Will Branstetter (00:00):
I did it. What’s up everybody? We’re on YouTube.
JR Howell (00:09):
What an
Will Branstetter (00:09):
Intro. It’s episode 15. Shut up in scribble my door’s wide open. I just realized that Peter’s here. Taylor’s here. Jr’s here.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Ladies and gentlemen up. This is
Speaker 4 (00:25):
So keep the political commentary to yourself or as someone once said, shut up and dribble.
Will Branstetter (00:42):
Remember that time that Peter hit a massive dab on the show and no one reacted except for me
JR Howell (00:47):
On this show.
@coffeepodsnwods (00:49):
On it was what I called Castro a beta. I was like, I dabbed after I said it and as soon as I dabbed I was like, dude, what the fuck did you just do that for
Taylor Self (01:01):
That intro’s? Perfect because it then makes it past the 32nd mark where I can’t swear
JR Howell (01:06):
I was going to sayt say anything. Peter. That’s the first time anyone’s dropped a curse word before you dude
@coffeepodsnwods (01:13):
Is it is 30 seconds. I thought I’ve been trying, I’ve been shooting for 10 minutes. I’ve fallen flat in my face every time, but I thought it was 10 minutes.
Taylor Self (01:22):
Well, we’re not fucking going 10 minutes,
@coffeepodsnwods (01:24):
I can tell you that. Yeah, this is just sabotage. That’s all I do. If
Will Branstetter (01:27):
I’m editing something, I typically take everything out of it. Any F words out?
@coffeepodsnwods (01:33):
That’s just your for
Will Branstetter (01:34):
Maximum reach.
@coffeepodsnwods (01:35):
I’m really just moral standing though. No,
Will Branstetter (01:37):
I mean Hiller does it too.
@coffeepodsnwods (01:39):
Yeah. Fricking,
Will Branstetter (01:41):
Fricking. So what’s up? Hey Peter.
@coffeepodsnwods (01:46):
How are you guys? This feels a bit special. I like this.
Will Branstetter (01:50):
It feels very intimate.
@coffeepodsnwods (01:53):
Yeah, it’s weird not having 12 boxes with everyone talking over everyone
Taylor Self (01:57):
Who is self-help book. That’s an interesting, they have a bit of feedback for us.
@coffeepodsnwods (02:03):
Your faces, what’s up down
Taylor Self (02:06):
Means she thinks we should put brown paper bags over our heads while the intro’s going so that you don’t have to see our
@coffeepodsnwods (02:13):
Dead faces. Me and were dancing.
Will Branstetter (02:15):
Are you kidding me? I hit a little.
@coffeepodsnwods (02:18):
We were head bumping
JR Howell (02:19):
Or we should do you know how Chase and Bill, one of ’em is playing the air drums? One of them. You know what I mean? They really get into the music. We should do something like that. We should just lip sync what she’s saying. Just
Taylor Self (02:30):
Hit that. Hit
JR Howell (02:31):
Him with
Will Branstetter (02:31):
One of those. I’ll say I did think about this the other week, that there should be a video playing while the intro’s going instead of us sitting there,
@coffeepodsnwods (02:39):
Could you get the picture of JR and Taylor in their prom pose and just have it the way There’s not even dance, but you know that when you’re in a meeting and the TV is on pause and the thing is moving around and you’re waiting for it to bounce into the corner. Just
Will Branstetter (02:56):
That I can do that for sure. Easily. That would be great. Good idea. Peter invoice us.
Taylor Self (03:05):
Who’s he referencing?
@coffeepodsnwods (03:06):
Didn’t Jared write gra
Taylor Self (03:09):
Jared fucking Subway? Jared,
@coffeepodsnwods (03:14):
Jared Grail, isn’t it? Somehow I manage. No, that’s Michael’s. Scott,
Taylor Self (03:21):
Who are you referencing? Keeper?
Will Branstetter (03:23):
We all know I think
Taylor Self (03:28):
Should be a video.
JR Howell (03:31):
All right. Workouts or not? Whether or not they’re good. That’s what we talk about.
@coffeepodsnwods (03:38):
You’re like the ERs in the bowl. Which
Taylor Self (03:41):
Mean are we talking about dude? Okay.
JR Howell (03:44):
Alright. Well I know Taylor’s just going to read the comments and laugh for the first 10 to 15 minutes.
Will Branstetter (03:50):
Are we talking about NorCal first? NorCal CrossFit.
Taylor Self (03:53):
I’m having a terrible day, but let’s go
JR Howell (03:55):
Tell us about
Will Branstetter (03:56):
It. No way. I couldn’t tell. Taylor sent me a freaking book to my phone. I’m like, that’s what I know. Does
JR Howell (04:03):
Does that mean you gave Will a verbal lashing?
Taylor Self (04:05):
Yeah, I give him a verbal lashing.
@coffeepodsnwods (04:08):
I give I literal lashing.
Will Branstetter (04:09):
Every two months Taylor has a freakout day and my phone just starts blowing up with these massive text messages and every time I say, Hey dude, why don’t you tell me some of this stuff before you just get to a list of five things that you want to happen at one time and then it never happens. So when we wait for the next pile
JR Howell (04:26):
Up, when we were on the phone earlier talking about programming and all of a sudden he says, you ever feel like you’re just getting really overwhelmed? I should have sent you a text about Will you guys don’t
Taylor Self (04:35):
My shit out to the
Will Branstetter (04:36):
World. I
Taylor Self (04:37):
Said I was having a bad day. Not exactly what was happening
Will Branstetter (04:40):
To you. And then he just tries to overwhelm someone else so he feels better about it.
Taylor Self (04:44):
Exactly. It reminds me of this girl I dated and it would seem like before every class that I was about to coach, she would send me this text about the worst thing that happened to her knowing that I was about to coach a class. I’m like, well now I’m going to think about this person hanging themselves in their closet while I’m trying to brief 21 15 9 of the whiteboard. Anyways, north Cal classic.
Will Branstetter (05:07):
Do you guys see the Alien? Did anyone believe that the alien was real until you knew it was fake?
Taylor Self (05:12):
I thought it was real, dude.
Will Branstetter (05:14):
I knew it was fake as soon as, well, I thought it was fake from the beginning, but then whenever I saw someone grab it and I saw that it was literally this big, I was like,
@coffeepodsnwods (05:22):
What do you mean someone grabbed it? Someone actually physically grabbed it.
Will Branstetter (05:24):
Yeah, grabbed it.
@coffeepodsnwods (05:25):
Geez.
Will Branstetter (05:26):
And then I was like, we all know it’s fake. I know aliens are at least eight foot tall.
@coffeepodsnwods (05:31):
But also I always find it very convenient how any kind of evidence of Alien is exactly what we find in the movies. It’s never why are they always humanoid? Why is it not Our imaginations just so narrow that it’s like, well, I mean it has to walk like us at least and have four limbs. I mean anything outside of that is impossible. And it’s like they found that there’s a 30% d n a that’s unaccounted for. It’s like so the alien is a 70% match for humans.
Taylor Self (06:00):
When Joe Rogan talks about how aliens probably don’t have a physical form aliens that can transport here if they exist. I think they’re probably just this massive consciousness. Anyways, it’s a little bit
@coffeepodsnwods (06:15):
Too a blob of jelly.
Taylor Self (06:17):
It’s just really funny that this Mexican guy is standing in Mexican Congress with a little two foot doll that somebody made
Will Branstetter (06:27):
And they’re in coffins. They’re like in coffins. He’s
Taylor Self (06:30):
Like, he’s an alien.
Will Branstetter (06:32):
He’s like,
@coffeepodsnwods (06:33):
I don’t actually think he’s Mexican. Is he?
Will Branstetter (06:36):
I think he’s Peruvian. Whenever anyone meet me or maybe that’s where they came from.
Taylor Self (06:39):
God damn, who’s paying this guy?
Will Branstetter (06:41):
He’s like, Hey, can you go to Janet’s office and grab those two coffins I had sitting out there are 70% human, 30% paper mache. But I’m going,
@coffeepodsnwods (06:54):
It’s like what’s year 30% bullshit. What? Oh, I dunno. I dunno what It’s
Taylor Self (06:59):
Paper. Yay
Will Branstetter (07:00):
Dude. Dude, I heard
Taylor Self (07:01):
That. That’s exactly what that thing
Will Branstetter (07:02):
Is. I heard that he’s like a Tomb Raider and that. It’s just pieces of old skeletals put together.
Taylor Self (07:09):
He’s Laura Croft.
Will Branstetter (07:11):
Who’s Laura Croft
@coffeepodsnwods (07:13):
Tomb raid. What
Taylor Self (07:15):
Dude, what the fuck will come
Will Branstetter (07:18):
On? Is that from Tomb Raider of the movie Peter
JR Howell (07:21):
For his class?
Will Branstetter (07:23):
Am I the Lauren Kahlil of Shut Up and Scribble
@coffeepodsnwods (07:26):
Taylor, have you ever played that game? I’m the
Will Branstetter (07:27):
One doesn’t get the movie references and then the guys, the two guy hosts get mad at me for not getting movie references.
@coffeepodsnwods (07:34):
That’s a game reference though. It’s not even a movie reference.
Will Branstetter (07:37):
Tomb Raider’s a movie. It
@coffeepodsnwods (07:39):
Is as well, but it’s shit. Taylor, have you seen, have you played that game?
Taylor Self (07:44):
What game
@coffeepodsnwods (07:45):
Like Tomb Raider one.
Taylor Self (07:47):
Should I answer
@coffeepodsnwods (07:48):
This? That’s the Mexican guy saying, Hey, you need to chill on the fake Aliens.
Taylor Self (07:54):
I’m getting a porn call.
Will Branstetter (07:56):
I heard you’re saying my aliens are fake. Man,
@coffeepodsnwods (07:59):
Dude, now dude, a Mexican accent
Taylor Self (08:01):
Be the alien dude.
Will Branstetter (08:03):
That’s just 30%.
@coffeepodsnwods (08:05):
Oh, they are always trying to phone home.
Taylor Self (08:07):
Classic calling for me and JR to fix our programming.
Will Branstetter (08:10):
Geez, was that your attempt at a transition? Dude,
Taylor Self (08:13):
Hard take.
Will Branstetter (08:16):
People are itching at the bit. Hey Peter, come on. It’s a kid show
JR Howell (08:21):
Itching at the chomping at the
Taylor Self (08:22):
Bit
Will Branstetter (08:22):
Chomping, itching at the bit. They’re itching at the bit
Taylor Self (08:26):
They
JR Howell (08:27):
Need to fix.
Will Branstetter (08:28):
They took the Russian crocodile. What is that for? What are
Taylor Self (08:32):
They itching? What are they itching for?
Will Branstetter (08:35):
Someone to talk about North Cal Classic programming. That’s why there’s 103 people watching.
JR Howell (08:39):
Alright, right. Let’s do it. So North Cal classic programming. Anyone to listen to chasing and Bill Yesterday? I thought it was impeccable timing because whenever you pull up workouts for a competition, whether it’s like Madrid or Rogue Waap Palooza, NorCal Classic, the geeks that are programming nerds jump to immediate conclusions. Wait a minute, I’ve ran the M wgs and I’ve done all the time domains and this is not, there’s 10 events and three of ’em are under three minutes and four of ’em under five minutes and all this stuff. But I think it’s really good to get some context into the history of certain competitions. A lot of times people are aware of biases in the big competitions. Think swimming with Waterloo, they think robust and heavy workouts sometimes with strongman influence at Rogue and maybe the lesser known competitions, they don’t know that hey, they always do something outside or they’re always in the dirt and they want it to be grassroots and they want it to say what a lot of people think of when they think California ion,
@coffeepodsnwods (09:43):
They want it to be in the dirt. They really wanted one person to be in the dirt that
Taylor Self (09:48):
I can’t wait to talk
JR Howell (09:49):
About that. Absolutely. Yeah. So I think it is good to start that off like the show they did yesterday where Bill was like, Hey, remember what this is supposed to be. Me and Taylor can argue and Peter can argue about,
@coffeepodsnwods (10:04):
I’ll just do what I just did. I’ll just interject.
JR Howell (10:06):
If you’re having a competition that involves fitness racing, is it supposed to be CrossFit methodology? Meaning everything has to be balanced, everything has to be there can’t be too much mono structural. There can’t be too much weightlifting. There can’t be too much gymnastics. And I think we get into that mode of, hey, if you’re doing any competition, especially if it’s for money, the fittest should prevail and there should be a balance always. There shouldn’t be any biases. And I think that’s a little bit unreasonable on our part
@coffeepodsnwods (10:34):
Also. Now I’m going to talk because he has to turn off his mic. Mike makes a good point there. Pool boy in the comments. And it’s something that, I was talking to Dylan about it yesterday where you have, you’re under pressure. There’s other things to think about rather than just like, right, Boz has this perfect thing of I can do whatever I want within certain confines and make it perfect and all balanced across the season and across this thing. Whereas if you’re a growing competition or you’re hindered by space or you have scaled and intermediate and orx and everything, you can’t just be like, well, it has to be perfectly balanced. It’s like, alright, then scale just can’t turn up because someone needs to miss out and you need space for this. So they have to miss out. And I think it does come a point where it’s like rose tinted glasses and all things being equal and everything being perfect.
(11:24):
Yeah, it should be all balanced and everything else, but the reality is you need to make money. You need to have enough money to put on the event every year. You could potentially do Norco Classic as a perfectly balanced event and then just never be able to put it on again. So that’s the reality of it, that you need to fund it and you need those lower divisions or those lower skilled divisions to turn up to fund it and then the more of them you have, maybe you need to move venue or there’s all these different constraints and it’s not as easy as it is for not saying boss’s job is easy, but it’s not as easy as that where it’s just your event and Budgetless. Yeah, but shut the fuck up Peter.
Taylor Self (12:10):
Yeah, but shut the fuck up. Here’s the deal. I’ll say it.
JR Howell (12:14):
It’s always going to come down to what’s more important to you? Is it more important to you to continue to grow the event from a monetary standpoint, from a participation standpoint? I mean I think they said yesterday there’s like 700 competitors, which is incredible. I mean that’s a ton of people. So instead of having 10 scored events, do you just have six or seven and you can still have the same number of competitors, but the variation of movements, the equipment, the amount of time spent on the floor still balances out. I think there still is some give and take there. I think look at the partnerships. It’s incredible what they’ve done as far as building
Taylor Self (12:50):
A competition, right? Why do they have those partnerships? Why do they have those partnerships?
JR Howell (12:56):
So does
Taylor Self (12:57):
They have money? No, I’m saying how did they get them? How did they get those partnerships?
JR Howell (13:01):
Who do they know? For me,
(13:04):
Ben Alderman, Blair Morrison are like, they’re legends. Everyone knows who they are, whether Ben Alderman from him crushing the snatch ladder or on one of Avon’s behind the scenes, he says, I’m here to keep everyone honest. If you lift your foot off the gas pedal, I’m going to beat you. I know that quote from Ben Alderman just because of how many times I’ve watched those behind the scenes. I know Blair Morrison because he was like doing tie dye before anyone thought Tie dye was cool and he was going to mountains and hanging rings and doing workouts. They’re famous and then they put Dave’s name on it with the online qualifier. That’s already going to get so many people. I
@coffeepodsnwods (13:42):
What a comment. Yeah, no, I think it is that. I think that’s why the brands are there. It’s like
Taylor Self (13:49):
Because Dave, they have
@coffeepodsnwods (13:50):
A relationship, reputation, reputation
Taylor Self (13:53):
That, and they have a relationship with Dave. They just have
@coffeepodsnwods (13:55):
Okay, reputation. I’m vouching then,
Taylor Self (13:57):
Right? I think that 100% is the reason. I also don’t think that these partnerships or brands care one bit about programming when they’re like, okay, I’m going to support an event. Let me look at the programming. I know one that does. No one fucking does that one does.
JR Howell (14:16):
I know one that does. Who? No,
Taylor Self (14:19):
Can’t say
JR Howell (14:20):
It shouldn’t be named. Say my name. Say my
@coffeepodsnwods (14:22):
Name. Have either of the people involved with Crash or Charlotte said either of anybody that’s supporting it financially said, yeah, but I need to see the workouts.
Taylor Self (14:35):
No, they care about how many people are showing up. That’s
@coffeepodsnwods (14:37):
It. How many people will see it? How many people will, yeah, and is it like not is the programming goal, but is the venue up to scratch? The judging up to scratch? Are people going to be complaining about it in two weeks time or are people going to enjoy it and want to back and talk about it?
Taylor Self (14:52):
Right. And the other interesting, when you were bringing up what Bill and Chase talked about on their show yesterday, remember what it was about? No, I don’t actually. I don’t remember what it was about. I have no idea what it’s about other than it’s this huge event that was put on because semi-finals got canceled and their first place prize first is $25,000. Workouts also weren’t announced to your point until the night before for the final. So I don’t really know what I’m getting myself into. Say I’m a high level athlete, I know that the prize purchase 25 K, it’s a CrossFit event. I’m excited. Workouts get announced and they have a head scratcher event, for example, that has Airsoft guns in it.
Will Branstetter (15:41):
Airsoft
Taylor Self (15:42):
Bro. Bro, come on dude. That’s just, I don’t
JR Howell (15:48):
See it. But for you, does it depend on who’s doing it? When Rogue had a shooting event, did you have the same reaction?
Taylor Self (15:54):
Yeah, I think it’s the biathlon was most Olympic event where I’m like, eh, I think Airsoft guns that I think is super dumb. Yeah.
Will Branstetter (16:10):
Is Taylor freezing up for you guys too?
JR Howell (16:12):
Yeah, a little bit. Nice.
Taylor Self (16:13):
Whoops.
Will Branstetter (16:15):
I’m talk about Airsoft guns. I’m going to dox you, dude.
JR Howell (16:20):
Let’s pull up the workout so we can go through ’em and look, because a lot of people probably don’t know what they,
@coffeepodsnwods (16:24):
While you’re putting them up. I did a workout once that was Airsoft is like a pelican, right? You put a steel pedal into it. Is that what you
Will Branstetter (16:33):
Guys Yeah, I used to have an Airsoft podcast when I was like 13.
@coffeepodsnwods (16:38):
If you miss shut up, Taylor, if you miss the target, you have to do, you have to do burpees, you have to do 10 burpees for every shot that didn’t hit. Oh my god. I did so many burpees I didn’t hit once and it was like a 15 minute workout.
Taylor Self (16:52):
You can have guns in Ireland,
@coffeepodsnwods (16:54):
Like fake little BB guns. Basically
Taylor Self (16:57):
You’d just throw a rock at a tree and if you miss it, you do 10 burpees
@coffeepodsnwods (17:01):
Potato. But yeah, you’d throw a potato at a potato.
Will Branstetter (17:10):
Alright, tell me where to go. You are. What do you want to look at first?
JR Howell (17:12):
Yeah, so I mean we can just go through ’em briefly.
Taylor Self (17:15):
Well, can we first talk about what you said in terms of remember what it’s supposed to be. What is it supposed to be? Is it supposed to be this old non classic CrossFit gritty? Explain that to me.
JR Howell (17:32):
Yeah, and I may be paraphrasing what Bill said yesterday, but essentially, remember when it used to be like this? We used to grill out, we used to have a beer after the workouts. We used to sit around and be like, Hey, what do you want to do? Hey, let’s just race as fast as we can. 800 meters. Awesome. Let’s go jump in the lake. Okay, cool. Let’s do some things that normally you wouldn’t be able to do in an off season competition. Kayak five K. Yeah, that sounds sweet. Let’s go do it. I think that the simplicity and the old school nature, which we can get into, we’re seeing that come out in this competition. And if you’re not really og, because a lot of people say that they are and they’re just not. Should we be doing that right now when programming competitions, especially those that are getting so much monetary kickback, is there something to be said for why the triple option isn’t ran by every college team anymore because it’s not relevant anymore? Teams know that you don’t do that if you want to score a lot of points, but at one time that was just what everyone did. So when we look at a competition we’re like, you know what? That’s super og. Is that a good thing or is that a bad thing? Should we be changing with the times as far as programming goes? Or should we be always clinging to CrossFit roots?
Taylor Self (18:53):
Me and you have talked about this a bit on various shows in private, you’ve spoken the phrase, yes, but is nostalgic good? Is old school good is getting back to the roots. Good. And the phrase that you use to describe both of our opinions kind of is Yes, and I think that’s the key. You still see some teams have a triple option play in their playbook, but like you said, they don’t run it for the entire game. You still see some events that, or Boz brings back an old school movement like the L sit seated legless rope climb, but it’s not a hundred L pull-ups for time.
(19:34):
There’s a place for it. And just because something is old school and that it was done in the past and that then it was cool or that’s what you did then doesn’t mean it’s relevant now. Cool, now appropriate now should be done now. I mean it’s think about to me, there are a lot of examples I could use. I guess one that’s maybe most appropriate is a car window nostalgic to have a hand crank car window, but it’s also fucking dumb and annoying and who wants to sit and go for five minutes while your window rolls up? It’s a lot easier and cooler to just hit a button that’s automatic.
JR Howell (20:12):
Well, I wonder too, when people look at some of these workouts, there’s a straight up swim, there’s a kayak, there’s an 800 meter sprint for time. There’s a double broad jump. So we see a lot of single modality and right now it appears like single modality is coming back. A lot of people are choosing to do it. It got a lot of praise at the games this year for doing a five K run a bike only a lifting only a gymnastics only do a lot of people that are looking at this programming know double broad jump. That’s like a tip of the hat to the broad jump at the games 800 meter run. That’s like a tip of the hat to the sandbag run or whatever. Do people see this and they know, hey, they’re almost paying their respects to the old school ways of programming and if that is the point, why is that bad or good or bad?
@coffeepodsnwods (21:05):
But does it matter if we know, does it matter if people, you have an event that’s a standalone event and it’s not part of the season and I’m going to get back in my lane now in a second, but if you have a standalone event that’s not part of the season, can it not just be what it is? And then if you want to know if it’s right, just survey the athletes and the spectators and be like, Hey, did you enjoy it? And then the athletes, they’re like, fuck it. It was great. And if the spectators, yeah, it was great, then it’s perfect the way it is and why change it? Whereas if it’s part of this broad calendar, year long piece of programming that’s supposed to slot in, then yeah, obviously it matters because if the open and the semi-finals or whatever have nothing to do with each other, people would be pissed off.
(21:44):
Or if they’re doubling up, people would be pissed off. But this isn’t that. It’s like a standalone competition that, I mean they’ve done pretty well to get the amount of prize money that they have and run it whatever way you want. And then if everyone enjoys it, do it again next year. Do you know, instead of, I understand assessing programming is the thing and it’s is it good? Is it bad or whatever? But I think it’s objectively you can say you can assess the programming objectively as a programmer and say, well, I wouldn’t have done this or I would’ve done that. And that workout with that workout doesn’t make sense, whatever. But assessing a competition’s validity or the rightness or wrongness of them doing things a certain way is kind of a moot point when it’s a standalone event, not part of a broader season or something and it’s just ask the people that were there was a good, if they say yes, then keep doing it. If they say no, then fuck your broad jumps, pick something better.
Taylor Self (22:39):
I think assessing the validity is important when you’re saying you’re running a CrossFit competition. And I also think what you said about it’s your competition. Do whatever the fuck you want, hold some weight. I do know that I’ve had a lot of people reach out and we’re like, what in the world is this in regards to Northern California Classic. That being said, I also know that that event is still going to grow and get a lot of people the next year. The same reason that CrossFit competitions that have been put on for years that have no business existing or programming continue to grow and continue to have people sign up because people like to compete. And for a long time there was a pretty big hole I would say in the market for good competitions or places where people could feel like, Hey, I sign up, I have fun. I go compete. And they don’t, it’s weird. I don’t know that the athletes really, a lot of ’em probably don’t think about the programming. They think, Hey, was this run well? Did I like it? Did that fun
@coffeepodsnwods (23:39):
Was their values?
Taylor Self (23:40):
Yeah, but I do think that it falls on the event organizer to, if you’re going to call yourself a CrossFit competition, it’s just my opinion that your event should be CrossFit and that means that well-balanced and that it’s all 10 general physical skills and not five workouts with one of those 10 general physical skills. And that it’s also not that, I mean safety’s important for athletes. I would say that probably a lot of the athletes that lined up into that 800 meter run where half of them were on the curb, the other half were in a sand dune and the other half had one foot in a fucking drainage dish gutter and have
JR Howell (24:24):
To run around a pole in the first
Taylor Self (24:25):
Three meters. They’re probably like, man, this is not that safe. But there’s $25,000 at the end of this. So if I break a leg bucket, that’s just, come on, man.
JR Howell (24:39):
Yeah. So I got two things. First thing, to Peter’s point, should what people are calling showcases be competitions? Because I’m pretty sure there’s a pretty professionalized showcase coming up in the UK pretty soon, and that isn’t for prize money. That’s appearance fee. So here’s the deal. If you’re going to say something’s a showcase, should it be a competition also for money or should it just be, Hey, we’re going to let these people come and put on a show for everyone. They’re going to be working out, they’re going to be doing CrossFit, but we’re not concerned with hitting all the time domains. We’re not concerned with balancing upper body pushing and pulling. We’re not concerned with balancing squatting and hinging. This is just a show. So that raises another question. And then to Taylor’s point with the good or bad thing, if the competition is being programmed so that people want to sign up for it because it looks fun, that can be more important than whether or not it’s a good test of fitness.
(25:47):
It’s really just ultimately all up to the event programmers and organizers and we can sit back and say, yeah, it looks fun to swim, get out, do an obstacle course, jump up on the rings, do some muscle ups. I’m never going to get to do that in my training. I’m never going to probably do that in a competition. So I would love to sign up and go to California to do that. Or there are going to be people that say, that doesn’t get me ready for the season, so I don’t want to do it. I would probably argue that there’s a lot more people that want to do a competition that’s more fun comparatively to the amount of people who are using competitions as touchpoints throughout the off season.
Taylor Self (26:28):
I don’t think that there are some events in this competition that just aren’t fun to me when I read them. I don’t read that and think, okay, this is fun. I also don’t think that in CrossFit you can have a showcase without competition because think so much of what is the showcase for people watching a CrossFit event is the effort that is drawn from competition. And when it’s like, okay, it’s not a competition and everybody’s just not trying now like, well the fuck, what do I watch? Why do I care to watch a bunch of people work out at 70% or 50% effort? It’s not like the home run derby in my opinion.
Will Branstetter (27:07):
So is the open a well-balanced fitness test?
Taylor Self (27:12):
The open this year was probably more well-balanced than this competition with seven less events.
JR Howell (27:16):
I think with only three weeks, it doesn’t matter how many two parters you have when it went away from five weeks, I think it becomes very difficult to say it’s a well-rounded
Will Branstetter (27:24):
Test fitness. So what sets the standard of what a CrossFit competition should be?
Taylor Self (27:30):
What sets the standard? Probably the games I would say,
@coffeepodsnwods (27:33):
Isn’t it though?
Taylor Self (27:34):
Finals
@coffeepodsnwods (27:35):
You have those, the CrossFit games, the remit, whatever purview, I dunno what the fucking word to use. The aim of the CrossFit games is to find the fittest on earth. So then you’re talking about your 10 things and balance and everything. Whereas if you have hypothetically, I know Taylor, you really care about programming, but if you didn’t and you just had the Shara Classic, and it’s like you’re not saying that you’re finding the fittest person to turn up at the competition. You’re just saying you’re finding a winner and a second place in the third place, then it removes the onus that’s on you to say, well, this work has balanced out by this one. And then it’s just like, I guess horses for courses, I suppose. And once you’re not claiming that, nor Kyle aren’t, I assume Jesus, I assume they’re not claiming that they’re finding the fittest. Do you know what I mean? It’s just like the winner and the second place and the third place. But
Taylor Self (28:26):
If you’re calling yourself a CrossFit competition, then by nature, if it’s true to the methodology, the person who wins your competition is the fittest there because the fittest person is the person who can perform well across the 10 general physical skills or the balanced task. So if you’re using the word CrossFit, and I don’t know that they are maybe Northern California classic, it’s not a CrossFit competition. It’s a classic competition. So I guess I can go jam something up my butt. I just think that when you’re alluding to this, okay, this is going to be CrossFit and you get there and it’s not really, and we will go over why I don’t think it’s CrossFit.
JR Howell (29:08):
To Taylor’s point, we’ve argued about this before because I know he doesn’t really like it when anyone compares CrossFit to other sports. It is unique. But if you think about different competitions in the same way that you think about the landscape of the competition, you think about the landscape of different golf courses and you know that if you are playing a links course or if the British open is at a links course, you need to be able to be long. And you know that if you’re going to the Masters, you have to be able to hit narrow fairways. And that’s just the shape of the competition it plays for a specific type of athlete. It doesn’t mean that whoever wins the masters is the best golfer in the world. So why can’t these competitions be like that where, hey, if you’re going to win rogue, you got to have this skillset if you’re going to win to buy.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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