S01E12 - NOBULL CrossFit Games 2021 Recap

Our next episode is about the NOBULL CrossFit Games 2021. We discuss highlights of watching the pro athletes, what is was like to attend the games live, and what we can take away from the experience as athletes ourselves.

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TRANSCRIPT
S01E11 CF GAMES RECAP 

[00:00:00] David Syvertsen: All right. Welcome back to the herd fit podcast with Dr. Sam Rhee and myself, coach Dave Syvertsen. Today we're going to talk about the CrossFit games, 2021 noble CrossFit games. Coach Sam was there as a speck.  

[00:00:12] Sam Rhee: Did anyone expect anything else?  

[00:00:15] David Syvertsen: And, and Sam actually did something that a lot of people don't do. 

He went really early in the week and watch the masters in teams. I'm I believe this is the first year the games set up the format in this way, where the games the masters in teens, the age groups competed before the open division by open division is like the real CrossFit games athletes. And I think part of that was to give. 

The masters and teens, they're their own platform, where they were the only show in town. They got to use the main platforms the big field, the main arena, rather than in the past, they used to put them like in the back of a warehouse, which, you know, kind of piss a lot of them off, but whatever And then later on in the week, that's when the, the actual games that you would see, you know, kind of make your weekend around watching that's that was the later on. 

So Sam, when just kind of like start to touch on the week from start to finish, like just like big picture, and then we'll get a little bit more specific. Like what day you went out, you know, and kind of like, what was your daily routine out  

[00:01:13] Sam Rhee: there? So I got out there. I left, I think Monday night and I got there. 

So I was able to watch events. Or did I leave on Tuesday? Anyway, they run from Tuesday, Wednesday all the way through, yeah, just the Wednesday, Thursday. Yeah. So I actually, I think I got out there to Tuesday and was able to see a little bit that Tuesday afternoon, ish evening. The, the nice thing about it is that the teens and the masters, like you said, they were performing, they did their events. 

In the Coliseum, which is the indoor part, the main arena, the main arena. And then they were also able to do their outdoor events in the stadium, which is also the main stadium in the past. They had this big warehousey area, which is where the teens and masters competed this year. They converted that into a fan workout experience, like the assault fan workout experience huge. 

You could sign up, you could work out. I didn't. I I just watch people work out. Right. That was my experience was just watching people work out this week. I think that it was a really positive experience. I managed to talk to a number of teens and masters there, and I think that they had. A very positive experience in terms of being a competitor, being an athlete still slightly different, but you were able to watch pretty much almost every event. 

If you wanted to, that they competed  

[00:02:36] David Syvertsen: in how easy was it to kind of track the schedule and like, did you have a schedule on your phone? Are there physical, like Han documents that you could. Kind of see you, who is going to competing, where at what time, what the events were, they  

[00:02:49] Sam Rhee: had an app that was the only thing you could really use. 

They had them listed out, but it was really general. So if you wanted to watch men's 35 to 39, you would check the app. You would look and see. Times were, and they were pretty accurate for the most part. For me personally, I loved watching most of the events in Colosseum. Cause you're sitting closer. 

You're really close. You have a room reserved seat, right? So you know where you're going to be. The outdoor stadium is huge and it's like a football field and you could get out there, but you might not necessarily see everything. Right. The rig is on one side of the field. If you want to sit next to that, you could, but then you wouldn't necessarily see them finishing on the other side when they run  

[00:03:33] David Syvertsen: over. 

And if you're too, if you're next to the rig, you really only see the people like right in front of you. It's such a, it's hard to get a full like macro  

[00:03:40] Sam Rhee: level. Yeah. It's such a big rig. You're right. You might see the three or four next to you, but then if you wanted to see yeah. Number 10, right? Or 15 down on the other side. 

You, you, you have no idea.  

[00:03:51] David Syvertsen: I listen to Castro, talk about programming, the games and regionals and how much thought he puts into the events, but also how fan friendly it is to watch. Right. Like we're in the Colosseum. It's very easy to see how far someone is. You can see all the athletes at once. It's more condensed. 

And the actual, the format of seating in an arena, indoor arena is really set up for you to see the center of the, of the court. That's how a lot of these stadiums are built now. Like every seat is angled towards the middle of that court or baseball field, where on that football field. You really, you're kind of to, you have to have like the perfect view from the perfect spot to be able to see everything in terms of how far into the workout they are, because I've been to cross a competitions were on a local level and you have no idea who's winning. 

You're just watching a bunch of people work out where in these settings, they put a lot of thought into setting it. To be fan friendly enough that you know exactly who's in first, who's in last, who's an eighth and then, but you need to be able to see everyone. And I can understand that the arena is probably a little bit more friend friendly from that. 

Yeah.  

[00:04:56] Sam Rhee: Cm drama, all the really dramatic finishes. All of the emotional finishes. The, the back and forth between athletes, you saw that up close and personal in the Coliseum. When, you know, for example, heavy clean event, like nobody CA I mean, so the, the thing is, is if you don't have have money to pay for Colosseum tickets, you will still get a pretty reasonable experience sitting out by the stadium. 

You can still get pretty close to the athletes. You want to get close to on some of the run stuff or some of the other things, but there's nothing like being in the Coliseum. Watching them come in, struggled to hit that lift. Yeah. And then come out, do it again. And they're just neck and neck with somebody and you just see them. 

Yeah. That's, that's pretty exciting. That's really  

[00:05:42] David Syvertsen: intense now. So you, you, I was texting you throughout the week and weekend. I was trying not to bother you too much, but Hey, I didn't mind. I wanted to, you know, just get some thoughts because I was watching from a computer as best I could. And there's certain things you just can't get a feel for, or I miss them because of work. 

You, you, you had said something that stood out to me, how, you know, there was such a blend of this, had a small comp feel, a small local comp field, but you also knew you were at the games. Can you touch on that a little bit?  

[00:06:09] Sam Rhee: Yeah. So make no mistake. Endeavor. Right. I took a backstage tour and they had over 45 truckloads of equipment from rogue in a warehouse. 

And it was literally squat racks, iron barbells, hundreds of assault, bikes, everything you could possibly think of in this place. So. As a logistics nightmare. So crazy. Impressive. Yeah. In addition, all of the staff members, like the volunteers, the people rolling out each bar bell, like in between events. 

Amazing. But on the other hand, if you were an athlete, the way you warm up, where you're sitting, athlete control areas, come out, what, you know, the way you work out. It could be a really big local comp really. Right. You know, and you're right there with your fans. You can say anything you want to your athlete, if you want. 

Right. And they'll probably hear you, you know, I mean, there were some really vocal fans who really pulled for either Daniel, Brandon, or no Olson or Katherine Davis or whomever it is. They'll see you they'll, they'll wave to you. It was funny, you know, I recorded this video, right. And I'll a bonus video that we'll we'll post on, hurt fit, hopefully this week. 

[00:07:30] David Syvertsen: And  

[00:07:31] Sam Rhee: Like, for example, one of my biggest follows was James Hobart. Cause you know, I, he was my Lyn staff who did my  

[00:07:39] David Syvertsen: Alto. Yeah. Yup.  

[00:07:40] Sam Rhee: Great guy. He's done everything right. He's competed on teams. He's with rich Froning, he's competed as an individual. He's the red shirt that you see on every demo video. 

Yup. Really humble guy. And so. For the one rep max he's, he's standing out there and you'll see me on the video and I'm like, James, and he's like looking around like,  

[00:08:00] David Syvertsen: who is that guy? He's like, but he's still nice. He's like, all right, cool.  

[00:08:06] Sam Rhee: And and he, I loved his one rep max natural. See it cause his first lift and his last lift. 

Perfect exactly the same. Yep. I got to talk to his wife, Cassandra. Cool. Which was really cool. That's really cool. Yeah. So I definitely recommend getting there early. I would say the differences between teens masters and the individuals one is yeah, definitely less well attended. Yes, for sure. And there are some things like, you know, do I want to see the 65 plus skies hit, you know, a one rep max snatch. 

No, I don't. I really don't because it was honestly ugly as hell. Yeah. But that being said, it's still impressive that they're doing sure. I love the fact that the adaptive athletes were out there. Some of the best, most emotional moments were watching these guys compete. Yeah. Wheelchairs missing arms, lower extremity, upper extremity, neuromuscular. 

That CrossFit saw fit to include these athletes is so inspiring. Was that during  

[00:09:06] David Syvertsen: the masters and teens? Yes. They fit it  

[00:09:08] Sam Rhee: all in early in the week. Yeah. So, yeah. So you would have to probably make some choices about some of that stuff if you wanted to watch it. But I will say they're, they should continue to include it and they should continue to highlight it because I think that a lot of people who have. 

Issues with their low terminal, upper extremity neuromuscular should know that fitness is not part. It can still be part of your life and you should still be a super healthy fit person. And I will tell you, these athletes were amazing. Amazing. I got to talk to one of them, Amy bream, who Every time. 

I see the video over again of her, you know, working on this ground to overhead friggin makes me cry every single time. Right. And so I would say if you want to see Great people competing. And I end for example, the 15 year old Olivia curse center, 2 0 2 snatch  

[00:10:00] David Syvertsen: 2 0 2, 15 year old  

[00:10:03] Sam Rhee: girl. Right. That was the bit that was the heaviest snatch. 

Any woman athlete, individual masters, teens hit, no one had hit big. I think the biggest one rep was 200. For the individuals. Wow. So she out lifted. I know granted, like the individuals had like 14 events. Yeah. And then yeah. But still for her to do that. Amazing. Wow.  

[00:10:26] David Syvertsen: Yeah. So when we, when you said that you watch the 65 plus year old snatch, and yes, it's, it's in more often than not, it's not going to be pretty Do, did you see that similar feel with the teens? 

Because I, you know, I actually get less concerned about someone that's 65 and snatch. And like I say, like if you're doing it more power to you, I know I'm no nonsense, no, they have good form, but teens a little bit more. I think that I'm always worried about the stability with teens.  

[00:10:50] Sam Rhee: I did see one 15 year old. 

He really hurt his elbow on a snatch. I talked to him a little bit. It happens too.  

[00:10:57] David Syvertsen: I mean, that happened to Brooke Wells, you know? Yeah. We'll talk about that a little bit. Wow. But that's, that's one thing that I'm a few people have asked me about teens competing in CrossFit and I'm all about it. As long as it's programmed responsibly, because you know, part of me is the conservative part of me says they're still growing. 

They haven't really gained a lot of stability, but then when I watched some of them. 15 16, 17 year olds. I'm like, they, they moved better than I do. They know really well. And they, again, training background. I remember there was one girl. I want to say Sophie, Sophie shaft. I think her name is, I think she's 16, one of the top six senior roles. 

And she has a really high end gymnastics background where I want to say from the age seven to 12, that's like all she did and she got to a really high level. So again, when you're looking at someone that's 15, 16, it's like, oh, like maybe my 15, 16 year old can do. Yeah. No again, you have to go rewind probably 5, 6, 7 years to see what they were doing in those  

[00:11:48] Sam Rhee: previous years. 

I mean, Honestly, if I was a 16 year old basketball phenom, what's my risk of injury at that point, pretty high actually versus a 16 year old. CrossFitter right. The other thing is, is you look at the top young CrossFitters in the individual side, on the elite side, who were they? They were all people who competed on the teen side. 

You look at a mallow, Brian, you look at Macquarie, you look at G marrows, like those guys. Top team. It's true. And they're all. Yeah, they're developing very well, really well. And they're, and you're right though. Their coaches have focused on technique and even Justin Madeiros, I think he was a teen's athlete when he competed as well. 

Yeah. I think the future actually lies in the teens. If you want to see the future superstars, you watch those top teams. That's where you want to go. You want, you want to watch those guys because one, their technique is flawless. Two. They are incredibly athletic. And when you look at a an Emma, Carrie, and she's been CrossFitting for four or five, six years, that's as much as Danielle, Brandon has been at age 20 when she started right. 

Yeah. I definitely think the teens are actually going to be they're going to be more and more popular once you start seeing them come up. It's almost like watching like a minor league baseball. That's exactly what I was going to say. If you want to, if you want to see the future of CrossFit, you're going to watch those guys. 

Cause you're gonna watch some powerhouses early. Right. It'd be like, I saw them when they were starting to develop. That's really cool. Yeah.  

[00:13:18] David Syvertsen: Yeah. I think that's another reason why, why cross it making the decision to put the teens before. The the open division. I think that's the way to go because it really does. 

It kind of, it gives them their time to shine where if they were all competing at the same time. You just want to have been able to see them? No, absolutely not. And it's because again and all the respect, I mean, Hey, I'm a masters athlete. Like all the respect to masters in that athletes and teens, you know, if they're going on at the same time as the normal games, you're not going to watch them. 

Nope. You're not, you know, you're just not, you know, just like we don't, you don't watch minor league baseball, you watch major league baseball. Right, right. You don't watch. Division one AA football, you watch division one football, and if they're going on at the same time. So, that's that's, I think that was another good move for cross it, to put them, you know, a few days before I think logistically it worked out for them. 

You know, I don't know if it's financially it was more expensive, but I think this thing is so big now that they should be able to stick to that now, trying to compare the masters in teens or at the age to the open division. The spectators are obviously a lot different. Was there a different level of intensity? 

Was there a different level of preparation? Like, were you able to see these guys warm  

[00:14:28] Sam Rhee: up at all? No. So there's no warm because they have a warm-up area that's closed off in the corral, out inside the Coliseum, which you don't get to see. Out on the stadium, there's a separate area, whereas a warmup, which I did see, I was able to see it on the back stage tour. 

And it has everything that you would want. Right. They do treat the teens and masters. Well, like I would say like any individual, they outfitted them the same way. Yeah. I think I've heard pat podcasts, like the masters chatter, where they said, you know, the initial swag and setup and all that were the same. 

The only difference is, is that when you run the individual. They have multiple heats and they usually run like 10 or 20. Like when the teens and masters ran their events, they were spaced out sort of on the floor all at the same time. So it was a little more complicated if you wanted to watch multiple people to see how they were doing, because they had more athletes on the floor running. 

[00:15:30] David Syvertsen: Simultaneously. And that the numbers probably dictated that. I would assume between the teens and masters, they had a lot more athletes, just like a higher number of athletes that had to get their competing in. Yes. Where for the weekend, for the games, they probably had a little more flexibility to lengthen things out, AKA do less heats, make them smaller so that you can see more people because you don't need to get as many people in. 

[00:15:52] Sam Rhee: Yes. And the announcement, obviously, you know, the announcing and all that. Yeah. Is different because they don't know as many of the athletes as you would, all the individuals. Right. Right.  

[00:16:01] David Syvertsen: Was there a DJ for like someone on the money? It  

[00:16:03] Sam Rhee: was, there was, there was usually at least one or two who would actually, you know, it was the same as like Kiki there. 

It was the same people. Yeah. If you  

[00:16:11] David Syvertsen: just don't know them by sight  

[00:16:12] Sam Rhee: as easily, right. But I definitely think there were more names on the 35 to 39. Right. So I would say there was more attendance for those, for sure. And the announcers recognize them more. I think, but the heats ran in larger groups and faster. 

It's a little bit harder to tell, but I have to say the fact that they did commit to I think they recorded and televised pretty much. Almost all the masters. Yeah. I  

[00:16:39] David Syvertsen: mean, when I was available, when I had free time, I would, I would turn it on my phone or the computer. And I was at any point I was able to watch, you know, an event that was  

[00:16:49] Sam Rhee: going on at that time. 

Right. And the events were very similar to the individuals, you know, scale to a certain degree. Yeah. But not much, especially for the older teens and the younger masters  

[00:16:59] David Syvertsen: like that. That w that wall walk thrust. I want to ask you about that. Once we go into the wall, walk thrusts, or workout 10 down to one, we did it here at bison, but we did the online virtual games version, which basically meant. 

The barbell was 95, 65 for the games. I believe it was 180 5, 1 35 pound thrusters. Yup. But I noticed that the masters division did that same exact weight, but the rescue team was 10, 8, 6, 4 2, not 10, 9, 8. So that was 30 reps of both movements rather than 55. Yeah. So they did try to have a lot of, not all, but some of the events that had the similar flavor  

[00:17:36] Sam Rhee: to it. 

Yeah. And I think some of that is just. Capability, right? Yeah. I'm absolutely when you're testing Vellner for Koski and. Modaris yeah. Like, listen, you know, James Hobart and Adrian Conway, Casper. Yeah. Calc house. They're really good athletes, but they're not as  

[00:17:54] David Syvertsen: good. No, you have to be honest about that. And again, this is actually a lesson, right? 

These guys are 35 to 39 games athletes. And if you talk to anyone in the CrossFit space, you know, those games athletes are probably a notch below the normal games athletes, but still top one of the top 1% in the world in that age group. And. That, that that's an example of chasing after a stimulus right there stimulus in that workout was the same as Madeiros and for Koski and Vellner. 

But what they did was they had to as a scaled back version, right? So like, do those guys at the games like, oh, I did the scaled back version of that workout. No, you, you did this. You did the workout that achieved the same stimulus. And even on that level, guys, it's the same exact thing. We have a couple of workouts this week coming up at bison. 

You're going to have to chase after the stimulus, not the RX, not the time, not the score.  

[00:18:44] Sam Rhee: Okay. Especially at that age, those guys they're just as strong for sure. You look at their number, their strength numbers. They're right up there. It's just how much volume can you pile on a 38 year old versus a 20 year old? 

[00:18:58] David Syvertsen: That's just real difference. Now, the crowd, right. You've been to you're a big duke basketball fan. Yeah. This past weekend, a duke basketball player, a big Michigan football fan. And you've been to these, these Stadiums and arenas before to watch games, right? Yeah. Yeah. Obviously you can't compare 110,000 people watching a football game to the CrossFit games, but did it have like the CrossFit games the weekend? 

Did it have a similar feel to that? Like just like the roaring crowd? Yeah. The energy in the room.  

[00:19:26] Sam Rhee: Absolutely frigging  

[00:19:27] David Syvertsen: amazing fence created. This one, right? Max snatch, the run  

[00:19:31] Sam Rhee: clean. I mean, honestly, anything where you had a close finish at the end. Yeah. Just frigging electrified the crowd, especially in the Coliseum. 

I mean the outside stadium also really full crowds, real a lot of roar. Yeah. But it's just really big. Yeah. You know, it's not as, it's not as aesthetically loud. Right, exactly. And And so there, but there were still, but the close finishes still generated a lot of assignments, but the most excitement I ever would be getting with any of the clothes finishes right. 

At the end of any event inside the Coliseum. So the run heavy clean event. Yeah. Madeira was just, just squeezed out and vulner and McCalsky just, you know, or dropped the heavy clean at the end, right? Like just like seconds. Yeah. Or, you know, obviously the, the most emotional stuff like Annie hitting her 200 pounds snap. 

Right. Or you know, any of those events. The crowd is packed. It's electric, the cheering is just crazy. That's really cool. That's  

[00:20:35] David Syvertsen: like something that I want to go as a fan and just experience what it feels like to be in the stands, watching that because. I've seen that all the time in basketball, baseball, football, but in the cross, his face, I just think it'd be a, it would have a different feel too, because of how much you can relate to what they're doing. 

Yes. Right? Like you can't relate to LeBron James dunking, a basketball, right? Like you can relate to that guy. Using some outside energy to get the  

[00:20:58] Sam Rhee: lift up. Yes. There's so much emotion involved too. And you know, you know, these guys are leaving it all out there and so you can't help, but when you see someone do that and you just see them nosing out, somebody else, like boy that just sends chills up your  

[00:21:13] David Syvertsen: back. 

Yeah. Now w w give me one event that you, so other than the clean room, Other than the one at max snatch, what was one event that you either just love to watch from an entertainment perspective or something that just caught your attention because of the actual event?  

[00:21:29] Sam Rhee: The free standing handstand pushup one, it's going to always open up like that was. 

Yeah, it was just a crap show. Yeah. Like on so many levels. So, you know, this is weird.  

[00:21:42] David Syvertsen: Yeah. I don't, I don't want to get the workout wrong, but the workout had heavy deadlifts that went up and reps I'm talking. I think for guys it was four or five, four or five girls, three 15 to 72 75. And the reps were going up and up and up, like sets of 10, 12, 14, 6, 10, 14, 6, 10, 14. 

Yeah. And in between they had to do handstand pushups, but yeah. They had a, a mat on the ground that they had the handstand walk, freestanding, handstand, pushup, bring themselves back down, get back to another line. Another freestanding, freestanding, handstand pushup. And from the spectators perspective, especially online, it looked off. 

From the respect that there's just so many people that couldn't do it. Yeah. But there were a few that could do it. And again, a CrossFit is huge on testing, new things, the unpredictable, and it freaks people out every year when Castro programs don't like this. Suck it up. It's going to be there all the time. 

But from a fan's perspective, it probably was a little tough to watch because if you're going to watch a bunch of people just fail, fail, fail, it immediately becomes less entertaining and almost like you feel bad for them.  

[00:22:48] Sam Rhee: Well, the good thing is, is that on the women's side, Andy Thor's daughter was able to pull up. 

I forget a high place or a fin or a win. And that was really exciting. Yeah. You're just rooting the crowd. Love, sir. Oh my God. So much. On the other side it was Modaris and Vellner, and Vellner just eat it out. Right. So any close finish is good, but you're right when you're first watching it and you're watching elite athletes. 

Falling struggling, fail, failing, like not getting past even a first set of them. Yeah. You're what it really shows you is one being able to. Be a games, man. Like there's there's there's fitness. And then there's figuring out crap on the fly and being able to look at this and say, okay, what is it that I'm supposed to do? 

Because I remember hearing a podcast or two, like they explained it and nobody understood what a good rep versus a bad rep was. Right. But then when you see them figuring it out with their judge, as you go, and you're like, oh, okay. So if you crash down on your leg, But you keep your arms up. Yeah, you're good. 

I mean, your feet up and you're not touching the ground. That's okay. Yeah. And some athletes were able to figure that out and some weren't and to me, I was like, this is impossible. So  

[00:24:00] David Syvertsen: w you, you were in the stands, right? Yeah. I actually had a little hard time understanding what the standard was on the wall. 

And like, I was watching the commentators, I think, I think one of them got it wrong. Yeah. It was something about touching your head to the line, then going back up and walking to the next line, whatever. And Do they, how easy was it for you to understand what the standard was in the stands? You don't have an announcer. 

[00:24:22] Sam Rhee: I had no idea. You're just watching. I'm just watching. And then I'm just like, oh, okay. They advanced that person. But not that, but not, not that one. And the main thing was being able to rest in the bottom position with your feet. Not touching to me. That's what it seemed like. The standard ultimately became. 

And then you can just go up and there was some  

[00:24:39] David Syvertsen: confusion with the athletes too. There's a couple, I think Madera was trying to have even gotten screwed over with that.  

[00:24:44] Sam Rhee: What happened with him was the problem is it's so loud in there and you can't, you can't see your judge, right? You don't know where the fuck they said good or bad. 

So you just do it, you go forward. Right. And he didn't know that his judge had no repped him on one. Right. So he just kept moving. And so then he thought he was done, but he actually had gotten a no rep on one, but he didn't hear it or see it or see it. And so he just got up and started going. He was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. 

And so, so it was a, it was a crap show even  

[00:25:15] David Syvertsen: on that level, right? Yeah. On the sport level, on the highest sport level, you see a ton of no reps, right? The judges out there are like, if anyone out here thinks we're strict. Like real judging, like you probably saw no reps, every single, every single event, multiple times  

[00:25:30] Sam Rhee: tons. 

And they're really, really good judges. Yes. Like these are the, like the elite of the elite. You have to  

[00:25:36] David Syvertsen: pass tests to  

[00:25:37] Sam Rhee: be a judge at the game. I will tell you one of the best examples was the. The snatch, there's a tie break. Yeah. That you had to do if you did your one rep. Right. And then if you fail, like the people who failed would go over to the side. 

Three touch and go snatches for time and then run over the line. Right? Right. So Danielle, Brandon did hers and she got no repped for one. Yeah. So she, it looked like from our perspective, she did four, right. Because she got to know rep and then we're like, and so the whole Coliseum was like, Boom, boom. 

And then, right. And then they showed the replay and they showed Danielle, Brandon on her first snatch, like go up, but not lock out and come down. Like she was like was more like, yeah, that happens a lot, like a cycle,  

[00:26:30] David Syvertsen: but like this much, yeah. Something that you would always get away with  

[00:26:33] Sam Rhee: in your gym, always all the time under that kind of pressure, the judge was like, no rep. 

Yeah. And we watched it and we're like, Oh, how the hell did that guy see that so quickly? Yeah,  

[00:26:46] David Syvertsen: that's respond to it. She was  

[00:26:47] Sam Rhee: good. She was fine. Yeah. I mean, especially after you see the videos like that, it's a no rep proof is right there. Yeah. So I got to tell you those judges were amazing even  

[00:26:56] David Syvertsen: on that level. 

I just think, and again, you're trying to go so fast in the sport. Like I do think in the sport, you try to get away with everything you can not from a cheating perspective. But like, you know, when you're working out here, like you hold the top of thrust, so you stop for a second, make sure you did it. Okay. 

Now bring it back down there. Like you go, oh no, no,  

[00:27:12] Sam Rhee: no, they're cutting as, as quick as they can. And every now and then if they get it, if they pick up a new rep on a thruster or something, then they know to do it for a hasp. Yes. Trust me. If they, they will, all at that level at those athletes are trying to keep it as fast as possible too. 

And they will, they will. Just like,  

[00:27:31] David Syvertsen: especially on the elbow lockout movements, I get so subtle so quick.  

[00:27:34] Sam Rhee: Absolutely. And those athletes, it's totally fine. If you get to know a rep fine, you just keep moving and you just hang it for a millisecond longer, but you don't do it for more than you have to. We've  

[00:27:43] David Syvertsen: done that before. 

Right. We've talked about what competitors can learn from people in health and health can live from competitors. I think. Something you learned from watching the games is it's okay. If you got to know rep absolutely. It's not an insult. It's not a, you're not good. It's not, you're not, you're not trying hard enough. 

It's just an unbiased outside voice saying, Hey, you didn't do what you thought you did. So fix it for the next time and that's it. There there's no, there's no personality behind it. There's no agenda. There's no extra thought. It's like it it's, you make things as black and white as possible as objective as possible, you got the rapper get dinner and on the games, you very rarely will see someone flip out at the games for getting no rep because they know they're on that  

[00:28:25] Sam Rhee: line. 

You know. Yeah. And you know, the great thing about watching these guys is that you can see how competitive they are. So the, the advantage is you get to see whoever you want to watch right at the beginning, before they start at the end. And I will tell you that these guys are f-ing competitive, especially Thing. 

I love watching the most was Vilna Maderas at the, at the end. Cause they were so close neck and neck. Yeah. And when Vellner after one of the events, he knew it was starting to slip away. I mean, he's a pretty emotionless guy, but you could just see how much fire he had inside him. And it was like, he was f-ing pissed. 

Yeah, yeah. Right. Much. But just that little, little, that last moment you see, you're like, man, this guy wants it so  

[00:29:06] David Syvertsen: bad. I don't think you're ever going to have any success and cross it. If you're not probably over the top competitive. Yeah. I mean that,  

[00:29:15] Sam Rhee: and these games athlete at that level, they know where the other athletes fleets are, who they have  

[00:29:22] David Syvertsen: to. 

Yeah. You see a lot of this, like look  

[00:29:23] Sam Rhee: left and right. And you know, who they care about because of the point differential and how they  

[00:29:27] David Syvertsen: set up the floor. Right. When they, the way they set up. At the games as they put the person that in first place, directly in the middle, and then the person in second is next to them. 

The person in third is on the other side of them. And it just continues to go that way. So if you're in first, you, you need to look in both directions, right? Like you need to know like where a second is, where a third is. You know, if you're in second chasing first place, third directly  

[00:29:51] Sam Rhee: to your left. And the important thing also in CrossFit is you notice that a lot of them aren't looking for the best place they're looking for a high place, right? 

So they're looking for damage control. They know what strengths they have. So you might watch someone and they might have finished. But they're really happy with that eighth player. It's 15 frigging events. Yeah. So you saw these guys and you're like, oh, maybe they didn't do as well, but for them they did really well. 

So a lot of it is about patience. It's about knowing your limitations about knowing where you should be on this event. Just doing as  

[00:30:26] David Syvertsen: well as you can in every respect of event. Right, right. Some people that are listening to this that want to compete is you don't need to win anything. No. If your top seven, top six, top five and everything, depending on how long, how many events there are, and over the course of your competition, you're going to be in a really  

[00:30:44] Sam Rhee: good spot. 

I mean, the, the variety of events means you can't be. I mean, unless you're Tia, Claire Toomey, who literally like won a bazillion events, everyone else. It was a big range. Yeah. And the other thing is, is you got to see people's personalities. So like, there are some people that are always up and I don't know if they're up because of their endorsements or their fan base. 

Like no Olsen is first, like, you know, he's like the 25th or 30th plays. Yeah. You know, coming out in the first heat, not in this, in the last, yeah. He's still like happy smile and happy, smiling pointing to the crowd, right? Yeah. Katrina Catherine Davidson. You know, these, these athletes and then you which is good because actually honestly the fans have their favorites and they will always be cheering, respond to that. 

Yeah, they do. But then you see a Haley Adams and I got to tell you, I watched her on that clean ladder. Yeah. She, she got buried, right? She got, she couldn't even finish the first, first bar, the first barbell and she's standing there and everybody is. Cheering her. She doesn't have any expression on her face. 

She's only half asking the attempts because she doesn't think it's worth or she can't. And therefore she won't. Yeah. Getting rejected, right. A head judge has to come up and I'm pretty sure they're saying minimum effort required at this point. Like you got to actually try it frigging try, or you're not going to go on. 

Cause there is a minimum effort for every event. Right. So she kind of half dead lists it and you look at that and you're like, I have mixed feelings, right? One it's like, Like free and try. Yeah. But on the other hand, it's like, why waste the effort? Right. If you  

[00:32:25] David Syvertsen: know, you're going to come in last place in the event, right. 

No matter what, right. So then there's still more events coming up. Why not  

[00:32:30] Sam Rhee: preserve some energy? Right. Because you know what the sh one bad finish doesn't hurt you. Like you can have a 25th, especially her. Yeah. She's one of the top. Yeah. So she still finished really well. Yeah. You know, stuff like that. 

[00:32:42] David Syvertsen: Okay. Yeah. So when you see that. Posts as well. I always like to watch at a competition and I've never been to the games. It's on the bucket list of maybe when Brock's old enough to go and watch and I want to watch them immediately after the workout. Yeah. And because I'm so used to watching people here do this, and I'm trying to get better at this. 

Almost dramatize drama ties your, your workout, the end of your workout too much flat on the ground. Roll around. Do you see that  

[00:33:15] Sam Rhee: at, at, at, at, at the, over there? No. They just collapse, right? For the most  

[00:33:19] David Syvertsen: part. Yeah. They just like, kind of go on the, all hands in these and just like kind of hunch over and then they stand up. 

Yeah. Yeah. I mean,  

[00:33:25] Sam Rhee: especially in the, actually in the Coliseum and in outside in the stadium, there are fans there. So. They respond pretty positively to the people around them. Right. Right. You know, they are very positive to the fellow athletes, you know, for the most part, they're very congratulatory. 

They're very supportive. You know, it's I think they're professionals and they have a professional attitude. Right. And that's what you see. Right. Like that's what they do. Yeah. And I think we could take something away from it is when you finish your work. Like yes. Collapsed. Yes. Yes. Like lay there, like a lump, but at, you know, also know, you know, it's not the end of the world and you're gonna, you're gonna bounce  

[00:34:05] David Syvertsen: back. 

And and when you can, w one of the things I love about watching. Cross the competition is how much they will try to help each other out once they're done. Like Tia is huge on that. I mean, she's almost always first. She gets her sip of water and then she goes and cheers everyone else on. I love  

[00:34:18] Sam Rhee: that. I mean the good, I saw one nice thing. 

She did, especially at the end, Danielle, Brandon had been isolated from everyone the whole time. Right after the last session,  

[00:34:27] David Syvertsen: she was exposed to a bunch of people that had COVID. So they basically made her wear masks before and after the work. Yeah. And they ostracized her from basically warmups, lodging,  

[00:34:35] Sam Rhee: all that. 

It's almost too much. Like they had a separate barbell for her. I  

[00:34:40] David Syvertsen: was like, really? Yeah. They had like a medic medical staff, like assigned to her the entire time.  

[00:34:44] Sam Rhee: Right. I know she, she chafed at a bunch of those things. Yeah. And I don't blame her some of, you know, for the five 50 yard sprint, like they were gonna make her run it by themselves until they found some volunteers to run with her. 

She did amazing. Yeah. Tia told her come on over and, and had her come over with the group. Yeah. Because at that point, who cares if she has COVID it doesn't really matter. They're all done. Yeah. So she was very gracious and trying to get her to be part of it. Right. It was tough. Yeah. Was tough. 

[00:35:14] David Syvertsen: Now, did you, I mean, you were there for so long and I know we have probably a little video that we'll probably show at some point. Yeah. No. Was it pretty easy to, you know, run into your, your CrossFit celebrities and have a conversation with  

[00:35:26] Sam Rhee: them? So honestly, getting there early helped me a lot because when there weren't a lot of people around, right. 

Matt Frazier was still around. Eric Rosa was still around some of the media people like the buttery brothers and those guys were around when Friday, Saturday, Sunday hits too many people. It's a frigging madhouse in there. Right. I was not able to talk to any of the males. Individual CrossFit athletes. 

[00:35:49] David Syvertsen: Okay. Was that more because like they're so regimented by the time they're competing comes around, like they, you don't want to get in their way or you just  

[00:35:56] Sam Rhee: didn't have access. See them. There is no access there they're in a whole separate area, which, which I did see on the backstage tour. It essentially looks like a big, you know, how you have a local car. 

This is what makes me think of a local company. You have a local cop, then you have the area where all the athletes are. Yeah. Crap is laying around and they're all like lying around and rolling, rolling out and getting raisins. Right. And doing stuff. Right? Like this, that, that backstage area just looked like a big. 

Local compact Sage area, just nicer and bigger with more crap and more TVs and all sorts of crap in there. So they would just basically shuttle them in and out of that area. So you didn't have access to any of that. So you couldn't see them. The only time I got a hold of one of the women, individual athletes was Ariel Lowen, just because she happened to be with her big. 

Cheering group support, like her family and whatnot out on the main walkway at the end, after everything was done. And I was able to get her cool. The masters and teens are just all over the place. Right? So you just, you can talk to anyone you want or they're all over at school. The, the media people and the big people, it's like I said, if you're there Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, they're there around, you can get in front of them. 

You might, it, it helps. So on the stadium, there's one end, which has a little pavilion, like stand and the. Half of it is called the Madison clubs. So you can, this is all about paying more. So if you pay more, you, you get to sit in this stand area it's covered. It has like a bar and cool crap like that. Cool. 

Sort of like a club section. Yeah. And then, but the other half of it is reserved for CrossFit HQ or like home office, elite people. So that's where I actually. Matt Frazier. He was sitting in that area and I just kind of leaned over and talked to him. Yeah. Eric Rosa. Yeah. They had some others there. So, and they were actually pretty Fran fan friendly. 

So if you go and talk to them, they're really happy to talk to you. The athletes they're so dialed in and they're in their own. Yeah. You don't want to like bother them either. Even if you want it to, you wouldn't want to. Yeah. Right, right, right, right.  

[00:38:13] David Syvertsen: Yeah. So cool. So lastly, w is this something that you could see? 

I mean, you're out there solo, right. Is this something that would be fun to do with like a bigger group or is it like more like a smaller, like when I said bigger group, like, do you get 50 people from a gym? Like bison goes and we have a big party up there, or is it something that you think would be a little bit better if it was like a group of like five to 10 people really into the actual games, you know? 

[00:38:36] Sam Rhee: Both would actually be pretty good. Yeah. The cost of it is one, right? Like a hotel is not cheap out there for that whole time. Yeah. But if you did bring everyone out there, it'd be nice. Madison's a great town, right? They're going to have it there next year. And then after that, who knows after that, the contract's up, they might, they were speculating. 

It might be, I have a prediction. What's your, what are you going to say? Well, so the backstage tour person said it might be either Texas, Ohio, or Ohio, where rogue is. Oh, it makes sense, Texas. I was going to say Vegas. Oh, that was, I have a feeling that would be a great place to do it. The only thing that the outdoor events hot are, even in Wisconsin, it was awful. 

Yeah. I'm not sure how they've dealt. They've  

[00:39:18] David Syvertsen: dealt honestly, though. I think they'd rather deal with hot than potential. You know, like, I think they want dry. I think that's their main thing. And they've dealt with hot several  

[00:39:27] Sam Rhee: times, the whole lake thing. It would also be an issue. Yeah. Cause they always have water events. 

That's true.  

[00:39:32] David Syvertsen: True. I don't know what's out there in terms of manmade. I mean, I'm sure there's something within driving distance. That's man-made that has a water source for swimming.  

[00:39:40] Sam Rhee: But I, I think they also predicted in five to 10 years. There'll be, there'll be one, there'll be some in Europe. Okay.  

[00:39:47] David Syvertsen: Yeah. 

That makes sense.  

[00:39:48] Sam Rhee: Yeah. That's I think their long-term goal is they'll have they'll hold the CrossFit games out in Europe. Cool. I think if I were to go again, I would go the campgrounds were really cool. Yeah. I think a lot of the median RV out there, a lot of, a lot of media people, a lot of people, it might be fun to just rent an RV, go out there. 

Come back. I think there are a variety of different ways you could make it a really amazing experience. Yeah. I think everyone should watch a high level person in person, whether it's you'll pick up more subtle things. It could be a semi-final, it could be a granite games. It could be a Mac, but when you watch it's, you know, there's just stuff that they do before, during, after that, you're just like, yeah. 

You know, this is sort of, yeah. What I would want to pinnacle is. Yeah. And I, and you definitely get way more motivation. Yeah. You go there and you just watch these guys and you just, like I said, it sends chills down your spine. You, you, you see them, you know, gritting it out, know, you know, doing what you do, but just on an an elite level. 

And then doing it event after event, after event  

[00:40:53] David Syvertsen: overlook things that we look at from someone that competes over the course of a weekend. And the games is like the extreme with 14 or 15 minutes. You know, that's one thing that I, I love it when someone says like, yo, I came in and did this workout that the games, and like I got, I would have been like 50th place. 

Somebody else. I was like, that was our ninth event of the weekend. Like, the games is our true battle of attrition. You know how well you can bounce back. I think that's something I talked to, a lot of people that are wanting to compete in the sport is no competing doing a wad hard today, doing a wad hard tomorrow, doing a wide heart the next day. 

That's, you know, you're about 20 to 30% of where you need to be in terms of your ability to bounce back. You know, it takes a long time to be able to be at full strength on a Sunday, you know,  

[00:41:37] Sam Rhee: as a spectator, it's a young sport. Yeah. I would say in five to 10 years, it's going to be. Yeah. I don't know if that's  

[00:41:44] David Syvertsen: a word. 

Well, it's all right. It's our podcasts. We  

[00:41:46] Sam Rhee: have our own vocabulary. And so if you want to, if you're a spectator and you really want to enjoy it. Yeah. It did feel small in a lot of ways. Yeah. And you, you know, I was right next to Dave Castro who was watching one of the events and, you know, not that you'd want to frickin bug Dave Castro, not there, but like, it's just kinda cool to be in that environment to watch these guys. 

Yeah,  

[00:42:09] David Syvertsen: cool. A lot of fun. All right. Awesome. Thanks.