Sitting with Josh Woolley, Coach of 6th Fittest Female on Earth Emma Lawson

We still can't get enough of this year's 2022 CrossFit Games! Lucky for us, Josh Woolley, Coach of 6th Fittest Female on Earth Emma Lawson and semi-final athlete Jack Farlow sits down with Chad and Michelle to go behind the scenes at the CrossFit games.

Josh shares incredible stories, such as; Emma going head to head with the most dominant CrossFit athlete of all time Tia-Clari Toomey, wearing the leader jersey after day one, managing the volume throughout the week and receiving the Rookie of the Year award.

We hear firsthand what life is like as a coach at the biggest event of the year! How he manages athlete expectations, training, recovery and nutrition.

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Transcript

Chad [0:06 - 0:20]
community of members, coaches and professionals working as a team of like minded individuals in constant pursuit, connecting this exclusive group with the tools and resources they require to live a high performance lifestyle, conquering what life has thrown at them. We are living the fit life.

Chad [0:23 - 0:36]
Welcome to living the good life podcast. Episode 59. I'm your host, Tabular and what an episode we have today. First off, very excited to be welcoming back the one and only the boss, Michelle, Dijon, what's that? Michelle? It's been a while.

Michelle [0:36 - 0:42]
I know. Hello. Hello. I don't have I done one. I

Chad [0:42 - 0:44]
don't think so. I really don't think so.

Michelle [0:45 - 0:56]
Yes, Yes. Thank you for inviting me back. I wasn't sure if you know, Ian was taking my spot or

Chad [0:56 - 1:00]
Ian's done, done a good job, jumping off the bench and filling in.

Michelle [1:01 - 1:15]
That's it. Yes, Well, yeah, thanks for having me and I look forward to um more podcasts and maybe some, some more of me a little bit as we go here. So

Chad [1:15 - 1:16]
yes, we'll be spending some time

Michelle [1:17 - 1:20]
hoping to have a little bit more time for for this podcast moving forward.

Chad [1:20 - 1:41]
We'll set some time and get caught up in an upcoming episode for you. But for now we're still sort of pumped up from this year's crossfit games and today we have a special s josh Woolley from Mammoth training methods coach of the Emma Lawson. How's it going, josh. Welcome back. You've been on the podcast once before. How's it going?

Michelle [1:42 - 1:42]
It's

Josh [1:42 - 1:52]
going good, yeah, Thanks for having me back guys. Um yeah, it's going good. It's been a couple of weeks, just not really think about crossfit or anything like that, so

Chad [1:52 - 1:53]
um

Josh [1:53 - 2:05]
excited to kind of talk with you guys a bit and then hopefully that will get the ball rolling because I know I'm as excited to get training again, but this downtime is much, much needed for both of us,

Michelle [2:06 - 2:09]
so even coaches need the off season,

Josh [2:10 - 2:15]
Yes, not from a physical standpoint, more so this mental standpoint.

Michelle [2:16 - 2:17]
Yeah,

Chad [2:17 - 3:04]
yeah, it's it's super exciting. Uh it's been a few weeks now, so it's cool that you had a chance to sort of just chill and debrief and I'm sure you have some cool conversations with Emma and some other people, but yeah, I'm just really excited to kind of get your perspective or coach's perspective, how the games went, what you thought about the games, uh hear about any sort of insider information. Um but I think maybe like probably the first question is like, you know, what is your overall sort of thought about M. S. Performance? I mean, I think from us looking in watching the broadcast, hearing this sort of word on the street within the crossfit community, everyone was sort of just blown away by this young Canadian. What was your sort of overall sentiment now that you had a chance to think about it.

Josh [3:04 - 3:26]
Yeah, obviously, you know, going in um we didn't put any expectations on terms of the placement, so um I wanted Emma to kind of Go in with confidence, but not trying to do any comparison with what happened last year, with you know, now finishing 7th and McCary. So it's

Chad [3:27 - 3:27]
it

Josh [3:27 - 3:48]
was a new year, like just go in and be confident in your capabilities and my only asks is that on every workout you just do your best and however it plays out from there, like we'll take them as learning lessons and go from there um in saying that like her training leading up to the games and the numbers that she was hitting and the times that she was hitting, um

Michelle [3:49 - 3:50]
I

Josh [3:50 - 4:35]
Knew that she would be like competitive. Um so there was no doubt in my mind that, you know, like a top 15 was definitely possible for her to finish in the top 10 6 place and kind of being in that podium spot for the entire weekend until that last day was was pretty wild and um yeah, I don't know if I was necessarily expecting that. Um so it was a really good, good surprise and just a uh just showed that like all the hard work that she's been putting in kate off um but it also left a lot of, a lot of things that we need to work on still right, like it's it's not her goal one day is to win the crossfit games and there's some holes still in the game that we need to fix up and uh excited to get back to work on. That

Chad [4:35 - 4:50]
was this year's games uh different for you, obviously you've been there a few times. This isn't new for you guys, but like from a coach's perspective, from your own personal perspective, did you feel like this game was different or kind of just you know, same old, same old?

Josh [4:51 - 4:59]
Yeah, it was it was different. So the first games that we went to was in 2019 when Emma was 14 years old.

Chad [4:59 - 5:01]
Um So

Josh [5:01 - 5:16]
that was kind of just like a big eye opener, right, being in the, in the same warm up areas all the athletes and you know, all the individuals um Yeah, it was it was equally, it was equally nerve racking because there is a bit of like that uh

Michelle [5:17 - 5:18]
why

Josh [5:18 - 6:30]
don't you just feel like emotionally connected? Like you know, it doesn't do well and like you kind of internalize some of that is like what could have done better as a coach and preparing her for that. Um And so that that never goes away. I think the overall though like stress of the games and kind of the week was actually a little bit lower this time and part of it may have been because we've been there before. Um But also part of it was like, you know like this is just an amazing opportunity, an amazing experience and like we were okay with just like trying our best, whatever happened happened, so there was really no expectation in terms of placement. Um So yeah, don't get me wrong, it's still stressful, it was still super busy. Um There was some chaos interjected with the weather and whatnot. But it uh yeah, for the most part I felt like it went really, really well and the staff did an amazing job keeping things organized, making sure the athletes and even the coaches had everything they needed. Um and then dealing with, you know, the weather delays, like they did an amazing job with that too. Right? So yeah, overall it was like a really cool,

Chad [6:30 - 6:36]
cool. I obviously we're gonna talk a little about the games, but I do want to ask a few questions leading up to the games because we haven't talked in a while.

Josh [6:36 - 6:37]
Um

Chad [6:38 - 7:10]
So obviously it's a full journey. It's a full sort of year round sport. How did how did training sort of um go for semifinals? Like were you, did you have that like both Emma and I went to semifinals at those games? Were you guys training to peek at quote unquote? You know, peak at the semi finals or are you guys thinking like the long term plan is the games and semi finals will just grind it out? Like do you think about those types of things? Do you have them sort of peek at that time or? Yeah,

Josh [7:10 - 8:29]
so we definitely do like take that into account and think about, okay, when do we want to peek within our season? Um and it's funny like if we actually go all the way back to the open, Um you know, Emma's finished in the open this year was 100 seconds or something like that, which amazing. Amazing. Previous years finished 15th, right? So there was definitely like, like there's something changing or something going wrong. Um and then the same thing with jack, like you didn't have as strong of a showing in the open. Um You know, I don't want to say that the open doesn't matter. Like it does matter. It's it's a test of your fitness. Um But we were specifically, I was looking at the long game, right? Like we want to make sure you guys are peaking in this case for semifinals. Like our goal is to get to the games, you know, let's peek for semi finals and if you guys both qualify well or if one of you guys qualifies, like we'll restructure the plan leading into the games. So um yeah, the plan this year was, you know, let's try to peak for semifinals. You know, maybe they weren't in the peak of performance or the best shape going into the open, but then the quarter finals roll around, they both had really, really good strong there and then we kind of rode that momentum into semifinals there in atlas. So yes, yeah, we definitely did peak for semi finals this year.

Michelle [8:29 - 8:54]
I was just wondering how you sort of managed. So Emma is going to be open, you know, maybe she was looking for a better place in herself and maybe yourself as well. How did you manage those expectations and not? Um let that sort of get you guys down and looking at that greater picture.

Josh [8:55 - 9:06]
Yeah. So one thing and it's harder with younger athletes is like saying, hey, like stay off leaderboard, stay off social media, like try your best not to be consumed by that. Um

Michelle [9:07 - 9:08]
it's

Josh [9:08 - 11:01]
hard, it's even hard for an adult, right? Like you get on that and you just kind of fall down that rabbit hole and you compare yourself to other people. Um I I don't say it was like to tough this year, like just explaining to them, hey, like the goal, the open is just to find the people who are going to quarter finals and the goal of quarterfinals is to find people who are going to semifinals. It doesn't matter unless you're gonna win the open and get some money. Like it doesn't matter if you finish first or second or if you finish whatever that cut line is, like all those people are going um and then the same thing for quarterfinals when it does matter is you know, semifinals, top five, you guys are going to the games and then top eight or 678 are doing the last chance qualifier. So trying to kind of relay that to them um was my main focus um you know, I think Emma took it a little bit better actually than Jack, like Jack had a bit of a tougher go in the open um and definitely following the end of the open um was maybe a little bit down um so again, working with him, talking him through it and saying, hey, like don't worry like quarter finals are coming, it's gonna be more stuff that we've been training, more style of stuff that we've been training um and just just wait and sure enough, like when the quarterfinals hit, like you crushed it. So um yeah, again, I think it's more so the communication thing and trying to not set unrealistic expectations at the beginning of the year, but also just teaching them that it is like a journey process, right? You can't you can't be peaked at the top the entire year, like you're gonna burn out um again, trying to just kind of take everything in stride and the ultimate goal in the years to be on top of the podium and it doesn't really matter how you get there as long as you get there

Michelle [11:01 - 11:17]
and from a coaching perspective coaching perspective, uh do you just trust your training plan that, did you have any sort of um tests along the way that you could say? Okay, yeah, this is working.

Josh [11:17 - 12:24]
Yeah, so I do try to set up metrics based on what we need to focus on in their training. So depending on the training block or in, we'll set some metrics at the beginning and then try to kind of re test that towards the end. Um, so yeah, it's nice to see some sort of progression obviously on those. Um, you know, to say that I don't have doubts would be lying. Like there's always times where it's like, oh, am I doing enough? Am I doing the right stuff? Like, and even, you know, even after semifinals and after the games, it was just like, you know, did I do enough to prepare Emma? Did I do enough to make sure she was exposed to everything that she may see at the games? Um, so it's always, yeah, I guess. Yeah, like there's times where I'm definitely like, you know, is there more I could've done. Um and then part of that may just be because like I want to see them succeed and I want to see them do really well. Um, so if there's something that I can do or improve on my end and you know, I want to be able to do that. So I think it's important to always question, you know, the product that you're putting out there and see if

Chad [12:24 - 13:01]
you yourself sort of relatively new at this too, right? So it's cool that you guys are all sort of uh, getting experience together. So Emma, so obviously Emma crushes the atlas comps takes first place. Jack has a good showing, has a few bad workouts, just misses. He has obviously a few spotlight moments after atlas, like what's the feeling at camp? And then I guess my second question is like, you know, what do you guys do coming back from atlas games, like is it day one, get ready into it now we're going to where we want to go.

Josh [13:01 - 13:59]
Yeah, so I guess we'll talk about Jack first and then we'll bounce back to Emma. So um yeah, Jack, as you said like had a couple of really, really strong showings that I listen a few of the workouts and then a couple of other workouts definitely exposed some of um the holes in his game that again we need to focus on and tidy up as we move forward. Um Yeah, he finished 9th at Atlas, so one spot out of the last chance qualifier, but with the guy that tested positive for performance enhancing drugs, he actually finished in eighth, which means he would have got an opportunity in the last chance qualifier. Unfortunately that news didn't come out and the last chance happened. So he definitely missed out an opportunity there. You know, I like the structure of those workouts for him. I think he would have done well um if he would have qualified through that we'll never know, but I definitely liked his chances in those workouts.

Chad [13:59 - 14:20]
Last chance qualifier is a tough, that's a tough I find that it's a really difficult, like there's a very little amount of uh placings And you're taking a lot of great athletes that all probably there's probably like a good 20% of them that deserve to be at the game. It's crazy how difficult that last chance qualifier really.

Josh [14:20 - 14:38]
Yeah, it would be awesome and I know it's like the logistics of it are is impossible right now with the way the sport is but to have that live and have it as an actual seven event unreal right? May be super now obviously logistics

Chad [14:39 - 14:39]
there's

Josh [14:39 - 17:48]
people all over the world who are doing it. So it's not, it's not practical right now, but maybe in the future, maybe that's something we see, right? And again there's some rumors about changes to the season that were spread around the games that we can talk about their so um so yeah, obviously that was finished, Jack was, I think he was proud of his effort. He was maybe a little bit down himself and just being so close to having that opportunity to the last chance qualifier and um you know, we just talked through it and made a plan for next year and the nice thing about atlas for him was that like he got to compete against some of the best athletes in the sport with and Adler um and you know, other than a couple of workouts, like held his own pretty well. So if we can continue to kind of clean those things up and maybe dial back a little bit of the things that he's super good at or just not focused on them on as much like Jack, you don't need to clean £400 you've already done it once, like we don't need to focus on anymore, so let's like really emphasize, we'll still do some strength, but again, we don't need to have something that we don't need to focus on with him so can't wait for sure. I definitely think he's got it in him and hopefully he can crack in there next year. So um So yeah, that's Jack if we go back to Emma, so people don't know like very few people know, but Emma actually had a back injury leading in the semifinals and it probably happened, I'm gonna say 6-7 weeks before semis. Um another thing with teenage athletes is they don't, sometimes they're stubborn, they don't want to tell you that they're hurt. Um so she had a back tweak kept training through, it didn't say anything progressively got worse and worse and worse to a point where in training I was watching her and like I could tell that she was like hurting, I'm like, hey what's going on um actually hold my back's been bothering me pretty bad for the past couple of weeks and by, you know, looking at the numbers and stuff, like I couldn't tell like there was no way for me to see that and I just happened to watch her during a certain movement and so I grab her back and was like, oh, okay, like what's going on there? So quite stressful. Like we basically eliminated the barbell leading up to semifinals, right? And then that barbell complex about, we practiced it like once and got up to 1 85 and was like, no dice, like this is too painful, like we're not going to keep pushing it. Um, there was other things that we can continue to do. So that was a big question mark leading into atlas for him. I was like, how is your back gonna hang out? Like pulled up. Um, you know, we got lots of treatment on it and got some x rays to rule out anything super serious. Um, which doesn't appear to be, so that's, that's good. Um, but yeah, that was the big question mark, right? And then for her to go out and hit 2 12, we probably had more in the tank on the, on the complex was pretty impressive. Um,

Michelle [17:49 - 17:49]
and

Josh [17:49 - 18:36]
then, yeah, obviously the rest of the weekend was, was phenomenal. She, she went out there and executed workouts. Yeah, yeah, so again, she didn't have any, didn't have any pain during, which was good. So, um, that was good part of that could have been the adrenaline of competing on the floor, right? Like you don't feel things. So, um, yeah, that was, that was a very nerve wracking time, like I remember when she was going out to do the complex there, I was like okay, like let's just get this first, wait and just get that on the board. So that way we're not taking the last um she did amazing, so so yeah, that was really good, obviously executed very well over the weekend and got our spot to the games. What

Chad [18:36 - 18:42]
was the focus leading up to the games? Did you change your training in any way or was it just like continue going straight forward?

Josh [18:42 - 18:55]
Yeah, so we did change it quite a bit um we got some more professional input into her, her back so that squat university guide on instagram follow him.

Chad [18:55 - 18:56]
So yeah,

Josh [18:56 - 19:59]
so we worked with him and chad von like they kind of work together so they helped us out with that and gave us um some kind of movements and preparatory work for bracing, that seemed to definitely help Emma, I think it's something we have to continue to kind of monitor and work on as we go. Um but again leading up to the game, so she never had any issues with her back, which was good. Um So yeah, after at last we probably took a week off just to kind of regroup with the body, just come back down, chill out and then leading back into the games, we slowly began to introduce the barbell back in just to get some more strength work in. Um so worked on strength and then just a lot more volume. The games is a long weekend, there's a lot of volume that's going on there, so one more volume and a lot of work outside of the gym. Right? So not your traditional kind of just met cons and interval work, like a lot of work out in the field. A lot of odd object work just to make sure that you're as ready as you can be for what shows up

Michelle [19:59 - 20:07]
a lot of volume look like to you guys, just can you say a hair volume wrapped up?

Josh [20:08 - 20:44]
Yeah, so probably once we got through the first couple of weeks after atlas and just kind of got the body acclimatized to training again, um you know, anywhere from 2-3 sessions a day. Um again, not all being in the gym, but yeah, multiple multiple interval pieces and then sprinkling in that strength work. So I guess it's hard to kind of put a quantitative amount of time on it because things are all different, but just the number of reps and and stuff like that definitely increases as we're leading up to the games.

Chad [20:44 - 20:57]
Do you got a question about nutrition and I don't know if it plays a part for Emma because she's so young, but I've always suspected that some of the athletes are maybe leaning out for the games or are they fueling up for the games?

Josh [20:57 - 21:48]
Yeah, that's interesting. So Emma works with mike from M to uh he's been really, really good in her growth and development through the sport in terms of nutrition. So I think that you're probably actually seeing people eat more leading into the games, but again, there's, their volume has increased so much that they may appear to be leaning out um but it may just be like body composition changes, I don't think people are actively losing weight, like, I don't know if you want to go in, unless you have weight that you need to lose, which most of these athletes are gonna have weight, they need to lose its, I think it would be like a negative impact on you to actively try to lose weight going into the games, like Yeah,

Chad [21:48 - 22:28]
I remember, I remember hearing matt fraser talk about it and he said he had, he had a specific weight that he liked to compete at and he would be a little bit different, but then when it got close to the games, he would try to focus in on that number for whatever reason. Um and I always find, you know, some athletes and this is, This is really just on the outside, looking in right, like we only can see from 10,000 ft away, but like, just some of the athletes look leaner than they would previously in some cases and sometimes they don't um maybe they're just carrying more weight or maybe it's just the volume of food that they're eating throughout the week and before just make sure that they're ready to take on the volume of effort. Yeah,

Josh [22:28 - 23:01]
it's funny like people, like, you get all the pictures and the videos and stuff from, from the games and everyone usually looks pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty shredded, but you have to remember to like when you're in the middle of a workout, like you're gonna have a pump going on. Like you're gonna be looking great. You go into the back though. Like in between. Yeah, they're not walking around looking like shredded. Yeah, your, and they look, you know, look fit, but they're not having, you know, veins bulging out of their shoulders and arms, like they just look like,

Chad [23:01 - 23:14]
that's what, that's what I want. I want, I want a youtube channel behind the scenes in the back rooms, like I want to feed 24 7 just cold tubs, bananas, gels. I don't care what I just want to see it all. That's what I want to

Josh [23:14 - 23:18]
see. Yeah, no, there's definitely a lot that goes on back there. So

Chad [23:18 - 24:05]
cool. Okay, we have to get to the game. So I, I figured we could just talk this like day by day. Um, so obviously day one, Emma has a huge day, like a huge debut for her for her, you know, debut and elite, um, there's the bike event and then there's this skills mentally, so going into the games, obviously you're talking about different training and stuff like that. So like obviously with the games different than a semifinal or whatever, there's always some sort of like bike, swim, kayak, whatever you wanna call that, some sort of endurance based machine thing. Um did you guys do a bunch of training leading up to that? Because she looked like legit on the bike, she's drafting back behind Tia, like that was such an iconic moment I think for any Emma, Lawson fan,

Josh [24:06 - 25:11]
we uh yeah, Emma and is comfortable, like she's comfortable on a bike. Um, we haven't done a ton of road bike works and I was like, hey, like let's reach out to the resources we have around us and, and try to get some some time on the bike and get some tips and stuff and you know, Michelle and were very happy to kind of help us out there. So we did get out for a session and kind of got Emma some familiarity on the bike and how drafting works and the importance of sharing drafting, which maybe she could have done a little bit earlier, I'll share that story in a minute. But um, yeah, like, again, we didn't do a ton of sessions on the road bike, but um, Emma just does a lot of biking in general, like when she goes to the college with her family, like she's always riding the bike so I knew she'd be comfortable on the bike, her capacity is fine. So I wasn't super concerned with her not being able to keep pace and with the road bike, it was more so just being familiar with how to change gears. Just the positioning again, it's a little bit different than a mountain bike. So when that workout showed up, I was like, hey, like this is a good one to start off with. Like, it's always nice to

Chad [25:11 - 25:19]
have you. I was gonna ask the nerve, the nerves and the gentleman that, that's a good event for, it's not short. Not too much mistakes can be made.

Josh [25:20 - 26:55]
And so again, like from a strategy, strategy perspective, it was just like, hey, like trust in your capacity and the gymnastics movements and then just remain confident and comfortable on the bike and if you can get out in front kind of in that lead pack, it's definitely gonna be easier moving forward throughout the workout. Um, I think in the, the, the video or whatever, the broadcast there was like the group that got out in front, which was part of and then the next group that came out, there was like three people who just crashed and fell over on their bikes. So it was good to get out in front of that. But yeah, like you said, like she was, she was drafting behind Tia definitely in the second kind of five laps. Um, she was saying that she's like, I just wanted to hang out back there until the last lap and then just like blow by and pastor leading in and she's like, but I couldn't because Shane yelled at me from the side, He said, you guys need to work together to catch Hayley. So, so, so, so she went out in front and they kind of work together and they actually did catch up quite a bit um whether like Haley was just kind of letting off the gas, like no one really can never know but from the, you know, the top down view that kind of looks like, yeah, they closed the gap. So it was funny. So anyway, the workout finished then Shane Shane came up in the back, I shouldn't have yelled at you, I'm sorry. Like I wanted you guys to catch her, like I guess I have to work together for it. So that was funny. So, um but yeah, it was a really good way to start kind of the week with the third and just kind of like, hey, like I'm here like here we

Michelle [26:55 - 27:18]
go. I was wondering because the, the broadcast shows her making a move and, and going ahead of Tia and I was like, I wonder what she's thinking, Like, why isn't she just waiting and then at the last minute going for it, but now hearing what you said, that's exactly why it's so cool to hear those things. Thanks for

Josh [27:18 - 27:19]
sharing

Chad [27:19 - 27:49]
what was Emma's vibe like the first day like was she pretty calm and collected, getting kind of involved? Like is she talking to that different people? Is she sort of, you know, is she she's a very mature person for her age? Like what's the general feel like between you and her? Like, is it just like nervousness and everything is new or you feel pretty experienced? Pretty poison. Just like, you know, everything that we've done at this point is gonna like show on the floor. Like day one was a pretty epic day for her, right? She wore the leader's jersey at one point on the first day. Yes,

Josh [27:49 - 28:11]
she did. I mean as an athlete, like you're aware of kind of the position that you're in specifically in crossfit based on the kind of how you're put on the floor and what heat you're in. So telling her to stay off the leaderboard stuff is not, she's gonna know where she's at, Like they're gonna know where they're at. So you can say

Chad [28:11 - 28:12]
that um

Josh [28:14 - 29:14]
what I, what I was trying to kind of relate to her and trying to kind of manage expectations throughout events is like, hey, like yeah, that bike event went really really good, like be happy about that, but that bike events over right now we have another event and when that event is over like be happy with your positioning or you're finished or like if you're not, hey, like you got five minutes and then let's just kind of reset for the next event and that was, that was just kind of my message to er throughout the entire week as they wanted it at the time. It goes great awesome. If it doesn't go good, that's okay, we're gonna learn from it and prepare for it better next year, but forget about it because we have to move on to the next one. Um It's too hard to, if you get caught up in kind of having a bad event and then you have another bad event and then you start questioning yourself as an athlete and before, you know it, like you've had four or five or six bad ones in a row because you're in your own head. Um So that, that was kind of my main focus with her throughout the day.

Chad [29:14 - 29:25]
What's the protocol? Um after an event, do you guys, you know, give yourself 5, 10 minutes to talk about it and after that you just forget it or it's off the floor. And are you guys debriefing at all?

Josh [29:25 - 29:41]
It depends on, on the event and how the event went. Um you know, we'll use the bike on, for example, like there was really nothing for me to talk to her about like she executed very, very well other than the mishap of chain. That's

Chad [29:41 - 29:42]
amazing to hear.

Josh [29:42 - 29:46]
Uh we laughed about that.

Chad [29:46 - 30:12]
That's crazy cause like, I think like I was part of like five group chats. I'm talking differently when we talked about like, like you know like it would be so hard for us to think like not talking about that. Like her first event, she went head to head with Tia and Haley. Like she was successful. Like how do you not like, you know like it's kind of crazy that you guys are so poised. I mean I understand your goal is not that event but good for you for you know, managing that.

Josh [30:13 - 30:30]
Yeah, don't get too high, don't get too low and just try to stay even keel right like there's time time at the end of the day to kind of reflect on the day and then the same thing comes and play right? Like like you said she wore the leader's jersey at the end of the day on the the last last event of the day one. How

Chad [30:30 - 30:40]
is that? Like did you have to, was there any management there? Like she gets the leader jersey given to her, she knows what it is. Like is she, you know, how do you manage

Josh [30:40 - 31:07]
that? So it was funny we came after the the skill medley and I was like, like you might be in first place and she's like no, I'm like no, I think you might be. And then sure enough when we got back to the athlete warm up area where we leave our stuff like there on her bag was like the red and white leader jersey and like I told you she's like so I think it added a yeah, I mean it's like it's a pretty trustworthy

Michelle [31:07 - 31:09]
environment. Yeah,

Josh [31:09 - 31:11]
just sitting there. Um

Chad [31:11 - 31:12]
So

Josh [31:12 - 32:21]
yeah, I think that definitely made her maybe a little bit more nervous going into that event. Um And not from a performance perspective like like this workout is going to be extra hard because I'm wearing the leader's jersey or like it was more so just like the eyes on and that was kind of her main kind of worry and I just kind of reminded of like, hey like when you go out there and they say 321 go, like you're gonna forget about all the fans and everyone watching you that you're just gonna go out there and be able to execute the workout and again just do it to the best of your ability like hey if you win the work out great, if you don't win the workout, that's fine too, like just do the best you can and we'll recap it, you know when we're done and go from there and I think that maybe kind of helped her a little bit because you know, she went out there, they called her name, like she was smiling but then as soon as like that workout started, like you can see the shift and kind of like personality and I don't see her personality, but you know like a facial expression, right? As soon as they start that countdown like its eyes forward and she's she's ready to fight. Yeah, that video Yeah,

Chad [32:22 - 32:29]
so I do want to ask you uh not just about Emma, but like for the skills medley, which was

Josh [32:29 - 32:30]
you know,

Chad [32:30 - 32:40]
the legless pegboard, it was like double under crossover, it was the else that you know, I guess it wasn't for everyone from a programming standpoint and from a coaching standpoint, like what did you think about that event?

Josh [32:42 - 33:29]
It was unique. Um so I understand why the single unders were put in, I also understand why the leg, the legless peg, the legless peg boards were put in. Um I felt like the last round was maybe a little bit gimmicky with the double, double under cross and then the press to handstand on the parallel bars. However like if you go back in, do your research on bows and then do your research kind of on the origins and the crossroad journal, like the dubliner crosses in there, it's been around for a while and gymnastics is a big component of kind of their, their pyramid, right? So I understand, I can see why those were put in um

Michelle [33:30 - 33:31]
it

Josh [33:31 - 34:02]
was unfortunate that none of the female athletes actually got to get through the double under cross and attempt the press to handstand. Um We were never successful in doing one, like we could do it from the floor that could do it from the floor, but she couldn't do it from the, the parallel bars or the so it would be interesting to see if she could have done it in competition. Um but yeah, other than that, like I thought it was a perfect time to maybe throwing triple unders, I think Triple unders would have been kind of cool to

Michelle [34:02 - 34:04]
see right, Like

Josh [34:04 - 34:46]
it just kind of seemed like the natural progression like single, under, double, under, triple under. Um you probably would have seen more people get an attempt at the press to handstand. So, but interesting that like, people struggle on the single skips, right? Like there's like your, your base thing, right? And like to punish to punish them by saying, hey, like if you trip up, you go back to zero. It just kind of reemphasized the importance of not trying to skip the basics and just go into the flashy things first, right? Like, you know, everyone wants to do a ring muscle up, but can't do a strict wall up and you need to master the basics,

Michelle [34:46 - 34:47]
you

Josh [34:47 - 34:59]
need to master the basics and continually go back to them. You should never forget, never forget a skill. Even if you think it's, it's beneath, you should always go back and practice it regularly,

Michelle [35:01 - 35:11]
which I think josh josh, you do a really good job that in your programming. I noticed you always have, there's always that emphasis on that basic skill for sure.

Josh [35:11 - 35:41]
Thanks, thanks. I appreciate that. So again, to answer your question chad, it was just like kind of indifferent. I like the, the structure of the workout. I think maybe some of the movements specifically in the last round could have been maybe changed to make it a little bit more. I don't want to be appealing, but more like exciting. Like watching the last emails one was kind of like, oh, this sucks. Yeah,

Chad [35:41 - 36:02]
I was so, I was so amped up for that last seat. I'm like, these are the, these are the five athletes that, that you want there. Um, and, and leading up to it was so exciting and, and you want to be able to see you want to showcase the else it and I did, I did that. I didn't think the double under crossover was a little, you know, maybe we're saying that because no one finished it. But

Josh [36:02 - 36:05]
yeah, I guess we'll see.

Michelle [36:05 - 36:12]
So, so josh. The question is, if it was Triple unders, yeah,

Josh [36:12 - 36:16]
she would have gotten through the triple unders. Um, and the pistols were

Michelle [36:16 - 36:18]
so, she regularly

Josh [36:18 - 36:42]
Don't say, don't say we practiced them all the time, but she has the capacity to do them and we would have gotten through the 25, I have no doubt, and then the pistols again, where, where she made her bread and butter and the first two. Um, and I just want to come down to whether or not she could have, could have done that press to handstand, so

Chad [36:42 - 36:57]
the jumping to day two, which was supposed to be a rest day, does, how does that change your approach? Obviously day one we had, they cut out the shot of the overhead event, How does that change your approach with the weather and now becomes the workday?

Josh [36:57 - 38:11]
I think from the majority of athletes, like they were pretty actually happy to have something that day instead of nothing. Um a lot of the athletes that we had talked to and the coaches that have been through before said like that thursday or that rest day would just kind of be a weird day and like it could definitely derail you going into friday so to have something on thursday I think I was fine with and I was fine with it. Um I was happy that they didn't change that workout. So during the briefing on Wednesday they're like, hey, like if it rains and it's wet, like we're still gonna go ahead, we're just gonna go to strict press instead of um right on her shoulder overhead. So it would have changed, I think it would have changed kind of the outcome in that workout because some of the, maybe, I don't wanna say heavier girls, but some of the girls that have a bit more mass to them, a bit more strength to them um even if their run was a bit slower, they would probably be able to wrap those out a little bit quicker. Whereas the shoulder to overhead definitely if your legs are fatigued from running, it's gonna have more of an impact on the stroller overhead than on the street press.

Chad [38:11 - 38:12]
Cool.

Josh [38:12 - 38:16]
Yeah, I was happy that. And I mean like, again, the workout was

Chad [38:17 - 38:37]
from a coach's perspective. Did you at all consider or did you hear anybody consider like sending it for one of the workouts? I was, for me in my head, I was like, some people have to just either run really fast and just take a lower one or did you think just keep it even keel? Yeah,

Josh [38:37 - 39:45]
so I definitely knew that there'd be some athletes who would just try to send the run or so. Again, it's like, it's a very interesting work out because it definitely, as long as you can move a barbell, I think you would do okay, but if you could run and then maybe not move the barbell quite as well as someone else, you're probably gonna do better than them in both because you only have a finite amount of time to get that work done. So For the most people, like the 400 wasn't a big deal, like they would run it in a minute, 32, a minute, 40. So they'd have 30 to 20 seconds to do their lifting, depending on how well you recover that next 600 window, like some of the women who maybe aren't the best runners, like they only had 10 to 15 seconds to get a lift in and then same thing for the 800. So that window of time to work on the barbell definitely decreased for them. And it so I guess in my opinion is the workout was more tailored towards a runner who could move a barbell, you know, on average, decently, but not maybe the best is some of the other athletes, if that makes any sense?

Chad [39:45 - 39:53]
Yeah. What what's the what was the like percentage for Emma? It was £200 barbell. What percentage of that for her? Like pr

Josh [39:53 - 39:56]
So the most she's ever jerked is 250 from the blocks.

Chad [39:56 - 40:14]
Okay, so like 70-80%. Would you say that? Yeah, I guess so. Did did you did you run the numbers yourself in your head, like, okay you're gonna run this and you're gonna have this much time, so you should be able to do one every four seconds, like where you running the numbers before going into the strategy to tell kind of

Josh [40:14 - 42:13]
um Yes and no. So like I know what her paces are on the run um for a track now with that shuttle run like there was definitely a slowdown period in the speed up period on with the turns. Um And then my my direction to her for the lifting part was like trying to take your hands off the bar right, get that bar bell on your shoulders, get it overhead, bring it down, keep your hands on, so that way you can just walk into the next to the next lift. Um It's funny like I as a coach, like when you're there on the sidelines watching like you have no control or impact on what your athletes doing and like, I don't care what kind of, if you're the best coach in the world, like when your athletes out there, like, your role was in the past, like, so what you've done in the past preparing for that point is what's going to happen and that's what they're going to default back to. Um So I could tell Emma, hey, like run this place, run this run that do lift every four seconds or whatever, but it's up to her to execute what she's capable of doing on the floor at that moment in time and I think she does a very, very good job at that. Um You know, what I try to do is kind of give her some insights into, you know, how are we going to transition from one piece to another and maybe here's an area where you might be able to save a second or two, which as we go further through the weekend, like a couple of seconds and certain workouts would have made a huge huge difference in the leaderboard. So um yeah, so again for that workout like she she's a decent like she's a good runner um and she moved the barbell very well and um her placing in the barbell workout was actually surprising to me, like I think she finished fourth or fifth in the barbell which I was expecting, it kind of the other way around that she might finish fourth or fifth in the run, but overall did very, very well

Michelle [42:13 - 42:17]
and super convenient. You did that track work out,

Josh [42:17 - 42:19]
it's like I knew

Michelle [42:19 - 42:23]
before the game. Yeah,

Josh [42:23 - 42:25]
so that was good, she was kind of used to

Michelle [42:25 - 42:26]
that to

Josh [42:26 - 42:28]
that run rest kind of work,

Chad [42:28 - 42:32]
so you're two days in

Michelle [42:32 - 42:33]
day

Chad [42:33 - 42:48]
three. How um I would would you say the volume of the test up to that point is typical training like you would say most of the athletes weren't wrecked at that point leading up to the capitol? Yeah,

Josh [42:48 - 43:03]
I would say most people are probably feeling pretty good. Um It would have been interesting if that left run event was still on the Wednesday. Like if we had good weather, I feel like people may have been a little bit more sore even with the

Chad [43:03 - 43:05]
rest. Yeah,

Josh [43:05 - 43:37]
even with the rest day on thursday I feel like coming into friday morning they made them feeling a little bit more fatigue um Just because of the compounding effects of like getting your body down so much in one in a shorter period of time. Um I think a lot of people are feeling it in their their triceps and shoulders from the Elizabeth, so not the, but the traverse it was the traverse like brush people. Like it was just like by the time you got to the depths of your shoulders and triceps were just totally burnt. That

Chad [43:37 - 43:41]
was I would assume that would be somewhat of a new movement for Emma. Or did she do that in school?

Josh [43:42 - 43:50]
Uh Yeah, I don't think she's done it in school. So that was a bit of that was a bit of a new movement and then again just trying to kind of best manage that.

Chad [43:50 - 43:52]
Have you started building one yet?

Josh [43:52 - 44:07]
I've been looking into it. I've been looking into it so again we can talk more about at the end but we had a good talk with and he was giving us all these dimensions and stuff. He's like I brought a tape measure this year, I measured this, this and this so I know how to build it for myself.

Chad [44:07 - 44:37]
Really? That's amazing. Um Okay so day three has like the capital up and over which was like the big box gyms and the log in the muscles and then Ecco press, she had a pretty good day like at 11 30 in the ninth um Again, another good day like people are still talking about it. I mean the capital was an amazing event. Did you at all consider running beside her like some of the other coaches,

Josh [44:37 - 44:39]
so I didn't even know that was allowed so when

Chad [44:39 - 44:40]
I

Josh [44:40 - 45:02]
was like, okay, like I'll be um on the field to watch you do the flips and then I knew they had to do like a kind of a lap on the bike course, so I'm like, I'll try to get to a spot so I can kind of see you there and make sure things are going well um again if things aren't going well, like there's not really much I can do like keep going, right, so um

Chad [45:02 - 45:03]
yeah,

Josh [45:03 - 45:26]
and so like I'm sitting in the back watching actually went to the noble building, it was watching there and uh and I'm like, who is that running? Like that's not an athlete, it was Jeff Adler's fiance or wife coach and I was like, what is this like? I definitely would have done that, like, I would have been out there for sure. So are

Chad [45:26 - 45:30]
the athletes, where are the athletes allowed to wear watches to get their

Josh [45:32 - 45:36]
Okay, okay, so yeah, so

Chad [45:36 - 45:42]
where were you in that event? So were you, did you have to travel all around to keep up or did you just kind of get yourself in front of the tv and just

Josh [45:42 - 45:45]
yeah, I just got myself in front of the tv and just got

Chad [45:47 - 45:49]
nice Alright,

Josh [45:49 - 46:04]
cool. Yeah, it was really, that was a really cool event like to see kind of how it all played together was was really cool. Um and then with the way like they all finished kind of at the capitol was a really unique experience and

Chad [46:04 - 46:05]
yeah,

Josh [46:05 - 46:28]
I was really, again really surprised with how Emma managed the USfl bag. Like she passed a number of people on that carry up the stairs where like people were dropping it all the time. Like I think she said she only did two sets, so she did, you know, once they're halfway up and then unbroken the rest of the way. So super impressive with that. Um How

Chad [46:28 - 46:37]
did she do with the pigs? Because I know that she said in one of the videos, I saw that it was her first time. Obviously you guys don't have a pig, but how is that, how do you train for that? Like, you know it's coming.

Josh [46:37 - 47:25]
Yeah, so we knew a good feeling that would probably show up. We did a lot of like tire flip work again, not the same, similar when we got down to Madison, we found a gym that had a flip sled. Um Which again is not the same, but very, very close. So gonna look into trying to get one of those up here so again we can practice with that. Um So yeah, the penguin went pretty good. Um definitely with more exposure to do that or to the flip sled. Um could definitely take some time off on on those 20 reps and may have seen her kind of break into the top 10 on that on that workout or higher. So it went good. She said that she had to peg flip went well

Chad [47:25 - 47:28]
I have to ask this question cause Ian kept asking and he still asks

Josh [47:28 - 47:29]
385, he

Chad [47:29 - 47:40]
wants to know like how do you, because you're obviously dead lifting it to the extent and then you're pushing it like. So what's the, what it's like on this awkward angle? So are you actually lifting technically the full amount of weight?

Josh [47:40 - 47:57]
I don't know, just like to go flip anything right? Like flipped like a long piece of plywood right like and then lift up that whole piece of plywood, like it's gonna be, you're not lifting the whole weight. So um saying that it's still super heavy. So um

Chad [47:57 - 47:58]
and there's technique.

Josh [47:58 - 48:49]
Yeah, so yeah, it was definitely a lot of technique and some of the stronger girls who have a bit more mass and power behind them, like you see they can kind of bypass the knee portion, whereas some of the younger, the younger, but the smaller athletes who maybe don't have quite as much strength need to utilize kind of like a rebound off the legs and then catch it almost into a jerk position and then press it up and kind of move it forward there, right? So what you don't want to do is get into a position where you're just using your arms to try elliptic biceps get totally smoked and if you look back at the first year they introduced, that's what caused fraser. So yeah, she said it went well. Again more exposure to that and again we'll tidy up that this year for sure. She said there was one rep where she kind of missed her hand came and hit her in the throat and like you know when you hit your adam's

Chad [48:49 - 48:51]
apple like

Josh [48:51 - 48:56]
talk like so other than that she was, she said it wasn't josh.

Michelle [48:56 - 49:14]
I have to ask for endurance crew. I have to ask the run. So did you guys talk about the pace? Did she track pace? Did you guys talk hydration or any sort of fueling or was it just have that or any any coaches?

Josh [49:15 - 50:35]
Yeah, we did talk some pay stuff before. Um So I'm a knows what her mild like mild pr is. Um It's obviously different because like you're you're going out after a very intensive post to your chain thing with the flips. Um And then you have to go around 3.5 miles and then you have a bunch of work at the end. So in terms of her pacing, like I was like, hey like you're not gonna run anywhere near your mild pR pay so don't even sweat about that. Um Just find something that allows you to stay as relaxed as possible. Um But also, you know, close distance on the people ahead of you because like when you are a good runner, this will be an opportunity for you to kind of close the gap on a few athletes which she was able to do um and it was, it was interesting like you can, you can tell when people are comfortable running a lot based on the kind of their facial expression and how they hold their upper body while they're running. And during that kind of first lap where I was able to see her run, you know, I got to see a bunch of other athletes passed by and you could see people who were just already struggling with the run and then she came by super relaxed, like nasal breathing, nothing like too crazy. It's like okay you can probably go a little harder if you want. Um But no, like she did a very good job with the running in terms of hydration. Go ahead.

Michelle [50:36 - 50:45]
I I just have to bring up the nasal breathing because I know that's a big thing in our crew. She nasal did she do that the whole time?

Josh [50:45 - 51:32]
No, no, no, I don't think she did it the whole time. I haven't asked her. I would yeah, she did, we do like I do like to try to incorporate that in some of the recovery pieces. Um and so then it's something that allows her and like Jack to default back on when they need to kind of recover but still do work and then once you get that heart rate kind of back down you can try to ramp things back up and appropriate manner. Um In terms of hydration, I don't think there was any liquids out there on the, on the course. Um Which may have been nice for them. Um Yeah, I haven't really followed up on that one yet, so that's a good point. I asked her how she was kind of feeling

Chad [51:32 - 51:33]
based on that would

Michelle [51:33 - 51:37]
have been nice for a little aid station I think there along the way for them.

Josh [51:37 - 51:41]
Yeah, maybe there was one. I just like they never briefed it to us.

Chad [51:41 - 51:42]
I don't think so.

Michelle [51:42 - 51:43]
Yeah. They never showed. It

Chad [51:43 - 51:53]
doesn't seem very crossfit. It would be nice to see you. But yeah. Yeah.

Josh [51:53 - 51:58]
Wild open course. Like anyone could have been there like random people riding bikes like it was

Chad [51:59 - 52:25]
An epic event. 100% 1 of the best ones. So like you were kind of hinting uh before, but like you go throughout the day and then at night, do you kind of deep breath and like, did you guys talk about that day like, was there anything that stuck out for you that day? Like obviously the capital was a big event everyone's talking about up and over was kind of like, did the capital wreck her? Like it looked like it wrecked a lot of athletes? Like a lot of them. It looked like a massacre up there.

Josh [52:25 - 52:48]
Yeah, I think for the most part like she was feeling pretty good at the end of it? Um yeah, like I just did a 40 minute workout um but didn't feel wrecked. Um I don't think she was rolling around the ground. Like some people were I was super impressed with uh that Rebecca girl like didn't give up that like

Chad [52:48 - 52:49]
got crushed

Josh [52:49 - 53:01]
by that workout, like let's be honest, finishes it and then literally like an hour and a half later has to go out and do another workout and like does super well in it. So like props to her, that was that was good. That was

Michelle [53:01 - 53:02]
cool, cool.

Josh [53:02 - 53:27]
But to answer your question like we we re brief, we debriefed a little bit after that day. Um You know, she had pretty good finishes in those events, so there wasn't a lot of things that were like, hey like we need to work on this or we need to focus on that. Um It was more so again just kind of keeping things level, not getting too high and and managing expectations as we headed into two saturday.

Chad [53:27 - 54:03]
Yeah. How do you manage the day? Right? So like in the morning, the capital big event um and then you had the up and over which was like uh muscle ups and some lunges and which she did, she took third sort of an amazing event and then the night that night was the echo press, which was the bike and the uh deficit wall handstand things, how do you manage the, how do you manage the time between the workouts? Like is it really like we see it like cold tub, hydration back at it, Like do you have to manage it or you just guys just flow through the day? Kind of like you would do a normal training session?

Josh [54:03 - 55:31]
Yeah, so I try to manage it as much as I can, so that way she doesn't have to focus on anything other than just competing. So yeah, we cold tub usually right after the event. So it's nice if they're on the field, like when they come off the field, there's a warm up area there, they have the cold plunges and the cold tubs all set up, There's probably like 20 of them, so like no one has to wait. Um so yeah, we'll hop in there for a few minutes and then get some fuel into the body. We kind of recharge if there's time before we have to move, we'll do a cool down and some stretching and then um again they ran a pretty tight ship in terms of having us where we needed to be. Um So a lot of times we would finish a workout, have time to kind of do our cold tub and then they take us back to the athlete area like the main athlete. So we'd go back there and either go to a briefing or hang out and then again when we're hanging out, like we're eating, she's on her phone, do whatever teenagers do on the phone. Um Yeah, I'm more so just kind of again, what's the next workout? What's the warmup protocol that we need to run through? What are some things that we want to talk about in terms of how to execute that workout? Um And then yeah, just making sure that she's fueling and staying hydrated and uh yeah, other than that, like it's it's it's pretty low key in the back at that point the

Chad [55:31 - 55:58]
fans would, the fans of the podcast would hate me if I didn't ask this question, but day to day one, Day 2 to 83 obviously Tia wasn't in the leader's jersey, I think day three she took it over, but uh it was Haley mal, Emma, kind of all three of them. I know Emma wouldn't answer this question, but was t a sort of like uh I? M. Up or like was she fierce or any sort of like rubbing shoulders or bumping shoulders or you know, bring it on little kid,

Michelle [55:58 - 55:59]
you know,

Josh [55:59 - 56:01]
I mean

Chad [56:01 - 56:02]
come on, give us the juice.

Josh [56:02 - 57:22]
Okay, so the bike thing happened on day one, which was funny um And then obviously n t will be the first minute, like day one didn't go great for her. Um She obviously wasn't where she usually is and maybe didn't execute on workouts and she thought she would have um but I never ever got a sense that like there was any resentment or anger towards any of the other athletes. Like she's at a point in, in crossfit funny like that like especially individual crossfit like yes, it's a universe all the other athletes there, but like it's also, it's mainly university, you like you need to go out and do what you can do and just hope that your training and preparation up to that point is enough that it's better than the person next to you. It's not like you can sabotage someone. I mean, I guess you can try but it's not like a team sport where there's, you know, hey, like this team is really, really good at um you know, running the ball so let's force them to throw it right. There's not things that you can do like that. So yeah, I I never got the feeling that she was ever had any animosity or anger towards Emma um you know, her and Shane actually invited us to go down there and train with them. So it's yeah, so there's been, again, I would say there

Chad [57:22 - 57:24]
was any any

Josh [57:24 - 57:30]
issues there so you can put that you can put your friends minds to ease that she was fine.

Chad [57:30 - 57:32]
Sorry.

Josh [57:34 - 57:36]
Yeah,

Chad [57:36 - 58:12]
just trying to, you know, get some more traffic. Um I guess, I guess again, I don't think Emma being a competitor would say this and I think I know the answer to that you're gonna say, but are you aware of the other athletes? Like are you like okay going to this event? Like make sure my eyes around laura because she's explosive, she's gonna, she's gonna crush this when you're like, are you ever considering? I know you just said it's you versus you, but like Tiger Woods in golf, he knew, he knew who was, who was up against, right. Like some of the greats like that is, would you say Emma has that or a year like that at all or no?

Josh [58:12 - 59:07]
Yeah, no, I think there's definitely a time and place to use other athletes as like a measuring stick. Um, while in events going on or within the leaderboard. Um, but again, like you can't let that be like the only thing that's driving your performance for that, right? Like it's more so hey, like, you know, if you're able to maintain, if you're able to finish the pig flips within 10 seconds of Laura Horvath like or whoever is like, hey, you're, you've done very, very well and now you can rely on your running or you can maybe even dial back here, run a little bit to allow yourself to recover and by the time you get to the next stage of the work out like you're gonna be in a much better position because of it. Right? So it's things like that we use that as more of a tool rather than like a comparison, you know? Yeah, I

Chad [59:07 - 59:25]
think like Justin is one that does it. I think he plays against other players. Like he's a pretty fit guy, generally fit and everything, but I think the difference with him, he's, he just wants to beat the guys that he knows he has to beat and I think he uses that as motivation out of any, out of a lot of the athletes. He's very much like that.

Josh [59:26 - 59:27]
Yeah,

Chad [59:27 - 59:28]
for

Josh [59:28 - 59:59]
sure. And like, again as the weekend kind of rolls on and the leaderboard becomes more apparent of like who is most likely to be fighting for what that does come into play. Like it's like, hey, like, you know what, it doesn't matter where you finish as long as you finish ahead of this person. Great. So, um, but again, to a certain extent you can use that as motivation and as a measuring tool, but I think a lot of it goes back to what I said before. It's like, you just gotta, it's university at the end of the day.

Chad [60:00 - 60:01]
Um,

Josh [60:01 - 60:02]
there's

Chad [60:02 - 60:47]
two days left, but I want to mix in a few questions that I had it for the end because, you know, we'll just talk forever. Was there anything in regards to, like obviously Emma is new to the sport, but she's becoming quite popular. She's getting the brand deals, she's getting some of the content exposure, She's kind of being seen, She's becoming quote unquote a sort of celebrity the space um as a coach. Are you part of managing that? Like the obligations to be in some sort of brand sponsorship partnership? Is there, is there any of that? Is there are those distractions or the kind of, it's very much just lay of the land if there's a camera in your face, you talk about it, but you need to be where you need to be. Like, is there anything that you think about when trying to keep her focused on the events

Josh [60:47 - 61:47]
um during the games? Like there is very little obligation to do anything for any of our sponsors um which was nice and that's kind of the expectation that's put forth by her and her manager's story um when they do these deals. So um yeah, when it comes to like game day, like for the most part, they're kind of often doing their own things, they're creating content and if she feels like posting that she can post it. Um but there was no expectation for her ever to make an appearance here, go speak here or do anything like that. Like she's there to do a job, um all of our sponsors and stuff support that. So, so yeah, from that perspective, it's, it's easy, like it's one less thing that we have to worry about while we're there. Um And again, it's one less thing that I would want her to have to worry about when we're there? There's enough focus on with repeating, like, let's eliminate anything we can that isn't necessary for your performance.

Chad [61:47 - 62:19]
Okay, so jumping this saturday, there's the swim workout and the workout hat trick was a cool event and then the sandbag ladder, I want to jump to the sandbag ladder event, saturday is always kind of a cool thing. That's also probably that is her first, her worst finish of the weekend. That's also sort of the event that sort of led to uh don't say an unsuccessful last day, but the last day, obviously she took some of her worst finishes and going back to what you said before, did she flare up her injury on the sandbag letter?

Josh [62:19 - 62:26]
No, she didn't. So I heard Ian say that she grabbed her back and I went back and watched it and was like, did she grab her

Michelle [62:26 - 62:27]
back?

Josh [62:27 - 62:47]
And I think she was just grabbing her belt and readjusting her belt? I haven't, like, talked to her specifically about that, but after I asked her like, how's your back feeling? Did that bother you back? And she's like, no. So whether she was lying to me, I don't know, but I'll trust her on that one. So, um yeah,

Chad [62:48 - 63:13]
cool. So when you guys looked at the weekend of the events that you knew and then the events as you learned about them? Was there any um, was there any events that you were sort of concerned with or like, you know, you're like, okay, this is damage control event, right? Some athletes are specialists, they have their best and their worst, some athletes are just super sort of super, just right in the middle there, even keel. Emma seems like an athlete like that. But were you guys looking or going into any event and looking at a damage control

Josh [63:13 - 63:15]
event? Was

Chad [63:15 - 63:16]
the sandbag that

Josh [63:17 - 64:58]
so the sandbag was kind of like a question mark, Like I wasn't sure what, like you always know there's gonna be a strength kind of one rep max, whether it's a complex or something. I feel like if it was a bar bell clean, it would have completely changed leaderboard of how that work out went. Um so that people, like obviously Spiegel would have finished probably still near the top, but the other girl that was right there, Jacqueline Dahlstrom, like she openly said in the back like I've never cleaned to 40 like let alone front to 40 and I'm doing it with, right, So it definitely would have changed and I think where people would have finished in that workout, um it was an interesting event, like I thought it was really cool for the fans to watch and, and kind of see how things were going in the back at the beginning, when people were warming up, like they had a 1 50 a 1 60 then a 1 70 It's like maybe five people got the 1 60? And then it's like, oh God, like this is gonna be over quick, right? It's all the coaches, like we're sitting up in the stands, like watching and everyone hits the 1 60. Okay, 1 70. 1 80. It's like, wow. Like this is not what we expected. Um So again, cool event. I don't want to say that it was risky to the athletes, but at the same time, I think asking them to go as heavy as they possibly can on a movement that the vast majority of them have not had exposure to for long enough. Um And knowing that these are ultra competitive people and they're gonna put their bodies at risk to do whatever they can do. It was just a little bit concerning that like, we're going to see someone get messed up here by a

Chad [64:58 - 64:59]
stand for sure.

Josh [64:59 - 65:02]
And there was a there was a few that were super close to like

Chad [65:02 - 65:03]
backbreaker, so

Josh [65:03 - 65:11]
I'm glad no one got hurt. Yeah, I'm glad no one got hurt or too terribly hurt that they had to withdraw. So yeah,

Chad [65:11 - 65:18]
I was just thinking like Cross is gonna get ripped apart from the internet for this. Like some of those lists were like Yeah,

Josh [65:18 - 65:22]
yeah, so yeah, it was it was an interesting event.

Chad [65:24 - 65:25]
Got

Josh [65:25 - 65:27]
to get some more heavy sandbags I guess.

Chad [65:28 - 65:48]
Yeah, add that to the shopping list. So with the how is Emma feeling before? The same big letter like was she still feeling pretty good? Was there any soreness? Like it looked like a lot of just like midline, like lower back was just like everybody seemed

Josh [65:49 - 65:49]
so

Chad [65:49 - 66:03]
when she sore at that point like day four, like what do you think as a coach, like we have one day left, we've made it through the probably the most volume that she'll have up to this point. Like were you thinking, you know, things were pretty good. She's feeling pretty good.

Josh [66:03 - 66:13]
Yeah, I think she was feeling pretty good like the swim in the morning was a nice way to kind of start the day. Um And then I forget what the middle event was because they all kind of just like

Chad [66:13 - 66:19]
the hat trick one, which was like a wall ball and then the double, which was the £70 TVs looked super like

Josh [66:19 - 67:41]
Yeah, that was a cool workout, That's a workout where like those seconds mattered, right? So um I mentioned before, so I think she finished nine, so the two girls that finished ahead over um either by a second, right? And so um I got a couple of in the wall balls and one on the overhead snatch and over the course of three rounds, like there's got to be somewhere where you can make up a second, right? That means running a little bit faster than the wall ball. And so those are little things that we'll have when we have our debrief because we haven't had our debrief yet. Um Is that like those are the little things that make the huge, like make a huge difference because now at the end of the weekend, instead of finishing sixth, like you're fit right? And if there's little things and other workouts, hey now you're in fourth. So again, it's just learning lessons and little things that that will continue to pick up on and just kind of to try to close those holes as we go, but to answer your questions, so yes, I think people's mid lines were definitely starting to feel it. Um Yeah, is your midline goes like your lower back is gonna compensate for that. Um So I think people are probably starting to feel it and then sunday if you weren't feeling it, you were definitely feeling it.

Chad [67:41 - 68:21]
That's why I was most impressed with the sandbag letter, like after all the events that they did. Um, and then doing that and like, yeah, it was impressive. Um Cool, okay. And then the final day, the Alpaca, the back nine and the Jackie Pro, uh I think going to the day, she was still like top five, I think she was like battling with Daniel Brandon three and four, Like, is there a pep talk that you give her like you wake up and say, okay, final day, let's go get them tiger? Like what's the, what are you thinking to kind of push her to the end and trying to stay on stay on the podium or get higher or I think Tia ran away with it at that point, but she could still, she, I think she still had contention with mel,

Josh [68:22 - 69:16]
yep. So yeah, there was a bit of a gap generated between Tia and molly and then molly and Emma. So I was actually third going into the day, so there was a small leaderboard change in the middle of the night for whatever reason. Uh That's one thing that you don't get insight into why things are changing, like they don't tell you it is the way it is. Um So it would be nice to kind of know why or what changed. Um But yeah, going into kind of the last day, it's like, hey, like you control your destiny now, right? Like it's, you know, only you can only, you're gonna be able to turn on what's gonna happen. Um And we didn't, we only knew one workout at that point in time, right? So we knew it was the alpaca one with the sled, push the kettlebells and then the rope climbs um and we don't even talk about that because changing that workout changing that working. So because

Michelle [69:16 - 69:17]
I was so,

Josh [69:17 - 69:25]
so again, here's here's the thing, it's like, it's not in our control, everyone is experiencing the same

Chad [69:25 - 69:25]
coaches and

Josh [69:28 - 69:31]
that's what I'm telling Emma right? But in my

Michelle [69:31 - 69:32]
hand, right? I'm

Josh [69:32 - 69:36]
like man like this completely changes the workout like it's no

Michelle [69:36 - 69:37]
longer now,

Josh [69:37 - 70:19]
it's no longer a workout where yes, like the kettlebells are gonna still be the majority of it, but think about like the impact that's gonna have with that legless seated rope climb with the negative control down. And like it was really really good at road climbs and legless rope climbs and we are practicing those before they changed the event. Like she was flying off the rope no problems so she was super excited. I think this would be a good workout. Didn't change the podium. Probably not. Laura Horvath is amazing at road climbs to, she's still probably would have finished third overall. Do I think it would have been maybe changed M. S. Position, maybe one

Michelle [70:19 - 70:20]
spot,

Josh [70:20 - 70:22]
right? Um She

Chad [70:22 - 70:23]
Took 24th in that event.

Josh [70:24 - 70:28]
Yeah, so I think with the rope climbs in there we're probably looking at definitely

Chad [70:29 - 70:33]
15 is

Josh [70:33 - 70:34]
a lot of points.

Chad [70:34 - 70:38]
But was she rattled or she was

Josh [70:38 - 70:44]
I think she was more upset that it was raining because she just doesn't like the rain. Um Yeah, she wasn't

Chad [70:44 - 70:45]
like she

Josh [70:45 - 71:03]
wasn't like super rattled like she was like upset but at the same time she's like, you know what, I don't have any control over that so I'm just gonna control what I can do and that's just my effort and again she gave everything she had and that was a heavy sled. Um and the and we need to do some more cattle bell work,

Chad [71:03 - 71:05]
I think they'll bring that workout back next year. I think

Josh [71:07 - 71:17]
the one that's the one thing I wrote down after that weekend is that like this workout will show up again and uh yeah, it'll be in its entirety, so

Chad [71:17 - 72:15]
you're heading in the final days, she has appointed spot, but she's got three workouts, it doesn't know the workouts. Um Is she like, I guess, would you say the last day? I don't want to call it unsuccessful, but like because I think her overall weekend was a huge success, but obviously when you're sitting in a podium position and you have three workouts have to do, I know that's asking a lot, but she had some whatever worst finishes in the final day, would you say it was the volume of the entirety of the weekend that caused her that, or was it the specific workouts that just weren't in her wheelhouse? Because I'm also asking the order of events, order of events, right, was the big topic of cross for this year? And some say, well Tia would have always been in first place if the order would have switched or Emma would have never had the big first day of order was different, like what would you say about the final day in the context of Emma. And

Josh [72:15 - 73:45]
so yeah, I'll preface this by saying like Emma's mindset mindset definitely shifted um going into that day, so prior to that, like she knew she wasn't fair in the podium spot, um but she wasn't like, like I just want a podium, right? Like that wasn't like on her mind friday morning, it's like, like I want to, I want a podium and that's is a coach, like that's a nice thing to hear, it's like, hey, like yeah, you want it, and that's good. Um and then and then ultimately like, yeah, those workouts, the first two workouts weren't great for eliminating the rope climb, definitely eliminated the thing that should be very good at that workout, and then the second workout was just super like that Yeah, and that, that yolk especially was super heavy um and with kind of the back issue that we had leading up into semi finals and not touching the barbell for so long, like that we definitely took a hit on her overall strength, I don't want to say that that's what caused her to struggle in that workout, like she just needs to get stronger and that's that's something that we're aware of, um you know, the clean, it was fine, like the 2 15 clean and the front squat was fine, the dead lifts were heavy um the most that we've ever pulled in training has been think 3 25 so like she was pulling pretty much a one rep max three right? Um and so again, like

Chad [73:46 - 73:46]
to get

Josh [73:46 - 73:48]
through that workout and

Chad [73:49 - 73:50]
feel

Josh [73:50 - 74:20]
good and not be totally destroyed was kind of success in my book. Um You know, I know she was probably a little bit disappointed to see her kind of fall out of that podium spot at that point. Um But then she's like, you know what, like, I really just want to try to get rookie of the year, and you got like, you got one workout to do, it's like, go out and then just give everything you got, because there's there's nothing after this, like, they're not going to throw you a surprise one, so go out and just get it done and then whatever happens happens, and and like, ultimately, like,

Chad [74:20 - 74:21]
I remember

Josh [74:21 - 74:35]
saying this to her, I was like, like, you know, when we started when you were 13 years old, like, would you ever thought on the last day as a 17 year old you'd be at the crossfit games in the final heat, competing with the people you're competing

Chad [74:35 - 74:37]
with? And

Josh [74:37 - 74:39]
I think that kind of help, like, put her mind

Chad [74:39 - 74:40]
perspective

Josh [74:40 - 74:52]
man, It's like, Yeah, like, who would have thought, Yeah, and so and then she went out and that last workout was was a very unique workout with the rope pace that you had to run. And then did

Chad [74:52 - 74:55]
she have to sell it for that? Was that a pretty hot pace for her?

Josh [74:55 - 75:00]
It was a hot pace. I don't say it was all out, like, it was it was fast. Um

Chad [75:02 - 75:11]
I heard chris O'connell had the pr her row finish that that's impressive, man. That's insane. And I and I got to watch the road because I guess she was flying and

Josh [75:12 - 75:18]
it's funny the covid year, the stage one, they had 1000 m, just a single

Chad [75:18 - 75:19]
event, right?

Josh [75:19 - 76:06]
And so I think her time was like 343 and that was the fastest she's ever done it. So then to have to do it at least three seconds faster and then go and do a bunch of work afterwards is wild, right? So again, definitely like really cool to see that approach taken into a workout because I think if you if you take that away again, I think it changes how people finishing that workout right? Like you're gonna see people who are maybe a little bit, are able to pace the road fast but still be like as rested or fresh as possible, going to thrusters. Um you're going to see those people kind of be a little bit more I think do a little bit well a little bit better in that workout? Um But yeah, it was very very, you

Chad [76:06 - 76:19]
didn't answer this question, but would you say the volume that she experienced had any play in her last day, would you say the volume had any place like do you think that she is like able to handle that amount of volume.

Josh [76:21 - 76:32]
No. Yeah, so I'll answer the two questions. So I don't think the volume was the issue. I just think the

Chad [76:32 - 76:32]
events,

Josh [76:32 - 79:07]
the load like again it was just like all strength, the overall strength that she needs to um be on the top of the podium. Like that's that's where we need to kind of fix in those holes and it was made evident in those two workouts. So the sled workout and the other work out, the volume of work I don't think was an impact. Yeah, everyone you're gonna be tired and fatigued after doing that much work but I don't think that was the issue and I wouldn't say that like I think someone made a comment about like her cns being fatigued. I don't know if it was eating or I read it somewhere, Someone made a comment about her cns being fatigued and it's like, well like I think everyone's cns is probably gonna be a little bit fatigued and it wasn't like they had a ton of loading um on their bodies up to that point up until sunday. Um You could say the sandbags like we're heavy loading but maybe if you got into the later bag or if you have a bag on your chest for 45 seconds and inch warmed it up. Like Emma didn't have that. So I wouldn't say here CNS was fatigued or an issue more than just kind of the general, you've experienced over the course of the competition. So yeah, I don't think that was those were the issues again, it's just one of those things we need to work on is getting stronger um and then the order of the event. So yeah, obviously things played out very well on the first day um and I got the opportunity to get the leader's jersey and the third workout, you know, had the run overhead work opened in on thursday with that still have happened. I'm not sure like you can go and look and we can compare the numbers and see if that would have happened. Um But that's sport right and things happen that way. Um And you can also say to like if the workouts just showed up in a different order throughout the like the same workouts, but you just mix them around, you know? Yeah, maybe she wouldn't have been in third the entire time. Like maybe you would have seen her make more of a climb up the leaderboard rather than, you know, quick spike a stay in a slight drop, right? I think you still would see her finishing where she finished. Um I don't know if you can say that necessarily for every athlete because I think the mental aspect of things like if you are not doing as well as you think you should be doing, it's very easy just to kind of shut it down and coast, like I'm not gonna push as hard as it is the person next to me because, like, I'm not gonna get into that last heat or I'm not gonna um,

Michelle [79:08 - 79:08]
you

Josh [79:08 - 79:11]
know, I'm not going to get to the podium. I

Chad [79:11 - 79:28]
think that's what Emma superpower is is her mental game. I think she, I mean, some, some athletes haven't, some athletes don't right and they just train, train, train and they become great, but I think that's something that people don't see. So, I mean, it's amazing.

Michelle [79:29 - 79:30]
So

Josh [79:30 - 79:52]
she does have a both a little bit. Yeah, no, she does have a mental coach that she's been working with uh, and speaking with. Um, I don't know if that has been tailored towards her on field performance. I think it's been more so handling different stress and pressures outside of competition. Um,

Michelle [79:52 - 79:53]
you

Josh [79:53 - 80:15]
know, everyone, everyone looks at these athletes and thinks that, hey, like there, you know, they're only having good days in the gym and prs all the time and stuff like that and that's so far from the truth. Like, it's hard work and like, they make a lot of sacrifices and there's, you know, there's times where, you know, Emma's in the middle of a workout and like

Chad [80:16 - 80:16]
breaks

Josh [80:16 - 81:22]
down, like, and, and you know, is emotional about it and, and part of that is, again learning and growing as an athlete and understanding that you're not always gonna have, you know, the best days every day. Um, but it's hard, it's not just, and it's not just the young athletes that this happens to, I remember seeing a post from Amanda Barnhart was a season games athlete top 10 multiple years in a row and like leading up to the game, she made a post about like how she just, you know, horrible day today, like my skin is breaking out and I felt like crying and stuff like that, nothing was going right in the gym. So it happens to all of them for any athlete that says it's not happening to them, Like I have a hard time believing it or maybe they're just extremely fortunate. Um Yeah, I think a lot of like the work that her mental coach has done with her has kind of helped her with that. Um And then yeah, it's funny, I like to sometimes call myself like her mental coach, crossfit coach, her tutor, help her with her homework when she has issues there,

Chad [81:22 - 81:37]
That's amazing whole thing. What was your so overall, what was your thoughts of of of the test put together? Like did you enjoy it? Did you think it's going to be, it was well suited for someone like Emma was a good overall test?

Josh [81:37 - 82:47]
Yeah, again, I don't want to say it was well suited for someone like Emma, like I would like to hope that regardless of the test that's brought forth, that Emma is gonna have the um capacity to complete it and excel at it. Um I think it was refreshing to have a different hand in the programming. Um Obviously there were some things that were maybe like a little gimmicky um or a little risky per se um but it was definitely refreshing, like there was definitely a change and and in what we need to look at in terms of how we develop athletes and what we programmed for them over the course of the season. Um No, I was talking with with Brent at the end in the back and he was saying like when Dave was there, like you kind of get to the point where you, you know, this is kind of the ball of expectation and like, you might get one thing that's kind of outside of it that's new and he's like, now it's like this, right? So there's just so many more things that you need to

Chad [82:48 - 82:48]
kind

Josh [82:48 - 82:56]
of trying to keep in mind as you build your plan for training over the year. Um And what those things are, I'm not gonna share it because it's a

Chad [82:56 - 82:58]
secret. Well is it

Josh [82:58 - 83:00]
that, don't

Chad [83:00 - 83:10]
you find it, do you find it strange that one person holds that power? Like, would you like to see like a group of people having that power or do you like the fact that it's like one guy and you have to get in the mind of that one person.

Josh [83:10 - 83:23]
So I think it'd be really cool if there was like a group of five people and every season it was just like randomly picked and

Chad [83:23 - 83:24]
that

Josh [83:24 - 83:39]
person is in charge of kind of overseeing the overall programming with like help and insight from that round table. I guess you could call it. Um I think that would keep any programming biases away.

Chad [83:40 - 83:42]
Like

Josh [83:42 - 84:02]
for example, like if we look at this past games, like the barbell showed up In Elizabeth, so some light cleans and then we had the shoulder to overhead and then the thruster, I guess the back nine of the thruster. So again, it showed up one in five of the 13 workouts. Um but

Chad [84:02 - 84:02]
it wasn't

Josh [84:05 - 85:11]
gymnastics and I would say like, yeah, I wouldn't even say strong man, like there was some strongman components, but I would say like gymnastics was a bigger piece. I feel like this year than in previous years. Um And it doesn't mean that like that will be the same next year if is doing all the programming, like he may he may go a completely different direction, right? But it was just, I think like going back to my original point, like, if it was a different person in charge each year, you might, you might just be able to keep things like, it's fresh in a sense, like just get a different hand, different eyes, different view, different lens of what fitness truly is. And I think that in itself would really lead you to like, like this person really is the fittest person in the world, especially if they win year after year after year, it's not just based on the bias of the program and so I don't want to say like Tia's winning six years in a row is because of Castro because it's not, but I just think it's like very, I totally

Chad [85:11 - 85:55]
know what you mean. I remember people saying like casual programs for fraser and phoning, but like, yeah, I like your idea. It's cool. That's cool. Um So yeah, this has been a great podcast. I I have one more, I guess. Congratulations to you too. Like I know we've talked a lot about Emma, but like, I think obviously it's, I would believe, yes, individual sport, but I think all the athletes would say it's it's a team thing, like it's pretty amazing that you had an athlete in the top heat all weekend and not only in the top heat all weekend, but just like leader jersey racing for the podium. I think it's I mean it's an amazing story is super, super exciting. So, I mean, congratulations to you too.

Josh [85:55 - 85:56]
Like, I

Chad [85:56 - 86:04]
don't know, do you ever like, think like of like your success in this to like obviously Emma's success is your success. Do you look at it that

Josh [86:04 - 87:47]
way? Yeah, like when I have time to reflect um life was pretty busy when I got back. I don't really have time just kind of de load and debrief on what happened. Um Yeah, I try not to get like too caught up in like, oh like your athlete of this, your athlete did that. Like my athletes will speak volumes of what I've provided them based on their results. Um and I've never been kind of the person looking to get their recognition or notoriety like, like this is why I was doing so I was like, well I'm a piece of that puzzle, right? Like I'm a piece of that and and without all the other pieces like Emma wouldn't be where she's at either, right? So at the end of the day like it it's the athletes who are putting in the work, right, They're the ones who are doing. I'm not saying I don't sacrifice time, stuff like that like I do, but they're putting a ton of time and a ton of sacrifice to achieve a goal that very, very few people will ever say they've been able to dedicate themselves to try to achieve. Um And so I think for me, like that's kind of the enjoyment that I get out of it is that like I I can be part of this thing, whatever you wanna call it, like this journey. Um and like I know the people that the people that matter and the people that care like they're aware of the effort that goes into it on my part and for me like that's not after

Chad [87:48 - 88:03]
such a humble person, such a I mean I have to ask like you, you are you program crossfit you coach to very elite athletes. Emma and Jack, do you have any plans for man with training methods or

Josh [88:03 - 88:04]
like is

Chad [88:04 - 88:06]
there anything you can share with us or? Well,

Josh [88:06 - 88:11]
yeah, I can share. Like I can share like what my hopes are, you

Chad [88:11 - 88:13]
know, big training camp in kitchen where they were what?

Josh [88:14 - 90:21]
Yeah. So there is some talk about that. Like I've talked with nick um about possibly doing like a quarter finals camp thing for people in the area who are interested in doing it. So we'll see if that comes to fruition um next year in terms of growing like the mammoth brand. Like it's, it's something that I'm constantly thinking about and trying to figure out like what's my best approach to doing this and you know, I talked with my wife and stuff like that. I don't think a lot of people know like I have a full time job, like this is not my full time job, like I do this because it's something that I enjoy doing. So this is not putting food on the table or paying paying the bills. Like it's not. Um so it's not like I can just like quit my full time job and jump over to this. So I need to find a creative way of continuing to be able to provide what Emma and Jack need to continue their upward trajectory. Um and and find unique ways of growing it. Um you know, I'm not gonna say who, but I've had a number of athletes after the games, number of games athletes after the games reach out. Um and again, I'm in the mindset that like I will not coach another competing athlete of one of my athletes. Um however, something like the, you know, if you look at training think tank right, like they have a number of coaches under that umbrella, so if you have three or four coaches under that umbrella, you can bring on essentially four male athletes and four female athletes, one to each. That's more so kind of the way I'm leaning to see if I can grow it in that direction. It's just a matter of figuring out the logistics of that and and how that would work. It's something on my mind, but right now, I mean, focus is just, yeah, getting back to the games and on that podium and getting back to the game because I think they're pretty, pretty amazing duo and they can both cool, definitely cause some chaos for the next 5 to 10

Chad [90:21 - 90:26]
years in the future is bright for sure. I was gonna say on your, on your team. For sure.

Josh [90:26 - 90:26]
She's

Chad [90:26 - 90:29]
a good fit, get her, get her Ontario

Josh [90:29 - 90:32]
got a good coach, she's got a good coach, I've never met him, but

Chad [90:32 - 90:37]
she's so alone in p I you know, it's just like, you know, a very big training area,

Josh [90:37 - 90:39]
sounds like she's moving to moving to Miami.

Chad [90:40 - 90:41]
So

Josh [90:41 - 91:14]
some friends down there, but again, like I don't wanna mm okay, so there is always that misconception that like, and maybe it's not a misconception, but you know, the poaching of athletes, right? Like I never want to be in that position where I feel like, you know, someone's accusing me of trying to poach an athlete, like athletes will come to you if they feel like you provide value, right? Um so I'm never acted like not actively going to go out and try to say, hey, like you should come train here because of this. Yeah,

Chad [91:14 - 91:16]
it's a small community.

Josh [91:17 - 91:30]
Yeah, it is a small community and again, I mean, fellow Canadian coach, I wouldn't want to be in that position, like I wouldn't want to try to come in and steal them even though people, it's

Chad [91:30 - 91:34]
exciting part. I mean there's lots of gossip, always changing coaches and all that sort of stuff.

Josh [91:34 - 91:35]
So

Michelle [91:35 - 91:42]
josh. I have one more question. One more question um to circle around.

Josh [91:43 - 91:43]
I

Michelle [91:43 - 92:26]
know, I know, I know there's lots to talk about that. All the listeners, you know, every so many of us were pretty jacked up watching the crossfit games and I know it gets people hyped up and it gets people excited for the season ahead um Just for sort of your average joes like us, if you look at all of the different areas of fitness that we could focus on, if you could choose like 11 area for for an average joe to start with strength or the capacity sort of, what would you suggest that they sort of use as that foundational? I know that's a really

Josh [92:26 - 94:26]
good question. Um It is kind of yeah, but no, no, it's fair. So I guess if we look back at this year's games and we look back at Beau's saying like no to know where you're going, you have to know where you come from. I don't know if he said that one of the other guys said it sounds like something he would say crossfit has like that triangle, right, and the bottom of the triangle is your nutrition. And then I believe it's aerobic capacity and then gymnastics and then weightlifting and throwing and then sport at the top and based on the gymnastic stuff and the new gymnastic stuff we saw, I think, you know, focusing on that aerobic capacity and the gymnastics not just like the fancy gymnastics but like the body awareness stuff. The strict work, the basics. Yeah, like you're never going to see like, you're never going to see like crazy advanced gymnastics and crossfit, but it will definitely test the basics, like any any 10 year old gymnast is gonna dance circles around any, even the best crossfit athlete when it comes to gymnastic stuff. So yeah, focusing on those two things I think is for for newbies or beginners, it's gonna be super important. Um because again, I think developing that aerobic base can take can take time so to strength, but I feel especially for, like, a newer person, like, once you gain awareness of your body appropriate reception through gymnastic stuff that will lead over into weightlifting right? Knowing how to control your body in space, especially under load, and you'll be able to develop strength relatively quickly, especially if you're you're training, yours are a little bit lower. So I I would personally focus on the gymnastic stuff and the aerobic stuff and

Michelle [94:26 - 94:32]
yeah, thanks

Chad [94:32 - 94:32]
for that.

Michelle [94:33 - 94:35]
Well,

Chad [94:35 - 95:19]
I think that's a good point though. I think that's I think that's the message that I wanted to share this year. Like, I think whether if you're an O. G. In the crossfit space or you're like deep into crossfit and you love, like, the methodology and you're you're studying it, you know, the triangle and, like, but a lot of people just surface level, right? They don't know, they just see the power cleans and the and people lay on the floor. They missed the pyramid of the nutrition and aerobic base and like, the step, right? And it's very foundational. I like how bad's kind of continued his messaging around that theme. Like, these things are like, single winners. That's and the way that the handstand push ups this year. So it's really cool to remind people that's not always flashy, right? We watch these videos online of these people doing flashy skills, but it's really, it doesn't have to be like

Josh [95:19 - 95:20]
that. So

Chad [95:20 - 95:21]
I was gonna ask,

Michelle [95:22 - 95:23]
I

Chad [95:23 - 95:32]
don't like the highlight of the weekend for you highlight behind the scenes story highlight last question. Like any, like just like a highlight that you could take

Josh [95:32 - 96:04]
away. No. Yeah, there's lots of things to take away highlight. Um You know, obviously her her placing and getting rookie of the year was something that was super, super cool to see. Um but my highlight would have to be like when she walked out on the floor with the leader's jersey, like that was just a really cool thing to see. And not just because like she's the youngest to ever do it. Like yeah, that's kudos to her on that. Um

Chad [96:05 - 96:05]
it

Josh [96:05 - 96:20]
just really illustrated that like she belongs on the floor with those ladies and those women. And the coolest thing for me was that she now believes

Chad [96:21 - 96:21]
like

Josh [96:21 - 97:09]
her her confidence has been increasing ever since Dubai right when she went to Dubai, she's like, oh I can I can I think I can hang with these girls and then semifinals, she's like, oh yeah, like, you know, I can I can hang with these ones and we'll see what happens at the games and and now it's like, no, like I I I can do this right? And that's the scary thing because now she has the confidence And the hunger to do it and she's only 17 and like her her her ceiling is still so far away like Yeah, I mean let's just say like the next 5-6, 7, we'll say the next decade is going to be a really, really cool time to be a fan of the sport and just watch these other young

Chad [97:09 - 97:11]
change, They'll change the game, they're going to change the game

Josh [97:11 - 97:12]
really crazy.

Chad [97:12 - 97:16]
Yeah. Super, super cool. Great answer to That's amazing.

Josh [97:16 - 97:17]
Down

Chad [97:17 - 97:35]
there you go, awesome. We're gonna end it there. Thank you so much, josh. This has been an awesome podcast. I think people are gonna love it. We have to get you back on more often. I will make sure we do that. Yeah, thank you so much and congratulations again. Great job. Thanks everyone. See you next time.