Sevan Matossian (00:00):
Damn <laugh>.
Brian Friend (00:02):
I’m not giving you a lot, I’m not giving you a lot of credit as usual.
Sevan Matossian (00:05):
That’s, it’s fine. <laugh>. That’s fine. Uh, do I switch the podcast? Uh, see how this, it looks like we’re still at Waap Polooza.
Brian Friend (00:15):
I am still at Waap. Polooza.
Sevan Matossian (00:17):
I know there’s a way to change that. Oh, branding to the Savon podcast. Ah, yes. Ah, oh, the stress is off of me.
Brian Friend (00:28):
Ah, is that more relaxing, more sweet for you?
Sevan Matossian (00:31):
The stress of Waap Pza is gone. Oh, look, everything’s different color too. Corey. Hi Tyler. Hi Angelo. Hi. Um, you know this,
Brian Friend (00:41):
Tell me, we’re not talking about Waza at all.
Sevan Matossian (00:44):
Uh, no, no. I all, I have no, nothing in my notes about Waap. Polooza.
Brian Friend (00:48):
Okay. Perfect.
Sevan Matossian (00:50):
<laugh>, I, um, I, um, are the, the most popular time for this, for this YouTube station is between the times of 10:00 AM and 3:00 PM Pacific Standard Time. The irony is, is we never do live shows between 10:00 AM and 3:00 PM And so today, I thought, okay, I’ll give it a shot.
Brian Friend (01:11):
You thought that?
Sevan Matossian (01:12):
Yeah,
Brian Friend (01:13):
I
Sevan Matossian (01:13):
Think we Did you think that,
Brian Friend (01:15):
I think we, you know, we came to that, uh, agreement that in form of a conversation.
Sevan Matossian (01:20):
Oh, okay. Um, I don’t care. I I see what you’re saying. You decide, but, but you, you, well, did you know that, that the show’s the most popular between that the viewers of this show are on YouTube? Have I told you that between 10:00 AM and 3:00 PM
Brian Friend (01:34):
No, but the other option was 10:00 PM here. And I figured anyone who’s still on the East Coast would probably be either Oh, sleeping or partying at that time.
Sevan Matossian (01:41):
Correct. You did say that. Yes. Yes, yes. Now I see what you’re saying. Yes, yes, yes. Um, I, I went over to the YouTube station now and I wanna make a, do you know how to make a poll,
Brian Friend (01:54):
Uh, on Instagram?
Sevan Matossian (01:57):
Oh,
Brian Friend (01:57):
Never. I’ve never made one on Waap on, uh, ins on, um, YouTube. But
Sevan Matossian (02:01):
I, I wanted to make a poll. Someone told, uh, Andrew Hiller said, Hey dude, I think, have you ever thought that maybe you’re doing too many shows? I dunno how to, I dunno how to make a poll. And I said, no. But Suza has mentioned that to me that maybe we’re doing too many shows. And I go, what? Do, what is, what is that? Um, manage videos. Do I go over here?
Brian Friend (02:22):
Does it, does too many shows mean you’re like, diluting the content or running yourself into the ground and it’s unsustainable? What is too many?
Sevan Matossian (02:30):
I’m not sure that that, yeah. Well, yeah. So what he said was, is that p uh, I, God, I don’t, uh, view and live control room, oh, here, I think I found it. Manage webcam, pop out dashboard. I don’t see anything that says polls say something. Money create highlights. Video.
Brian Friend (02:51):
Okay. You should have got a coffee for this.
Sevan Matossian (02:53):
Yeah, you should have, can you order one to your room? Community moderation pop out. Chat talk. Who knows how to make a poll?
(03:06):
Uh, Savon. We need a bracket style Fit Wars with all the boys. Uh, pole Fitness, the, okay. And fucking, I quit. I give up. Okay. Back to the show. So basically, this was it. This was the thought, Brian. Ready. The thought was that it’s doing too many shows and that people feel bad because they can’t keep up. And I’m like, I, uh, and then, and then Hillary said, maybe it would be more advantageous if you just made three or four shows a week and spent a lot of the time you used to making shows to make little clips from those shows that you’ve already made.
Brian Friend (03:39):
Maybe I, you could try it for a month and see if it has a, you know, big effect on your whatever metrics you like to measure that stuff by.
Sevan Matossian (03:48):
I mean, do, do you think it’s too many shows? Like, who cares if you can’t keep up? Is that just like, that’s just for people who are obsessed. Do you feel like they have to watch every show? Don’t put yourself in the running of the worst guests I’ve ever had. You are in the running for the best guest I’ve ever had. Don’t you dare put yourself in the running for the worst guest I’ve ever had.
Brian Friend (04:13):
Oh my God, you’re wagging a carrot at me. I’ve really downgraded <laugh> <laugh>. Um,
Sevan Matossian (04:21):
Do you know why I brought this on?
Brian Friend (04:23):
Can’t wait to find out.
Sevan Matossian (04:24):
Okay, go ahead. Too many shows are not
Brian Friend (04:28):
As long as you’re enjoying it. I don’t think so.
Sevan Matossian (04:31):
Okay, good. Were you ever obsessed with the show? And like, like, I used to be obsessed with Howard Stern many years ago, and it would be on like three days a week. And then like the other days I was like, what the fuck?
Brian Friend (04:42):
I <laugh>, this is a kind of an embarrassing admission. Okay. I like, I like,
Sevan Matossian (04:51):
Please don’t interrupt Brian. Go on Brian.
Brian Friend (04:53):
No, there’s, there are some people that put out some content on YouTube, like 15 to 20 minute things a day that I have enjoyed watching in the past, and then they stop doing it, and then I’m like, oh, man, that’s a bummer.
Sevan Matossian (05:04):
Oh, right. Okay. And then I
Brian Friend (05:07):
Affect someone else that does something similar and they’re not as good.
Mr. Kestenbaum (05:11):
Oh,
Sevan Matossian (05:12):
Mr. Kestenbaum. Hi. That was a dig at Hiller.
Mr. Kestenbaum (05:15):
Hey. Hey. How you doing today?
Sevan Matossian (05:17):
I’m doing great. Nice. Nice of you to call in. Thank you.
Mr. Kestenbaum (05:20):
Hey, so I feel that you do a lot of shows, but it’s always quality content. If anything, I would just suggest hire a fucking 20 year old. Do your sub clips.
Brian Friend (05:33):
<laugh>. Hmm.
Sevan Matossian (05:34):
I hear you. Yeah. Do you know when that we can do ’em? Even the people we’ve hired don’t do ’em. Right? Like, they don’t choose the, the ones that I think are the best ones,
Mr. Kestenbaum (05:43):
Man. Uh, you got, I mean, you got a lot with a going rogue with Sev, uh, podcast. They have a,
Sevan Matossian (05:48):
She’s amazing.
Mr. Kestenbaum (05:51):
Oh, and then what happened to the fakes of podcast? That was also great.
Sevan Matossian (05:55):
Yeah. I think Heidi’s raising a kid, doing Jiujitsu and, and looking for trolling for Cock <laugh>. I mean, she’s busy.
Mr. Kestenbaum (06:00):
<laugh>, I mean, yeah. Busy with Austin over at Water Polo Polos. Also as we see,
Sevan Matossian (06:06):
Uh, wad Zombie. That’s exactly what it’s like. Savon the days there aren’t any live shows. My DA day feels vapid. Okay, good. Fuck, Hiller. No, no. I mean, that was good advice. I like having Hiller because he’s actually great at bouncing, uh, real ideas and thoughts off of me. And he didn’t say that was his opinion. He said, though he is heard it multiple times that I’m doing too many shows.
Mr. Kestenbaum (06:26):
Nah, I, I think you’re doing enough shows. Uh, just, Hey, don’t worry about people. It’s, uh, it’s quality content that y’all put out every day. So if people think it’s too many shows, fuck them. But I think it’s always great content that y’all are putting out.
Sevan Matossian (06:39):
Okay, cool. Thank you. And do you like it when I have a Brian friend on as a guest? Do you think you should keep having him on?
Mr. Kestenbaum (06:44):
Brian is a fucking champ. Okay, good. We should have him, we should have him on more.
Sevan Matossian (06:48):
Perfect. Two for two.
Mr. Kestenbaum (06:50):
All right. Have a good day. Samon Brian.
Sevan Matossian (06:52):
Thanks, dude.
Brian Friend (06:54):
Bye. And I was, I was, uh, sfa I was not taking a shot at Hill earlier. I, I like watching the, uh, settlers of Katan on
Sevan Matossian (07:03):
YouTube. Oh. Oh, like the a a board game, like a, a board game show?
Brian Friend (07:07):
Yeah. It’s like something I do in the middle of the day when, uh, when I like have lunch, I’ll just put it on to like distract my mind from all the CrossFit stuff that I’m doing. And, uh, there was a guy that used to do it every day that was, I thought was really good and explained his thought process well and then he stopped doing it. And so I tried to find some other people and I just don’t think any of ’em are as good as him. Like I watch them and I get frustrated cuz they’re not playing well.
Sevan Matossian (07:30):
<laugh>. So basically you just watch someone. So you watch someone play for 15 minutes?
Brian Friend (07:35):
Yeah. They, you know, they record their game. It takes a lot longer than that. Then they just truncate it down to something that’s more digestible. Usually. Sometimes they’re as long as 30 minutes, if it’s a really long game. But a lot of times 15 to 20 minutes I can watch when I eat lunch and then go back to whatever I’m doing.
Sevan Matossian (07:50):
Like this,
Brian Friend (07:52):
This is a long one. This is like a national championship, whatever. No, not, it’s not the live.
Sevan Matossian (07:58):
Have you seen this one?
Brian Friend (08:00):
Uh, I don’t know. Yeah. Yeah, I’ve seen this one, but no, it’s, uh, when they play, this is a real game that they played in person, uh, or a live game, I should say. There’s, there’s online platforms if you wanna find it. The guy’s name is Naim, N A D I M, Naim Katan. That’s what I used to watch, but he doesn’t do it anymore.
Sevan Matossian (08:20):
And, and how popular was this? Uh, spelled, uh, Naim two e or e a m
Brian Friend (08:25):
N a d i m.
Sevan Matossian (08:28):
Nadim Kaan. And what’s Kaan with an H?
Brian Friend (08:31):
No, k c a t a n. Hmm. That guy who doesn’t put any posts up in months, I miss his, uh, analysis. How
Sevan Matossian (08:44):
The fuck did you find this guy
Brian Friend (08:47):
<laugh>? I’m not really sure, actually.
Sevan Matossian (08:53):
Wow. Are you one of these 21 subscribers?
Brian Friend (08:56):
Probably, but I don’t think he’s posted a video in months. Yeah, two months.
Sevan Matossian (09:01):
Is there Katan on a computer too?
Brian Friend (09:04):
Yeah, that’s what he plays it on the computer so you can see his game, but you can’t see the other player’s cards and um, you know, anyway.
Sevan Matossian (09:14):
Wow. And, and so if you and I played on the computer, like we could see each other, like look at each other,
Brian Friend (09:20):
Um,
Sevan Matossian (09:21):
Like see how there’s a
Brian Friend (09:22):
Guy, there’s a way to do the That’s him.
Sevan Matossian (09:24):
Oh.
Brian Friend (09:25):
So he’s recording the game and then we’re also recording his commentary of the game.
Sevan Matossian (09:30):
God, I’m this close to getting interested in this game.
Brian Friend (09:36):
I might play like, it used to be this part. James Sprague actually.
Sevan Matossian (09:38):
Yeah. I used to be this, this, I used to be this far away. Now I’m this close. I mean, I don’t think it’ll happen, but it’s a trip.
Brian Friend (09:46):
Yeah. James Sprague invited me to play tonight, so maybe I’ll go play with them.
Sevan Matossian (09:49):
Oh, that’s cool. I bet you you do.
Brian Friend (09:52):
Uh, yeah, I tried to play pickleball or Paddleball with James and Jason earlier today, and we just drove around for an hour, couldn’t find a court, and then they dropped me off for this.
Sevan Matossian (10:02):
They were all full.
Brian Friend (10:04):
Yeah, because it’s a ho it’s a, you know, holiday. So no one’s in school or working apparently. And it’s actually a nice day here today. And it wasn’t that nice the last two days.
Sevan Matossian (10:17):
Weren’t you a high school coach?
Brian Friend (10:19):
Mm-hmm.
Sevan Matossian (10:20):
<affirmative> for a, uh, for what
Brian Friend (10:22):
I coached the soccer team. I was just in charge of the entire program and then I coached the kickers on a football team.
Sevan Matossian (10:29):
And, uh, how many years did you do that?
Brian Friend (10:32):
Three.
Sevan Matossian (10:33):
Okay. Look, look at this article. What’s the day, three days ago, Texas High School Foot. What’s, what state were you in?
Brian Friend (10:40):
Texas. And then Florida.
Sevan Matossian (10:42):
Oh, okay. Uh, Texas High. Did you ever have any parents complain that you were working, uh, to you or to the principal? You were working the kids too hard?
Brian Friend (10:49):
I worked them hard, but I never had ’em complain about that.
Sevan Matossian (10:53):
Okay. Uh, Texas high school football coach on leave after players forced to do nearly 400 pushups.
Brian Friend (10:59):
In what timeframe?
Sevan Matossian (11:01):
Very, very good point. Uh, two more health. Uh, two more heath, high school parents told the newspaper the students did more than 350 pushups with one parent saying the students had to perform the workout within a 60 minute timeframe. The mother said her son was forced to perform 300 to 400 pushups without a break for water resulting in hospitalization. Rhabdomyolysis is a complex medical condition that can damage the heart. And kidneys. Eight students were hospitalized.
Brian Friend (11:37):
I was coaching a class the other day.
Sevan Matossian (11:39):
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And you hospitalized someone.
Brian Friend (11:41):
There was a work to rest, uh, interval. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and wall balls were part of the work. And two-thirds of the class was not squatting below parallel.
(11:50):
And during one of the rest intervals, I turned the music all the way off. I said, I know you guys are exhausted, but if I was, if this was a high school football team, I was coaching or soccer team, I would’ve canceled practice right now. And you guys would just be doing, uh, basic, you know, variety of punishments the rest of the time. We’ve talked about the health of the hip and why it’s important to Squa apparel and you guys are negating it for competition in the workout. Do yourself a favor and squat a little bit lower. 3, 2, 1. Go
Sevan Matossian (12:16):
<laugh> and turn the music back up.
Brian Friend (12:18):
Yeah. So, you know, maybe the, uh, the kids are misbehaving in practice and, uh, he made ’em do a lot of pushups.
Sevan Matossian (12:25):
Um, do you think, do you think that’s too many for a high school football team? 300 to 400 pushups in a 60 minute period?
Brian Friend (12:34):
I mean, I’m, uh, I’m assuming the quality was poor and that’s more concerning to me than the the volume. Um, right. I don’t know. There’s a lot of, uh, <laugh> there’s a lot of missing information that we have, so it’s hard to say.
Sevan Matossian (12:49):
I’m a 50, uh, year old man. I’m, I’m gonna, yesterday I did, uh, 200 pushups. I don’t remember how long it took me, but way less than an hour. I, I wanna say 20 minutes or less. I wanna say for sure I was doing at least 10 a minute. Um, I’m gonna try to do six a minute for 60 minutes. That cannot be that, that, I mean, what the fuck is wrong with your kids if they can’t do that? Or am am I wrong? Am I just, am I just confused?
Brian Friend (13:15):
Have your kids do it with you.
Sevan Matossian (13:17):
Okay. I mean, I did 300 air squats before I came on the show.
Brian Friend (13:22):
Nice. I drove around in a car with Jason Hopper and James Break hoping the exercise never did
Sevan Matossian (13:27):
<laugh>. You should check your IQ before you get in the car with Hopper and after and see if it has any effect on it. <laugh>. Uh,
Brian Friend (13:33):
I think that’s why I was a little slow at the start of the, the podcast.
Sevan Matossian (13:36):
Uh, mcl <laugh> McKellar prophet. I, uh, but I beat Hiller. Oh, you beat Hiller in the, uh, gaunt. Like a job, uh, barbell spin. Hi, fake Brian.
Brian Friend (13:48):
Oh, my teammate. We didn’t win this week, man.
Sevan Matossian (13:51):
That’s who won. Did I win?
Brian Friend (13:53):
Uh, chase and John, we beat you by a few minutes. We you took fourth outta six, bottom half, basically.
Sevan Matossian (13:59):
Uh, chase and John Young one.
Brian Friend (14:02):
Yep.
Sevan Matossian (14:03):
Oh, very nice. Uh, Mark Moss seven pushups a minute. That’d be four 20, right? Seven times 60. Uh, Brian Theologist like an expert on the poll.
Brian Friend (14:18):
Have you seen that word before? I’ve never seen that word
Sevan Matossian (14:20):
Before. No, no. It’s made up. It’s like, it’s, it’s like, it’s like some, a pornographic comment. Like something like, I think it’s like Pornogra some sort of like joke, like a, like at least that’s the way I take it. I want it to be that. Uh, well, pushups probably weren’t the only thing they were doing. Uh, Guido Trinidad programmed, uh, waap Puso. What’d you think about the programming at Waap Puso?
Brian Friend (14:41):
I have a lot of thoughts about the program at water. Please. That’s a massive question. Do you wanna ask be more specific?
Sevan Matossian (14:48):
It seems like maybe you want me to be more specific. So I’m going to be more specific. I’m sorry. I’m reading into what you’re saying, so please apologize if I read into it.
Brian Friend (15:00):
Well, I mean the, the, the bigger picture is that, I mean, I assume you’re talking about the elite competition and
Sevan Matossian (15:07):
Yeah. Okay. I’ll be more specific. Let me ask you this here. Ready? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Do, do you think that if you’re doing this competition and it’s two days of team and two days of in, uh, two days of individual and then two days of team, that the programmer should consider the fact that some people might do both? I’m, my immediate gut response is, no. Fuck that. It’s two different competitions. If someone thinks they’re ballsy enough to do both, then do it. But when I program them, they should be I’m completely distinct. Distinct and be able to stand on their own. That’s my gut response. I mean, I’m not like, I’m not like hard on it. And, and Guido said that he did take it into consideration.
Brian Friend (15:42):
Yeah, no, I know for a fact that they took it into consideration in, in many different ways. And that I also know that they were hoping that there were athletes that would do both. And if you’re hoping for that, you know, it’s, it’s kind of like, and in a way I’m reminded of Rogue.
Sevan Matossian (15:55):
Okay. So that already changes my mind. The fact that they were hoping that they would do both is cool. And that changes my mind on how I would program it then, if that was what they were hoping for.
Brian Friend (16:03):
Yeah. And I was gonna, you know, draw somewhat of a parallel to Rogue is that, you know, the last couple years at Rogue people have gone, there’re competed. It was hard, but not crazy hard. And they’re, they’re, you know, looking for the most part, looking forward to come back this year. I mean, I know it’s a lot of prize money, but a lot of the athletes left that weekend feeling like that was not what I thought I signed up for. Like, that was a beat done. And I don’t feel good after that. And, um, if you’re in the off-season competition, you obviously want to have a great show for the fans. You wanna have a good test for the athletes, but you don’t want to like debilitate them. I don’t think that’s the point of these competitions. And I think that in some aspects, the athletes who did both this weekend maybe, you know, took a little bit more of a beating than they had been hoping to. Um, when I spoke to, um, pat and Brent last night, especially Pat, what he had said was, uh, you know, the, the number of back-to-back workouts is really what he thinks kind of pushed it over to the top in terms of aggressive programming. He said
Sevan Matossian (17:07):
There was, oh, what do you mean? Back to back? Like the ab things
Brian Friend (17:11):
Kind of on, on all four days. There was a time, one of the three times that the ath the elite athletes took the floor, that there were 200 points available, but three of those times, which was on Thursday night, Friday night and Sunday night, there were workouts that were back to back with a one minute reset. Right? Those, you know, having three different times for the athletes that did those to do that. He said those were the most painful workouts and that’s what he thinks like the the overall toll on the body was impacted the most. At least that’s what I understood him to say.
Sevan Matossian (17:43):
And, and, uh, it’s funny I didn’t even think about that, but it seems so valid. Do you agree with that once? Did you think that too or once he said that you’re like, hell yeah, that makes sense.
Brian Friend (17:51):
Well, you just think about what those workouts were. So like the first day, I didn’t think that those workouts would necessarily be that terrible. It was a to debar the hurdle hop and the sprint into the row and the D ball and the carry. But when you back up and think about that a little bit more and the time domain of those workouts, and then you think about other workouts that are of a similar time domain, um, grace Fran, Isabel, et cetera, that are like these two to four minute win workouts, like those hurt and you do one of those and rest only one minute and do it again. I mean, there have been times at our gym where we’ve programmed Grace and Isabel on the same day. That was all we programmed for an hour. <laugh> like it, it’s three minutes of work and three minutes of work, or maybe five and five and that’s it.
(18:32):
These guys are doing that and they’re racing and they’re like going for it even though it’s not, not like, uh, crazy taxing on the nervous system with the, you know, toes to bar and, uh, running and jumping, but your heart rate’s high, really high for three minutes, you know, and you’re bounding and, and turning and, and then you do that again. And then the next night you think about what those workouts were. That’s the final, you know, so now you got the best guys. You got a tough couplet of uh, you know, the upper body’s just getting shredded and then, uh, and then you pound on this bike for 30 calories, you know, you’re obliterated now do 30 burpees and 30 snatches and you had to try to hold on for dear life. And every time you drop, it’s more burpees and everything’s on the line.
(19:13):
And the scoring system’s really dramatic and the places mattered three times as much as they did in the previous six events. And that’s a lot. And then on the last workout of the teams, you know, <laugh>, everyone gets a rest interval in the first part. So you’re forced to go a little bit harder when you are working, you know, cause it’s like, well get to my rest or you know, I, you know, I have a time to rest so I don’t have less of an excuse to work hard. And then you got a synchro workout to finish it out, which is very demanding. And you know, no one wants to be the one that’s holding the team back on a syncro worker. You’re like, ah, well at least I have this rest during the bike. But it’s like, that means when I get on the bike, I have to send it again on the bike.
Sevan Matossian (19:50):
Okay, let me ask you this. Let me ask you this. Okay? All that being said, I hear you and, and I agree with you. It puts a hearing. You say that puts a shit ton of perspective on it. So then my brain went to, okay, let’s just take out one of those. Let’s just make it Friday night last workout that has two and Sunday night, the last workout that has two, let’s just make ’em hurt on that last one. And, and because I enjoyed it as a fan too, I like that. I like that go once I like having 200 points available at the end because then it makes more room, gives you more thought that okay, anyone can win it, right? So as a fan, I really like that.
(20:24):
But do you get what I’m saying on that when there’s 200 points available, all of a sudden there can be bigger, bigger moves in the leaderboard so it leaves more attention to the end. I like that. A and, but here’s the thing. What if I wanna do eight workouts? So now I’m down to seven because I took out, what if I want 800 points available, but I take one of those workouts out, uh, of teams and one of those out of individual. Now I only have 700 points and I want 800 points. So where would I, where would I put that in? Aren’t they kind of forced to do that?
Brian Friend (20:56):
Uh, yes and no. I mean, if you wanna have 800 points in the other
Sevan Matossian (21:02):
Divisions, we do want 800 points, right? We do want 800 points, right?
Brian Friend (21:05):
But in the other divisions here where they tested, for example, will Plumber had a test of a clean and jerk and an elli sit hold, both of those are worth a hundred points.
Sevan Matossian (21:13):
Okay? Okay.
Brian Friend (21:14):
In, in the scaled men’s division, those are worth a hundred points each. In the elite division, the, the lift that they did and the hold that they did were worth a hundred points cumulatively.
Sevan Matossian (21:25):
Okay?
Brian Friend (21:25):
Okay. So you could have gotten an extra a hundred points there if you were seeking the points, but if you were seeking the, you know, the more difficult version of eight tests, then you have another question to answer.
Sevan Matossian (21:37):
Um, uh, this just popped in my head, but I want to ask you this. Um, unrelated to all this, that workout where all, where there’s doing, um, the max lift,
Brian Friend (21:52):
The individuals
Sevan Matossian (21:53):
They had, I think so correct me if I’m wrong, I forget exactly how it worked, but I think there were six heats and each heat got four minutes to do their lift. And so like six guys would go at once and then 20 seconds would pass, and then you would have to make your lift within that 22nd window. Then there was a 42nd reset, then you got another 20 seconds or something like that. But there was a, there was a four minute, uh, time to set a max lift,
Brian Friend (22:15):
Sevan Matossian (22:20):
Got my coffee
Sevan Matossian (22:16):
And Nico’s
Brian Friend (22:17):
A good dude. <laugh>,
Uh, you, um, you, there was four minutes to do a max lift, but you had to do it with the group. The lifting, the lifting windows. Pop op popped open in this four minute interval. So I’m guessing, let’s say, let’s say it was, uh, six minutes each round because they had four minutes to do lifts and then two minutes to, to, to shift. So now you have six minutes and you have six heats. That’s 36 minutes. Wouldn’t it have been better if they just had all the athletes in one heat that was 40 minutes long and do, uh, king of the, king of the mountain just keep raising the weight on the bar and let us, let us like filter through people or make it like a double elimination tournament. Everyone gets two lifts, but just rush them through. It wouldn’t have been, that’d been more fun for us to watch. Like why did they do it that way? And by the way, like, I don’t really care, don’t get me wrong. I’m not being critical. I don’t care. But that shit was dangerous as fuck. Gee had 3 95 a personal record, all he had to do was go like that and four people were dead <laugh>. You know what I mean? I mean, just write out, I mean, do you see, did you see where Brian’s been filmed that from, from
Brian Friend (23:23):
Brian Friend (23:33):
I did. I mean, I
Sevan Matossian (23:24):
Love it. I love that tour to France. Fucking Isla, man. Shit. Let the motorcycles kill people. I’m fine with it. Let LeBron run full speed into some old lady on the sideline. I’m cool.
Huh? I of man, Amy Kringle was asking about you,
Sevan Matossian (23:36):
Was she? No. <laugh>. Damn it, Brian. Okay, so, so two questions here. Do you like, I really don’t care about the safety. You have to know, like I’m, I’m all for a bar drilling someone and letting people like, hey, like, uh, ladies and gentlemen, if you are in the front row, you’re either dumb as fuck or brave or drunk or some combination thereof, but we are gonna let you get as close to gee as humanly possible while he lifts weights over his head, they could kill you. 3, 2, 1, go. And, and then also, why not just parade them in one at a time? Wouldn’t it have been more height better for the athletes?
Brian Friend (24:09):
It’s a, it’s a really delicate thing to do that. I mean, when they, when competitions have done that before everyone lifting at the same time, it, it, a lot of times it goes a lot longer than expected or a lot longer than planned. And you cannot risk that at Waap puzo when you have, you know, 40 to 50 divisions competing in multiple sages in a really tight timeframe. Okay? So it’s one of the, you know, every time you go that you are, uh, coming to one of these competitions to compete, to spectate, to get coverage of it as a medium member, to watch it as a fan or watching it at home, you have to bring a little different level of expectation depending on what the competition is. And we talk about sometimes how the programming is gonna be a little bit different here than their, their whatever.
(24:52):
But in terms of, you know, we’re coming, this is the last off-season event. The LA and, and the last big one, and we’re coming off a rogue where they have one division of, of CrossFit, they have the strong men’s stuff, but they have one division of CrossFit for men and women. And there’s 20 athletes each in Dubai, one division across students, 20 athletes. Each there, in my opinion is very little excuse for getting things wrong when that’s the only thing that you’re having to plan and program for. I’m not saying that Waap PU should get things wrong, but when you have 2,400 athletes, 45 divisions, four stages, four days, oh said, it’s a much, much, much bigger undertaking. There are way more variables to factor in. There’s a hundred vendors here. There’s like thou, tens of thousands of people filtering through even the, you know, there’s <laugh>. It’s, it’s insane. I mean,
Sevan Matossian (25:45):
And, and now that I say it to you has to, you’re right now that I say it to you and I do the math, they couldn’t have done it. Even if you gave, if there were, if there were 50, if there, how many athletes were there? 30, 40.
Brian Friend (25:55):
There were, uh, yeah, between 35 and 40.
Sevan Matossian (25:58):
Yeah. So if you gave every athlete 30 seconds, you would still barely have 40 minutes for every athlete to do, uh, two lifts. Yeah, you’re right. It’s crazy. And, and you, you said that really well. I wouldn’t have it any other way than to ha I love it that they have all the divisions by the way. It’s what makes it so fucking cool. Yeah, yeah.
Brian Friend (26:13):
So it’s just, you know, you have to have a little grace in that regard when you’re di you know, when you’re being critical of or evaluating this competition. And like I said, it’s not an excuse that they should get things wrong or they shouldn’t try to have them as
Sevan Matossian (26:27):
Exciting,
Brian Friend (26:27):
As perfect as possible. Exciting, uh, digestible, relatable, challenging, all the things that you want in a competition. But there’s a lot else going on, on site and around the park and in the background, you know, the, the behind the scenes than anyone who’s watching a live stream at home or even anyone that’s here on on site can, can really understand. And even someone like me who has a a, a pretty intimate view of what’s happening still doesn’t not see the big picture that guys like, you know, the, the, the head staff team sees and is planning for, for a year leading into this thing.
Sevan Matossian (27:04):
This guy should just be a sponsor of the show. This lucky camera straps guy <laugh>. He’s already paid enough money. Uh, the six heats of everyone lifting at the same time wasn’t good to watch on livestream. Not sure why they didn’t rotate two lifters at a time every 20 seconds.
Brian Friend (27:17):
And look, even though even watching on site, it’s hard, you know, and I have, um, a job to do there that’s, you know, uh, is, is trying to capture as much, um, information as possible while it’s happening on the field of play. But during the lifting events, like I just split it with helping, I watched half the stage, he watched half the stage so that we could have it more information between the two of us. And so I didn’t see Sam Dancer Li Lift, I didn’t see Tolo Makino Lift, he didn’t see Danny Spiegel or Giros Lift because we weren’t, we were focusing on their other half. And if you’re watching the, uh, elite competition, you know, the, I think it was the second place team in that event was, was Team Mexico that came out of the first heat. You know, you may or may not have gotten there in time cuz there were six heats and when you may or may have not gotten a spot.
(28:04):
So, but these are just, there’s logistical challenges there with, with the space, with the number of people, the size of the venues, the number of athletes have to get through. And it’s, it’s challenging, but I do think that we’re in like, this is, I believe the 11th year of Guap Polooza and they should know that stuff. And so when you’re doing the programming, and Guido’s obviously been involved since the beginning here, finding the appropriate balance between, you know, testing the athletes in the way that you want to and feel like you need to, and setting yourself and your team up for success in terms of the execution presentation of your competition. Those things I feel like need to weigh pretty evenly. And there’s sometimes where I think one of ’em dominates over the other at the expense of the other,
Sevan Matossian (28:52):
When, when we would run outta seating at the CrossFit games, people would always be like, you need to move to a larger venue. You need to move to a larger venue. And it was like, no, you, no, you don’t. And, and no, actually you don’t. Now if you’re selling tickets to it and there’s not tickets, then that, that’s a little bit of a problem. That’s the way they used to do it with the airlines in the old days. I remember like, they would sell, if their, the airplane had 250 tickets, they’d sell 300. And it was some weird shit. Always people, I mean, this is probably before you were born when I was a little kid. I remember they used to do that and then it became illegal to do that. But, uh, I I, someone who’s saying they need to reduce the number, amount of people, I like the, I love the shit. I, I would much rather be an overcrowded event than, uh, one where 90% of the seats are empty. Uh, a thousand to one, right?
Brian Friend (29:42):
Yeah. And there’s another, you know, there are other elements of this, one of the big com topics of conversation, this I guess the past couple years has been the sustainability of live events. You know, can you make money doing live events? And um, I think they’re close to a hundred spot.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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