Episode 3 — Should You Even Do Local Competitions?

All right, so before we start, we've got a quick list. I want you guys to tell me, is this a legit CrossFit competition test or is it a circus act? All right, so we've got Blair and Seth here. First of all, ring handstand pushups is the ring handstand pushup, a legitimate CrossFit competition movement or a circus Seth

Seth Page (00:25):

Circus Act. The standards are not good. They've not been well-defined.

Blair Morrison  (00:29):

Blair. [00:00:30] Yeah, I would say legitimate, but standards have not been established good enough yet.

Danny Lehr (00:38):

Burpee broad jumps. That's legit. Agree, Blair? Yep, definitely Legit. Softball toss.

Seth Page (00:52):

Yeah, I have to go with legit. Yeah.

Danny Lehr (00:55):

Really? All right. A hundred percent legit. A hundred percent [00:01:00] legit. There we go. Butterfly muscle

Seth Page (01:02):

Ups. I don't like the caveat of having to do butterfly. No, not legit.

Blair Morrison  (01:10):

Blair, you're saying butterfly required?

Seth Page (01:13):

Yeah,

Blair Morrison  (01:18):

Big circus.

Danny Lehr (01:19):

All right, there we go. Bear crawl.

Seth Page (01:23):

There's no standard, so no, I'm going to say no. Too sloppy. What

Danny Lehr (01:29):

Do you think Blair? Bear [00:01:30] crawl. I say legit. Legit. All right, baby crawl. Baby crawl. You got to go in all fours hands and knees.

Seth Page (01:37):

No, I don't like it. I don't like it. Circus. Or not even circus? I don't know. It's a waste of time. Yeah, that's circus.

Danny Lehr (01:45):

All right, what about ring pushups where your partner has the ring straps around their neck and they're standing on two boxes?

Blair Morrison  (01:55):

I've done that. I've

Seth Page (01:56):

Been there.

Danny Lehr (01:57):

I know you have, that's

Seth Page (01:58):

Why. [00:02:00] No, I'm going to draw my line on the other side of that. No. Nah. What do you think that

Blair Morrison  (02:07):

Was? For sure, sir.

Danny Lehr (02:10):

Yeah, it's funny, buddy. My business partner, he 'em too and he is like, no one got hurt doing 'em, but I'll tell you what, the optics were terrible. Alright, so before we go any further with me today, two guys who've spent way too many weekends surrounded by chalk dust and amateur athletes yelling [00:02:30] at volunteer judges. We have Seth Page head programmer for jump ship training member of CrossFit Athlete Council and their Internet's favorite programming hero did not like being called a villain last time. Yeah, I got upgraded. Wow, you got, that's right. And then we have Blair Morrison, CrossFit OG affiliate owner and the only three times CrossFit games athlete to play wide receiver at Princeton University. I actually did [00:03:00] not fact check that one, but I'm pretty sure it's a safe bet that he is the only three times game. Alright, I am Danny Leer from Caffeine kilos, gym owner, caffeine dealer, and defender of Poor post Competition life choices. After all, he got aired out. So Blair spent some time here at Ivy League, Princeton. He also did a little studying at Oxford for two very old universities. So let's test some history knowledge this segment is, which is older, the university [00:03:30] or this fitness thing. Alright, so the Greek gymnasiums, Blair, what's older Greek gymnasiums or Oxford University?

Blair Morrison  (03:46):

Greek gymnasiums.

Danny Lehr (03:47):

There we go. Good. Ancient Greek gymnasiums were major architectural complexes were men trained naked for physical health, military purposes and intellectual development. 600 bc whereas Oxford 1096 [00:04:00] 80, which is still hella old, older in the Aztec Empire. Whole different thing. So yeah, people were doing Murph naked out on the run, just swinging meat 700 years before Oxford was founded. Alright, one more. The invention of the barbell or Princeton University, which is older.

Blair Morrison  (04:21):

Oh, Princeton University.

Danny Lehr (04:23):

Oh, okay. Well that is true. All right. The modern barbell still plates, collars and narling didn't [00:04:30] appear until the 1860s. Princeton, 1746.

Blair Morrison  (04:36):

Wow. Right baby. There's no way they had barbells before the Civil War. Yeah,

Danny Lehr (04:41):

Yeah. Princeton students are already arguing philosophy a hundred years before anyone figured out to put plates on two ends of a stick. Right. That's where we're at. All right, and since we're talking CrossFit competition, not history today, let's do one, not history related. Both impact from both of you guys or input [00:05:00] from both of you. What's the better night before competition? Meal a full rack of ribs or chicken and rice?

Seth Page (05:09):

I would do chicken and rice because yeah, I would do chicken and rice.

Blair Morrison  (05:14):

Yeah, I mean it's got to have some carbs in it, so I'll go with the rice.

Danny Lehr (05:18):

I see you guys are both wrong. A full rack of ribs is the correct answer here. You just got to put enough barbecue sauce on it and then there's your carbs.

Seth Page (05:25):

That did cross my mind to be honest, but I was like, ah, no.

Danny Lehr (05:29):

Yeah, so that's what you do. [00:05:30] You ask an opinion question and tell people they're wrong. That's how you do podcasting.

Blair Morrison  (05:34):

I like it. You know what? To be fair, Danny, I guess if you wanted to have worse gas next to your competitors the next day, all that barbecue sauce would probably be a good bet.

Seth Page (05:45):

Side of beans with it too. Side of baked beans.

Danny Lehr (05:48):

Oh yeah, yeah. Everybody loves that. Especially if there's a lot of deadlifts, heavy deadlifts, something like that. All right, so first thing, let's talk competitions. So local competitions, [00:06:00] are they actually good for the average CrossFitter? Do they motivate members and build community or do they just wreck shoulders and make Monday's class empty? Let's just go one at a time here. So first off, Seth, from the programming side and also as a gym owner, do local competitions derail training cycles or actually help with buy-in and community?

Seth Page (06:23):

Well, I guess that depends on the competition, how much volume that competition requires and what you're asking of 'em. Because you can have a simple [00:06:30] in gym competition with some of your members, you could have two or three little workouts over the course of 90 minutes to two hours that people are working towards for a few months because you hype it up and you try to do a community building activity and that doesn't necessarily have to wreck people for the whole week to follow. That can definitely be a very worthwhile and thing for people to be chasing, right? If they want goals or they're lacking goals in the gym, you can just say, Hey, we're working towards doing the best you can for your teammates in this event, so that might be just [00:07:00] enough to kind of light the fire a little longer. As far as bigger style competitions like that, still in gym, we just hosted a competition at one of our gyms in on Oahu.

(07:12):

We had 80 teams sign up as a partner competition and it was great and there was four events for each team and then there was top 10 make the finals, all that. And that was a lot more challenging we'll say. And so we do have scale divisions and master's divisions and stuff, but [00:07:30] it ends up being the better athletes usually sign up for that. But I do think even if you don't have the majority of your gyms participating in that, we had an amazing spectator turnout because people wanted to root on the other people that are in their class times that maybe had signed up. And so that ended up being just a massive community event out here across, there's probably seven or eight different affiliates on the island that had teams that participated. So it was just a really worthwhile event. I mean, I think if you do it right and you have the right [00:08:00] intentions for it, you're not trying to find the fittest on earth in your local competition as long as you're smart about it. I feel like there's a lot of benefit to doing something like that. And if you're really good at it at hosting competitions, they can be profitable, which a lot of gyms could use that extra bump in revenue once or twice a year. So if you know what you're doing, they can be quite profitable as well.

Danny Lehr (08:22):

Yeah, definitely good for I think community. I think it's hard for people to argue against that. And the money, I remember whatever 10, 12 years ago, [00:08:30] it seems like that was a part of the playbook. You open a CrossFit gym, a lot of the kind of current systems within gyms weren't necessarily as built out, so that was a big part of the thing, right? You host a competition, use the money to buy more equipment. Seemed like a lot of gyms. I know we're doing that. Alright, Blair, what do you think local competitions, we'll just start there. What are your thoughts? Good, bad, indifferent? You're a gym owner, you run a pretty large competition. What are your thoughts?

Blair Morrison  (08:58):

Yeah, I think local competitions are [00:09:00] great for the gyms and they're great for the overall community. One thing I think that Seth touched on is the number of people that you get to walk into your gym because they're coming to a competition to root on a friend or a loved one. It's probably equivalent to all of the walk by traffic, all of the internet drop-ins that you get for the entire year in just one day. And I think gyms need to think about that. The hardest thing, the biggest hurdle CrossFit gym [00:09:30] owners have is getting people in the door to give it a chance and see that it's a place that they could do. Now given or granted the competition environment might scare some of those people off, but I think it gives you an opportunity just to get 'em in the house, which is great.

(09:47):

As far as the risk of injury to the athletes, I mean I really think that can be mitigated by programming. Like Seth's saying, if you're smart about it and you have multiple divisions and you [00:10:00] are encouraging effort and participation as much as you're encouraging performance and high level stuff, all those people are going to get a taste of that competitive juice that everybody thrives on. Everybody who tells me that they're not a competitor when they get out there, they still enjoy it. There's a little bit of that that's just kind of born into us all. So I think it's great for the gyms, I think it's great for the people that do it and the [00:10:30] big hurdle is it's a headache and if gym owners got tired of doing them, we used to have so many competitions around every year, I think everybody thought that it was going to be a huge financial bump and it really wasn't. Most of these competitions you might end up netting a couple thousand bucks, but that's still better than a poke in the eye and I dunno, I think it's worth the effort, my opinion. So we still do 'em, encourage everybody to do 'em and I think there's absolutely [00:11:00] a place for it.

Danny Lehr (11:01):

I like what you mentioned about just getting people in the door as well, getting people come in to see because it's true. Most CrossFit gyms, although more and more they are in high visibility areas when you travel around, but most CrossFit gyms are not on Main Street, right? Still a lot of gyms are where you can get a building that has a high enough ceiling and where you can get big open floor space without the whole thing being taken up by offices and that type of stuff, which tends to be in industrial parks or that kind of an area. [00:11:30] And so from an awareness standpoint and getting people in the door, I think there's definitely something to that as well. So for local competitions we will stay on kind of local smaller scale ones. For right now, you want it to be fun for the individuals and just getting out there and having it, just the whole idea of being a competitive environment is fun for sure. But what about the workouts? How wild should the workouts be? Should there be new movements or things they haven't necessarily seen before but are safe obviously, or should [00:12:00] it just be basic tests? Should a standard workout in the competition be the same workout that maybe was Tuesday's class workout or should the test be something more unique and fun? And where's the line there?

(12:16):

Seth, you just had a competition last week, so why don't you pop in there first.

Seth Page (12:19):

Okay, I like putting higher skill maybe outside the box style movements in a final, but a lot [00:12:30] of what happens, various varies from competition to competition, but if I'm trying to get a bunch of signups, there tends to be hesitancy of people signing up until they see what's going to be required of them. So a lot of times if you don't post like rx, we'll need to be able to do this list of things scaled. We'll need to be able to do this list of things. Or some people like I'm waiting to see the workouts before I sign up. So what I wouldn't want to do, because we just want to be the most consistent competition that you can count on running [00:13:00] on time, showing up, you can participate. Everyone has a good time, there isn't a major snafu and whatever happening, GH HD is not falling apart on the floor, on people, whatever.

(13:10):

So we just want it to be nice and consistent and so we keep the workouts pretty simple. We're experienced enough programmers that you can make simple workouts very challenging with the correct weights and rep schemes and any good coach knows how to do that. I mean the simpler is harder a lot of times. So if you can get creative with that, especially if it's a partner event or something, I don't think you need to [00:13:30] be overly creative where somebody has to run around the building with an egg on a spoon while the other person's doing thrusters. I don't think that that there's a time and a place for that. Don't get me wrong, and I could talk about a whole nother in-house competition that was all about sabotaging another team that was maybe the most fun competition of all time, but it doesn't appeal to everybody that's going to be signing up from other gyms and things like that. So this is a time and a place for both. I think simplicity is typically if you want your competition to run year after year, the best thing running it on time, [00:14:00] keeping the workout simple but fun I think is what's going to draw people to come back year after year and help you grow that event if that's something you want to do.

Danny Lehr (14:08):

Yeah. The other thing too about the egg on a spoon, is it hard boiled? Is it not? Is it soft boiled raw? There's just so many variables and it is just hard to, yeah, and so you want to keep it consistent and that makes it tough. Go ahead Blair. What do you think, what are your thoughts on the programming for local competitions? Should workout one be Fran and workout two be CrossFit total? [00:14:30] Do you want to do simple things here or do you want to do some different stuff and maybe tweak the programming in a way to get multiple tests in a workout? Is there, do you need to take into consideration timing, flow, different things like that? What are your just general thoughts on local small competitions for CrossFit?

Blair Morrison  (14:53):

I think local competitions, we're talking about a one day thing. People want to be done before four o'clock. So I think [00:15:00] if you get too complicated, the chances of you running over or asking too much of your volunteers, it's going to be risky. The other big thing is you have to program for the space you're doing it in. And if it's a gym at your box, you're going to be doing class workouts that you know can run hopefully heats of five or six people for most gyms. I mean maybe if you have a really big space, you could run heats of 10, but it just limits what you're capable of. So I think you should start with that, [00:15:30] start with the timeframe you want to get it done in and then the space that you have available. And then from there you go and try to make the best well-rounded tests that you can make. And most of these people that are, say first time competitors or not elite competitors, they want that feeling of challenge. They want to have worked hard, they don't necessarily care that [00:16:00] it's something they've never done before and they want it to be fair and they want it to be hard. So that saying simple is sometimes harder than complicated. And for a local competition where you have limited resources and limited time, I think that's the way you got to do it.

Danny Lehr (16:15):

Yeah, I agree. I think that you kind of mentioned the basic way to set it up. It's like, all right, what space do I have many? If there's something to pull up, how many stations do I have? It's like what space is available and how are we done by four? That's kind of the key. I'm going to throw in one more something [00:16:30] I think about. We do an in-house competition every year. It's coming up, it's the Turkey Day Throwdown and it's a fundraiser, so their entrance fees, they just have to bring a frozen Turkey and all gets donated to the food bank and we get over a hundred turkeys every year that we donate to the food bank. It's really cool and people love it and we're done by one. That's our thing. Dude starts at nine done by one. We get three workouts in one division, teams of three.

(16:53):

You just have to have one female as many ladies that do. You just have to have one that's like, how can we get the most people organized [00:17:00] and together because then you just have RX and scale period. You don't have to worry about gender and all this different stuff. But a big part of that is I take into consideration or think about is judging what are the easy things for judges? Because when you're doing these local competitions, if you are, say there's whatever, we'll call it muscle-ups, that lockout on the top of the rings is pretty easy to argue either direction most of the time, especially when you're talking about maybe not [00:17:30] the highest level athletes, there's a lot going on there. And so especially in partner competitions, it's like I want every lane to be able to be judged by one judge, and I want the movements, I want it very clear, simple. So for example, strength, doing a ladder is a lot easier for the judges than in trying to count what was put on or not put on a barbell in real time in the middle of a heat. And so we take into consideration the judging aspect [00:18:00] of it quite a bit.

Seth Page (18:01):

One thing I'll add to that, I made the mistake in the past of thinking that you could be a lot easier on the scale division in terms of judging and maybe you should be honestly. But what happens is I found that the only time I've ever got complaints about judging post competition is from people who competed and scaled. Oh, you had to hold a plank while the partner was doing box jumps. So-and-so's butt was so high in the air. Here are three photos I took during the competition to prove that they were [00:18:30] cheating and your judge wasn't. The stuff I've heard from out of the scale division, I'm like, oh man, that's supposed to be the division. You go in just to have fun and get some experience, but they also take it so serious. And so you're right to prove your point that the movements in all divisions, even if you're trying to make a symbol for scaled, has to be something that a judge can just make the standard super clear so you're not like, oh, who cares what happens in the scaled? Because some of those people do and they're going to blow you up for it if you don't make it crystal clear

Danny Lehr (19:00):

[00:19:00] And highly unlikely you have a special judging course for your local competition. What you really have is you have Cheryl from 9:30 AM mom's class who's over there taking care of the heat. And so you want to make sure that's taken. Or a lot of times you notice sometimes the judges don't even do CrossFit. It's like my mom is down there helping out and like, oh shit, whatever the judge had to run the bathroom. We needed someone in lane three because I run on time, we're waiting for no man. If this heat's starting at nine 30, [00:19:30] it's nine 30. I'm three to one go. Right. Awesome. Now, so a member signs up for competition. What should change in their training, if anything? So should they adjust volume or intensity? Should they just continue their normal routine going to class? Should they stay after class, get in some extra work? Should they make sure to come down or run a 5K every Saturday between now and the competition? What should your average CrossFitter change when [00:20:00] they signed up for a local event? Blair, why don't you go ahead and leave this one off.

Blair Morrison  (20:07):

Okay. Well, I think if the workouts have been announced early, as we talked about earlier, which is typically the case because people want to see what they have to do, then that would be the additional work I would prescribe as the coach is like, Hey, let's take a look at these movements. Where are we strong? Where are we weak? And then spend time after class or before class working on those. I wouldn't drastically [00:20:30] adjust what they've been doing. I think that's a good way to get hurt or develop some tendonitis from overuse. But yeah, I would just tailor it to the test that they're actually going to have to do. So if they've got a competition that's six weeks out and they just release the workouts and it's got some, this happened at NCC last year, we had for the scale division, they announced or we announced that the Isabelle weight was going to be I [00:21:00] think 95 pounds for the scale division.

(21:02):

So all these women that were in scale were freaking out that this is like their one rep max snatch, and they were supposed to do it 30 times. And so we had people at the gym all a whole month leading up to it, just snatching their faces off. But it was always done afterwards. So it wasn't like their sole purpose for the day and it was a lot of technique stuff. And dude, they got so much better at snatching, everybody got so much better at snatching. So I think that's what I would say. [00:21:30] If it's a member in my gym, still do your normal CrossFit stuff, come do what you're supposed to do. That's why you're here. That's why you love it. But then you can add in these little things where you know need work based on what the competition is asking of you.

Seth Page (21:45):

I'd say no matter what the level of competition is that you're signing up for, if you're doing it, you should immediately stop doing your affiliate class, sign up for proven or mayhem competitor track, two, three hours a day minimum. Yep, [00:22:00] quit your job and no. Yeah, it's obviously ridiculous. If you're at a good gym and you're following a solid program GPP based program, you should be prepared, right? The whole point of that is to be fit enough so that next weekend you can go run that 5K or do that partner comp and yeah, you'll feel the effects of it, but you're good to go. And I totally agree with Blair, it's just the one thing that you can do is maybe if it is a partner synchro thing, maybe you're practicing a little bit of certain movement or [00:22:30] something beforehand or maybe there is a movement in particular that's going to be a sticking point for you. You're just not confident in that bar muscle up that's coming up in wad four. You spend a little more time seeing if you could squeeze out a few more of those. That's it. Other than that, if we're talking local competition, realistically your training is being done each and every day if you're actually consistent at the gym and showing up. So I don't think you got to worry too much beyond that.

Danny Lehr (22:53):

Well, I mean that's the great thing about CrossFit in general, right? Is that it's easy to look at and say, well, I do [00:23:00] whatever, three to four classes a week, so I'm only training three to four hours a week. I'm going to do this local competition, there's going to be three to four workouts in a day. How am I going to possibly do that? But it's amazing. I know personally, I just do. That's what I do. I do our class three to four days a week, but you know what? I have yet to find something on a weekend, some activity that I've done that my body hasn't been good for. You go hike for eight hours uphill. Everyone in your gym that goes to class, three to four days a week is good for it. They can all handle it, [00:23:30] they can do it, right?

(23:31):

And so it's actually, again, that's what's cool about CrossFit. That's the whole point is this minimal input of time, what your body's capable of is incredible. I went and rode 42 miles on a road bike bike with half of it was going up and I don't ride a bike, dude. You know what I mean? That's just off CrossFit, three to four days a week. But I was good for this four hour ride and my body held up, in fact going up hills, I was passing the other guys [00:24:00] and it's incredible. Again, it was entire week's worth of time that I normally train all at once and in a movement pattern that was not normal and I was fine. I think that people would be amazed what their bodies can do. Just going to class regularly. I agree now, yeah, we'll just get that. We're pretty good there. Now going to a little bit bigger competition. So we could talk about the next step is there's online qualifiers for some of these events and some of these events may [00:24:30] double as semi-finals for the CrossFit games. And in fact, it was just announced officially the NorCal Classic will be a semi-final for the CrossFit games. Again, Blair, what do you think about that? Oh, was there ever a doubt? Well, the email just went out yesterday, right? So you guys do a great job. I'm

Blair Morrison  (24:53):

Excited. I'm excited. We're pumped to be back.

Danny Lehr (24:57):

So a little bit of a loaded question I guess for Blair then obviously, [00:25:00] but well first of all, real quick, let's go on that. So how does that work as far as it being a semifinals? Do they have to qualify through the open in order for NorCal Classic to be a qualifier event? Or could you do the online qualifier for NorCal, go and compete at NorCal and if you place high enough then qualify for the games no matter how your open score goes?

Blair Morrison  (25:27):

That's a good question. So in order to claim [00:25:30] the games qualifying spot, you'll have to have done the open and quarterfinals and placed, I don't remember the exact line, but it's something like top 200 at quarterfinals or something like that. So you'll have to have done that separately. And then if you wanted to qualify to get the game spot through the NorCal Classic, you would have to either have done our online qualifier or been invited as an at large invite to get [00:26:00] there. So now there is the possibility that somebody, let's say somebody who is boycotting the CrossFit games or the CrossFit open. So they don't do the open, they don't do quarterfinals, they go do our qualifier, they show up, they win. They would take home first place prize money, but they would not take the games qualifying spot that would slide down to the next two people that met the other criteria.

Danny Lehr (26:24):

That would kind of suck for you, huh? I guess maybe to you it doesn't really matter, but it's [00:26:30] kind of like not the point, right? I dunno, maybe it's all the same,

Blair Morrison  (26:35):

Honestly, it would probably bring a lot of attention. So it might be good for us.

Danny Lehr (26:39):

No publicity is bad publicity. It would definitely get a lot of attention. Alright, here we go. So who's out there that doesn't want to do the open or go to the games that wants some prize money? Head out to the classics, get your name and some Morning CHO articles.

(26:55):

So what do we think in general, and again, Blair's obviously invested in this, [00:27:00] but that's okay. Him and Seth and I we're all friends so we can say whatever we want to each other. What do we think in general of CrossFit and the CrossFit games using independently operated competitions as part of the qualifying process? Does that make the CrossFit games less legitimate that some of these third party competitions are part of the proving round to get in? Or is it whatever? Is it, hey, it's still a test of fitness [00:27:30] and I don't think anyone's going to win a relatively high level competition and not be in shape, but I could also see someone saying, Hey, if you have all these different people running these different competitions, where's the line between legitimacy and just Joe down the street running a comp or whatever's going on? I know they've all been vetted, but I think you get where I'm going at as far as judging standards, judging certification, all that type of stuff. Seth, what do you think?

Seth Page (28:00):

[00:28:00] Yeah, so there's a couple things there. I don't like that individual semifinals or in-person qualifying events can just invite who they want. I think if you want to standardize season where you have to qualify specific standards through the open specific standard to quarters and then get to that event that qualifies you for the games. I wish there was a more standardized process similarly to what we've seen in the past with regionals or semifinals where people are assigned [00:28:30] a chance to go compete at these different events. Because what happens is, I don't think this is the case in Blair's situation, but someone like Mayhem who's going to have theirs, they're incentivized whether they do it or not, to invite more of their athletes, the athletes that they want more attention on that can compete there. So now if you have a good agent or you follow a particular training camp or program or you have a certain friend, you may have more opportunities than the next person who outperformed you in the first two stages of competition to have [00:29:00] a better chance of earning one of those spots to the games. Now, I don't think that's actually a massive factor. I don't think that's happening like rampant, certain people are getting pushed out and only a certain few are getting invited in. But there is a group that is going to be invited to every event they everyone go

Danny Lehr (29:16):

To it leaves room. That is what it does. It leaves room for

Seth Page (29:18):

That. It does. It leaves room for it. And so when you talked about the legitimacy of that claim for fittest on earth, I still think that the claim is legit and met. But I do think if you do want to push it towards [00:29:30] it being more legit all the time, you do have to have more of a standardized system that you can show is getting the best through each level of competition and then compete the highest level. I don't think there's ever been a year in CrossFit where the person who was supposed to win the games missed out on making the games and getting there and winning. I don't think that's ever happened. Not even close and I don't think it will happen. But you do want to see the storylines of some of the people maybe from 11 to 30th or [00:30:00] whatever and how they impact that game's week or weekend in terms of shifting people around on the leaderboard and things like that. So it does impact the other players involved that distribute those points. So I dunno,

Danny Lehr (30:11):

That's my, I'll tell you this, the year that Blair got seventh, he should have got sixth and I'm still upset about it.

Seth Page (30:18):

See,

Danny Lehr (30:18):

He was robbed. Yeah, he was robbed. That's exactly what,

Seth Page (30:21):

But he went through a standardized process to get there.

Danny Lehr (30:23):

Yeah, right. Yeah. Now one more thing to throw in here before Blair you can kind of take it [00:30:30] is what do we think also about those events not having all the same workouts and also you would know more than me, do they have it where there's one or two tests that all of the events have to do or are all of the events different at all of the semifinals? And does having different events at those different semifinals again, is that another mark against the CrossFit games or is that just CrossFit and it's got to be ready for the unknown and unknowable?

Blair Morrison  (31:00):

[00:31:00] Well, okay, so I'll answer your second question first. Right now there is oversight from CrossFit on the programming, but they're not writing it for everybody. But all the events have the license to build their tests. And some of that is because like we talked about before, everybody has different facilities and so there's going to be some things that are possible

(31:27):

In certain places that aren't possible in other places. [00:31:30] And if you tried to standardize it across the board, you would get something very similar to what regionals used to be, which was kind of generic. And you would hear athletes would always complain about that, that they wanted regionals to be more like the games where it was more creative stuff because the precious few people that actually got to go got to experience that and it wasn't really the same test as what they got in regionals. So I think there's pros and cons. [00:32:00] There's definitely, if you're a purist and you really want to see everybody tested equally and those are the only people that make it, then this system is never going to meet that criteria.

(32:16):

But me personally, I freaking love this system the way it's set up now, and I don't think it's perfect yet. I think Seth's comment about how people are invited is totally legit, [00:32:30] and I do see that being a point of contention. Like you said, mayhem could just invite all their athletes and there's nothing that says they can't. But what I love about this system right now and the way it's growing is that it's actually sustainable. The reason why, go ahead. Yeah, the reason why we stopped doing regionals is because it was financially unsustainable. They could not meet the demand for the number of people to work it for the sponsors traveling [00:33:00] to all these different places and then for them to stand up the actual event themselves, financially there's not enough money to do it. And I can tell you guys from having done this now, a large scale event for the last seven years, it's its own business.

(33:18):

It takes the whole year to do it. It takes a whole bunch of different revenue streams in order to make it work, and it's just not feasible for CrossFit to do it all. So I think them [00:33:30] distributing responsibility to these different events that have their own motivations to make it work, right? It's not just about the CrossFit games for all these events. They have their own brands that they want to build and they want the community to come support it. Our event, we have, gosh, eight or nine times as many athletes that are not elite, as are actually elite, and those are the people that everybody's coming out to see. That's where your spectators [00:34:00] come from. That's where the vendors are coming from because now you have people that actually spend money at vendor village and now it's like this is a way that you can do it.

(34:10):

It's more like the PGA tour where you have all these tour stops that they're their own businesses, they're generating their own prize money so the athletes can get paid. I mean, don't got to remember too long ago, I mean athletes didn't make any money anywhere except for water palooza in the games. And now if that's not [00:34:30] the way it is, there's lots of opportunities for athletes to make money because as CrossFit is letting these other events in, it's giving them momentum and more people want to be part of it. So I think it's a good thing.

Seth Page (34:43):

I'll just add, I actually agree when I was talking about standardization before that, I only mean in terms of the filter system, how athletes get to go. I like that there's different programming. What I didn't like, even if it was more standardized, is four weekends [00:35:00] in a row of regionals where the first week got to do these workouts and then every athlete, every other person was watching that and doing the same workouts over and over and over again. And I had to, as a coach, endure four weekends of that as a spectator and fan, endure four weekends of the same workout over and over again by the third and fourth weekend you're tuned out. You just want to watch the leaderboard and see what happened. You don't really care anymore unless you have somebody very specific that you're watching. So the variety of programming makes each event its own [00:35:30] and way more watchable and way more exciting. So

Danny Lehr (35:34):

I'll throw that as well on that aspect of it is for someone going week four has had four more weeks to prepare for those exact events compared to someone week one. And so that may not be equitable, whereas doing the different tests at these different events helps Blair. I think the PGA, because I was thinking like weightlifting for example. You do these local events, local competition, if you get a big enough total, you can qualify for nationals, that type of thing. However, the lifts are very [00:36:00] standard, right? The lifts, the standards, like all you do, you snatch and clean a jerk period. The PGA tour is a really interesting way to look at it because that is, it's different. Every course is different and someone who maybe is a better driver or someone who is a better putter or whatever, different courses might actually help them or hurt them more. And so I think that actually is a good comparison to something that's a little bit different. Even tennis, you get different surfaces, but I mean the box is the same and that type of stuff where, [00:36:30] anyway, so I think that's an interesting way to look at it. I appreciate that.

Blair Morrison  (36:33):

Yeah.

Danny Lehr (36:35):

Alright, we got to kind of wrap it up here, gentlemen. Lightning round real man. I had so many more questions about competitions and games. Maybe Seth and I'll be back and hopefully Larry can join us again. We can get into this a little more. Okay, so some lightning round stuff real quick. Just try to keep it to one sentence or so, if you remember. Alright. The best local competition team name you've ever seen.

Seth Page (36:59):

Oh, [00:37:00] they're all so terrible. Thruster. I barely knew her Es. Yeah, I don't, I've never heard a good one in my life.

Danny Lehr (37:12):

Lightning back to internet villain. All right, I'll give you some. I looked up for the Turkey day, Throwdown, some on theme ones. We had a huffin and stuffing. I actually kind of like that one. It's a Thanksgiving workout. And then another one was pour some gravy on me. I was like, I can get [00:37:30] on board with that. That's okay. Theme. There's a theme there.

Seth Page (37:34):

I know this is lightning round. I know it's lightning round, but I will say if somebody signs up for a competition, I'm running and they put TBD in their team name. Guess what their team name is for the weekend?

Danny Lehr (37:43):

T-B-D-T-B-D. That's right. That's it. You should come up with the word or a phrase where TBD is the acronym, like the trombone, trombone bastard, demons. And then just throw that in there. And then all weekend, they're the trombone bastard, demons, whatever. Okay. Movement [00:38:00] that instantly ruins the competition.

Blair Morrison  (38:06):

Ruins the competition,

Danny Lehr (38:07):

Ruins a competition,

Blair Morrison  (38:10):

A salt bike.

Danny Lehr (38:13):

Ooh, that's the best event.

Seth Page (38:19):

Even though I just used them. I'll say it. Keeping handstand pushups.

Danny Lehr (38:23):

I'm going to say long distance row. No one wants to watch it. No one wants to do it. Long distance row is the worst thing [00:38:30] you can do at a competition.

Blair Morrison  (38:31):

I guess I'm thinking of it from the athlete's perspective. As soon as the athlete does assault bike workout, they're ruined.

Danny Lehr (38:39):

Oh yeah. Yeah. That's it. Oh yeah,

Blair Morrison  (38:41):

Yeah.

Danny Lehr (38:42):

Alright. And we'll do one more, see if you have something. If you don't, we'll see where it goes. Alright. What's the craziest thing you've ever seen happen in the middle of an event?

Blair Morrison  (38:55):

I don't want to say it, but it happened in the final event [00:39:00] at NorCal Classic last year where the media person told the guy to change the weights and it was the wrong decision. That was

Seth Page (39:15):

Crazy. That was crazy. That was crazy. You know what? Mine will be the WFP one. The GHD falling apart on Austin Hatfield in the middle of an event just falling. It couldn't have been, and I worked that event. [00:39:30] It couldn't have been worse. The thing falls off the top and he slams his nuts right into the post. I can't think of another equipment malfunction other than Wait, who's wheelbarrow broke in the games in like 20 Olson, right? There was a couple

Blair Morrison  (39:45):

Kali's broke.

Seth Page (39:46):

Yeah.

Blair Morrison  (39:47):

Yeah. Dude, you know what I thought about when you're just saying that was OC Throwdown 2012. Oh my God. Where freaking, what's his face with the jean shorts?

Danny Lehr (39:58):

Yeah. Dale.

Blair Morrison  (40:00):

[00:40:00] Dale was like M Fing his judge and screaming. Oh,

Seth Page (40:06):

Ryan Fisher. Ryan Fisher. Ryan Fisher what? Ryan Fisher kill you, I

Danny Lehr (40:09):

Believe. Was it Ryan Fisher? That's I'll fucking kill you to his jet competition. Yeah, Teesdale was getting after him too. Now Tee's got long hair and drinks his own piss. It's a whole different situation for him. He really turned a corner.

Blair Morrison  (40:23):

Yeah, that's right. Ryan Fisher. That's right. I will fucking kill you.

Seth Page (40:28):

Yeah. Actually, now that [00:40:30] we're talking, OC Throwdown might have the top three worst things ever at events. Not to make a joke about this, but they had Ogar.

Danny Lehr (40:36):

Oh yeah, Kevin. Yeah.

Seth Page (40:38):

Yeah. Kevin Ogar broke the snack on Snatch. They had a hurdle jump like the following year. That was a relay hurdle jump that people were just blowing their Achilles out on and stuff

Blair Morrison  (40:47):

Because it was over and back and they only went one way.

Seth Page (40:51):

Oh, is that what it was?

Blair Morrison  (40:52):

Yeah. So they would jump back over and it didn't have the breakaway feature that way. And so then people, they were clipping themselves and

Seth Page (41:00):

[00:41:00] There's some clips on YouTube if you do deep diving of people flopping over those hurdles. Still pretty crazy,

Danny Lehr (41:06):

Man. I'll tell you what, not nearly as crazy, but what kind of fun is I saw a guy Pi snatch on accident because when they took the weights off, it was loaded at 10 on one side and a 15 on the other, and it was the first time the guy snatched 300 pounds. So big heavy snatch on a misload barbell. That kind of fun. I mean, it's not people tripping over, blown out Achilles, but it was just like, ah, didn't see that coming and they gave him credit for it. Oh yeah, we'll count [00:41:30] that. So there you go. Right. That's a wrap for today's episode of Not In My Box. If you overestimate your abilities and fitness level today, congratulations, you're one of us. Big thank you to Blair Morrison and Seth Page. Go sign up for the NorCal Classic qualifier and use the jump ship training to prep for it and make sure he buys some coffee from caffeine and kilos.com. Share this episode with a coach who still preaches triple extension or with your training partner [00:42:00] who still substitutes smelling salts for his warmup. We'll be back next week with another topic that everyone's gotten a opinion on. If you have a question for our expert panel, shoot me a DM or comment on the video. And remember, if your lift was pretty, it probably wasn't heavy enough. Thanks guys.

Blair Morrison  (42:18):

Alright, thanks Denny. See you.