Europe Is Coming

Weekly Update - WFP London Preview/Coaches Congress

• The Progrm

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SPEAKER_00

Hello everyone, welcome back to the WFP. Sorry, let me start that again. Let me start that again. Might trim that out. Oh we are going to talk about WFP, and I for some reason I had that in my brain.

SPEAKER_01

Uh we've been we've been brought out by the WFP and uh the podcast has changed.

SPEAKER_00

Yes. Apologies for the confusion, everyone. Welcome back to the Europe Is Coming podcast. As you can tell, I'm here with John as always. How are you, John?

SPEAKER_01

I am I'm good. It was another week, another travel, which is kind of how my uh previous life was. But I'm glad that is not my current life.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you said that a goal for for last year and still this year was to travel a little bit less because travel's uh something you get get up to, go into all these comps and uh and different different engagements that you do a lot. Yeah, apologies everyone. We are gonna talk about WFP, which is why I was on the brain. We were literally just having a chat off-air about topics for today, but we're gonna start with the reason that John was travelling, and that was Coach's Congress, which was in which is in was it in Madrid this yeah, John?

SPEAKER_01

It was in Madrid first ever time in Spain. Oh, cool. And how was it? Yeah, I think it was really good. Um uh Henrik, the the guy and his wife Heather, uh I think they've done a really clever thing where just getting all coaches together and creating this format that's educational in nature is really nice. It was it was a bit strange because all the people that I saw there, I'm so used to seeing at competition and it felt you know all the same people who'd typically be at a competition, you know, maybe not as full as that, but then there were no athletes there, which you know has its advantages sometimes. Uh uh so yeah, I think it was really fun, and I really hope it starts to develop because I think it can be something really important for the space, both you know, for coaches and business owners. I think this thing is it's called Coaches Congress, but ultimately like there are a lot of gym owners there. Um so I think there's this there's an educational side for coaches, but I would say the biggest thing is more of a business development for the the gym owners. And the thing I realized is for myself especially, we we've never really done this in the space, like it's quite common in other spaces, you know. The last time I had to like I did a presentation, last time I had to go through a presentation like that was like my thesis at university, like 20 years ago, however long it is. Um and I think it's I think it's nice because it it just makes it a bit more professional and formalises things in a bit of a different way. So it's like a really nice addition to the space.

SPEAKER_00

And and you kind of mentioned the the gym owners and coaches, but who typically goes? What's the crowds there? If someone's listening and maybe they are a coach or a gym owner and haven't either heard of it or haven't sort of thought about going, what what's the kind of general vibe?

SPEAKER_01

So I suppose it, you know, maybe it's because it's on my mind or maybe not, but going to FIBO the weekend before, and obviously FIBO is just the world's biggest fitness expo. But when you go to Coaches Congress, they do have like a little vendors' village. So you know, you can maybe try different equipment, like FitAid were there, so you can sample Fit Aid, maybe that's useful for your box. You had Velitas who are doing their like latest closed selling line for boxes. So I think it's a really useful place just to go and explore different ideas that can help you. They then they don't you know host various classes with you know, like Michelle Latendre was there. There was a sponsor by Hardwork Pays Off, the title sponsor, so whole Hardwork Pays Off. They were doing like snatch classes with Josh or Clean and Joke with Michelle. I think Fraser did some workouts as well. Um but uh yeah, I think for it's like gym owners who go and then also want to bring their coaches to upskill their coaches. And yeah, I think if you're a micro gym owner, the lectures are you know, the lectures are obviously good, but also just being able to speak with other micro gym owners because you don't usually get that in the space. And I I think it's just you know, when you go to a competition, it's not as focused on that environment. So it's like a space for gym owners, uh micro gym owners, which has never really happened before. So I think it's a really nice incentive.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, nice. They they do sort of some of that at certain comps, don't they? Like I know at the games they sometimes have like a bit of a coach's meetup and and hot and host different events similar to that. But Coach's Congress has sort of become like a standalone thing on its own, right?

SPEAKER_01

Exactly. And you know, what the games have done, they've always done like their affiliate lounge or affiliate talking for for CrossFit affiliates, which completely makes sense. But the freedom that Henrik has uh and Heather is a lot more than CrossFit because you know, like for example, like the IF3 were there, so Gretchen was talking about the IF3, or it it's just not as confined to the CrossFit ecosystem, so you can really go out and and look without having any worrying political obligations, and that makes it better for the gym owners because they get just a more uh varied outlook, I suppose. Nice, nice, and what was your talk on? So, my title the title of the talk was how to future proof your gym uh and business. And it was mainly about goal setting, like the decisions that we make in the program or how we go through our decision-making process in order to come up to things. And it was it was nice, like it was a surprising amount of work having to put together uh a 40-minute talk.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. It takes it takes time. I mean, that's sort of my day job is like doing those sorts of things, presentations and and training and being in front of people, and yeah, it does take quite a lot a while to like.

SPEAKER_01

I should have I should have asked you to have you know crash course on how to put this thing together.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, well, I think I think there is there's sort of something about kind of doing going through it and doing it yourself that make you own it so that you when you present it, it's like really you just know it inside out.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it it it does help because you know you can't just read from a piece of paper and and just talking for without having, you know, most conversations you enter a flow. And I'm also not I'm not someone who typically can just go off on a subject and and unless I get a specific question and go down a rabbit hole. But I I really enjoy like the back and forth conversation thing to explore ideas, etc. But just talking at people for 40 minutes, that's like a bit of a you know a different a different challenge. And obviously, we like the thesis when I did it at university. I mean, you know that's inside out, and so it was fun to look back through and formulate stuff. So you know, I enjoyed the experience of of doing it, and I think it's you know, like I say, overall just very beneficial for the space. Like I think the space can really do stuff like that. Sorry for anyone watching, that's uh a cattail that has uh not some yeah, not some funky effect that has one screen.

SPEAKER_00

Very cool. Well, maybe we can get Henrik on or Heather on the podcast at some point to talk about it. That'd be quite cool, maybe. I don't they're open to that or something like that, but that'd be quite cool.

SPEAKER_01

I asked him, he says he doesn't like doing them, but maybe we can maybe we can convince him.

SPEAKER_00

Nice, nice. So uh yeah, if you're thinking about checking out Coach's Congress, it sounds like it was a really great weekend. I might have to try and get myself a crop a long term.

SPEAKER_01

They're doing one in London. Oh, sick. Yeah, so we'll we'll get him a con. And yeah, I it's just nice because you work round like-minded people as well, you know, as they go cross-fit guys, and it's nice not having the focus of a compet. Well, at least for me, I don't know if that's true for everyone, but it's nice not having the like diluted focus of a competition.

SPEAKER_00

I know what you mean. When you go to a competitive, also it's like loud music and stuff going on, you're generally running around trying to like either not a lot of people said that about the music.

SPEAKER_01

Because you get so tired from a competition because you know and speak over things. And you know, it's interesting that a lot of people mentioned it was nice just not having blaring music all the time. We're just getting we're getting older, Adam. We're just getting yeah. This is I mean, this is it's a pretty tragic conversation actually, then to start to reflect on these things.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, the the 40-year-old CrossFitters who are like, oh, competitions are so loud and busy. And yeah, can't we just have a quiet space to talk? Yeah, yeah. We just want a like a cup of tea or coffee in like a cafe where we could all just mingle and talk. Yeah, have a maybe a bit of a flapjack or something. And those that's the sign of when you've uh been doing CrossFit a while. Before we jump into WFP, I just wanted to kind of ask your thoughts on some of the media we've been seeing as well. Because the last couple of weeks, Buttery Bros kind of dropped their um sort of WFP documentary, which I thought was was excellent. Laurel Horvath did uh just dropped a uh documentary on her season, which she collabed with Rogue, which I thought was really cool. You actually make a little sneak appearance in in that talking to her and Christoph. Yeah, there's a there's a little cutaway scene that they use as b-roll with where you guys are talking. Uh so yeah, it and and and mayhems kind of did their wrap-up uh content like video for for the competition, which again I thought was was really good. And had a look at some of the comments and people kind of saying that it's sort of like the best media they'd seen outside of of what the Butry Bros had done for CrossFit and their own content. So we seem to be starting to get some more. I mean, one of the things that we've talked about in a lot, I think, since we started started the podcast back up was um as was the media and the importance of it for the athletes. And it still feels like we're starting to get some high-level media come back into the space. I want to kind of get your thoughts.

SPEAKER_01

So mayhem have always done like they I mean they the level of their media has been great. I mean, they produce like films and things like this, and and I also think that the media outside of CrossFit HQ has never been better. You know, you've got all these podcasts, you've got you know, like uh Sean is following Lucy to produce her YouTube and but the the athletes Laura does her stuff, you know, the the the uh Boys Interrupted podcasts, etc. You know, then they all have their own YouTube channels. But I still think that because it's not coming from CrossFit, it just lacks the unity of bringing everyone together. Because mayhem's mayhem, WFP is WFP, etc. etc. And because there's this central missing hole in our training world, it's just not it, it just doesn't get replaced and doesn't carry the same same excitement. And I think that despite I I would even say, you know, probably what's being produced now is better than what CrossFit did back in the day because the skills of the creators involved and the stories, etc. So I think even despite the fact that the level of media is better, it doesn't get the same traction interest because it doesn't come directly from CrossFit.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I I tend to agree. I actually did a bit of an exercise and I kind of went back and I had a look at like a lot of the old games, uploads viewing on on YouTube. So like how many of the CrossFit just the live streams, and they were like a lot more than a lot of the new ones. Uh but then even comparing that, like even the newer, the newer ones compared to things like the Butry Bros have been putting out or WFP, and it is quite stark in terms of the view, the viewership, to be quite honest, between the two, and it kind of pays into what you were you were talking about. About like for instance, I'll share, I'll share this, I'll bring this up quickly. Uh let me do this. Two seconds. For instance, just looking at this like road to the games for um 2017, the three the three of the Icelandics, no, sorry, Katrin, uh Teer Claire, um Sara, and Sam Briggs eight years ago, 1.8 million views. It's just a road to the games episode. And then if you compare that to like something like the Unbreakable episode they just released for WFP recently, which was with Anal Akai and Hannah Black, which is kind of like WSP version of Road to the Games. It's had you know 14,000 views, which is great, but it's nowhere near what we were talking about with with CrossFit from back in the day, just for uh this essentially the same product. Uh and again, a Road to the Games episode with Matt Fraser versus the World, which had 2.4 million views. So they're not, and these are just the kind of hype build-up to the start of the season. They're not the main, they're not the documentaries, they're not the actual games live. And I think I know that you've said it many times. You look at someone like Sara compared to modern-day cross-athletes now, their their followings online are not comparable, and I think that's kind of maybe where it pays into a little bit more.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I obviously agree on the point. I I think maybe, no, it might be again. I'm just pulling from memory here, but maybe the only series that gained as much traction and popularity in that time outside of CrossFit Media was when they did it on Fraser from bodybuilding.com. Um, and that's maybe the most yeah, because Fraser was, you know, his personality couldn't going back in the day, so you had like Annie and Catherine who'd won the games, and CrossFit was all this like, you know, be happy, love everyone. Uh and then Fraser came in and he was just this fucking badass training in his basement. And uh it changed like the energy and it almost changed the fashion of the sports. I I think like you know, Annie's hashtag was like all smiles. And uh, Fraser was just a badass.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, he was definitely not all smiles, you know, riding around on his bike and and he was there was an element of shit talking that he kind of gave, like even at the you know, even in the documentaries, he wasn't shy of kind of like give putting a bit of needle in there. And I think I mean there was always been a bit more of that, I think, on the guy side of the house, just because they kind of tend to in the back maybe talk friendly kind of jabs, but with a little bit of smack talk in but in the back of it. But but he was the first one to start start doing on camera quite a lot. Um, and I think this is the one you were talking about, beginnings Matt Fraser making the champion part one, the bodybuilder.com, which had 2.4 million views.

SPEAKER_01

And it is fucking epic. Like, you know, it's you know, I suppose this is like if you if we're going back through the history of CrossFit, this is like in the middle, the middle time as CrossFit's kind of getting to its peak, maybe a bit just before. And it's just super badass. Like the guys, like you know, just training so hard and really resonated with the feelings of a lot of the the community at that time. And he like I think this documentary here like set the way for where CrossFit was then going into its peak years. Because this is nine years ago, yes, this is like 2017, 16, 17, or whatever it is. Yeah, 17. Just like so, yeah, just probably just pre-peak, something like that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, it was definitely part of the part of the touch paper that got lit 2016, 2017, 2018, just as Matt Fraser kind of like started winning. And it looks like RX Mindset, I'm not sure, I'm not familiar with the channel, but they it looks like they've kind of taken the bodybuilding.com content, perhaps, and spliced it all together into an R46 documentary. And even that's had 1.3 million views. So I think it's the repurposed content of what we're talking about, uh, all stitched together, and they've got, yeah, 1.3 million views on that.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And and you know, so I think that that's probably the only thing I would say that's come out at the time that was maybe as um at the level of this and Netflix, obviously. I mean, Netflix was I mean, you don't know the views that Netflix gets, but that just catapulted, crossed onto a new level. I because I appeared in the documentary, not that much, but I would get messages from people I was with at school that had no idea about. And they're like, oh man, I you know, and this is since I was 13 years old, I hadn't seen this guy. Oh, I saw your Netflix. The re Yeah, it's just really hard to understand the reach. And the impact that it had for Sarah was just mind-boggling. The growth that she she got. I think when when we went to games, she maybe had 10,000 followers or something like that. She wasn't very well known in in the space. After the Netflix documentary, you know, it wasn't exactly, but pretty much overnight jumped to a million. You know, it's just crazy.

SPEAKER_00

It is nuts what any kind of network explos exposure, sorry, gets you. It just it is crazy. Absolutely crazy.

SPEAKER_01

So yeah, I I know it's this it's almost sad looking back because you're like, ah, the it was it was so much good stuff.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and it and it's tricky because I mean we've talked about it a lot, like just I mean, there are certainly reasons, but just how you know there were some of the things that happened after that just around the media and what kind of what what it prevented is frustrating for for a lot of people, I think, in the space. But but it does also show the gap we at have at the moment and the fact that the media just doesn't seem to be cutting through, even though I think that some of the media is like really, really good. Um and the other thing it made me think about is just the fragmentation of of the season, because WFP arguably this year, I mean I hope I hope I'm wrong, but arguably has got a more fragmented field than it than it did last year, in the sense that a lot of big hitters are choosing to prioritize the CrossFit season. And um watching that documentary back, it might not be as exciting.

SPEAKER_01

And it's like this, you know, this time like the the this time last year, whenever it was, you know, it's after games. But the uh WFP uh in Indianapolis, I think, was the tour one. I mean, the field was stacked, and it was more stacked than uh than the games field. I mean, people want to debate that back and forth, but it was basically a more stacked field. But now this year, it certainly is not, you know, it's like there's it lost a lot of that momentum with the athletes, which I I think the conclusion I keep coming back to is CrossFit just has to get its its uh shit together. I don't know if we get I don't know if we get even more like push down the algorithm for uh for swearing now, but it's true. Like it needs to come century because mayhem, the story that mayhem can tell, right? It's not okay, it's the mayhem classic, but it's not like you're winning the CrossFit games. You're you've got the athletes that you follow, and so it's like a subsection of the niche that you can only ever tell the story of. Whereas the CrossFit games are getting the fittest athlete on earth to win. And that storytelling process is so much more powerful than the storytelling process that someone else has. And the WFP, I mean, it's you know, to get the history and the legacy of all these things that have happened, it's just you can't shortcut time. Despite how good quality your documentary is.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and even the competition. I mean, it's you know, I know some people have been have been on on some podcasts and some media platforms, certainly in the early days of WFP, were critical of certain elements of it. But I think just coming out of the gate and putting on such a strong broadcast and competition, every every element of it feels very professional. And and having people at Adi Das on Red Bull involved from day one, it's it's got all the makings to to grow. But like you said before, if the athletes aren't there, I think that's the that's the issue, you know, and it's again for someone like Laura wanting to see her up against the the best of the female athletes because she is arguably top one, top two in the sport right now, and we don't always get to see her against maybe all the rest of the top field, or certainly not all of them in one go.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and and CrossFit can get like I think the some of the most popular stuff while Savan became so big is he just point and shoots, I think it's like like you know, 15 hours or something ridiculous of behind the scenes footage. And people would watch all 15 hours of Savannah just point and shooting and asking questions behind the games because it you know, it wasn't the quality of of filming and stuff obviously wasn't as high, but the the story was so powerful and that's why it became interesting to watch.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Right. Speaking of WFP, should we transition into a bit of a preview of what's coming up in London this weekend? Yes. So the workouts have been released. I'll pull them up on screen now for those who are watching this. So WFP London Pro. Um I couldn't find this on the website, so I had to like phalangle my way into Instagram, even though I don't really have an Insta account anymore to kind of get in there. But we have London Pro 1, which is four uh rounds for time, 25 toaster bar, 500 meter run, 15 overhead squats. What are your thoughts on the first workout? It's got a 20-minute time cap.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I mean it's I think it's like a fine, a fine workout. You know, nothing too crazy. Gymnastics, weightlifting, and as CrossFit would like to call it monostructural stuff, kind of all coupled together.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I should have mentioned the barbell is 83 kilos for the guys, 56 for the ladies, which is for an overhead squat after 25 toast bar and running, it's gonna get pretty uh pretty har hard to hold on to for 15 overhead squats. Um that last round I imagine is gonna start getting real wobbly on the old on the old shoulders. Yeah. Gassy.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I think it'll be you know the the well-conditioned athlete, like well-conditioned CrossFit athletes are definitely going to uh to be taking this one.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you think you think uh everyone goes unbroken on the overhead squats?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I would I would think so. I mean I the level is l is lower, but yes, I mean the the top athletes will be. I don't think you'll be too much of a trouble for them. It's also the cost, the time, the time cost. I I see if this is the thing, they won't be because you're not so punished for breaking the toaster bar time-wise. So whereas the overhead squats, because you have to set the bar down and then snatch it up again, the it's just like the the cost of division on the toaster bar is you know, you it's the kind of thing where you can get someone going like in a couple of sets and actually finishing at the same time as someone who's done one set because of rep speed, whereas the break in the overhead squats doesn't allow that same same thing to occur. It it might depend a bit on if they have to like advance the bar, uh, because that walking with the bar overhead adds fatigue, whereas if you can kind of drop and roll, the the division is not as noticeable. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00

So that's workout one. Workout number two is four time, eight for the guys, six for the ladies, short rope climbs, then a 27-meter handstand walk with power with pirouettes, 120 weighted double unders, 27 meter handstand walk with pirouettes, uh, back to the short rope, another eight or or six rope climbs, and then 27 meter handstand walk again with pirouettes, and then 120 weighted double unders. So all skill and gymnastics. The handstand walk is as I mentioned, 27 meters, which is 90 feet. The pirouette required is in each nine meter or 30 foot section, and then the time cap is 13 minutes.

SPEAKER_01

Um I think it's you know, another fine workout. I think the the thing that's like I think the thing with WFP is like should they offer we've spoken about before where you combine all of the whole season together rather than just separate workouts? Because I do think it needs to add to something. You've got this competition that qualifies people through, and honestly, during this this next semi-final period, we're gonna have so many workouts that that come out and go through. It's like I I think they had an opportunity to do something slightly different. Um, and I don't think they're necessarily uh doing that, you know, it's just like six workouts, three days. Okay, it's like another semi-finals, which is kind of what the tour stops are, leading to a a final event that will have have more. So it's like almost, I mean it's basically exactly the same as the the CrossFit games. But I think like the workouts that they've programmed, I you know, it will suit a certain type of athlete just because it's very hard not to do it with uh with programming. But in essence, this could slot right into a semi-final, you know, is this could be one of the semi-final programming from from one of the weekends that we have coming up.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I know what you mean. How do you feel about things like like the pirouettes in handstand with in handstand walks and sort of uh this every 30 foot or nine metres doing them?

SPEAKER_01

I think it's I think it's okay. I think you for it's interesting where the advancement of certain things goes. Because let's take the when the parallel bars came up at the games, I don't think they worked as well for the handstand walk, but I think they worked really well for the traverse and the dips.

SPEAKER_00

I agree.

SPEAKER_01

And it's a bit like this with the handstand, like, because it doesn't take too much away the pirouette. Um, and arguably, you know, it it rewards someone who's very skillful on their on their hands. So I don't think it's the worst. I think it becomes bad when you put a movement in that just bottlenecks and only a few people can do it and it gets through, whereas most people be able to get get through this okay. No.

SPEAKER_00

Moving on, London Pro 3. Full time. We have 50 calorie row for the guys, 40 for the ladies, 25 burpee box jumpovers, 50 dumbbell goblet squats, 50 and 40 calorie ski, 25 burpee box jumpovers, and then 50 dumbbell thrusters. Um, the box is 20 inch for everyone by the looks of things, and then the goblet squats are 45 kilos or 32.5 kilos, and then the dumbbell thruster is two 22 and a half to 215. So standard sort of crossfit weights for the thrusters, but one single heavy dumbbell goblet squat, which I actually quite like, if I'm honest. I think it's quite cool to see a goblet squat in uh in competition. Uh, I don't know how it'll play out from a judging and mechanics and that kind of point of view, because we don't haven't really seen it before, but from a stimulus perspective, I quite like it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, agreed. I mean it's it's like kind of within the realms of what's possible. It's kind of interesting that they didn't just go with the two dumbbells. And just do like a front front squat. Well, because it's exactly the same weight, more or less, for the for the guys at least and the girls. So why not just do dumbbell front squats? I don't think stimulus is going to be too much different.

SPEAKER_00

No, and arguably slightly nicer positionally to have it in a goblet rather than have to wrestle on your shoulders, especially as you've been frostbits already, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Uh so yeah, it's kind of a weird choice of going one adding one dumbbell at a different weight. But I think you know it's kind of like a nice there and back chipper type thing. Start the row, kind of you swap the the row for the ski and move things around. It I think again it's like a nice solid crossfit workout.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I I quite like this one. I totally agree. So so far, steady steady, steady workouts, but like you say, very much kind of got a semi-final vibe of feeling so far, which maybe isn't necessarily criticism, but I do think what you were saying about there is potential for them to do something really interesting where they show the test of fitness across across an entire year.

SPEAKER_01

Because semi-finals right now, you know, obviously we we program Madrid. And so, you know, it's not like we're gonna go and do something completely out of the norm, we're gonna program like semi-finals are programmed or regionals are programmed back in the day. So it's kind of weird that these guys when you have the you know, if we had the opportunity to do something different or experiment, you know, it's I think it would be cool to do because I knew you can tell a whole different story, but especially considering we have how many semifinals are there, 10, 12, something like that. So to kind of stick this in as another one in the same season at the same time, it kind of lacks, I think, a bit of a distinguishing factor. I know what you mean.

SPEAKER_00

Moving on to Pro 4A and Pro 4B. So Pro 4A is a one rep max deadlift. Uh they've got an eight-minute time cap. Sorry, I should have mentioned as well. I didn't give the time cap for the last one. And the last one is 16-minute time cap on Pro 3. So if you're audio only and you're like, well, what was the time cap? 16 minutes for Pro 3. On to Pro 4A and Pro 4B. So Pro 4A is one rep max deadlift, eight-minute time cap. Um, there's a minimum work requirement for this, so there has to be a you have to hit a deadlift, 143 for guys or 102 kilos for ladies. I think we've seen before where people have been injured and and and things, and they put in this minimum work requirement to make sure that you're at least doing the movement, not getting an advantage by not lifting, I guess. Um, and then there's a two-minute rest, and then it's four-time hundred calorie echo bike or 75 for the ladies, and that's got a seven-minute time cap.

SPEAKER_01

It'd be interesting. I wonder if they're I haven't seen the scoring, if they're scored uh like 50 points, 50 points, or half scoring. Uh, but they I mean we're probably gonna see some crazy weights. And WFP of kind, I mean, this is maybe one thing with WFP if they've had a bit of a style, it's like giving them a long, long time to hit uh a one lift, and that what that means is you see big weights like I just I don't know. I mean, we've only seen a few do it in the crossfit space, but yeah, maybe we get close to a 300 deadlift, which is pretty ridiculous.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, definitely. Um get Sam Dancer out here for for another go. It was always fun seeing him with a deadlift bar. And uh it was actually he that kind of reminded me seeing it like the last time I remember deadlifts in in competition with Rogue, but then what I think 20 2023, maybe 2022, when tears kind of come back. Uh Rogue, they did deadlifts, I believe, and then and then at famously at the game of 2016 games at the ranch where they had the deadlift ladder, which was like one of my favourite events ever. It was that was sick. So always cool to see deadlifts, and then it's gonna be interesting to see how people attack the the Echo bike.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I mean there's only one way to attack it. It's just uh it's pretty obviously like it you can you can really like fry yourself in these workouts if you if you wanted to, like going going all in on a deadlift and then going all in on an echo bike is like you know, you can feel pretty wobbly for a few days after that. Definitely.

SPEAKER_00

Well, we've got Roman Kranikoff, I believe, at this event, so it'll be interesting to see. I'm sure he'll send the Echo bike. On to Pro 5. This is for time, it's an ascending ladder. So one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight reps. So one ring muscle up, then 18-meter sandbag, bare hug carry, then two ring muscle ups, eighteen-meter sandbag, bare hug carry, and so forth and so on, until you completed eight. Uh the sandbag weight is 90 kilos for guys, 68 kilos for ladies, and the carry distance, as I mentioned, is 18 metres, otherwise 60 feet. And there's an 11-minute time cap for this.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I you know, I I think a solid workout. I I imagine actually Dubai, I think, had a great verse for this. You know, were we talking last week about the going unbroken, how that affected yeah, we were talking about after mayhem that came a factor. So Dubai had done this before where you had to do like the ring muscle ups unbroken. I can't remember the rep scheme, and that made it very exciting as well. So I think this was like, you know, for an for an excitement kind of thing, the unbroken nature of this could have been like uh a good play. Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_00

But I I don't hopefully we'll get that just because people will be sort of racing and and you'll be getting towards the last sets of ring muscle ups, and people will be pushing when they go and trying to hold on because they see people next to them. So hopefully there's some racing. But um, this is the type of workout that will get that kind of like those kind of races towards the end of it, I think.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

But definitely. This is this so far. This is, I think, gonna be the my favourite one to watch. It's my prediction.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, you're right. There's a lot of opportunity for people to the fatigue, you have to go a bit harder than you want, and therefore you you're probably gonna get some people who come close to failure at the end.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, this and the echo bike. I'm not gonna lie. I mean I'm hope I'm hoping this is on a this is on the Sunday, and yeah, that deadlift echo is the last one on the on the Saturday, because that would be mean to go into. I would not want to do max deadlift, max echo bike, and then have to do this afterwards. I think I'd be pretty fried. I want to go to bed, so it's good that's on the end of end of end of Saturday, that Echo Bike workout. And then Pro 6 final workout for the day is three rounds of time, 25 power snatches, and nine metre barbell overhead walking lunge.

SPEAKER_01

I I must say I like this because they've kept it light.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, a 34 for guys, 25 for ladies.

SPEAKER_01

Um, and I think that it has the opportunity to have actual racing in. You know, if they'd have made it made it heavier, you wouldn't see the racing as much. And so so I think it's fun to see the lighter barbell back and some good racing. Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_00

How do you feel about nine-meter barbell uh overhead walking lunge? Like nine meters doesn't seem I could be completely wrong, but doesn't seem that far from a distance perspective.

SPEAKER_01

No, I I think it's more that it'll just keep adding to the fatigue of like if you really want to push, you just hold on, keep going, hold on, keep going. So I think it's more just accumulating fatigue in that position. It will make the workout just that bit more nasty. I mean, you'd almost got the same effect if you just had to pause there with the barbell overhead. But obviously it wouldn't be spectator-friendly, but um but yeah, I think it's more just a bit more accumulated fatigue in that position. Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00

And what else are you looking forward to this weekend from London? Have you got anything that you're kind of looking forward to seeing or any anything that you're gonna be kind of watching it for?

SPEAKER_01

Um I think I'll do a great job. Like Copenhagen was just great competition. I think it's gonna be I think it's gonna be a really well done competition. You know, broadcast is gonna be good. Like Hanno always managed to do a really good job on the broadcast. I think it's just identifying the why. Because now you don't have all the elite athletes in the same way that they're at the game. So it's like okay, what's the why gonna be of how I move this thing forward, or why should I follow this? Um because also this weekend there is also Coppa Saw, Far East, and Magic City in in Alabama. I don't believe Magic City has any individual spots, I need to confirm that. But then you've got Far East and Capasul going on at the same time, who will have like this set of workouts as well. Um so I I think that's that's my main, you know. I think they're gonna do a good job competition, it's gonna be a decent level, but actually the storytelling behind it, I think, now has become a bit more important.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, agreed. And just having a having a a bit of a look. Oh, what just having a bit of a look at some of the athletes going because uh that's one of the things I find hardest. And actually, I kind of I mentioned the workouts, like going onto WFP's website. I wish they kind of made it really clear where the workouts were, who's who's attending, like on the torsat one web page website of the website, uh it's hard to sometimes find exactly who's going and and and the workouts and things like that. But at the moment on the leaderboard, we have James Brague, Rome McCrenicoff, Gil Maharas, Tudor Magda, Chandler Smith, Yonikoski, Anna Lakai, Jack Farlow, Colton Muttons, Yella Hoste, Platchik Velner, Travis Mayer, Ty Jenkins, BKG, Chris Abarra. So there's some really um Lucas going as well, Nick Matthew, Tyler Marricino. There's some there's some uh big hitters from from the guys going from a leadable perspective in the top 20. Once we start getting past the top 20, you've got people like Spencer Panchik, but start to become less well-known names, I would say. And which is cool because it means that there's going to be some new up-and-coming athletes getting an opportunity. And so one makes money, but two kind of get themselves in front of the audiences. Um, but yeah, I think um I think certainly sort of like the top 20 of people would be going to going primarily going to watch. And on the women's side, we've got Laura Horvath, Amy Kringle, Ariel Lowen, Emma Toole, Libby Kerstetta, Sidney Wells, Andrew Solberg, um, who I'm sure is licking her lips at the uh hands down walk event that we we previewed. Uh Lydia Fish, who's starting to make some waves in the in the field, Sidney Michelichin, Emmy Rolfe, Danny Spiegel, Hannah Black, uh Manon Agonese, Jennifer Moore, Oda, Lungvam, Ella Wilkinson, and then we again Fisa Gaffi. We start getting to names where probably a lot of your average CrossFit viewers aren't familiar with. So again, great opportunity for Ah, Sarah's going as well. I did see that actually. So Sarah's on the leaderboard, which I'm sure a lot of people are stoked about to see her in competition again. Um, but a great opportunity for for loads of new up-and-coming athletes and for us to see some and also for Europeans, because that's one thing I've noticed. There's a lot of Europeans in both the men's and the women's uh fields for for WFP this year.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, agreed. I think the Europe's the big one. I'm quite interested to see which athletes go as well because like James Spray competed last weekend before athletes who probably have other competitions coming up. Uh you know, it's Roman Roman did mayhem.

SPEAKER_00

I Roman's Roman's sitting sweet, you know. Yeah. Roman's also yeah, he he just seems to love com competing regardless of like how his body's actually feeling.

SPEAKER_01

But he did he did say he was going to be at this event, so um because right now Roman and James, the only two, I think including on the female side, who have their tickets and competing. Oh really? So, in some ways, you know, and James competed last weekend, so there's a long travel, big compromising.

SPEAKER_00

Well, was James competing and was he a um legend? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Which I I think I think the fact that no one knows what happened this last weekend in the space is just a worrying sign.

SPEAKER_00

Like, yeah, so wait, we should actually mention we were talking about this before we came on, um, and we kind of mentioned sort of legends, and John was like, Oh, did you watch it? Do you know what's happened? I was like, Not really. He's like, Neither did I. So yeah, I think it's kind of we talked about the ballots last last week on the pod that actually listening to loads of other people in in the space on other podcasts and other media talking about this, and no one seems to really have a great way of explaining the season. But then we've also got semi-finals happening that no one really knows what happened in.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I think I was a bit expecting of this that after because Mayhem did a great job, everyone kind of watched it in the space, people knew what happened. It was like it's a nice format, it's just it is a nice format when you have 20 males, 20 females. It's like Dubai have done that in the past, and there and Rogue have that format. But now you're gonna go into this into this world where you're not gonna know who's qualified for the games. Like this last weekend legends. A few people know, like Dallin and James booked their ticket, did really well, and then on the female side, I think it was Olivia uh Kirkstetter and an Abby DeMont. Come in a mayhem as well, so she does and Abby Abby did as well.

SPEAKER_00

No way. So they both did mayhem, then legends, and then Olivia looks like she might be competing in London as well. I don't know if that's true, but she's on the leaderboard for WFP, so she could be well competing this weekend as well.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, this is but this is what I mean. I think athletes will, you know, unless they've gone all in, there are a few athletes on that leaderboard who have gone all in on WFP, Laura being one, Chandler, etc. If you still, you know, going big travels, three weekends back to back, you're kind of asking for a bit of trouble, you know, you're pushing your limits there. Um but I think and it legends apparently are super close in the female side because Daniel Brandon also was there who finished fourth, and there's like one point difference between qualifying. So it'd be an exciting finish. But then they did this thing where it's like they put it behind a paid I mean, I I mean It was on Flow Elite, right? Yeah, which was this old school paid system, which I mean the c the CrossFit space is I mean, you can't get enough people to watch it, let alone enough people to pay to watch it. So I don't know where that decision came from. Uh and then apparently even the paid thing was like really hard to watch. Uh yeah, so it's gonna be you know, and this is the trouble with the season now, it's just gonna end. I think mayhem they did the right thing. Get out there first, just get a few athletes, you know, you get all your branding, all your storytelling, all your media hit, and then you just wait to the games. Because if you're in the mess of it now, it's gonna be really hard to distinguish yourself amongst the semis. And you have your like local crowd, like Cup of Sur, I'm sure, be crazy because Latin America, um far east, you know, Asia's not as popular with CrossFit, so it's probably not gonna have that same intensity as Cup of Sur. Maybe some people follow the winners because they're all on random leaderboards because CrossFit can't manage to get uh a single leaderboard together, which you would think in in the world that we live in and with the technological advancements, it just you you have to start questioning like the levels of incompetence not to be able to put a singularboard together for all the semi-finals, which are all under their season. I mean it's just it's just mind-boggling some of the things that you start. I know.

SPEAKER_00

It's really hard not to be cynical about all this kind of stuff. But when you've got the you're trying to follow the season, which is just put it on one leaderboard.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, holy, holy moly, just like why would you not have one leaderboard so people, you know, of all the crazy stuff that you do, like you cancel quarterfinals, bring quarterfinals back, you just honestly just make crazy decisions. But just put stuff on one leaderboard so at least people can have you can easily follow the athletes that you like and give them the recognition like. It's just it's just like it's just crazy, you know. Maybe spend some of the money that they made from the open from the quarterfinals this year, you know, the millions they made from the quarterfinals can be reinvested into actually having a leaderboard that's followable from uh from HQ, you know.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and I'm sorry I can't remember his name, but the guy who runs known and knowable, he'd probably do it for free if you gave him the data, just gave him access. I mean, he basically built like an entire data modeling tool for the open this year.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, but this is the thing, you know, you're outside the Maldon, I know we're not gonna bring someone in. It's just it it's just incredible that these things, you know. I mean, go try to find have someone go to try to find the Legends leaderboard. Yeah. Or you know, Copasur, or because some will use this random platform. I mean, even Mayhem used a new random platform. You know, some will be using Competition Corner, which honestly is like just crazy hard search, but kind of became the standard. I mean, the amount of times because we you know, just with what we do and the level that we're involved in the sport, we have to use search on leaderboards all the time, and it's just such a mess. Like looking back, trying to find the event or cast events, and yeah, and you just go like such a low-hanging fruit, you know, such a low-hanging fruit to like develop a leaderboard that the semi-finals can or even don't ask the semifinals to do it, just have someone from your team put the scores into a leaderboard. Yeah, it's not it's not even that much work, you know, for the the athletes that you're tracking. Like, just get an Excel, have someone document the the leaderboard, and then put that leaderboard onto your website. I mean, it's just like at the minimal level of work.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, it is it's kind of crazy. It is a shame as well. It's a shame because you know, people want to try and follow it, and then I mean, we come on and talk a lot every week, sort of say some of the issues with CrossFit, and we like I think so many people are patient with them and want CrossFit to do well, but at the same time, stuff like this is just like such an own goal when you're trying to promote a season. And it's also I it also kind of infuriates me a bit that it still has the pull in some ways. Like, obviously, I don't want to I want to see CrossFit sort of sort sort everything out and have a good season, but you've got WFP who are kind of you know, yes, they're not perfect, but they are broadly doing like a season and you know can maintain a leave leaderboard even though it's not always perfect. Um then not all the athletes are there, so you kind of feel like what what am I trying to what am I trying to watch? Anyway, anyway, on WFP, we sort of did this a bit last year. Uh I want to see ask your prediction for who you think's gonna win this weekend.

SPEAKER_01

Ooh can we bring up the uh can what can I cheat again and see the lead the uh who's actually competing? Yeah, sorry, I did just close the leaderboard. I think I think with these these workouts, Laura, you know, like one round deadlift, echo bike, a couple of machines, like barbell work, you've you've got an odd object and muscle ups, like it's it's kind of Laura's jam, so I think it's gonna be very hard for anyone to beat her. Also, you've got to think, you know, I know she's done like a couple of high rock, like a high rocks race, an apex race, but compared to the rest of the field when it's her only focus, you've got to think that she's gonna be these set of workouts, the one to beat.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I think you uh you've definitely touched on something there, and uh, she's definitely gonna be the one to beat, I I reckon. But I will pick someone else, just because obviously that'd be more fun than than just agreeing with you. So here's the let's go to women's leaderboard for that. So you so Laura actually is top already because I think they've taken the rankings from last year and just put them where they finished last year um for where they are now. So Laura's Laura's at top. I'm actually gonna go for Emmy Kringle to win this weekend. She's at home, it's a home, it's a home leg of the tour uh in front of in front of the British fans. I reckon she's uh I reckon she's gonna do it this weekend. She's getting my vote.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, they're two good choices, and that you know, I I I agree with this this field, you know, someone like Olivia, they'd probably be good workhouse for her, but she's obviously just competed back to back, so that has a huge impact.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, definitely. Absolutely. Um and then on the men's side, who are you picking for the men's?

SPEAKER_01

I think the men's gets a bit more interesting to predict because James obviously just competed. Roman had mayhem, but it was you know, there is a week in between which helps. I'm gonna go a bit more uh deeper in the field, and I'm gonna pick Tudor. Oh nice. He's he's he is he's well, he's actually managed to jump up quite like sitting in fourth right now, but yeah and he's he's rocking, he's actually from I think he's from Romania actually. He uses the Romanian flag.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Very cool. Yeah, I'm a bit torn on this. I'm a bit torn on on who to go for. Uh but I think I'm actually just gonna pick Roman. I think I think Roman's gonna do it this weekend. Um I think uh he's in it in a bit of a groove and it looking good, so I'm gonna give him the nod.

SPEAKER_01

And you partly take away the mindset of just having you know knowing that all the other guys, well, James is there, but knowing that the rest of the field basically don't have their ticket to the games, is you know, you just walk around with a bit of a smile on your face.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, definitely. Definitely. It'd be interesting to see uh sort of what how pat what shape Pat Pat Truffel is in as well. Like, um, you know, he's he he's kind of sort of admitted, I think, publicly that he's he's winding down in terms of professional CrossFit. And um, but he it's his sole focus, he's not in doing the game seasons sort of, you know, he's had a bit of time off since last year. I wonder, I wonder what shape he's in. And he's always someone that can uh that can win a workout. So it'd be interesting to see there's some you know, him and Chandler and that you mentioned that those guys aren't aren't doing the cross-it game season, so they'll kind of be all in on this.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And you're always gonna be very disappointed that we didn't pick him.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Yeah. Well, him and Hannah Black were uh on the uh on the recent kind of uh, as I mentioned, the piece of media content, the kind of warm-up to the to the event. So yeah, sorry, I know.

SPEAKER_01

I I hope you prove us wrong if that's any consolation that you uh he's pretty gunning for uh fittest in Europe, but I also think they should, you know, now he's with uh an American training programme, they should move his flag over as well.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you can only keep your flag if you if you train in Europe. Um any other ones to watch on on both sides? Anyone that you think people should keep a lookout for?

SPEAKER_01

I like you know, Jack Farlow being trying he seemed to improve a little bit year on year, so he'll be interesting to watch. You know, Colton, I wonder if he and I do wonder if all these athletes travel, because obviously Colton didn't get his tickets. Does he save himself a bit? That's like this is where the interesting questions come up. And then maybe just go down, or I mean when we go very down, are we Gorgos could be so there's Fabian Gyurgos to um there's Alex Alex Catulas. So there's some old school, more old school, the CrossFit guys that can sometimes go there. Len actually from Germany, he's done he's done very well. So I maybe Len, oh if we add another award, could be someone who has the lowest ranking right now but finishes with the the highest. I think Len could could do good.

SPEAKER_00

Nice. Yeah, it'd be I I kind of always like getting your your view on this because you're you know a lot of the um of the athletes kind of breaking through right now, and and uh others I probably haven't heard of so much. So it's it's cool to it's cool to see. What about on the on the women's side? Anyone that you think that maybe people haven't heard of that they should keep an eye out for this weekend?

SPEAKER_01

Uh Elena's old school again. She when she's in good shape, she's in good shape, and it's one of those up and downs. A bit like Pat Velna, she can do very well at certain workouts. Like she had an incredible year. She managed to do like win French throwdown and then win the weekend after the like last chance qualifier, but it's back when the last chance qualifier only had one spot, not like seven. So that was like really impressive. Uh okay, so you got two like Nicole Hare and Matilda Garnis. I okay, I'll tell you what. I'm gonna if we go down to the bottom, but I'm gonna give you my uh I think agree at 51. I mean that's random. I don't know why she's gonna.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's it's kind of random. I don't know if why that is. And also there's 51 women on the lady side rather than 15. It's supposed to be 50, so I think it may be because Sarah got like a invite, special invite for London. I don't know.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

That's quite funny if that's the case. I wonder how they're gonna do it with lane assignments, like one person by themselves. Yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00

Annika, Annika finally just like starts the competition by herself. Yeah, I'm not quite sure what's happened there. It'll be interesting to see. But I I think I think Sara got like a special invite for London. I I think maybe only. I'm not sure entirely entirely.

SPEAKER_01

I don't want to speak out of turn, but um I also think that you've you know over 50 athletes, so you're gonna get some no shows. It'd be very unusual to have the full thing. But my one-to-watch females is gonna be Bergros. You know, I think she is she's an ex-European talent coming through, she's Icelandic. So uh I think she's she was sitting in the 30s or so right now. Okay. Ah, yes.

SPEAKER_00

Bergross Bjorn's daughter.

SPEAKER_01

She's strong, but I don't know how she'll fare on like pure one RM deadlift. She's more of a squatter than a deadlifter, but but she's hungry, ready to fight. The workouts are very good for Matilda, so the programming really favours uh Matilda.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, Matilda's been out for a while with she had a didn't she have an injury?

SPEAKER_01

I might am I making that you know she's she's honestly, I think it's been maybe in a long time since she went as individual because she tried to go with team and then that was like 24, she had a couple of years off, I want to say, before that, and then uh last year, I don't know what she did. So you know, maybe it's been like four years or so since Matildra's gone to the games as a as an individual.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, cool. Good to see her back in the field. Awesome team. Well, hopefully that's given you some things to think about when uh when watching WFP this weekend. We'll we'll I'm sure do a bit of a review next week once the competition's over on the on next week's pod. And also try and bring you thoughts, feelings, and updates on what's going on with the uh the CrossFit season and who's qualified as best we can, because um I know there are channels that are dedicated to that kind of stuff, but we do like to try and share share our view, it's certainly from the European lens, and with John kind of connected to all the athletes as well on that. Um John, have you got anything else you want to touch on before we wrap up this week?

SPEAKER_01

No, I think there's gonna be a lot to go through. Also, I think we're gonna have a special episode coming up where we're gonna announce the Madrid workouts. Oh, excellent. Go through them. So I don't know if we'll be able to do that next week or the week after, but in the next couple of weeks, hopefully we'll be able to uh to announce. I mean, so everyone's like has an idea. Like we do try to be transparent in the process. We submitted all the workouts and everything needs to be validated by CrossFit. So in theory, I think every semi-final has already sent the workouts in, I would guess. And then CrossFit then has like, okay, you know, we need more information on this or whatever it may be. So they are going through each each set of workout to make sure each set of workouts to make sure that they they kind of agree with them.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, excellent. Very exciting. And when do you think you'll get a view back? Have they given you any indication?

SPEAKER_01

We'd think soon. I mean, we're already in the season, and I know that for Madrid we would like to announce early. This is one thing we mentioned at the start as well. Like we we've obviously not told anyone. Uh the workouts is just one of the principles that we have, and we want to hold that integrity. But on the other side, like I understand people have doubts or or concerns, and I think the the best way in order to alleviate that is the earlier we release it for everyone, the fairer the playing field starts to be.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, absolutely. Well, gang, if you um yeah, if you're if you're interested in what the Mad Fitness Championship has in store from a f from a workout perspective, hopefully next week or the week after we'll be able to share all those workouts with you. Keep your eyes peeled on social socials as well for for obviously them being posted. And yeah, I'm excited by that one. I can't wait to see what you uh you guys are cooked up.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it's gonna be exciting. It'd be nice to go also like release them with a bit of the thought process behind as well. I think that'd be a fun, fun thing to go through.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, 100%. Excellent. All right, team. Well, we will wrap up there. John, thank you as ever. Been um been awesome to talk to you and great to go through WFP. Look looking forward to watching it. Hopefully it's a it's a it's another good event, and uh we get some we get some exciting finishes and exciting storylines. And um, yeah, team, we'll catch you next week.