Misfit Podcast
Misfit Athletics provides information and programming to competitive Crossfit athletes of all levels.
Misfit Podcast
CrossFit Games '25 Season Changes - E.330
In this episode of the Misfit podcast, the squad discusses the upcoming changes to the 2025 CrossFit Games season, including the new structure of the Open and its implications for athletes and programming. We delve into the complexities of CrossFit semifinal programming, and the intricacies of Games qualification. With a focus on inclusivity and the fittest athletes, we discuss the implications of the global leaderboard shift, regional challenges, and the role of events like the Rogue Invitational.
As we explore athlete classification and tailored programming, we reflect on the resilience needed to succeed in this dynamic sport. With a return to sanctionals, athletes face a new landscape filled with both opportunities and challenges. From the logistical hurdles of global participation and travel to the financial realities of sponsorships and prize purses, we examine how these changes impact athletes' careers and motivations.
We celebrate Coach Hunter's incredible achievement of joining the 500-lbs club with his deadlift!
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We're all misfits, alright, you big, big bunch of misfits. You're a scrappy little misfit, just like me Biggest bunch of misfits I've ever seen either. Good morning misfits. You are tuning in to another episode of the Misfit Podcast. On today's episode, we talk everything or least everything that we know um about the 2025 crossfit game season the updates podcast over and then and then, probably most importantly, what does that mean for misfit athletics programming?
Speaker 1:what are we going to do? Um, to make sure that that everybody's ready for whatever their super bowl is, whatever their goal is, etc. Before we jump into that, as always, we start with live chat. Hunter, what you got going on?
Speaker 2:Well, boys, I did it. 500-pound club what?
Speaker 1:I pulled 500 yesterday. What?
Speaker 2:the fuck. When did you do that? Yeah, yesterday, during when was it? Took hatchet and I did not have a. I was not on the path to recovery from the weekend. Just did not sleep well Sunday. Did not sleep well Sunday night. Woke up like way later than usual Monday. Yesterday morning Worked from home the front half of the day Came in and I was like all right, I'll take hatchet class.
Speaker 2:My expectations couldn't be lower and lo and behold, went through the team misfit affiliate. Every 90 seconds one deadlift. Kept going up, kept going up and even 500 moved like pretty quick looked like like a 90 percent lift. Yeah, yeah, kyle walked by and stapled five, 10 to the floor, but 500 went up pretty quick.
Speaker 1:So, um, okay, so this is we gotta. We gotta dig into this a little bit. Um, would you say that you are good at performing one rep maxes relative to your strength in like traditional sets and reps, Like when you go to like find new prs? I'm definitely like I'm I would.
Speaker 2:I'm on like the. I think I'm pretty close to in the middle between like fast and slow twitch. I'm not the most powerful, but I I can, I can be if, if needed, um, so I I'd say, I'd say I'm definitely better with reps than a one rep max yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:But also, like I've told, told a lot of people, especially with a deadlift or a back squat, I would say deadlift even more. So it's like that's one of those lifts where it's like you either got it or you don't on that day, like there's not a whole lot of. There's obviously technique involved, but it's not like a snatch where, like everything, you can feel really, really good and it's just there's something about it that's not clicking. A deadlift is like that thing's either coming off the floor or it's not and your nervous system's not ready, your muscles aren't ready, whatever, whatever it is like things have to kind of line up. But then again, like I did not feel great going into the session and just kind of kept plugging away and it worked out so.
Speaker 1:But I'd say I'm slightly better on the repetition side versus like the one rm side the only reason I ask is because it's it's always interesting as, like a I don't know if there's some correlation that we could make that for people who aren't former like traditional sport athletes, but you definitely like throughout your like throughout your like you talked about like you've been in shape for a very long time, you've worked out for a very long time and I think it's always had the like cardiovascular piece to it, whereas like a lot of traditional sports athletes, it's just weightlifting, just what you do. You go in and right, so like. The reason I ask is because it's always been so much more comfortable for me to do a one rep max and to find a new pr than it has to go into something that's whatever four to twenty minutes long and figure out how to like, temper, the same level of intensity, to go through it yeah, I'm more comfortable with that.
Speaker 2:I'm more like the the short, really short time domain workouts. Bike sprints, those I really don't like, for I mean I thought hey, surprise, like yeah, who does?
Speaker 2:but um, like the, yeah, I'm much more. I'm somebody who like, even in the format that we did the class, where it was every 90 seconds one deadlift, add weight every interval and then at some point you actually want to take an interval off. So you're not going to pull a one rep max every 90 seconds. But that sort of style for me and I've found for, like, our affiliate athletes and a lot of people tend to agree like that structured, timed ladder where we start at a very manageable weight and then add weight People, just the clock kind of disappears. People are just like, yep, add weight, pull it. Go do a vertical jump, add weight, pull it. And people just kind of you kind of get lost, you kind of get into a groove and I tend to like I, that's. That same thing applies in a 20 minute metcon like almost ease into it and find that I can like ramp up and really get into a rhythm and maybe finish stronger than I started.
Speaker 1:So yeah, you got to find ways to. For someone who doesn't love you know your 90 to 105%. You have to find ways to get them out of their head and into their body, because if there's any time as an athlete where you just got to go do your thing, yeah it's. It's at that weight like you get into your head about it, whether it's a technical lift or not.
Speaker 1:A technical lift, like your body's the one doing it, your nervous system, your musculature, all of that stuff you've probably got your 10 000 hours. If you're trying to pull a 500 pound deadlift like yeah, how do you create the environment to just go do it? That's one of the reasons why we do the survivor lifts in the programming instead of just find a one rep max, because find a one rep max session is a mind fuck for at least half of our athletes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just like it's a weird session. It's a weird set. It could be a weird. It could be weird if the only thing on the whiteboard is find a one rep max and then there's no.
Speaker 2:And if you're alone and if, well, yeah for sure, but like, even even find a one rep max, even if, like, even if the coach you know you're in a class coach warms you up really, really well, and you're, you're like, okay, you have 20 minutes to find a one rep max and your barbell's empty, like even that there's a lot of athletes who don't. It's like, what do I do? I just do one rep, add a bunch of weight, do one rep, like it's like literally a knowledge thing of how do I most effectively, you know how many sets and reps do I do? Like what kind of jumps should I make? Like that's obvious to me because I've done it for so long, but it's not obvious to the average kind of gym goer.
Speaker 2:And I think that also is another reason that the the survivor style thing works really well, because it like, again, it takes some thought out of the equation. It's just like all you have to do is worry about pulling the weight. You're going to add the same amount of weight to the next lift. You're going to pull it, you're going to come back, it's going to be a little bit heavier, but you don't have to think about it. We don't have to do this calculus. Like all right, I, I gotta do five reps here and then three reps there and then two and a half reps there, and then like, should I jump five pounds or six and a half pounds? Like it's like shut up, put weight on the bar, pull it, yeah, that sort of thing.
Speaker 1:So um, so I have a. I have a 18 month old child who's three feet tall, um, and also very sneaky, uh, so they'll just.
Speaker 1:The last few days, he has been stealing objects from the counter which like we have a cutting board on the counter which used to have a knife on it and he hasn't gotten one, but he's tried. Um, but like the stuff that he can get, now you don't see him get it and you kind of wonder how he got there. And last night I cooked like five or six pounds of chicken breast on. The traeger was kind of coming in and out and I was supposed to be watching him while I was cutting it up and within the blink of an eye he was running around the house with a cheese grater laughing so hard and I have no clue.
Speaker 1:He was the drawer next to me, had it in there, and he opened it, took it out, closed it and ran off. In the time that I just like chopped two pieces of chicken. I I still don't believe that it happened. But maya's like true, he was in the kitchen. The cheese grater is in this drawer. Like I'm like is like is this mission impossible? Like how did he open this gigantic drawer that's like bigger than him, pull it out, close it and then run off?
Speaker 1:and she's like I don't know, but he obviously did yeah or I had a time lapse, which my brain has been known to do, and he actually did it across like 30 seconds and I just didn't see um but Maya's like let's go with the mission impossible version.
Speaker 2:Dude, our son's got a cheese grater.
Speaker 1:He's coming down from the ceiling yeah, but just belays.
Speaker 2:Like his arms and feet, he's like hovering three inches over the ground, looks at you but like any table.
Speaker 1:he just if he sees something sticking out or you're holding him and he sees it he files it away for later and he just reaches up and takes things and starts laughing and running.
Speaker 2:I'll be back for you. Cheese grater, luckily, he tells on himself because he's laughing.
Speaker 1:Maya's like kind of dangerous but like sort of not. Like it had a handle. I don't think he's going to try to grate his hand. He really knows how to use that.
Speaker 2:To be fair, we didn't know. He knew how to get the cheese grater to begin with. Give him a block of cheese, put him to work.
Speaker 1:I still don't fucking know.
Speaker 2:I still don't know how he did it. You smart enough to grab the cheese grater. You smart enough to grate cheese?
Speaker 1:Come over here. Oh dude, he would be so happy. He loves cheese. That man loves cheese, all right, so, um, breaking news, breaking news. Crossfit has changed the season structure. Um, for the first time ever in kitchen confidential history, for the first time this month uh, gordon ramsey is shutting down the kitchen.
Speaker 1:He's shutting down the restaurant. It's never happened before. This is the first time. Um, yeah, high level overview. They're going back to sanctionals, but I think don't really want to have to deal with the fact that they are trying to make this global. So if they went back to sanctionals and it was global, you'd either be asking the athletes to travel a ridiculous distance or you can say they had a chance to qualify online like everybody else. Also, obviously, money, right, are they going to be able to pull in sponsors after the 2024 crossfit games? Like, how many companies want to go put their name on that before knowing what the aftermath of all that is? Because they're doing like, there's a bunch of polls online about like, are you signing up for the open? And of course people love knee-jerk reactions, but like 50 percent of people are saying they're not signing up for the open and whatnot. Course people love knee-jerk reactions, but like 50 if people are saying they're not signing up for the open, and why not? And there's obviously there's I mean there's like 10 reasons why you would or wouldn't sign up for the open.
Speaker 1:Um, we talked a little bit before the podcast about what our perspective is what the purview of a podcast like this should be. Um, I feel like everyone right now wants to be like a crossfit news organization and I have negative 600 interest in being a crossfit news organization. Um, we are coaches and programmers and leaders of a community and my purview of looking at this stuff is, if I'm going to continue to help my athletes, which I obviously am I got to figure out what all of this means and what the best course of action is, moving forward. So, like, obviously, there I just gave opinions. I'm not saying we won't give opinions on this stuff, but the way that I want to look at it and the way that I want to speak to the listeners is through the lens of what does this mean for you? What are these changes mean for you? Are you going to be?
Speaker 2:able to qualify for a certain round, etc. That sort of thing. Yeah, uh, crossfit's putting us in a weird spot as a company that you know promotes sending athletes, asking athletes to to work hard in order to compete at a high level. Yeah, um, and some of the changes I, I think we we saw some of it coming as far as like an online semi-final for at least maybe, masters and teens, um, and stuff like that and like we've been to enough semi-finals events to like it doesn't.
Speaker 2:It doesn't take a, an nba to look around and be like who's footing the bill for all this?
Speaker 2:Um, right, and like, is this, is this feasible long term? As far as, like keeping people interested, and you're right, last year's the crossfit get or this year's the crossfit games is going to make that, make that a really big question mark for a lot of people. And then the other thing, the, um, we can get into it later, but the, the prize purse being dependent on open registration, um, is, uh, it's, it's questionable at best I would. I would say not, uh, like, I understand maybe what like crossfit is doing is, from a business perspective, to try to protect itself a little bit, but, um, like just purely financially and you can balk at that as much as you want, but, um, I yeah, it's, that's that's gonna make it tough for for the athlete who wants to you know, is hoping to maybe pull in a paycheck from the crossfit games or something like that to be like is this, like can't, can I, can I make this work? Or like what am I, what am I doing here?
Speaker 1:So, um, yeah, I mean that's, there's, there's. I almost did a list of unknowns.
Speaker 2:To you. Ran out of Google docs, google google drive storage.
Speaker 1:Yeah they asked me uh, even though we have unlimited, um, they asked me to pay extra to finish the document um, because the list this is the most ridiculous document we've ever seen pay us 99 cents that's.
Speaker 1:That's such a huge part of things and one of the reasons why why I've. You know, I've already had conversations with some of my athletes on this and it's like you have to do a lot of digging mentally and be like is this the thing that I want to do? Am I passionate about this? And if the answer is yes, there is still a path for you. Um, but if it is more financially motivated, like there are a ton of questions and a ton of unknowns.
Speaker 1:I had a conversation with a master's athlete last night and I was like we're going to do the open and we're going to do semifinals and then we don't know, but that's three workouts in February, march, and then it's a handful of workouts in Like we can commit to that, we can 100% commit to that. And if they come out and say, like the master's champion and the 35 to 39 division gets a ham sandwich and a $2 off a cold tub, like then are you going to? You know, are you going to do this whole huge thing and go? Um, that sort of thing? So I think a lot of people have to look at it sort of from that perspective. Um, all right, so CrossFit open. Um, make the open matter again has been a conversation, uh, for a while. No one cares about the open and they're like how about this? Um, so the open in quarterfinals have essentially combined. Um, way, there's like half of the quarterfinals is now during the Open and the other half is now during semifinals. It's been chopped in two. So February 27th through March 17th is the CrossFit Open.
Speaker 1:Top 1% of individuals qualify for the online semifinal if the same participation exists. Who knows? That's about 1500 athletes per division. It's a little bit higher on the men's side, a little bit lower on the women's side. Um, if you have thoughts on any of this, feel free to stop me hunter. Um, all teams advance to the online semifinal. I wonder why, um, but I will say. I will say that that is probably better for a lot of the affiliate teams who just wanted to be able to go get after it. Sure that you know if, if, if a gym wants to make a team, wants to make multiple teams, like they get to have those team, all of them get to have those team workouts, because those team workouts didn't exist in the open before and it was actually pretty hard to get into quarterfinals because there weren't very many teams.
Speaker 2:Exactly yeah, and it's like the open is, it's not a, the open isn't a team thing, it's individuals that create a qualifying team and then you get to do team workouts and quarterfinals. So from a participation standpoint that's not a bad thing. And again you get like, hey, athletes do well in the open or whatever. And it's like, yeah, let's see what happens. Maybe that is a feeder system, like we've talked about that before. Some of a lot of our athletes started like on a team. Caroline, like you know, went on a team, really enjoyed it and that kind of fed her into the individual, uh, competitive space. So, who knows, maybe you get a affiliate athlete who doesn't think they want to do it and then they have, enjoy it, have fun on a team. By and large, it seems like athletes have like the team game is more fun just because it is a. It's a team thing rather than all the pressure on your shoulders.
Speaker 2:So it can certainly be a benefit to affiliate athletes who maybe want to dabble in the competitive space at some point and don't know where to go, or maybe they don't qualify for the online semifinal after the Open.
Speaker 1:I think it's one of the bright spots of the changes. Only because, again, you're trying to build that culture at your affiliate, you have these people that want to do it and they've never been able to participate. The percentage it's actually really hard to get it Like we've had like four very fit individuals multiple times not qualify for quarterfinals. So it's like they never got to do the four person workouts and see what they're made of, see how fun it is Um, and then potentially try to, you know, maybe train the rest of the year to see. You know I have my benchmark. Now we finally know we're the 600 fittest affiliate in the world and we got to chop. You know we just my benchmark. Now we finally know we're the 600 fittest affiliate in the world and we got to chop. You know we just got to get our way back down to that.
Speaker 1:So, um, once I thought about it a little bit, I actually was was happy about that. Um top 2% of age group athletes qualify Um. So I did each division here, um, and again, I like to speak to individuals on this podcast, so bear with me. I am going to say, based on last year, how many people would qualify per division 35 to 39 women, 540 athletes. 40 to 44, 500 men, 400 women. 45 to 49, 320 men, 240 women. 50 to 54 men, 190 women. 130, 54 to 59, 110 and 80, 60 to 64, 54 and 50 and 64 plus 34 and 32. 50 and 64 plus 34 and 32 um, that's how many athletes would move on to the online or virtual in affiliate semi-final. I want to get the make sure I get the branding weren't saying much right and that is the only avenue for masters to qualify for the games.
Speaker 1:Right masters do not have an in-person competition they do not, um so you can take those numbers, you can rewind back, you can find your division, you can go and check what you did in the Open last year. It's going to be complicated auditing your position, though, because it is true that you probably didn't go as hard as you possibly could. You didn't retest, etc. But neither did your opponents, for the most part.
Speaker 1:So like you definitely have the ability to slide up and you're going to know. You're going to know if you left a lot on the table or not, cause some athletes just go out and execute and don't necessarily like they're not going to gain a ton from retesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and in the same way that you know the fact that team registration is fairly low, which means therefore, it is more difficult to qualify, like if open registration is low this year, like that, those numbers are smaller, like this is assuming what, how many, how many? We don't have totals here. Do you remember? Probably like in the 200 000 maybe 100 000 like total registrants, like just all those across every division.
Speaker 1:Yeah like total total total open registrations and I guess that doesn't matter, because it's still broken by division.
Speaker 2:But you, you understand what I mean the fewer, yeah, fewer competitors, the fewer spots there are available. So, correct and to your point, like, yeah, all of the athletes who were not worried about qualifying for quarterfinals and semifinals are now worried about it. And the other question that this poses is, like, what does this mean for the programming of the Open? And then also, what does the programming mean for semifinals? So, if you're top 1%, which, like, is obviously the upper tier, which, like, is obviously a the upper tier, but if, like, there are a lot of there, there will be. There are a lot of athletes who, like, you see, at the affiliate level, who maybe crack that top one percent but don't really have any business competing at, like, a semi-final level. Or you know, seeing, you see a semi-final type workout get thrown out there and you're like I think you're right if the workouts are a certain way I think right.
Speaker 2:But then the complexity, then that won't happen yeah, but I, but I guess I'm saying, like is the, like the bottom of the bottom, like the lowest ranked, top one percent athlete, like they're going to move on to semiifinals? Like, is the semi-final, how do we, how is the semifinals workouts programmed in such a way that, like that person can participate because that's what CrossFit wants while also making sure that the fittest you know are having we have a good test for the fittest people to go to the CrossFit games, and I'm not saying they can't do it because, yeah, like I mean, we know that that's possible. But it is going to be an interesting wrench where, like, if you're doing an affiliate in affiliate semi-final and it's, like you know, ght sit-ups and rope climbs or a 405 deadlift or something like that, you're just like okay, what do we?
Speaker 1:the one thing, too, that has to be factored in is this is 1% of everyone, so we don't have divided leaderboards anymore. So the top 1% is actually better than the percentage-based leaderboards on like okay, from your region, you're in this category.
Speaker 2:Because you could be 10% worldwide, but within your age division.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, yeah, but I was talking about just the individuals. So like, if you think about the Indies, the people who could have been 15th in their region might be 3000th in the world, something like that. So now all of those people that could at least go do all of the, because when I think about this, I'm like for you specifically, hunter, how many semifinals workouts could you just do? Like a decent amount of them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I could probably do all of them save, like the ladders right, like a ladder that ends with a 265 snatch is not going to happen, but yeah, I could do them. I mean, I get time capped in a lot of them.
Speaker 1:but and you're in the like top 2%. So like somewhere in that range top 2% or 3%.
Speaker 2:So when we get down to the 1%.
Speaker 1:I think they'll have room to. I think the bigger issue is equipment. More than anything, what are they going to ask people to have?
Speaker 2:Right, because semifinals has been running an echo bike, like exclusively for the last couple of years, right? Is that what they're going to ask athletes, your entire division or your entire age group, rather than, like, within your region? What does that do for, like you know, asia?
Speaker 1:latin america, like regions that are typically exactly what I said at the beginning of the podcast. It gives them an opportunity, but not really yeah, not really um. So to end it, I'll say something that's really interesting. If my math is correct, 28 men, 28 boys 14 to 15, 24 girls 14 to 15. I think that's less than they had go to the games last year, and then 30 and 30 for 16 to 17.
Speaker 2:Would be the numbers based on last year's registrations.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we also don't know how many people they're going to have go to the games, but you're looking at seven. You're looking at 35,000 men in the 35 to 39 and 1500 boys in the 16 to 17. So it's like a massive difference. And again, like I don't know if I toggled the stuff wrong, but I'm pretty sure I didn't um, so that's definitely interesting. And then we don't have like the most information um, but I do know we have some um listeners that are in the adaptive division. Top 20 per division. Um will advance to.
Speaker 1:I believe wheel watt is still running the whole show yeah so they'll have their version of the open, their version of the semifinals, their version of the CrossFit games. So that's the open. Um, making the open matter. Um, I guess you did that, but you might've made it not matter for the bottom tier athletes. Do they care anymore? I don't know the answer to that. Um, do they care anymore? I don't know the answer to that, um, do they care the same? Because they didn't care about advancing in the first place? Like we have so many athletes out there that used to qualify for quarterfinals that thought it was hilarious that we would even ask if they were going to sign up, like no no way I'm signing up for quarterfinals so is it the same?
Speaker 1:is it just a a thing where everyone can participate for three workouts a year and then we get back to business? Um, I think that's probably what crossfit is hoping is the case, um, but I don't know. That's definitely that. That's like probably the biggest unknown how many people are going to come out and participate for this?
Speaker 2:yeah, and I mean we don't know much about the community cup for for the affiliates just as affiliates that are interested in hosting the community cup will receive details shortly Um, I don't know if that means like a like an in-person, like at a affiliate is going to happen or like again, just kind of a lot of unknowns about that. But is the? Is that big jump from the open to semifinals going to funnel more of those kind of a more fun?
Speaker 1:not really quarter. That's why I said half of quarterfinals are now the open and the other teammates. Yeah, for sure. And then like the other, thing.
Speaker 2:We'll see how the community cup like, um, you know, for a unique format for our local athletes to compete against their peers based on their level during the open. So presumably you know what. What placement you get in the open, you know, relative to the field, earns you a level. I remember listening to a is either a podcast or a video with castro and he um, I think he was like doing his affiliate tour or whatever he dropped into an affiliate and they, I think their programming was based on, like you know, here's the black level, the blue level, and I think some affiliates do this you know sort of thing, and it was like yeah, this is just like kind of self-scaling, like a
Speaker 2:scale, a method of scaling or it was. It was maybe like a leaderboard, like if you, you know you got a 500 pound deadlift and a 215 Fran or whatever, your gold tier, if you've got it, you know the next tier below, like just kind of based on benchmarks and stuff like that. So if I had to guess, maybe that's where the idea came from. We'll see how it plays out in reality. Again, that all just depends on how many athletes are motivated to pay CrossFit, to participate in the open here's what I'll say.
Speaker 1:I hope that they find a way to convince people to care. I don't know if they're going to, that's not, that's on them. Very specifically, like selling the idea of the community cup, just saying you can participate and pay us and compete against you know, like you're a level nine, like if I don't know, I don't know that people are going to care about that, unless they find a way to get people to care about that.
Speaker 1:Right which hasn't necessarily been their strong suit over the last handful of years. Like they just they go dark and don't post anywhere, post anywhere.
Speaker 2:That's why probably one of my biggest gripes about and and I I think that applies across the board too it's like the.
Speaker 2:For me personally, there's a like the. Uh, when they announced the coaches doing like level four evaluations, I was like I was like, oh sick, like that's interesting to me. What is not interesting to me is that there's no incentive to do that. Like crossfit, the incentive is like you, you, you have, you have, you've earned, you've earned a title of L4, but the, the cost is like you're going to spend a shitload of money in continuing education and oh, by the way, like the members on the floor don't fucking know what L4 means. They know what. Like, they know they want to come in and get sweaty and hopefully we, you can. You know you distinguish yourself through quality. But again, like you're, we're assuming that affiliates are like, or athletes are just going from gym to gym evaluating the quality of coaching and be like yep, that guy's an L4, that guy's an L3, doesn't fucking matter. And if there's no incentive for coaches to acquire higher levels of education as a means for, like, growing their business or the gym, or whatever.
Speaker 2:It's like what's the point of forking over thousands of dollars to CrossFit and thousands of dollars in continuing education if CrossFit is not going to provide any incentive or you know, whether it's financial help or marketing or just doing what they can to drive people into affiliates, it's like it's the same. It's the same thing. It's like you know we're not giving people good reasons to take part in these things that CrossFit is setting up.
Speaker 1:It's like they put these things on the start line and that's as far as they go. Yeah, one thing that's been funny about that and has actually applied a lot to the competitive space as well is coaches weren't as good 10 plus years ago and people did care about that stuff back then then which is kind of fascinating, like coaches are better now.
Speaker 1:So if you're better now and you have an l4, that should be a thing. But people don't. People don't, aren't locked in on that type of thing related to hq. When they come into the gym, the members of the gym are just like crossfit is hunter, hunter is crossfit coach.
Speaker 1:Like yeah, I don't know who fucking the ceo is or what a red shirt is or any of those things yeah and obviously that happens with growth can't have hundreds of thousands or millions of people locked in on this like niche thing, um, but it's been kind of fascinating to to see over, uh, over a long period of time. Um, all right, semi-finals virtual in affiliate semi-finals must be done at a crossfit affiliate and you must be judged by a current l1 who takes the new advanced judges course, which lasts three years. Thank you. Finally, make me make me take that damn click through as fast as I possibly can to take that test every single year to do this. Um, so at least this one.
Speaker 2:Last, how am I going to fucking PR the judges course, this year it's my, that's my annual benchmark from CrossFit.
Speaker 1:You might still have to do the, the, the open one, I don't know. Wouldn't surprise me if you had to do both. So before we move on, there are multiple opinions on this, because there are some people who think that this is awesome because you can be your regional semifinal location, like anyone in Maine, new Hampshire, eastern Massachusetts. Come on up, like that sort of thing. That's what they think might happen. That sounds stressful to me. That sounds like a lot, unless you could figure out a way to like I don't know our athletes gonna want to, our gym's gonna want to monetize this, like because it's four days, I think you know we don't know if it's announced on one day and it's you know however many workouts and how it goes, but like there's also three different versions of it. Um, it's a lot to put on affiliates and maybe some will band together and make it a little bit more fun, but I don't know how much of that's actually going to happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, honestly, I didn't really think about the, which is weird because that's the first thing I usually think about is the logistics of that. As far as, like multiple days, you have to assume that it's going to be multiple, more than three workouts, couple workout like the same, I don't know two per day with the deadline, sort of thing, and it's like are we, how do we get? And with a higher number of participants, like there is now an even deeper logistical demand on affiliates to like get these people through their workouts. And yeah, I don't know I what I'm, I'm confused about why you think people are going to like travel. Why would, why would somebody trap?
Speaker 1:because, like every, every affiliate affiliated this is the narrative that I've seen from certain people, so it's not from me necessarily.
Speaker 2:Oh it's more like.
Speaker 1:it's more like our, our affiliates, going to lean into this and, you know, have the, you know the 10 local people work out together against each other. She gonna fight 10 L ones Like it's a whole thing.
Speaker 1:So, um, age group goes first. Uh, April 3rd, through the six. That is the only path to the CrossFit games for age group divisions. The number of athletes advancing, oh no, we don't know. Um, it was a lot last year. I don't know if they're gonna. I mean, you were, you were there, hunter. That was like. The more I think about it, the more you know. At least a shaft hat tip to the people organizing it. They were, they were given a lot to deal with.
Speaker 2:Yeah for sure.
Speaker 1:So interesting, intriguing. April 24th through the 27th is the team version. Again, everyone um that signs up for the open, that creates a team, is allowed to do this. Um, also, the only path to the crossfit games. Only 20 teams advancing this year, that is down 33 from 30 teams last year. Uh, new rule one affiliate. One team per affiliate can qualify. So sorry, rich, this Invictus. I think he might have only had one last year Actually maybe honestly, maybe Invictus did too.
Speaker 1:I think everyone being like, oh, these gyms are screwed, is thinking about semifinals, not the games, because Mayhem, torian or whatever is Australia, it's a different affiliate, that kind of thing. Yeah, so I don't know that that really changes much, yeah, especially now that it's only 20 teams. Yeah, exactly, individuals are May 1st through the 4th. This is the only division where there are multiple paths to the games. Through the fourth, this is the only division where there are multiple paths to the games. At the very least, 15 men and 15 women will advance from in-affiliate semifinals. Athletes 16 through 20 will depend on how many athletes sanctionals can send to the CrossFit Games, which supposedly is 10 at a minimum. So if there's only 10, then that means the top 20 in each division will qualify from the Open. If there's 15 from sanctionals, it will be the top 15.
Speaker 2:Yeah, now there are a lot of unknowns, that kind of get attached to the dates of the in-affiliate semifinals and the fact that that is smack in the window of april through june where, correct, a theoretical in-person semifinal might be held. So, and without knowing, we don't know any locations for that right kind of like we know literally nothing.
Speaker 1:We know that one of the partners from last year like very clearly has their. They already knew that their qualifier was one week before the Open and their event is May 9th, 10th and 11th. So, like French Throwdown seems like the only one that has been announced, that it seems like it would be.
Speaker 2:It seems obvious that that's this is again one of those things where, like in, I think it sounds good, it's a good idea in theory. The execution is going to be like again. So is it like? Who's running the events? Who's programming the events? Is it the same programming as what our in affiliate semifinals have?
Speaker 2:is the judging program is the now judging requirement, the same for in affiliate, because at the crossfit games the crossfit games judges at least I don't know if it's, if it's only I remember at one point it was like only the like on the final day. It was like it was l4s, or like l3s and l4s were judges?
Speaker 2:I'm not sure, sure I don't know what the requirement is. But again, if, like, if the in-affiliate semi-final, like judging requirement is L1, which I think on average is a positive, there's still like, there's still going to be problems with it for sure. But now, like, what does that require for the in-person semifinal? Where are those held? Held? What does the qualification process look like for an in like a semifinal? Like that, is it location dependent, is it? You know? I think there's just. And then, like, what do I do if I want to? You know, if I don't qualify through the open and I sign up for the in affiliate or the in-person semi-final in june, whatever it is, like yeah, is my eligibility affected?
Speaker 2:you know, if I qualify for one, do, and then yeah yeah there's just a lot of unknowns and logistics that when we introduce this other path. It's, you're just, it's a, it's an entire new, almost an entire new project that they have to undertake.
Speaker 1:And again, we've seen these events by third-party entities be run really well and we've seen them run abysmally the way that it was run and it felt like the right mix of they had their shit together before hq showed up and said like here are some of your parameters and your rules yeah, and you wonder if, like a rogue is going to do that, is going to turn around from rogan in scotland and then put on an event a few months later like wadapalooza is obviously getting geared up for the beginning of the year.
Speaker 2:Their competition, are they going to be a like? That's probably the other major competition that athletes probably trust more than others.
Speaker 1:The same company did West Coast Classic, I believe. What's that? The same company runs the West Coast Classic, as far as I know.
Speaker 2:I don't know if that's still true, so that would be that version, like the Guadalupalooza West or like I don't know if that's still true.
Speaker 1:So that would be that version, like the Wadapalooza West, no, like West Coast Classic. West Coast Classic yeah, yeah, they did that in Del Mar. Loud and Live, I believe, was the one who was running that, who does Wadapalooza and then the SoCal thing. So, yeah, I mean to finish off the virtual in-affiliate semifinals no-transcript, um and then one to two athletes per division will advance to the crossfit games, making up the final 10 to 15 athletes to reach 30 and 30 as a field for the games, a 25 reduction from 40 and 40. 40.
Speaker 1:So we got a little bit of a taste of the own programming thing, with legends like I do not believe that anyone approved them not going longer than 11 or 12 minutes. I don't, I just don't believe that. Or maybe they did and they didn't care. I don't know. It doesn't make any sense to have to say that. Like, oh well, now boz is the one who, over you know, oversees this. It's like did he really? Or they? Maybe they missed time to the workouts, they didn't test them? I don't know the answer to it, but yeah, I don't even know what to say about it.
Speaker 1:Like, do it right short, medium, long couplets, triplets. Like you gotta have pressing, you gotta have pulling you. You can't make it all for big people, you can't make it all for small people. Like it has to be well-rounded to be the right test, especially when you are getting down to the one and two athletes, because athletes, to qualify, you either need a jam-packed field of athletes who are similar in ability to one another, um, or they're going to need to hit more home runs. That's the only way you get up into first and second.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like you're going to feel like third, fourth, fifth, they're going to feel like they had a better weekend in some instances than one or two, if it's not your runaway winner, like a tia, laura, gabby, whatever. Like they're going to feel like they did better than the other person because they're going to have a 19th, but they're going to go out there and hit a lift. They're going to go out there and hit a sprint workout or they're going to go out there and dominate a long event, whatever it is, whatever their thing is, so um it. When you are only sending one or two athletes per division to the games, the programming becomes so incredibly important. The programming becomes so incredibly important.
Speaker 2:All of it I mean all of it just puts a magnifying glass on everything. The difference between a qualifying spot or not is bad. Judging it's bad. It's bad programming it's. You know, like you. Just again, you give yourself way less room for error, and it's.
Speaker 1:And that's a level of oversight that I feel like is needed, like the whole. Like we don't have the budget or the team. Like do you have a team that you know? Hit me up, I'll share my WOD timing spreadsheet long the workouts are you got to know how many of the people can complete that? Like I? Just that level. That's the only level of oversight I'm asking for. Like hey, why are these all couplets? Why do you only have heavy barbells? Why don't you have anything in between? It's no dumbbells. Like wow, you're doing nine versions of pulling gymnastics and no pressing, or vice versa, right? Like will that level of oversight be there? Cause that's like a one day project. Go back, hey guys. This is, this is decent, but go back to the drawing board please. This doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I mean so to like just devil's advocate that point. It's like you also have there's also parameters to like where, where is this event like? Like geographically, what equipment is available, what equipment is available to get to the? The location be set up on time? Like, how many like volunteers are you able to attract to help set up all of this shit?
Speaker 2:And it's like I I don't know if it like on the one hand, it's like is, does crossfit you? I, I hope I mean the last few years have made me question this even more like are we are, is hq, are we sitting in a room and are we? Are they hopefully thinking of at least the ideas that we're just kind of spitballing on this podcast? Like I'd have to think that those are being considered in a in a fucking conference room, but um, it again. It's just like are they saying like, well, we know this is not a great solution, but the alternative is it's 100% online and 100% under the purview of CrossFit HQ, rigid, much more siloed under CrossFit, and like there's problems with that. Or is it like yep, we're going to do this in-person thing, we have to delegate this out to local entities or, you know, third party programmers and event organizers and stuff like that, because we just can't do it ourselves. It's going to be less than optimal, but it's better than the alternative of no in-person competition.
Speaker 2:And I don't know the answer to that because again it's like what are we trying to do here? Is it it? Is it try to try to attract people to these events? Is it to grow the sport, like I don't fucking know, and the actions being taken, like it's not clear what is trying to be done? In my opinion, Yep.
Speaker 1:Um, I have a CrossFit games header. It doesn't say anything under it. The team says mostly unknown. It does yes, mostly unknown and unknowable. Um, the teams and Indies are in August. The other divisions are unknown. We already talked about the prize purse. Do you have any final thoughts before we tell people what we're going to do about it? Do you just want to like grunt?
Speaker 2:yeah, I'll just grunt, let's just keep going if I think of something well uh, all right, unless you have final thoughts and maybe I'll think of something while you're talking, but I don't.
Speaker 1:Uh, my final thoughts are actually what I'm about to talk about. So I have said this before many times, especially to my my remote clients If what we do at Misfit Athletics was only about fitness, I would have quit a while ago. I believe that the level of human that can be spit out of this meat grinder that is trying to be a competitor in terms of how you handle adversity, how you carry yourself, how you take care of your body, how you attack goals, how you set priorities within your life I think it's a feeder system for incredibly resilient human beings and if those life lessons weren't built into it, I wouldn't have been interested in it. Beyond the like honeymoon phase of being a competitive CrossFit coach, I believe we are building like incredibly resilient human beings by going through this. So if you're listening to this and you're like coach, I'm still passionate about this. It's the journey you know. It's not the destination. I just want to know, like you know, the greatest battle the adaptation takes place between the destination. I just want to know, like you know, the, the greatest battle the adaptation takes place between the years.
Speaker 1:I want to know what I'm made of. I'm going to keep going. This is what I want to do. Well, guess what? This is what I want to do. This is what I do, um, so we're going to talk about how to attack this, like that is our job, that's what. Like, I think the meat of this episode should be um. So, basically, just go down through the programs and, like, I will say that this is probably written in um, maybe not pencil, but like erasable ink. There could be more information out there there's erasable pens.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a lot of different colors.
Speaker 1:Yep, um, a lot of shmegma on the page though. When you use those, I hate that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that checks out, there's a lot of shmegma going on in the last couple years of CrossFit, so a lot of shmeg alright, hatchet athletes.
Speaker 1:We have to tell you what hatchet athletes are. Now there is a new classification for hatchet athletes. If you are not sure if you can make it into the top 1%, if you go back and look at your open finishes and you are anywhere from 1000th in the world to 3000, something like that, you are a hatchet athlete. And if you don't know the answer to that, you're a hatchet athlete. If you look at that top 1500 and you go, okay, like I don't even I don't know I need to peek for the open, I'm gonna go get after it, I'm gonna finish anywhere from 50th to 400th, then you are an mft athlete. Um, so our plan for hatchet athletes, we are going to finish phase two. You have a comment on that, hunter?
Speaker 2:well, I, well, I was just going to like. What does that mean for what program I should be following? Because being in the top 1%, like I can be in the top 1%, like I could theoretically qualify, but I'm certainly not going to be following the MFT program.
Speaker 1:Right, yes, the so. So the MFT program is, I think, is the no doubters. Like I'm qualifying because we have athletes who have qualified for semifinals on hatchet each of the last two years and if you look at their history and their trajectory, prior to making it to that level, they would have been on the fringe qualifying for this semifinal. So again, if you are, I think, I think if you're on the fringe and the open is your Superbowl, therefore you need to peak for the open with the hatchet crew. Like if there's any question whatsoever about you being one of the top thousand or better athletes, you need to be on hatchet.
Speaker 2:Now there's probably some gray area that we can talk about with mft, but like, I think that's what I'm kind of getting at like even even if you are in that top one percent, that doesn't. Even even if you're like confident you're in that top one percent, I would still say that does not put you in the camp of the mft athlete. We're talking like yeah. I just wanted to clarify to make sure yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:So those are your definite hatchet athletes. Yeah, um, open prep peaking phase will start on monday, january 13th, and it will be six weeks long and you will follow a traditional misfit athletics competition peaking program. You'll have low volume at the beginning, very high intensity. You will have peak volume in the middle and then you will come back down towards the open, that peaking phase. Technically the peaking phase is six weeks, but that program will extend the additional three weeks through the open and will be aimed at like okay, we peaked you for week one and we're going to keep you in the shape that we believe you need to be in for those three weeks. So technically it's about a nine-week program, which is like typical to a phase. So you'll have instructions in there for like once we get to the open. Like what do you do if you're going to do this workout on thursday or friday or if you're going to retest? What do you swap in that sort of thing? So very much, the hatchet program will be all in on the open in terms of getting you ready for it and then making sure that you crush it during the MFT program. Phase three will start on that same Monday, january 13th, and it will be nine weeks long, just like a traditional phase. We are not going to ask you to retest workouts during the open, even if you are the 1% of the 1%. That level of stress and adrenaline being thrown around, that often makes absolutely no sense. So I would think of more of a traditional phase for about six weeks and then low volume, high intensity for about six weeks and then low volume, high intensity for about three weeks. Um, that's the way that I would kind of wrap my mind around that um. Now, if you're on, this is this is the question that that hunter brought up if you're on, if you're on the fence about hatchet or mft, we also have to project out to semi-finals. So if you're thinking about the online semi-final and you just have no chance of being in the like top two or three hundred in your division, somewhere in that range just not even sniffing the scores are way different then you should be on hatchet um and there will be a um that I'll get to in a second. There'll be a semi-finals prep program once you, once you get through the open, that you can use for an in-person or the online virtual. But I think it's really just important to note that, like, athletes who have a like somewhat short-term goal of trying to qualify for the games are who should be on MFT. Like my three-year goal is to get to the games. I've done well at semifinals or I've made it to semifinals or I've almost made it to semifinals in the previous iteration, those are the people who should be on MFT. So just sort of an important distinction there. And again, those final three weeks of phase three for MFT athletes will include the open instructions. We will still get you in there and have you crush it because obviously we whittle that number down and a disaster damage control workout could be a problem. So we're going to lock in on that on that.
Speaker 1:I've never been the kind of coach who doesn't let athletes redo a workout unless it's like really a terrible idea. I like the competitive spirit. I like that. I know I can do better at this and in the back of my head it's kind of a win or learn sort of a situation. So don't think that we're going to do a podcast during the open and be like, if you're a no doubter, no redoing, like that sort of thing. I have no issue with redoing workouts. All right, semifinals prep.
Speaker 1:So this will be a sort of standalone seven week program, the way that we would peak someone for a semifinal and you can use it wherever you want. So like, if you're, if you're, signed up for hatchet or mft and you say to us, I want the semi-finals prep program, you will get access to it in fit. Um, so like that will be done somewhat manually, um, but not a big deal. It's what we've done in the past, um, and we'll continue to. You don't need to remember this. Like we'll continue to put that information out there, especially during our open media. But just so you guys know, there will be a seven week program that can be used If you are planning on competing online and at a semifinal.
Speaker 1:Uh, you need a remote coach. Like that's a level of personalization where we're, you know, making some, some origami figures with this program and that program and really figuring out the best way to attack certain things. Cause there's going to be a lot of athletes where it's like I want to compete in person, but am I just going to skip the online semifinal? Am I really just going to say, like, I'm not going to give myself even a chance to do that? I don't see that being realistic. It'd be hard to talk an athlete out of. You need to come in first or second at this competition and that's going to be your only shot. Like that's a tough. Yeah, yeah, I mean statistically.
Speaker 2:I mean we also don't know what, like I have to assume there's going to be a separate qualification process for the in-person event. Are they just going to take your? You're just going to have a a like standing invite if you, you know, place within a certain, a certain placement of the open?
Speaker 1:it's just I know I know you don't know the answer to it, but it's like yeah, because when they did it before they placed people around the country but they could only compete once. This time they're saying fucking go to all of them, we don't care. Yeah, so we don't know. Age group this one is, I would say, kind of like halfway between MFT and Hatchet. So the age group program will have an open prep peaking phase six weeks, just like hatchet um, those additional three weeks aimed at crushing the open workout and potential retest weekly um. But you're going to need to know longer term what your goals are to choose your program here, because there's also going to be age group semi-finals prep um, and age group is the first is first, right, yeah, semi-ifinal, yeah, so these things, the reason I'm bringing this up is because these things would overlap.
Speaker 1:Yeah, your six-week program and your seven-week program would be running concurrently once you get close to the open, so you have to decide like, please, like whatever, scroll back up here. I'm in the 35 to 39.
Speaker 2:Top 700. You finished the Open in mid-March, easy day, and a month later your semifinal is here Exactly.
Speaker 1:So if you are, if they announce how many people are going.
Speaker 2:Less than that, yeah, it's a very quick turnaround A couple weeks, yeah, oh shit, I was looking at the wrong dates.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So, surprise, motherfucker, you're going to have to decide. It's going to have to be more based on what your again, what's your Superbowl like? Is the open great? Carry on through and then hop on to semifinals prep, like where you're at, and we'll help you with instructions with that.
Speaker 1:And discord. Like hey, probably don't jump into the peak of the peaking that could, that could get a little ugly. Um, so we can help you with sort of instructions there on discord. But, um, you're gonna need to and we will do more content on this. You don't need to. You know, like, write this down and be like, remind me to email um so and so on this date, like, we will continue to have this conversation, we'll do podcasts related to it, but you're gonna have to decide based on once we actually know how many signups there are, like, what do I need to accomplish and what are my, what are my goals? Need to be that sort of thing? Um, so, yeah, that's what we're going to do. Um, luckily, when we boil it down, uh, even though we don't know what the programming is going to be like, is now the open more challenging because they're worried about like, or do they have, you know, the back half of a workout or part B is more complicated.
Speaker 1:There's different ways to do this. Are semifinals online semifinals like the open or like quarterfinals, and that there is no bike and it's only shuttle runs or whatever? Here's what we can tell you. Here's what we've known for a long time and haven't strayed from is we use constantly very functional movements, perform at high intensity to create GPP, and that puts you in the best position to crush, no matter what they put out there. Right, like we talk about biasing a certain movement for 98 minutes and then slide in after the fact that it shows up eight times in eight weeks, you can like, or five times in eight weeks.
Speaker 1:Like we know how to get you guys fitter short, medium and long. Like we use. We use the same concepts even when we're biasing something to get you from point a to point b, and I just think it's really important to put out there that we know how to get you guys fitter. Um, and anytime we felt like there's been a misstep in the last 15 years, you know you, you dig in and you figure out how to, how to correct that and how to grow and how to move along. So don't put the responsibility for yourself onto other people. Don't put it on to what's the Open, what's semifinals, what's the CrossFit Games. The responsibility that's put on us is to write the best program to get someone stronger, fitter, more skilled, aerobic, anaerobic, power, output, all of those things. And the responsibility is on you to give everything you got and spit out the other side as fit as you possibly can be, and not try to guess what the programming is going to be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, maybe even contradict myself a little bit from earlier in the podcast, but, like we've seen, to credit to CrossFit and I would say, when it's, when it's under specifically Castro programming it like the workouts that come out of the semifinal, like at semifinals. Last year we saw, like even at the, you know, at the online semifinals, when we were watching like Sherb do his workouts. Those are all pretty simple workouts but they did an effective job of getting the right people to the next level, the boxes that we talked about earlier, for what a sanction should be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it doesn't need to be GHD sit-ups and rope climbs and 30-pound wall balls or 11 or 11 feet target sort of thing. And if the pool of participants is, in theory, larger for an online semifinal like I, you know the it can be. It certainly can be done, and all that matters is that you are working on shoring up your own weaknesses, getting yourself a little bit better than you currently are, and when the programming comes out like the cream, always rise to the top. That's the beauty of gpp.
Speaker 2:It's like the the fittest people always manage to claw their way up the leaderboard and and land in the correct spot yeah, and that's that can be like one of the.
Speaker 1:Again, one of the bright spots of all of this and one of the things that really is like stuck in my head is how incredible the athletes are. It's like there's this inverse thing happening. This is like the fitness level and the strength and the skill is this fucking rocket ship pointed straight up, and then what is happening with the sport feels like a rocket ship pointed straight down, and while that sucks, it brings me back to the point that I've made like three or four times now in all of our discussions related to the games or HQ or whatever it is. I don't want to fucking give it to them. I don't think it's theirs, I think it's for the athletes. I think this is for the athletes. I think it's for the athletes, I think this is for the athletes, and things are going to continue to change and evolve. And who knows what the future of function? I'll even call it fucking the sport of functional fitness. Who knows what the future is for that? But I know for a fact that there is a future to that and I know for a fact that I know how to help people get really fucking good at that. So that's what I'm going to do. Like, if you want to put another name on it, put another name on it.
Speaker 1:Um, but you go to a competition like rogue, and they're like unabashedly themselves, like, hey, these, this, there's gonna be like 275 pound back squats for the women. You just we're gonna program that. We don't care if you like it. Um, and of course everyone thinks that's, thinks that's bad-ass, but like it's the same fucking people yeah, it was Jeff, jason and Brent and it was, you know, going to be Tia, um, laura and Gabby, you know what I mean. Like it's Ariel Owen and Alex Cause, like those and alex, because like those are the people that do well in the open, in quarterfinals, at semifinals, at the crossfit games, whatever you know, at rogue, that sort of thing, and it's like totally different kind of programming. So, um, yeah, we've got a lot of unknowns, but I know, um that we've got a good plan here. Um, I ain't fucking ain't deleting my google sheets account, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:I'm addicted to the sheets. Like that's still what I want to do. I still want to turn the fucking lights off, put the standing desk up, pick a new album and fucking new sheet. Ooh, I love that. Like that's what I want to do, so that's what I'm going to keep doing. Um, and you know, I hope that that our athletes have that. Look in the mirror and decide like this is worth continuing to do for myself, like that sort of thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if you're not going to do it for yourself, then that's probably writing on the wall anyways, and maybe the motivation wasn't there to begin with. But, like, um, that's what I'm hoping and, honestly, that's aside from the initial response, which we're all very used to athletes having a initial response to a change. It's tough. Yeah, um, you know, this is like, this is like my livelihood or like my deepest passion, and they keep doing all this weird shit like that can't be easy for them to go through, um, but then it's like hey, what are we going to do here? Like, are you just going to get back to work? Like that fucking C2 bike ain't going to ride itself, Come on let's go, I'm like oh yeah, this is what I do, this is what I want to do.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I think that's that's kind of where my final thoughts were going. Is that like, unfortunately, every time crossfit shoots themselves in the foot, you get people. People become less motivated to be part of that thing. Previously it was. It was like the goal to be on the big stage of a regional or a semi-final or crossfit games like that was motivating in itself and people are doing that for their own reasons, which is awesome. And to to be able to, you know, to to compete in an environment with other high level athletes, with people watching, with people screaming at you and stuff like that. That's, that's that's motivating. For me personally, that was a huge motivator to when you in my short competitive tenure, it was like I want to, yeah, I want to be on, I want to be on that stage, I want to have that, you know, kind of the the lights, the theatrics of it, and that's when crossfit was like call it the golden age of crossfit. So, um, now I think, just as those things keep, we keep changing these things, we keep, you know, again, what happened at the CrossFit games is going to obviously impact how people, how, how much people choose to participate. But what doesn't need to change is like how you internalize, like kind of your place in the CrossFit ecosystem. Is it is who I am a competitor or am I somebody who, like, uses the competitive season as CrossFit as a metric for my own personal progress? And you have to remember too, like the ultimate goal of the CrossFit Games to find the fittest on earth. The root of that at the base level is like are you improving your own fitness in such a way that is going to help you live a long, healthy, functional life? The path the the competitive side is is kind of a you know a small detour along that much larger highway. Uh, that takes you to, hopefully, a. You know that kind of that. You know, 95 years old and still fucking snatching a pvc pipe, you know, or something like that. That's the. That should be the end goal for everybody who's listening to the podcast.
Speaker 2:And the competitive side can be a. It can be a flash in the pan for some, it can be a longer term thing for others, but it I think you really just have to reframe what like, what exactly it means to you to to step into kind of the competitive arena versus like what am I actually doing crossfit for? And then leverage the power that that exists in the, the affiliate, when you're working out with other people, when you're, when you're following a program and you get to retest something and you show improvement. It's not like, you know, I can't. Now I can. Now I can squat, snatch 225 in a competition. It's like, no, you just added six months to your life by adding five pounds to your squat snatch, you know, and almost thinking about it in terms like that. So, um, we'll, we'll see. There's going to be a wide range of responses. I think open registrations will tell the tale and in a lot of ways, that might indicate what the long, long term future of the CrossFit games looks like yeah, my final thoughts are probably fairly short.
Speaker 1:This is what we do, so we're going to do it. Um and again, the the people are going to have different motivations and different opinions, but the question that I think needs to be asked is are you going to continue to do this? Are you going to continue to train this way, for whatever reason it is? And if the answer is yes, here's what I think the plan is, and I'm just going to double and triple down on it. I just I don't want to give this thing away.
Speaker 1:Like, okay, these people fucked up, so they're the ones that get to take over and kind of ruin it. When I again, I just never thought that it was theirs to begin with. Like they're the ones that get to take over and kind of ruin it when I again, I just never thought that it was theirs to begin with. Like they're the governing body, and who knows if they'll remain the governing body indefinitely for what people want.
Speaker 1:Um, but the the, what is happening within the sport happens, you know, 300 days a year in affiliates, with coaches and programs and athletes grinding their ass off, and they don't just, it's the like. One or two times a year you get to compete. It's just not enough, um, for that to be the reason why you do what you do um. So I think now is the time to really lean on, like auditing do you know why you do what you do, um? And if the answer has more to do with what I alluded to before in terms of creating the type of human that you want to be, then I say you, stick with it for people of all ability levels and like, ultimately, the goal is for you to get fitter.
Speaker 2:How you choose to express that, whether it's, you know, during retest week for Misfit Athletics or trying to compete at the highest level possible in a CrossFit sanctioned event, it doesn't really fucking matter. The point is is that we have programs that are designed to make you the fittest and healthiest version of yourself. How you choose to express that is on you and is completely independent of exactly what you're saying. And the fact that, like, there's a lot to be gained for doing a fitness program that pushes your current capacity levels to the right and, again, whether you choose to compete or not is irrelevant to the fact that, like, this program is designed to make you fitter, healthier, live longer and just be a general better person across all areas of life, not just your fucking 21, 15, 9s very true.
Speaker 1:Do we do it? We're doing it. Thank you for tuning into another episode of the misfit podcast. Make sure you head to misfiticscom or kind of just the link in bio on social media to start your seven day free trial of our programming. And if you're looking for our affiliate programming, you can head to the Sugar Wad Marketplace or TeamMisfitcom.
Speaker 2:Guaranteed 500 pound deadlift with the affiliate programming. Take you 14 years, but guaranteed I guarantee it probably is going to happen yep, guaranteed, probably going to happen.
Speaker 1:Um, and guess what? Next week we will have a good old-fashioned episode about some meathead shit where we tell you how to get stronger. So if you want to listen to that next, guess what it's finally dropping if I listen to that first, I Guess what it's finally dropping.
Speaker 2:If I listened to that first, I might have pulled 510.