Andrew Hiller (00:00):
Would do
Sevan Matossian (00:03):
Bam we’re live.
Andrew Hiller (00:05):
There it is. You forgot that one
Sevan Matossian (00:06):
Time. Welcome to the coffee and pods podcast. I’m your host. The show sucks today. Please go over to apple and ding the shit out of it. We deserve it.
Andrew Hiller (00:17):
Apple people. Don’t listen to this on apple
Sevan Matossian (00:21):
Man, dude, man. Oh man. How do I sound
Andrew Hiller (00:26):
Horse
Sevan Matossian (00:27):
Good. Mr. Howell. How are you?
JR Howell (00:29):
I’m good. How about
Sevan Matossian (00:30):
Yourself? Good Mr. Town. Are
James Townsend (00:32):
You yo? Yo
Sevan Matossian (00:34):
God, I hope you guys the show today. God, I hope you guys carry the show.
Andrew Hiller (00:39):
James is here to carry the show.
Sevan Matossian (00:41):
Oh please. Oh, bye James. <laugh> too much pressure for him.
Andrew Hiller (00:46):
He’s like, yeah. F
Sevan Matossian (00:48):
Much pressure for him.
Andrew Hiller (00:49):
No way Jose.
Sevan Matossian (00:50):
Oh my goodness. Ah, we can,
Andrew Hiller (00:57):
We can back. Where are you going?
Sevan Matossian (01:00):
We can, why do, why don’t we start with this dude? Oh man. I’ve been hit by a truck ladies and gentlemen. Let’s start with this dude.
Andrew Hiller (01:09):
This dude, this guy in second.
Sevan Matossian (01:13):
Yeah, this guy in second. He, he did, uh, I think four guys at the far east did four 30. Are, are any of you surprised by that?
Andrew Hiller (01:22):
3 30, 4 30, sorry,
Sevan Matossian (01:24):
Three 30. I apologize. Three 30. I’m gonna make a lot of mistakes today. My name’s Peter and I’m with the coffee wads podcast. My name’s Peter.
Andrew Hiller (01:30):
I see. Yes. Four guys did that number
Sevan Matossian (01:33):
Insane. Right?
Andrew Hiller (01:35):
Pretty insane. They’ve they all move better than anything I’ve ever seen. Really?
Sevan Matossian (01:43):
J James do, do you have any thoughts on that? Like do the, do do these new CrossFiters is, is that what they do? They kind of get obsessed. Um, they kind of get obsessed with like lifting weight. So we’re gonna see people get strong before the metabolic conditioning comes or what or what’s going on.
James Townsend (01:55):
Yeah. Yeah. That’s what, you know, I always tell, well, I got one athlete in here that likes watching people on Instagram and he thinks he’s need, he needs to get stronger. I’m telling him like, dude, you got more to worry about than getting stronger. You gotta, you know, you gotta take care of all the other stuff before you even worry about getting stronger, you know? So the important things matter, you know, not just so you’re not,
Sevan Matossian (02:22):
So you’re not surprised. Three guys, three 30 out of this, uh, Podunk. Uh semi-final and uh, in Korea.
Andrew Hiller (02:29):
Nope, PDU,
Sevan Matossian (02:31):
Uh, J by the way, beautiful PDU. What a great setup they have there. Beautiful, great lighting. Yeah. Great place. Uh, what do you think Jr. Are, are we surprised to see four, four guys out of, uh, Korea hit four, uh, three 30?
JR Howell (02:44):
No, not at all. I mean, a lot of people would argue that the base, the best weightlifters in the world come from Asia and they really qual, um, they really value. Good, good, good movement. Quality and Uhhuh, you know, it just usually seems like they move really well.
Andrew Hiller (02:59):
What’s so funny.
Sevan Matossian (03:00):
I like it. That James is laughing. Cuz I got a little clip. You have, you have two race experts. James. Town’s in seven on the phone right now. And I’d like to play a little clip for you.
Andrew Hiller (03:08):
Oh,
Sevan Matossian (03:08):
I like to play, like to play a little a clip for you guys that I saw in the morning CHAA I found it fascinating.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
So, uh, Barb lifting in Asia is something that generally speaking Asian athletes in particular really enjoy from anme um, and build standpoint. Actually the Koreans just moved so well with the Barb. They great squatters. They’ve got great overhead positions. So immediately I was already excited
Sevan Matossian (03:36):
Atrics they have an unfair advantage cuz they’re Asian. What? The hell’s anme
Andrew Hiller (03:41):
Lib weights.
Sevan Matossian (03:43):
Asians are better lifters than the rest of us.
Taylor Self (03:46):
Yeah.
James Townsend (03:46):
I mean, I mean, when you’re, you know when you’re 5, 2, 5, 3, I mean,
Andrew Hiller (03:52):
Are they five, two and five, three. Everyone who hit three 30. Is that how tall they are? No <laugh> no, no. There was one guy who was stupid jacked who hit three 30. He was lifting right before L Alexander iland I think
Taylor Self (04:06):
Is this the kuwati guy?
Andrew Hiller (04:08):
I don’t remember where he was from, but I just remember he was crazy. He put his arms over his head and each of his biceps were bigger than his head. Like, oh my God
Taylor Self (04:16):
Guy let’s look at the guy in second place. He’s fucking huge. Yeah, we did
Sevan Matossian (04:21):
Hold
Sevan Matossian (04:22):
Him. Hold on. I wanna look at the definition of this word. An anthro refers to the measurements of the human individual as early tool of physical anthropology. It has been used for identification for the purpose of understanding human, physical variation. Here’s the thing. I like it, that he said it. I I’m not hating on the guy, but, but um, if you, if you go to Africa, there’s dudes who are as many variations as dudes, as there are in as white dudes. And if you go to Asia there’s as many vari, I mean there’s Koreans, there’s Japanese, there’s Chinese. There’s Filipino. I mean, we got, they all got all the bodies.
Andrew Hiller (04:52):
Are you familiar with the low bar back squat? Sivan?
Sevan Matossian (04:54):
I kind of don’t embarrass me in front of James.
Andrew Hiller (04:57):
I know, I know James is familiar
Sevan Matossian (04:58):
With
James Townsend (04:59):
It, but it just
Andrew Hiller (05:00):
Like some people have, I’m
Sevan Matossian (05:01):
Not saying that people aren’t different, but it’s,
James Townsend (05:03):
I don’t like low bar, uh, low bar. Um, I mean low back squat,
Andrew Hiller (05:06):
You would say that you’ve got like an 800 pound high bar back squat. <laugh>
James Townsend (05:10):
That’s right. <laugh>
Andrew Hiller (05:12):
Let me some people are, go ahead. How,
Sevan Matossian (05:14):
How long before we have an Asian guy on the podium at the, at the CrossFit games?
Taylor Self (05:18):
Long time, long time. Well, Asian, Asian, as in,
Andrew Hiller (05:22):
I mean it might be this year. Roman goes Roman,
Taylor Self (05:24):
Roman Koff, Asian or Asian as like, you know, south Asia.
Sevan Matossian (05:28):
Asia. Yeah. That kind
Taylor Self (05:30):
Long time, I think.
Andrew Hiller (05:32):
Hmm. Why, why do you say that?
Sevan Matossian (05:34):
I don’t know. I mean, I just think if China gets in the mix, they, they just start something
Taylor Self (05:38):
Happens. But, but right now, no, one’s in the mix and you don’t see, I mean, you would think that guys like Justin Maderas down pepper, James Guy tutor. A lot of these guys are, seem like they’re in line. I don’t see anybody else threatening.
Andrew Hiller (05:53):
Let’s someone goes, why is the thumb calling in from world war II?
Sevan Matossian (05:57):
<laugh> I know, I know you should see, my DMS are full of just how just, just hammering the port. Just hammer. How strong is, um, how strong is, Hey, do you even have the right headphones chosen? I know you have the headphones on, but do you have the right mic chosen? Taylor,
Taylor Self (06:13):
What am I is that?
James Townsend (06:29):
And
Sevan Matossian (06:31):
I think that’s three
James Townsend (06:45):
That
Andrew Hiller (06:45):
Partisan mouth disappears in under that beard.
Sevan Matossian (06:49):
Uh, Taylor, how strong is that guy? Can you do that?
Taylor Self (06:52):
No, I can’t do that.
Andrew Hiller (06:54):
James. Can you do that?
James Townsend (06:57):
Me? Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (06:58):
Yeah. Can you catch it two inches from lockout and then push it out? Like that? Three 10?
James Townsend (07:01):
Yeah. I mean anything, anything under 3 35 on push pressing. So
Andrew Hiller (07:08):
I like real
Sevan Matossian (07:09):
Question. I like the way James grabs his shoulder too. Did you see that? As he says that he’s like, yeah.
James Townsend (07:13):
<laugh>
Andrew Hiller (07:14):
What can you hit on that complex, James? We saw the 3 55. I’m sure everyone wants to know what could you hit?
James Townsend (07:20):
Yeah. Yeah. So, so I wanted to try it out and um, I planned on doing it again, depending on what G does. So Ooh. So I could just, I could just see, but, um, you know, with, with all the excitement, from the crowd and everything, I think I’ll open up at 365. So 3 85 and then 4 0 5.
Sevan Matossian (07:38):
Wow. You’re not joking.
Andrew Hiller (07:40):
You had a four something pound power clean at one point. Didn’t you like a 4 45 power clean
James Townsend (07:46):
4 25, 4 25.
Andrew Hiller (07:48):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (07:50):
Let’s see where
Andrew Hiller (07:51):
That’s pretty good.
Sevan Matossian (07:52):
<laugh> how, how many posts to go? Was that, was that your most recent one?
James Townsend (07:55):
Yeah, maybe uh, two or three.
Sevan Matossian (07:58):
I see the boxing one. I see. Is it okay here? It is. Here it is. Let’s take a look at this.
James Townsend (08:03):
Yeah, the jerk was horrendous.
Sevan Matossian (08:06):
You were trying to compete with that guy in this, in this year. The music was great, but I know I’ll get copyright violation if I fuck with that.
Andrew Hiller (08:18):
It’s nice shirt too.
James Townsend (08:20):
Yeah, it was victory from, from Diddy. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (08:39):
That’s 3 55.
Andrew Hiller (08:40):
At least it was AER. The other guys was like a push press looking thing.
Sevan Matossian (08:45):
Uh, um, so now you have, uh, James Townsend’s credentials. I wanna see if I can pull up, uh, one other man’s credentials here. If I can. Mr. Jr. Howell who owns, uh, CrossFit crash. Let’s see if I can share this page Jr. What is happening in this photo? If you don’t here, here you are with the great, uh, Dave Castro. Did you compete at the games?
JR Howell (09:12):
Uh, allegedly, uh, last year. <laugh> allegedly.
Sevan Matossian (09:15):
Did you, did you really?
JR Howell (09:17):
Yes.
Sevan Matossian (09:17):
What, what division?
JR Howell (09:19):
35 to 39. Dang. Nice. Wow.
Sevan Matossian (09:23):
I had no idea. And uh, and, and what, what are you, do you remember this moment that you and Dave were talking?
JR Howell (09:28):
Yeah, it’s definitely a moment. I’ll never forget.
Sevan Matossian (09:31):
Okay. Tell us, tell men of men of a lot of words Jr. Howell and Dave Castro. Two of the most talkative men. I know.
JR Howell (09:38):
Yeah. So I got done with, I got done with this workout, which is a legless rope climb, um, deadlift workout. And he walked up to me and he said, wow, you guys went really fast on that. And I said, yeah, thanks. You know? And he, he looked at me up and down, head to toe and said, you look so tall out there, but you’re not that tall. <laugh>. And then he said, he turned and he looked at the ropes and he said, those are supposed to be 20 feet. I don’t think they’re 20 more like 18.
Sevan Matossian (10:16):
And that was it. That was
JR Howell (10:17):
It. That was it.
Sevan Matossian (10:18):
Um, did he even ask your name? Did he say your name?
JR Howell (10:21):
No. He just said you, he just said you crushed it. That’s all he said.
Sevan Matossian (10:25):
Very intimate.
JR Howell (10:26):
That’s Dave,
Sevan Matossian (10:27):
Angela. Thanks for, um, coming on for a few minutes today, Angelo did Chico going to cross the games with one of the mayhem teams? You just pick a name? Uh
Sevan Matossian (10:35):
<laugh> and we’ll suit him. Uh there’s there’s something, um, I feel really bad putting you on the spot here like this, but some do it. Yeah, I will. Uh, some footage has come out that I don’t think you guys wanted us to see, um, from the mayhem camp. Uh, I know, uh, you guys have those semis bring in all of your equipment and all those people come in and you have that huge support team. And I know at the end, uh, uh, uh, the, the workers, the Carneys all get a richest shirt. They take turns taking richest shirt after every competition. And, uh, I saw this, uh, happening, uh, behind the scenes over at, uh, at the mayhem camp. And I’m just wondering if you could enlighten us on what happened. These, these are two gentlemen fighting over who gets, uh, Rich’s shirt here. Here we go. This from Cookville Cookville
JR Howell (11:18):
Locals. Yeah, they look like Cookville locals. Look
Sevan Matossian (11:31):
At that form.
JR Howell (11:32):
<laugh> who wins. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Oh,
Sevan Matossian (11:40):
You think he’s a lefty? You think he’s a lefty
JR Howell (11:43):
<laugh>
Sevan Matossian (11:44):
And anyway, Angela, Angela, what happens? Who ended up getting Ja, uh, who ends up getting Rich’s shirt out of those two?
JR Howell (11:48):
I think he was pretty obvious. <laugh>
James Townsend (11:53):
The only guy still standing.
Sevan Matossian (11:55):
James, can you work with those guys? Two guys come in like that into your gym. Can you turn ’em into CrossFitters?
James Townsend (12:00):
Uh, I don’t know.
Sevan Matossian (12:05):
You work, you work the magic. Uh, the comedy is over and the, uh, the granted games have started. Um, is it, is it, is it a, is that guy from what I’m seeing that guy this year just had two good events and he’s not going to stay at the top of the, um, of the leaderboard. What do you guys think? Any opinions on this guy?
JR Howell (12:29):
No. Well, I don’t know if this guy is as Bly strong, as he seems to be, you know, sometimes snatch can expose something like that. I think the next event they have is, uh, 200 double unders a hundred foot handstand walk and then a snatch ladder. But I’m not sure if that could be power or full and if it can be power, I think he’s got like a 365 power clean and push jerk on his Instagram. If it translates over to snatch, he may crush that one. And if he’s got good grip endurance, which he kind of proved on event one, then he’ll probably crush the hundred pound dumbbell workout at the end. So unless he’s awful at legless rope climbs, he may be punching his ticket.
Sevan Matossian (13:03):
And that’s what that semi-final needs. They need some new blood. They need some like, uh, better competition. Yes, yes they do Seon. Yes they do. Okay. Uh, let’s go over to
Andrew Hiller (13:16):
That’s why they sent Roben over there. Let’s go send Roben over there. Cause they needed someone to watch someone to compete with. Sorry.
Sevan Matossian (13:23):
<laugh> no, go ahead.
Andrew Hiller (13:24):
I was, was trying to pump you up. Know what else is
Sevan Matossian (13:26):
Doing it? I, I appreciate it. Uh, sorry. There’s no leaderboard matches your search semifinals granite game. Oh, okay.
Andrew Hiller (13:33):
Let’s see. What will Brent said or says he just watched that guy squat snatch 3 0 5 in a ladder. So I think he’s gonna do just fine.
Sevan Matossian (13:40):
Hey, do you think, um, they purposely turn off the leaderboard so we can’t do our show.
Andrew Hiller (13:45):
Yeah. I think that everything they do is in relation to our show, your show, the show,
Sevan Matossian (13:50):
Let’s see here. What’s
Andrew Hiller (13:52):
Going on here. They knew they know James is on it.
JR Howell (13:54):
James, what do you think of the far east programming
James Townsend (13:59):
Man? You know what? To be honest, I haven’t looked at it, but, um, I mean, I think, you know, the program as a whole for all semifinals is, is okay. I know there’s a, there’s some athletes out there who, who said it sucks. Um, I thought for syndicated was, it was pretty good. I mean, obviously it was pretty good for my athlete, but, um, um, <affirmative> um, but it is, it is like, it’s like when I hear athletes kind of complain about the programming, you know, I gotta go back and think like, all right, well, CrossFit has the term of FITT on earth, right. Or, or, or the best athletes in the world. And so they have that hopper system. So with CrossFit, you need to be good at everything. Right. So if you got athletes out there, that’s complaining about certain programming, then it’s then to me, that just tells me that, all right, you’re not working on everything because if you’re in CrossFit and you’re doing a competition, you’re doing certain programming, there’s no room for you to complain about, you know, certain program. That’s just, that’s just my two tens, you know,
Taylor Self (15:06):
Do you think they should all be the same or you think all having different workouts is
James Townsend (15:11):
I like, I like the old model of, of the way regionals were. I like that, you know, every workout should be the same, you know, even though, you know, um, the ones who go last have the advantage because they,
Sevan Matossian (15:28):
I prefer that too. I’ve kind of recently flipped the script on that. I, I didn’t like that at first. And now I, I, I prefer that.
Taylor Self (15:34):
Angelo, what do you think?
Angelo DiCicco (15:36):
Uh, I think you guys got out for a second on what the semifinals programming as
Sevan Matossian (15:40):
Yeah. You think it should all be the same? All, all the semifinals.
Angelo DiCicco (15:43):
Uh, yeah, I think it should be all the same. Um, I think they should, at least the parameters that they choose should at least be tighter. Cause, um, like looking at it, you couldn’t, I mean, I couldn’t tell you any parameters that cross was set on it. Like the, they said they set bumpers on what they want the workouts to look like. I mean, I couldn’t tell you whether it’s, you know, squatting in every workout. Like that probably is a common thing they wanted, it seems like, but, um, we’re squatting close to every workout, but, uh, no, I, I think the regionals program was better. Um, now necessarily I wouldn’t say that all of the regionals program was the always the best, but at least it was, um, across the board. It was the same. And so you’re getting the same people who are good at the same tests to the games. I think like, you know, um, I would use myself as an example. I think that I’m would, I would consider myself close to making it in some semifinals and maybe some I could make it, uh, or maybe some I would be, you know, bottom of, you know, mid 15 or so. So, uh, yeah, I mean, it just kind of comes down to lock and where you get placed. And I don’t really like that. I wish it was just all the way across the board. It was fair
Sevan Matossian (16:55):
From a fans perspective. It would be better too.
James Townsend (16:57):
Yeah,
Angelo DiCicco (16:58):
I think it, James, I always, I always liked and I’ve been rewatching some older clips and stuff. Like when I was watching a regional, you would see one guy in the first week, you know, set an event record. And then like on the last week you re I mean, obviously the last week, they’ve had more time to practice and time to watch. And so you can kind of cheat it a little bit, but it is cool to see like, you know, the announcers get behind it and the fans get behind it. You know, they say, oh, you know, rich phoning did this workout in seven minutes week one, but now you got Matt Fraser in week four. He’s doing it at six 30. You know, maybe he’s maybe he’s gonna beat rich this year. You know, it was a big talk and it kind of just hyped everything up for everybody.
Sevan Matossian (17:36):
Oh shit. He heard you talking shit about him. What do you
James Townsend (17:41):
<laugh>?
Sevan Matossian (17:43):
Oh, you missed, missed my
James Townsend (17:44):
Bid. You in every regional. That’s
Angelo DiCicco (17:45):
All he said. Do you, do you like regionals? Do you, did you like how regionals was that? It was always the same programming for everybody or the semifinals being different.
Rich Froning (17:55):
I actually liked the semifinals different when the semifinals know what the hell they’re doing on programming.
Taylor Self (18:01):
Isn’t far East’s programming. Pretty good.
Rich Froning (18:04):
Honestly, that’s the one I haven’t really looked at to be honest.
Sevan Matossian (18:08):
Him and James were out for a drink. They missed looking at that one.
Taylor Self (18:11):
<laugh> <laugh>
Sevan Matossian (18:13):
You like that? Programming or were you just messing with them? Taylor? I thought you said yesterday. You didn’t like it.
Taylor Self (18:17):
I was fucking with him. I was being,
Sevan Matossian (18:20):
Oh, wow.
Andrew Hiller (18:20):
Rich. Do you have a preferred, do you have a semifinal that you actually like the programming over the others?
Rich Froning (18:27):
Um, I honestly I’ve, I’ve liked syndicate and max workouts individually from each other. I didn’t like how a lot of ’em came together as an overall test, if that makes sense. Like I thought each each event minus the CrossFit ones, cuz I don’t that legless one was the, I, I mean I commented on your video Hillard that,
Andrew Hiller (18:48):
That is you there you, it is me. It is me. Yeah. Everyone’s like, that’s not rich. I’m like, yes it is. That’s me. Thank you.
Rich Froning (18:55):
Um, I just, that is it. Wasn’t a great workout in 2014 and it was even worse in 2022, you know? So, um, the, I, uh, I’m not a huge fan of, uh, what’s granite games that’s going on right now. I don’t, I don’t love those at all. Um, I think nobody gives a shit it’s teams cuz it grows, but they’re snatching twice in the same day, which is ridiculous.
Taylor Self (19:20):
Oh wow.
Andrew Hiller (19:21):
And there’s one warm workout.
Rich Froning (19:23):
Yeah. And, and that’s, I mean, you look at a lot of the different semifinals, you know, they, I won’t say which one, but there was not one, there was maybe one true team test at a couple of ’em and the other ones were just individual efforts, you know, where it was, Hey, sprint your heart out and let your partner do some work. And it would, um, I think, you know, and, and that’s like I said, it’s EU gross teams, but teams get the back burner a lot. I guess that’s why I appreciate syndicate and Mac cuz I feel like they actually put some time into team, um, events.
Andrew Hiller (19:55):
I don’t wanna put words in your mouth, but is that how you also used to feel about the lot of za programming for the team events too? Because it was like you sprint your ass off and then you kind of see where the individuals are at, but there was never really any true team component to
Rich Froning (20:08):
It. Yep. Yeah. I’ve always kind of, you know, not loved the, the team aspect of what they have going on this year. They had a couple decent ones and then they had a couple swing and misses.
Taylor Self (20:19):
Do you know who programs rainy games?
Rich Froning (20:22):
I do not actually
Sevan Matossian (20:24):
Thought someone. Is it public? Who is it? Public who programs any of them? Is it public? Who programs any of them?
Angelo DiCicco (20:31):
Um, I thought maybe uh, Carlos script, I thought Carlos commented on their podcast yesterday and said that Guido did it. I dunno how true that is.
Sevan Matossian (20:39):
Oh yeah. I heard that too. Actually someone wrote that in the comments here. I don’t know if
Angelo DiCicco (20:42):
It’s true either. That was one of the media guys from,
Sevan Matossian (20:46):
Hey rich. I got a question for you. Um, so you’re about to do 24 hour mountain bike ride,
Rich Froning (20:51):
Uh, between four people. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (20:53):
Uh, do you get approval from your team to do that? <laugh>
Angelo DiCicco (20:57):
No.
Rich Froning (20:58):
Andrea hates it. I’m pretty sure she told, she told me after, um, uh, syndicate that, um, she can’t wait for me to get through with all this mountain bike riding so I can start doing more CrossFit.
Sevan Matossian (21:12):
Uh, James, if one of your, if uh, tutor, Magda, um, the future of the sport told you right now, he is about to do 24 mountain bike ride. What, what a great
Rich Froning (21:19):
Name?
Sevan Matossian (21:20):
What a great name. Sorry. I know
Rich Froning (21:23):
Tri tri when they said that he just said tutor and laughed.
James Townsend (21:28):
Yeah. <laugh> nah, nah for him, for, for him, I would say go ahead and do cause that’s what he needs right now.
Sevan Matossian (21:34):
Uh, really, even before the games, you wouldn’t, you wouldn’t be like, Hey, can’t this wait till, you know, September 1st?
James Townsend (21:41):
Nah.
Sevan Matossian (21:41):
Uh, Jr. Uh, what, what would you tell, um, what would you tell your athletes? If they’re, if, if they’re fooling around like rich,
JR Howell (21:49):
Oh, if they’re good as rich, they can fool around as much as they want. It’s not right matter. That’s
Sevan Matossian (21:52):
Fine. I’ll ask you guys again. I’ll ask you guys again when rich is gone,
Andrew Hiller (21:58):
There’s that whole component that you gotta be a little bit risky, right? It’s like if you take away that factor that is do whatever the hell, whatever you want to do it, then it might make you worse as an athlete. Go ahead and do it and get after it. <laugh>
Rich Froning (22:10):
There is, there’s a, you know, there’s, um, an unnecessary risk component to everything. But um, yeah, I mean I probably writing at night is not the, the greatest thing we should be doing right now, but, um, I really enjoy it. So, you know,
Andrew Hiller (22:27):
Rick, we’ve got you
Angelo DiCicco (22:29):
Old. He needs to start crossing stuff off his bucket list.
Rich Froning (22:31):
That’s why he is doing this that’s right. Yeah. I’m, I’m on the bucket list phase of my life, you know, I’ll be a master next year. So, um, you know, I gotta start knocking those things out before I die.
Sevan Matossian (22:41):
Hey, rich. I wanna ask you, I wanna ask you a question here. Um, there is a ton of hype, uh, behind Maow Bryant and she’s young. And you also had that hype behind you. What’s the pressure feel like for her here, when just, everyone’s just expecting you to take first? Is it fun or is it annoying? Do you remember any of that?
Rich Froning (23:02):
Um, if she’s anything like me, you don’t really notice the outside pressure. I mean, I have that same pressure and still have the same pressure on myself and on our team. Um, but it’s more of an internal pressure. Yeah. It doesn’t make it as fun because, um, when you’re expected to win, everybody’s like, ah, yeah, it’s just whatever. But you know, when you win unexpectedly, then people get more hyped about it or just, everybody’s always like, oh, I beat you and you know, whatever it is, if it’s one little thing, but I guess that’s kind of the cool thing about CrossFit too, is, um, in any given workout, you can get your, your ass kicked and you know, you’re, even if you win the games, you haven’t won every single event. So, um, there’s still, you know, pieces to that.
Sevan Matossian (23:45):
I, um, do you have any thoughts about who handles pressure better like that women or men? Uh, James, do you have any thoughts?
James Townsend (23:53):
Uh,
Sevan Matossian (23:55):
Or do you think you can’t even categorize like
James Townsend (23:56):
That? I would, yeah. Yeah. I would kind of say men does. Um, yeah, yeah, yeah. Ill just leave it at that.
Sevan Matossian (24:05):
I
Rich Froning (24:05):
Feel like it’s a lot to do with, uh, somebody’s history, you know? Like what have they, how was their upbringing with their parents with coaching with, I mean, I think what you’re gonna see a lot of is these kids not playing sports. And so they’ve never really had pressure. They’ve never, you know, they’ve done CrossFit and they think that’s their pressure. But, um, sports, I think are an incredible, you know, life lesson you learn, you know, and not to say CrossFit, doing CrossFit as a teen, isn’t a sport, but I feel like playing team sports, doing all these different sports in high school or middle school or whatever it is, prepare you for so many more things in life, as well as, uh, competing in CrossFit. And a lot of these kids aren’t getting Angelo
Angelo DiCicco (24:47):
<laugh> I played.
James Townsend (24:49):
Yeah. Yeah. I agree with that. I agree with that.
Angelo DiCicco (24:51):
I agree that cause team sports, you know, there’s a lot of stuff that’s outta your control and you may still lose a game, even though you played, you play, play the best game of your life and still lose. And I think, I feel like that builds a lot of character too. You know, it’s not always about what you’ve done. And then when you get to a CrossFit event, you know, like, uh, I mean, I think I’ve heard, you know, several years out in, uh, not Madison in, uh, California, you know, the sleds were, some people, sled lanes were crappy and some people sled lanes were good and like there’s
Sevan Matossian (25:22):
Fake fake news, fake news.
Rich Froning (25:24):
That shit was real
Angelo DiCicco (25:25):
There’s stuff you can control in all sports. And then stuff like that, you know, would rattle certain people and wouldn’t rattle other people. Who’ve had experiences with like things that are outta the control. You know, you move on, you can’t do anything about it. You move on, you try to do good in the next event.
Sevan Matossian (25:38):
Uh, we had, uh, Justin Maderas on the other day and he sets when he has a bad event, he set the timer for 20 minutes and his co or his coach does and says, Hey, you can feel sorry for yourself, 20 minutes. Thoughts about that Jr. Good technique.
JR Howell (25:50):
Yeah. I mean, I think it’s a great technique for someone that maybe has a fast turnaround before the next event or someone that tends to dwell on past performances. If you know, you’re someone that’s gonna just beat yourself up over it for a full day or maybe into the next day and it’s gonna affect the next event, then I think doing something like that’s probably smart
Sevan Matossian (26:08):
Taylor, you hear how good he sounds? I know you got the say, Mike, as you dude, he sounds like a man. You sent it to me, bro. All right. Uh, sorry, go ahead Angela.
Angelo DiCicco (26:17):
I said, I said, I don’t know anyone like that. Do you rich?
Rich Froning (26:20):
I know a, a Hillary frowning that tells me to get over myself on a constant basis. So they need that.
Sevan Matossian (26:27):
Uh, um, James, how long did you work with mal?
James Townsend (26:30):
Uh, two years.
Sevan Matossian (26:31):
And, and, and how, how frequent was your working with her
James Townsend (26:35):
Man? Every day. Six days a week.
Sevan Matossian (26:37):
Okay. Um, every day, what do you expect from her? Uh, this week?
James Townsend (26:44):
Um, I expect her to handle her business, you know, um, for the two years I trained her, I trained her to be a machine and, um, as we saw last year, mile, 1000 was born, but, um, I’m expecting her to do her thing, especially on workout. Number one, you know, that’s, that’s, that’s in her warehouse and you know, and that’s why I like to build onto my athletes. It’s like, look, if you know something in your warehouse, go get it, go for it. You know, take bits and pieces from athletes and apply it to your repertoire. Right. And I expect her to do her thing, man. I mean, she, she made it there and I’m, I’m expecting Matt to, uh, be able to capitalize off of that and she’s gonna do her thing.
Sevan Matossian (27:25):
Uh, it’s very similar to the workout that she won the games. Right. And she’s the youngest female ever to win a workout at the CrossFit games.
James Townsend (27:31):
Correct,
Sevan Matossian (27:34):
Man,
Andrew Hiller (27:35):
Ivan’s doing his homework, her job.
Sevan Matossian (27:37):
Oh. Someone sent it to me, will plumber sent it to me.
Andrew Hiller (27:39):
Ah,
Sevan Matossian (27:40):
Will, will sent it to me. Uh, does, does the men’s does the men’s category at the games have anyone, um, that has that pressure on them the way mal has, that’s just expected to win it. Do you think that pressure’s on FOW
Andrew Hiller (27:55):
No, not like that. I think the most pressure would be on the same qu that’s just my opinion.
Sevan Matossian (28:04):
So, so I saw, I saw you shaked your head James. So, so mal is that dominant or her class is that shallow?
James Townsend (28:11):
Right? Right. I mean, I mean the height, the height behind her for her to be 17 years old, to play seven last year and then, you know, to switch camps and then be trained by, you know, one of the greatest in the sport and you know, that, that pressure alone comes, comes with it. So, I mean, from her winning the open winning quarter finals, and then now, you know, everybody, you know, eyes on her to quote unquote, be the next one to try to be thrown to it. So yeah, I mean that pressure, you know, the pressure is there, but, but I know she could capitalize on it and um, continue that build.
Sevan Matossian (28:49):
Do, do you think, um, it’s gonna, um, do you know how you’re gonna react when you see her go out there on the field? Do you think it’s gonna be, you think it’s gonna, it’s gonna move you more than you think?
James Townsend (28:59):
No, no, no, because you know, my athlete did his thing and you know, 2021 is over with, so no, I got 20, 22 and beyond to worry about right now
Sevan Matossian (29:10):
For sure. All alright.
Angelo DiCicco (29:11):
Does it make you angry that Brian has cold MES outside of the top five
Andrew Hiller (29:17):
<laugh>
Sevan Matossian (29:21):
Everyone should have an emotional, everyone should have an emotional, uh, uh, uh, everyone’s intellect should be damaged by emotion and therefore pick Colton how’s
James Townsend (29:31):
That’s
Andrew Hiller (29:32):
Great.
James Townsend (29:34):
Say again. Great. On one. He should do great on one. Yeah. I mean, yeah, he, he, he said the great on work. I won and then going into the complex, I have him in my top five for that. So I see him coming out on top as, um, Hey, number one.
Sevan Matossian (29:51):
Hey, uh, Hey Angelo, just sum and Brian. Hey James, James. I, I love, I love that analysis. Uh, Brian, we were just, uh, it’s funny, someone.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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