#296 CrossFit Games – Jason Khalipa & Brian Friend

Sevan Matossian: (00:03)
Bam. We’re live. Whoa.

Jason Khalipa: (00:05)
We’re live.

Sevan Matossian: (00:05)
We’re live. Oh, good morning, Laura. HVAT when are you coming on the show? How come? I don’t see anybody.

Jason Khalipa: (00:15)
Hey,

Sevan Matossian: (00:16)
Do you see that? Do you see that is something wrong with the show? Is the show not live? Did I screw something up?

Speaker 4: (00:21)
Do you have comments coming in? What do you mean?

Sevan Matossian: (00:24)
Oh, it’s just 35. Oh, there it is. There it is. There it is. Okay.

Speaker 4: (00:26)
It takes a minute. Sometimes. It’s flag.

Sevan Matossian: (00:31)
Uh, we are here. Good morning guys. Fun show today. Easy show. I slept so good on days like this. When I know Jason and Brian are gonna be here, I’m just like, oh, this is gonna be slam dunk. Um, uh, do

Jason Khalipa: (00:43)
You actually stay up at night? Like do you actually in all services, do you actually stay up at night thinking, oh, I have a guest on that. Might not show up. Right. Number one. Yeah. Yeah. Or it’s gonna be really rough. Uh, do you actually like, worry about that at night?

Sevan Matossian: (00:58)
Not that, but it’s more like, uh, I’m just ripping on Brian jokes, beard jokes. They will just be like pouring through my brain and which one to use. Oh. Oh my God. I can’t believe, I just thought of that joke to say about Jason CLE, but I don’t can I, that one’s so nasty. Can I just push it away? That one cannot come out. It’s more seriously. It’s more like that. Uh, do not give that person anymore attention. Um, but Laura HVAT deserves attention. Uh, Jason P Philippa, uh, the 2008 Crossman games winner is here with us. He is from an era before CrossFit, uh, games, athletes were and complained. Uh, so he is a little out of touch, but he’ll do his best to, um, to, you know, give, give perspective from the stone age. He’s also extremely success for businessman. As you guys know, he’s continued the, uh, tradition that he comes from of spreading, uh, um, just, just basically health to the world. Uh, you can go to NC fit and see all of his great work. Uh, we have Brian here, uh, the premier journalist at who comes from a highly respected periodical the morning chalk, uh, which is for sale. So anyone who can rub two nipples together can, uh, reach out to Justin LA Franco and make a bid on it is all true. All true. Um, and we have Matt, Susan, what are you still doing on the front end? Go away. Bye. Okay. Um, the open is upon us.

Speaker 5: (02:20)
Well, almost

Sevan Matossian: (02:22)
It’s exciting. This is, this is exciting. This is when we, we find out who is the FITT person in the world who can do a workout, although only three workouts kind of bumps me out, but three weeks, three

Jason Khalipa: (02:32)
Weeks weeks, right?

Sevan Matossian: (02:34)
Oh, three weeks. But we find out who the fittest person in the world is. When you get a break.

Jason Khalipa: (02:41)
I got a, a couple,

Sevan Matossian: (02:42)
I mean, I I’m being honest. Go ahead, Jason, go ahead.

Jason Khalipa: (02:43)
Yeah, I got a couple questions. So maybe Brian can, can highlight this, I think for anybody listening. Um, I, I don’t, I’d love to summarize what the game season actually looks like right now. And then I’d also like to, to think, I think from a gym owner perspective, I do think adjusting it from five weeks to three weeks was preferred from a gym owner perspective, five weeks for a lot, a lot of years, it, it became tough when you’re running gyms and you’re trying to really have like these Friday night lights now over the years, our gym kind of transitioned out of that as much, but there was a while where every week for five weeks we’re going at it and it just kind of gets a little exhausting. So I think the three week model, I actually don’t think is bad. Um, but I am curious about the whole season because I like to think that I, you know, I read the morning shock up. I, I listen to Savan, I try and keep up and I really don’t know exactly what’s happening from a game season perspective. I know we have quarter final stuff, my finals, but how’s that all working

Brian Friend: (03:42)
Seven? You do, you know?

Sevan Matossian: (03:44)
Uh, no, I don’t know either. Um, it, it’s a, it’s a totally, uh, fair perspective. What, what, um, he’s saying my, my perspective on wanting five weeks is five weeks is just from the shallow perspective of just wanting to, um, I just feel like it’s a better test. I’m picking out who, who the best is. And I put a lot of weight on the open. I think that if you win the open and it’s no secret that you deserve $300,000 and deserve, I sound like I’m a Canadian, you deserve, uh, $300,000 and you deserve some sort of title. It really is a incredible feat. And the reason why it’s such an incredible feat is because Jason could to take first place on workout 1, 2, 3, and four, and then take 800th place, which would still be amazing on workout five because there’s, God knows how many hundred thousand people in this class. And now all of a sudden, not even be in the top 10. And that’s why I think the open is so amazing. It really puts a premium. Okay.

Brian Friend: (04:39)
So We, you guys have brought up like a dozen important topics here. I think maybe we’ll work backwards. So not only is, is, uh, is

Sevan Matossian: (04:49)
Kalifa wins though. Sorry. Before you go, Brian Kalifa does win the one on what’s best for affiliates. I have no opinion there. Like I no clue. I, I defer to him 100%. I would just say he’s right.

Jason Khalipa: (04:59)
I like A’s comment. By the way. I remember him complaining a good bit. When Dave wouldn’t, wouldn’t let him compete with a team of three. What a. So who,

Sevan Matossian: (05:07)
Who said that? Where are you seeing

Jason Khalipa: (05:08)
That? Jason, Jason, Jason. Walkins. I know what he’s talking about. Uh, what he is talking about is, uh, at the, at the games one year, uh, we had Miranda get hurt and we were trying to finish out all the events with less people on the team. And I mean, he’s making a joke, but yes, I was complaining cause I wanted to actually compete with less people. Uh, but who’s a

Sevan Matossian: (05:30)
I don’t, I don’t know who he’s

Jason Khalipa: (05:31)
Saying is a. No, no, no. What he’s, he’s making a joke saying like, he’s joking that I was being a, meaning like we were trying to do the same amount of work with just less people. We, we actually didn’t finish last in a, in a, a sled pool event with, with one less person. But anyways, I’m not bitter about it. Would you

Sevan Matossian: (05:46)
Have beat? Sorry, Brian, sorry. Brian, would you have beat rich team that year with just three people? They

Brian Friend: (05:54)
Would’ve won. They had so many points. I, I think if they’d been allowed to finish, they would’ve won anyway.

Jason Khalipa: (06:00)
Ah, man, I, I don’t have,

Brian Friend: (06:03)
I’m not certain of that, but prior to her getting injured, they were the best team that year. We can say that. And I feel very confident saying that. I think what Tyler’s saying

Sevan Matossian: (06:12)
Pers, I’m pretty sure it was racist.

Speaker 7: (06:16)
Well,

Jason Khalipa: (06:16)
Because I’m Persian.

Speaker 7: (06:17)
Yeah, for

Brian Friend: (06:19)
Sure. And you know, you know, Mexicans hate Persians. Yeah.

Speaker 7: (06:22)
That’s

Sevan Matossian: (06:23)
Long, long history ago.

Brian Friend: (06:26)
Anyway, I guess we’ll start from the beginning. I, I do agree with Jason that the three weeks and compared to five weeks is much more manageable. And I think just overall more fun for affiliates. Uh, it’s easy to say, Hey guys, for the next three Fridays, we’re doing this or whatever you wanna say, but five weeks it gets to be long and you have to be like pretty bought in. And you know, the workouts tend to evolve where the first one or two is very accessible to everyone. And by the third one, there’s a, there’s something that most people can’t do, which is okay. But then there’s still two more weeks after that. And you’ve already had one. You can’t do. It’s a little bit of a let on for a lot of people. Whereas in this case, and if we saw, if the programming this year is anything like it was last year, the first two are super accessible and the last week tested people in a different way where there was gonna eventually be a higher barrier to entry, but that was the last week. So it was seemingly more appropriate.

Jason Khalipa: (07:23)
Uh, okay. I, I, I just wanna start by saying something about the open. So here’s my opinion on the open. I think the open is if I’m not mistaken, the largest physical, uh, the largest sporty event in the world, in terms of total participants as a singular thing, uh, at its peak, I think it had what, 400,000 maybe Sivan. I, I, I could be wrong or Brian you right now

Sevan Matossian: (07:43)
That’s yes. I think like 4 62 or something.

Jason Khalipa: (07:45)
Yeah. And the, one of the things that’s interesting about the open, um, is that it wants to cast a wide net and I’m curious, what’s gonna happen with this year with HQ because they wanna make it inclusive. Cause you wanna get as many people to sign up as possible. So normally the first workout’s like for example, seven minutes of burpees, which oddly enough, when that workout first came out, I thought it was stupid. Then I did it a bunch of times cause I wanna try and set the best board a

Sevan Matossian: (08:07)
Bunch of times.

Jason Khalipa: (08:08)
Oh, I, I, I probably did it 10 times. Um, anyways, uh, but, but I think they’re gonna try and cast the wide net and make it inclusive, but then they also wanna test for the fittest. And so it’s, it is interesting to see dynamic. They have where they need to incorporate some complexity, some challenging movements to really get the right people to move on to the next stage, right? Not just these, you know, typically for example, if it was a seven minutes of burpees, that’s gonna cater towards one type of athlete versus heavier or more complex type workouts. But those like handstand walking and things like that, they’re not very fun necessarily or inclusive in the gyms. So it becomes difficult to run these as an affiliate or as a, uh, as a gym. So I I’m curious what they’re gonna do this year and how they’re gonna balance complexity and challenging with inclusiveness cuz that’s ultimately what they’re trying to do.

Brian Friend: (08:56)
Yeah. And this is, um, kind of where I was thinking of starting was the fact that, uh, what Savan mentioned is you could do great on several workouts. And if one workout is a bust for you relative to the rest that it, it used to be a lot more detrimental. Now it doesn’t really matter so much because of the quarter, the way the quarter finals is structured, where if you’re actually a contender to make it to the semi-finals even you’re gonna get through the open just fine. And then the quarter finals is where you can’t really afford to have that kind of a mistake, especially depending what continent you’re competing in. Um, but sus a, I think to help out maybe a, everyone we could pull up the, uh, schedule from the, the last, I think it was the hopper, the last hopper article, uh, email that cross,

Sevan Matossian: (09:43)
What is this hopper thing I keep hearing about what is that like, I know what the

Brian Friend: (09:47)
New publication that they have and at the very bottom of this one, there’s something that says 20, 22 cross a game season schedule. And it’s actually laid out pretty like in a very simple, basic with no extra information there.

Sevan Matossian: (10:01)
Wait, so the hopper is the, the CrossFit games new, it’s like a newsletter it’s, it’s their, it’s their kind of like in house morning, Chalkup

Brian Friend: (10:09)
Sure. Send it out every day. Editor.

Brian Friend: (10:12)
Yeah. They send it out infrequently. And, and as far as, I don’t know if there the incon like consistency, like you’re definitely gonna get one every two weeks, every month. I don’t know anything like that, but here’s a very, like, it’s very simply laid out. You see the open lasts for three weeks. And then what I really think for the com you know, the people who are actually competing in this sport to try to advance throughout the season is that the quarter finals is, is an extension of the open. It happens two weeks after, and therefore it’s still five weeks to qualify for the semi-finals, which is the equivalent of regionals from the old model. However, you see that if we go back up there to the, um, uh, the quarter finals, you know, that quarter

Jason Khalipa: (10:51)
Online Brian, so the quarter finals gonna be online as well,

Brian Friend: (10:55)
Quarter finals will be online. And, and there’s three, you know, there’s kind of three different groups in that stage of the season, but each of those groups will have a series of tests over one weekend. So there’s not a specified number last year. I think there were five for the individuals, maybe also for the teams and maybe actually all for all three divisions, I think there were five. So that’s kind of what the expectation is. You do three weeks of testing to get to the quarter finals, and then you have one weekend of testing and that’s where, like, you know, you really that’s the test that the competitors in CrossFit are like, they can’t mess that one up.

Sevan Matossian: (11:31)
And what were the dates for the open? Let me just see real quick, one more time. Uh, okay. The 24th,

Jason Khalipa: (11:37)
February 24th to March 14th. And then basically you take, you know, a week or two, uh, of like a, I mean, prepare for quarter finals, which I imagine if you’re at the top of the sport, you’re not really gonna have to worry about the quarter finals, but if you’re trying to just on the fringe, you’re probably tripping, right. You, this is a really interesting model because, you know, previously when I was really competing a lot, you had the open, then you had regionals, then you had the games, then you had team USA or, or the, depending on if you got invited to the invitational and when that season is pretty long, you know, you gotta kind of be on your game for a long time. And so athletes right now, I imagine just starting to really get ramping up. Like if you’re at the highest level, you’re, you’re looking at the open in terms of, you know, like for me, I would look at it in terms of what type of workouts can actually be done on a worldwide scale in the, in the brick and mortar. And you start

Brian Friend: (12:25)
With a super limited equipment list that they’ve already announced. Oh,

Sevan Matossian: (12:28)
They have, yeah.

Jason Khalipa: (12:29)
Yeah. So you start tailoring some of the stuff towards that, then you, okay, well, quarter finals are still online. So you know that I’m not gonna be, you know, swimming, for example, you know, running, running or running really. And so then you, you know, then you start preparing for the semi finals, which can be a little bit more broad. And then ultimately when you start preparing for the games, that’s when you really start doing significant amounts of work on odd object, you know, long, slow distance type stuff, because those aren’t really gonna come up. I don’t think in the open, like, I mean the O most open workouts gonna be sub 20 minutes for sure. Quarter finals probably will too. Semi-finals will probably have one longer event, but for the most part, sub 20, and then the games is really where you’re gonna get a little bit longer events. I think,

Sevan Matossian: (13:09)
Brian, what is the longest open, um, workout in the history of the open? Do you know?

Brian Friend: (13:13)
Well, well, sometimes the clock has mattered, not seven. Okay. And in that case, there’s people who’ve done workouts for, well over an hour, but in terms of a fixed time domain, the 20 minute AMRAP is kind of the, the longest that they, that they’d set. Um, and honestly, hopefully in those, even in those workouts that are for time, they’re not meant to be taking more than 20 minutes.

Sevan Matossian: (13:35)
Okay.

Jason Khalipa: (13:36)
Yeah. And Sivan just like from a gym owner perspective, you know, we’re, we, we, this year at NC fit, we also have the NC fit collective, which we put out programs to gyms all over the world. And we, we had to do a really deep dive into, do we want to have the open workout as the main workout and have an optional workout, or do we want have the main workout out, be whatever we program and have the open workout be optional. And this is probably the last year that we’ll have in our, one of our tracks, the, the open workout is the main workout. And then we’re gonna provide another option because it is challenging as a gym owner to not know what’s coming up on a Friday and just get the workout on a Thursday night and have to go out there and create a session plan for our coaches, make sure they’re prepared to do it and then execute it. But also what’s really difficult is it’s outside of our control, what the workout’s gonna be. So you’re gonna have to have multiple heats if it’s long, you know, how, how does that work? Um, one year, for example, we had overhead walking lunges. It’s very difficult to do in the confines of a brick and mortar. These are the, the, the concerns I think, from a gym owner. So I’m curious how they, how they approach it this year, especially without Dave being on board and, and the changes that have been happening at HQ.

Sevan Matossian: (14:43)
Jason, is that, is that really sorry? I’m gonna push here a little bit. So the, those are the reasons there’s no other reasons. There’s no, like, I’m like, Hey, you want a distance from CrossFit or, Hey, you guys are gonna start your own CRO, um, uh, fittest competition. Really? It’s the fact that it just comes out with too short of notice. Yeah. It’s, you’re saying if they would give it in advance that you would probably keep it. Well,

Jason Khalipa: (15:05)
I like, I like the idea, you know, we’ve been doing these workouts at our gym for a decade. Right. And I’ve think it’s, it’s great and it’s good community engagement and whatnot, but ultimately our community has shifted over the years. So at one point, I mean, man, we’d have Friday night lights, I’d be in there doing the workouts. It was, it was wild. Right. But it also caused a lot of disruption in the gym, especially for athletes that really have no interest in competing. It, it caused a lot of like, what’s going on, what’s going on. Right. Because maybe they weren’t aware of the games. Right. And so, so what’s challenging about the open from a gym owner perspective is that it’s outside of our control in terms of workouts. Now, granted it’s only three weeks instead of five, which is a big deal. Right. Makes a big difference. But it is difficult to try and program your week out and then have this outlier that you have no control over. And so they could hypothetically program something like wall walks, handstand walks, and overhead lunges, things that really don’t accommodate the majority of the people in your class or J or whatever. And they can’t do GC saving cuz they already give out the equipment list. And we would be at the, the kinda like the

Sevan Matossian: (16:09)
Mercy

Jason Khalipa: (16:10)
Mercy of whatever that is. So that a major factor I would say,

Sevan Matossian: (16:13)
So it’s not political, it’s not ego is what you’re saying. That’s where I’m digging at. It’s not like, I’m done with this. No, it’s all practical. Cuz you do like the open you do want, it would be cool to participate, but it’s just, it’s not, it’s not practical to the, from a business perspective or for your members.

Jason Khalipa: (16:27)
Yeah. And it’s also not as much of an interest for our athletes as it used to be. So for example, we used to have, you

Sevan Matossian: (16:33)
Don’t think that that’s bias on your part because your, your interest is waning and maybe there, so you’re projecting it onto them or

Jason Khalipa: (16:38)
Hundred percent. Yes, absolutely. The, the owner of the head coach have to be bought in as well. Right.

Sevan Matossian: (16:43)
I like it instead of being like, no, no, no. You’re like, yeah, well,

Jason Khalipa: (16:46)
Yeah. Hundred percent. Like, like when the head coach is really bought in or when I’m really bought in. Right. Of course the athlete’s gonna get excited. It’s like, if you do anything, um, yeah, the more excitement they feel from you, like if you’re doing nutrition challenge, they’re gonna jump in. But if you’re talking about nutrition challenge, but you’re not actually doing it or really living it or whatever, of course they’re not gonna be excited about it. And that’s ultimately what we’re seeing. Um, in addition, do you

Sevan Matossian: (17:07)
Have any games, athletes in the NC fit, um, uh, collective in inside of those gyms that you have in Cal in your or California, Jim specifically, do you have any GA um, you know, people, aspirational games, athletes,

Jason Khalipa: (17:18)
We have a handful. Yeah. Okay.

Sevan Matossian: (17:20)
Absolutely.

Jason Khalipa: (17:21)
But, but the, but the thing is, uh, Sivan, I think what’s also important to note is like, um, our members’ interests have shifted, right? A lot of ’em joined us 10 years ago when they were 25. Now they’re 35. They have kids, they might could be open the same way they like doing the workout. But it’s also important to note that if you’re not a technical affiliate that you have to then film all these, if you actually wanna upload your scores. And so there is a factor there, right?

Brian Friend: (17:45)
I think they’ve actually made an, a new amendment this year so that that’s not the case really. And you can do, you can do the workout anywhere in the presence of, for someone who’s done the online judges course for this season. And that’s as good as doing it at, at an affiliate with, or without a video.

Jason Khalipa: (18:00)
Well then there you go. So

Sevan Matossian: (18:01)
People are gonna hate that. But you know what? My, my immediate thought is, I love that.

Brian Friend: (18:06)
Well, one of the main reasons, you know, it’s, I do think it’s positive. I think one of the main reasons I did that is because there are still parts of the world where gyms are closed. And so if you have forced to do it in your garage or, or somewhere else that they needed to, you know, like you might be a member of affiliate, but not have access to that affiliate still. So you need a place to do it.

Jason Khalipa: (18:25)
Hey Lauren, I, I agree. Like good coaching can adjust just fine. Totally. Get that good coaching. A good coach can adjust a workout. Just fine. Totally agree with you. At some point, though, you start saying to yourself as a business owner, I want to be in control of as many factors as I possibly can with my business. And this is one that’s outside of my control. And I’m choosing to pull into my business at some point, maybe you decide you don’t that anymore, but if it’s a great community engagement, you have Friday night lights, your members love it. Keep doing you all I’m saying is that for us, we take that into consideration. That’s it? And yes, as I said before, we are having it as the main workout for our MetCom program, not our ex program. So I’m still on the train. I’m just saying we’re having good conversations about how long we gonna be on it for that’s it.

Sevan Matossian: (19:10)
And you have a nice back and a nice baby.

Jason Khalipa: (19:13)
I have a nice back. Yeah,

Sevan Matossian: (19:15)
Lauren.

Speaker 8: (19:16)
Oh,

Sevan Matossian: (19:18)
A picture of her back holding with a baby’s face, like peeking up over it. It was,

Jason Khalipa: (19:22)
Oh, that was Sava talking about your back and your baby. Not me.

Sevan Matossian: (19:26)
Yes. Yes. I am the back and baby talker. Okay. Brian, I’m liking it. I’m digging it. We’re starting to get a hold of it, Brian. Um, to address, uh, Jason’s question, is it our fault? Like I I’m so tired of hearing people, um, say what Jason said, but I’m in the same boat. Like this is so hard to follow. Are we just being babies or is it hard to follow? Cause cuz I, I agree with Jason, but like I wanna take some ownership for it. Like come on really? It’s just an open quarter. Final semifinals. How hard is that to follow?

Brian Friend: (19:56)
No, the, the skeleton of the season is not, I don’t think it’s that hard to fo follow. And I actually really like the way that it’s designed and laid out. And I think that CrossFit’s making a lot of choices, decisions and actions this year that are actually making the stuff that Jason’s talking about as being 10 frustrating, easier for anyone who wants to do the open, putting the equipment list out, having it be so simple as it is. I mean, they’ve uh, said you need wall space. They have, they specifically did not say that you need any space to traverse distances. So there is no 25 SP feet of space you need. And what I see here is that the things that are on the open list also in a way, communicating to people who are serious about the sport and the season what’s on the quarter final list.

Brian Friend: (20:38)
So the stuff that’s missing from there, like the rings are only listed for the adaptive division for the open. Presumably you can assume those will be in play for this quarter finals for the individuals, same with ropes, GS feet of space that you need to traverse wall balls, rowing those types of things that are all missing from the open and those things that are missing are all of the things that are gonna be really, really different, difficult. Logistically if you don’t have access to a gym, which we already said is the case for some people around the world. So that’s fair, fairly accessible in terms of equipment. And then, you know, the, the thing is like we’ve been, um, this will be my ninth open and I’ve, you know, coached many, many years of people through the open and pro prepared for it. And I think that, uh, we’re more like more prepared than ever to program up to and through the open this year, especially because it’s only three weeks and we’ve been, you know, kind of planning that for months leading into it, based on the training cycles that we’re in the, and the kind of layout that we have for a we’re in like a two week cycle for our strength stuff right now that ends with, um, you know, a gymnastics and a conditioning day specifically that are, we’re gonna kind of omit for those weeks during the open and allow for people who wanna rest on Thursday to rest on Thursday.

Brian Friend: (21:48)
And the people who don’t they’ll have a very like low intensity, probably focusing on the machines type workout that we know we won’t be getting on Friday.

Jason Khalipa: (21:57)
Hey, Sivan. Back to your point. Like, are we being babies? I think, yeah. Yes we are. I think that, that it is relatively easy when you look at it the way they have it, Hey, we’re gonna do an open, which is gonna be this. Then we’re gonna go to quarter finals that are online. Then you have semi-finals that are in per and, and then you have the games. However, I think the reason why some of us kind of make it seem like it’s a bigger deal than it is, is because of the back and forth and our preconceived biases and all this thing. That’s gotten us to this point right now, if you just came into the picture, someone say, Hey, what’s the sport of fitness or, or to games. How does the process work big? Well, it starts here. It goes here. It does this big. Okay, cool. But if you were back in the day where it was just the games, remember that Sivan. Yep. Then, then

Sevan Matossian: (22:38)
You, anyone show up, I you’re saying it’s changed so much that like we can’t figure out where we’re gonna land the people

Jason Khalipa: (22:43)
That’s right. Then it goes to sectionals then from sectionals, it goes to regionals and, and, and all I’m saying is that I, I do think at this point they’ve done a really good job, uh, solidifying it, but I think the reason why we make it a bigger deal and it probably needs to be is because of just all the changes in the last couple years. So, you know, and, and granted, there’s been a lot of factors that are outside the games control that have led to that, like COVID and, and all kinds of, of challenges. So I guess what I’m trying to say is like, I could take Simon owner ship and say that the season doesn’t seem as difficult as, as before. But I think the reason why I’ve gone back and forth is because for example, they just released another sanctional and they just kinda solidified this whole structure

Brian Friend: (23:21)
Semi-final

Jason Khalipa: (23:22)
Or semi,

Brian Friend: (23:23)
But that’s to that’s to your point. Yeah.

Sevan Matossian: (23:25)
So yeah, that is to your

Jason Khalipa: (23:25)
Point. All I’m saying is that I come with some biases because I’ve been around the industry for so long. I think if someone new came in and looked at this, he’d be like, okay, that makes sense.

Sevan Matossian: (23:34)
It, it would be nice. They need to kind of put out a, um, uh, and maybe they do. And I just haven’t seen it, but just a weekly, like letter, just completely ignoring the teams, completely ignoring the, um, uh, age groups and kids and all that. And just every week, or have someone who’s available to go on all the podcasts who just tells you what’s going on, they need a really, really solid, like one page release every week of just what’s going on in first places here for men and women, just, just somewhere that you can latch onto, you know, like the UFC there’s the top 15 in every category, but they only focus on the top three and the athletes get upset, but who cares? Like this is for the fans. Like some, like, you know, yeah. Mercedes-Benz has to have the airbag 10 years before the, the Kia has it. I mean, it just is that way.

Jason Khalipa: (24:20)
This is gonna be a really important year for the games, in my opinion, because, uh,

Sevan Matossian: (24:26)
Yes.

Jason Khalipa: (24:27)
And, and I’ll tell you why. I think you probably agreed. So there’s a lot of people that are currently in CrossFit as affiliates who’ve been in for at least 3, 5, 7, 10 years, a lot of ’em and these people were bought into the culture, the community. But the challenge is, is that CrossFit’s a business and were sold and there’s certain now changes that are gonna occur. But a lot of these affiliate owners were bought in a Dave and, and the way he did the open, the way he did things, which is fine. And that was his way. And people knew exactly what they were gonna get. And I think a lot of affiliate owners enjoyed that, but this year is gonna be really big because I don’t know how many affiliate owners are gonna feel as bought in to the open, the process as they did two years ago, five years ago, 10 years ago, even.

Jason Khalipa: (25:10)
And so I’m wondering, based on what we’re talking about, and I know there’s gym owners on this, uh, YouTube right now, like CrossFit, Anna, I totally get it for their gym, dude. This is a great community engager. It brings people to the gym, they fire people up. They bring their friends in hell. Yeah. But it stems from the head coach or the owner. So how many of these head coaches and owners feel like there’s been a lot of changes in CrossFit? Maybe they’re not in alignment with the Dave being removed. I’m not, I don’t have an opinion on it. I’m just saying, and they’re not gonna get as,

Sevan Matossian: (25:37)
Oh, you have an opinion. You, we just haven’t, we just haven’t dug it out yet.

Jason Khalipa: (25:40)
Of course I haven’t opinion, but they don’t, but they don’t feel as bought in to where CrossFit’s going to the open. And so if they is bought in, they’re not gonna encourage their members as much to pay the 20 bucks or whatever it is. So I’m wondering what the open numbers are gonna look like, uh, this year. I think it’s gonna be a really pivotal.

Sevan Matossian: (25:56)
I hear they’re good. I hear they’re good. I hear they’re very good compared to the last two years.

Jason Khalipa: (25:59)
Well, you’re not gonna hear if they’re bad. I don’t, I don’t know. I mean,

Sevan Matossian: (26:02)
Good point, good point.

Brian Friend: (26:04)
We’ll see. And I mean,

Sevan Matossian: (26:05)
I wouldn’t hear I’m hearing from people who probably don’t want it to be good. That it’s very good that they’re doing an amazing job. I went over to the project games, Instagram today too. And, and I, and it looks like they’re working hard. Sorry, go ahead, Brian.

Brian Friend: (26:18)
No, and, and I mean, we’ll see, there’s still two weeks till the open starts. And a lot of people sign up right towards the end or even the first weekend after the first workouts announced. So I don’t like to get to ahead of myself in terms of that stuff for now, but I think that, you know, Jason’s right, whatever community you’re a part of. If the leader of the community is not about the CrossFit open this season, then most of the community is not going to be either. And if they are, then they’ll get a lot of buyin.

Sevan Matossian: (26:44)
And I would encourage anyone who doesn’t sign up for the open to take that $20 and add another $10 to it and go over to, uh, life as RX and purchase a shirt. And that money, that money that you spend on the CEO shirt, it will not go to, uh, my favorite charity. It will not go to a local charity. It will not go to a charity of your choice. It will go into my hands, the money I make into my pocket, and I will spend it like, um, I will spend it at people who provide services to my family. Like the guy who teaches my kid, jujitsu the people at the farmer’s market who, um, pick the watermelons and bring them in the car. That’s how I will spend your money. So you can have the at nice shirt and then I will take your money and enhance my life with it and then spread and spend it at local businesses in my area. If, if you don’t use, if you don’t join, though, even if you join the open, you got an extra 30 bucks, please buy the shirt.

Jason Khalipa: (27:33)
Thanks Shava. Can you get me a coffee with that money?

Sevan Matossian: (27:36)
If you, if you drive down here with your gas money. Hell yeah.

Jason Khalipa: (27:39)
Aw, man. I’m gonna lose money on that one, man. Cause I’m gonna drive over the hill.

Sevan Matossian: (27:43)
I know. Um, Brian, um, do, do we have any idea what the workouts are for the open? I mean, I, I saw the equipment list, but is there, is there, there any leaks or hints or like, like who’s who’s do we go to Justin Berg’s Instagram account? Where do we get the hints and this year?

Brian Friend: (28:00)
I have no idea about, uh, any hints, anything like that, but I would guess that’s not the place. Um, I don’t know if they’ll do any kind of hints or anything like that. Um, the workouts seemingly have been known for the, you know, inner circle there since end of December, early January. I think that they, the open workouts at the very least were programmed by Dave and I expect that they will be, um, both fun and challenging, but I don’t know anything else.

Sevan Matossian: (28:27)
They are. Were, they are the workouts they’ve made?

Brian Friend: (28:30)
I think so.

Sevan Matossian: (28:31)
Okay.

Jason Khalipa: (28:33)
I mean, he was an employee for CrossFit at the time that he designed them. Uh, do they, do they own the rights to that work? I mean, not to get all business. Yeah. I’m just curious, like, um, by the way, fitness, junkie’s asking a question, Jason, from a business standpoint, do you feel it’s ideal to not, to not run a Friday night lights? If you were coaching another business? Here’s my opinion on, on the open. I think that if you, the owner or the head coach are bought in and you’re fired up on the open, dude have Friday night lights bring in the, the cores light afterwards, enjoy the experience, right? Embody that culture go for it, right at 5:00 PM, we’re, it’s popping off, right? We’re gonna cone off the area and we’re gonna get after it. But if you’re not really bought in, then don’t try and be something that you’re not, you know, if you’re, if you’re not even signed up for the open and you’re gonna try and do Friday lights and be like, w wa wa instead just don’t be about it.

Jason Khalipa: (29:20)
Right. So that would be my recommendation. That goes for anything you’re doing in your business, if you’re really bought in, and it’s really a part of your vision, your mission, your culture, go for it all in. If you’re kinda like one foot in tiptoeing around it, then, then don’t go all in. For example, at our gym, we’re not all in, so we’re not gonna do a formal Friday night lights. We’re gonna have a special open gym time. If you want to come, we’re gonna program. It is the workout of the day. Just like any other workout of the day. And that’s why we’re gonna do it. But if we were all bought in, fired up, like we were 5, 7, 8 years ago, dude, of course, we’re having Friday night lights. Let’s go

Sevan Matossian: (29:51)
Suza. What are you guys doing? Matt at CrossFit Livermore. Are you guys, um, are you guys doing the,

Speaker 9: (29:59)
Eh,

Speaker 4: (30:00)
You know, to Jason’s point I’ve signed up for every single year. I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to do it this year. There’s, I’m just super busy and I’m the type of person that like, if I can’t at least put my best foot forward with it, then it just frustrates me when everybody else crushes my scores in the, uh, in the gym. So, I mean, we’ll have it. We have a couple members.

The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors