What Did We Learn from TYR Wodapalooza?

Good evening. Welcome everybody to the Spin January 17th, 2024. We're back from Miami, at least I am. It looks like Tyler is as well. John never left. Never left us. Tyler, did you, have you ever been able to recover yet? I'm getting there. It's still. I think it's going to be like this for a little week. It it's not as sorry, it's not as painful as it was, but yeah, it's it's going to take a minute.

I believe I I pushed it to the point where it was, it was pretty painful while I was there. So you got to pay the price on the other end? Yeah, you sounded pretty bad on Sunday and it's it's not not improved much. I went back and watched some of those videos and I was like, man, it was pretty bad. Like my wife didn't believe that it was me on the phone, I called. I called Sevon while I was there and he was like, this is not dollar.

And so I didn't think it was that bad, but it was evidently pretty bad. Maggie met her. So thank you for becoming a new member. Appreciate it. I did. Too. She's really nice. Yeah, I mean, it was pretty cool. Met a lot of lot of fans. That was that was pretty fun and it was not John's fault. So. It typically is though so like you know, it's not unfounded, so. Yeah. All right. We'll get into it. We'll start off with fewer comments, a little underwhelming

this time, let's say the least. So make sure if you're watching this, watching back or you're not in the chat live and you think of something, drop it in the comments.

We'll catch it up next week. A lot of these actually were coming from the daily behind the scenes, but I want to kind of read these out, get some reactions if if need be be Sparks DC. If any of you have met James Sprague, you know that the dude is the most kind hearted human being and a fierce competitor only 21 years old to root for that man he was. He's basically Noah Olson.

I mean, Noah Olson, Cole Sager combined like the dude is about as. Nice as Do not put Cole Sager in that court, No. Olson from a from a from a being nice standpoint, 100 percent, 100%. Yeah, Springs. Amazing. I love hanging out with him. So yeah, Sprague was great. Also, Mr. Meaner one. I love Rebecca. She's great and funny. Always reading for her to do well. It's big Becca season. You blame Hopper? Yeah, I'll. Take y'all, take that for what you will.

Whatever was going on with that, it's. Just me, and I'm trying to fight each other the whole time. Dude Hopper was everywhere. Whether even if he wasn't competing Thursday, Friday he and Down were just walking around cracking jokes, laughing. They were both. They were both tired because they wouldn't go to bed because they'd stay up screwing around. I could budget a freaking 19 year old. Now, I mean, it was, it was

hilarious. You'd be walking down one of the vendor areas, all you'd hear is Hopper's voice or or laughter and you know, he was out there somewhere. And yeah, those guys were awesome. Tyler should be on a Marlboro ad. He's on his way. Ricky and Kotler make such a good team. Tyler, you spend a lot of time with, especially with Kotler. Yeah, Kotler, The last two days we talked a lot and Ricky, Ricky and I kind of made friends after I asked him if he was a redneck and several other invasive

questions there. I mean, I was skeptical of Kotler. I, you know, I don't know how much of people's you know, John. I don't. I don't. You haven't had that much exposure to hanging out with people live, right. So you have these ideas of who they might or might not be in your head And then like I'm sitting there with Kotler on on the last day during the award ceremony and man, like we're just chatting it up like we knew each other forever.

I mean that is genuine. And I I just wasn't expecting that. And then Ricky's the same way. Like Ricky, I felt like I could take him to Eastern Kentucky and he'd fit right in, man. He just, he felt like I could take him to the farm and he could. I felt like I could take him to a, you know, a five star restaurant sort of thing. So. Is this true? Does color make good steaks? I have no idea. I've been told. I've been told he's a good cook. And then the last one.

I told you there weren't very many. At first I thought the Coons was slamming a Miller Lite. I would have respected him much more so. Probably some jocko though. If you didn't catch it, I caught up with the Coons on one of the behind the scenes. He was hanging out at the CrossFit tent. Figured I'd go say hi. Caught, caught a few minutes with him and yeah, I think it was a liquid death that he think

he was drinking, but. Oh yeah, they do look like Miller Lights. They're tall like Miller Lights, and they're white. Yeah, they they had the if you wanted water, that's pretty much the only option you had. They didn't have a free water station this year, which was crazy. So if you wanted if you wanted water, it was basically a $6.50 liquid death. I was trying to trade. I think I had my Max one day was like 1500 milligrams of caffeine and I think I had two liquid

deaths for every one of those. So I was just full of liquid the entire day. Yeah, yeah. What was the purpose of the CrossFit tent? So they were doing CrossFit Open registrations. I was also confused about this PC. Yeah, they were. They were doing that. They were having some meetings with affiliates or affiliate owners were coming over and and chatting with them. So I don't know all of the details. It was in a kind of tucked away corner.

So they didn't get as much traction as they had last year. Last year they had a great location. They had a pull up rig there. So they were doing some teaching and stuff. They didn't have that this year. It was really seemed to be primarily focused around doing some open signups, meeting with affiliates if they wanted to stop by and chat. Craig Howard was there on Saturday, I think. So they're having some meetings. I can't talk either. It's been rough.

Yeah, I was getting ready to say I was listening to you the other day and I was like, oh, his voice is kind of cracking. Oh, Monday I was bad shape for sure. It started. Happened to everybody, It happened to PC and it happened to Bella, so I don't know if I I had something and I gave it to you all or what. Yeah, should have been giving out free water instead of free rain. I just That shit kept me going. All right, let's go look at some predictions.

So last week we left off. We, we shared our predictions. I think we did better than we thought we did. Now we didn't do much in terms. Of speak, for speak for yourself, man. He is speaking for himself. He got second in the world. Yeah, we'll get to that here in a second. I've. Ever had. We'll get to that here in a second. John, I think we lost your mic, by the way. Yeah, I think it's on the, you hear me. It's a little echoey. It may not be on your headset. Give me.

A But so here's. A look at all that Green, Man. So the top 10 predictions on men you'll see on the left. There we have the results of top 10. And then there are our picks. So if you were green, that means you were within two spots. So if you picked, if you picked like Segurard, I have him in 3rd. He finished first, so he's within two. Black means you had they're both in the top 10. Red means you failed. We all had at least two Reds. Can you all have a every now? Yeah, that's better.

That's better. Roman Krenikoff obviously was the biggest disappointment from a replacement standpoint, all picking 1st Alex Vigno for you guys, not even close to the top ten. You know Nick Matthews, Luke Parker, Mertens and Hatfield were close but maybe not quite in 5th so I will call out Tyler Quants. 3rd place pick was money. Beautiful Tyler. That might have been your best call of all time. I got like that might have been your best prediction that you've

ever had because. Which is hilarious because I'm always low on quant. It just. Seems poetic, doesn't? It and we're usually higher on them, you know like or I usually AM and. After this weekend, see, this is the problem. I'll start getting biased because I meet people and I start liking them. I met, I met Quant and he was. He liked the he liked the fantasy app. And you know, we chummed it up for a while. He's a good dude. He's a lot more personable than

you would think. I thought he was very reserved, not really talkative. That is false for both him and Jack Farlow. They're very personable people. So yeah, I don't. I think I met, I talked with Farlow on Friday night and yeah, he was, you think of it as more quiet and reserved. But no, he he was very personable and talking with Quant after that, the deja vu he he kind of admitted that he didn't he wasn't feeling that

bad after the second interval. He's like I I this is kind of weird and sounds bad, but I was feeling pretty good, like he shouldn't have felt that good. So I mean if he has that capacity, he could be dangerous in 24, which we'll get to in a bit. Any surprises on this top ten just looking at it? Did you? So I kind of tried to poke around Rosa to see what was going on with Roman. And I did it lightly and it was at the end of it. It was towards the end of an

event. So they probably weren't really focused on me, but I was like, hey man, this is, this is uncharacteristic of Roman. I was like, he's not doing bad. It just seems like he's a little flat. And I can't remember the guy that was with them, but he was basically like that. He's just like, he's a little tired. He's been traveling a lot. It's just a bad day. Like that's what they nailed it up to. Too much traveling from South Korea? Ricky's been traveling a lot too. It didn't hurt him.

Yeah, I know Ricky was strong the entire weekend. I I don't know. I mean, it could be some of it. The the changes to the workouts, it definitely was a different type of competition than I think we all expected going into it because of the weather. I can't imagine that Roman's the best at 60 pull ups, strict pull ups. No, it no, the changes, the changes in the workouts hurt Roman a lot. Like every change that they made

was to his detriment. I I think you could say the same with Danielle Brandon. Every single change and and they changed like three of the five workouts were to their detriment. So like I and then like when it's only 5 events and you're all one of those events you're

not going to do good period. With the snatch it's it's I I'm surprised he's that low but it doesn't take away with how he's going to do it. The games, if they did 15 events then he would be, in my opinion, I think he'd be up to 3rd place if they did 15 events and his worst events were in the 1st 5. But it's, you know, it is what it is in the competition.

I mean he did get 8th place. I do think it makes me think twice about who I think is going to win the games because you know, Ricky looks great the whole time. It's just it's hard not to take that away and I thought they were one and two coming into this and when one of you is trash and wanted and and I don't mean that in a mean way like they're they're this this this whole event water Palooza with the change of the events was not set up for him to do well and it

was set up for Ricky to do well. So like I take that into account. It's just I thought he would be better than eighth. You know they didn't help they didn't hurt Belner that bad. They didn't hurt quant that bad those both they got Bukowski. You can't tell me 60 strict pull up was good for Bukowski and he got second. You know what I'm saying, But I still think he's going to be top three at the games, really top two.

I think, well, it's like it just goes, you know, you go into, you go sort of into The Cave. A lot of the athletes were saying that after this event it's all focus. You know, this is the last fun thing they do and it's it's training time. And a lot of, you know, a few of them said like, yeah, I'm not really prepped yet, so I don't disagree, John, I think this is fine. It's not the best but. Yeah, question for you guys. How would the field fare if there are 8 events?

Well, I think we'd have a, we might have two mono structural events, you know, maybe like they maybe they run that trail, you know, and that'd be one of the events. Guess who's going to do good in that event? Holman. But like, he would have been higher. But I mean, I don't think he gets past fifth with eight events, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. I mean, you look at the people ahead of them, none of them were showing any weakness.

No, and I mean Jack Farlow, I think Farlow and Sprague are the biggest surprises of the whole competition. Farlow, Sprague and venison and you can chop that up to like they were good events. But I don't think they were great events for Farlow and Sprague, and they still got 5th and 7th. I like when they change that workout to burpees and front squats. That is a tall man's nightmare compared to short people.

When Martin's kills the whole field by 30 seconds, that means James Sprague and Brent Fakowski are not having a good time. That's what that means. And for James Sprague to guilt, still get 7th in this. And I mean, I know they got set up good for that swim event, I know, but you're going to have home run hits and you're going to have events that are bad for you. But typically that means you're not going to get top five whenever you're back and forth

the whole time, right? And Farlow and Sprague were the most impressive people at the whole competition in my opinion. I think they're coming in 2024 and people need to take notice. Yeah, I I want to talk on the the recap the last segment. I definitely want to get your thoughts on Hatfield, but we'll get short. We'll focus on the the predictions at this point for the women, Not quite as good as the men, Nowhere. Close. Spiegel down in 19th. I did not have her in the top

ten. You guys told me there's a weightlifting event. It's 20% that didn't. That didn't pan out. I had her. I had her 10th spin. I was. I was with you. I just wasn't asked. With her in the top ten, you had her in the top. 10 Where did you have her? 13th You act like we had her like this. I had her like 20th. I don't know. You'll never know because I had her. Didn't have her in the top ten. Matilda Gardens definitely hurt a lot of people.

What do you make of this? Like why would the Why would the men be much easier to predict than the women on this? I'm wondering if, oh, go ahead, John, sorry. I think the changes in advance affect the women a lot more than they do the men. I, for instance, especially because it's strict pull ups, strict pull ups, like all of a sudden it's just who's the best strict pull ups. Basically the big girls got no shot because of that.

And you know what, you say that and Gabby McGowan still goes out there and get 2nd and crushes it, but Gabby McGowan still, you know, top five fittest woman in the world, right? So I think when it gets down like the less fit you get, the lower tier of fitness you get, especially for the women. That amount of strict pulling I think just plays a role so much more. And we made our predictions

before the event changes. I just think the event changes as a whole affected the competition with the women more than they affected it for the men. I still think it affects it, period. But you know, I do. I do think it affected the women more. Tyler, do you agree? Did you say programming effects it more than the women? Yeah, the changes in the events. Yeah, well, also, but I'll add

to the top on top of that. Like, it makes me wonder if the the men are so tight that it, it almost always truly comes out to who the fittest is, right? They're all so good at things. But like with women, there seems to be a little bit more pigeonholing going on where it's like I'm really good at this one thing and there's so many. Like all the girls are different like that. And so the programming changes can really affect the leaderboard.

That's that's the only thing that makes sense to me on top of what you said, John. Now we can't hear you at all. Sorry, I had to go get this. I have myself on mute. My bad. There you go. You look at it, the top five that we had, we're all relatively correct. I mean, except for Tyler's egregious call with Danny Spiegel. But like, other than that, like, we're all pretty darn solid. But that's because, like, when you get to the fittest of the fit, programming matters less and less.

And then at the bottom five, we're all trash. I do. I do. I do want to say I want to give props to Spin and and Brian Friend. I know we don't want to. I'm going to give props to him because they both were was it teams or was it individuals? I. Got you. Right here, teams. Yeah, they both the top ten teams. They tied for first in the whole world with teams and I just think we should commend both of them because they they beat everybody. They were they were the best.

They were the best analyst for this competition. And I just, I want to tip my hat off to them both both the Bryant's because they killed it and nobody else did. Yeah, that was one with the changes of the. Event I I did not look at heat one one time all weekend. You said it. Forget it. Yeah, like I did not. I I did 2 for this competition and I really shouldn't have. Wow. I. I couldn't with the top ten

right? I couldn't change it, but even the the event picks, like I was just too busy to to worry about it and it got to be Sunday before event 5 and I had some downtime. I I decided to kind of see where I was and I think I was second and Brian was third and then it swapped. I moved down the third, he moved up the 1st and then I caught him on the final event. But yeah, you're watching that. You're like, there's a lot of people that were very close there at the end.

And I'm like. How much am I going to move? And we both moved a couple points and so we ended up tying. And for those who don't know, what is the tiebreaker, Tyler? It's the number of correct picks you have. So based on the scoring system, like you get 10. So technically you could never, which is impressive because you did this, you never got a single pick absolutely correct.

You were always off by one or something, but you made-up for points because Brian had some picks that like, really hit him. Yeah, I had less zeros I like. I think I had one less 0 than him. Yeah, he had two absolute correct picks. So you he took it over you. Yeah. I don't know what's more impressive that that he picks two. Absolutely correct. Or you didn't pick any and still almost one? Yeah, I. Think Well, I'm going to say the whoever's first place is more

impressive. Have you said that as a tiebreaker like? Oh, I. Know it's more impressive. I agree. I mean, I set the tie break, but yeah. It's kind of crazy. You could tie him with that for sure, but that's. What I'm saying I had, I had a few that were I mean I had more in the top ten. I think he had a couple that were out. The Mayhem group definitely didn't help. I think they or no. The RX smart gear is one that never hurt everybody I would think, but your. 90s string your

90s string Girls murder. They did. They did very well. I had RX performance. Team please? Yeah, I had to go. What? Does it just say Kelsey kills team? Please. Hey, Kelly, Baker's got the highest credentials on that team. Or Kelly Baker. I don't care. Just don't say the name. I said 93 and I didn't say the whole name. And then, yeah, like RX performance, like when I started going through all of the, the picking the teams, what I noticed was it was all the known names, right?

So like you could tell that people were going through and they were finding who they knew and they just threw them in there. And then the problem was, if they were not known because they were more team based athletes who've been to the games multiple times, they were outside that top ten and you had to go searching for them because their average was like 10.8. And so you had to go look for

them. And I think that's where some people got got burned is that they were just kind of using what the average rank was of everybody in the that was already picking. And some people got left behind and I moved them up and got extra points. Yeah, and it was, yeah, it was. It was clear to me that people didn't or couldn't do their homework on the teams.

I mean, it was really hard. And that was the thing that we learned more than anything was if you're going to run a teams competition like this, you need to spend weeks, if not months talking about who's going, which is difficult because we didn't know and the teams changed on daily. I mean, hell, there was a team with two people on it at one point. But you have to, you have to do that storytelling. Yeah, And it's tough to follow

who is everybody, right? Like, if there's a team name like Invictus, you have an idea who it is. But when they make up their team names, it's really tricky to know who they are. And yeah, you have to click through each one of them, think about it, move them up, move them back, etcetera. So it's a tricky one. But yeah, I couldn't believe that I was actually tied for first. I. Was lost on a tiebreaker. Oh, congratulations Sir.

I had forgotten that that that wasn't the league that won $1000 and I was like, I'm not paying either of them $1000. It's it wasn't just for Andy. It was Indy, Indy, top ten and then team shot caller. Yeah. Oh, OK. Yeah, OK, well guess what's back? Blind rankings. Blind rankings. This time it is Tiruatapalooza. What does that mean? It means anything. At Tiruatapalooza you were going to rank it as the best to worst of things that have happened or just stuff at Waterapalooza.

What I like about this is that John, I disagree. We have very different perspectives of Tierwater Palooza. So you think so? Well, yeah, 'cause you were at home and I was there. Oh, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right. You're. With different perspectives. And again, it has it. It just has something to do with Tierwater. Pollution, Sure. That's it. And the the number one is the best thing that happened at Tierwater Palooza, and the #5 is the worst. All right, you guys ready?

Got it. Bayside Barge. Oh, that's I I want to put that too. It was. It was so incredible looking like, yeah, I think it was incredible looking. But then at the same time like I don't know what why you say 4. This is the thing that they were jumping off of, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I mean everybody slipped multiple times. It was this is APFAA hazard and as a as a as a I'm all for safety as we all know and and if the PFAA is going to get more involved, I'm going to rate

things as such. You know what I mean? I would rather than just jump off the whole entire Bayside and they're not even be a ramp and then you got to do a muscle up to get back on stage. I think that would have been cool. So I would say 4. Honestly, I don't think anything of it, but if you say 2, then let's go. Three. I'll yeah, I'll compromise at 3:00.

That's fine. I will say that I talked to like one of the head judges or something and they were told not to dive off of the the walk down board or to the top. And I was like, well, what are you going to do if like somebody like Ricky, cause Ricky was the one who ended up doing it, Ricky. You're not going to do anything. You're just going to be like, don't do that, OK? I won't do it next time. You know what I mean? Like, like, that's stupid, right? So. So happy Ricky did it.

I was like, yes. Yeah, the the, the comparison of Ricky versus Hopper was hilarious. I I think the difference is, John, if you were there, the Baselard barge was a lot cooler in person to see it out there. But yeah, I don't know how that translated onto the live stream, but all right, compromise #3. All right, you guys ready? The weather #1. It was a 5. It He gave us an easy, an easy softball pitch right here.

It was fun. I like, like the moments like football when I think back about football, like the moments in the rain when it's just like the elements are really coming at you and like it was rain, it's it's rare that it ever rains on a CrossFit event and they were doing, they were working out. I just thought it was cool. But yeah, it's a five. It ruined a lot of things. I hate it when the events get changed and when three of the five of your events get changed,

this is what are we doing. This is ridiculous. And I mean I I think the best thing about the weather did create talking points because everybody's talking about should there be indoor options, blah, blah, blah. And I mean this is like two or three years in a row or water, Water Palooza. Water Palooza. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like messes. Like, I don't know, bro. Like, I just think do it outside but just have an indoor option available in the case that that

happens. You know what I mean? I think any gym would host freaking heats after heats after heats to do the regular event that you have prescribed. I think you're. Out of your mind, John. I don't think you realize how many people are there. No, no, no, no, no. You might. It might just be like the athletes just go to a gym. You're going to go to this gym and we're going to film it.

I think it'd be cool. The Texas Stadium or whatever has that Dome that comes over and covers everything up we need. Or or do that, you know what I mean? But like, if you don't like across the Wynwood, where where Taylor was doing all of his, where Taylor was doing all of his classes, like just take the athletes there and say we're going to film it. You're not going to be able to see it.

It's going to be right here. I I would rather watch that than watch the rain stop everybody and we're just doing a whole bunch of strict pull ups. All 2000 athletes to CrossFit. You got to you got to have multiple CrossFit gyms so you're able to do this. It's Miami. There's a lot like this is a team effort. You want to talk about community. We could make it happen. You're out of your mind, John. Yeah, hungry. Talk about contingency plan that would be in. OK, here's the plan guys.

We're going to spread out over the entire city. 6 Gems. We're all got a piece of this. Listen, no, you got to have that stuff. You got to have that stuff already like. Here we go, the live stream. I know the live stream is pretty good, I didn't have a problem with it. I have no idea, so I'm going to say too. I got to side with you John all. Right. I mean, I thought I. Is better than the Bayside barge.

Yeah, I think so. I mean, like people talked about like the commentary and stuff like that, but I thought the broadcast team for the most part did a really good job. I'll say this from my from my perspective, I had to work with the broadcast team and they were great to work with Eric Barnhart. Shout out another guy, Chris Hammerhead, which I thought his name was really just. This is really cool from a you know, like 1/3. Year old it deserves 2 alone on Hammerhead.

Yeah, yeah, they were great to work with and that's the only perspective they let they put my graphics up. So really, I should go with #1. Yeah, and they like heat one. Tie it like I say #2. #2 This is good. We got we got a range here. If we like it, we can put it one. If we don't like it, we can put it 4. Here we go. He's 310 lbs snatch complex. Four, I could care less, Go run. I don't care how strong you are. Key. The second you stop sucking, win in intervals, will be whenever I

start rooting for you. But whenever it comes to fitness things, whenever you're as bad as you are and I know you did great, you came. Ninth, you're a really good swimmer and that last workouts a lot of gymnastics that you're good at. But if you're getting stronger, I you're not getting fitter. And I I know people can get fitter and stronger at the same time. But I you didn't make the games last year, bro.

Like if you would have went out and hit 295 and then like was like Jack Barlow. I was so much more impressed with Jack Barlow than I was key. What did he hit? He hit 285 now is it? And it's nothing impressive. And I saw somebody say Farlow, what the heck, why are you only snatching 285, right? In my in my opinion, he's getting fitter, right? He came in fifth in the whole competition like, like like. I was so impressed with Jack Farlow, but he only snatched 285 all of. It is what? You're.

Yeah, but he only snatched 285. Man, that's what I take away from you. Gee was still. Top 10. You're right, he was. But these were three events that he was going to do good. Well, at one, he's got an automatic win, He's a good swimmer and that's what's two out of the five events go. Look at the other events that he did and how they were. They're not great. We'll look at those here in a

bit. I I, I talked to Jack a little bit about that and I I beat up on him because I played him for that event because I really did Great White Hope and he was like, man, it just had to do with the Corral. So I and I can't disagree like if you're able to hit 285 after being corralled like they were, I think it was like 20 minutes or something like you're getting fully cold. And he went out there and hit that. And so he was like, I did play it a little safer.

I like, I don't know, I was impressed with Jack because he was calm, cool and collected on it and just hit something that was decent and walked away. So anyway, yeah, Gee, like you expect him to hit it, so as far? As if you want go ahead Tyler, sorry, sorry. As far as best parts, it's like well you know, you kind of know it's coming. So I I don't know if it's the best part. Did you like that part at all spin? Diamond. Which part? Geez, no. I I I did.

I liked it because he called a shot a day before it's. Not hard to call your shot when you're the strongest person and you know it. Yeah, but the goat. The dude. Hey, if you weren't doing, you want to do an event competition with you, me and Tyler, Hey, I'm going to call my shot. I'm going to win the lift. That's what it's like. I don't think anybody would have predicted 310 was going to go up though. You're you're right. Absolutely. His 310 is incredible and. That's it.

Can look smooth. Easy and easy, man. That's awesome. Go snatch 350. Go do it. I don't care. Like, like it's expected. You're the strongest dude there. It's expected. I get it. Go get fitter, right. I like. I anyway I I expected it's 310. It is incredible. I put it at 4:00 because it's expected. You put if you put James Sprague's swim up there. I feel the same way. It's expected. You know what I mean? It's not. Go ahead. Next one. Sorry. Helping.

I feel like this number one is going to backfire. Again, no way John and I are killing this. You got it. No, but there you go. It can't be the weather. Hopper's Hopper's Rock, Paper Scissors strategy. Oh, I mean, that's that's great. That's great. It's #1 all day. Listen, listen. When it worked, like I know, I know it didn't. It wasn't anything, but like when it worked the first time, Tyler's mind was blown. He could not believe. It Hopper had this secret mind

technique that nobody knew. He thought Hopper was a Jedi full-fledged because because it worked that first time and I want you to watch Tyler. Is this open for people to see or? Is it just, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to pull it up. OK, OK, watch Tyler's face. Watch Tyler. Space. Here we go, the top screen. There's a technique in rock paper scissors. There's a technique in rock paper scissors.

If you ask somebody their shirt color, it's like 70% chance that they would do scissors because they think of cloth. I swear, I swear. All right, rock, paper, scissors. Shoot. That's crazy. And then it never worked again. All right. What color did you start? Rock. Paper. Scissors. Shoot. All right, you got one, you got one left. Look at it and tell me. Rock, paper, Scissors. Bullshit. Science. Color. Is it color? Black is black. Rock, paper, scissors?

Shoot. Never rock, paper scissors. Shoot. What color? Is your bra? Ready? All right, ready, Taylor started. Chasing is full of shit. Can you hear me? And then Tyler goes and tries it. If you're getting tricked by Hopper, that's sad, man. We had to. We had to work to prove him right. It was the best thing because it was the funniest thing that happened all weekend. It was funny that first time it worked.

Tyler was just blown away. He's such a turd he he he got so lucky and then he was like, see why? Why? Why 70%? No one will ever know. I'm not. I'm not mad at this list. I do wish. I do wish Colton's interview was up there, because that would be a clear #1. But I'm not. I'm not mad at this list. Oh. That's a good one, it. Was a great weekend overall. I like our I like our rankings. All right.

And now we go to our recap. So Wanaploos in general talking about, we talked a little bit about the weather and the modified workouts and how that affected the leaderboard, especially on the women's side. Is there anything you think other than throwing people into every CrossFit gym in the 25 mile radius that Dylan and crew could do to handle something like this? And we had three out of four days that were impacted by rain, Tyler. Are you asking about the rain? Yeah.

Like, is there what? Is there anything that they could do or is it just, you know, unfortunate, you just have to deal with it? Oh, you can call Bill Gates. I'm pretty sure he has a weather control machine. No, I mean like if you want to host it in water in Miami, it you got to be ready for the rain delays and like, but I I go against John on this. I say you roll the dice and you know, could you do, you know, program essentially like a rain delay Waterpalooza and a regular one.

Yeah, I I I like it here. There's there's nothing you can do and you can just do your best to me. If you moved Waterpalooza away from Miami, I don't know, you just sort of break the spirit of it, I think. But maybe I'm wrong. I agree. I agree with that sentiment. I do think there is like in an aura of water palooza, like it's a big party, a big fitness

party. And I think everybody loves that about it. Everybody knows it's what it is, Everybody loves that about it. But I just, I think we should think about hard, like what to do if weather, if weather is like this, because it ruins the competition. It really does. It ruins it. You think so? I do for for for like a viewer and maybe everybody's different for a viewer. For me it ruins the competition and maybe it maybe I'm in the

minority on that. I just think that, like, there needs to be not just contingency workouts, but maybe contingency time periods where, hey, we got to do this workout at 7:00 in the morning. I would rather them change the times that they do the workout and let it know and let us everybody know a day ahead of time. Because you know what, weather's coming. It predicts it pretty well. And then be like, we have to do this here this year and this year, at least for the elites.

Screw everybody else. Everybody else can work out in the rain, all right, but like, what? We're going to watch. Like I think should be the priority and I think there should be, listen, we might change the time on this. We don't know. We don't know whether permitting, hopefully we can do it the right way. But I would rather than keep the same work out and then just change the time frame of each thing and then we can have our competition.

But it's just like I felt like the weather ruined water Palooza and I felt like that last year too. And so I feel like we have to figure out how to make it, not ruin it. And I mean, for the people that are there, maybe they experience a complete different thing. But from AI mean and I'm only one viewer and in my opinion matters nothing. It matters what the majority thinks. But I just it's hard to watch workouts and be really in it whenever you're just doing

strict pull ups in the ring. Like, I want to see races, I don't want to see them have to put the dumbbell down every single time because of safety, you know what I mean? People could have made moves on that dumbbell snatch too in the interval workout and they can't because they have to put it down every single time. And I just don't like watching it. Like it's just it's just a different watch for me and that's just that's how I feel

about the weather. Yeah, the the only thing I heard that may have helped and I don't, you know, again, the thing we have to consider is what are you doing Tyler? Trying to get my my logo in there and it's not going to work. No, not with our screen. This way. Is the third event maybe possibly trying to move that to Friday morning, right? So then at least one of them wasn't adjusted.

But the the problem is you have so many community workouts, like Friday was packed starting at 8:00 AM, all the community events started taking taking shape, and I just don't know what that entails. Trying to move all those pieces around to try to squeeze in deja vu Friday morning, 'cause that was a fairly long workout. I mean it it you had five heats.

For sure. I'm saying you have to move everything around and prioritize the elite individuals and maybe that's like the wrong way to look at it because it is a community. There is so many divisions. It is a party. It is meant for everybody, for

sure. But what everybody's watching online or at their homes is the elite individual, you know, So like, you can and I like, I think if you told everybody in advance times can get like you need to look every single day at the updated time slots, we'll give a final time schedule sheet at 8:00 PM for every individual thing. I don't see why you can't do that. And maybe, maybe, I don't know, like I don't know anything, right. Maybe they know. Maybe they know they can't do that.

But it's just what they got going on right now. It's not great. Would you rather deal with what the with the weather as it is or as Barry says, change the venue? I personally don't want to see him leave. I. Don't want to see him leave Miami either. I don't want to see him leave Miami either, but I don't think it has to be an either or. I think we can do a better job at dealing with the elements than they are currently. I don't disagree.

I I also, I don't I mean maybe there's a world where having essentially flexible workouts will work or timing schedule will work that would be really crazy to like try to pull off I think but like just make rain part of the story.

It it kind of like right now it's like oh shit the rain happened and now we have to deal with it versus like and then the rain came and like this is what happened because of it like turn it into part of what water Palooza is, is the elements and it's like you know make it an interesting factor in in it and it sort of is now but it's not played up enough. It seems like a a detriment instead of an asset and I think you could play it to to an asset.

I think it's like a heat in Texas or something like that. Like that's why we used to love Texas football teams. Like they're they work out in the heat, they work. And you know, or when you go to Green Bay and you play football in the snow, like that's cool. And I know that that's a reiterated thing. But it's like it's part of it's part of the story. It's cool. I think part of the problem is I think we all loved the workouts like as written we all like them.

And then when you modify those, you're not able to do the higher skilled gymnastics, right. You're not able to do bar muscle UPS, you're not able to do chest of bar pull ups. You're not able to do toes to bar because it's so slippery. And so those all those movements kind of just have to be scaled down right to the strict pull ups, the front squats, the burpees. And so it's a tough position.

I think you live with it. My opinion is you live with it and try to figure out how to how to make it work. If they can move mountains for a barge, which is an amazing story from Dylan on get with the program and then they can assess A canopy over Flagler, they can run American Airlines. Those things I think would cost a fortune. I would hate for it to be inside. A canopy would cause a fortune. Like a retractable canopy, I

think would. Oh yeah, some type of temporary canopy that 3 tracks or even just as over it the whole time. I that sounds insanely and. That you would have every single year, it would just be one time cost expense and then you never have to worry. About they ran all this equipment, man, they ran all this equipment that's it's not owned by them. It's a huge cost every year. It would be a huge cost every year. Now is it less than the barge? Like do you get rid of the barge

and and trade off for that. I mean, space is the way it is now because the pit, like the fountain, is essentially unusable and unable to be built over. So it's like you're going to lose Bayside. They might be stuck with the barge forever. I don't know. The longer I talk about it, the more I the more I think they might be forced to move. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, it worked, right? Like if the weather was not a factor, the venue itself, the barge, Flagler, everything is great.

Sure. But it is. It has been. It will continue to be. Maybe. I don't know. I don't know how often it rains in Miami. Every day but. Yeah, I mean just. About rains every day for an hour. I mean, I don't know. I'm. I'd hate to see it move, but I. Would too. But like we're we're also saying like that it has to move out of Miami. There's got to be another location in Miami they can use. Maybe it's not going to have as scenic of a backdrop, but like, come on, it's Miami.

There's. I mean, just have one indoor venue that you use just in case. John, there's not that that's going to play worse because people aren't going to make the hike to the new venue. You're going to have like, like, Can you imagine? It's like, OK, we have this one event, we have to do the rain. We have to move to our rain location. No one's been there yet. You have to announce it last moment. Everybody's got to get cars going. To last the last moment, just it's another venue.

This is our DH venue. I don't know, dude. I I don't see it. Like in case of rain, we have this place that we can go to. I think the logistics on that are harder than the than it's worth. Speaking of moving, moving events, off site event. So it's been the first time in a while they've had an off site event out in Virginia Key, North Point Park, all of the teams and community divisions except for the only group that did not was the Elite Individuals and Lat AM Cup.

Do we like the idea of an off site event for something like this? They did that in Granite Games. I remember it was almost the exact same thing. You remember that it was like 2017, eighteen or something like that. But it was it was televised to an extent I believe. Yeah, this one was tough. Like it was a very remote bike trail, lots of tight areas. I think it'd be really tough to, to televise that. I mean, do we like the idea of something like that?

Like it tests the athletes in a different way, But again, we're not seeing anything. I don't mind it, but I want to see it like you should have some kind of drone out there, video and everything, and if you can't then, then I don't like it. I wonder how long it would do be.

I think it would take too long. You could potentially do it if you had some like a really star film crew that could film it and then be able to curate through the through the this stuff and then splice it together so you can create some sort of highlight reel really fast. That I think that's a compromise that could work because then you could play it at the event because we were all just there hanging out for the most part. It seemed like hours were were passing by.

I mean, hours were passing by, but it was like seemed like forever. And if they had had that highlight reel televised that I would have been like, this is perfect. That would have been a good compromise I think. But I don't know if that's like possible from a videography standpoint. Yeah, I haven't. I mean, other than, you know, obviously Logan had his broken ankle and there was a handful of athletes that did get hurt overall, a small majority that

did. I don't know what the athletes thought of it. I know some thought it was pretty cool, but I it wasn't. I don't have enough, you know, yeah, enough consensus or enough opinions from the athletes to say if they enjoyed that type of of workout or not. But I think it was a lot of work on Dylan's team's part to try to do something like that and set it up for sure.

You know, anytime you send send another venue up, it's security, it's parking, it's everything that goes into making sure permitting everything is just required. It's a big undertaking to do that. See Travis off site where spectators can't go sucks. We see we pay a lot of money to go and watch that's it's a valid point. I think I'm about Travis on that. I think there should be a way for you. If you do off site, there should be a way for. People to go out and see it.

People to go out and see it, yeah. Yeah, let's see. Team competition. Did we like it? Yeah. How was it on the live stream? Yeah, it's. Like how do you mean? It sounds like y'all didn't like it. So, like, tell me what I'm supposed to not like and then I'll tell you. Basically that you know there's 15 teams out there, 3 individuals each. It's 45 people moving around. How easy was it to follow? Did you like the workout like?

Yeah, I think they did a good. So yeah, if you definitely saw who was in the lead the whole time, you saw like the top three teams then in the workout and and for the most part, Sean was really good about telling you when who finished where. You didn't see very much outside of the top three teams. But like the camera was on those 3 pretty much the whole time. And I mean you you knew what was happening. It was I was able to follow it the whole time.

It wasn't a cluster, if that's what it look. If that's what it felt like in person, you could follow it for sure. It's just you wanted to see how your team was doing and they weren't one of the top three teams in the event you didn't see them. Yeah. Well, was that any different though, than the individuals? Yeah, because you had the pan out view and you could see, you kind of see everybody.

So if you knew who you were looking for, like if people didn't know what people look like, then for sure it would be like that. But if you knew who you were looking for, you could see where they are because they they would pan out. And they did that with teams too. But teams are such a cluster. It's hard to see everybody. It's hard to pick out people and it wasn't like that for individual. Individual. Once they panned out, if you knew what you who you were looking for, you could.

You can figure out whoever where they were and then follow them. Now just might not talk about them, but you could follow them for sure. Teams other than top three, it was very hard to see and see what was happening. Yeah, from our perspective. So they put media over on the side. It was impossible. You could see when everybody, when they would move to the next step, right? Like you could see if they went from they move the worm up, you know, the next stage or they

move to the barbells, right? Like you saw that and you knew that they were in the front. But it was hard to keep track, especially like on the the what was it Saturday night event with the the barbells cycling, synchro barbell cycling. It was really tough because, I mean, it was just a sea of barbells just flying around and you couldn't. Yeah, that set up was kind of trippy for sure. Like, roll your own barbells out just where you think you need them and then and then go ahead and go.

And Melanie, I said for the most part, obviously, he's not perfect. I said for the most part. Yeah, I cannot imagine trying to do the commentary for the teams. There's so many athletes. Trying to keep track of the team names like that would be very difficult, like it's easier on

the individual side for sure. The one event that I hated, that I thought could have been great, and I hated it was a sandbag event, The sandbag event, The way they did that, the way like that just event was programmed, was just very easy. Everybody could do it, I think you take me, Taylor and Hiller and then we're we're we fit, we belong right there. Like you would have not known we were at a place because of how easy that workout was. Like I think they should.

Have been heavier weight. No, no, no. I think they should have done the whole complex, just them. So your fitness played a part because everybody was within. It just felt like everybody was within 10 seconds of each other and obviously the last thing that finished was way or behind the first thing that finished. But like when everybody could do everything and nobody struggles with anything, it's just you

like runs the fastest. Like that's a 10 minute workout that everybody can do. Like nobody's fitness was able to be shown in that workout. So I know I think they should have done that. You had to do the 9 cleans, the 9 squats and just then that same person did the seven cleans and the seven squats, that same person 5 cleans 5 squats and

then you rotate. So it's be it would be 21, yeah, it'd be 21 total cleans and squats that you had to do before you rotated and then your part was done until the carry. But everybody's not going on broken on that. That's a lot, 21 cleans and 21 squats. I mean, I don't think very many people at all would go on broken on that maybe three maybe Kelsey Keel, her team would have still

probably won that. But, but what my point, my point being is that event was very, I just think poorly done the whole way around because it's it was just people running back and forth. That event was such a such a cluster, you could not tell where anybody was. You just left. Like the announcers, you just relied on what they were saying, but you couldn't tell where

anybody was. Like if another team was catching up on another team, you didn't know because everybody's just cleaning and running around. Yeah. Did you like the mix between individual performance versus team performance? So there's two workouts with the worm. There were a couple that were more individually based like the sandbag one was and like it didn't require too much

teamwork. Like did you like that kind of mix of it there that it wasn't all team based, there was individual components to it, some strategy obviously of who went when but? I thought they did that well. I thought there were like two kind of individual team events and then there were three team team events. And I thought, I mean, I think that went went, I thought that was programmed well. Do you take look at the team of team performance and read into it of how good anybody is?

No. Like, do you care that team Ice Barrel, Whatever. Place it doesn't look good. Not really like I I think only in a good way. For instance, like I think, I think more highly of like Tola and Noah and whatever team they're end up being with. I think more highly of Kelsey Keel and Kelly Baker and Emile Bloomberg. I think more highly of them. Nobody expected them to win. They did great. The Norwegian team that ended up sticking around and nobody else

thought they were going to stay. Or Swedish. They were Swedish. Swedish, yeah. Yeah, yeah. That team that stuck around, nobody thought they were going to stick around. They were there the whole freaking time. The whole time, all right. Like, I thought more highly of them. And like if any of their names pop up again like you like, oh, that's another time they pop up, right. And. But other than that, no, I take away a little from individuals still. Not a lot.

For instance, I still think Rome was going to be top two. It does make me question who I think wins the games. But he moves to two. That's the lowest he would move, you know what I'm saying? Like it's just not, you know, Valerie got 4th and then his team was not great. I mean, I they got what, 5th, 5th or 6th? I still think he's going to finish where I thought he would in the game, so I don't think any less highly of him. The only like the only takeaways I think you can take are all

good takeaways. I don't think you can take any negative takeaways from Onapalooza because it can be explained away with multiple things unless you guys feel differently. Yeah. I mean it's hard to tell the mindset of them going into it like how much really training, how much do they really prep for it. I do. I think that some of the they should focus on it.

Like it does speak to some of their strategy or thinking about how each of them work through it, right, like the the fittest team most likely of three individuals was Brooke Wells, Bailey Rail and Paige Powers. Like I feel like they should have done better than they did 100%. Right. But they didn't.

And you can. You can wash away the the the worm workouts, but when it came to the swim ones, when it comes to the sandbag, any of the other ones like it came down to fitness and they just weren't there and it and they may have complete good reasons for it, but it just kind of seems odd. And I can say the same for Frog grips, like Frog Grips and I know I had them ranked a lot higher than you did, but you had them decently high too and they were the same way, just a little

bit less. So you know, I don't think teams does not play a big part in the how I think of people individually. Yeah, all right. So had some interesting interviews while I was there. One of the big ones was the interview with O'Keefe and Mal O'Keefe, I guess. That should have been on the blind rankings. That interview. Yeah. Some a part of it should have been on the blind rankings, but it's not appropriate for. If somebody asked about the mountain, the mountain has been

updated. Brian Spin vetoed it and said that we will not do another show on it. So getting. His deal? No. No. Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. So here we go. What's your other spot? Is Malcolm winning this? Year. You know we don't, I don't know, you know. And Mal is, I'm really proud of Mal and where she's at. I think you know she'll make that decision and tell people where she's at with it in her time. She's you know she loves this. She's here this weekend.

She works out every day. She's training and yeah, I think, you know, and I'm not speaking for her. I think she's trying to find her way back on the thrill at some point will see this year. I don't know. She's the best person to ask that of I'm just trying to support her on a daily basis. And I'm damn proud of her. She's worked so hard on so many things over the last couple of years. But she's in a great place.

You know, her being here celebrating with this is like, you know, I mean that's proof of, like she really just loves this community, wants to be president, she wants to find her way back, you know, to where she wants to be with this whole thing. So I don't have any answers for you. But. I had to try. I had to try. Dump, dump, dump. Do you read anything of that or was it a non answer she? Ain't beating, man. Did you get it from that or is that just your feeling?

Multiple sources. Multiple sources, OK. The fact that it's the non answer this late in the game is an answer in and unto itself. It's time for answers. I I've, I've been. I've heard that she'll be making an announcement at some point. Don't know when, don't know what it will be, Yes. You do? I don't know. I don't know. I do not know. Yes you do. I did not know at some point. I I've been saying this whole time. I don't think she's coming back. I know she's been. I've been.

I've been ringing that bell. She's coming back, baby, and I'm about to look like an idiot. I'm going to change your mind, yeah. He's going to go on Team Haley. That's what he's going to do. Speaking of Haley, she was there. And she she's committed, right? She committed to competing. As far as we know, I mean, it sounds like she is. Oh, I thought. She confirmed it. I mean, I think it's. No, I mean, I think she obviously is working with Hayley Murillo. She's made comments about.

I think that she's ready to come back. I don't think there's not been some Instagram post or something that's like it's official. I've signed up for the Open yet, but if I was going to make a guess, I would say Haley's in Mouth's out. That's fine. Like if she wants to walk away, that's fine. I have no problem with that. She doesn't owe us anything. She owes a sponsor something, but that's not us. That's not on us that she was. She was there for rain.

And yeah, but Haley, every time I saw her, I didn't talk to her. But she seemed happy. She seemed smiling, talking with people. Hey this is a great question and I know we like are kind of in the weeds with this so if y'all don't want to answer you don't have to, but I think this is a great question. Well, why did she leave Townsend? Because of Matthew Fraser. So she got starstruck and just saw the bright lights. Big City. That's AI mean.

It's a good question, right? Like was would training to look different when she has been home. There's a lot of things that are different. You know, they both have both Mal and Haley have returned home, right? There's something to that to be when you're that Young, Living at home. Emma's been living. Emma Lawson's been at home, right? I think she would have, man, I don't think she would have gotten the second best in the

world. That might. But I think, I think she would have been like kind of where Alexis Raptis is, like I think she would have been like 3rd through 6th, but like continually, you know what I mean? Like Emma. Lawson is essentially. I guess I think Emma Lawson's better, but I I would say like, OK, OK, how about this? I would put her in between Emma Lawson and Haley Adams, but her career would have been long. You see what I'm saying? Because Haley's kind of routinely like 5th, 5th, 6th,

right in that range. OK, 5th through 7th, That's where Alexis Raptis is, right? I think she's better than those girls, but worse than Emma Lawson if she would have stayed in Iowa. Obviously this is all speculation, We don't know anything, but I don't think she would have killed herself as much as she did at hard work Pays off. And I mean, you heard the stories like Matt's telling her to back off and she won't do

very like Nah, right? But I don't think that happens if she stays in Iowa. But maybe maybe it does, you know, like it's. I think that's a very interesting question. I hope, like people don't care that we're talking about it because like if people can get real, like you shouldn't talk about somebody's mental health. But I think it's an interesting well. If you look at, you look at Haley's move back, Sprague's move back. Hoppers move back home.

Olivia Kerstetter stayed at home and never moved out to Proven like there's a lot of people that have either stayed where they are or moved back home just even recently, right? Like there's probably something to that about living and training with your, you know, near your family versus uprooting just for training. Yeah, I don't know. I don't have a support system, Emma. Carrie's not home. No. Just down, down. Pepper's not home. Daniel. Brandon's not home.

I mean, like, I'm just saying, I'm being playing that what's happening? There's. Obviously more that are that are that have gone and moved, but there's definitely been a lot who have moved back who. Have moved back. Or or that there are. Just. To see successful at a young age who have not left, Yeah, right, They've stayed home and not pursued that training camp environment.

You don't do who's done it the right way is freaking Sam Quan because he just trains at home with his brothers and he's a part of hard work. Pays off. He's he does, you know, he works with them. He's got his coach, but he's he's just at home doing his thing. Made a Barnhart move back back closer to family. So Speaking of hard work pays off. Is there anybody in their gym now as a? Great question. The strong man, the strong man's there. The strongest guy. The strongest guy, Kearney.

Kearney and then. But they're. Some training staff. They're training staff, right? Like. The training staff is Catherine Catherine's there, right? No, she's in Idaho. Yeah. You ever walk? You ever walked into a Wendy's when, like, no one's in there? It's like. It's like looking around. Right now, thank God somebody's in here. I can make a burger. I don't know. There's got to be somebody we just started thinking of. I think just mad just walks in the gym.

Oh, I guess nobody's here today. I'll. I'll go bench press. Yeah. There's got to be somebody. That's a great point. It looks like Friday night at Freddy's. It's just like they're in there. Just. Collecting on the coaches. Look at their roster here and we'll go through and and see here we go at. Least they got sweaters. Here we go. All right. David's daughter? Nope. Idaho. Idaho. Hopper, South Carolina, Brooke, Nashville, Amanda. OH. IMA. She's in Iowa.

Jake is out in Australia. Yeah, that one. He doesn't count. Christine somewhere. In the West, Missouri, he was never. I don't think she was ever confirmed HWPO athlete, though. I don't know. Where does Quant live? Kansas. That's happener. Where's Quant live? He. Lives up Washington. Yeah, I think Washington. We'll say Pacific Northwest just to to not be wrong. And Jacqueline Dahlstrom is out in Europe cold grey shaver. I have zero idea where he lives. He's there.

Cold. Grey Shaver is making a monster, right? Now. Cold Grey Shaver is in the lab right now, and Fraser is creating Frankenstein. That's what's happening. Yeah. He's like, this is my time. I'm I'm Gree Shaver sign. That's what's about to happen. Cole Gree Shaver Next CrossFit Games athlete or winner? Right here. Oh, scratch it. He's in Kansas City. Patrick says he's in Kansas City. No. Well, Cole's going to not. You're trash. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.

I'm just kidding. And is there anybody else? Victor Hoffer in France. So there you go, doing French stuff. It's a really nice gym for the fittest guy. You better watch it, John. Victor's a fan. We don't need to be losing him. I'm not. What did I say? He's in France. He's doing French stuff. That's not. That sounds derogatory to me, dude. No, it is not. Somebody was like, I'm in America, I'm doing American stuff. I'm like, that's cool, man. Like, yeah, you're doing trashy shit.

That's a That's an insult. No. No, it's not. No, it's not. Victor Harper is like the prettiest man there is in Cross. How do we feel about Merton's doing proven programming? Pardon. I don't know. Dude, he programmed for himself for so long. He's a smart dude. I ain't worried about him at all. I'm I'm kind of, I kind of feel the same way. I I don't know how I feel about it until I see him, you know, in a competition.

He's also he's got enough balls where if he's doing a bunch of running, but he'll buy in for a couple weeks and he'll be like, no, this is stupid. Like if it's dumb, he'll tell him. Colton is very, very smart. Like I I just, I kind of just kind of like trust whatever he's doing. He's fine, 'cause like, he's he's very smart. Yeah, that's not saying that other people aren't smart. I just know that Colton is smart

is all I'm saying. I know I don't worry about Colton. I mean, in talking with him, I mean he, I think he wants maybe more ideas on how to attack his weaknesses versus. Trying to come. Up with it on his own and he's been friends with Nick Johnston since, I don't know 2016, 2015, 17, I don't know whenever the OC 3 Black was around and CrossFit Kilo. I mean, those guys were basically neighbors battling each other until they knew each other, so.

Now if he doesn't make the games next year or, you know, comes 31st place or something, some ridiculous spot like that, then I'm worried about Colton. But until that happens, I'm not worried about him. Yep. Yeah. I trust Nick Johnson, who knows Taylor very well. When you look at the the the individual field biggest mover that you're going to say changes your opinion of how he or she would have will do in 2024. It vitison for sure. Vitison. Vitison. That change might be I I mean

like. OK then what she got? Hold on, she got 25th in the games last year. Right? Now what I'm saying is nobody expected her to get 25th in the games. Nobody picked her for the games and then she made it a last minute miracle at semi finals and then nobody thought she'd make the first cut. She did and then and now she's she was 25th. How significant do you think she's going to improve based on what she showed you this

weekend? I was not convinced she would even make the games this year, I thought. She got 25th last year. I'm saying, you know, like he said, what Spin said is who's moved in, who in your head has moved the most. That's going to be in 2024 CrossFit Games. You think she's going to do better than 25th? So think about think about this. Way. I'm not saying Paige. Paige. Think about Paige. Powers came into water Palooza last year, wins it, obviously.

You know, I don't think that we have a situation like that, but we all looked at Paige as, oh, OK, I think she's real now. Like she, we expect her to do really well in the 2023 season. Do we? Do we think we'll see that jump from venison, like where she was 25th this past year and now she's top 10. Is there anybody else that we think? See, that's what I'm saying. I don't see that from her. I think she'll be.

I think she'll be the same spot she was last year at the Games in that range I. Didn't think she was going to make it back at all. I thought she was going to do worse this year. That just says how it is. I'm not saying she was like she would be the most moving athlete, but she'll be one of the most. She was the one that surprised me the most and I think she has a chance now to like if she got over 20th now, like 18th or something, I'd be like, man, that's amazing.

I was not expecting to see that much improvement out of her is what I'm saying. What about you all? I I was going to say I was actually, I I think venison is probably the one that I think will probably be the one on the radar of who to keep an eye out for her or Jack Farlow. You almost expect go ahead. Brian Yeah, I expect Jack Farlow, like he's the strong guy. And then when they change it to burpees and they change it to strict pull ups and he ends up coming in 5th and he's right

alongside those guys. I mean he was, I think he was he ahead of, he wasn't ahead of quant, but he was right up there with them throughout the entire thing. I don't think anybody would have predicted to be that close to a podium spot in programming where I would say doesn't suit him as well. Right. Yeah. And I think you could say the same about James. Like Jack has that snatch that he got second in right and he got 5th overall, which is, which is great. And I agree.

Everything you just said about Jack Farlow, I agree. But like James has a 265 snatch right? Yeah. And I mean he was thrilled about it, right? Great spot for him to make. But he doesn't have that second place in the snatch and he ended up 7th. Like he I I I think in the games when it's 1314 events I think James takes more of a jump than

Jack Barlow does. But I especially from what I've seen like his like strength gains on Instagram because that's where he struggles and obviously I can't see Jack's you know Jack shows me 30 ring muscles. I'm broken. I'll be saying that about Jack. But but like I I think James takes a big the biggest jump out of everybody 20/20/2024, like it like 2023 to 2024. I think James will take the biggest jump out of anybody, do you think? He's a lock for the games, then?

Yeah, I think he won't have to worry about it this year. I don't know. That's not obvious to me. He has the potential to do what you're saying, but it's not obvious to me that he's a lock for the games. I think his his fitness. Is and viticin is. Who's more likely to make the games Viticin or Sprague? Sprague. Well, you just got done telling. Me. OK, that's fine, John. I was talking about her potential.

Your point about venison does not disprove like your point doesn't make a point about Sprague. What I'm saying is, do you think he's a lock for the games and I don't? I do. I I I it's so. Tight One thing to think about. Think about Sprague though, he's he's now living in the West. I would assume he's going to compete out of. Yeah, the West has the nobody, man. The West is the easiest thing there is to make. I'm joking. Nobody jumped down my throat.

I was Gary, I say. I don't feel like this true. But spin does make a point. The East is the hardest conference. Yeah, it is. I mean I would say from top to bottom it is right And he was able to make it then and he add back a healthy Saxon like there's some others that are you know coming up in the East. I don't know about the same in the West. So I I would say Sprague probably has the most. And I think, I think we felt like Sprague was actually kind of on the move up. Yeah, right.

And and maybe this maybe Tierrawata Palooza's finish kind of solidifies that thought and that prediction of, yeah, he's still he's, he's working his way up. He's doing what he needs to continue to move up that leaderboard do. You think Philo's allowed to make the games? Who logged in? Yeah. Yes. But you don't think spray is farlow. I think they both are. I think like so for instance what what the original question was is who do you think will

take the biggest jump? I think farlow and spray, what I'm saying from them, they have, they're making the jump where it's like they're on the line and now I don't think that it will be a problem. And then potentially they'll be top 17 ish, right? Like those will be in that 10 to 18 range where you know how there's like a slew of guys depending on the programming will get 10th to 18th, like the Travis Mayer range, right. And Travis Mayer's at the top of

that list. But, but you know what I'm talking about, right, Brian? Like there's like 8 or 10 guys once you get past the perennial top 10. Where the it's kind of depends on the programming. I think those two take the leap into that tier and I don't see that from anybody else in the whole competition. Gabby, Ariel and Daniel, Brandon and Mccary are all, you know, perennial top ten, top five athletes. Here's the hard part with the East.

If Saxon Panchak is healthy, you have, I mean, Jorge Fernandez. He's in that that realm. I mean he'll be, I think he'll be in the competition. I don't know if he'll qualify. And there's somebody else I was thinking of that's Travis Mayer. And you have Austin Hatfield like you have. The East has more athletes now fighting for those spots and I don't think they're going to get any more right.

So if you want to get stay in there, you've got to keep out a Saxon. You got to keep out a Travis Mayer who didn't qualify last year and if Austin continues to to move up, which Speaking of what did you think of Austin this weekend? He did fine. He didn't do great. He did fine. If you so if he would have just hit and I know this. Great. I know. Well, listen, hear me out. Hear me out.

There was a point before the last day, before the last day, if he would have just hit 280. He went for 285 and he missed it. And the judge kind of effed him. And you know, it's it's whatever you got to execute. He didn't. It's fine if he would have just hit 285 lbs less, which I know he's capable of, right? He would have been tied for first place going into the last day. Now obviously he would have went down and I did the math on it. He would have been like 8th.

I think he would have been 8th place with the same at the end of the competition with that point jump in the snatch. And if he would have got 8th place, I think everybody would be like dude, Austin Hatfield's going to make the games like like without a doubt right. He just did not execute in that snatch work out and it just and he's not a good swimmer and that's two of the five events and the rest of the rest of the events. I thought he smoked.

I thought he did fine. You could say he's a poor man's Colton Merton's, but Merton's beat him by two points and, and I'm saying he did not, he had a lot of rookie mistakes, is what I'm going to say. I was going to say that Lyft was. I want to say it's nerves. And they got corraled for 20 minutes and that hurt him and the judge hurt him. There was a whole bunch of stuff that happened. Experience. Yeah. I talked to him about it and I

was like, what happened? He was like, I don't like being corraled 20 minutes before. I tried to throw up my wonder at Max over my head. He was, he was like, but it is what it is, he said. That was what was required of me and I wasn't practiced enough. And then there was something to do with the plate or something like that. And he was. He was kind of pissy about that one. I would be too think about it. Because they they stopped him right when he was getting right.

Right when he went like right when you're ready about to go they're like there's this there's this 1 LB. Plate that somebody else that somebody else threw threw on your platform that you have to now remove and like didn't start his lift until 30 seconds into the into the thing and and I just think it doesn't matter because he didn't do it. He got what he got. But it doesn't make me think any less of him. I do think I still think he's going to make the games. And I do think he has top 20

potential. Maybe he doesn't live to that potential. And I'm like, I'm my like, what's the word you want to throw out there? Fandom for him? I I think it's the wrong word. Like I'm going to stop like. Pushing. Him so hard? Yeah, Pushing him so hard because he did not earn me. Pushing him, continuing to push him off, that's what I'm saying. But I I still?

Getting off the bandwagon. I no, no, no. But I still think he has top 20 potential at the games and I still think he's going to make the games. It's just two of the five events did not go well for him and one his own fault. He's just not a good swimmer. And when 20% of your scoring is swimming, that's rough. And then the next, then another 20%. You kind of get after him to snap what you're supposed to be good at. That's also rough. Then out of three events, he did fine.

But yeah, I think he did fine. I don't think any highly more highly of them or more lowly of them. I'm staying the same, which is already pretty darn high of Austin. Still on that rookie hill. And Speaking of another athlete on the rookie hill, Grace Walton thoughts on her. Yeah, I get. I mean, it's good to know that she she's in a swim, that she's, you know probably the best swimmer. That's good to know. Right? I I I think Tia's still probably.

I would think I would still pick Tia in a swim. Depends on what's paired with. If it's swimming, I would probably take Grace. Dude, I don't know. Nobody. Nobody's beating Tia forever. She was a competitive swimmer, John. I know Tia's beating freaking all the other the competitor swimmers doesn't matter. I I think Tia may have been a little beater in this workout just from the other fitness pieces of it, but swim only Grace Walton.

You think so? Yes. Regardless, she's going to be in the top if it's swimming. The I thought she was going to perform a little bit better than she did. I'll be honest with you, it doesn't make me think any less of her, but I don't think more of her so. Gymnastics is obviously her weakest. Link does. Is 6 months five months enough time to improve, enough to to make it to the games with her and gymnastics relative to the field? All I know is that she's with

the underdogs, right? Yes. Working with Keith. And and I think underdogs is one of the best camps as far as people working on their weaknesses. Oh keepers in the chat, look at this. I was talking good about somebody and somebody's in the chat that's that's a that's a first because usually I'm always talking bad about somebody. I think they're one of the best camps as far as honestly,

period. They don't have like the athlete stable that other camps have, but they've shown time and time again that they know how to work weaknesses over and over and over and I think she'll be fine. She also has her boyfriend. Zane, she'll be here. Yeah, who is also hella fit and so she got to go train. And Zane is the most supportive guy in the world. Let me tell you about Zane, OK?

Like, Zane is freaking crazy. I was standing next to him the the last individual event, and I would not be surprised if he sounds worse than Tyler right now. That dude was screaming he. Held up. Yeah, he was all in. Like, yeah, he was everything. Just pick it up. Pick it up. Yeah, yeah. Greatest greatest guy. Yeah, Gracie's just kind of like Hatfield for me. I feel like I was one of the first ones on these on her and Hatfield both and. They got to ride that that train. They didn't.

They didn't perform as good as I wanted them to perform because I was so high on them and I and like, but and you know like whenever you like think you're the first of the party and you really want people to do good to show people be like see I told you, I told you these people were monsters and then they don't like perform to a monster level. It's it's you. You wanted them to, but I don't

think any less of them. Anything on the the bottom side of the coin where you're just disappointed in what you saw? Nick Matthew didn't have a great competition. He did not. I know we kind of thought he wouldn't. Brian, I think you were on the same train with me. One of you two were. I had him in the top 10. OK. So then it might have been oh. Never mind. He didn't seem, he was like just kind of like, not bothered. He was like, he didn't seem like he'd give a shit about.

It, yeah, I mean, talking with him after he hurt his ankle on the run, I mean he's definitely more focused and worried about the 24 season, which I think everybody is to some degree. So, like, like, you just don't know where some of these guys are, right? Like, where are they in their training, training cycle? How much are they putting emphasis on maybe deloading for a week? Are they just training through it? Like a lot of that's really hard to tell.

And so I don't know if I really would say too much. The only one I think where I wanted to see better was Olivia Kurstetter. I thought she should have been able to do a little bit better than the 17th spot. Do you want to talk about it? Yeah, go for it, John. I'm just saying do, are we talking about it? I mean. What are your thoughts about? You know my thoughts on this already. Don't let you do it. Yeah, she just needs to get

better at gymnastics. And whatever way you want to get better at gymnastics, whatever you think will help you the best at getting better with gymnastics, you need to do that. Would we all agree with that? Yes, yes. That's and. And you and you know what I'm saying with that. Yeah, I mean, I think she finished better at the games than she did at Water Palooza with a weaker field. I know it's only 5 events, but she should have that upward momentum.

And I think at this age, like you talk about Nick, Nick, Matthew, who's been there before, whether you finished 8th at Watapalooza or 19th, like it's not the end of the world. But for somebody who is still trying to gain that experience against the elite feel, I feel like you need to put some more emphasis into it. And so I could be wrong and maybe she wasn't and maybe it was just training through it. What I feel like that doesn't help your confidence.

No, I feel like it. I feel like it's safe to say, like we expected more of her and we didn't get it. Yes. Right. And I think that goes into like what what's been saying about it's like where are you at in your training? Like did you take time off like all that stuff? But like it's fitting in line with with what we've seen from the other teen women, which is they have a high moment and then they sort of get backed off a little bit.

And maybe it's just because it's like OK, they get exposed. They go to the games and they they their hype moment and then they're like, OK, what are your weaknesses? Because we have all kinds of time to work on that. So they they pull back real hard, you know what I mean? And start building building base more than other athletes would do. Like I'm not going to do the same base building with Jake Douglas as I would with her,

right? Jake's nearing the end of his career, so just get the money while the while the you know why you can. But with her, like take your time. You got an athlete right here. So for sure, for sure, I There's no pressure on her either, right. Right. That's not, that's not what I'm saying. I like these people in the comments like guys. It's not. It's not. She competed in the competition. We thought she would be better. She's not. How did how would she get

better? That's what we're talking about. It's not letting her be. You know, it's not, you know, if she wants to compete competitively, then how can we get better competitively? That's what we're talking about. If she wants to just be, then don't compete. That's right, these people. Who you calling these people, John? I I think. Hey, listen, listen, when young Jay comes out, it don't matter. It don't matter who these people are, OK?

But if you're out there on the floor, you're competing, I think it's fair to talk about what? Are you're up for criticism? Yes, 100%. Right. Like we, we see how well she performed at the games. We weren't even sure a year ago if she was going to be then going teen or the elite field. She went elite, she did great and now we're looking to see if she can continue to build that.

You'd expect her to build that with extra time training with the proven team, training with Hector, and we just didn't see that, right? And so like, if you're looking at who underperformed from our expectations, it would be, I would say it's Olivia, but that's not like the end of the world, right, that that means we have high expectations of her. It's not, you know. We don't like Olivia. I don't like. I don't think we're trashing her at all. I think people are way too sensitive. Right.

So, yeah. Any any closing thoughts? Tyler Heat one. How'd that go? I don't know. I mean. Is it for me to judge we just went black? What just happened? Oh, you want that cancelled? Cancelled. We're done. We're done. They're coming. For lights are off. I don't know what did like. Sporty Bath has come come out to fashion, yeah. I don't know. I feel like it's your all's like, what did you all think? I have my idea of how we did. I think Spin loved it. I couldn't speak for it ended.

Very well. I think the tiebreaker could be adjusted, but other than that I think it's great. I thought it was awesome, Tyler, I don't know how you make it better, honestly. Like, as far as like making money, I make people pay a dollar for starting a league or whatever, you know, maybe $20. And I I think people would still do it and that's how you make money on it. But I thought it was freaking awesome. Like, I I really don't know how you improve it.

The speed that y'all get the scores in is money. I don't think people are waiting for, like, things to update. It didn't seem glitchy. You know? Like, I I mean, I just, I don't have anything wrong to say about it. Sure, there's a way that I'm sure people can, like tweak things to make it more accessible or whatever. But But like I for me, I don't know how you make it better. If you figure out a way to make it better, go you. But. What we're constantly doing is go ahead, spin.

I think it helps make it more enjoyable to watch, right? It's like fantasy football. You sit there, if you watch a football game and you know you have a wide receiver in there, you root for that wide receiver to catch the ball. If you have somebody in as as the the shot caller to win the event, you watch that athlete and want to see them do well, like you have some vested interest in it. It makes it more enjoyable versus just kind of sitting back and watching like oh who's going to win?

Like you have somebody to root for. And that's what I really like about it. And I think Span is super underrated because he just won our fantasy Football League and then he just got, you know, tied for first in this fantasy thing. Trust. Act like he's. I'm, I'm numbered brain. I know I finance guy. Of course he's good at this show. I'm starting to get real intimidated real quick because this. Yeah, I mean, like, I feel happy. You know how much I did is negligible.

It was all my my team. It was all adamant, was all Aaron and it was all Ortega and it. Was you just being awkward in front of the camera? Yeah, doing my best. Yeah, who? What? What was the team decision to make you like the face of it? Adam Adam's like, I don't want to be in front of the camera. And I was like, OK, I guess I'll take this bullet. And Aaron Ortega have the camera, so it's left. Eye for default. But by the end of the weekend it started to get better.

I was like, OK, I it's just it's so different, man, I I never thought I'd be someone who's in front of a camera. So here we are. There it is. Has trick love. It puts us in the game. Yeah, I we're we're constantly thinking the new stuff. I we only had a couple screw ups. There was a couple moments where I was where Adam was like having a full freak out. Like it's over. We're going to and it's like we'll never be able to talk about those but like it got scary a couple minutes and we

navigated it every single time. And so I'm happy from that. I I wanted more people to play. But what we learned from that was that you have to talk about this early for a long time like. And so I mean that's where I get help from you guys and from sevon is like hey let's continue to pump the pump the drama up about who's playing, why you should play them, why you

shouldn't play them. All those different things, they make a big difference and that's why I'm so frustrated with the team competition was we didn't, we didn't and you can't do that well enough. I think with the current format I think there are formats where you can do it better. But it's like if we really want to care and if we really want people to play and pay attention, we have to put a lot of work into the team competition.

So no, I honestly the individual like I I was super happy with how that went. Yeah, you'll have it. You'll have it now for semi finals, like that'll be great throughout. So like that'll make those three weeks even more exciting and interesting to follow. So good job on that, John. You still making people strong, JY barbell. Yes, Sir. Yes, Sir. Awesome. All right, guys, I'm going to go. Yeah, I actually got a fun story. It'll be quick, it'll. Be.

It'll be quick. There's a girl named Daisy. She's forties 40s and she walked into a CrossFit gym like 3 months ago and her squat was she couldn't do a squat beginning beginning in a CrossFit. And then when she started with me, her Max was 75 lbs and she hit 175 two days ago and it was the most awesomest thing in the world. I was so proud of her and I honestly couldn't believe it. I was hoping for 1:35. I was like we're going to put

our 1:25. I was like we're going to put one of those big girl plates on and she was like real intimidated by it. And for her to do 175 like I was mind blown. And like, she was so happy. And I just It's more rewarding when you take somebody that's never touched weights before and shown them and show them that they're capable of more than they can they can dream of, rather than somebody who moves great and PRS or snatch. It's so much more rewarding the other way around.

Not that it's not rewarding the other way. All right, Melanie, you're a beast and you know it, OK? You just can't snatch very well. But we're working. But continue to pay for John Young Barbara, it's. Very. It's very rewarding. It's very rewarding and I love, I love all of my athletes. Oh yeah, sorry. I just wanted to give that story out there. She'll probably never see this. She doesn't watch YouTube, she doesn't social media, but I just wanted to brag on her. That was a good story.

I just thought that was funny. He said it before he He typed it before he said the story. All right, guys. Appreciate it. Thank you for following all the stuff I was doing out there, signing up for Heat One and listen to John's stories of getting people strong. So until next week, bye bye.