How To Run A Safe Sports Competition After 40

We break down what it really takes to run a competition that feels fun, tight, and safe, using our strongman charity event as the template. We talk through the decisions we make as athletic directors so athletes, volunteers, sponsors, and spectators all leave wanting to come back. 
• treating safety as the first job, not a footnote 
• choosing controllable events and building in physical safeguards 
• managing crowds, kids, and spectator flow in a small space 
• using cleanliness and layout as part of risk reduction 
• building a reputation that grows entries without begging 
• recruiting and organizing volunteers so the day runs smoothly 
• planning for costs, seed money, weather pivots, and delays 
• using insurance and registration platforms to protect the event 
• delivering sponsor value and thinking about ROI 
• showing where charity dollars go through grants and community support 
• creating community connections that keep rippling outward 

Please comment. Comment below. Donate to the LovelikeBen9.com. 
If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the podcast, please share it with others, post it on your social media, or leave a review. 
To catch all the latest from us, you can follow us on Instagram at Masters Athlete Survival Guide. 

@masters_athlete_survival_guide on IG

New podcast episodes come out every other Thursday!

Masters Mindset Minutes should be your new performance habit every Sunday night 

Transcript

Welcome And Remote Setup

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome to the Masters Athlete Survival Guide, where we explore the secrets to thriving in sports after 40. I'm John Catalinus, and along with Scott Feich, we'll dive into training tips, nutrition hacks, and inspiring stories from seasoned athletes who defy age limits. Whether you're a weekend warrior or a competitive pro, this podcast is your playbook for staying fit, strong, and motivated. Let's get started. And we're back. Wow, the old analog style. I like it. We are remote today, Scott. We are. I like it. We're in the compound. If it's a little echoey, deal with it.

SPEAKER_03 0:38

Yeah, it's uh we got some stuff going on in this next week.

SPEAKER_02 0:43

What stuff do we have going on, Scott?

SPEAKER_03 0:44

Well, August 8th is the third annual LLB9 Memorial Strongman competition that is one week from yesterday.

SPEAKER_02 0:53

Yeah, and the gym looks great. It's very well organized. It's good to have an OCD training partner who owns a gym because I'm reasonably sure that somewhere in his basement he has a little model of the gym with little figures and he like like those old school football games that the the whole play field vibrated. I know what you mean. I I'm pretty sure that's what you did.

SPEAKER_03 1:12

All right, so to throw a little homage to my son. Yeah, when, and I think I told you this before, when we knew we were gonna start coming in here and we were gonna start putting stuff in places and to outfit things, Ben said to me, He says, Dad, go to Office Max, RIP Office Max, go to Office Max and get graph paper and graph it out on graph paper to figure out because he said you're doing you know a Conan's wheel. Right. Figure out what the spread is that you need for that. You know, where are you gonna put axe? Where is the turf gonna go? Nice.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

So I uh are still anal. Yeah, I get it. I get it.

SPEAKER_03 1:55

Almost 56 years old, and um, yeah, nothing's changed.

SPEAKER_02 1:58

So, Scott, I us and the dogs wanted to talk about Yeah, Coach Pan is out.

Building A Newbie Event Playbook

SPEAKER_02 2:04

Since we spent so much time like setting up for this comp, I thought maybe it would be nice to put a master's athlete survival guide, newbies guide to running an event. Not necessarily strongman, but I think a lot of the things are cross-platform.

SPEAKER_03 2:21

I do, I I agree with you, and I love the idea because I think part of what we can look at is what we look at as ADs to, you know, figure out where our athletes are gonna be, what we need to set up, um, how do we ensure safety?

SPEAKER_02 2:39

Yeah. That's that's I was gonna say.

SPEAKER_03 2:41

That's one of the key things you and I look at is making sure that you have fun, but you walk out of here okay.

SPEAKER_02 2:49

I think that's step one for any event is safety. Like if you're putting on a golf tournament, you have to put sort of engineering controls in place so people don't drink too much or drive their carts into the lake and you know, all those kind of things you've probably seen on an 80s movie.

SPEAKER_03 3:05

And what's funny is we just did um Chris Maloney Foundation is one of our largest sponsors and has been every year since we've done this. So it's Chris Maloney Foundation. Yep. Chris's mom does a golf tournament out at the Lockport Town and Country Club.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

Oh, that's right.

SPEAKER_03 3:22

So we went this year and we were one of the big sponsors, and we put a force them in. As we're driving around, I don't know if you've been there lately, the country club is under major reconstruction. No, I have not. Like bulldozer backhoe, major construction. The course or the building or course.

SPEAKER_02 3:41

Oh, no kidding. Like adding new holes.

SPEAKER_03 3:42

It's a really old course. It is, it is, it's a beautiful course, but it's an old course.

SPEAKER_02 3:46

It's hard as hell.

SPEAKER_03 3:47

But that's one of the things that, you know, Deb Arminage is Chris's mom.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 3:53

And Deb said when we were talking, she said, I had to consider where we're going for some of these things because we had to have people on certain spots. Because, you know, we had plywood over oh, you know, areas where there were ruts and stuff like that. So safety, it doesn't matter what. You know, you said golf tournament, and that that's true.

SPEAKER_02 4:15

And you never think about things like construction with golf, but yeah, especially at like I think 80% of tournaments, a lot of those people play once, twice, four times a year. If that. So they're not even like, you know, they know where their next shot's probably gonna end up. Yeah. They're whacking at the ball and hoping. Oh yeah. Yeah. 100%. And then when it comes to things like the strongman thing, I mean, you know, everything can kill you. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:38

Well, you and I talked about that what uh last weekend. You know, when we had a small competition here. Yeah. Everything here can hurt you badly. Yes, it could it could crush you, it could pinch you, it could yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:52

Why are you looking at me laughing when you say that? I don't know, because we, you know, honestly, for as safe as we both are, so I lost the toenail to a 10 kilogram plate.

SPEAKER_03 5:01

I dropped a 225-pound barbell on my right hand.

SPEAKER_02 5:05

Wait a minute. Do your hand thing again? Why does your ring finger kind of go in a different direction up than everybody? Oh boy. All right, folks. Let it go. Let it go. Scott is broken. Yeah. So and again.

SPEAKER_03 5:19

Looking at Scott's shoulders, you can't tell Scott is broken.

SPEAKER_02 5:22

Right. So basically, even as safe as we are, things happen. And we just try I mean, first of all, we mitigate that just by the kind of events. Like, if you're a fan of like, you know, old world strongest men or even battle and network stars. They did some janky crap back in the day.

SPEAKER_03 5:41

Oh, dude, they had that that reverse tug-of-war pole push thing. Yep. That I saw somebody literally when they spun it, I saw I saw the shoulder pop out. Oh, yeah. You know, I mean,

Choosing Events With Safety Controls

SPEAKER_03 5:55

like this year's events for us, we have a Viking press, which we've done many, many times. Right. And, you know, the apparatus was built by Tony Kalish, who is absolutely phenomenal at it. Scott, what is a Viking press? Viking press is where you are standing and there is a handle in front of you, and you press that handle overhead. So for our fans who know what military press was, we were growing up. It's like that universal machine military press. That's exactly what a Viking press is. It's exactly what it is, but it's like 10 feet long. Yeah, the arm is 10 feet long. So we're doing that one. We have a Housafelt bag carry, and that is a very, very selfish event that John and I chose. It's true. Because in um basically 12 months, we're getting on a jet airplane and flying. Oh, we're taking a jet airplane.

SPEAKER_02 6:43

Oh, okay. I don't know why you needed to add the jet part in there. We're shit not swimming to Iceland. Oh, I thought we were gonna take like a DC9 and like smoke cigarettes as we uh oh wow. Wear our turbo props. Yeah, basically.

SPEAKER_03 6:57

Um, you know, for our Housafeld thing next year. Scott, yes, what's a Hoosafeld carry? Hoosefeld carry. So it is a weird-shaped bag.

SPEAKER_02 7:10

All the mass shout out to all the masters athletes, male athletes out there in your weird-shaped bags. Oh my god. Sorry. Sorry. Yes, we're 12. Yep, didn't want two heads here.

SPEAKER_03 7:22

So we have uh 100, 150, 2, 253, and 350 pound Hoosefelt bags. So basically, if you think like an old medieval shield, okay, and you have to pick this up off of a barrel, yeah, because I don't want my people picking it up off the ground because it's very hard. Very hard. So when they stand up, they have to pick this thing up, hold it to their chest, and then they walk 20 feet back and forth for a minute.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 7:52

Now, they can drop it, but if they want to keep going, they then have to pick it up. So I can tell you that picking up a 350-pound Housafelt bag, yeah, in all brutal arrogance, I'm pretty good at that type of shit. Meh. I've only picked it three times. No, it's challenging. And I mean And the bag is wider across than I am.

SPEAKER_02 8:16

Right. If you've never seen a Hoosafeld analog, they basically are shaped like the Superman logo. Like it's that kind of great analogy. It's that weird diamond shape. Yeah. And that 350-pound bag is proper every bit from shoulder to shoulder for me. Oh, yeah. And yes, it's it's basically if if you can carry this bag, you can carry a 350-pound dead person. Which, if I ever, you know, please identify yourself in the comments and I'll call you if I ever need you. Hi, John. I just died. Click. No, I was thinking more like, hey, dude, um, my fat neighbor and I are had a bit of an altercation and it went sideways. Bring a shovel.

SPEAKER_03 8:56

I need a car and I need you not to ask any questions. Yeah. Whose car are we taking? Right. I love that commercial. All right, so that's the second event. Yes, sir. Third event. And this is uh a throwback in homage to Steve Reeves when he was doing the Hercules hold and the pillars of Hercules. So he is holding these pillars up. So what we've done is we have actually commissioned the only one in New York State, a Hercules hold, where our athletes will stand between this and they will have, for our super heavyweights, 450 pounds in each hand, trying to rip them in hard in half. It's true. Basically trying to cleft them in twain to make this beautiful lift. And behind it, for phenomenal pictures, we actually have our Love Like Ben banner.

SPEAKER_00 9:49

Looks great.

SPEAKER_03 9:49

So that is the uh the third one, and and that is one of our photographic events, and then our ultimate event, the one to make everybody look like they're ungodly strong. Then they're deadlifts they are, is a car deadlift. I love a car deadlift. Everybody loves a good car deadlift. Increasing weight. So every rep they do when they set the weight back down, we add more weight.

SPEAKER_02 10:17

Because why not?

SPEAKER_03 10:18

We're gonna have some people that are gonna pull over a thousand pounds on this thing on Saturday. And a fiat. Yep, and a fiat.

SPEAKER_02 10:26

Oh, that's awesome. So to keep this a little more generic from just a rundown on the on the Love Lake Bell event. Yeah, why did you pick those events as athletic director? Like what what since we're still on the topic of safety.

SPEAKER_03 10:40

Yeah, and and I and I I knew that's where we were gonna go next.

SPEAKER_02 10:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:43

Part of it is because we're able to control those events. We've had other events that have happened here in the gym where uh we had a Mauser block press that somebody rented our gym and was doing. That's basically if you picture like um, it's a steel wonder loaf. Yeah, like a shoebox. But it's you know, it weighs, you know, anywhere up to a couple hundred pounds. They're pressing it over their head. I saw it get dropped onto somebody's face.

SPEAKER_02 11:12

I think broke their nose, ripped it apart. Most surprising. Like if someone said 100-pound mauser block, you'd be like, okay. You and I have done them before. They're horrible. They're terrible. And I don't know what it is with your brain or your hands or something, but they like wiggle left and right, like your hands go, I got it, ain't got it, I got it, ain't got it.

SPEAKER_03 11:34

Yeah, it's sort of like that that um that slosh pipe, that uh like water inside of a PVC pipe. Okay. So we chose the four events we did because the three of them are inside. There is, unless you decide to run behind the Hercules hold while it's falling, yeah, you you really it's very difficult to hurt yourself with it because the weight is going away from you. It's falling away, yeah. Okay, yeah. The Viking press, it's the same thing. And we took out what's called a jerk press, which where you're moving your legs around. Right. So literally people are just pushing it over their head. Again, there is a safety block underneath it so it can't come down on top of you. Car deadlift. It's it's gonna pivot backwards. There are chalks behind the car, so the wheels can't roll, it's strapped to the frame. We've got, we actually went so far as for those people who pick it up, if they decide to turn their feet while they're picking it up, we put a block under there so the frame can't come down on their toes. So you can't pitch your toesies?

SPEAKER_02 12:32

Yeah, right. So you could actually do it. I was gonna say my big toe nail. Uh thanks you.

SPEAKER_03 12:36

Thanks you.

SPEAKER_02 12:37

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 12:37

And then the the Housafelt bag carry, literally, you just drop it. You just drop that bag in the side.

SPEAKER_02 12:43

It's a giant bag of sand. Yeah, it's a bag. It's having people pick off like an oil drum. So you're not trying to get it off the ground. I mean, now let's not kid ourselves. Strongman inherently has some risk, right?

SPEAKER_03 12:55

When you're running with 300 pounds in your hands, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:57

You are pushing. I mean, if you're really, really competing, you are pushing your body, and if you do one thing wrong, potentially disaster. We all have the tweaks. Yeah. You know, and there's worse things. You know, you see the pros detaching biceps and you know, we chose these events for safety.

SPEAKER_03 13:16

We also chose them because photographically they're gonna look cool. Yeah, they're cool.

SPEAKER_02 13:21

You know, so that's really that's my inner 12-year-old like just pandering. Like, make me look cool for Instagram.

SPEAKER_03 13:29

I should compete.

SPEAKER_00 13:30

I probably should compete.

SPEAKER_03 13:31

I I think the other thing that you and I do once we get, you know, this week out is you know, we joke a lot about me being O C D.

SPEAKER_02 13:43

Are we about joke how do we just say it?

SPEAKER_03 13:45

About how I I obsess over, you know, certain things. There's reasons for it.

SPEAKER_02 13:50

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Because I mean what for this event, how big's the gym in square feet? Like in football.

SPEAKER_03 13:56

2400 square feet, 40 by 60.

SPEAKER_02 13:57

Yeah. 50 athletes with their best friends, significant others. We could have 200 people here. Yeah. So not counting our judges and volunteers. So everything's got to be compact and can't go sideways and can't go flinging across the room and also and I've deemed myself head judge because I'm judgy. But I have no problem throwing an athlete out who is not safe.

SPEAKER_03 14:21

Oh, and and they know this. Yeah, but but you know, I mean, there's 10%.

SPEAKER_02 14:26

There's 10% of every athletic community that are just jackasses.

SPEAKER_03 14:30

Yeah. This event we didn't we don't go heavy for. But let's talk about some of our other events. I mean, you know, well,

Housekeeping, Crowd Flow, And Judging

SPEAKER_03 14:38

before safety.

SPEAKER_02 14:40

We've we've covered safety.

SPEAKER_03 14:41

You know what I want to go to next that I think is important?

SPEAKER_02 14:43

Depending on whatever what honestly, whatever kind of competition you're putting on.

SPEAKER_03 14:48

Yeah, because it doesn't, I mean, you're right, it doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_02 14:51

Right. Reputation. Yeah. We have 50 athletes at this what, three years in? Is this the third one?

SPEAKER_03 14:59

Last year we only had 37.

SPEAKER_02 15:01

Right. Right. And how did we get to 50? We it's not marketing. It's not it's literally just the fact that we put on a concise, safe, enjoyable. I mean, it's for charity, so there's all sorts of other raffly things going on. There's food. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:18

And it's sort of isn't it pay what you want for the food? The food, I mean, you know, shout out to my brother. Shout out to Timmy. Shout out. You know, he does, he cooks for us. Yep. He pays for all the food. So I mean, we're looking at probably 75 plus pounds of food this year. It's delicious. It's incredible.

SPEAKER_02 15:38

That smoker that, like, I don't know, could feed a small nation.

SPEAKER_03 15:40

It pretty much. And it's whatever you want. We've had people who have given us five bucks for a plate of food. We've had other people that have given us a hundred bucks and walked away with like a drumstick. Right. Right. You know, it's But that's what I'm just saying.

SPEAKER_02 15:54

The reputation of any event. Because you you know, like when we used to do Highland, there were events you look forward to, and there were events that the first thing you'd say is, I hope X doesn't happen this year.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:06

So I mean I think again, you're putting on a wrestling tournament. You know, are there bathrooms? Uh do you know, is the AD fair, uh you know, is the facility terrible?

SPEAKER_03 16:19

What it what in wrestling, especially, yeah, what's your floor like? What are your mats like? Linoleum?

unknown 16:24

No.

SPEAKER_03 16:25

Oh no, no, you know, I mean, what are your mats like? Does that matter? Oh yeah. I don't know anything about wrestling. I've wrestled on mats before where because it's very difficult to get a full-size mat in one piece. Okay. You're you're talking thousands and thousands of pounds.

SPEAKER_00 16:42

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 16:42

So they usually come in thirds. So when they're taped down, I've seen mats where the edges are sort of beat up. I've had wrestlers that when they're, you know, you roll out or you're getting thrown out or something like that, you catch a foot on one of those things. Oh.

Reputation, Volunteers, And Repeat Attendance

SPEAKER_03 16:55

You know, there's dead spots. If the tape has torn up sort of that vinyl top to the mat, oh, okay. Your foot catches on it, you go down head first. You know, so I mean, that's one of the other things. This Thursday, I'll go through here with a fine-toothed comb. Everything's gonna be cleaned down, everything's gonna be swept off, everything, you know.

SPEAKER_02 17:15

Ladies and gentlemen, if you could see the gym now, you've never been in a cleaner gym that's filled with the that you're allowed to use chalk everywhere. Yeah, you would never know right now.

SPEAKER_03 17:24

So, I mean, it's those types of things. And it speaks again to safety, yeah, but it also goes to what you're saying.

SPEAKER_02 17:30

Yeah, housekeeping's a part of safety together.

SPEAKER_03 17:33

Like we had somebody, um, Laura McAllister, who cannot compete that show Lauren McAllister because she is competing in a couple of weeks at Strongman Corp National Championships. She is the reigning uh USS Strongman champion.

SPEAKER_02 17:48

Oh, no kidding.

SPEAKER_03 17:49

She is an absolute monster.

SPEAKER_02 17:53

We have some ballers coming, huh? Oh, yeah. Nice.

SPEAKER_03 17:55

So, you know, she said to me, she's like yesterday, she sent me a text, hey, what time do you need me there on Saturday? I'm like, Well, what do you mean? She goes, I can't compete because you know, I told you got the comp. She says, I'm coming to do whatever you need. And I'm like, Oh my god, thank you. So, I mean that that speaks to that reputation.

SPEAKER_02 18:12

Yep. You know, you think about all the volunteers that it will come up for our event.

SPEAKER_03 18:16

25 volunteers coming.

SPEAKER_02 18:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:19

You know, and that doesn't count our board of trustees.

SPEAKER_02 18:21

And that really runs any event, again, to keep this moderately generic. Yeah. And that's where I was going. It's your volunteers, right? If if you have the community that's willing, you know, my my son is competing, I want to, you know, I'll do something. Right. Or, you know, I used to compete and I blew out my knee, or I will help.

SPEAKER_03 18:40

I go to Deb's golf tournament for the Maloney Foundation.

SPEAKER_02 18:43

Oh, yeah. Or you do those cross-platform, like, well, you know, you gave to me, I'll give to you.

SPEAKER_03 18:48

Yeah, but I mean, with with Deb, we had there had to have been 45 volunteers there.

SPEAKER_00 18:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:56

Volunteers driving us around, volunteers in the drink cart, volunteers, you know, for safety to make sure when you're crossing this spot, you know, the contests you run. So you're right. It's, you know, yes, we're focused right now based on what we've got going on. But when you think about any sport, I'm sure, you know, we talk about pickleball because you play pickleball quite a bit. You need those people on the courts keeping track of score, making sure that, you know, John's getting his ass whipped by, you know, everybody, Grandma Susie. That type of thing. Edith.

SPEAKER_00 19:29

Edith, the 85-year-old.

SPEAKER_03 19:31

Shout out to Edith. Shout out to Edith. Um, you know, there's that wrestling. I mean, I I've worked in wrestling, I've worked in hockey. And to put on a good showcase for a weekend in hockey, yeah, if you don't have damn near a hundred volunteers, it's not gonna run. From people who are in the miners box, from your officials in every game, from schedulers, from your first aid folks that are at every game.

SPEAKER_02 19:58

Oh, that's true.

SPEAKER_03 19:59

You typically have to have a couple people on all people, you have to have people on standby. So it it's the safety it's sort of one of those kinesthetic, no, um I'm drawing a complete brain fart right now because I'm I got my brain in so many spots. They benefit from each other. Okay. Um symbiotic. It's a symbiotic relationship.

SPEAKER_01 20:29

Cool.

SPEAKER_03 20:30

But it's you know, if you're safe with what you do, people hear about it, they want to come. So you up your safety, you get more volunteers, and it just keeps building on each other.

SPEAKER_02 20:42

Yeah, you're right.

SPEAKER_03 20:43

I guess that's how you know it is it is symbiotic in that sense.

SPEAKER_02 20:46

No, you're absolutely right. And that is true. Because I was I was actually after I said it, I was trying to think how have we grown to basically full capacity of athletes without sort of actively begging people to come. And you're right, it's probably that this is very safe, the events are cool, the people the there's volunteers everywhere, it's it's the the most fun circus there ever is.

SPEAKER_03 21:09

People who are like major companies in in the strength world and in the sports photography world with Tom Pattos, with Painface, who are donating their services or giving us stuff, again, because of their reputation. So, I mean, I think one of the key things, you know, to take this back to where we started as an AD, you know, because really this is you and I are the ADs of this event. Sure. I think the way that we look at it is how are we going to make sure that everybody is safe? First and foremost. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 21:40

And that's not just athletes, that's also the people wandering around. You know, grandma comes to watch her grandson compete, may have never been in a gymnasium before with bags that could crush grandma.

SPEAKER_03 21:52

How many times have we had to say, clear the track? Right. You know, please make sure, or very quietly go over, and I give strong men some courage. It the vast majority of them, 80% plus, when they bring their little children, their little children are pretty well behaved.

SPEAKER_02 22:07

Yeah, they're they're they're they're doing their own.

SPEAKER_03 22:09

You know, they're they're not running into you know where something's happening or something like that. So I mean, part of it is knowing your audience as an A D. And in that sense, you know, I go to knowing my audience is how you and I choose events. Now let's go specifically to pickleball. We know that most of pickleball are folks who are they're not teens, they're not 20-somethings, uh sadly. You know, I wouldn't say sadly though.

SPEAKER_02 22:38

No, they are. I mean, and there are kids, but yeah, and I've never I've actually never competed in a actual like outside tournament. But I mean, the things that people worry about are things that you you gotta think about when you're like a 75-year-old moderately athletic human. Like, is the court dirty or wet? That's probab that is the thing that freaks people out because I've seen two people fall since I've started playing. And if you're 75 and you're kind of being an athlete and you fall, you hurt yourself.

SPEAKER_03 23:12

Well, and that goes back to that preparation.

SPEAKER_02 23:15

Right. Then literally that's it. It's just making sure that they're clean and dry. Okay, so which sounds easy, but again, someone needs to do it.

SPEAKER_03 23:25

As goofy as it sounds, let's go to stone lifting. Okay, you know, because we've talked about that. And recently here in Western New York, yeah, one of our good friends put on a sort of stone tour, so to speak. Oh Rockman.

SPEAKER_00 23:40

Yeah, Don Rockman. So Don Rockman.

SPEAKER_03 23:42

We had people, you know, he had people because you and I weren't able to attend. He had people coming from all over. I mean, like all over the United States, Canada, and in different spots. And it was, you gotta make sure that where they're going, those stones, yeah, it's safe to get there. Oh you know, like when you, I, and him go somewhere to Stone Lift, okay, it's just the three of us goofing around.

SPEAKER_01 24:05

Right.

SPEAKER_03 24:06

You've got 30 people showing up.

SPEAKER_01 24:08

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 24:09

Do you have permission to go there? Is the ground level is the stone you're trying to pick up covered in moss and algae? Yeah. You know, again, it c it goes back to that if you get nothing else out of today's podcast, I think the biggest thing in my mind is you have to think about the safety of those that you're planning something for.

unknown 24:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:31

Everything else comes off of that.

SPEAKER_02 24:32

And and I mean, you know, you and I share, you know, the the brunt of that burden. But I I would tell every athlete out there, there's absolutely nothing wrong with going up to an AD or an event director and saying, hey, there's this grate that's missing from this sewer in the middle of hole seven. Oh yeah. Uh, you know, hey, we are gonna go lift this rock by this tree, but there's this exposed route that the rock is balanced on, and that's a challenge.

SPEAKER_03 25:00

And one of the things that I tell everybody that comes to train at the compound is if you think you're in danger, drop it. Let it go, throw it away, whatever. Meaning the equipment in the area. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, we've talked about our job as ADs to make sure that everything is safe for athletes. Yep. We have to tell our athletes, it's your response to make sure that you're safe. Right. If you think something's not right, get rid of it. Anything is replaceable except a human.

SPEAKER_02 25:32

And say safety doesn't necessarily mean unsafe. Like, for example, if I was coming to compete and lifting, like, I don't know, the 300-pound sandbag. That's a lot for me. And I probably could push it. And if I were to say trip backwards, I would have 300 pounds falling on my face slash chest.

SPEAKER_03 25:50

So I after I videoed and put it on YouTube, I would ask if you're okay.

SPEAKER_02 25:54

Right. And that would be the wherewithal of me to go, I need to drop it. I need to not take that extra step. I need I've I've reached the unsafe part.

SPEAKER_03 26:04

But that's in any sport, you know. I our friend Candace Dutco. She does those ultra marathons, you know, 24 hour, gonna run a hundred miles. I think next week Candace is gonna whip your ass. Possibly. But it's knowing when your body says it's time to sit down, have you know, some sort of nutrition, water, take uh a 10-minute nap. It it's understanding your body. And that's not something an A D can do.

SPEAKER_02 26:35

So to our frequent listeners, listeners, when Scott said your body says it's time to sit down and have uh and there was a pause. Did you expect him to say bourbon? I expected him to say bourbon.

unknown 26:47

I did.

SPEAKER_02 26:48

I thought that's where you're going. Well, you know, I mean, if it was you or I, it would be that's not a way to do an ultra marathon, I don't think. If it is, I may be in. You might start doing it. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_03 26:58

I might actually take up running. Probably not.

SPEAKER_02 27:01

You guys have been sitting here 10 hours.

SPEAKER_03 27:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:03

Yeah, we're recovering.

SPEAKER_03 27:05

That first hundred yards was a piss.

SPEAKER_02 27:07

Oh, it was horrible.

unknown 27:08

Horrible.

SPEAKER_02 27:09

But you brought chairs. Nobody brings chairs to a marathon yesterday. Yes, we do. Well prepared. Experience. Yes, experience you can do. You know, the so alright, so we got through sort of that, like for what I'm gonna do to put on an event. Here's here's the hard part.

Budget, Weather Pivots, Insurance, Sponsors

SPEAKER_02 27:25

It costs. Yeah. It costs something. And the goal for every event is for it to not I mean, every you know, there's plenty of events that are free to the participant for other reasons, right? Like it's it's good business or it's sponsored or whatever. Um but in like like ours and a lot of them, this, you know, this is eventually a charity. But there is seed money. Like you know, some of these things didn't just the equipment didn't show up out of nowhere, and the lights don't stay on in the gym out of nowhere.

SPEAKER_03 27:57

Well, go to pickleball. Yeah, you gotta pay to rent that court. Yep. You know, forget the John's gotta bring his sneakers and he's gotta have you know his his custom paddle that says I'm electrifying and everything else.

SPEAKER_00 28:10

That's very true.

SPEAKER_03 28:11

You gotta rent the courts, you gotta pay your officials, you gotta pay, you know, all of these things.

SPEAKER_00 28:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:16

So you're right. As an AD, you've got to have something to get it sort of set up.

SPEAKER_02 28:21

Yep, and there is that is a bit of a gamble. I mean, with a lot of especially a purely outdoor event, if the weather goes sideways, what do you do?

SPEAKER_03 28:30

Well, and that's that's one of the things that we sort of are fighting with right now. What's the weather gonna be like? Right. So as an AD, you have to play in those contingencies.

SPEAKER_02 28:41

Yeah, as we record in the compound while there's an inch and inch and three quarters, probably not at this point.

SPEAKER_03 28:47

It's fallen out of rain in front of it in two hours. Um, you know, I talked to Candace today because she's putting uh a comp on in October that I've gone to well, you and I have gone down to a couple of times. I won. And huh? I won. You went or won? I won. What did you win? I don't know. I'm doing revisionist history. I was gonna say, um, I seem to remember being a dead comp.

SPEAKER_01 29:12

I won. I won in my heart.

SPEAKER_03 29:15

Um and you know, she does it in October. Where it is in October, it's up in the mountains, so you it can get really freaking cold at times. So she said, you know, here's my thoughts as to what I might do if I have to pivot. Yeah. And I think that's part of it. Yes, you gotta have the seed money. When you've been doing it long enough, you've got sort of a a bank cash up.

SPEAKER_01 29:39

Right, like yeah, working capital kind of thing.

SPEAKER_03 29:41

But I think part of it is also how do you prepare for the unpreparable? You know, think about Bruce. And he says, I do things specifically to get myself you know, in case something goes wrong. And I think that's part of being an AD as well. How do I fix that?

SPEAKER_02 29:59

Oh, that's true. What are the things we haven't thought about?

SPEAKER_03 30:02

You know, I mean, is it gonna downpour to the point where you know you've got a a three-inch puddle in front of where you're doing something?

SPEAKER_00 30:11

Right.

SPEAKER_03 30:11

You know, to your pickleball point, okay, so maybe the night before, you know, the court owners or the AD went out with a blower and it it was pristine. Yep. But the dew point was just right. Yep. So that first game, the courts. And there's nothing you can do about that because if you take a mop out there to try to dry mop it, you're just gonna be spreading the moisture.

SPEAKER_02 30:35

That's you know, that's the hardest thing, too, is the there's some things that are completely unavoidable, and again, that 10% of athletes will complain. Oh yeah. Why are we delaying because the courts are wet? Because we don't want anybody to get hurt.

SPEAKER_03 30:50

Well, when we threw a Highland Games Trying to think, I think it was one of Matt Hand's games. Yeah, and we had two lightning delays in the middle of it. Yeah, and somebody goes, Well, it's just raining now, we can throw in the rain. I'm sorry, you're throwing a 22-pound metal ball on the end of a 40-inch PVC pipe. In the middle of a field. In the middle of a field, and you have to hold on to that thing. Okay, so let's say you've tacked up well. Okay?

SPEAKER_01 31:25

I've tacked up well, I've said it.

SPEAKER_03 31:27

And it goes flying out there.

SPEAKER_01 31:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:30

You have no idea what's going on. But I don't care how much tacky or gloves or whatever you put on, if that's wet, right? It's coming out of your hands, and you and I have both seen that thing go through a chain link fence. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:44

Oh my god, yeah, I forgot about that. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 31:46

You wouldn't think you were the one that said you almost had the um Oh, I almost killed the lightweight for distance.

SPEAKER_02 31:52

I almost killed Paul Helfenstein's wife. I threw something like by her ear. Yeah. And it was probably the 42. So 42 going 50 feet, and she was probably 20 feet away. Yeah. Yeah. She would have she would have got squished.

SPEAKER_03 32:06

And it's just it's it's those safety things that the AD has to worry about that as athletes a lot of times we don't think about.

SPEAKER_02 32:13

Now there are insurances.

SPEAKER_03 32:14

There are insurances, you know.

SPEAKER_02 32:16

Again, that goes to the you need X amount of dollars to put on an event.

SPEAKER_03 32:20

You know, in in strongman, obviously, I'm most familiar with. We go through an organization called Iron Podium, which is where we list our events. Yep. Like we pay them, we have over three million dollars of insurance for our events.

SPEAKER_02 32:34

Do I get that if I get hurt at one of your events?

SPEAKER_03 32:36

No, because I will drag your ass back to the pond and let you sink.

SPEAKER_02 32:40

Oh my god, John drowned in a pond 400 yards away from the event. How did that happen?

SPEAKER_03 32:44

No idea. But it's it's one of those things that, you know, before we even start, we're $360 in the hole.

SPEAKER_02 32:54

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_03 32:55

You know, but that's where, like you said, you know, some of the events are charity events, so you get sponsors, some of them are free. Some people like you and um Tim Alally, our friend Tim, were sponsored athletes for you know a few years with Black Button. Yep. Rest in peace. God bless them. So I mean there there's a ton of different things.

SPEAKER_02 33:18

And that's part of that weird symbiosis you're talking about.

SPEAKER_03 33:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:21

Because you can cut you you can be pretty confident you're gonna cover those uh original outlays if you know you're gonna have athletes because you put on a safe, interesting, enjoyable event.

SPEAKER_03 33:35

But it still scares you, John.

SPEAKER_02 33:36

Oh, I know. Because we're OCD and we worry about everything?

SPEAKER_03 33:40

Two weeks ago, no, we capped our event at 50 athletes. Yeah, right. Okay, and we hit it on Friday. Yeah, two weeks ago, we just had 30. Yeah, no, I know. So I mean, we added 20 athletes in the last week. Right.

SPEAKER_02 33:55

Right. So that's the kind of thing you're worried about. Like, am I like, is this worth it? Am I covering costs?

SPEAKER_03 34:00

Well, and your sponsors. Let's let's go to that direction. Yeah. So we are blessed. We have some incredible sponsors, and you know, you go to any of these shows, and your AD, when they do your morning announcements, they'll say, We'd like to thank, you know, Joe Schmo's business for sponsoring us. Love Joe Schmo. Okay. You need to put on a show for them as well.

SPEAKER_02 34:21

Oh, that's true.

SPEAKER_03 34:22

They gotta get some because they've got to get some ROI. If they don't get a return on their investment, why are they gonna give us X hundred dollars in stuff or in money or whatever?

SPEAKER_02 34:35

Yeah, we are and we are pretty blessed with that, with the strongman thing because you know, like serious steel fitness, uh the uh the Canadian Oh uh Denny and Valkyrie Strength.

SPEAKER_03 34:47

Valkyrie Strength giving each athlete a $25 gift card. Yeah. I mean, think about that. That is what $1,250 he just wrote off.

SPEAKER_02 34:58

Right. Yeah, basically.

SPEAKER_03 34:59

You know, for 50 athletes. You know, we've had habitual people who help us with, you know, Tony Calish's union, Smart 51. They give us money. Um the Maloney Foundation every year.

SPEAKER_02 35:12

Alicia Childress?

SPEAKER_03 35:14

Uh Alicia Childress, who, you know, in her late husband's name, Paul Childress, who, you know, God rest his soul, we hold a bench press competition in his honor. Yep. Where, you know, half the money raised for that comes to us. She, for the last two years, has stepped up and given us a very nice donation.

SPEAKER_02 35:32

Yeah, and that that's awesome. And again, that builds off reputation.

SPEAKER_03 35:35

Um But that's you know, that's that AD side of it that we don't think about. Yes, I've got a great board with the Love Lake Ben board, and they go out and they they help spread our word, and you know, we do good stuff as a foundation, so that helps it, and people want to be a part of it. But as the AD, you've it it falls on you if the show is shit, you're gonna get nothing next year.

SPEAKER_02 36:02

Yeah, that's the thing. You could go from 50 athletes a year to 10 next year if it's in the blink of an eye. Right.

SPEAKER_03 36:08

You know, so that that's the stress that we we sort of face.

SPEAKER_02 36:12

Yeah.

Charity Impact, Grants, Gratitude, Community

SPEAKER_02 36:13

But, and I I will I will say this it's a bit of a spoiler alert, but um we raise money to to help underprivileged or somehow otherwise unable to pay for kids to sort of realize some of their athletic dreams, whether it be equipment or attendance or or learning like tuition or distance or something like that, yeah. And uh this year one of the one of the people we supported is a local I thought it was a business that had a women's wrestling club.

SPEAKER_03 36:44

No, no.

SPEAKER_02 36:45

Turns out it's just a guy who donates his time to Willie Cunningham and the uh the Buffalo Wrestling Club. So we're we're giving Willie some money to bring in what is national champion, female wrestler? Willie himself is a national champion. I have a hard time saying wrestling without having like Macho Man in my head or Kogan or something.

SPEAKER_03 37:03

The woman is the new coach, I believe, at Niagara University. Okay, but she's a national championship wrestler. Like she she was a national champion as well. So they're you know, they're bringing her in, and we are fortunate enough to be able to uh to offer a grant to cover her fees, right? So it does, you know, he doesn't have to charge this. It is completely free. The kids that are coming to this camp, they're going for free. Right. So we are covering the tuition for all of those kids. So, you know, Willie told us he's gonna be able to join us on Saturday and we're we're gonna be able to give him a check. And I think it's good for the people who support us to see where that money goes.

SPEAKER_02 37:46

I agree.

SPEAKER_03 37:47

I absolutely and it's good for him to be able to see what we do and the community that we have to try to raise that money.

SPEAKER_01 37:55

Yeah, the foundation has really done some really great things, and everybody's always so grateful.

SPEAKER_03 38:00

We are over $15,000 donated.

SPEAKER_02 38:03

Already? Yeah. Wow, dude. And day of it'll be even wow, that's great.

SPEAKER_03 38:07

Day of we'll uh we'll we'll head towards 16. And um, so I mean we'll the fact that we have been blessed enough to be able to give at this point over $15,000 away to kids and organizations who help kids, it's is there a contact thing on the website?

SPEAKER_02 38:27

It's beyond my my like I'm thinking if anybody's listening right now and they would like to donate to us.

SPEAKER_03 38:33

Donate, or if we could help them.

SPEAKER_02 38:35

I mean, we might have some folks who can use our apply for uh I guess for grants.

SPEAKER_03 38:40

Yeah. So if you go to lovelike ben and then number nine.com, all one word, lovelike ben number nine.com, you'll see all about us. You'll see a little bit about the event we got coming up, but there are two buttons on every page. One is if you know if you're moved enough and you you want to help us out a little bit, you can hit the donate button.

SPEAKER_00 39:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:03

And the other one is we have our grant page as well. So you can apply for a grant.

SPEAKER_00 39:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:09

Now, every grant receives an answer back. It's not one of those that goes into the the video abyss. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:15

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:16

You know, you'll hear from us.

SPEAKER_02 39:17

Yeah, and we seriously we we we debate and cajole and argue, and we really we take each grant application incredibly seriously.

SPEAKER_03 39:28

Yeah. You know, and it's um it's it's a great process. It's I love that we're able to do it.

SPEAKER_02 39:38

Yeah, it's one of those definitely one of those things like, you know, in my days, I'll look back and be like, yeah, I did a little something that made a difference. And that that is definitely one of them. Um I'm putting on this event, whatever it is. What else? What else? What am I missing?

SPEAKER_03 39:54

We've talked about safety, we've talked about sort of that reputation. Yeah. Um, we've talked about cost. Yep, sadly. Yeah. Yeah, and that's the part that's that's the hardest. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:06

And then I think you know, here's I I will add one. Because I'm looking at this table versus full of door prizes and basket raffle and stuff.

SPEAKER_03 40:14

And that's just the start.

SPEAKER_02 40:16

It's I think this grows from gratitude, too. I think the fact that you and I are truly grateful for the 50 people that are coming out and expending their energy, time, and dollars, you know, with their with along with their family and our sponsors. Yeah. It's awesome. I mean, they don't have to come.

SPEAKER_03 40:36

No, they don't. And a lot of them, like we run, we talked about Alicia and Paul Childress. Yeah. Okay, we do that bench press comp. So it's kind of a unique thing. It's not part of the competition, right? But anybody, anybody, any of the athletes, anybody in the judges, any of the spectators, you pay 20 bucks and you can join the comp.

SPEAKER_00 40:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:56

Okay. So it's all the men are in one group, and we have certain you know, weights that they have to bench press, women, same thing. So in the two years that we've run this, we have yet to have and and you get 50% of the pool. So last year I think our pool is like 200 bucks that the person who won it was going to get back.

SPEAKER_02 41:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:19

They gave us the money back. Yeah, that's cool.

SPEAKER_02 41:21

But you know, especially at a room full of strength athletes where you say, Hey, I wonder who's the best bench presser. You're basically playing into their like, ooh, their sympathies.

SPEAKER_03 41:32

It's me, I bet.

SPEAKER_02 41:33

And I may not be, but it's me.

SPEAKER_03 41:35

You know, but it you know, you go to that point where it's we know, like you said, that the athletes are they're spending time. We've got we've had people coming from Texas. Yeah, you know, Dan and Shelby would have come in from Texas for the past couple of years. We've had people come in from Ohio, Connecticut, you know. Candace comes up from Pennsylvania. Yeah, I mean, we've got all over. And they're spending their money. So by the grace of our sponsors, you know, like Sirius Steel, like uh, you know, the union, who who give us just some phenomenal things, our athletes don't walk away empty-handed. Yeah, you know, we give them something just a small.

SPEAKER_02 42:18

I forgot about some of the raffle things, like big kahuna creations had custom whiskey barrel, like bar cabinet lit Susan.

SPEAKER_03 42:29

It's a thousand dollar gift that he gave us just to raffle off for this event. Um you know, Tim has been incredibly generous.

SPEAKER_02 42:39

Tim's definitely a friend of the foundation for sure. You know, the the last thing, I think the thing to Ryan R uh again, I just can't believe this just came to me, but I think the thing to end on is so if you if you go through all of our episodes, a third of them, maybe even more, we will mention community and how important it is to be an athlete. I think we're doing good works by building some community. I mean, of those 50 athletes, they don't all know each other.

unknown 43:07

No.

SPEAKER_02 43:07

But they're exposed to each other, they get to spend a day together. Maybe we're making some connections that the next generation does something together.

SPEAKER_03 43:14

Well, I will add on to that some of the athletes that are competing next weekend are from competitions that my brother and I have gone to in different states that we've built the community there. Right. And they'll reach out and say, Hey Scott, when is your comp for for the foundation? So that community that we've talked about, it it just keeps it's like a a stone in a pond, dude. Yep. It just keeps rippling out.

SPEAKER_02 43:44

Yep. I I I think that's a great place to end. I do too. Go build a community, go compete in something, go run something, go facilitate others to be great.

SPEAKER_03 43:53

Yeah, use that passion that you now have and you be the AD.

SPEAKER_02 43:56

Absolutely. No one's stopping you.

SPEAKER_03 43:58

And if you have questions, call Scott.

unknown 44:00

Call Scott.

SPEAKER_03 44:02

Right into the uh the Masters Athlete Survival Guide. Yeah, please. Please comment. Comment below.

SPEAKER_02 44:08

Donate to the LovelikeBen9.com. Yeah. And we'll be here when you need us. Um, who are you? I'm still Scott. I'm still John. Thanks, everybody. Bye.

Final Takeaways And Ways To Help

SPEAKER_02 44:21

Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the podcast, please share it with others, post it on your social media, or leave a review. To catch all the latest from us, you can follow us on Instagram at Masters Athlete Survival Guide. Thanks again. Now get off our lawn, you damn kids.