Sevan Matossian (00:01):
Bam, we’re live. Check out this sound. This is when I put on my headset this morning. This is what I heard. Listen, listen. This is the Road Caster Pro, like my seventh one, ready Road Caster, pro two or something. Listen, you hear that? That’s because the phone’s hooked up. And then as soon as I disconnect the
Jayson Hopper (00:21):
Phone, Bluetooth,
Sevan Matossian (00:26):
Man, man, I think this is the only equipment that I don’t think I have a choice. I think I have to have, I don’t think they have a competitor, so it’s what I’m stuck with. I annoying though. Just, just work. It’s not cheap, I guess it’s not expensive either. It’s a $500 piece of equipment and it does a lot of shit. And I guess as long if I don’t mind here. You know what I’m going to do? I’m going to rehook it up now just in case someone were to call in, and that way it’s hooked up. Bam. Let’s see. Okay, so someone calls in. There we go. Good morning. Jason Hop’s coming on the show today. I don’t, it’s a great question. Does Black Magic or Aja make one? I’m not sure if they make one that takes a phone. I just haven’t seen one that takes a phone. Mary, good morning. Takes a phone. Allows a phone to be hooked up to it with a live calling number. Good morning, Mary. I’m standing on my rock pad. I’m sitting on it with my feet on. It would be more accurate. Ms. Pug face. It’s been a minute. Good to see you. Good morning, vindicate.
(01:46):
I think about you every morning, Travis. When I get dressed, not when I put my pants on, but when I put my shirt on, caved Astro. There are competitors to Road Caster, but they suck. Speaking of competitors, who’s a competitor of the show? I forget the name of her podcast Things, things. Maybe that’s the name of it. GLT Things. She was a guest on the show and now she has her own podcast. Oh yeah, here it is. Here it is. And she has one that’s called, oh, she has a new one out. She interviewed someone from Gaze Against Groomers. She also texted me and told me she liked my haircut. Oh my God. Really? Really? Are you fucking kidding me? I know what, I know what’s
Jayson Hopper (02:40):
Up.
Sevan Matossian (02:41):
I know what happened.
Jayson Hopper (02:43):
Whatcha talking about
Sevan Matossian (02:44):
You? I know what happened. You just rolled out of bed. You didn’t want warm your voice up
Jayson Hopper (02:54):
About 90 minutes ago.
Sevan Matossian (02:55):
No, you did not. You woke up 90 seconds ago. You still have that dry stuff in your mouth. I watched you backstage. You were still waking up.
Jayson Hopper (03:04):
That was a bagel, dude.
Sevan Matossian (03:06):
Oh, okay, good. All right. So you’re even fueled.
Jayson Hopper (03:09):
Yeah,
Sevan Matossian (03:10):
Well, some refined sugars just to get turbo fueled, like you’re about to do something important.
Jayson Hopper (03:15):
Just put deodorant on because I was getting sweaty pits
Sevan Matossian (03:20):
Since you been Hi, thanks for coming on, dude. I’m excited.
Jayson Hopper (03:23):
Good morning, dude.
Sevan Matossian (03:24):
I sense a trend.
Jayson Hopper (03:27):
You sense a weekly rhythm.
Sevan Matossian (03:31):
I don’t have weekly, don’t get crazy, but I sent something, something. Even your wife’s only monthly. Just be cool. Monthly. Monthly.
Jayson Hopper (03:38):
Be cool. Good morning, bro.
Sevan Matossian (03:42):
I wanted to match your swig and swallow. Good to see you.
Jayson Hopper (03:46):
Good to see you, dude. You’ve been good. Is it just us this morning?
Sevan Matossian (03:49):
It is sweet. The most popular show on YouTube that this podcast is done in the last 30 days was when last time you were on,
Jayson Hopper (03:58):
You’re Lying.
Sevan Matossian (03:59):
No, I’m not lying. And the Rogue Invitational was huge for us. That week was massive for us, a number of views. But Susa pointed out to me last night at 8:32 PM he said, wow, the last time that show we did with it was you and Hiller. And then when you got off, hunter came on and analyzed you. And that was our biggest show.
Jayson Hopper (04:18):
I saw that I stayed on for a little bit and listened to what he had to say.
Sevan Matossian (04:22):
What did you think about his analysis? He’s concerned about your mindset.
Jayson Hopper (04:26):
I mean, he just doesn’t know me.
Sevan Matossian (04:28):
Yeah, that’s true. He doesn’t know you, but he was very sober in his analysis and he’s a champion, right?
Jayson Hopper (04:35):
Yeah, he was. But I mean at the same time
Sevan Matossian (04:38):
He wasn’t mean.
Jayson Hopper (04:40):
No, he wasn’t at all. But I feel like there were some things that he didn’t learn all about me in the time that I was speaking in the 45 minutes that I had to tell y’all what was going on. So I mean, from his point of view, I mean, sure, but he doesn’t know. He’s never seen me compete. He’s never seen my history. He’s never seen, I think the first thing he said was I already subconsciously lost or something. But from the 45 minutes that he got to know me, I mean, if that was his conclusion, then sure, but I mean for you or for anybody who’s seen me compete, I do have a killer instinct about the work that I do. I’m not just going to go and purposely lay an egg at a competition. I’m going to go and I might not win. I might not show up and do my best, but I’m like, I’m going to hunt. And so for him to be like I subconsciously lost, there’s a lack of understanding about who I am there.
Sevan Matossian (05:57):
Let me ask you this. There’s this, and bear with me here. I’m going to speak in sweeping generalizations, but there’s kind of this religious credo. So everything happens for a reason. It was God’s plan, right? Or the Buddhist would say, don’t argue with reality. Or if someone died in your life, your Christians might gather around you and be like, remember that. It’s all part of God’s plan. And when athletes say that, and I may maybe mischaracterizing you, so I apologize, but when athletes say that you had a little bit of that attitude last time you were on, I’m just going with the flow. I understand that there’s been some hardships and some hurdles and I’m working through them and I can handle it, it’s okay. But I think what athletes, what people want to hear or they think that they want to hear is, I’m fucking pissed. I’m coming back harder and stronger. Fuck this bullshit. I’m a fucking caged animal. You know what I mean? And so to you who I think is a deeply moral, high valued man, I don’t know, does any of that resonate with you? I don’t even know what I’m asking, but does any of that resonate with you that there’s still sides of you? Fuck you. I took the 30th, but let me just show you one thing real quick before you answer that.
(07:22):
This is why it’s hard to say that you’re not the future of the sport. This is absolutely maybe the most fucking athletic thing we’ve seen in the history of CrossFit. Now maybe there’s equally athletic things, but this is absolutely nuts what you did here, and this is against the great F kowski who didn’t have one fucking error and you completely blow him out of the water. This is from the Rogue 2023 invitation watch. This is the dual event. Kakowski is having a perfect run and you’re already breaking ahead. Look at that, look at that lien. You have to slow down. He doesn’t even have to lean. Look at the way you grab the bags and then that transition as you attack the bucket. Dude, holy shit, dude, this is nuts.
Jayson Hopper (08:21):
I mean, sure, you could say there are moments that that bring out that part of me. And
Sevan Matossian (08:31):
Do you think that’s a different, you right there, that’s not just like, Hey, all of those things happen to fall in your bucket, but that’s also a different Jason that’s like, is that you running at a 10 hot?
Jayson Hopper (08:41):
Perfect. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I mean was having a lot of fun out there for sure. But at the same time, you could see that athleticism and be like, oh, he’s the future of the sport. But then you have to also put on the same token, I can’t do a bar muscle up or on a log. These other people are naturally just doing it. And so there’s like, why does my athleticism come out in those moments? Why does it look so good? Oh, he’s nine day faster than all these other athletes, but I can’t figure out how to do a pullover when all these other athletes are just naturally picking it up. And so there is yes and no. There are some things that are limiting me from being the future of the sport that I have to just figure out. And so if people are going to say, Hey, look at that footage and say, Hey, future of the sport, he’s the most athletic in the sport. You also have to, on the same token, bring up the fact that there’s some things I’ll struggle with
Sevan Matossian (09:51):
And strong like bull. I mean, the way you move the bag,
Jayson Hopper (09:56):
I mean, most of that’s just grunt work. I mean, we know that I’m not going to struggle with anything that’s just put your head down and go as fast as you can. I think my Achilles heel is going to be stuff that I have to think about.
Sevan Matossian (10:12):
So when is it like this is God’s plan and fuck you, I’m not happy with this. How do both of those live in you?
Jayson Hopper (10:20):
It’s both in. At the end of the day, none of us are in control. And so when I go out there and give my best, I mean, it’s me obviously working, but at the same time, it’s like my beliefs. I’m not in control of my own destiny. And so it’s a both and type thing. I give my best. And I also believe that where I end up is orchestrated by God. I know it doesn’t sound very, it doesn’t make sense, but it is a mystery. And that’s what you just got to. That’s why obviously we have an entire religion per se, on faith is like you got to live with that faith, the fact that he is in control. But that doesn’t make me just lay down and act like, Hey, God, just take care of everything. No, I have a responsibility in my life to steward the things that I have. And it’s a both and thing. It’s a partnership, if you will.
Sevan Matossian (11:40):
I want to look at that word response ability. So you take 30th at the games and you explain to us in a way that I’ve never heard any other athlete ever explain. It was the part of that last podcast where basically you explain what an emotional wound is. It’s like, Hey, you put in all this hard work and then you didn’t get what you want. Kind of like you washed your car and then you parked it at the mall and you came back and 30 bird shit on it. And after you spent three hours washing your brand new car, you’re like, what the fuck?
Jayson Hopper (12:13):
Dude, I’ve heard you ever since that podcast. I’ve heard you tell at least five people. That’s the best way I’ve ever,
Sevan Matossian (12:22):
Dude. I never understood it. I never understood what it meant to be emotionally wounded in sports. It always just sounded like some just pussy shit to me. But I get it now. I fully get it. I see my kids get like that all the time. They build a Lego tower and the dog comes over and knocks it over and they’re fucking, they see all their work just they don’t get what they want from their hard work. So that happens to you and you come back and you simultaneously are trying to heal that emotional wound, but still train. So you find some happy middle ground with about half the training instead of four hours a day, you go to two hours a day,
Jayson Hopper (13:08):
Right? Yeah. I mean, some days was mean. Most days I woke up and I headed to the gym and I did your generic class strength build to a heavy in 20 minutes. There was not much structure to a lot of the things I was doing. I’d go in there, pick a few things that I wanted to do in a Metcon, throw something together. I obviously talked to Jake about this stuff. We collaborated, but a lot of it was, I was so turned off to a lot of the things in training, like accessories, any sort of skill stuff. I was so fed up with doing a bunch of strength stuff. I just wanted to go there and really just hurt. I just wanted to go to the gym and be in there for 90 minutes to two hours, get the work done, and then get out of there.
(14:04):
There wasn’t a whole lot of motivation to be around, honestly. And so yeah, I had to balance that with, obviously I had the second biggest competition of the year coming up in a month. And obviously I want to be there. I want to do well at Rogue, but at the same time, in the back of my mind, I’m like, I’m not going to be completely ready for this. And so yeah, I accepted that for sure. And so it was tough to manage for sure, because at the same time, I wasn’t the most motivated. I didn’t want to be at the gym all the time. And obviously there was better days sometimes, and then there was tough days, tougher days. But from a general consensus, looking back on the last two months, most of the days I was dragging ass, honestly, just checking boxes, going through the motions
Sevan Matossian (15:10):
Between the games and Rogue,
Jayson Hopper (15:13):
Between the games and Rogue. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (15:15):
Hey, did you want to go to Rogue? And specifically, so when I schedule a podcast, I want to do it. And then the night before I’m like, what did I do? You know what I mean? It doesn’t go away until it actually doesn’t go away until I come in here and I see you and then it goes away. But up until the very second, the podcast started, there’s a little tiny part of me as like, why’d you schedule this? You know what I mean? I could be sleeping or eating a bowl of cereal or fucking masturbating or something.
Jayson Hopper (15:48):
There was this feeling of, obviously when we go into a competition, there’s a lot of anxiety and stress and nervousness for all of us. And so yeah, the month leading into Rogue, I didn’t necessarily, I wanted to be there, but I also didn’t want to at the same time, I wasn’t ready. I didn’t know how it was going to go. I wasn’t doing a lot of, I wasn’t very strong in the month of October, and I knew Rogue would be really
Sevan Matossian (16:24):
Heavy, physically strong.
Jayson Hopper (16:28):
I just didn’t have my squat. I wasn’t peaked at my squat and my Olympic lifts. If we had to max out a snatch, there’s no way I would be hitting 300 or stuff like that. And so going into Rogue, there was this bit of, there was this, I don’t want to go and crap the bet again, honestly, because that wasn’t fun at the games and I just didn’t want that to happen again. And so dealing with that burnout of I just wasn’t getting ready for this competition, and that made me feel pretty hesitant about going because it was such a big opportunity. And then obviously when I got there, whenever you have get nervous, you’re like, oh my goodness. You kind of flee from those feelings. You’re like, I’d rather be doing something else. And this is honestly with, I think I could speak for most athletes, but before we honestly go out for that first event, we’re all like, why do we choose this sport? I mean, that’s all of us. So that day leading into the first event, there was definitely those thoughts of, what have I done
Sevan Matossian (17:48):
That was that crazy run event too, right?
Jayson Hopper (17:51):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (17:54):
And then the second they say Go, that’s all out the door.
Jayson Hopper (17:57):
All out the door.
Sevan Matossian (17:59):
Yeah. That’s awesome. I wonder,
Jayson Hopper (18:02):
I think that’s like what Hunter, when he said I subconsciously lost, that’s where he’s lacking some understanding with me is I do have killer instinct when it comes to those style workouts. And I feel like when he says, I just automatically lost as soon as we went, they said Go. Everything went out the window, everything else, and it was all about winning. It was all about racing. It was all about how can I just headhunt right now? And obviously I didn’t win that event, but I mean, you get the idea,
Sevan Matossian (18:40):
But you could have,
Jayson Hopper (18:43):
I don’t know, man, Jeff is pretty good
Sevan Matossian (18:46):
Family Fit six. Funny story. My son went up to Jason Hopper to say hi, and Jason Hopper asked him who his favorite CrossFitter was. My son proceeded to say Justin Maderis.
Jayson Hopper (19:01):
I don’t remember that.
Sevan Matossian (19:04):
Very good dude. Thomas Stroud, a hopper’s, an insanely self-aware human being.
Jayson Hopper (19:13):
Thank you. Thank you, Thomas. I get that a lot. Honestly,
Sevan Matossian (19:20):
I spoke with him after the 2022 CrossFit games. He shared his life testimony. He’s more cognitive people than people giving credit for. Damn.
Jayson Hopper (19:31):
I can be dumb sometimes, for sure.
Sevan Matossian (19:34):
Actually Humble, not fake, humble. I dunno what that’s in reference to, but let’s just say he’s talking about you.
Jayson Hopper (19:39):
Are you just posting all that? How many people we got live right now?
Sevan Matossian (19:42):
3 34. Hey, was that weird seeing Taylor and Marconi and Matt Torres all together on Pedro’s podcast? I was tripping. I didn’t even know. That was
Jayson Hopper (19:54):
Pretty weird. I didn’t listen to the podcast. I want to go listen to it, but that was pretty weird.
Sevan Matossian (19:58):
It’s like seeing DC superheroes and Marvel superheroes in the same comic. You’re like, you guys aren’t in the same world. That was weird.
Jayson Hopper (20:07):
I don’t even know if they have ever met Jake and Taylor in person
Sevan Matossian (20:13):
Because Jake’s your coach and Taylor’s kind of your thorn in your side.
Jayson Hopper (20:19):
That’s exactly right.
Sevan Matossian (20:20):
And Matt Torres is just some imaginary figure in Florida.
Jayson Hopper (20:25):
That’s exactly right.
Sevan Matossian (20:29):
How crazy is Matt Torres’s trip five athletes at the games. That’s nuts, right? Do you ever think about what it would be like to be a coach?
Jayson Hopper (20:39):
Dude, I’m actually pretty close from that. He tells me some of the stuff that he deals with as a coach, and it’s crazy. I mean, all of ’em, obviously Matt Moore because he has more athletes.
Sevan Matossian (20:56):
He had Fifi, Emma Carey, Danielle, Brandon, down Pepper, and James Sprague all at the CrossFit games.
Jayson Hopper (21:05):
But I think the hard thing is they’re all so different, so it’s kind of like, how do you manage all these emotions?
Sevan Matossian (21:10):
Nah, those guys are all the same dude. What a wild bunch of characters. Dude. Did you ever see that movie Young Guns? It’s old. No. Yeah, I can’t think of a more different group of people. Are you an easy athlete to coach?
Jayson Hopper (21:37):
I can be. I like to have a lot of say in my programming. A lot of these athletes will just get their program and be like, whatever Coach says, I’ll just do whatever he says. I’m a lot more, I like to be a lot more collaborative with Jake, and so I feel like there could be some frustrations there as far as if I want to do something that he doesn’t think is best, there could be some tension there. Yeah, obviously.
Sevan Matossian (22:13):
Apart from that, do you trust yourself like that? Can you give me an example of what you mean by collaborative?
Jayson Hopper (22:21):
He send me a workout maybe, and let’s say I struggle with Bar Muscle-ups more than Ring Muscle-ups. And he sends me a workout on Monday that has ring muscle-ups in them, and I’m like, Hey, this may be more effective. This may push the needle a little bit more if we do bar muscle ups here. And I would ask him So
Sevan Matossian (22:44):
You can work on them?
Jayson Hopper (22:45):
Yeah, I work on ’em more than ring muscle ups. And I would ask him and some days he’d be like, yeah, for sure go for it. And then perfect. Some days he’d push back and be like, Hey, let’s do ring muscle ups. And there would be some tension or I’d be like, all right. Yeah, for sure. I mean obviously there’s a million of these conversations happening some days I’m just like, for sure. Yeah, I agree. And then some days I’m like, I could get frustrated, honestly. Depends on where I’m at emotionally that day, honestly. But that’s one example. Or he’ll send me the program the day before we actually start and we talk about it. And I mean there’s a million different conversations that could be had, but there could been some, I wouldn’t say frustrations because frustration is something that’s built up over time, but I’m more like, Hey, can we change this?
(23:47):
Or I’ll get the program for the week and maybe I won’t see enough of something that I want to work on. I won’t see enough of let’s say handstand pushups. Let’s say I want to hit this amount of handstand pushups a week and I’ll get the program and that’s a little short or something. I’ll be like, Hey, can we do more? And he’ll be like, no bad idea. Like, but more is better. So me just being a hardhead most of the time, most of the time he’s right. And so it’s me just being immature. But
Sevan Matossian (24:27):
Can you just take something like you were saying, muscle ups or the pullovers aren’t your best. Can you just take that and be like, Hey, in eight weeks I’m going to be the best in the world at it.
Jayson Hopper (24:42):
No, I mean that’s pretty unrealistic.
Sevan Matossian (24:45):
It is. You can’t just take a weakness. It’s not like you’re going for a 400 pound snatch in eight weeks.
Jayson Hopper (25:00):
I mean,
Sevan Matossian (25:01):
You just find these things that are like that and just fucking attack them and just work them out. You can. Or is it really the suffering of other things?
Jayson Hopper (25:11):
It’s just a slap in the face to the people, the gymnasts who have been doing it for years and years and years. I mean, that’s why I like Pat Vellner is so good at gymnastics is because he was doing that for years. For me to be like, oh, I can pick this skill up in eight weeks and be better than you is mean. It’s a slap in the face. It would be like someone being like, Hey, I’m going to do these. I’m going to do AC two progression on AC two bike and I’m going to be better than you on AC two bike in eight weeks. I’m like, you can try. But I mean,
Sevan Matossian (25:44):
Let me put this out there. And I know it’s a bad example. He’s the best that ever did it. But basically Matt went from being the worst at the sprint event at the games or bottom five to the best in the world at the sprint event.
Jayson Hopper (25:58):
Yeah,
Sevan Matossian (25:59):
That’s a pretty wild thing to fix.
Jayson Hopper (26:03):
It is, but the thing is, with Matt, it was like he didn’t grow up sprinting. He grew up lifting and he has a lot of good body awareness for sure. But he never lacked sprinting capabilities. He just never sprinted.
Sevan Matossian (26:22):
Okay, okay.
Jayson Hopper (26:23):
He had the potential to be a really good sprinter, I guess. I don’t really don’t know his past, but I’m sure obviously he didn’t sprint a lot when he was growing up.
Sevan Matossian (26:37):
Is there anything you’re attacking now with you’re like, Hey, I’m going to fucking crack the code on this. I’m going to become the best, the bar muscle thing. Are you like, fuck it?
Jayson Hopper (26:48):
I don’t think I’m thinking about I’m going to become the best because that’s just so far away. I’m pretty realistic about expectations. I do have a, I am not waking up saying I’m going to be the worst of this forever. It’s never that. It’s more, Hey, I’m going to be good at these things eventually. If I just keep pushing the needle, if I keep working, if I keep learning how to maneuver my body around things properly, then I’m going to be a lot better than I am now. But to say
Sevan Matossian (27:26):
Fun, to turn a weakness into a strength, it would be fucking crazy for your confidence. A weakness,
Jayson Hopper (27:32):
Strength, the thing I have a problem with is for some reason there’s a lack of body awareness that I have. I am sure I could be athletic and you can say all those things, but I do have a lack of ability to move my body efficiently around things. And I think it takes time for me to learn these things. It takes time for me to learn a pullover the correct way. And what is happening in the sport and in these competitions is these things are being brought up at last minute and I’m not prepared enough to the log muscle up. It’s not that I couldn’t do a log muscle up, it’s the fact that I haven’t been preparing for that log muscle up to the point where I would be able to compete in a competition and do really well at the end of the day. It just takes time for me.
Sevan Matossian (28:34):
But if it was jumping over something, you could jump over 50 different things better than anyone else because that is something that you’re good at jumping over shit. And so if they change it to a bale of hay or a log or you could adapt to that. But you’re saying as far as you’re saying something like a muscle up, you’re not even the best at a muscle up. And so then when they change the kind of muscle up, it’s even harder for you.
Jayson Hopper (29:00):
Yeah, exactly. But I’ve also grew up, I grew up jumping over stuff. I grew up running, I grew up doing all these things. It just takes time for me to actually learn these things. A lot of these guys, they will see something for the first time and they’ll just easily pick it up. And no matter how athletic I am, that’s just tough for me to, and so I need time. I need, that’s why it’s super crucial for me to actually be prepared for these competitions. Think about everything that could possibly show up and start drilling them now or else they’ll release something. I don’t know when we’re there. And if I haven’t touched it, then I mean, most likely it could be bad because it just takes time for me. And that’s not a bad thing. I just need to make sure that I am prepared way before time.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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