Sevan Matossian (00:05):
Bam. We’re live. Good morning. Am I in the right chat? Am I in the right place? Good morning. Good morning, coach. Ken. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning, Casey. Good morning, Maddy. What’s up? Thanks for the membership. Dude, Alan. What’s up dude, you guys are awesome. Awesome, awesome, awesome. Nonstop. Nonstop fun over here. Shelby. What’s up girl?
Shelby Neal (00:27):
Hey, how are you?
Sevan Matossian (00:29):
I’m amazing. I’m stoked. I’m happy. I’m excited. You’re one of my favorite of all time,
Shelby Neal (00:36):
Really,
Sevan Matossian (00:37):
Dude, I love me since Shelby. Neil,
Shelby Neal (00:41):
It’s good to see you again.
Sevan Matossian (00:42):
Yeah, good to see you too. What’d you say?
Shelby Neal (00:46):
We missed you in the east. You weren’t there.
Sevan Matossian (00:48):
Yeah. Yeah. I was watching from home rooting for you. Could you tell I was rooting for you?
Shelby Neal (00:56):
Yeah, yeah. Going to always tell,
Sevan Matossian (00:58):
Hey, how were the boys? How were Rios and Will Branstetter? Did you meet him? The dudes with the cameras filming for the Seon podcast?
Shelby Neal (01:06):
I did, yeah. I forget who I met. Now I know what he looks like, but I forgot his name as soon as he told me it, and I feel terrible, but,
Sevan Matossian (01:13):
And Su was there and Susa was there too. Matt Susa. Yes.
Shelby Neal (01:17):
I think I met Suzu.
Sevan Matossian (01:19):
Su. Yeah. I like that. I met Suzu is a good dude.
Shelby Neal (01:24):
He was awesome.
Sevan Matossian (01:26):
Shelby is a beast with a big heart. Hell yeah. Welcome back Shelby. Neil. Hey, you look great, right? You
Shelby Neal (01:37):
Happy? Yeah. At Easter.
Sevan Matossian (01:39):
Yeah. And now you look good now too, but in the east, I mean in the east you were a beast.
Shelby Neal (01:44):
Yeah, we were pleasantly, not surprised, but just happy with the performance. It went great. We were kind of thinking anywhere from fifth was possible to just under the cut line. In my head at least that’s what I was thinking is that’s definitely a possible place for me. And then to get fifth is like, wow, that’s best case scenario. We just executed perfect everything we thought best case scenario that could happen just happened and then there we were top five. It was sick.
Sevan Matossian (02:16):
Hey, how old are you, Shelby?
Shelby Neal (02:18):
I’m 24 now.
Sevan Matossian (02:20):
You were on the show once before and we did a long interview. Tia, Claire Toomey, Alexis Rap, Emma Lawson. Crazy. Those girls were in your division. Yeah. Then Danielle, Brandon, Haley, Adams, Brooke, Wells, Paige, Samza, Chloe Gvo, David, Carolyn Stanley, Amanda, Barnhart, Fifi, dude,
Shelby Neal (02:48):
Lots of great athletes
Sevan Matossian (02:51):
And Carolyn Privo and hey. And a lot of those people didn’t make Caroline Spencer and a lot of these girls didn’t make it.
Shelby Neal (02:58):
Yeah. Yeah. Annika Greer too.
Sevan Matossian (03:03):
Annika Greer. And you’re sitting in fifth place in between Danielle, Brandon and Haley Adams. Dude, you got to be stoked. I know you’re not supposed to compare yourself, but let’s just do it for a second.
Shelby Neal (03:13):
I was pretty happy. Definitely. It was slightly unexpected, but we were trying to do our best. So not unexpected.
Sevan Matossian (03:21):
Five foot two.
Shelby Neal (03:24):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (03:26):
When you’re out there, do you feel shorter than the other athletes? Smaller than them? You’re like, Ooh, I thought mass moved mass.
Shelby Neal (03:31):
I’m pretty big, even though I am five two, I I’m like average weight. I’d say a little even above average. I’m one 50, so I definitely move weight pretty well, even though I’m maybe shorter.
Sevan Matossian (03:45):
So for five two, you’ve got good body composition for the sport.
Shelby Neal (03:48):
Yeah, I’m very dense. I think a lot of people think I look small, but I’m very heavy. A bowling ball.
Sevan Matossian (03:56):
Bowling ball. Shelby. No, we’re not going to go with that. Okay. 2015, is that the first year you entered the open
Shelby Neal (04:07):
Perhaps? Yeah, that sounds about right.
Sevan Matossian (04:10):
And so that was nine or 10 years ago and you said you were 24?
Shelby Neal (04:15):
Well, I’m 24 now. I was 15
Sevan Matossian (04:18):
That
Shelby Neal (04:18):
Year.
Sevan Matossian (04:19):
Yeah, if we do the math. Yeah. Crazy. And then 2016, 17, 18, 19, 20, you take a break. Did you take a break in 20? What happened in 20?
Shelby Neal (04:29):
I don’t even know. I don’t remember honestly. I think it was like Covid or something like that.
Sevan Matossian (04:34):
Oh, I like you even more. Usually the athletes are like, well, 2020 and then they have a 15 minute story I like even. Okay. And then 2021, back on the horse, 2022, back on the horse. 23, 24. 24. This year you’re obviously going to the games and last year you went to the games. So this is your second year?
Shelby Neal (04:56):
Yeah. Not a rookie anymore, which is pretty cool to make it back two years in a row. I’d say
Sevan Matossian (05:02):
In 2022 You just missed it.
Shelby Neal (05:05):
Yeah, one no two spots out, but only a few points out. It was between me, Kelly Clark and Rebecca Aire and we all were fighting for it. And then Rebecca got it and I was too away. I kind of didn’t do too well in the last event, but two spots out, whatever, less than 10 points out. Very close.
Sevan Matossian (05:26):
Yeah. That was the year that it was like 2 43, 2 40, 2 42, 2 43, 2 44 the points. So three of you were all one point away from each other and only one of you could go.
Shelby Neal (05:38):
Yeah. It was like whoever won that last event or beat the other was going to end up sneaking into the fifth spot.
Sevan Matossian (05:46):
Did you go back after that and look and be like, dude, if I would’ve just not scratch my butt right here, I would’ve finished crossed the finish line one second sooner and been going.
Shelby Neal (05:57):
Yeah. Yeah. I definitely look back at it and I’m like, oh, it sucks. But it definitely lit a fire under me a little bit. I remember distinctly doing that event and just watching out of the corner of my eye, seeing Rebecca and just letting her go. I just let her let her go. I let Kelly go. I didn’t believe in myself and believe that I could catch up to them once. They were kind of slightly out of reach. I just let them go and I deserved seventh to be honest.
Sevan Matossian (06:27):
Well, that’s very humble of you. I’m going to make a little bit of a presupposition here, but I think that Tia and Alexis and Emma go to the games. They go to semifinals and they’re like, okay, I’m going to the games. This is just something I just have to execute here. And then I’m going to the games and there’s not a lot of questions for them. It’s like a little more tension than maybe the open or the quarterfinals, but they know they’re going to the games. Let’s start at the open. When you did the open this year, did you know for sure you were going to the quarterfinals?
Shelby Neal (07:01):
Yes. Yeah, for sure.
Sevan Matossian (07:03):
You were like, Hey, I’m going to get through this and go to Quarters. And then when you did quarterfinals, did you know, Hey, I’m going going to do this. I’m going to do well, I’m going to make it.
Shelby Neal (07:13):
I felt pretty confident before, but then with the only four workouts thing and us knowing where I was at after the first two workouts, it was pretty, we weren’t in an amazing spot, and I think anyone would say that they take 40 and I think I was 27th or something after the first two workouts. And so I looked at my coach and I’m like, what’s going on? Did we just totally mess up? We were looking at my score versus some of the scores we knew from the west and the east was just stacked and we were just having a hard time fathoming how I was where I was at. And so we had kind of thought maybe you’d be 15th after the first two workouts. Nice and a nice comfortable spot. So I was a little bit shitting my pants for the workout three and four going in, and then we made it with comfort. And then once they looked at all the videos and stuff, I made it into the top 20 going into semis. But quarters was definitely not. It’s definitely, I think it’s the worst part of the season. It’s super stressful. It’s not really that fun. There’s no fun in competing by yourself at your gym. I’d rather be out on the floor and having fun, have the crowd. And that adrenaline of being out there is much more fun than doing it in your basement or something.
Sevan Matossian (08:33):
Did you say after two workouts, you were in 27th and then by the end you said you were in 20th?
Shelby Neal (08:39):
I think it was like 24th. It was like 27th ish, maybe even 32. It was like,
Sevan Matossian (08:45):
And they were only taking 40, so you’re getting close to the bottom.
Shelby Neal (08:49):
Yeah, yeah. They only took 40 and I was maybe even 30. Let’s just say 30. And then I moved into 20th, close to 25th, 27th or something. And then once they did video review, people just started dropping off the leaderboard like flies and it was, yeah, so I moved into 19th, which put me in the last heat or the best heat for that first workout at semi’s.
Sevan Matossian (09:13):
Speaking of people getting penalties, were you nail biting? Were you like, oh man, all these penalties are coming?
Shelby Neal (09:20):
Yeah, no, I was definitely nervous, but the first workout was the one everyone was getting penalties on and mine got approved pretty quickly. So once I was like, okay, once that one’s done, I don’t see them penalizing me on a clean and jerk for that max rep event. I don’t see it happening on any event, but the gymnastics one, and then that one also got approved pretty quick, so I was like, I’m feeling pretty confident. I move really well. I did it at Brent’s house and he’s very meticulous. He was
Sevan Matossian (09:49):
Checking, you went to Canada and he’s in Canada. You went to Canada? Yeah, I did. You went from the south to Canada?
Shelby Neal (09:54):
Yeah. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (09:57):
We’ll get back to that in a second. Let me read some of these killers in the east. Heck yeah. Yeah. You have siblings that look like you? No,
Shelby Neal (10:07):
No,
Sevan Matossian (10:08):
No. She is even unique in her own family, but not adopted,
Shelby Neal (10:14):
Allegedly.
Sevan Matossian (10:15):
Okay. Okay, fine. Jocelyn Strong. Let’s go
Shelby Neal (10:19):
Shelby. She goes to my gym. Yeah,
Sevan Matossian (10:21):
She liked you. Great things coming. Small packages. 2020 was the scan demic. All right, fair enough. Isn’t her coach a former games athlete? What’s your coach’s name? David.
Shelby Neal (10:33):
David. Yeah. He went to semis on a team once and he is a former Canadian weightlifter.
Sevan Matossian (10:39):
Okay. And a connoisseur of the tattoo.
Shelby Neal (10:43):
Yeah. Oh my god. Tons of tattoos. I think he might be getting a new one soon. We’ll see.
Sevan Matossian (10:49):
Jake Chapman. Is Shelby drinking from a jam jar. We have to get these games athletes some money. They can’t afford glasses or cups.
Shelby Neal (10:58):
Yeah, living in poverty.
Sevan Matossian (11:00):
Hey, that doesn’t bother you, that rim. My wife tried to introduce those and bring those into our house. I’m like, no, I can’t do that. You don’t mind that little rim on your lip. No, I
Shelby Neal (11:09):
Love it. I love it. And then you could put a jar top on it and take it to go.
Sevan Matossian (11:14):
Yeah, that’s the way I think she likes it. She likes it. She can put it in the car and drink it all day. Like something like a broth or so shit.
Shelby Neal (11:21):
Bone broth.
Sevan Matossian (11:22):
Yeah. Okay.
Shelby Neal (11:23):
That’s not, I don’t know about that.
Sevan Matossian (11:27):
Oscar. Hi Shelby. I’m your fan. You’re one of the fans. Don’t get all crazy. I’m your fan fan. Mason jars are not the best for drinks, but okay, if you’re on, and then, okay, so then you go to semifinals. What is the, and you made it to the games last year, but the previous year you were scarred a little bit. It couldn’t have been any closer that you didn’t make it.
Shelby Neal (11:56):
Oh my. Yeah,
Sevan Matossian (11:57):
Right. So this year you go. And what’s the thought process?
Shelby Neal (12:03):
The thought process? I think David was pretty confident that if we just did what we practiced, we were going to be solid and go through semis without any issue. And he was right. That’s what happened. So that’s good. But I think the alternate scenario of maybe not executing a workout well or letting my mental stuff get ahead of me or not eating enough stuff like that, it’s hard to predict how that’s going to go. And this is me and David’s first season together, so I think I was definitely, I think he believed in me. I was a little doubtful of like, is it all going to come together? We foretold on the game day. So
Sevan Matossian (12:46):
You open the weekend with the 15th, is that unsettling? Are you like, okay, that was damage control?
Shelby Neal (12:53):
No, I finished that workout and I was like, oh, I’m feeling pretty confident we’re qualifying for the games. I finished that workout and thought that’s going to be my lowest placing. And then I was right. Every single placing after that was just a little bit higher, a little bit higher. And then we knew day three was going to be kind of a banger. And it turned out kind of just as we thought, which was nice.
Sevan Matossian (13:16):
15th to 12th to 12th on day one and two. And then the last day had three workouts and you got a seventh. That was the snatch ladder?
Shelby Neal (13:25):
No, snatch ladder was second.
Sevan Matossian (13:28):
Oh, okay. That was the, oh shit. Wow.
Shelby Neal (13:31):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (13:32):
Holy cow. Okay, so then you go into the snatch ladder. What are your thoughts going into the snatch ladder? Did you know that that was your jam?
Shelby Neal (13:39):
I mean, David, your snatch is really good. We practiced. It went really well. I mean, I beat my score from when I practiced it, but when I told him my score, he was like, oh, that’s really good.
Sevan Matossian (13:52):
What was your score in practice?
Shelby Neal (13:54):
I think it was, let’s see,
Sevan Matossian (13:55):
Six. You have 5 31 at the event.
Shelby Neal (13:58):
I think it was like 6 0 4 or something, like 30 seconds slower.
Sevan Matossian (14:03):
And are you a gamer? You basically said you didn’t like the quarterfinals. If there was anything wrong with the quarterfinals, it’s not live. You like the adrenaline of the crowd and the pressure. Is that who you are when you think of yourself, get me on the floor with the other girls and Shelby will show up?
Shelby Neal (14:21):
Yeah, I think it’s nice visually being able to see where people are. And I’m not really sure if it plays to my strengths or if it just plays other people’s weaknesses, if that makes sense. If other people have a hard time, I’ve at least noticed that a lot of people have a hard time in person with people. They’ll go their pace when they’re alone, but then when they are competing against somebody, they’ll often slow down or they don’t think they can keep up. And I’ve been victim to that as well. It takes a lot of years to get over that mental hurdle and believe that you can beat a name like Tia Claire. To me, it’s very intimidating just being Shelby Neil and trying to beat somebody with that big of a name and thinking, oh crap, did I just kill myself? Am I blowing myself up right now? So yeah, I’m not really sure. I personally, now at the level I’m at now, I enjoy just going out there with everybody on the floor and having judges out there and just doing the thing. Kind of a normal competition personally. But
Sevan Matossian (15:23):
Who was in your heat in that snatch ladder? Were you in the final heat?
Shelby Neal (15:27):
Yeah, I sneaked into the final heat. Tia was there, Emma Lawson, I think. Emma Lawson.
Sevan Matossian (15:33):
You beat Emma Lawson by five tenths.
Shelby Neal (15:35):
Yeah, it was very one close one.
Sevan Matossian (15:40):
Did you know you beat her when you crossed the finish line or you didn’t know it was too close to tell?
Shelby Neal (15:43):
No, I literally finished and then I looked behind me and there’s five other people and I’m like, okay, maybe fourth or sixth. I had no idea. We all finished basically at the same time, except Tia was 30 seconds ahead of our kind of group.
Sevan Matossian (15:59):
Did you see her cross when you were out there on the final wait,
Shelby Neal (16:04):
I mean, yeah, she was kind of gone, not going to catch her.
Sevan Matossian (16:10):
Did you talk to these girls at all? Did you become friends with any of these girls?
Shelby Neal (16:15):
Yes. Yeah, everyone’s super nice and everyone’s always like, who’s not nice? Who should we root for? And I’m like, everyone’s nice. Nobody was mean. Sorry, I don’t have anything bad to say about anybody. I talked to Alexis and Emma a lot and I dunno, I really have more respect for them. They’re just super awesome. Not that I didn’t before, they’re just super awesome athletes and super nice people and I feel like our personalities, we got along really well, which was really cool.
Sevan Matossian (16:47):
And even though you’re young, Alexis is 25? Emma Lawson is 19. Haley Adams is 23. So there are some other very young girls out there like yourself?
Shelby Neal (17:01):
Yeah. Yeah, it’s cool. Kind of like a lot of people being around my age. That’s definitely nice to have. It’s easy to talk to them.
Sevan Matossian (17:10):
Avon, did you steal this format from the Dave Castro? I’m loving his new shorts. Yeah, his new shorts are great. Has Dave reached out to you?
Shelby Neal (17:17):
No. I don’t know if he’s going to,
Sevan Matossian (17:20):
He says he’s going to reach out to everyone. What do you mean? Why wouldn’t he reach out to you?
Shelby Neal (17:23):
I don’t know. I don’t know. I’m just a little doubtful. We’ll see.
Sevan Matossian (17:26):
Okay. I think he’s going to,
Shelby Neal (17:29):
I need a heads up. I need a two week heads up.
Sevan Matossian (17:32):
Oh, it sounds like I was watching the one with Saxon. It looks like Saxon got like 30 seconds notice.
Shelby Neal (17:40):
Really? Okay, cool. Some of us have jobs.
Sevan Matossian (17:43):
And what is your job?
Shelby Neal (17:45):
I’m an engineer. I work at a orthopedic company, so we do custom metal orthopedic implant design, which is exciting.
Sevan Matossian (17:55):
Hey, when I was a kid, I heard the leading cause of, are they prosthetics?
Shelby Neal (18:02):
No, not a prosthetic, like an orthopedic implant. Take bone out, put metal in short term
Sevan Matossian (18:09):
Like knee replacement or hip
Shelby Neal (18:12):
Replacement. Yeah, yeah, shoulder replacement, anything like that. Ankle replacement.
Sevan Matossian (18:17):
Alright. And what do you do there?
Shelby Neal (18:21):
I design implants or I also do process changes too.
Sevan Matossian (18:25):
So you’re on a computer that has some proprietary software and you’re like, Hey, we should change the hip implant to be like this?
Shelby Neal (18:33):
Yeah, we basically take CT scans from patients and we’ll design an implant based off of their anatomy. There’s no clear device that will work for them on the market, otherwise they’ll likely get an amputation or they’ll deal with some other really large health complications. So we try to help them out. Nothing else available for them.
Sevan Matossian (18:57):
Have you ever met one of the people that gets an implant that you work on?
Shelby Neal (19:01):
I wish. I think mostly the surgeons deal with the patient side. We’ll meet the surgeons quite often and sometimes we’ll hear stories about how the patients are doing. So we’ll get videos of the patients dancing or tap dancing and we fix their foot, save their foot being amputated. So that was pretty cool.
Sevan Matossian (19:19):
So they’re They’re custom prosthetics? A lot of them?
Shelby Neal (19:24):
Yeah. All
Sevan Matossian (19:24):
Custom or not prosthetics, sorry?
Shelby Neal (19:26):
Yeah, implants.
Sevan Matossian (19:27):
Implants, implants. They’ll be custom implants,
Shelby Neal (19:30):
Yeah. Yeah. We design it off their anatomy. We take their CT scan and turn it into a 3D model and then we’ll make an implant off of their exact bones so that it fits perfect.
Sevan Matossian (19:43):
So it’ll get sent somewhere after you and your team have designed it and then they’ll make a mold and then they’ll pour the mold and they’ll be like, here it is.
Shelby Neal (19:52):
No, it’s all 3D printed. We 3D print metal.
Sevan Matossian (19:55):
Wow.
Shelby Neal (19:57):
Yeah. Science.
Sevan Matossian (19:59):
Do you have the machines there? Do you see them being printed?
Shelby Neal (20:02):
Yeah, we have them. We make ’em all in-house. We have to work with vendors too to machine them and do other post-processing on them. But for the most part we do all the manufacturing.
Sevan Matossian (20:14):
Anything weird you’ve done? Have you guys ever made replaced a rib or
Shelby Neal (20:20):
No, if you lose a rib, you lose a rib, that’s not important.
Sevan Matossian (20:24):
Okay, okay. And what’s the weirdest thing you’ve done a piece of the skull. Have you ever done a piece of the skull?
Shelby Neal (20:30):
Yeah, that’s a pretty common one because you can’t just people if you lose a certain chunk of, our company doesn’t do that, but I’ve heard of that quite a bit. If you lose a certain piece, they don’t make every type of puzzle piece out there, so they’ll just design something that’ll fit in exactly that puzzle piece and then just plop it in there basically. And that’s the basics of what we do, I guess, is you cut bone out, you put metal in that fits the cuts that you plan, basically.
Sevan Matossian (20:59):
What’s the turnaround time on that? And do you ever get rush orders? Do you ever get like, Hey, this person needs this now?
Shelby Neal (21:05):
Yeah, well trauma patients, they’re literally bedridden sitting in the hospital waiting for something that’ll let them get out of bed, essentially. They might be in an X fixx, which an X fixx is kind of like it’s metal outside your skin that’s going in and holding it in place and it’s super uncomfortable and doesn’t seem like a normal thing that you would do. Honestly. It’s very weird.
Sevan Matossian (21:32):
It’s like a temporary implant.
Shelby Neal (21:34):
It’s an implant that’s also outside the body, so
Sevan Matossian (21:39):
Oh, I’ve seen those. You see the screws hanging out. Oh wow, wow.
Shelby Neal (21:42):
Yeah, it’s like a giant, a cage almost around your foot or your arm or wherever they put, honestly. So yeah, we try to rush stuff for those patients. Design a little bit quicker, but the manufacturing time, the design time’s about a week and then manufacturing’s anywhere from six to 12 weeks.
Sevan Matossian (22:07):
Is the printing process really slow?
Shelby Neal (22:10):
No, it’s more just post-processing. Takes some time.
Sevan Matossian (22:13):
What after it comes out, sanding off the rough edges or cleaning, treating the metal,
Shelby Neal (22:19):
Clean it before it goes in your body and sterilize it so you don’t get an infection and
Sevan Matossian (22:25):
Stuff like that. Crazy. So after quarter, when do you know that you’re going to go to Canada with the great kosky to do the semifinals?
Shelby Neal (22:35):
Nobody can say his name, right?
Sevan Matossian (22:38):
Well, he was on this show and he said that he met someone with the exact same last name and they said he’s been saying it wrong this whole time that his name is supposed to be Kosky. So I’m trying to,
Shelby Neal (22:48):
Well, he hasn’t told me that, so
Sevan Matossian (22:50):
Yeah, he doesn’t use it either.
Shelby Neal (22:52):
Okay.
Sevan Matossian (22:53):
But I’m trying to be different.
Shelby Neal (22:55):
I don’t know. I’ve been hearing it different pronunciations of it now I’m second guessing if I’m saying it right,
Sevan Matossian (23:01):
You can say it anyway. It’s such a fun name.
Shelby Neal (23:04):
Yeah, it’s kind of like legendary. He’s got a good name.
Sevan Matossian (23:10):
Yeah. When do you know, well, lemme go back even further. How did you end up with that coach David? How did you end up with the same coach that Brent Wakowski has?
Shelby Neal (23:19):
Yeah, so after Rogue I reached out to Brent. He had helped me at Rogue with a random movement, but we’d also just talked quite a bit, or just not even too much, but just little bits here and there. And I just really
Sevan Matossian (23:31):
In person at events,
Shelby Neal (23:33):
At the games and at Rogue. And I just felt like a weird, I dunno, connection to him. I was like, I feel like we have something good going and I’m looking for someone in his shoes, I guess someone with a lot of experience but isn’t really connected to a bigger camp. I wasn’t really interested in being one of many athletes that coaches in that community of, I don’t want to call any particular camps out, but a lot of them have multiple coaches and multiple athletes. And it’s kind of, in my opinion, a little bit strange when you’re competing, your coach has two athletes that are competing against each other, if that makes sense. So when I reached out to Brent, I was hoping he would take me on as an athlete and coach me. And then he said, I can’t really coach you if I’m also competing at the games. However, I could be your mentor and you can work with my coach David. And so I was like, oh, well, we will see how it goes. And it turns out it’s a great relationship. David’s awesome and Brent’s more of an assistant. We call him the assistant to the regional coach. He has a lot to add, but he’s not programming with me every single day.
Sevan Matossian (24:46):
And Brent was approachable?
Shelby Neal (24:49):
Oh yeah. He talks a lot. He’s super easy to talk to.
Sevan Matossian (24:57):
And when do you reach out to him? When was that that you reached out to him? I
Shelby Neal (25:01):
Want to say two weeks after Rogue or something like that. I think he messaged me about something, I can’t remember what it was. I think I left an Instagram comment on something and he responded, I think it was about Dubai. I asked a question about Dubai and he answered in our dms and he sent me paragraphs of here’s what movement they’re talking about, here’s a video of it. I was like, what is this movement? I’ve never seen this before. And so out of the goodness of his heart, just sent me a bunch of information about it trying to help me. And I was like, all you know what? I’ve been mean to reach out to this guy. And he just sent me all these messages, see, lemme poke the bear, lemme see if he’s interested in coaching.
Sevan Matossian (25:46):
And it worked.
Shelby Neal (25:47):
And it worked. Yeah. Yeah, he’s super awesome guy. He’s just, in my eyes, he’s like the golden athlete. I’m just trying to approach his level of perfection.
Sevan Matossian (26:01):
So that’s after Rogue and Rogue’s in October or November, something like that?
Shelby Neal (26:05):
Yes, October I think. Something like that.
Sevan Matossian (26:07):
Yeah. And then as you approach the open, is David already your coach? The open for 2024? That was already established?
Shelby Neal (26:16):
Yeah. Yeah. I think we had at least two months in 2023 and then continued into the next 2024. So yeah, it’s been eight months or something. Maybe that’s too long. I don’t know.
Sevan Matossian (26:31):
Did you have a coach before then?
Shelby Neal (26:34):
Yeah, yeah. Whitney Glynn, we talked
Sevan Matossian (26:36):
About her. Oh, that’s right. That’s right. That’s right. And so how do you switch coaches? What do you say to her?
Shelby Neal (26:42):
We just had a conversation and it wasn’t hard at all. It was very easy. And she still coaches at my gym in Raleigh. She’s the head coach there. So we are friendly. We see each other all the time. She definitely roots for me and wants me the best for me. She’s like building her family, and so she’s spending a little more time with that. And so that’s kind of why we both mutually agreed it was better to move on, I guess.
Sevan Matossian (27:08):
And she was a games athlete also a couple times,
Shelby Neal (27:10):
Right? Yeah, three years. And she won the master’s division two or three years ago in the 35. 39. So super fit, super well-versed.
Sevan Matossian (27:23):
Does David have any other athletes besides you and Brent?
Shelby Neal (27:27):
He does have athletes, I think. Not games level or semis level, besides Allison Scuds that I know of. He’s got other team athletes, I think maybe at the semis level,
Sevan Matossian (27:40):
But I don’t, and Austin trains over there with underdogs, but David’s her coach,
Shelby Neal (27:44):
At least the last thing I’ve heard. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (27:47):
Okay. And then so when do you realize, okay, what’s the process of going to Canada? What’s the thought process of doing it there with Brent?
Shelby Neal (28:00):
Well, it’s kind of just to get another rep in with David in a live competition, because I mean, he’s a remote coach, so I’ve been doing remote coaching with him. I’ve never actually met David. I saw him at Rogue, he looks familiar, but I had never actually met him. I had only met Brent. So it’s like, okay, I need to meet David. So I went and visited David in Winnipeg for two weeks and we trained together and that was good. We hadn’t done
Sevan Matossian (28:28):
That was prior to Rogue?
Shelby Neal (28:31):
No, that was after Rogue. After Rogue,
Sevan Matossian (28:33):
Okay.
Shelby Neal (28:33):
Yeah. So I visited him and then we hadn’t done a real competition together. And so that’s what quarters was. It was a little practice of game day with a new coach and a new environment and also practice skills like altogether with Brent and David.
Sevan Matossian (28:54):
So you went out there for quarters. Okay. And so you went out there for quarters to see him? He was with Brent to get some practice like in-person coaching. I’m trying to think. Somewhere I saw you carrying a yolk. Oh, here it is.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
Back on the yolk.
Sevan Matossian (29:13):
Is this there? Is this there at Quarterfinals?
Speaker 3 (29:18):
No, not far enough. Not far enough. Not far enough. One more foot. One more foot. Good. Back to the start. He was
Shelby Neal (29:29):
Pulling me all week.
Sevan Matossian (29:31):
So did you stay after quarterfinals for this or is this before quarterfinals?
Shelby Neal (29:40):
This was after. So we got through quarters and then we had three days to train. And the idea was just get a bunch of skill work in and get technical in person rather than trying to do it remotely. It’s a lot harder to do technique work like that.
Sevan Matossian (29:55):
Were you in the room when Brent did his quarterfinals?
Shelby Neal (29:58):
Yeah. Yeah.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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