S01E17 - Using CrossFit to Train for Other Sports

Our next episode is a discussion about using CrossFit to train for other sports. Many of us play other sports, whether it's basketball, tennis, or even hiking and running. Whether you are a high-level high school or college superstar or a 50 year old weekend warrior, how can you use CrossFit to make you a better athlete?

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TRANSCRIPT S01E17 USING CF FOR OTHER SPORTS

[00:00:00] Sam Rhee: All right. Welcome to the HerdFit podcast with coach Dave Syvertsen and me Sam Rhee. And today our episode is using CrossFit to train for other sports. So we have a lot of athletes at bison that do play other sports. I mean, whether it's something like pickle ball or softball or hockey or basketball or cycling, and it's extremely popular now for sports such as football, basketball, other pro sports to use CrossFit, like techniques to train their athletes. And we just even heard of Courtney. She's a Roselle who we just interviewed is now the strength trainer for the Montclair state men's basketball team. And I know you also train a lot of athletes who play other sports. So I thought that this would be a good topic, and I know we'll probably dig into maybe some more sports specific stuff in the future, I don't know, but just to sort of give a broad overview of, of how people can think about CrossFit and how that might play into other sports and, and what benefits it might have.

Yeah.

[00:01:01] David Syvertsen: I was just talking to Kyle Raider about this yesterday, and I think, I feel like I've had this conversation a hundred times since, since we've been open is some of the stuff that we know that that we learned through CrossFit. We wish we knew when we played sports because I, I can vividly remember lifting for football, when I was in eighth grade, ninth grade, we were doing bicep curls and quarter squats and leg press and, you know, quad, whatever you call it, the quad extensions. I remember doing like those hamstring curls where you laid down and you kind of like curl that thing. And again, it's probably not a bad. It's not a bad exercise, but in terms of sports performance, I remember someone saying like, Yale, you do those.

It's going to make you jump higher. It's like, all right, let's do them. Right.

[00:01:45] Sam Rhee: I just heard a podcast where their strength coach for football had the idea that they should maximally activate their bodies before games. Do a one-rep max deadlift and then get on the bus for a football game.

[00:01:58] David Syvertsen: Gosh. Yeah. I mean the amount of, I mean, th the fitness industry is like several others.

There's just a lot of bad apples out there. And, you know, within CrossFit, sometimes they get the battery kind of ruins the big picture, but, you know, it's it, I'm not even going to look back on my high school days and blame anyone. Like, I don't think there was much knowledge, like early two thousands about how to really properly train.

But cross, it just wasn't really around publicly back then or in a big deal back then, I guess it did start early two thousands, but it was not known until I was well out of high school. A lot of my friends were out well out of high school and that's one thing I have worked with some teenagers that play sports right now, and I try to get this in their heads all the time.

I'm like, dude, you guys are so lucky that you're learning this right now is it's gonna make you a better athlete. You know, doing cleans and dead lists and snatches, and you know, it's not gonna make you a better lacrosse player, but it's going to build your foundation that it's going to kind of increase your ceiling on the lacrosse field.

Like, yes, there's so much skill within different sports, basketball, football, baseball, soccer that you need to practice that sport. Obviously, the. You can build your base to the point where your upside, your potential is higher, if you properly train. And I definitely, you know, I'm really curious to see, you know, Sam has two kids.

One of, one of them is playing soccer at Dwight-Inglewood right now. And, and I've worked with her in the past and now she's one of our members. And every time she works out, everyone's like, whoa, look at that. Like, she's doing awesome. Like she's come such a far away. And I think it's going to make her a better soccer player.

It does. I

[00:03:35] Sam Rhee: was actually just about to say that I was thinking It helps her in the sense that it helps her last better in the second half. Yeah. And I think a lot of athletes that we have in the gym say that like, you know, for my 5k time or for my other thing, it doesn't necessarily make. Like I'm not going to drop, you know, 10 minutes on my 5k time or whatever it is, but it feels easier.

My recovery is easier after certain performances and I am generally a more durable athlete. Yeah. And I was, I wanted to sort of see how people should be thinking about CrossFit and how they should go about it for, I mean, I guess we don't have to go into specific sports. So per se, right. General.

[00:04:16] David Syvertsen: And I'll tell you what, one of the biggest things I think a teenager can learn from the biggest benefit of teenager can have from doing CrossFit.

And, you know, we can go outside like teenagers at some point as well, but. They're they're taught the right way if you want to. Yes. If you go to a Rhee, a good CrossFit, and I know there's still some bad, bad ones out there, but for the most part, if you go to a quality cross with quality coaching, quality programming, you get taught how to do stuff correctly.

And I watch some of these, like I'm very big into the NFL draft for a few reasons. And every year they're showing videos of some of these guys doing cleans and squats and they're horrific. Technique and some of these guys it's like, and you know, you feel like you're untouchable when you're a 21 year old elite athlete that to them doing cleans is just about getting the bar to your shoulders.

I look at it sometimes I'm like, dude, It's a matter of time before one of these guys gets hurt. They're not being taught the right way. And I think that's still very, very prominent in the, in the fitness. The strength and conditioning field is there's not as much attention put on technique, recovery, proper programming, progressions, doing things the right way.

And I think that across the gym is we're almost probably too protective early on. Like we're still very protective with Sasha does weight-wise and it's because she's still so early in the game, she has other things going on, but that's, that's the thing that I would, if I'm a parent, right. I'm a parent now, but my, you know, my son's one when I start getting him in the weight room, which is next week.

No, probably in about, I don't know, my guess would be about 10 years, you know, start having him do some fitness related things when he's 10, 11, He will do stuff the right way before he does anything. That's really hard, you know? And I think

[00:06:03] Sam Rhee: it's, we're talking about teens, but I think that's even more relevant if you're a 40 year old starting CrossFit because teens pick up stuff pretty quick.

Yeah. When you are a 40 year old, Like I was harder to teach and I never picked up a barbell before. And I got here and both you and Tafaro are looking at me like, whoa, what kind of technique is like, you literally, you both literally were like silence

[00:06:26] David Syvertsen: watching me try to do a power clean, like you'd

[00:06:29] Sam Rhee: need a good instruction and you can't learn this stuff on your own.

You can't go to a 24 hour fitness. Right. And figure out how to work weights. You can't watch a YouTube video and be like, okay, now I can do this in my garage. And I think it's pretty universal now that strength conditioning is important for pretty much all athletics. Right. Right. And how else are you going to get that sort of proper teaching right as a 15 year old or as a 40 year old?

Probably more important for a 40 year old even right then to go to a

[00:07:03] David Syvertsen: good CrossFit. Yeah. We'll get into the physical benefits of all of cross the training we'll get specific, but I think big picture macro level is you get taught things the right way. And at some point when you are physically capable, you're strong enough, or you have a reason to really start pushing heavy, heavy weights on cleans and squats and lunges.

Your, your base knowledge, is there your motor control is there that, you know, like, all right, this is how it feels. This is why I do things these way, this way. I think that's probably for a teenager, the best thing, but also, like you said, someone that's a little bit older that if you're not, if you're not taught correctly, at some point something bad is going to happen, or you just don't get the results you should be up to

[00:07:44] Sam Rhee: that's.

Right. I think one of the things that why CrossFit is also good, both for teens and adults, but even for teens, is, is that it is a group setting. Sasha loves the fact that she has a class. Yeah. She is often designed. Off season training, you know, most sports do, right. They call you, you got to do this, the other thing, and just the motivation is zilch.

Nobody wants to sit in their garage and just do this stuff. Yeah. And even if you are a an enthusiast of cycling or something else, you know, in the off season, they tell you do this, do that, do this, are you going to really do it? It's really hard to, yup. It's so much easier in general to exercise.

When you have a group, these classes are very efficient. Sasha, you know, can spend all day doing other stuff, right. And then she can come in and she has an hour to do something that is extremely

[00:08:34] David Syvertsen: efficient for her. The things planned for her. She doesn't need to set things up. Doesn't need about thinking the warmup, you know, again, having a watchful eye while you do stuff helps, you know, which you don't get when you're by herself.

But yeah, it's funny. Like I wish there was a way we could way objectively way. The, the effort put in when you're with people versus you're not, I think it's widely known as a fact that you will go, you're going to try harder when you're around other people more often than not. Then if you were, when you were alone, you know, we don't really have an objective measurement there, but you know, you've been doing this long enough that if you put an athlete into a class and athletes are usually somewhat competitive, right.

You know, it's, that's kind of, you know, what being an athlete is. You know, w when you put them around other people, whether they're trying to beat them or not, I don't think that makes them try harder as some people it does. It's just, it's more about like, Hey, I don't want to be the weak link in the room.

I don't want to be the one person that's not trying hard. Like, you're an outcast here. If you come here. You're now cast. So I think that being an athlete is really important for you to be around other people that consider themselves athletes, least whether it's for their lifestyle or that.

[00:09:45] Sam Rhee: So I would say not every aspect of CrossFit has to be applicable for every sport.

Like I wouldn't for sure. Push Sasha to be learning how to do ring muscle ups or, you know, hands-down walk. But what aspects of CrossFit are applicable for. Most sports.

[00:10:03] David Syvertsen: So my, the biggest thing is quarter extremity. You know, the power that you can generate in your core and your hips and how that is translated to the extremities is vital.

I would say that's like if I had to pick one thing, I wish I was better at playing sports because I was a pitcher and I threw hard, but I always wish I threw a little bit harder and. That I, I really am very confident in saying that if I had stronger hips, if I had stronger core, that would be, that would immediately add four or five miles, four to five miles per hour to a fastball.

Just being able to really understand torque and think about, I would say 90% of the movements that you do in cross. Maybe not an 80% quarter extremity, you know, in terms of generating power from your hips, and then it translates your, your legs or your, your arms, right. A soccer player. I actually think female soccer players have the top background from sport into cross.

But that also means cross it would benefit them in sport because of how much they understand. Hey, their lower bodies are developed better than most athletes, but B they understand timing, coordination, and power from the hips being translated to the.

[00:11:16] Sam Rhee: Right. Brit, a page RC who recently had a baby congratulations to former

[00:11:21] David Syvertsen: division one athlete.

I was about to say she's a D one

[00:11:23] Sam Rhee: soccer

[00:11:24] David Syvertsen: player. She always gives me a hard time. I have to say in one of our promo videos, that's how she introduced herself. Just so you know, I told her that's what I wanted her to say. So, oh, so she wasn't a humble bragging that she was not humble. Bragging. She was, I, I literally told her to say that.

So anyway

[00:11:42] Sam Rhee: so what kind of movements in CrossFit do you think are

[00:11:45] David Syvertsen: applicable? I mean, think about power cleans, power snatches, dumbbell, snatches. Even, even a kipping motion. I think they're there. If, if the motion is safe and you have the, the timing and coordination of it down like that, that movement of like, Hey, I have to let my hips.

I talk about this as a coach all the time. Like you have to let your hips do the work and then you finish it. With the translation of upper body or lower bodies based on the movement, even a Sumo deadlift high pole in some levels, even like a box jump at that. I wouldn't even say that that's as CrossFit as some other movements.

I think rowing is a big part of a quarter extremity handstand, pushups, KIPP. I mean, or if you don't want to go upside down, you want to hurt your neck, push, press, push jerks, splitter, clean, and jerks, all this stuff like you think about kettlebell swings. All these movements. It's like you have to generate power from your base and then lunges, lunges.

Yeah. And I would say another, the two other things I have for physical performance for athletes is a unilateral strength. I mean, that is, that is, and it's not just a CrossFit thing. You know, unilateral strength is probably one of the most important parts to an athlete becoming stronger because we all have dominant sides, especially in sports.

You usually use one side of your body differently than others, right? Like, think about what a pitcher does in baseball. You basically start to squat on your right leg every time you're about to throw your right arms, the only ones doing the work. But if you create a lot of imbalances in your body, it's going to eventually lead to injury and that's that's, you know, strength and conditioning 1 0 1.

But you do a lot of that in CrossFit and especially here, I mean, we do single leg or single arm stuff at L I want to say every week, it's a lot more than one week. And you know, with females and soccer players, high high level of torn ACL, it's such a common injury in, in young women that I think that if their muscles around their legs are a little bit stronger, little more stable, I think you can cut that number down a lot.

[00:13:42] Sam Rhee: I was just at a basketball camp and I saw three. Old dudes have torn ACL in three days.

[00:13:49] David Syvertsen: It's crazy. And I'll tell you what, I mean, how many of those guys, you know, I mean, I don't know anyone that went down there other than you, but how many of those guys really trained for that other than playback? And I, I, this is where I think that you have to, if you want to be a better basketball player, whether you're, you know, an older guy going to duke fantasy basketball camp, or you're, you know, a kid that wants to start varsity next year, you can't just play basketball.

I V I feel very confident about that is you need to have certain parts of the year where you're training your body. And yes, I'm biased towards CrossFit that. You know, if you go to a good cross, a gym that does a lot of unilateral work, a lot of core to extremity work, that's going to make you a better basketball player.

If you're just playing basketball or you're, you know, older guy that plays once a week with your buddies on a Sunday night before you go out and have beers, and then you go to an ex you know, a place like duke, and you're trying to be explosive and athletic your base. It's not there, you know? And that's where like things snap and like we're in an era of sports right now where there are so.

Many injuries and even some of the brightest minds in the strength and conditioning field who work for these teams, they can't figure it out, you know, it's and I think there's a lot that goes into it. I think it centers around over-training. But I also think that it's just, there's not enough attention put on unilateral strength and building the muscles around the joint.

I

[00:15:09] Sam Rhee: will say that they drafted me on my team for the way I looked because I was fit. But then when they saw me shoot and dribble,

[00:15:15] David Syvertsen: they were like, oh, that was a massage. We've got to train them, train them for a bag of basketballs. This

[00:15:20] Sam Rhee: is not enough. So then let's talk about so in terms of injury prevention, because I think one of the knocks on, on CrossFit is the rate of injury, but then I will say, honestly, most of the athletes I know, get into.

I mean, some get injured in CrossFit, just like they would in any sport. But I know so many people get injured doing their rec sports more than anything

[00:15:42] David Syvertsen: else. Oh, for sure. I said this on a previous podcast, one of the worst injury I've had in the past 10 years was playing flag football. And on the first play, I wasn't the first, it was at the second trial.

I think I had to catch it too. It is true. And I actually, like, I've been asked to play on the softball leagues and football leagues by a couple buddies over the past couple of years. And I, I always say no now, because I don't want to get hurt there. Like I would want to actually start to train for that a little bit, you know, and I don't have the time to do that.

And my, my focus is on cross at the sport right now. But once my schedule clears, once I'm done with that, I do want to get into some sort of competitive fix. That's just, I need something, right. I'm not going to go to, I'm not going to join a softball league or football. And then next week go play. Like I will go do some like drills and stuff to kind of wait the, the moving patterns up that I don't do in cross it.

And a lot of the issues that come from. Adult sports, I would say is the unplanned movement. Like we don't do any of that in CrossFit. Everything we do is planned. Like we know exactly what's coming every single time, which is safe, which is safe, you know, for you to really practice, you know, unplanned movement that needs to be part of your training.

And it needs just like cross, it needs to be started slowly and you build up progressively and that's where a lot of guys. They don't do that. They go to, they go to that duke basketball camp. They haven't done an unplanned movement at that rate with that intensity, with that much volume, right. Since they were in high school.

So it's almost like predictable, something like that would have that's very

[00:17:07] Sam Rhee: sport-specific type of trend. Right. Right. So then in terms of CrossFit and metabolic conditioning, for example, what kind of benefit would athletes get from in, you know, being involved in the Metcons

[00:17:19] David Syvertsen: that CrossFit? So most sports are interval based.

Like your, there are very few sports other than like track or cross-country where you're cycling, where you're moving the whole time. There's, you know, football, soccer, baseball, basketball, it's spurts. You're going back and forth. You're resting, you're going, you're resting. You're going a lot of cross it's are, have that mindset, whether it's an interval workout or you just have a five hour workout, a five round workout with wall balls, cleans and burpees.

You go to a station, you rest, and then you go after it, you do a few reps, you rest, then you go after it. And that can, that, that up and down heart rate and being able to manage that for a long time is a big part of sports. Like I played a lot of sports growing up and. It was like, there were a couple of kids that were really good, but they were in the tortillas for, they just couldn't hold on at the end and they get just got too tired.

They got to a point where all the up and down heart rate was just too much for them to handle. They couldn't get the heart rate down ever, and they just kind of crapped out. And I think the conditioning. Ink within cross. It is the best kind of condition you can get ready for sports. I really do.

[00:18:25] Sam Rhee: I do feel like when I am better conditioning in CrossFit moving from anaerobic to aerobic and back, like where you're doing something super you know, high power output, short period of time.

Yeah. You know, cause those were some, you know, like a barbell and then you ended up going for a run. Right. So you have to keep sort of transitioning. Back and forth in terms of your effort, power output, right?

[00:18:46] David Syvertsen: In a sport like basketball, right? Like, and I, you could say this about, again, most sports there's different physical demands within each match.

Each practice, each play, you know, there's, there's some plays you need to be little bit strong. Right. When you're boxing somebody out there's days, you need to be a little bit faster chasing after a loose ball. There's there's certain days you need to be a little bit more coordinated when you're dribbling right across it there's so much variety within sports.

Like that Rhee that is across at workout is like, you got to go lift a heavy deadlift right now. You have to go do burpee box, jump over. So it's takes a lot of coordination, accuracy, and then you have to go do toes to bar, a lot of core control, breathing control, breathing management. Yeah, even though you're not playing the sport, when you're doing cross it, you're going through this very similar physical demands that you'll get within a match or a practice or whatever you're doing.

[00:19:38] Sam Rhee: What do you do to tell athletes how to integrate their CrossFit training? Say with their sports? Yeah. I

[00:19:46] David Syvertsen: mean, it depends like, you know, I know some players. Athletes that I've worked with over the years, they don't have an off season, like every month or on a different team in the same sport. And I do recommend not playing the same sport all year.

I think there's gotta be an off season. Whether your off season is one or two months or four to five months, you know, that's, I think that gets a bit more specific, more individualized, but I think in your off season, that's when you would really want to go kind of go ham at CrossFit, right where you're there three, four days a week, and you're putting your attention like an off season does not always need to be.

You know, sitting on a couch, getting treatment, right. It's just a different level of physical demand. Right. And it's getting away from getting you away from that sport. Like again, if you're doing the same thing, we always tell kids don't play the same sport all year overuse injury, right. You're just doing the same movement patterns over and over it.

Same thing as across it. If we just said delis and Tozer every day, you know, a gym would last two weeks, you know, like you can't just do the same stuff over and over. And I think that it's a good way to enhance strength, enhance metabolic conditioning, but also like not just enhancing things, but get away from the same movement patterns that your body's been doing for so long.

So often.

[00:21:00] Sam Rhee: What are some of the things that athletes might want to avoid

[00:21:04] David Syvertsen: in CrossFit moving wise? You know, we, we, I have this internal debate all the time. I still have. It is like, is squat snatch a part of general fitness? No, it's not. I mean, I think it's a really fit. You need a lot of fitness. To do a squat snatch, but if you're a player, that's why if I was straining, when I did train kids that were training for football and baseball, like we weren't doing anything that would, you would consider 70 plus percent strength in a fast paced workout.

But we weren't doing anything overly complex with snatching was handstand pushups with kipping. You know, it was all stuff that could easily be taught, but also you couldn't be like, all right, this can be applied to what you are doing on the field. Right? Again, what I tell Sasha, a soccer player you need to do handstand pushups to get better at soccer.

No. But I'm also not going to say, Hey, every time the handstands and pushups, like don't go upside down. Like again, I still think there's a lot of athleticism within that movement. Quarter extremity, especially if you're kipping. Right. But it, I would say that there are things like a squat snatch. I would say there's one thing I really don't think is applicable to sports.

It would be squat snatching overhead school. Stuff where there's a lot of mobility involved, which again, most people just don't have. And I would say, I mean, like you said, muscle-ups, it's a cool movement to do. And if she wanted to come in and say, I want to try to get a muscle up. Cool. It's but it's not for soccer.

And if she's on that page, let's go for it. You know, like I'm all, I'm all about it. But I think that if you're really look, I think simpler is better. If you're there for sport training, if you're there for like, Hey, I want to get really fit in

[00:22:40] Sam Rhee: my off season skills, just be a fitter

[00:22:43] David Syvertsen: person. I think everything's on the table.

You know, it, you just have to be overly calculated with like what weights and what intensity and what volume they're doing. What

[00:22:52] Sam Rhee: about the mental aspect of CrossFit? Because I think that's

[00:22:55] David Syvertsen: super helpful that that was, that was like the one thing I was. The last thing I was going to say is like, I think that the biggest benefit one can get, if they, and I'm talking, like they really put themselves in the CrossFit, not once a week, not with two other are two buddies, you know, like they're in a real CrossFit program for a few months is the mental toughest.

I've had people, I golfed with someone a few weeks ago and he was saying like, he had to like cross it's hell it just doing CrossFit workouts helped me like get stuff done around the house. When I get over. It's just like he goes, because like, Hey, you're going to get through it. One rep at a time, you know, one, one hour at a time we're going to get through it.

Like, we just had some nasty flooding here in this area a couple of weeks ago. And like when you clean up a flood in your basement, do like that is, is a huge task. It's overwhelming. Yeah. And you just one at a time, one round at a time, one round at a time. So like the mental aspect can help athletes out, but it can help normal people out as much because at the end of the day, Everything you do.

And across a gym can easily be tied to what you're doing on a field and a gym and a match, whatever, whatever sport you play in the pool, right? Yeah. No, you really have to keep yourself in the moment and just focus on like, Hey, I have to get this task done something to me about that task. Stop thinking about that task.

I need to get this task done right now. All right. Then I move on to my next step. And that's what I think a huge mental component. We could talk about mental toughness too. Just not being a little baby in the middle of a workout, right? Like, you know, like when you play sports, you are eventually going to get to shit.

That's really freaking. You're going to get the people that can do stuff you can't do unless you are, you know, an Olympian, right? Like there's every, every, every athlete that's ever played a sport, you eventually get told you're no longer good enough to play. Right. So that, and that is, that's hard to handle for some people.

But I think in CrossFit, CrossFit is so humbling that it can really bring you to this place of like, Hey, I'm not good enough to do this right now. Or I'm not physically capable of doing this right now. Take a step. It's okay. You know, what, what do I need to do to get to the next progression? I think

[00:24:56] Sam Rhee: the M the mental uncomfortableness is something that CrossFit brings for almost every workout.

I am pro I am generally uncomfortable.

[00:25:07] David Syvertsen: No. Every word. I think that's part of what some people hate about that. It draws them away. Yes.

[00:25:12] Sam Rhee: I, and I think that that's the part where if you can embrace that yeah. You know,

[00:25:16] David Syvertsen: and get comfortable, being uncomfortable, being uncomfortable,

[00:25:20] Sam Rhee: you know, and that's where it can be good mental training in the sense that you're, you know, what

[00:25:26] David Syvertsen: uncomfortable feels like.

Yeah. I mean, I think the best results in life are going to come from what, what comes from being unconscious. I really don't think you're anyone's truest results come from being comfortable. I think our reward is being comfortable, but I've really think that the best result an athlete is ever going to get is accepting that.

What they want is on the other side of discomfort. Like you have to go through discomfort to get to what you want.

[00:25:55] Sam Rhee: I see some ex high level athletes, and I don't think they like being uncomfortable anymore. I see them trying CrossFit or doing other things and they just don't want to be in that situation anymore.

I think they're, I don't know if it's PTSD or they're burnt out.

[00:26:09] David Syvertsen: I think some of it it's again, it's individualized burnt out. I also think some of it's. Like they were, they were the best at things they would played in college somewhere. They the best hometown at their sport. They went to college. They were really good at college and everyone like probably blew smoke up their ass and then they come here and I'll tell you what, dude, I don't care how talented you are.

You're not going to be good at this. When you start a year, not. And when, I mean, good, I mean, in a gym like bison, you're not going to be one of the top 10 athletes in the gym, unless you're here for three to four years and you work your ass off and you're very good, you know, like, and that I can think of a few people right now.

They can't, they couldn't handle it. Because of that reason alone, it just, it was, they saw that it was going to take them too long to learn how to do a freaking kipping, pull up, you know, let alone, you know, 12 unbroken muscle ups next to Adam Hawkinson. It's it takes a long time. And there's a progression.

And part of the progression is we could talk about movement progressions, but I think it's a mental progression that you need to be okay with being the worst in the room. You need to be okay with being bottom third in the room, maybe halfway at some point. Okay. Maybe now top 30%. Like you need to be okay with.

And those stretches of time last longer than you think.

[00:27:22] Sam Rhee: Oh, I know. I think one of the co things that they say in CrossFit is learn new sports. Right, right. And just to refer to that fantasy basketball camp, I haven't played basketball ever, like no organized basketball or maybe sixth grade. And I went there and

[00:27:38] David Syvertsen: it sucks

[00:27:39] Sam Rhee: to be the worst person, like the person that is.

The detriment on your

[00:27:44] David Syvertsen: team. Like the one team sports are different. Yeah. Yeah. And,

[00:27:48] Sam Rhee: you know, and, and knowing that your skills are so lacking, it really it's awful. And, but to put, you know, especially at, you know, we work, like you said, we worked to get to a comfortable part in our life because that's our reward, right?

Yeah. Where we are. No longer feeling that way. Right? Right. So we've been doing CrossFit for a long time and we feel very competent at CrossFit. Right. We, our jobs, we work to get better at our jobs. So we're very competent at our jobs. And then you're put into a situation where I haven't felt. Sucky at something in decades.

[00:28:22] David Syvertsen: Probably since I started CrossFit. I'll tell you what though. Like one thing you probably won't even say is what you actually, we're not one of those guys that I didn't play since sixth grade. I just went like you went there's a few guys from bison that play on Sunday nights and you, and that's kind of like, that was kinda, I think that was a really good progression to.

Going to duke and playing there because just playing with them on Sunday nights, kind of woke up. Some of the movement patterns woke up some of the progression. I mean, did you go there and dominate? No, I heard you didn't add, but it was the fact that you had. And that was, in my opinion, was one of your motivations go in there to get ready for duke to play pickup.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So like that, that was an educated, smart decision that you went there. Probably even, I mean, the guy eight guys that show up to play basketball on a Sunday night are probably really good. And I know the guys that showed up from bison they're really, they're really good. Yeah. One of them is Aaron.

I used to beat him one-on-one all the time and that guy's got moves. I know. Good shot. That's about it. And he's tall. And so

[00:29:22] Sam Rhee: he's cheats. He's probably fitter now in terms of getting up and down the court than he used to be.

[00:29:26] David Syvertsen: So he says it all the time. I mean, Aaron was the guy that skip. Gym workouts, he would sign his name and on the sheet that he went and then he would leave.

He left, but he was so good at shooting that he got away with it. But I bring that up because you went there and started to use that as kind of like a warmup progression to go and play. If you didn't do that, I bet you would have been even much worse at. Because, you know, it's hard to be

[00:29:52] Sam Rhee: as bad as I was.

I doubt I get hard on yourself. I will say this. I'm glad I did do the pickup. I'm very glad that they were generous enough

[00:30:00] David Syvertsen: to let me play with them. That mentally we're talking about mental training right now for athletes. I think that mentally helps you out just a little bit, just a

[00:30:07] Sam Rhee: touch, a ball, you know, and, and just to be uncomfortable and learning, right?

Like forcing yourself to learn right. Is really important. And I think. When, when athletes are good at something like let's suppose you're really good at soccer and you come in and you're learning a skill set in CrossFit, that one is helping you cross train and be a better, more capable athlete. But two you're learning different movements.

Yeah. There's something about your brain where you're learning body awareness and kinesthetics. Yep. That is just overall. Good. Even if it's not sports specific, it's helping you in. And like you said, it's also preventing you from overuse injuries. Yeah. I think CrossFit helped me. Be a conditioned player.

It didn't help me with any of the mental stuff, the skills stuff, any of that, but that's on me and I know I will, but it did light a fire in me. And then I'm going to continue to do that. Like you said, you're at some point going to get back into some sort of cross competitive sports because that's, that's what drives so many of us.

That's why a lot of us play rec sports. Right. But let me put it this way. I'm really glad I did CrossFit. Yeah. Before I went, because

[00:31:15] David Syvertsen: I'm one of those guys that's sort of the ACL I would

[00:31:17] Sam Rhee: have because I not only would I sucked, but then I would have sucked and been unfit. Right.

[00:31:21] David Syvertsen: Which would have been horrible.

It was a double whammy. So I don't know. Another thing, I think that an an athlete can learn from CrossFit. And again, you have to be at the right CrossFit to benefit from this, but. You need to learn how to be coachable, you know, like you, you are a huge part of I'm really into coaching. And like, I have thoughts of down the road, you know, once prod gets older, like trying to get more involved in sport coaching.

And I know that there's just a lot of kids out there. They just, they don't understand. It's not even a respect thing. They just don't understand how to take in coaching. And I think at across a gym, Again, a good one. You know, the coaches are, our coaches are pretty hands-on, hands-on, they're really good.

Yeah. They're

[00:32:04] Sam Rhee: getting to athletes

[00:32:06] David Syvertsen: and just teaching little things like, Hey, like you're doing this wrong. Not trying to come down on you, but like try this. Right. And, and you can, and it goes to show like, sometimes it's humbling for an athlete, you know? And I think teenagers are easier to deal with in that regard than established adults that think they're successful in everything in life.

So they just won't listen. Right. But they. I think that a kid can really see, all right, this coach is putting a lot of attention on me right now. They're trying to get me better at this skill. I need to slow myself down a little bit and just do what they're telling me to do. That is like, if you get to any sort of high level sport, maybe not always high school, but if you go beyond high school, you're going to, that should not be your first experience.

[00:32:45] Sam Rhee: Coach being coachable is one of the big attributes that they talk about for an athlete, right? Yeah. And it's hard to be coachable if you've had crappy coaching. Yes. And I think at great CrossFit places, they are really good at coaching. They're so used to trying to get. Queues queues methods means of communication.

Sometimes it's not visual. Sometimes it's tactile. Sometimes it's demon demonstration. Sometimes it's other analogies. I was watching Liz the other day on the toes to bar overhead squat workout, and she was working with two or three different athletes in that class, giving different cues. For three D three different types of cases, a sign of a good coach for three different athletes.

It was amazing. And you know, there are, you know, you will see a wide range of coaches in high school, some great. So I'm not so great college at fitness gyms, but when you have, but I think CrossFit focuses and places a premium on coaching and how to. People learn movements. Yeah. And I think if you're an athlete and you get that kind of instruction, now you say, all right, now I know what a good coach is doing.

I can, I can become a more coachable athlete. And I think you know, I watched Sasha, like you've seen her, you know, in terms of her learning and her progression. Yup. You know, is she coachable? She is coachable, but she's also receptive to good coaching. Right. You

[00:34:12] David Syvertsen: know, I've heard, she doesn't mean about bad coaches.

Yeah, no, I know I had, I had plenty of bad coaches growing up to the opposite. I'll say. You know what? Yeah. Like what you said, what to look for in a good coach, but also had to respond to different kinds of coaching. Right? Like I coached different than Liz, right? Liz coaches different than Mike. My coach is different than Adam and Mo and all of our coaches.

I don't want to go one by one. All of you. All right, Ash. Yeah. All right. But you know, like that we have different personalities, but they're all good coaches, all of them. Like we, you weren't, you're not going to coach it bison. If you're not a good coach, they're all good coaches, but some of them are a little bit more.

Dickish sometimes when they coach, right? Some of them are a little more like bubbly and happy, but they're both good coaches, right? Some are more objective. Some are more caring about your feelings, right? Some are more direct. Some are more. You need to, I think it's important for an athlete to be able to respond to different kinds of coaching.

Cause I'll tell you what, you don't get to pick who your coaches, like you can even go to a college so true. You can go to a college and say, I went to this college because Nick, Saban's the coach, Val Bama. He might retire next year. Guess what? You're no longer get to pick your coach. So

[00:35:18] Sam Rhee: you're not picking the offensive coordinator coach who you're probably hanging out with more than

[00:35:22] David Syvertsen: Nick Saven.

Right? Right. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, he, because he can change that whenever he wants. Right. So I think that it's important for an athlete to be able to take in coaching from different styles, because if you're only going to respond to like bubbly, happy, go lucky, like you're, you're in for a rude awakening.

When you come across a coach, that's, you know, the kind of coaches I had grown up, like they were, they were not your friend and they wanted you to know they were not your friend, but they helped. But you had to you, but only if you were to take it in, some people will shut down. If they have a hard shirt coach, they shut down.

And I think that, you know, that's, that's we always say we talked about new coaches at bison and who we want to bring on or try to get to bring on. We want different personalities. They all are, have the same base level of passion for helping people and good communicators, but there are different personalities in here.

And I think that's really. I

[00:36:16] Sam Rhee: think that's really so true. And I think I think for all athletes, they should really be considering CrossFit as a base for education, for conditioning, for strength, mental training, mental training, coaching, and. You know, we could probably get into some of the sports specific stuff at some point, maybe talk to athletes, maybe some other coaches in the future.

But I mean, I love it. And I think that that's probably one of the biggest

[00:36:39] David Syvertsen: pluses about crossing that. And I wouldn't think like you can probably echo this as a parent. I've had grandparents say this made parents a big part of coaching for me personally, and a big part of what being a parent for me will be is I wish.

I knew this stuff when I was that age. And I think if we ever, if you're a teenager, listen to this, or honestly, this can be applied to anyone when we coach the way we do, when we teach things the way we do, whether it's about your mindset, whether it's about how you're physically moving, how your lifestyle supporting your way to work.

It's never coming from a place of do what I do. This is the right way you're doing it the wrong way. It's, you know, you try to teach people from your own mistakes or things that you just wish you had. I wish I had this when I was 15, 16 for a lot of reasons, physical development, but also mental development, absolutely development of my confidence.

I think I became a harder worker after I did cross it. Like, everyone's like, oh, you work so hard. I'm like, honestly, if you knew me growing up and early college, I didn't work hard. And I think doing Crosby that taught me, like, it takes a long time, but if you put the work in, you're going to see results.

Absolutely. And nothing else, nothing has taught me in life that the way cross it did well said. All right, cool.