S03E131 Behind the Games: An In-depth Conversation with Legends Championship Co-director Bob Jennings

In an exclusive interview with Bob Jennings @thebobjennings, CrossFit Masters Games co-director and co-founder of the Legends Championship @thelegendschampionship, coaches David Syvertsen @davesy85 and Sam Rhee @bergencosmetic discuss the 2023 1st Phorm Legends Championship, to be held this week, December 7-10 at Tempe, Arizona at Arizona State University @arizonastateuniversity. With 420 Rx Individuals and 70 Scaled Individuals competing, along with 20 teams of 4, this is a competition like no other.

This episode is a special peek inside the brain of one of the architects of the premier CrossFit Masters competition as well as a deep discussion about the planning involved for next years CrossFit Masters Games competition by Legends. Programming, logistics, financial responsibilties, sponsorships - this is a no-hold barred discussion about the sport of CrossFit Masters.

For anyone interested in athleticism at any age and the future of CrossFit, there is plenty to take away from this wide-ranging episode!

Please support the Legends Championship sponsors - title sponsor @1stphorm equipment provider @giant_lifting and shoe sponsor @tyrsport

Also support these great companies supporting Legends: @rxsmartgear @s.b.nutrition @feast_easy_meals @herculusmedia @jeffreywjonesphotos as well as the nonprofit organization @theundergroundpdx and many more vendors at the competition!

#roadtolegends2023 #mastersassemble #crossfitmasters

@crossfitbison @crossfittraining @crossfit @crossfitgames #crossfit #sports #exercise #health #movement #crossfitcoach #agoq #clean #fitness #ItAllStartsHere #CrossFitOpen #CrossFit #CrossFitCommunity @CrossFitAffiliates #supportyourlocalbox #crossfitaffiliate #personalizedfitness

0:05 The Herdfit Podcast and Legends Championship

15:18 CrossFit Games Programming and Media

30:13 CrossFit Games Programming and Challenges

41:28 CrossFit Games

48:20 Planning Future Events

David Syvertsen

Host

00:05

Hey everybody, welcome to the Herdfit Podcast with Dr Sam Rhee and myself, Coach David Silverson. His podcast is aimed at helping anyone and everyone looking to enhance their healthy lifestyle through fitness, nutrition and, most importantly, mindset. Alright, welcome back to the Herdfit Podcast. I'm Coach David Syvertsen. I'm here with my co-host, Dr and Coach Sam Rhee, and we are making history here on the Herdfit Podcast. We are doing our first ever virtual interview with the one and only Bob Jennings, who is a co-director of the Legends Championship. We are now just days away from the 2023 event. Bob, a former Games athlete himself, is joining us from California, kind enough to join us just a couple of hours before he actually has to fly out. He has a business trip ahead of him before he meets us in Tempe, Arizona, for the 2023 Championship. Bob, thank you so much for giving the time. Really do appreciate it. Can't wait for Thursday. How are you? And again, thanks for coming on.

Bob Jennings

Host

01:11

Yeah, guys, thanks for having me on. It's always a pleasure to talk to both of you. And how am I? Before we got on air I was bitching about Oregon football going down and Villanova basketball going down. So look, I mean, if those are the big problems in my life these days things are pretty good, absolutely.

David Syvertsen

Host

01:34

Who do you think should be in the top four for the college football playoff?

Bob Jennings

Host

01:40

It's crazy to keep Alabama out. I mean they've won 11 in a row. They've looked really good. I think their loss to Texas was kind of a fluke. You know a different team, but I think they're going to go Michigan one, washington two, texas three and then Florida State four. I mean in Florida State look, in Florida State they played anybody. That was any kind of competition or all. They wouldn't even be considered. But you can't keep an undefeated team out.

David Syvertsen

Host

02:15

Especially out of the ACC.

Bob Jennings

Host

02:16

So yeah, I know, yeah, I know it's crazy man.

Sam Rhee

Host

02:20

It's.

Bob Jennings

Host

02:23

You know who's going to be there versus who I think should be there. Right, who I think should be there are Michigan, georgia, alabama, washington, mm-hmm, yep.

David Syvertsen

Host

02:33

Those are the four best teams. Strong case. Yeah Well, we'll find out tonight. So, Bob, have you really had time to reflect on how far Legends has come? Like I know you guys really, we had Joe here a couple months ago. Give us the whole backstory of Legends and how it started as a local comp inside of the gym. Then you guys did an online qualifier, Then you had the COVID situation in Goodyear, Arizona, San Diego, Mayhem this year, back to Arizona State, Tempe, Arizona Next year, the games or whatever we're going to call it. I guess we don't know that yet. Have you had time to reflect on this yet?

Bob Jennings

Host

03:09

It hits me every once in a while. So, and it's almost always some weird moment with Joe or I'll be thinking about Joe and then it'll kind of hit me and I'll send him a text message like shit man, this is crazy. I mean, I can't believe that. This started off as a puny little one day comp and now here we are, we're running the CrossFit Games for the Masters and we're going to keep running Legends. So we definitely wanted to make sure that the community was still being serviced the right way. So keeping Legends in December and keeping the CrossFit Games in August.

David Syvertsen

Host

03:53

That's awesome man.

Bob Jennings

Host

03:54

It's crazy, it is really it's pretty nutty to think about it.

David Syvertsen

Host

03:58

It is. And you yourself, you've been a Games athlete. You've qualified three times, competed twice, minus the one because of the COVID year. What is it like to go and you no longer compete? I'm sure you could know, if you really wanted to right, what's the transition been like from athlete, elite athlete to organizing events for everybody else? What's that?

Bob Jennings

Host

04:24

been like for you? Yeah, it was kind of funny, man. I was thinking about this the other day and I think during COVID or maybe slightly after COVID, when I was doing the podcast with Justin, and those guys, one of them asked me like, hey, man, why don't you just why don't you figure out how to go run the games? I was like, well, I could never go run the games because then I would have to stop competing and at that point in time I just couldn't imagine ever having to give it up. But coming out of the games in 21, my back was destroyed. I mean, my bottom five discs were just complete garbage and mentally I just I didn't have anything.

05:11

It takes a lot of dedication to get in that gym and there were just a lot of other things I wanted to do. My son's going off to college. She's up in Oregon. I season tickets for football games. My wife and I fly up every other weekend for that. My daughter is on the cheer dance squad at her school and I want to make sure that I get to all her events. She and I are big Swifties and so traveling around the country to go see Taylor Swift concert formula one races with my son and just spending more quality time with my wife.

05:47

You just started adding all those things up and it just didn't fit into the schedule anymore to be an athlete, and you know it. Mentally it really didn't fit into the schedule more than anything else. And so, you know, transitioning over to just running the event it's always a little hard, you know, especially the, I would say, like on day two of the event, like once everything is kind of humming along and I have some chances to watch some heats. You know it's a little hard to sit there and watch everybody out there and be like, oh man, I can totally take this event, you know. And then you just realize like shit, dude, that's ego talking. You know, like, just settle down, go back. And you know, focus on what you're good at right, which is putting this event together. I think that Joe and I have figured out what the community is looking for and how to support their Ruan and you know, putting what limited extra time and energy I have putting it into, that is just a little bit more fulfilling at this point.

David Syvertsen

Host

07:04

Hear.

07:04

That that's a great answer and I think that's something. One of the key reasons why I love that you and Joe are so you guys are at the top of legends is that you really can relate to all of us that compete and that's an answer that that's a thought, at least that I believe many masters athletes have at some point it's like, hey, I can, but should I? And it does priorities, family work they start to have to take priority over training and you know I think there's a lot of competitors out there that in the back of their head they know the end is here or the end is near and but they just want it, they still want to go after. That, you know called a dopamine rush of competing that weekend and getting that feeling. But we know, and Bob saying himself, it's much more than showing up to a comp and doing well in an event. It's a lifestyle that really you have to revolve around training for the entire year, or at least most of the year, to get to that kind of level and things that yeah.

Bob Jennings

Host

08:04

And it's great for people you know. I mean the I don't, I don't, I don't begrudge people that are still able to do that, and I think it if it fits into your life. Like you know, 100%, the competing lifestyle is a lot of fun.

David Syvertsen

Host

08:21

Yeah.

Bob Jennings

Host

08:22

And you know, but to your point. At some point you have to, you have to put that on the scale against everything else and see where it comes out.

David Syvertsen

Host

08:31

So, before we get into the Legends 2023 event, I just what's the why? Because we do have some backstory that Joe shared with us about. You know, the investment, finance time stress that you put into it, that both of you guys have put into it. What's the why behind it, like what truly is? Why do you keep coming back for another round?

Bob Jennings

Host

08:54

So the why, the why has changed over time, and in the beginning, the why was everyone else is doing this wrong. You know, somebody needs to do it right, and I'm tired of just saying out loud, you know, screaming in the shower right, somebody's doing it wrong, right, like I'm time to go fix it. And so that was the original why. And then it became, you know, then the hyper competitive aspect kicked in and you know, there was a couple of years. There is, joe and I were growing the event where it was. You know, we want, we want to be the best, this needs to be the best, and we're going to do whatever it takes to make it the best. And now that we've established that right and I don't think that it's, I don't think that it's bragging to say that, like, this is the premier Masters CrossFit competition in the world.

David Syvertsen

Host

10:04

I'll say it. I'll say it this is the premier CrossFit Masters competition in the world.

Sam Rhee

Host

10:08

Well, I mean, you never went to MFC, so just to provide a counterpoint, and you won this one. So why wouldn't you say that? But OK, right, sure and exactly.

Bob Jennings

Host

10:18

All right, so it's you know. So now that we're there, we're at the pinnacle of the mountain, right, we? We've been asked to run the CrossFit games. You know, now it's really more about, you know, continuing to service the community. You know, picking up and giving back to the sport that we both truly love. You know, it's really a lot more selfless at this point where I would say you know everything. Prior to that it was. It was very selfish and ego driven, despite the fact that we put in, you know, tons of time and money into building up the event. It was really more to satisfy ourselves than anything else.

David Syvertsen

Host

11:09

Right, yep, I understand that. Respect that answer, respect the honesty. Now, a few days away, legends 2023 as an event, who from CrossFit should we expect to see there?

Bob Jennings

Host

11:23

Well, probably, probably people that you don't know right, like a lot of the behind the scenes folks, will be there, ok, but Dave's coming in, boz is coming in, and you know just, I think they're, but Boz was there last year so he knows what to expect from one of our events. Dave, back when he lived in Carlsbad, he saw the event growing up, ok, and in the first three years in the gym, and you know. So I think it'll be good for him to see what it looks like now. But mostly it's kind of the behind the scenes folks that you won't recognize that are there really to figure out. Ok, how do we support a Masters competition that is this big right, that's 420 people in the RX division. You know what are some of the things that Bob and Joe are going to need extra help with to make sure that 2024 is the best experience and the best CrossFit games for Masters there's ever been. Ok.

David Syvertsen

Host

12:33

Now are you trying to? I do feel any extra pressure with these eyeballs there, like that you're almost trying to show them and press them and like, hey, you guys made the right call in letting Joe and I run the games for the Masters. Is there any extra pressure here?

Bob Jennings

Host

12:49

I would lie if I say there wasn't. Yeah, but I would say, you know, I'm a big fan of therapy. I mental, you know, emotional therapy, right, and so I've been going to a therapist for the last couple of years and what? One of the things that I've learned is that more than one emotion and more than one thing can be true at once. Right, got it. So, you know, yes, definitely feel a little bit more pressure, you know. But at the same time, you know they made the right choice, they're fully in with us. We totally know what we're doing, and you know, and I'm proud of what we really built. So I'm also kind of in the who gives a fuck mode to do.

Sam Rhee

Host

13:43

So I'm just kind of, you know, I'm just kind of, you know so yeah, I mean we had a little bit of experience with the behind the scenes CrossFit guys at the open announcement. Yeah, and I will say everything that I saw with those guys was it blew me away how professional and efficient and experienced they were at doing this at a brand new location setting everything up. I was blown away by the logistics and how good the staff were all of them. What I'm interested in is that you guys have a ton of experience and I know from meeting Joe and meeting you that you guys are also very confident, sort of self assured people who have run this multiple years and you know what you've been doing.

14:33

You did it at Mayhem, you did it during COVID, you did it, you know. Now you're doing it at a brand new location and it's just gotten bigger and bigger. So I know you guys are on the same page in terms of like making this the best competition possible next year. But it's also going to be sort of an interesting interaction to see what CrossFit HQ's sort of goals. Are they completely in line with your guys' goals or are they not? Like where are those little differences going to be? And this is going to be the first year, so obviously it's not going to be perfect next year, but I'm so glad that they're going to be there and you guys have a whole long run up of basically a year plus to sort of get all those things ironed out, hopefully.

Bob Jennings

Host

15:18

Yeah, so we're totally alive. Like we haven't had a single meeting yet I don't think where we differed too significantly. Like nobody's thrown out the veto card, and what's cool about the relationship is we both have it. I would say the veto card is definitely bigger than ours, but we have one as well, and I would even say like some of the decisions that have been made, like some of the little bit more controversial ones, have kind of come from both of us. So the 200 per division for this Emmy finals so that number was originally lower from CrossFit and Joe and I pushed back on that because it was only going to be 100, I think. And when it's 100 per division and you have 40 people qualifying, like it just didn't, it wasn't enough, right. Like in our opinion, you need at least 4X the number of qualifying spots in order for a qualifier to make a lot of sense.

Sam Rhee

Host

16:47

Do you realize that you're? Yeah, but did you realize you're going to F them in terms of video submissions and how many people they got to look at now?

Bob Jennings

Host

16:54

No, totally, yeah, like we all walk through all of that, right, and it's not, we're doing the video submissions too, right, like it's, this is all of us that have to manage that.

17:04

Right, but it's just, it's funny to watch the interweb blow up with anger every time some decision is made that it goes out there. And that was one to me that I was like. So we came back where like, oh, we think it should be. Like, we originally proposed going back with a graduated participation based model, right, and and you know, like, basically, habit at 4X for each number of qualifying spots, and and you know, and then CrossFit came back and we're like you know what? Let's just, let's make it just 200 across the board.

17:44

It goes back to the way AGOQ used to be and like, yes, they're definitely going to be. It's going to be more difficult, to you know, do do the video review, but that's what we're signing up for. And and you know, let's just do it the best we can. And to your point, sam, like, is it going to be perfect next year? Absolutely not. Is it going to be perfect in 10 years? Absolutely not. Something goes wrong every single year, right, expecting perfection is just, it's not realistic. And you know, striving for perfection, right, is clearly the goal. But in all the businesses that I run, like, one of the things that I like to say is it celebrate small failures right, because that's how you learn and become better. You don't ever want really big failures that blow everything up, but you want to celebrate the small ones, and so we're going to have a lot of small failures and we're going to celebrate those and we're going to be really proud of those small failures because they're going to help us do it better the next year.

Sam Rhee

Host

18:46

I'm sure Hiller will celebrate right along with me.

Bob Jennings

Host

18:50

Well and like, look, man, you know, guys like Hiller and and Savon, and um, you like they, they, they got to, they have a business to run right, and their business is kind of built on on negativity and um, that's not the energy that I want to bring in. And so, um, you know, they can say all they want, they can criticize our programming. They can criticize is, you know, me and Joe, is people right? Like they can criticize my dog, I don't, really, it doesn't matter, you know, um, you know, look, if they're so disappointed, disappointed with it go go running yourself, right. Yep, I'm just realizing you're wearing a Michigan shirt.

Sam Rhee

Host

19:36

Yeah, interviews over. I was there.

David Syvertsen

Host

19:41

I'm not Michigan. He's a Michigan guy. He's a uh uh. It's cool. He has ties to Michigan, so he's not just a front runner.

Sam Rhee

Host

19:48

No, I did my residency yeah.

Bob Jennings

Host

19:50

No, that that's awesome. That's awesome. So you practice, you're helping them steal signs and, you know, doing whatever it takes to win.

David Syvertsen

Host

19:58

He's trying, he's trying. He's trying to figure out a way to figure out the uh, the legends, workouts, uh, by by your notepad, on on on your desk or whenever Michigan against the world.

Bob Jennings

Host

20:08

So I look this is welcome to Edd, right? So my programming and what you guys just experienced is very much a part of it, right? Like I am, you know, I see something. I'm a, I'm a squirrel now, or if you're the squirrel, I'm a dog. Right, it's like Michigan. I can't get out of my head. I'm not hyper focused on it. That's kind of my programming too. I'll I'll get a little hyper focused on one movement that I really want to be in the event, and then I'll construct everything around that one movement. You know, nice, why do that?

David Syvertsen

Host

20:45

on. Oh, you're good at it, so I, you're good at you, and Joe have always put on a good cross-it program. I do want to dive into that at some point. But speaking of the media, will there be? I know there's not going to be a broadcast this year, for obvious reasons Will there be any sort of media coverage? Do you know anyone's coming in to help? You know? Just show what's going on, show you your display there.

Bob Jennings

Host

21:10

Yeah, there is actually quite a bit of media coverage coming in and I don't have any of the names that I wish I did. Yeah, this is Joe's department so I haven't really paid attention to it, but I know that there are. You know there's multiple photographers, videographers, you know all that stuff is coming in to help promote the event.

Sam Rhee

Host

21:33

But no streaming. Like we can't watch it where, at where?

Bob Jennings

Host

21:38

No, no streaming this year. This is one of the funny things about the community that I always find is like if people knew exactly how much it costs to run a stream yeah, we talked about that. Yeah, they wouldn't there's no way that they would bitch about. You know, crossfit trying to make more money right, and operate as a business. Or you know legends right, trying to operate as a business? Like you can't run a professional level stream without major, major sponsorship. And, given that this is a transition year into the game's next year, like it, just it didn't happen. And in the past, when it didn't happen, I wrote a check and I'm not writing any more checks.

Sam Rhee

Host

22:34

Yeah, you've lost money every year, especially with that high level streaming stuff you guys did, especially last year and before that.

David Syvertsen

Host

22:42

Yeah, that definitely needs to be known.

Bob Jennings

Host

22:43

Cool about that. Again, it's, like you know, fail small. So that is, it's allowed us to A get experience with it prior to going into next year's games, got it? And B understand a little bit about you know, what do we need to put together in order for the stream to be more widely viewed, right, like, we get a lot of feedback on it every year and you know a lot of it is like, hey, you know how come?

23:21

You know, joe Schmo, who came in 39th place, didn't get a lot of airtime and it's like, well, you know, he came in 39th place. Man, I'm really sorry, you know, I don't know what to tell you about that. Like, streaming it needs to tell a story, you know, and in order to do that, in order for it to be effective, right, like me personally, you guys tell me and I think I'm taking us wildly off course here but like I'm not a big fan of the set up a camera, a really wide angle, no content, you know, no context, no live announcers, like it. Just, you might as well just look at the leaderboard and see what happens after that.

David Syvertsen

Host

24:03

Agreed. Because even in that situation, bob, if you put the camera, that's no commentators, just put it in the corner you're still gonna have 10 people that are on the other side of that floor that you can barely see. They're like little ants. You know like that that you're gonna get complaints about that. You know, like, if you could rotate through multiple cameras you could do that. But now you're talking about manpower to do that. You can't just set up a phone or a camera on a stand and hope for the best. So I agree, I mean I think the way that you guys did it was the best possible way to have a broadcast. But again, the money always at some point has to come into play.

Sam Rhee

Host

24:39

It also will affect your programming. So since you're not streaming anything this year, you don't have to worry so much about how it looks visually. But I assume next year you're really gonna have to think about how you could see how the athletes are progressing and how far they are and who's against whom, and all these things which you didn't even have to worry about this year when you programmed this year, right?

Bob Jennings

Host

25:03

Yeah, so the previous two years we always had to think about flow, but flow from the perspective of a visual audience. And this year we still have to think about flow. We still have to think about people moving through the floor and first thing is always safety, right. So we're always thinking about flow from a safety perspective first, right. But then in the last two years it's been okay once we have safety nailed. Now we have to think about the camera and where the cameras are and making sure that it tells the story. That way, it's so much easier just to think about safety and a live audience when it comes to floor flow. When it comes to floor flow and programming yeah, next year it's. I mean, look, we've already started programming for next year.

David Syvertsen

Host

25:56

That's awesome, right? Does that include quarter-final, semi-finals? Are you just right now focused on games programming when you say we're racing?

26:07

Yeah, right now really focused on games, but we will be involved in the previous rounds, so you can really have a stronger case for reverse engineering, right Like you do the games. And then you're like all right, now that we have this at the games, what do I wanna test at semis to make sure that people get to the games able to do that, and then you have the quarters in the open. That's really cool. I mean, I've always thought that's what you should do, that you program the final event first, at least most of it, and then you reverse engineer.

Sam Rhee

Host

26:36

Yeah, but that's more complicated. That's what we, they're doing. All the events the same too right For individuals and for quarter-finals.

David Syvertsen

Host

26:46

I believe they're all the same. Right For the quarter-finals. Masters and open division are the same workouts. They'll probably change according to what division, but I think semi-finals are separate. Do you have input on quarters for next year?

Bob Jennings

Host

26:59

Yeah, so it basically our input. It's a curve based on our. You know how much it becomes exclusively masters, right. So you know, open very little input quarters. We got a little bit more input. Semis will be more of a collaboration between us and the team division, right. And then you know, the games will be us, you know. And obviously CrossFit is. They're weighing in all along the way, you know, because they wanna make sure that you know they're brands on the line, absolutely. So, you know, and we're still feeling each other out a little bit right, and while they think that they know and trust Joe and I, they gotta make sure that we're not lunatics too, right.

Sam Rhee

Host

28:02

So, the right kind of lunatic.

David Syvertsen

Host

28:04

So I mean with that in mind, because I've heard you speak about programming for Legends and just competition in general, and one thing I like about you guys is that you do stick to CrossFit, Like you don't try to get too cute. You are creative, but it's still classic CrossFit when you dumb it down. Do you have a rank without giving anything up right now, Because I know the workouts are coming out in two days and do you have a rank, if you will, in terms of what you think is most important to test, or is it, or do you try to really evenly distribute?

Bob Jennings

Host

28:38

Yeah, we try to make it as even as possible. Yeah, because, you know, you, just, this isn't a powerlifting competition, it's not a strength competition, it's not a endurance competition, right, it's CrossFit, right. So, you, really, we, every time we put it together and every revision that we go through and, like Joe and I will go through hundreds of revisions Wow, we're always looking at it holistically and saying, okay, do we have balance right? And not only balance from? You know, are we testing endurance versus power, and you know, high-skilled gymnastics versus, you know, pure strength? And but also, we'd like to make sure that we have balance across the impact on the athlete's body as much as possible as well. Right, there are definitely years where we come out and we're like, oh, wow, that was a really grippy year. Or like, wow, we really, you know, we hammered the posterior chain there. But again, we'd like to make sure that we're not. We want to test people as hard as we possibly can without breaking them long term.

Sam Rhee

Host

30:02

Yeah, we saw Joe a couple months ago and they hadn't you guys hadn't finalized everything for this year when we talked to him. I assume they're all finalized now. So now you're looking at your programming coming up, are you better? It's like in a couple of days Out of a scale, here's what. Well, go ahead and ask your question. I was gonna say on a scale of one to 10, 10 being like this is the perfect, ideal programming for this comp, and I am so psyched versus like one, like we made so many compromises and there's so many issues here, like how happy are you with this year's programming, say versus last year's or the year before? Like how complete, how good of a test, how safe, like all those things.

Bob Jennings

Host

30:46

Yeah. So I think our best programming ever was two years ago, San Diego, I thought San Diego, San Diego, yeah, that was great. I thought last year was pretty good. I really like this year's programming. I think last year we tested a little bit like we didn't have anything heavy really last year, which is outside of the norm for us, and so I think we got some good heavy back in there and I mean, look, the movement standards are out, so I'm not really giving anything away. Where's the machine.

David Syvertsen

Host

31:36

No-transcript. There there was a deadlift in the movement standard that has been released to everybody. Better lift heavy dude, yeah well.

31:45

Well, there's heavy there, yeah, and there's different ways to go at it. Can I, can I make it? Can I make a predict? Can I make a prediction? Sure, so the equipment vendor is Titan. Is that what they're called? No, first of all, they are called giant giant. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, giant, yeah. Yeah, I've followed their Instagram ever since Joe came out and announced that that was the equipment vendor and they've been putting a lot of, a lot of action, a lot of videos into their trap bar. Oh, trap bar deadlifts. That would be a really cool test. A trap bar at one rep max deadlift, or or they they on their Instagram videos they had them carrying them back and forth. Unlike visualizing Like a trap bar deadlift, work out where you have to advance the barbell, carry it X amount, but you can't really do that with a barbell. You can't carry a barbell, yeah. So that that's that's my, my out-of-the-box prediction that we're gonna be using a trap bar.

Bob Jennings

Host

32:35

I Wish I thought of it.

Sam Rhee

Host

32:42

All that practice.

Bob Jennings

Host

32:45

I'm telling you, it's already giving me ideas for next year.

David Syvertsen

Host

32:47

Cool, I think. I think trap bar trap bar would be a cool test Because it's different than a deadlift.

Sam Rhee

Host

32:52

Yeah yeah, for sure. Just, has Bob ever repeated workouts from year to year?

David Syvertsen

Host

32:58

That's a better question for you Because I've only competed there three years. I know you guys went creep. So here's another fellow. I spent too much time thinking about this shit but they were very repeat happy in the qualifier this year they switched the workouts up a little bit but they were very and Joe put that out there that they were all, yeah, either like past workouts or different versions of past workouts. And again, if these guys were reverse engineer I could see, you know a repeat. And I do think Joe did say on our podcast there is a repeat this year. But then he said it could be from a legends event or any games event ever. That that really heard. My spreadsheet there went when he said that. But I like repeats philosophically. Yeah, what's your thought on repeats?

Bob Jennings

Host

33:45

Um, right, so I don't like pure repeats, right? So, as you can tell from the, the qualifying programming, right, like I Don't think there was anyone that was a Sure repeat either we like reverse them and change the weight a little bit, swapped out a movement. You know, like I, because to us it's it's fun to watch, to watch the stimulus change just by making a small tweak, yeah and and, and it's fun to show people that, like, you can have a totally different event or Qualifying, you know, just by making a couple of really small tweaks it did, it will completely shuffle up the leaderboard and also impact the athletes in a different way. You're right? Um, so here's kind of my general thought on that. So there's, there's a Following that same philosophy of a tweak, right, there is one workout that is similar, but it's been tweaked, which means it might be totally different stimulus wise.

David Syvertsen

Host

35:03

Yeah, similar to what to add, your favorite programming from San Diego.

Bob Jennings

Host

35:07

No, it's actually from Arizona. Oh, arizona, okay, yeah, it's kind of like a mesh of two from Arizona. Okay, that'd be cool, you know. And look, you know I, like you guys know that I love the two parters on Sunday, right, so, yeah, expect a two parter on Sunday and and I and I and you know that I love them to be, you know, like two very different stimulus is, yes, right, and so kind of expect that. It's the thing that we're always challenged with, like there are, there are events that I really really want to do that I've seen programmed elsewhere that we're just never really able to do because of with a 420 person event and Having limited fields of play, right, you can only like there's just not enough time to do them, right, and so, you know, like one of the events, that that I'm a hundred percent building the games around next year.

36:16

Okay, it's something that Joe and I tried to get inserted this year. Okay, and we had we we had to modify it a lot because it just it couldn't fit into Understood. Yeah, I mean this is. I mean you guys think the games are big, the amount of games.

David Syvertsen

Host

36:29

Athletes compared to the amount of masters athletes at the games, it's like 10%. Yeah, that's why masters is so hard to run. Yeah, even for when the CrossFit guys did.

Sam Rhee

Host

36:40

It is just so many more athletes, yep, for every division. I know it hasn't been Sorry. A lot of that right, yep, it's.

Bob Jennings

Host

36:48

Judges and volunteers right, like you're a hundred percent limited by judges and volunteers. Yes, so I, I, I mean if, if that wasn't a problem, if we could use AI to do judging right Some day, the shit that I could do Now. Now my mind speculating what they wanted to do this year that they couldn't do Logistically. We'll have to combine some thoughts there, yeah.

David Syvertsen

Host

37:12

What have been some of the struggles of the the, the, yeah, what have been some of the struggles when? So again, just in on the whole logistical side, now you guys are introducing scaled and team division this year and while it they're not, they're not big divisions, they're still there's still something you have to really put into the plan. Has that been Net, net positive, net negative in terms of and planning of the event?

Bob Jennings

Host

37:44

Net negative. Yeah, you're 100% and and it's not that the team so much team the. The challenge of a team is, you know, making sure that you can have four athletes safe wheel right.

37:57

Yeah, and and so, you know, for the legends event next year Not for the CrossFit games worth, we're probably going to include, we're gonna include Team, but, you know, maybe like partner instead of teams of four, right, because it's just you gotta, you gotta think about safety and equipment, you know, and all that other stuff. For stuff on this, on the scaled side, we've tried so hard, guys, you know, and and we just we really want to support the community, but it is just so hard to get them to To show up right I mean, they just don't show up Right the numbers that you need in order to make them, you know, not a a Financial drain right and a resource drain on the event, which Unfortunately they are right, right, are you gonna?

Sam Rhee

Host

38:56

are you making money this year? You think finally Breaking it Okay? Okay, good good for you progress all that work for zero dollar exactly. Net profit zero.

David Syvertsen

Host

39:08

Yeah, we receive the movement list from Joe, and is there? Are there any expects? Should we expect any surprises that are not on that list? Should Crossfitters be ready for anything?

Bob Jennings

Host

39:21

No.

David Syvertsen

Host

39:22

Hashtag no, no machines from Joe's email last night.

Bob Jennings

Host

39:26

Yeah, no machines, right, which this is definitely the the year of no machines, interesting, which We've talked. We've talked about no machines since year one, okay, and, and it originally it was because Machines are totally unreliable. Yeah, right, and, and we're, and we, like all we can think about is fairness, fairness, fairness all the time. Right, like we want to make sure that the event is is fair and and you know, people are spending their hard-earned money to come computer at at this event, for you know very relatively little prize money and you know no fame or you know anything that comes along with winning an event, right, and so when you have equipment failures, that introduces a level of unfairness into Into play, right, and so for it.

40:28

For years we had been looking to get rid of it. Also, like the unreliability of the actual manufacturers of the equipment to deliver the equipment to us and Assemble that equipment, and you know all of the stuff that comes along with that. But then also this year it just kind of became like you know, this would be, it'll be fun, right, like people, people are so used to machines, yep, that they forget that there's so many other ways to. You know, really, we use machines primarily to spike your heart rate. Yeah, right, like I can spike your heart rate, you know a lot of different ways. Yeah, I don't need an external stimulus to help that's awesome, especially masters athletes.

David Syvertsen

Host

41:13

I think I find myself on the machines almost every day and it's it's kind of like because it's easy, it's kind of like a crutch, like it's.

41:21

Yeah you know, and masters athletes, we feel safe on it and I like that. I mean, I'm a machine guy but I respect going. No machines, just like that year, one year at regionals were crossing with no barbell. You know, like they, they found ways to test strength, right, and I, you know, I remember Dave Castro talking about how everyone just gets so caught up in barbell, barbell, barbell. Like if you want to be strong, there are so many ways to test it other than that. So if you want a good engine, there are so many ways to test and train that other than be on the machine. All right, get off the machine and start doing more burpees. Yeah, I guess.

Bob Jennings

Host

41:53

Come on. Well, look, I mean event beat. I can tell you for certain, like I, I'm gonna spike the shit out of every single person's heart rate, right? And everyone is gonna heat my guts after event you better get the deep.

David Syvertsen

Host

42:09

That be sat mission Is that is that Saturday.

Bob Jennings

Host

42:13

No, it's Sunday, so it's 78, are the two-part around.

David Syvertsen

Host

42:18

Okay, um when? So I know Joe said that he's gonna start releasing these workouts on Tuesday. Last year, and I think previous years, you guys released a lease until Wednesday, but okay so because I'm a last day, it's Tuesday last year I do you guys release them all at once. Will you be sporadically releasing them to make it a little more dramatic, like here's one at a time. One at a time.

Bob Jennings

Host

42:41

No, I think we're gonna release them all at once. Yeah okay, I like to buy preferences to release them the night before, yeah.

David Syvertsen

Host

42:50

Mess with our sleep.

Bob Jennings

Host

42:52

Yeah, so it's part of the event, right, right, oh, it's huge. You know, like you know you, you get the event at the athlete. Yeah, and that's that is cool.

David Syvertsen

Host

43:02

There's an element, I don't know, maybe.

Bob Jennings

Host

43:05

Well, I can talk to you.

Sam Rhee

Host

43:06

Well, that also is nice, because then you can't game your whole Four days. You you have to like just do what you can for that day. You don't know what's happening the next day. So if you knew, then you're like okay, maybe I can like dial back this day, because I know I could kill it the next day. Like that just means you got to go ham every day and just wait and see what comes out the next day.

David Syvertsen

Host

43:25

How are you guys announcing email, instagram both?

Bob Jennings

Host

43:30

Yeah, email. Instagram, okay, you know, and like competition quarter automatically notifies, okay.

David Syvertsen

Host

43:38

Last question about the event. I have free if Sam has anything. Yeah, are you guys? You guys gonna be doing briefings each night at the end of the event, at the end of each day? Is that? Last time I saw you do that, it was the most angry and closest closest I've ever seen you and Joe to wanting to punch them on the face. Those are rough, I'll tell you those are.

Bob Jennings

Host

43:58

They are pretty rough. I don't think so. Also with the schedule, with the addition of team and and and Scaled like we're going until I Got in front of me right here. We're going on Saturday. On Friday we go until like seven o'clock at night, and Saturday Saturday we're going until nine o'clock. Wow.

Sam Rhee

Host

44:27

So I'm sure the briefings are fine.

Bob Jennings

Host

44:31

I did doing a briefing at that 10 writer. The last seat ends at 850. So you know, I don't know that would be kind of rough. Um, you know, but we have you guys out of there. Last heat ends on Sunday at 2.48.

David Syvertsen

Host

44:50

Great, that's awesome, that's great.

Bob Jennings

Host

44:52

Yeah.

David Syvertsen

Host

44:53

I know some of the people we have. I think we have dozen or a dozen people coming out from Bison well over a dozen, yeah and they all want to know when we can actually go out for fun Sunday night. So I'll let them know that we will be good for dinner time. Where's the nearest bar?

Bob Jennings

Host

45:08

Yeah, well, you got to collect your podium, man, and then head out.

David Syvertsen

Host

45:12

Right, I hope so, I hope so.

Sam Rhee

Host

45:16

How many games, athletes or names are going to be there competing that? I'll be sorry that I will be missing on no streaming for this.

Bob Jennings

Host

45:24

Uh, dozens, I didn't actually count up for this year. Who are you excited to?

Sam Rhee

Host

45:30

see out there.

Bob Jennings

Host

45:32

Dave oh early.

David Syvertsen

Host

45:34

Okay.

Bob Jennings

Host

45:35

I mean Dave was probably. He's honestly, I sent Joe a text message yesterday and I said you know, I know I'm not allowed to root for people, but I do. Man, he's just, he's such a he's. You know I'll say it to your face, since you're here like you're a model of what every athlete should be like. You're just, you're super humble, you. You put the work in. You're such a great guy. You never complain. You understand the business aspects of it. You're very appreciative of what we do. You're just, you know, you're fucking awesome. Do appreciate it.

46:10

You know David Johnson. David Johnson's another guy like that. Unfortunately, he can't compete this year. You know the the the women 50 to 54 is going to be a pretty good battle this year.

David Syvertsen

Host

46:25

We got one coming out. We got one coming out Kathleen.

Bob Jennings

Host

46:27

Yeah.

David Syvertsen

Host

46:29

I'm really looking forward to seeing that. Did I see Jen Ryan's competing? Jen Ryan, dan Dan Dan Bailey is barely going to compete in.

Bob Jennings

Host

46:39

Dan Bailey just dropped out. Really, that's the yeah, yeah and no. I think it's because he's afraid of you.

David Syvertsen

Host

46:51

Right, oh, that stinks. I was looking forward to competing against them.

Bob Jennings

Host

46:56

Yeah, yeah, I don't know the reason why you had to drop and it's not. You know, sarah Mead it's a job and he's not here. Yeah, it's going to be. You know it's going to be like it is every year, right, you're going to have, you know, probably 50, 60 games, athletes, if not more, you know, and then the, the, the best people who have never made the games right, you yourself included that go out there and actually show those guys that in a, in a 40 person competition, it's a lot different than a 10 person competition. Absolutely. You can't have holes anywhere in your game.

David Syvertsen

Host

47:44

So let's, let's wrap this up just talking about the future, Bob, it's kept you a little bit longer than we thought, but I mean you already talked about you beginning on the 2024 masters games, or whatever you guys are calling it. Do we? When, do we, can we expect a certain time or date to hear when the actual date and location of the event will be next year?

Bob Jennings

Host

48:05

Yeah, so when will that be? So yeah, so, the first thing is it is the masters CrossFit games by legends, right? So that is the the name of the event. Oh, so it is going to be the third week of August. Okay, and you know, or at least that's what we're shooting for, right, we still do not have a venue yet. That's that is to. So we're we kind of had to put those efforts on pause a little bit over the last couple of weeks, just leading, you know, leading up to the event this year. But I want to have the venue wrapped up by the Friday after, after legends Got it, and you know, just so we can it. Really, that affects everything else, Absolutely. It even affects programming, right? Yep, so you know interesting environmental options to to throw into an event, like I'm going to want to do, as long as it's not giving you.

David Syvertsen

Host

49:25

Yeah, I mean part of that thought process is is heat related, right? I mean there's certain parts of the country you just really can't can't play around with too much outside. If you're in August, other parts of the country it's fine. But I mean that's. That's going to be interesting to hear that. So I empathize with that and that you do probably need to put all the attention on the event that's coming up in just a few days and then, and then you really kind of make that font a call a few days later.

Sam Rhee

Host

49:51

Is this going to be next year the 2024 Nobel masters games? By legends or Rogue or Giant or you don't know? Like, how are you? Like? How does that? How do you decide that? Or is that CrossFit deciding it? And the other thing is is finance has been such a big thing in the past couple of days about CrossFit HQ? Like are they like you better make this break, even at least next year, or you guys are out or you know whatever. Like, are there financial constraints that you have in mind when you're thinking about next year?

Bob Jennings

Host

50:28

So the first question again was sponsorship, naming, naming rights, sponsorship, right. So that's primarily driven by CrossFit, and so I'm sure there will be an announcement coming out in the near future, probably in December, around naming rights, the and I'm not being coy there, I actually don't know, yeah, who the main sponsors are The- financial.

Sam Rhee

Host

51:07

I guess right ADD and Action man, financial constraints considerations.

Bob Jennings

Host

51:17

CrossFit's a business right. Legends is a business. Businesses need to be profitable. I empathize with all of the affiliate owners that had their affiliate fees raised on them in the last couple of weeks, but I really see it more from the business point of view. And you know, in one of the businesses that I run, for example, we raised our rates for the first time in six years, and you know, inflation is a big factor in that right. While the consumer, of course, is being impacted by inflation and the rates of the goods and services that they consume, businesses are as well, and those costs have to be passed on somewhere, or else you stop providing services right, and so we expect to operate at a profit for, you know, for a legends for next year and or sorry, not for legends for the CrossFit Games for next year. I mean, that's our goal, but that's only going to come from sponsorship and participation.

Sam Rhee

Host

52:31

And you know this based on the fact that this year might be the first year you're going to break even after all these years. Like that's a huge order for anyone to execute on. Like the CrossFit has not been able to do that for themselves. So what is your confidence coming from? That you can do this next year, like make it profitable, make it work, make it a real event that's huge and successful and all those that's like a huge order for anyone to execute.

Bob Jennings

Host

53:07

Yeah, so it comes from the marriage of legends and CrossFit. Right, so we're able to tap into their scale and their network, you know, to provide cost efficiency on scale and then increase revenue opportunities on you know their network. Right, so you know, and then with us we operate a much leaner operation and we can, you know, when you get into an event, right, and you have 420 people, you know, signing up and participations and things like that, like just the way they come together work well, I think, where both companies at a minimum will break even. You know, certainly, you know should operate at a profit and I don't think anybody should be embarrassed to say that, right, it blows my mind that the people on you know the interweb again going after the CrossFit HQ for operating a for-profit business. It's like you know, what'd you expect? Right, like you can't. You cannot get better service from your provider if you don't pay, then for it.

David Syvertsen

Host

54:42

Right, it's just yep. I mean we're actually doing an episode soon to salmonize on the increased prices and the irony is, for the first time in five years, we're increasing our rates on existing members in January. Yeah, and it's the same exact situation and it's nice to have the perspective of being on both sides, because I do think, if you are on both sides of that argument, discussion, even you get it right, like every everyone that I know that owns a business that comes to our gym. When we did have discussions about raising rates. They're like I get it, like they have both sides of the perspective. And it's like you said, if you want this thing to operate, it needs to make money period and in most cases in most cases, more than you think that's how much it needs, so that's that's yeah, 100% more than you think, you trust we never, as business owners, we never pass on the appropriate amount of increased costs that we're taking on Absolutely Never do.

Bob Jennings

Host

55:41

Never, and we're doing a disservice to our employees, our shareholders and the people that are requiring the service. Yep, is this going on? Live right now. Is this for real? Is that it Is this just somebody-.

David Syvertsen

Host

55:53

I thought it was tonight that it comes out. I was a little distracted, but I didn't want to focus on I can't see on your TV what number four says. Is that Florida State? Yeah, it's blank right now there.

Sam Rhee

Host

56:02

No, it's blank right now. Oh I oh no, this is live. Oh, so it's Texas.

Bob Jennings

Host

56:08

Wow, holy sh All right, so we'll see. I don't think we should extend the podcast to the same number four we're probably gonna get sued for broadcasting.

Sam Rhee

Host

56:18

They might be like well, we'll have to crop that out.

David Syvertsen

Host

56:20

A little, all six viewers that we have. No, we're not live anyway. Yeah, but yeah, I mean that is a task that you know. I think most of us, especially people from my jam, really like into it. Master's community a lot of competitors, a lot of people that follow the sport, a lot of people that support you guys. They, when they think about legends in the event, it's almost always about the programming, the athletes that are there, but it is like 1,000%. It's a business and if we do truly I know you've talked about this, I've been very strong about this as well that if people truly want to see something succeed so that they can actually benefit from it, they need to do everything they can to contribute to it, whether it's spending money on sponsors, whether it's showing up and whether it's participating qualifiers, putting messaging out on social media, like anything is great really.

57:15

But to ignore it, but to ignore it and I mean at some point it's gonna die down to the bottom and it's gonna disappear if, unless people really put themselves out in front. Because I always say that my line on this is always everyone's going to be a master's athlete at some point. You know I have people that are 33 in my gym right now that are now amping up their training for when they turn 35. And I'm telling you that's not the only case. There are people all over the world and that's gonna be a constant feeder system into master's sports. So we need to find a way to make sure you guys are profitable and I've always told you guys like you have our word that we'll do everything we can to help you guys out.

Bob Jennings

Host

57:54

Yeah, thank you, and I appreciate that. You guys have been just hugely supportive over the years. It's been so great. It's like Georgia got six, by the way.

David Syvertsen

Host

58:06

Yeah, now they're gonna dumb it down to Bama, or or Florida State, Florida State.

Sam Rhee

Host

58:11

Florida State. That's gonna be Florida State, and, yes, we get to Can you imagine?

David Syvertsen

Host

58:16

Wait, bama, bama's in FSU's out man.

Bob Jennings

Host

58:20

It undefeated FSU coming in at number five.

Sam Rhee

Host

58:24

That's a tough one for Matchup. I don't know how I'm pissed at the Michigan guy.

David Syvertsen

Host

58:29

We gotta play Bama. Well, I put 50 bucks on Florida State when the national championship. That's my piss.

Sam Rhee

Host

58:35

Well, now you gotta win the legend, so you can make money back.

David Syvertsen

Host

58:40

Well, I also put 50 bucks on Michigan too, so it was one of those two that I'm good. All right, bob, is there any message you wanna get out? Any sponsors you wanna shout out? Just anything that you wanna make sure you can get out there before we call quits.

Bob Jennings

Host

58:50

Yeah, you know, first form barrel giant lifting equipment sponsor, volunteer shoe sponsor, tier. These guys, year in, year out, specialty equipment sponsor, rxmart gear. Like these guys, have supported legends in a big way every single year. Please, please, please, you know, keep showing up and making it worth their while to put in all the time and effort that they do to support us. Charity this year is underground PDX. It's a nonprofit CrossFit gym up in Portland for underprivileged youth. You know, show up right. Next year is such a critical year for the sport of masters CrossFit. You gotta show up in the open. You gotta show up for the quarter finals. You gotta show up for the semis and if you can make it in person, if you don't end up qualifying for the games, come out, make sure you watch the live stream. You. Just the support has to be there. This is your sport, right. You do the community and the only way that that continues to grow and can be serviced the way that you wanted to is your sport.

David Syvertsen

Host

01:00:21

It's awesome, bob. Thanks again so much for the time. Really really do appreciate it. I know you're not up in the public spotlight as much as you used to be and I really do appreciate you giving us the time now. Thank you both as an athlete, as a gym owner, for everything that you're doing and, like I said, always have my support, buy some support, and we cannot wait to see what you guys have in store for us Thursday through Sunday.

Bob Jennings

Host

01:00:50

Awesome man. Thanks guys, I appreciate it, Thank you.

David Syvertsen

Host

01:00:54

Thank you everybody for taking the time out of your day to listen to the Herdfit podcast. Be on the lookout for next week's episode.