Sevan Matossian (00:01):
Who comes bam or live? Maybe it’s me. Maybe. Bam. We’re late. Yeah. $5 for being late. I’ll take it
Caleb Beaver (00:10):
Should be late. More often. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (00:18):
Jay crouch, Rob forte, Ryan friend. I sent them the link like 30 seconds ago. It’s not their fault. They’re not here. That’s all 100% on me. The podcast supposed to be at six, six o’clock today and I was screwing around. I moved it to six, 15. Damn look how big Rob’s head is.
Jay Crouch & Rob Forte (00:43):
Let’s
Sevan Matossian (00:45):
Rob. I, I was thinking,
Jay Crouch & Rob Forte (00:48):
Uh, oh,
Sevan Matossian (00:49):
Hi.
Jay Crouch (00:51):
Hi.
Sevan Matossian (00:53):
How are you?
Rob Forte (00:56):
I’m good. How are you?
Sevan Matossian (00:58):
I was just admiring the size of your head compared to Jay’s.
Rob Forte (01:03):
Um, I need to move back.
Sevan Matossian (01:05):
No, no, no. Steve. Oh, you think if you move back, it’ll look small. Oh yeah. Yeah. Perspective. What are you an artist or something? You know that shit. Oh, our connection is ass. Where are you guys? Where, where are you guys? Are you guys in Australia? The fuck is going on.
Jay Crouch & Rob Forte (01:23):
<laugh>
Sevan Matossian (01:24):
This is never gonna work. Where are you? Oh, it’s so bad. The delay. I feel like I’m talking like my relatives in Beirut when I was like six years old.
Jay Crouch & Rob Forte (01:33):
<laugh>
Sevan Matossian (01:35):
Go stand next to the routers. Try a
Rob Forte (01:36):
Different,
Sevan Matossian (01:38):
Okay, try please, please. Or maybe get off wifi and you sell either. God, I don’t know if I’ve ever talked to Rob. I was always kind of scared of you. You’re
Rob Forte (01:52):
We’ve
Sevan Matossian (01:52):
Talked. I was thinking, I was thinking, I was thinking like we have talked.
Jay Crouch (01:57):
Yeah. Which the guys beyond the same stuff.
Sevan Matossian (02:04):
When YouTube gets this video, they’re gonna put connect. Okay. They’re gonna put in so many ads cuz every time there’s silence, YouTube puts in an ad. That’s what happens. That’s how they do that. I’m gonna have to go in there and erase them all. Rob. I was thinking that you’re kind of you you’re kind of uh Janoski is like the new Rob forte. Huh? Am am I even close in saying that?
Rob Forte (02:27):
Is that better?
Sevan Matossian (02:29):
Oh yeah. Much better.
Rob Forte (02:33):
Okay. There we go. We’re on Jay’s phone now. So
Sevan Matossian (02:37):
And what you were on a computer before?
Rob Forte (02:41):
Oh, we were just connected to the wifi at the gym.
Sevan Matossian (02:44):
Oh, okay. Who’s in the room with you?
Rob Forte (02:48):
Uh, some, some we go ask my business partner. I’ll tell I’ll tell him to shut up. I’ll shut up. And Andrea shut up.
Sevan Matossian (02:56):
Nah, he can talk. He can talk. Hey Rob, are you the, um, are you the, uh, Janna or is Janowski the new Rob forte?
Rob Forte (03:07):
Janowski
Sevan Matossian (03:08):
Yeah, the guy from Finland, like he wins all the swim events and people have hoped that he is gonna win the games, but he just, he just can’t.
Rob Forte (03:15):
Did you win? I, I never won a swim event, but anyway,
Sevan Matossian (03:19):
What? But oh, you weren’t just, what did you win? There was some event. There was some, oh, thank God. You’re here Brian.
Jay Crouch & Rob Forte (03:25):
It was <laugh> it was the running
Sevan Matossian (03:28):
Running. Ah. Yes. You were the runner. Damn. I
Brian Friend (03:32):
Don’t remember because the only thing anyone remembers about that workout is rich walk. Yeah. Rob, I think we actually a couple guys on the run.
Sevan Matossian (03:40):
Hey, I, I was try, I was trying to act like I know shit about cross Bryan. I go, Hey, is Yana Koski, the new Rob forte. And he goes, what do you mean? I go, you guys both won all the swim events, but you had no chance of winning the games, but he’s like, nah, I didn’t win swim events. I was like, fuck, we’re off to a bad start.
Rob Forte (03:56):
Yeah, I tried, but I didn’t succeed. That was KA Khan was really good when I was, when I was competing. He’d always do well in those swim events.
Sevan Matossian (04:07):
I, I wanna show you, um, a video that I saw of uh, of Jay that was posted a couple days ago. Yeah. Jay, I’m about to fuck you up. Will you put Caleb, will you play that YouTube video? Just a little bit of that in, in, in the beginning, maybe he was on Alex Tyson’s podcast. It maybe play like the first 30 seconds here. Listen, listen to this crazy shit.
Jay Crouch (04:28):
Trust that you know you’re good overall.
Sevan Matossian (04:31):
And you might have to rewind it a little bit. Sorry. Where are we? Oh no, here we go. Okay, here we go. Sorry. No, you’re good.
Jay Crouch (04:36):
Just gotta trust that. You know you’re good overall. And if you give your best effort in each event, you’re gonna come out in a good spot.
Sevan Matossian (04:44):
Oh no. Fast forward. A little more. Sorry. Fast forward. A little more.
Speaker 5 (04:47):
Hey crouch. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast, mate. It’s an absolute pleasure to have you here. Okay. Here we go. First time we met, I stood next to you and I just fasted for 21 days and we were a few weeks out from going to, uh, the fittest man in the world competition, the CrossFit games.
Sevan Matossian (05:03):
Okay. Fast forward a little more. You
Speaker 5 (05:04):
Were huge, which is nice. Um, tell me about what it’s like going to the other side, go world in America to compete with some of the fittest people in the world.
Jay Crouch (05:14):
Yeah. It’s pretty crazy. Like, um, here we go. Growing up in the sport, you know, you watch, you watch these guys, uh, compete, look up to ’em all that sort of stuff. And then you finally get there and it’s here we go. It’s really cool. So, um,
Sevan Matossian (05:29):
Here comes.
Jay Crouch (05:30):
Yeah, I suppose. Oh, can we start again? I’ll do <laugh>
Speaker 5 (05:36):
That’s
Sevan Matossian (05:36):
Fuck. Is that?
Jay Crouch (05:37):
I was thinking about what I already said.
Speaker 5 (05:39):
<laugh>
Sevan Matossian (05:42):
You text me the other day and say me and Robert coming on your podcast. I do little research. This is big time. I do a little research from two weeks ago. You can’t even fucking get your tongue outta your mouth and you wanna go big time with me and Brian, the fuck. You think you’re
Jay Crouch (05:55):
Got race out alive?
Sevan Matossian (05:57):
Huh? What? Say it again.
Jay Crouch (05:58):
We can’t restart a live stream.
Sevan Matossian (06:00):
I know.
Jay Crouch (06:05):
Set me up there.
Sevan Matossian (06:06):
Ladies and gentlemen, Jay crouch, uh, winner winner of the Torian pro this year, same age as Justin. Maderas the champ, a Darris, the champ dude. Everyone’s like crazy impressed. Rob, are you impressed?
Rob Forte (06:22):
Very impressed. I’ve been impressed when I saw him for the first time. I think when he was 16 or 15, we did a, a development squad. Um, it was him and two others. So it real standouts in the group. And then he came to my gym when he was 17 and he’s just been improving at a crazy rate ever since
Sevan Matossian (06:45):
Third place. Second place, fourth place, third place, first place, fourth place. And uh, uh, Royce Dunn. Didn’t make it.
Jay Crouch (06:56):
<laugh> no, who’s not.
Sevan Matossian (06:58):
Which is nuts. Who took second? Yeah, look at those people.
Brian Friend (07:03):
There’s a lot of good guys out there, women too.
Sevan Matossian (07:06):
My goodness.
Rob Forte (07:07):
Yeah. Women’s side is crazy.
Sevan Matossian (07:10):
Um, Jay, did you keep your head in the game the whole time? Were there any, any dips?
Jay Crouch (07:15):
Yeah, no, it was solid all weekend. Like the big, big focus was, uh, just running my own race and you know, not having any expectations going in and um, yeah, it was yeah, really solid all weekend. And the main reason for that is in the past every event, we’ve kind of both said it is like, he’s gonna do really well. This is his thing. And he goes out way too hot and kind of hits a wall. So we’re like, all right, we’re gonna dial that back a little, even though it’s a strong suit, we need to still hit, hit a strategy. The one that we were kind of both didn’t really talk much about was the strong man, Diane one. Cause that was kind of his one to win. But we didn’t wanna say that. It’s like, just go out, do it. If it’s there, it’s there. If it’s not, it’s not. And he won it. So it was definitely a, a different approach to last season. And what we’ previously done
Sevan Matossian (08:09):
When you say that, um, you didn’t wanna say it, did you guys both hold back and then afterwards be like, I knew you were gonna win that. And then you’re like, I knew I was gonna win that like that.
Jay Crouch (08:19):
Well, we went out for breakfast even the Sunday morning of it. Like we both avoiding saying it. I was like, did it? And we’re like, okay, like we, we both knew it was gonna happen.
Sevan Matossian (08:30):
Can you
Rob Forte (08:31):
Dad saying you better win this one? My dad’s telling me you better win this one. I’m like, shut up. We’re just gonna go out there and do it best.
Sevan Matossian (08:38):
It is. Caleb. Will
Brian Friend (08:39):
You,
Sevan Matossian (08:40):
Will you pull that up again, Caleb? Uh, the leaderboard, go ahead, Brian.
Brian Friend (08:43):
There are there, when, when there’s certain athletes that when they see certain workouts, they, they know that like, yeah, I have a chance to win this one or I should really do win this one. And I’m not talking about doing well, I’m talking about like, winning this happened at the Mac this last week where I talked to a couple athletes after the fact. And they’re like, yeah, like we, we knew that that was when I could win.
Jay Crouch (09:01):
Yeah. And that’s what, like last year at the, to pro the best, like going in the workout that I thought was gonna be my best was my worst. So that’s where we sort of, uh, went off. Cause yeah, you tacked it a little bit too hard. It was a little bit too fired up and it just didn’t pan out in the last round and people passing. So it’s just a little bit more relaxed approach, a little bit more methodical and it pays off just depends on the event really. But yeah.
Sevan Matossian (09:32):
What are the movements? Can, can you open, can you open up that workout? What were the movements? How did you know you were gonna do so? Well, let alone win.
Jay Crouch (09:40):
It was, uh, like I’ve always loved handstand push ups and um, the deficit was always gonna be, uh, good for me as well. And uh, it was just being smart on, um, breaking him up and not falling apart. So, and, and I mean, I like the strong man stuff as well, but um, yeah. Yeah, the, the separator was the, the deficit here in stamp push up. And for some people it was the last yo carry. There was people that got there early, like, uh, Matt McCloud, but couldn’t move the weight too well. So Matt was actually ahead of Jay, but Jay passed him on that last, uh, yo carry. So, um, yeah, apart from Matt, he was, well, he was second bested at the handstand pushups, but overall in this workout with the yolk carry in there, he’s able to pass Matt at the end.
Sevan Matossian (10:32):
Yeah. What happened with McLeod there? We were trying to figure out from watching if that was an equipment, uh, like MIS sizing or
Rob Forte (10:39):
Yeah, I think he had the yo set up a little bit too low and the bottom just kept hitting the ground. Uh, and I did hear you guys asking whether it was set the same for everyone. It wasn’t, the athletes got to set it up and choose what height they wanted. He just made a mistake there.
Sevan Matossian (10:55):
And when you do that, when you go out there to set it, Jay, does Rob come out with you or do you recognize that exact same yolk? Or how do you know?
Jay Crouch (11:03):
Uh, no. In the warmup area we, uh, we set it up and they wrote it down on what, what, we’re gonna set it on out there.
Sevan Matossian (11:11):
Okay. So you don’t actually do it. They measure you and then someone sets yours to whatever.
Jay Crouch (11:15):
Yeah, exactly. Yep.
Sevan Matossian (11:17):
Go ahead, Rob.
Rob Forte (11:19):
Uh, yeah, we’ll just made sure he counted the holes that are exposed above the bar. So he could double check that it was set at the right height when he walked out onto the floor. So there was eight holes showing he accounted eight holes. So it was good to go.
Sevan Matossian (11:33):
Uh, so that’s, that’s veteran shit, right? Jay, like if you don’t have a coach, you’re just like, trust the people who are setting up the equipment, but Rob’s like, dude, still count the holes.
Rob Forte (11:43):
Yeah, exactly. And then I was like, don’t trust anyone to count anything. You make sure you keep count with everything all the time. So, you know, um, cuz that’s something you can, uh, dispute is the counting. So you just make sure that you are on top of all that stuff. So you don’t leave it up to someone that loses concentration for a second,
Sevan Matossian (12:09):
2020. I’m just showing off for Brian 2020, you took eighteen’s place in the VIR and it was virtual. Yeah. You were, you were a better athlete going into 2021, but you only took 22nd place. Yeah. Is that, is that a, is that a, uh, is that a kick in the balls or go ahead, Brian, go ahead.
Brian Friend (12:30):
The field was significantly better.
Sevan Matossian (12:33):
Don’t throw don’t don’t take the weight off his shoulders bro.
Rob Forte (12:36):
Thank you, Brian. He gotta do it at home. His mom and dad were there. They got to hold his hand.
Sevan Matossian (12:43):
<laugh> tell me about the, tell me about the difference. I mean there’s two, there’s two questions here. Tell me about the difference. And are you, are you better? Are you be was 20, 21? Uh, crouch better than 2020 and is 22 even better because what’s basically happening is we’re seeing this whole field of youngsters come in. I don’t know if it was Sprague told us or down, but someone in this past weekend says it’s here. Oh, I don’t remember. But someone said, Hey, it’s here. The wave that people have thought about and talked about. It’s like finally here. And, and I think that you showed that at the touring, you’re handling your business down there. So what’s going on with you in, in respect to these three years?
Jay Crouch (13:21):
Yeah. Compared to last year. Um, obviously the stress of traveling with COVID making the leap from Australia as well and not having robbed by my side, you know, like was pretty dialed team when we’re together. Um, but honestly like as well, technically my first year in person at the games as an individual. So it was almost like, felt like my rookie year too. Um, so yeah, I feel like this year with the, uh, less stress of all the COVID stuff and travel and having my, so like my normal team by my side, I feel like I’ll be able to put the pieces together.
Sevan Matossian (14:00):
What, what will you change about the travel?
Jay Crouch (14:03):
Oh, it’ll just, you know, less expensive. No, not as hectic with like it being new with the COVID testing. Um, the quarantine on the way home, just the, and the financial sort of side of it too.
Sevan Matossian (14:18):
And, and when will you come, will you come way early?
Jay Crouch (14:21):
Uh, probably about 10 days
Sevan Matossian (14:24):
Or no. And there’ll be no jet lag when day one starts?
Jay Crouch (14:28):
No, no.
Sevan Matossian (14:30):
Cause that’s brutal.
Jay Crouch (14:32):
Yeah, it
Sevan Matossian (14:32):
Is. And, and those UFC fighters don’t get, I know you follow the UFC pretty close to though. Usually UFC fighters don’t get much time. They just get like a couple days
Jay Crouch (14:41):
They’re CRA. Yeah. They leave it really close.
Brian Friend (14:43):
Jay. How many people will come with you for the games this year?
Jay Crouch (14:47):
Uh, my mom, dad, brother. And Rob. So four.
Sevan Matossian (14:53):
Do you have any other athletes Rob
Brian Friend (14:54):
Me?
Jay Crouch (14:56):
No. Matt’s gonna, uh, look after the dogs and hold down the floor this time. Hey, she’s got LCQ. Oh yeah. That’s true. Can’t count out.
Brian Friend (15:04):
Oh, that’s right. I, I was pretty impressed with her actually, uh, at Torian.
Rob Forte (15:08):
Yeah. I think,
Brian Friend (15:09):
I think she may have even surprised herself.
Rob Forte (15:11):
Yeah, she did definitely. Um, I’d say that was the best she’s ever performed at that stage. She was solid across the board, even that last day. Like she shouldn’t have beaten the two girls, Jamie and, um, ally in those two events, but she did with a better strategy and just, yeah, she just performed so much better. And I think each day she gained more and more confidence and more and more belief. And you could see that out on the floor. Um, so yeah, it would be interesting to see how she goes in LCQ. Um, yeah, to only miss out by four spots, uh, sorry. Four points is two. It had to be two positions cuz if they were tired, count back, would’ve gone to alley, but it was just one event, a little bit of mistake and um, which is the second one, the like this rope climb one tier and Mattie LAPD, the whole field in that heat.
Rob Forte (16:06):
So lap third, she went a little bit too early on her last rope climb and just missed by like quarter of inch, some millimeters. Uh, so yeah, she just needed to take, you know, 10 seconds before jumping up. That’s all it was. But then the judge made into 11 rounds. So she had to do an extra round, but they resolved that and fixed all that issue. Wow. But she went from a potential second to seventh in that event, but that’s all it was, there was literally one mistake. It was a fairly big mistake that affected her and result.
Brian Friend (16:39):
It’s pretty, it’s been pretty crazy. There have been a lot of really, really close competitions. I don’t know if anyone knows this, but uh, well everyone knows that Kelly Clark missed by one point this last week, but she was actually, it was a half a second in the legless rope climb, workout behind another woman, half a second faster. And she makes it like, that’s the margin sometimes.
Sevan Matossian (16:59):
Tell me what, tell me what happened again with Mattie there. She actually, she on one of her rope climbs, she, she missed the top.
Rob Forte (17:05):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (17:06):
And then she got a no rep and if she, if she would’ve actually climbed, which, which, and it was the 10th round.
Rob Forte (17:11):
Yeah. It was the 10th round. So she got a no rep stood there, went back up and then she got to the other end and I was trying to yell out saying you’re done, but her judge is like, you’re going back. So she did an 11th round. Yeah. And she like missed out on that, that little bit, extra time, like sprinting to the finish line too. But she thought that she was, uh, on her second, last round, but she was actually done.
Sevan Matossian (17:33):
So, so they did take off her 11th round, but she lost the seconds from sprinting thinking. It was her
Rob Forte (17:40):
Show.
Rob Forte (17:40):
I, I argued that point that, you know, if she knew it was her last round, she’d sprint to the finish. It’s not like she would take that long to get across the line, but I don’t think it affected the, the result, the next person wasn’t close enough to, uh, for her to drop another position or gain another position. So I, I think the way they fixed it was fine. It didn’t affect the overall result was more just that mistake on that 10th round of just not listening to your body and not, you know, taking that 10 seconds before jumping up because, and nowhere. Yeah. Even if she took 20 seconds, it might have been a third position instead of a seventh, but that’s part of learning. You gotta experience those things to then carry it onto the next competition. Like it’s just a whole process of learning and adjusting. But that’s what I told her. I’m like, let’s learn from that and carry that over to the next workout or that, uh, the rest of the weekend, the one that you’re probably gonna have to carry that over to is the, the strong man Diane with the handstand pushups, run your own race, listen to your body, go when you can go and not foul reps. So, and she executed that one perfectly
Sevan Matossian (18:49):
Look up. Did you see your finishes? Pull that up. Sorry, Caleb. One more time. I, I wonder if there was any other region, any other semi-final where someone with those finishes didn’t uh, qualify fifth, seventh, fifth, seventh, fourth, third.
Brian Friend (19:05):
Well, it depends on, it depends on the, you know, how many qualifying spots there are. Like it’s possible that the person second in Africa has finishes like that, but they finish second. They just only get one spot. And likewise, her positions, there might be more relative of a fourth or fifth place finisher or maybe even a third place finisher in north America.
Sevan Matossian (19:23):
Yeah. It’s crazy. Uh, Brian, is this just like screaming at you? Uh, what you’ve been saying for the last couple years when you see someone who performs like Madeline?
Brian Friend (19:32):
Yeah. I mean, it’s just, I don’t, I don’t think I need to say it much anymore that the numbers in the competition speak for themselves and, you know, Australia used to have five, five spots at Oceana or Pacific, whatever it was called used to have five spots to the games. And I understand that they’ve given some to Asia and so there’s still five, but look at the relative attendance and performance of the athletes from what’s now Oceana compared to Asia and tell me that, uh, that we shouldn’t have, um, at least four spots for both the men and women. You know, she three, all three of the, I mean, two of the three guys that made the, uh, games from ocean last year finished in the top, uh, 20. And, um, it seems pretty probable. Like I, I would bet on all six making it into the top 20, this year, three men and three women,
Sevan Matossian (20:17):
Rob, how close is, uh, Jay to the glass ceiling? Is he gonna get better? Are we gonna see some really crazy stuff?
Rob Forte (20:26):
He surprises me every year. Like through the off season, I, I was at a stage where I’m like, all right, let’s go, let’s get your ass into gear. We need to kind of get moving. And then a few weeks later, he is just doing so much better than I thought he would. I’m like, okay, I’ll shut up. What he is doing is working. So, um, he doesn’t train high volume. We focus more on intensity and moving well and all those sorts of things and not just trying to absolutely smash. And that works well for him. Like each year he is just getting stronger and better. You can see it in his results or a little bit more consistent. The lifting like he, whenever a lifting event would come up, he’s like, oh, gotta try and keep up with strong boys. So I’m like, you are now a strong boy, so you don’t have to try and keep up anymore.
Rob Forte (21:13):
So there’s a lot of things that he’s doing that he hasn’t done before. Um, but our approach, uh, this year is gonna be a little bit more chill, a little bit more, go out there, maximize the points, do your best. It’s not go out there and try and win every event. Cuz I think it, it just doesn’t, it doesn’t work and you put extra pressure on yourself. I tell him like, if it’s there, it’s there. If it’s not, it’s not, you know, as soon as you start the event, you’re like, okay, I’m feeling good and I’m up the front or you just need a, maybe it’s damage control. And you’re just trying to maximize the points for each event. That approach is what we had at Toon and his worst finish was the fourth. So it was a lot better. Like yeah, just seeing his improvement in the gym. It’s crazy. It’s to pass what I’ve done by a long shot,
Brian Friend (22:06):
But I still, you know, I hear what I hear you guys saying is two things that are, you know, super, super valuable if you’re able to do ’em and, and one is that you’re able to string together years of consistency. Yeah. You know, and, and you see other athletes and some of ’em are really good and, and still have good performances like this, but every other year they’re missing, you know, a month to three months recovering from some injury. And it’s probably from over training and just things that stack up over time. And so if you’re able to find a balance where you can continuously improve and stay healthy for year after year, those are the type of athletes that are able to make the, you know, the consistent improvements that, that Jay is showing that he can do.
Rob Forte (22:41):
Yeah, definitely. Um, yeah, I think we can, we obviously need to, and we’ll increase the volume for the games cuz that’s just different animal. Um, Torian, there’s not much volume at all at the semi-final level. Like the training day is worse than that. Their second day was, um, complex and then three, two minute intervals. So six minutes of work, more minutes of rest in that workout. And I see these people, uh, what they’re eating during those competitions, all this sugar and crap to get through a weekend because they need the carbs and energy and I’m like, have a look at exactly what you need to get through. You don’t need to be consuming that crap maybe at the games level we do, but not at that stage. So like
Sevan Matossian (23:31):
What specifically, Rob? I heard, um, in, uh, in the great, uh, and riveting interview with Alex Tyson, uh, Rob forte said that, uh, he HES, uh, baby food. Are you cool with the baby food?
Rob Forte (23:44):
Nah, his mom makes it too. Yeah,
Sevan Matossian (23:46):
It is a good interview. By the way. I’m just busting your balls about the beginning. It is a good interview. I listened to the whole thing. Uh, so, so, so at the, were you okay with him doing baby food and then what would be different at the games? And what, what, tell us what this shit is that you saw people eating.
Rob Forte (24:00):
Oh, they just cereal just crap. Like lolls Gatorade, just sugar, lolly pro pro-inflammatory, you know, you spike your energy and then it drops down. Like for, in my opinion, you don’t need to.
Sevan Matossian (24:17):
When, when would you use that? Like the last day of the games? When do you use that?
Rob Forte (24:21):
Well, there’s a lot more volume and it is harder to consume, you know, good quality foods to get that much, uh, that amount of calories in that you do need for that volume, but for a semi-final or what Victorian, um, required of the athletes, you didn’t need that you can just do what you would normally do. Normal day, normal training day. Um, and yeah, you just, you’re sitting around most of the day waiting. That’s why they’re getting tired. That’s not the actual work itself. That’s the hardest part.
Sevan Matossian (24:53):
Um, Jay, you know where you’re at, right? There’s and there’s like, I, I don’t know what the benchmarks are, you know, for a professional CrossFitter, but let’s say, you know how fast you can run a mile, you know how much you can clean and jerk, you know, these metrics and you have an idea of where the guys who just keep rotating at the podium, you kind of know their metrics too. Right? Uh, the FOW skis, the pat ner the Maderas these, these guys who are at the top when you and Rob are putting a training plan together. Do you, do you ever look at that? Do, do you ever just like lay out, like, okay, here for instance, let’s do a mock look at the 2020 games and this is what Justin Maderas did. Can you beat, what can we do to make it so that you can beat him in all of these workouts? Is there, is there ever anything that you do or, or is it strictly stay in your own game at all times for your training?
Brian Friend (25:49):
He doesn’t, he doesn’t need to beat him on every workout. He just needs one more point at the end of the weekend.
Sevan Matossian (25:53):
Right, right, right. But, but you, I might not be describing it. Right. But do you know what I’m saying? Like what part of it is comparing yourself to the other guys? Because it sounds like, um, when I hear Rob talk, like Rob just trusts the process, man. Like, like that there is just a steady climb and it’s, it’s, it’s not pushed too hard. Like it sounds like maybe even Rob I’m reading into it, but his biggest concern is he doesn’t wanna break you or hurt you or burn you out.
Jay Crouch (26:18):
Yes. Yeah. No, I do understand what you’re saying. Like, um, definitely, definitely running, um, my own race and you know, doing what’s what works best for me, but I feel like, um, <affirmative> um, what I learned most last year was that the guy there’s those top guys, they attack every work yet. You know, as if, um, they haven’t done anything that day, like I just noticed, like, it’s almost like they’re fresh. They just go in and uh, they send every work out and do what they gotta do. Um, that was the hardest part that I found was, you know, you start feeling sorry for yourself and you’re tired. Um, and yeah, so that’s why I feel like I’m gonna do this year is work on that for sure. That’s the hardest,
Sevan Matossian (27:03):
What does that look like? What does that look like when you see that they look fresh? What do you mean?
Jay Crouch (27:08):
Uh, you know, it, we could be on our like third workout for the day and we got the last one in the Coliseum and I’m just like, you know, oh, I gotta go out there. Oh shit,
Brian Friend (27:19):
Screws and wall walks,
Jay Crouch (27:21):
You know, ready to go. And you can see that and they really want it. And they’re very confident in what they’re doing. Um, and yeah, I just feel like I didn’t show that last year
Brian Friend (27:31):
Savon, this is why. And I think this is what Rob is about to say. This is why it’s important to have a deep enough test for all the athletes, because it’s the thing that’s tested at the games that separates the best from the rest. And it’s your ability to endure mentally and physically test after test after sta test day after day after day, it’s not six minutes on a Saturday and eight minutes on a Sunday and 23 minutes on a Friday. All of these guys can do that. And that’s why, you know, the preparation has to be different for semifinal than the games, but the best guys at the games recover better and perform better when they rebound better from bad performances physically or mentally.
Sevan Matossian (28:06):
And at 23, um, what Jay is saying is it’s more mental than physical form.
Rob Forte (28:12):
Yeah. I I’d argue that it’s emotional as well,
Sevan Matossian (28:16):
Emotional
Rob Forte (28:18):
Managing your emotions and having someone there to pick you back up when you do have those downs, which he didn’t really have that last year as kind of on his own and stuck in his own head. Um, so that, that’s the part that a lot of people at home miss, or don’t see at the games is how hard it is physically and mentally and emotionally like there’s, it is grueling. It’s a, it’s a tough weekend. And, uh, you do have to bring a lot of energy to each effort in each event. And it’s easier said than done, but you do need to have well, unless you’ve got a lot of experience, you do need to kind of have someone there to, to tell you what to do in your warmup. Cuz you don’t feel like warming up anymore. You don’t feel like going out there anymore and it’s having someone there to fire you up and get you back into the game and ready for each and every event. So that’s a, that’s an aspect or part that a lot of people don’t see from watching it. And yeah, an example of that last year is, you know, at that thing is like the 500 meter sprint or something I like did terrible and uh, went in after that. And I was like, you know, fuck this I’m over CrossFit. I’m
Sevan Matossian (29:32):
<laugh> wow. Wow.
Jay Crouch (29:35):
And then the next workout was the thruster wall walk. And that was like in the, I like I was like in lining, aren’t ready to go out. I’m like, oh I don’t, I don’t wanna do this. Like what am I doing? And then I go out there, do my thing as my best finish of the weekend. You finish and you, you go back in, you’re like, okay, that’s why I do this. This is, you know, it’s like, I’m back. I like, I love that’s what I mean.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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