeah. It was one, it was one of the workouts that I decided I wanted to do, that I wanted to do, like right off the bat. And we can, we can deep dive into that stuff, but if you have a couple workouts that you know, you’re really firm about, it kind of shapes the rest of the workouts without sitting down and trying. I mean, sitting down and just saying, Hey, I’m gonna write seven workouts and hoping that they all go together is really difficult to do.
Taylor Self (16:59):
Yeah. I, I’m similar. I think the creative processes start very similar for me. I’ll have ideas or movement combinations or movement variations that are like stuck in my head that I really love and that are unique and that I feel like people don’t do a lot of. I really like that aspect of Dave’s programming. I like to feel like I surprise people with something that they don’t do a ton of. Like, I think last year we did like, um, it was, oh, it was kind of like a ma it was the 13 11 9, 7 5, or maybe 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 of biby pull-ups and squat snatches. Before people were doing a lot of burpy pull-ups. It was basically like, you know, oh, you see a hero workout with biby pulps or do some biby pulps, but competitors weren’t really doing them. Um, and then the year before that, like the bird and Run that we had done in a partner workout with the rogue ballistic block on your back and making people run with that, like the men and women with the same weight. Like I have an idea like that stuck in my head and then I’ll write down some movements that I really like going with it. And then I, from there I can build around it and I feel like I build around it much easier when I have one or two of those like pillar workouts. The other one was the first year, I think it was the 21 15 9 Devil’s Press Dumbbell, thruster mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, that workout just,
JR Howell (18:12):
Yeah. I remember that being one of the early ones you sent to me that year to look at.
Taylor Self (18:15):
Yeah. I, I just, not that that was anything revolutionary, but I, people don’t want it. That’s a workout where somebody looks at and they just, you know, it’s gonna hurt really bad.
JR Howell (18:24):
Right.
Taylor Self (18:25):
And set the tone.
JR Howell (18:27):
Yeah. So I think in our case, we’re both of us generally, and I mean we’re, we’re open to programming for, for competitions that want the help mm-hmm. <affirmative> at any level. But for the things we normally do, I mean, I have a big team competition every year and programming team stuff, it is a lot different than programming individual and then one individual, um, well, let’s just assume for this conversation that we’re programming for Fringe semi-finalists, annual semi-finalists and maybe the, the Fringe games athlete that’s gonna break through in the next year or two. So when we program in that way, while some competitions will just say, Hey, this is just something fun for the weekend, we’re not really worried about the fittest winning, that would not be the case for us. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, if we programmed a competition and it was pretty clear that someone who finished in fifth or sixth was the fittest one there, we would probably have to take a look at the programming ourselves and just say, okay, something just wasn’t balanced at all.
Taylor Self (19:21):
Yeah.
JR Howell (19:22):
Um, yeah, I mean as far as time domains and stuff go, how, how do you see a, let’s just call it a, a seven, seven scored event competition, shaking out where, because I think, I think a lot of people want to know not just about movement selection because you can come up with a lot of different movements to make good tests, but as far as time domain goes, when you only have a semi-finals type number of workouts, what’s appropriate?
Taylor Self (19:48):
I think the margins need to be one workout at each, in my opinion. So like really, really short time domain, two to four minutes, one workout and then one long time domain, which in my opinion needs to be over 20 minutes needs to be tested. Um, and I, it frustrates me when I don’t see the 20 minute time domain tested because it’s so, it’s again another separator. And when you don’t test that, like, and it’s doesn’t even matter as much the movements or pairings that you have within that time domain, but just the intensity of work for that duration of time when you don’t test that, it’s a massive piece of fitness that you’re missing. So I think, but on both ends as well, it’s just typical in CrossFit that you always see the sprint workout, but you don’t always see the 20 minute time domain mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, so I think both of those margins are really important. I think then I similar to you, like to have a back-to-back workout or something that’s interval based with some built-in rest, um, probably within like the 12 to 15 minute time domain with the rest in there. Um, maybe two, seven or six to nine minute workouts, maybe two 12 to 16 minute workouts. So that’s 2, 4, 6, 8 scores. Did I put there eight time domains?
JR Howell (21:07):
That sounds right. The one thing that jumped out at me is that you are pretty partial to long, like you’re pretty biased to, if we talk about most competitions that we see, I would say you’re gonna find maybe two over 12 minutes mm-hmm. Like winning, winning times. Mm. And it seems like you think that maybe three in that time domain is better if you have one that’s more of a sprint and then you have one that’s whatever, somewhere between five and nine minutes maybe.
Taylor Self (21:36):
Uh, yeah, so I think you have one that’s a super short sprint and I think two that are between six and nine, um, or maybe five and nine that that’s okay too. Um, winning times. And then I think definitely one over 20 mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I think one right around the 15 minute mark and I think one between the 10 to 12 minute time mark.
JR Howell (21:55):
And where does the, where does the test of strength fix fit into all that?
Taylor Self (22:00):
I like to test strength either in like the sprint type time domain with really heavy weights in a sprint type setting. Um, or well last year I tested it in that interval workout with the heavy deadlifts and that was like an 1110 minute time domain.
JR Howell (22:17):
Yeah. We’ll talk about that, like describe that workout and then describe the snatch queen and jerk the year before so people can get an idea of like, and then I’ll do the same how we test strengthen our competitions for, for two years.
Taylor Self (22:29):
So last year the interval was shuttle runs, um, and not like indoor shuttle runs. We had an, we had a, a course behind our gym, this huge parking lot where it was like, maybe was it a 50 meter length? I can’t quite, it was about 50 meters down and back for I think four runs. Um, and then max wrapped deadlifts until you hit 30. And I think the weight was like 365 for men and 2 75 or 2 85 for women, I
JR Howell (23:00):
Think 2 75. That sounds right.
Taylor Self (23:01):
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, and so that clearly the person who is the best dead lifter and can also run and that is really strong is gonna win that workout. I, and I think it’s important to test strength, but I don’t think in an event with seven to eight scores, it’s important to test strength in a single modality setting because then you’re, you’re just, that’s so far away from the CrossFit methodology. I’m shocked that it’s ever even been done in regionals because if you’re going to test strength single modality, that means strength is more important than all these other tests. And you don’t have a gymnastics single modality or a mono structural single modality. Um, so I’m very partial to everything being pretty balanced across modalities like mono, structural being as important as gymnastics, being as important as weightlifting and strength. Um, so we had that workout with an interval and then the year before it was like a two minute workout and it was 1296 mm-hmm.
(23:55):
<affirmative>, or nine, I think it was 1296. Wow. The fact that, I can’t remember, this is annoying. It was 1296 of snatches and clean and jerks at 180 5. Or no, it was just, sorry, it wasn’t 1296, it was 12 clean and jerks, nine snatches, 180 5, 1 35. Um, so just a complete sprint of a workout. And I got the idea from, it was kind of an idea that came from the Dubai Sevens workout. It was like seven hang snatch, seven mm-hmm. <affirmative>, et cetera, et cetera. I got the idea there and I’m, you know, in my mind, again, the person who wins that workout is gonna be the most efficient bar ball cycler, but also more than likely the strongest. You’re not gonna win that workout if you’re not strong. So you’re testing strength, but you’re also testing fitness because you’ve gotta move a barbell really fast in like a, a minute and a half to a two minute time domain. I think the guy that won it was like a minute 55 or something, which is, that’s fast.
JR Howell (24:50):
Right? Yeah. And likewise with me, this is one of the things we do, um, think really similarly on that when you test strength in a rested non fatigue setting, if you only have seven or eight workouts, it’s really difficult. It can be done, but it’s really difficult programming wise to program to it’s opposite end of the spectrum mm-hmm. <affirmative> and find a way to balance that out. Yeah. Um, one year at Crucible, uh, we had a snatch ladder and it was gated similarly to like Yeah. Some of people’s favorite workouts. Right. The, um, 16.2, 19.2 type workouts where you had an eight minute time domain, you had to buy in with a, with a row and then burpees over a pad. Yeah. Yeah. And then you had snatches at one weight and you went back to the rower and if you finished in a certain amount of time, your snatch weight kept increasing and it ended at mm-hmm. <affirmative> one rep at 2 75. So it started at 180 5 and ended at 2 75 and it was a pretty long workout. Right. If you finished that workout,
Taylor Self (25:53):
It’s like 17
JR Howell (25:53):
Minutes. You were, you were in the, you were in the high teens, so there was a lot of burpee volume, there was a good bit of rowing, so you really dug pretty deep into some people’s capacity. And then their ability to perform a high technical lift under fatigue was there,
Taylor Self (26:07):
The workout was 20, can I say it? Sure. Cause people, I’m sure people want those 21 calorie row for men, 15 burpees over a crash pad. So like a bar facing burpee, but over a longer, um, obstacle. And then, was it 97 5 31 snatches. That sounds right. Ascending weight. Um, and it finished at 2 75 for men and I think Jacob Faff won the workout. It was like 1630 or something, and then Mark Hutchinson, and then I was right after.
JR Howell (26:33):
Yep. And it was, and there was a ton of guys in the field that finished. Yeah. I mean, it was a, it was a really strong field for sure. Yeah. And then last year, um, clean ladder, I did a clean ladder with a drag rope and, um, handstand walk. Obstacle. Obstacle. Yeah. So you had drag rope and then you went down and back, uh, ramp stairs and then stairs ramp, and then it was just one clean, so it was one clean and then start the next round, one clean start the next round. Someone loaded the barbells for everybody. And the last weights were, um, 3 40, 2 40, um, if I remember correctly.
Taylor Self (27:08):
Yeah. Which is heavy.
JR Howell (27:09):
Yeah. Which is heavy. Yeah. And it was a, it was a step in the right direction, I think for the female loading. Um, you know, it went 300, 200, 3 20, 2 20. Uh, so it wasn’t as beefy as the clean weights this year for the semi-finals. But the, what I learned a lot about that workout is when you put something, uh, that dense in the shoulders with the drag rope and the obstacle for the females, usually that front rack position is just a little bit more compromised. And that was just a learning thing. Um, some of the females got to the last bar, but no one hit it. And then Luke Parker finished the workout, won the workout, won the competition. Um, so that was pretty cool to see him do so well in that because just that workout alone, um, there’s a lot of strength involved, but also just a lot of skill execution and Yeah, skill and, and high skill. So from there, how we test strength, skill, skill movements. And I know now a lot of people are saying the sport is moving into the direction of more high skill, high execution and not as much, um, engine or enduring, um, hundreds and hundreds of reps. Volume, volume, volume. Where, where do you, where do you fall on that?
Taylor Self (28:21):
I, I disagree with people and when they say they think the sport is moving in that direction, I think you can look back at, I mean, to even like 2012 or 11 at the games and the skill has always been there at the games. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I think what people are noticing now and what is happening now is that skill is trickling down to the semifinal level and to the quarter final level and to the open level, which I think it needs to. Um, so I don’t think it’s this, oh, I think it’s more so this, every Tom, Dick and Harry who played high school football can deadlift 400 pounds. So when they see the 400 pound deadlift at the games, they’re like, oh, I can do that. But then you see 30 unbroken ring muscle ups and there’s not a fucking prayers chance in hell that that person’s ever gonna do that.
(29:06):
But you’re waiting one thing as more important than the other in terms of, okay, they’ll put a 400 pound deadlift in semifinals, but never whatever this particular gymnastic skill. And I think they’ve seen, and I think everyone has seen these instances of the games where you have these athletes get there and they just are standing there and staring at a particular implement or exercise that they can’t do and the time for that has passed. So I think there’s probably screening more for these higher skills at the earlier stage because it’s just as important to possess that skill as it is to be strong and be able to move a barbell. And I don’t think it’s off balance any way. I don’t, I don’t think anyone who says the sport is more skill-based now is correct at all. I don’t think it’s more skill-based. I think it’s as balanced as it’s ever been.
JR Howell (29:51):
Yeah. I think from a programming standpoint, if you’re programming for the caliber of athlete that we typically are at our two big comp.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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