Sevan Matossian (00:07):
Bam. We’re live. We’re live
Sevan Matossian (00:16):
Fresh cup of second coffee. Good morning, Martin. Good morning, Alyssa. Good morning, Mr. Mars, Bruce Wayne, Heidi groom, groom, gr groom, gr Austin. Good morning. We’re ready. I’m ready too. He’s not here. Yame tink TinCan in. He sent me a picture this morning of him training with Borman, Carl Goodmanson and it says I’m still at the gym with this guy. It might get tight to finish before 4:00 PM. I guess. That’s what time it is over there in the, um, cold country. I’ll most likely be ready, 15 past. Does that work for you? Well, of course it does. Thank you for the heads up. Take your time. No stress. This is just a show that just goes and goes and goes. Carly. Good morning. Noel Graham, Christine, Nate dog. Hmm. What to do for 15 minutes?
Sevan Matossian (01:23):
Ya mean, I go way back. I mean, I was trying to remember the first time we met it must be like 2009 or 10 pre pretty, pretty far back. I what’s weird is, is that already kind of seemed like the second chapter to me at, uh, over there at CrossFit where I used to work like 2000, uh, 6, 7, 8. I was kind of just, just had my head down, just making videos. I mean, I got to know everyone, but it was, it was a little bit of a bumpy ride. Um, not in a bad way, not in a bad just, um, you know, learning stuff. Like when you first learn how to ride a bike, you gotta ride off the curb. You gotta ride up to curb, you gotta learn bunny hops, wheelies, all that stuff. I just had to learn. I had to learn. I was the dirt Tolen hippie, the liberal boy from, uh, from Berkeley.
Sevan Matossian (02:08):
And I was getting immersed in a, um, in a project that in its, in its origins were to, um, build a fitness program that would help, uh, first responders help people whose lives depended on their fitness, right. In order to be of fitness. Right. You don’t wanna be, you gotta climb up into a window CrossFit. That was the, uh, workout regimen for you. Um, and of course I was just, I was just turned onto it, um, because I thought it was cool that so many of these things I had never done in my life, I couldn’t remember ever running a 400 meter as fast as I could ever. And here I am at 34 years old, trying it for the first time. Weird. You ever spend any time in San Diego? So on yes. I used to live in San Diego. I lived in, um, San Diego for three years in Del Mar with, uh, Greg Glassman at his house with my wife and actually ay was born in, uh, at our home in Berkeley.
Sevan Matossian (02:56):
But then, um, we just, we, we were living with Greg. We had a, and then we went back down and me and a and Hailey, we all lived in the same house. It was cool. It was so fun. It was full immersion. I can remember, I can’t ever, we just worked work, work, work, work worked, and it was play too. It was fun. You know? Uh, it was, it was an environment. It was like working in a classroom. It was constantly learning. The company was exploding, was exploding. I’m trying to remember what years those were. Those were probably like, I don’t know. I’m just making this up 2000 12, 13, 14, or maybe it’s 14, 15, 16. I’m not sure. But yeah, I lived down there. Um, uh, David was living down there at that time. Uh, there was some, uh, the general council was living down there. I think Marshall was down there. Um, uh, there was another guy, um, Steve Weiss, Dale cran, um, Brian Mulva, everyone was down there.
Sevan Matossian (03:57):
Everyone was down there. I’m actually, when it’s it’s weird. I, I now accept, uh, I, I, when I think of where Dave lives now, I do think of him living in Santa Cruz, but forever. That was just so weird. I never, I never imagined any of us would move up here. Would all live up here. Corey. Good morning, Keenan. Good morning. Teddy Williams. What’s up San. Diego’s great. If there was, if you had unlimited resources cash, and there was any one place you could live in the world, it would be almost crazy not to put, um, San Diego at the very, very, very, very, very top of that list. And recently I just spent two weeks in Newport. Oh, I’m so hungry. That’s weird. I never, I think in 400 shows, I’ve never said that and I just got hungry. I didn’t eat yesterday. Yesterday was my fasting day.
Sevan Matossian (04:46):
I fasted for more than two years. Um, every single, uh, Saturday night to Monday morning, I stopped eating Saturday night and then I started eating again Monday morning. I’ve done that for over two years. Now my wife got me onto it. She’s like two weeks ahead of me. Oh, oh. Already a text from my wife. That’s weird. Did the dog eat? Yes. Um, so San Diego just has crazy resources, crazy, crazy resources. Everything’s down there. It’s expensive, but it’s got it. All San Diego also has that thing where, uh, I dunno if we just wanna jump right into this, but it, they, I think San Diego school district has that law where you can’t, um, give kids homework and judge them grade them based on the homework they turn in. Cuz it’s racist. So sweet. Uh, the insanity. Um, so today we have Yami, uh, tin in, um, I, I, I may, I, I may have not have seen him. I’m trying. I was trying to remember the last time I saw him also. I think he taught with Chuck Carswell, a level one in Italy that I went to and filmed in Milan forever ago. I mean, forever ago. And I think maybe that was the last time I, I saw him, but I’m guessing maybe I had to have run into him at the games. Yeah, Newport’s crazy. Newport was so nice. It was, and it was clean.
Sevan Matossian (06:14):
The only time I was in San Diego, I was there five minutes and had everything stolen from my car in Coron auto beach saves place in America. Wow. Wow. Wow. That’s a shame, Matt. That sucks. I’m sorry to hear that. Yeah. I don’t think of theft happening on, on the island out there. I, I didn’t spend much time on the island. It was always, I think I went out there once to film with Andy stump and then maybe a couple other times, uh, I don’t know why I went out there, but it was just always to do something over there. Um, where the Navy guys train to film something over there.
Sevan Matossian (06:51):
Nowhere in California’s hippie-ish anymore. That’s all gone. That’s that’s, I’m I’m in the, I’m supposedly in, in the, in the epicenter of that, it’s gone. What, what happened is, is all the real hippies are now really conservative. All the, the, the, the real peace love, freedom hippies are all conservative and they’ve that whole thing got fractured right in college. There were the two, there were the two different groups of hippies. There’s the group who like, you know, they let like, like how I kind of fancy myself. I was like, one day I forgot to put my shoes on. I lost my shoes. I never wore shoes again. I got my clothes out of the free box, et cetera, et cetera. I just be became, I started looking like that because of the lifestyle I lived. And then there was the other group of hippies who were wealthy and, um, and they would cut the hole in their pants and then sew the patch in, you know, just to, to go for that, that certain look. And there were, you know, we, I was the hippie that smoked weed out of an apple. And then there was the other HiPE that smoked the weed out of the $350. Chillum I said it chill ’em glass chill. Em, for those of you that know what is the one question you didn’t ask during an interview that haunts you, that you didn’t ask?
Sevan Matossian (08:06):
Jason Watkins? I don’t know. I’m sure there’s one. I’m I’m sure there’s a bunch. I’m sure there’s a bunch. If I think of any, any thoughts on Andrew’s new video on Frederick IUs? Uh, I didn’t even, I didn’t see the, I didn’t see it. Like how new is it today? I’ll go over. When you say Andrew, you mean Mr. Hiller, the Batman I’ll go over here and look real quick. I know I’m crazy impressed by, uh, by hunter McIntyre. CRA crazy. Yeah, I think we got Taylor, so, oh, Frederick could get his invalid, the issues with major penalties. I haven’t looked at it, but I, but I am gonna try to get Andrew Hiller on again this Friday. Um, I watched the woman behind, uh, the no reps. Uh, oh, that’s his chick. Oh, I should have been playing closer attention. I didn’t realize there were so many bikini shots of her in the video.
Sevan Matossian (09:00):
I was just listening to it. And then, and then I’m, I started listening to this one, uh, Ben Smith and I reprogrammed the semifinals one. And, uh, I’ll finish that and then I’ll get to this Frederick. Um, the Gies one, I don’t really know Frederick that. Well, I just know I’m just in passing, just like, hi, how are you? Congratulations on you and your wife, both being amazing. I’m stoked from, they have a kid I’m excited that Annie’s coming on. I’m really curious to hear her thoughts on raising a kid, man, want, I, I was kind of tripping on how much, um, she trains. She must be torn, just wanting to spend every second with her kid.
Sevan Matossian (09:39):
Watch it with Yami, uh, uh, ah, Philippe, Mr. URL, man. Good to see you brother. Good to see you. I’m looking, I’m looking through my, um, notes for my live calling shows to see if there’s anything on here that, that I could talk about. Everything I have on here is just so heavy and I don’t. Oh, here’s something fun. Okay. Okay. Okay. So this, uh, let me share this screen. This is good. This is good. I thought this was cute. Uh, here we go. CrossFit leadership is a coachable skill. Leadership is a coachable skill by Michael Lorenzen. And, uh, this was published on May 10th, 2022, which is, uh, six days ago.
Sevan Matossian (10:40):
I’m gonna read you the first sentence and then I’m gonna skip down to the last paragraph. Okay. You guys ready? This is, uh, I don’t even know where this is. This is on, um, crossfit.com/procoach/leadership is a coachable skill. I didn’t even know that they were, I didn’t even know they published stuff like this anymore. I is this the CrossFit journal? What is this thing? Is it what a bizarre, isn’t it bizarre that they bought CrossFit, Inc? I mean, I guess it was weird that when Greg got rid of it, but they bought CrossFit Inc. And they own the, um, the best fitness, nutrition, health journal in the world. And yet it’s still hidden. You’d think there’d be a link up here on the top. That’s says CrossFit journal. Uh, here we go. The leader leadership is a coachable skill. Um, Michael Lorenzen May 10th, 2022, just a couple days ago, less than a week.
Sevan Matossian (11:28):
When I started coaching gymnastics in the mid eighties, coaches didn’t often take courses on coaching, communicating, listening, influencing, or any other aspect of leadership. We just copied what we saw or what you might call pattern matching. If a coach res, if, if a coach I respected offered a correction to a skill, I followed their instruction. That’s the first, uh, three or four sentences looks like it’s a good article. And then down here, there’s a, um, a picture at the last paragraph is a picture of Dave Castro at the, uh, swim event in which looks like, um, San Diego or Los Angeles. And in the picture I see, uh, I see Lucas Parker.
Sevan Matossian (12:10):
I see Lucas Parker, Josh bridges, Dave Castro. It looks like Tommy. Hackenberg all talking on the beach, Cole Sager, and they’re, they’re having a chat. And this is the final paragraph of, of this article, which I find fascinating that this was published six days ago. Okay. This was published six days ago on the cross, the website, here we go. A final thought. A great example of effective leadership in our community is Dave Castro from the outside. People have a lot of opinions of Dave. They encounter on social media or TV. You might guess that he lives on the left side of the continuum. And I thought the same after judging a decade worth of CrossFit games, I learned that Dave has a really nuanced and effective understanding of leadership. The people I worked with, the people I worked under at the games, mostly seminar staff are the most talented, professional and inspirational group of humans I’ve ever encountered.
Sevan Matossian (12:57):
And they would all run through walls for Dave, even if it seemed like he was a crazy man, ordering unreasonable changes, he effectively built personal, authentic relationships with each of them and understood how they worked and what they needed. He developed a sustainable intrinsically motivating culture with his people. And when I would’ve, and when I would have rare individual encounters with Dave, he inevitably came across as kind gentle and open. I suspect this is a result of life as a seal, the more he lead the unit in the us military, the flatter, the hierarchy, the more independent and the greater levels of intrinsic motivation and inspirational leadership, Dave models, all of those things and is adept at applying the right tool for the right person and the right circumstance. That should be all of our goals as coaches who lead it’s it’s, it’s, it’s an entire article, um, on the, uh, CrossFit site from six days ago in leadership. And then the final paragraph is, is using Dave as an example, doc, Hey, Hey, Yumi
Jami Tikkanen (13:56):
Hey,
Sevan Matossian (13:58):
Yumi do you know this guy, Dr. Mike, uh, Lorenzen?
Jami Tikkanen (14:02):
No, no, I don’t think I do. No,
Sevan Matossian (14:04):
I don’t recognize the name either. Maybe we recognize him if we saw him
Jami Tikkanen (14:08):
Maybe. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (14:11):
Yumi I was trying to remember the, the first time we met and the last time we saw each other, I couldn’t, I couldn’t remember either. Were you at that, um, level one in, in Milan that I went to and Chuck Carswell was there, does that sound familiar at all?
Jami Tikkanen (14:25):
Mm, no, I don’t think so.
Sevan Matossian (14:27):
Was that, was that a shoot? Was that an indoor shooting range?
Jami Tikkanen (14:30):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I was there, we were seen after that for sure. But yeah, that was in that like crazy. They had laser tag and indoor shooting and yeah. Yeah. I was there.
Sevan Matossian (14:40):
They, they ended up being a competitor of CrossFit. Right. They ended up like opening their own, like
Jami Tikkanen (14:45):
Equip.
Sevan Matossian (14:45):
Yeah. Those guys CrossFit.
Jami Tikkanen (14:46):
Yeah. There was a whole thing. That was a whole thing.
Sevan Matossian (14:49):
Yeah. They were pretty, um, they were like Ambi ambitious entrepreneurs. I don’t blame em. Yes. I don’t blame
Jami Tikkanen (14:54):
Em. Yeah, for sure. For sure.
Sevan Matossian (14:58):
You’re in Iceland.
Jami Tikkanen (14:59):
I’m now in Amsterdam. Um, I am in Iceland, but we just flew in, uh, Sunday, yesterday. Yeah. We flew in yesterday and we were just, just at the gym training a little bit.
Sevan Matossian (15:10):
No shit. You’re getting ready. It’s that close?
Jami Tikkanen (15:13):
Yeah. Couple days, couple days. And then we get going with the semifinals.
Sevan Matossian (15:17):
Are you pumped?
Jami Tikkanen (15:19):
I’m excited. I’m excited to see, uh, I mean, especially, you know, I’ve done this with BK so many times I’ve done this with Annie so many times, but now we have the team competing this weekend as well. So it’s gonna be a different experience should be exciting.
Sevan Matossian (15:32):
Uh, we have a BOR Carl Goodmanson, Annie TH’s daughter, Katherine David’s daughter. Um, we have, uh, Toola
Jami Tikkanen (15:41):
Yeah. Mara
Sevan Matossian (15:44):
Mor. Yes. Um, we have, uh, uh, Mr. Porter, con Porter.
Jami Tikkanen (15:50):
Yes. Mr. Porter.
Sevan Matossian (15:53):
Um, we have, is, is Frederick competing?
Jami Tikkanen (15:56):
Uh, yeah, he’s gonna do the, uh, edge group qualifies the weekend after the semis, but not this weekend. Right. And then we have Lauren Fisher on the team.
Sevan Matossian (16:05):
Right.
Jami Tikkanen (16:06):
As well. And then in couple weeks we had Hedrick Harlan also, who was 17th last year. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (16:13):
Wow. Hey, um, Hendrick’s not compete, not, um, uh, training in Iceland.
Jami Tikkanen (16:20):
No. He’s training in Finland. He sometimes trains with Janna as well. And, uh, he’s got another training partner, uh, Lu Vic. Um, but yeah, typically he’s in, he’s in Finland. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (16:31):
Are, is it, uh, you met Annie in 2010.
Jami Tikkanen (16:36):
Yeah. In Homestar I think you were there actually, were you there in homestead for those regionals?
Sevan Matossian (16:42):
Is that England? Where’s Hamad
Jami Tikkanen (16:45):
Hamstead is in Sweden. It’s like where ACO headquarters.
Sevan Matossian (16:47):
Oh, yes. I was there. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Yeah. That’s where you guys met.
Jami Tikkanen (16:51):
Yeah. I mean, she was just this like raw diamond, you know what I mean? Like the amount of pure control that she had, but she just hadn’t been coached in CrossFit. Really?
Sevan Matossian (17:00):
That was a, that was a sectional, right?
Jami Tikkanen (17:02):
Yeah. That’s it. Yeah. Sec. Yeah. Sectional. That’s it.
Sevan Matossian (17:07):
Wow. I do remember that. I I’m, um, Miko kind of stole the show there.
Jami Tikkanen (17:12):
Yeah. Well actually I, I came there to work with Miko as an osteopath. Okay. You know, that’s why I was there, um, that year. So it turned out really well.
Sevan Matossian (17:22):
Okay. Um, what, how is this, um, is this the first team you’ve ever trained? Uh, oh, he froze. Did I freeze? Did I do that? Yami froze. Did he freeze for you guys? Someone comment? I hear Yi’s voice every single time I break a barbell set back to the bar. Get back. No, that, that wasn’t Yami. I don’t think that was Yami. I think you’re confusing that with someone else that was, um, that was Sarah’s coach Y uh, ya me really quick before I get back to the question. Yeah. That wasn’t you in that video, who’s saying back to the bar, back to the bar, yelling that at Sarah Sigma’s daughter.
Jami Tikkanen (18:02):
No, that was nuts.
Sevan Matossian (18:04):
Yeah. So Brandon Waddel thought that was totally different character. That guy is, I don’t even know if that guy’s around anymore, but that was not Yami. Yes.
Jami Tikkanen (18:11):
Yes. That’s someone else.
Sevan Matossian (18:13):
What was that guy’s name?
Jami Tikkanen (18:15):
Uh, it’s John Singleton, probably I think.
Sevan Matossian (18:17):
No, no,
Jami Tikkanen (18:17):
It was, oh, Eric Kelner.
Sevan Matossian (18:19):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was like the exact opposite of John Singleton.
Jami Tikkanen (18:23):
There were the dynamic duo back in the day.
Sevan Matossian (18:25):
Yeah. Yeah. Um, is, is John Singleton’s not finished, is he?
Jami Tikkanen (18:29):
No, he’s British. British. Okay. Yeah. We went to school together, actually.
Sevan Matossian (18:33):
No shit.
Jami Tikkanen (18:34):
Yeah. Osteopathy
Sevan Matossian (18:37):
Before CrossFit.
Jami Tikkanen (18:38):
Yeah. I, I cross, I started 2006. I was living in France at the time. Then I came to London to study and I introduced John to CrossFit.
Sevan Matossian (18:48):
So, so tell me that story again. What, what, tell me about 2006 in France. How, how you ran across CrossFit. Weird. Yeah, because, um, CrossFit kind of, I mean, I guess it’s going in France, but it never just like really caught on there.
Jami Tikkanen (19:00):
Yeah. So I think now actually it’s, it’s a really huge growing market. So I, I, they are, I think I lived in France for four years. I think that the culture is a little bit slow to adapt new things, but then they embrace them when they get it, you know, really get into it. Um, yeah. So I was in, in France, uh, from 2002, 2006, and it was 2006. I was doing martial arts. I was training. Uh, I did at the time, my background is in judo, so competing judo, but then, um, I was doing wink Chan. I was so excited that, you know, that the guy who was teaching our Sifu did better. He was student of William Chung who trained with Bruce Lee. So it’s very exciting for me as a young man to be training in that academy. And yeah, I was just training a lot. I thought I was in really good shape. I was, you know, training 10, 11 sessions a week. And then I found CrossFit and realized that I was not in a good shape at all.
Sevan Matossian (19:50):
And, and how did you find it in France by the way, did you know Dave’s a huge fan of Bruce Lee? Did you guys know that? Did you know that?
Jami Tikkanen (19:56):
I didn’t know that no
Sevan Matossian (19:57):
Huge, huge. I mean the same way, the way you talk about it, like he influenced you, he influenced Dave greatly.
Jami Tikkanen (20:04):
Yeah. I think that this was just so much good philosophy of thinking about integrating different things, different styles, you know? Um, yeah, for sure. Huge influence for me growing up still is, um, still is a little bit less so now, but still definitely significant figure. Um, yeah, go ahead
Sevan Matossian (20:21):
And CrossFit in France, how did it pop on your radar? Cause I remember being, I went to France one time to visit a CrossFit gym there and there weren’t a lot of CrossFit gyms there at the time and I remember walking around Paris and I never even saw anyone jogging.
Jami Tikkanen (20:33):
Yeah, no, mainly just smoking and yeah. Cross on. Yeah, no, I mean, the culture is changing. It’s shifting for sure. But especially for women, I think that the traditional French image was different and now it’s changing. It’s really great to see, but I, you know, but I found it online. I, I was just looking, I was always just curious. So I, I was just looking for different ways to train, you know, get an edge on the other people who I was training with, you know, they were technically better. So I thought if I’m better conditioned, I have a better chance. Um, and I just, you know, it was Alta Vista back in the day, not no Google. Um, and I just searched, uh, training methods. I, I, I think I came to you, you know, liket nation and then cyber pump, if you know, that website used to exist, there was like big, high intensity training, like weight training page, and then somehow managed to, uh, stumble across crossfit.com. And it, you know, I was working at a hotel night shift at that time. And, uh, I just spent all my night shifts, just reading CrossFit journal, you know, everything that Greg Glassman wrote and trying to integrate it, think about it, put it in practice in
Sevan Matossian (21:35):
Training. How did you know, how did you know when you came across it you’re like, okay, this is it. This is what I’m gonna dive in on.
Jami Tikkanen (21:41):
Yeah. I, I think it was two things. One I had trained since I was six, so I had a, like a good feel of, you know, what works for my body. Um, so when I tried CrossFit for the first time, it was like, wow. Uh, it was very, very different hit than what I was used to. And, and, and then the other side of it was the kind of the intellectual aspect to fitness that I think he really brought into it, like thinking deeply first principles would be trended to say nowadays, like thinking to first principles, um, about fitness and that appealed to me intellectually, like immediately as well,
Sevan Matossian (22:11):
Obsessed with learning is how you’ve described yourself.
Jami Tikkanen (22:15):
Yes. I feel like that’s, uh, appropriate,
Sevan Matossian (22:18):
Um, to the point to where you listen to books at two speed and three speed.
Jami Tikkanen (22:25):
Yes. Especially when I was teaching the level ones and traveling all the time, then that’s what I did like going, like, I tried to read a book every weekend when I was doing that, just like the airport time and like all the wow airplane time. Yes. It’s not as intense right now because you know, that tried to balance it with work so that it’s not, everything is not so intense all the time, but yeah, there was a period when I, I was doing that.
Sevan Matossian (22:46):
So, so in 2000, um, how did you end up in France from Finland? You’re you’re finished, correct?
Jami Tikkanen (22:52):
Yeah, I’m finished. Um, I finished school and then before going to university, I had studied French for a really long time, but I felt like I can’t speak French and it was really frustrating to me. So there was an opportunity from Finland, um, to go and work at Euro Disney in Paris. And so I, wow. Yeah. So I took a job interview, got hired and then just was, I was gonna go for six months and then I went, went there. Then I found a martial arts school three months later. And I was like, wow, this is what I kind of always wanted to do. I kind of wanted to become a martial arts instructor. Um, and then through that, I found a school, Chinese medicine school through someone in that school. And I started to study Chinese medicine in France. So then I stayed for my studies. I went to work, but I stayed for the studies
Sevan Matossian (23:37):
After, what did you do at Disneyland?
Jami Tikkanen (23:39):
Um, I did couple different things. I did, what’s called a guest flow. So it’s kind of making sure that people stay, they need to stay during parades and shows and Uhhuh, things like that. And then I did guest services, which was like guided tours, VIP tours, and dealing with all the complaints and all the issues in the park on like a guest level.
Sevan Matossian (23:58):
And you spoke at the time of finish English and French.
Jami Tikkanen (24:02):
Yeah. The French came after, let’s say six months of having a headache every day. Then I started to, I, I have this distinct memory of dreaming in French and being like, wow, this something changed in my brain.
Sevan Matossian (24:13):
Wow. And so those are your, do you have any other languages besides those three? I mean, those are enough, but
Jami Tikkanen (24:18):
Yeah, I can fake, I can fake couple languages. Like I can fake a little bit of Italian, Spanish and German, but you know, it’s becomes quickly obvious that I don’t actually speak them. And now my new project haven’t I moved to Iceland. So my new project is I’m gonna learn Iceland. I dunno how long it’s gonna take me, but I will.
Sevan Matossian (24:34):
Do you think you’re gonna stay there? Like, is it home?
Jami Tikkanen (24:37):
Yeah. For now it’s going to be home. At least we’ll see how long, but for now it makes a lot of sense to be there. So I officially live in Iceland right now.
Sevan Matossian (24:46):
When you say it, uh, it makes sense to be there. Um, and I know this is a little bit loaded, uh, but does that mean, uh, another year beyond this year? Meaning that you don’t think this is just a one off, um, Annie does the teams and then, and then the it disbands?
Jami Tikkanen (25:02):
No, there is definitely, uh, gonna be more to come. I feel like we’re just, just getting started. I mean, with, let’s say with this generation of athletes that we have right now, uh, and the team, and then, you know, I think that there’s a lot of future generations coming from Iceland as well. So it’d be nice to actually build something in that, you know, that small, long lasting,
Sevan Matossian (25:24):
Um, anyone in specific you’re talking about because the, the, the generation that you’re working with, I I’ve been extremely pessimistic about and, and, and unjustifiably. So, I mean, I, I thought, um, I would never have guessed in, I would never bet $5 that Andy would be on podium last year. It really is truly one of the most remarkable things I’ve ever, ever, ever, ever seen in the sport. It’s uh, it’s it’s I, I mean, she was at the 2009 games.
Jami Tikkanen (25:50):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (25:51):
Yeah. She had a baby, she had a massive injury and, and those two girls, she was on the podium with are, are the two best. I mean,
Jami Tikkanen (26:00):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (26:01):
Like those are the, those are the, those are the two best ever. I mean, I don’t, I think if, um, any of the, any of those three girls who are on the podium can go to any of the games and, and win, I think, I mean, in my opinion,
Jami Tikkanen (26:11):
Yeah, for sure. I, you know, I I’ve said this every time, last year was like holding things together with duct tape and chewing gum, you know, every day was a struggle and a challenge and we were able to
Sevan Matossian (26:22):
Yeah, because of logistics or injuries or, um, that there’s a BA that there’s a baby or <laugh>, I mean, it’s just crazy.
Jami Tikkanen (26:29):
Yeah. Like it’s everything, right? Like, it’s just like for her getting used to being a mom and what that entails on day to day. Yeah. And then coming back from, you know, pretty traumatic childbirth, uh, that was not easy to recover from. And, and then, you know, all, everything that you have to deal with as an athlete with your identity, between being a, you know, a professional athlete and being a mom and, and, you know, being a girlfriend to, to Frederick and, and everything else, you know, like there’s a lot to manage. And then just having, you know, something post pregnancy that need to be needed to be dealt with. Um, so just keeping her body, you know, doing things that her body could handle on a given day. And that was always variable, you know, that would always be a moving target. So we had to constantly adapt things. And I think that was like, that was such a good learning experience because there was, you know, every day was a new challenge basically, but keeping, you know, being able to keep that together, that was really what I refer to as like with the duct tape and chewing gum, you know, just trying to keep the boat afloat for long enough for it to make it to the Harbor.
Sevan Matossian (27:28):
Uh, um, I wanna come back to this. I got too many threads over right now. I wanna, I wanna finish this, uh, uh, I really wanna come back to this. It’s, it’s fascinating. Um, the, the team, uh, the team, I wanna talk about the team in future years. Okay. So let’s go back. So, so you go, when you go to, um, France and you start, um, martial arts, had you done martial arts before then?
Jami Tikkanen (27:49):
Yeah, so I started judo when I was six.
Sevan Matossian (27:51):
Oh,
Jami Tikkanen (27:51):
Okay. And I was kind of like, I was good enough to make it to the national team so that wow. They would have someone to be thrown around and I could go compete internationally to lose a ma game, you know, a match that was kind of my level. So I was, I was like a good athlete. I, I knew how to train hard, but I always thought too much to be a good athlete, you know, like this
Sevan Matossian (28:10):
Oh, interesting.
Jami Tikkanen (28:11):
Yeah, yeah. Too analytical for my own good, you know, not necessarily in a productive way, like someone like the Kowski would be in, in, in CrossFit, but maybe more in like, uh, generating too much anxiety in competition, setting about worrying all about all the potential outcomes and things like that. So I think, I think I knew relatively early on that I’d probably make a better coach than an athlete, but I also loved pursuing that side.
Sevan Matossian (28:32):
You know, these, um, I, I, I can see that in you, um, that, that as I is, this is a little bit of time I’ve spent with you. Like, I, I see you like that as an analytical person or someone who’s thinking, not that you’re not present, but that you’re present with your thoughts. And what’s interesting is when I think of people like rich Fring, I don’t think that I just think of him as a good old boy, you know, just like I just get out there and work. But if you talk to him, he, he on he’s, he’s sitting in his motor home at night during the games and he’s not sleeping and he’s running through exactly what you said, all the possible outcomes. Mm-hmm <affirmative> and it’s, it’s, uh, it’s fascinating. That’s a must though, isn’t it to be successful
Jami Tikkanen (29:13):
Or to be able to be self-aware and
Sevan Matossian (29:16):
Well, but, but you, yeah. And to, and to, and to be going through the processes, that’s part of it doing that work at night. It’s, it’s not just managing that thing and telling it to be quiet. It’s it’s, um, it’s attending to the thoughts, right?
Jami Tikkanen (29:28):
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I, I think that the, the more mature I, I get, the more I realize that it’s good to accept yourself as you are and learn how to manage yourself, you know, rather than try to change yourself to be something you’re not. So I think it is important, but I think that athletes deal with it differently. There are athletes who don’t think about it so much, you know, they will get nervous and stressed and they have to deal with it, but they might not be, you know, not everyone will think about what’s the seventh order consequence of this action. You know, some people are happy with the first or the second order consequence, and that’s okay for them. And that makes it, I think.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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