Hungry Dog Barbell Podcast
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Hungry Dog Barbell Podcast
Houston Bandits
Grid league player and former podcast guest Sophia Davenport is back on the show! With the Grid League expanding its horizons to local territories, we discuss the dynamics of team management and the thrill of building a new team in Texas. .
With a fresh lineup of athletes ready to make their mark, we explore the current landscape of the league, share humorous anecdotes, and discuss the resilience shown by the community in the face of challenges like Hurricane Milton.
I had a great rundown of grid there, but I've had four I think you're four total grid league players on the podcast. In total you can go learn about all their stories back then. Go listen to the old episodes a bunch of different people there let's talk about now. I remember January. Right Like announcement comes out grid leagues expanded. It used to be like nationwide.
Speaker 1:I'm old enough in the crossfit space mptl yep, to remember that, to remember that, like I'm out in pa right now, new york, you have a team. I know some of the dudes that were on that squad and and all that. They made the announcement that they're gonna expand again. Like, can you tell us a little bit more behind that announcement? Like I'm sure you had some behind the scenes stuff going on with it and what's's going on now?
Speaker 2:So I was a little bit actually surprised by it. We got done with our match in Tampa August 17th. Came home, got a message from the commissioner wanting to talk to me. I was like, oh, what did I do?
Speaker 1:Like really thought of me Principal's office vibes.
Speaker 2:Yes he said he wanted to talk about. So they send out these little like emails right To the players when we have sponsors and whatnot. And I was not very happy with one of our products this year and I voiced my opinion, thinking nobody was really going to read it truthfully. And then I got an email like well, we want to talk about that and some other things. I was like yeah probably off yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, probably probably made somebody mad Cool, cool, cool, cool. Nobody would tell me like I kind of put some feelers out. Do you know why? He wants to talk to me Like people that I thought would know and they're like no idea. I'm like cool. So we get in the conversation and he did talk about the product for it and it wasn't. It wasn't a big deal, it was just my personal preference over something. And then he started going into you know, we're looking at expanding. There's um, we're looking to have a team in Texas. That I already knew because the rumor mill had been going and.
Speaker 2:I'd already tried to figure out who the hell it was. Truthfully, Um, because for me it would make more sense. Right, I'm in Houston. I've traveled my entire grid career hell I found grid online. Like I was one of the first people signed off of their online like tryout process when they first tried that in 2019.
Speaker 1:So you've been through the process. Like you, are organic in it right, right, right.
Speaker 2:And so he's like so he's going on to explain. And I told him I was like it's funny because I was trying to figure out who it was. And he's like, well, what, if it was you, would you be interested? I was like in running the team. And he's like, yeah, I was like I can do that. And people that don't know me, I'm a very much like I'm an all in or an all out person. I don't ride that line. So within a week I have signups, I'm bringing back people who were out this past season, I have vets coming in, I have sponsors set up within two weeks. And then he messaged me again. He's like, well, let's follow up. I'm like, oh no, we're in. Yeah, we're done. Here's my team name, here's the logo, here's the people.
Speaker 2:I want to bring in? When can I send them LOIs Like what are we doing here? He's like. Oh, I was like yeah, you don't know me very well, I work fast. We got Vegas in a couple of weeks. We have a double header and there's a hurricane coming in, like we have other things to do, so let me knock this out of the way so we can take care of that, then I's.
Speaker 2:Then I then of course I called taylor stalling. So she was my coach for a while there and love her, and I was like she. I said, hey, when you get a second, can you talk? I was at work, I was getting ready to teach my three, four, five year old class at the karate school and she was like I can talk right now. I was like, all right, so I call her. It's like did you know? She starts laughing. That's all I. Did you know? Did I know what I'm like? Did you know what I'm talking about?
Speaker 2:She's like yeah, she's like. I knew Mather called me. She's like he talked to a few other people I guess he talked to some of the other owners in the league before speaking with me and she's like yeah, you're the perfect fit, you love this sport and you'll make it grow.
Speaker 1:That's dope.
Speaker 2:So I was like here, thank you, and the current owner also of the team that I played for this year, of course, had to talk to him and he's like no, I, I knew yeah, so they were all conspiring behind your back to put you in that place.
Speaker 2:That's great yeah, I mean the breakers this season. So I actually started with them. They were palm beach elite, my rookie season. So that were Palm Beach Elite, my rookie season. So that was who I was with my rookie season with Matt Hornaday and Elite before I went to Tampa. And then I was with Tampa for however many years and then back with the Breakers this season and my position with the Breakers this season was much different. Right, not a rookie anymore, was like in a leadership assistant coach position with them. So the behind the scenes stuff of it that I didn't know before as an athlete was things that I was. I mean, I know how to coach, right, but knowing the rules, knowing why you're, you have to have this person pulled out at this time because this person, like you, kind of know it as an athlete.
Speaker 2:But it doesn't make as much sense until you really see the writing on the wall and like it laid out like this is why we have to do this and this is the rule for that and and like throwing bonus flags, I had no idea when to throw a bonus flag, so you get one bonus flag you can throw and say what's the bonus like?
Speaker 1:tell us okay.
Speaker 2:So when you win a race, it's two points if you lose the race. When you win a race, it's two points If you lose the race but finish under the time cap.
Speaker 1:It's one point.
Speaker 2:All the races except for the very last one. The very last one is sprint relay and that one is worth three points if you win, but still only one point. If you lose it but finish under the time, cap Bonus point you get. You throw your bonus flag, you get an extra point if you win, but if you lose the other team gets the bonus point.
Speaker 1:So it has to be thrown before the race.
Speaker 2:Within a minute.
Speaker 1:Okay, so within a minute of the race started, and is it only on the last event or is it on any event?
Speaker 2:Any race. So, like with the breakers this season, we legit threw that bonus flag on ringers. Every single one was ringer, except for our last one, our last, and we should have thrown it on mine, but I got scared and so we did you tell me, can you, can I throw as many bonus flags as I want?
Speaker 2:and there's only one oh man, I'll be going crazy with it the only one that's so funny so every every match we have this season, we threw on a ringer. We threw bonus five on the ringer, except for our last one, we threw it on sprint relay. It was our very last race of the very last match and we won it and it was but all right, so let's go back to this season.
Speaker 1:You start getting people together, grids already like you live outside of state, outside of florida, and it mostly took place there. Um, now you guys are expanding already to houston. You're going to expand to another city. We still don't know where that's going to be. Maybe you know, maybe someone out there has the same situation as you that's a secret.
Speaker 2:There's rumors, there's rumors chicago, there's rumors miami. So I'm just sitting back you're gonna wait, it's gonna be cold man.
Speaker 1:If you guys did it, then like that's what I said. You gotta bring it somewhere where it's mostly sunny, like like that's why florida works, like for crossfit comes and stuff. But how's the travel season gonna go? Like it's still mostly in florida, right? There's what nine teams now with the? The Houston team Is the eight other. How many teams are there?
Speaker 2:There's nine officially, but there will be 10. So that was one of the things about Houston. It's like we can't add just one. There will be two new teams. I'm like okay, because in theory, when you have it like they don't want anybody to have to have a bye week because now somebody's had to have a bye week, because now somebody's.
Speaker 2:Now we're fighting over who's getting the bye week, you know, right. So it just makes more sense to have an even number um cuts down on the sibling rivalry, you know, within the own harvest um. So opening day, as far as I know right now is still july 5th in orlando at the um usa fit games. They've already announced it. So that's how I know that Grid League. Oh, okay, so there's opening weekend.
Speaker 1:Mark your calendar. I'll be there, yes.
Speaker 2:Well, that's one of the things too. So once this announcement was made, I was taken. We got back from Vegas and I was not feeling very well. In Vegas I wasn't feeling very well, but kind of made it through and then got home and then I was sick and my kid was sick. I ended up with a double ear infection and the flu was doing like the fittest of the coast qualifiers.
Speaker 2:You can see on my scores how sick I was. Like I progressively start to get normal and my scores get normal. I was like that was. It was really bad. For like three weeks I only went to the gym like three, three times it was to do a qualifier and I came home and went back to bed. Um, but I was at work. So, for reference, I went to karate school. I worked like two, two and a half hours a night where I'm teaching class and I'm not by my phone. Get done with class. Look at my phone and I've got legit 50 DMs and text messages and all these things. I'm like who died? What the hell?
Speaker 1:happened here. I was going to say it's either really really good or really really bad.
Speaker 2:The hell happened here. I was gonna say it's either really really good or really really bad. Grid league made the announcement that houston's got a team and he announced it like a day earlier than I was expecting and I made the instagram page already for and had it set up. Um, there's nothing really on it yet, but that's where all the dms were going through. I was like okay, cool, like I want to try out. I'm like okay, so backtrack just a little bit. It's not just me that's running the team. Carissa McKay is coming in as well. So she and I were rookies together for Palm Beach Elite in 2019.
Speaker 2:She played grid six. She was up in Jersey originally. Now she lives in Georgia. She played for the wild for a couple of years, her and her husband. She had some health concerns so it took her out of the game for a little bit. So they kind of figured out what was going on.
Speaker 2:But she's a body weight specialist really good upside down. Like I can't do the things that she can do upside down. She's one of those people right Now. The last couple of years she's worked behind the scenes of the grid, like doing stats and social media and reporting that kind of stuff. I told her. I was like do you want to come in on this? I could use an assistant coach if anything, even if you don't want to play. Somebody who knows the rules inside and out better than I do would be super helpful, because I plan on playing, but it's very hard to play and coach at the same time. So I need somebody that can coach while I'm on the grid and that we can switch roles if they want to be on the grid too, right? So she's coming on as a body weight specialist, but very specific like there's very specific things that she's not going to hold a barbell, right?
Speaker 2:She's going to do very specific things, so she's coming on as well. So I'd messaged her and I was like I am overwhelmed. I'm a person who I don't have any notifications. My notifications are zero because I check my emails and I check my dms and I check all any phone calls, like I'm just that type of person.
Speaker 2:Um, I told her I was like I screenshot it. I was like, look at that, so what do I do here? So, yeah, she's like this is great. I was like, is it though? Um, so I've got, I've got. We have a lineup. I can't say a whole lot of the names cause we haven't made the announcement yet, but we have some monsters. Like you have some monsters. I've got men who can clean almost 400 pounds and that snatch well over 300. And to me I had no idea who these people were. They're sending me their numbers and I'm like all right, listen, it's cool that you can snatch that much. It's really cool that you can clean that much. Like I'll never even deadlift that much, like I'll never even deadlift that much.
Speaker 2:I'll roll it out to you, but that's about it, right? This is what I need. Beat me and I send them videos. If you can beat me in hang cleans, you're 100 in. If you can get close to me, we'll talk about it. Because weightlifters I've learned the hard way on past teams they're good for like one bar. I need you to do four bars in like 22 seconds. Then I need you to go rep out like 60% for you of your max, but for 10 solid reps fast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm tired already.
Speaker 2:Yeah right. So that's the issue. Like we've progressed enough within the sport that you have to. You have to have that ability as well. You can't just be strong and go out there and lift one thing one time. I need you to do it for multiple reps. But the difference between crossfit and grid is cross crossfit's average rep two and a half to three seconds. Right, because you're looking for longevity within a watt, and grid you're a second or less or you're slow yeah that's it a second or less.
Speaker 2:Like 20 chest to bar. Better be less than 20 seconds hands down, like I need you at like 17 seconds or so, and if you're not, somebody else will step in and do it right, that's actually exactly how I like program workouts.
Speaker 1:Like all right, so you could do this in about 17 seconds. If you do that, you're gonna blow up and then you're gonna be dead for the rest of the workout. So it's gonna take about 20 seconds actually, and this is how long I want it to be. That's so. That's exactly how you should you know, like kind of program workouts out right, right, but in grid you're doing it one time yeah, yeah and that's, that's the whole.
Speaker 2:It's one time, and then you can go die for a few seconds because somebody else has taken your spot to do the next, the next movement.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You, you, you're responsible for one movement, which is your specialty, and then you throw somebody else in. That's what makes it a team. So you can have 20 people on the team, 10 and 10. You're going to have competition and it's within your teammates which is good, right, like because there's only five active players.
Speaker 1:You said right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and there's some. There's some matches that are super gymnastics heavy, so your body weights and your lighter people are going to get more work that match. Then you've got some matches that are super heavy, but your body weights may be sitting on the sidelines the whole damn match. It just depends on the match, and we know what the matches are. This year we had we had a brand new match at the opening of the season that was awkward, super awkward. Um, other than that, we know what the matches are all the time. So it's I love it, man. It's the funnest thing I've ever done in the sport, like, of all the things I've done a circus and track and karate, and like trying to knock bitches out and CrossFit. This, this is fun.
Speaker 1:I mean, I know.
Speaker 2:I've told you I like knocking people out. It's not as fun anymore when you're older.
Speaker 1:Come on now, man. One of the favorite podcast posts ever. Man, Breaking a hand over someone's face is what's better than that.
Speaker 2:It's nothing, but they're trying to knock you out too. That's the part that I don't like that's true, you did say that, yeah I don't like it when they come back at you like damn it, I missed. Okay, now I gotta keep my hands up, because I like my face right yeah, but in, in this sport it's just.
Speaker 2:Oh. So, this year's team, a lot of them, half of them were in florida and half of them were all over the US, so all of our practices were virtual. So all these little screens, you know, and you're directing traffic through your headphones, which is fine.
Speaker 2:You just have to learn that there's a little bit of a lag where they can hear you and when you need the rep to start, and once you get that timing figured out, it's smooth. And you got people going head to head trying to figure out who's faster at a ringer, for example. But they're in alabama and florida and california, you know, and maryland I'm like, and I'm just sitting here eating my popcorn and waiting like all right ready three, two, one race?
Speaker 1:do you coordinate different clocks too, like, are you clock on your on your side, their clocks on their side too, or do you just go one clock clock they have they have their clocks um.
Speaker 2:What I do is screen record and then go back to the playback and then slow it down and then get an actual time, because it's hard when people's gym setups are different, so you set it up as much as you can. So what we do during practice is just count seconds per rep, not on and off. So, like in the grid, race times three, two, one, go once the first athlete crosses over. That's when the race time starts and it doesn't stop until the last athlete crosses the finish line of whatever the last movement is Can't really do that because not everybody has that 80 plus foot of space.
Speaker 1:So we have to do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So we have to do it per rep speed to kind of see where everybody's at. Then you have to get them practicing run to the bar, pick up the bar, because that changes. You can't just saunter up and like, take your time and set up and make it pretty. We don't care about pretty, we just want to get it done.
Speaker 1:Yeah pretty.
Speaker 2:We don't care about pretty, we just want to get it done.
Speaker 1:Yeah, try not to hurt yourself that would be great, and then get it done. That's developing strategy in your sport, you know those two things yeah so where will? Where will? I think this is going to lead into my my next question where will most of the the matches be grid league? Grid league matches this season they have not announced that.
Speaker 2:I only know the orlando one. If I knew the rest of the schedule, that would be super helpful for me right now because a lot of people ask that this season technically isn't over. Um, they still play off in a couple weeks, so this season still have to conclude um once playoffs are done and then everybody regroups, the re-signing period starts and then all the planning for next season will finally like get pushed out.
Speaker 2:So the re-signing period current athletes on current teams. Those teams have the I guess, the signing rights to those athletes all the way through January 31st, so nobody's a free agent or anything until February 1st. So they can't like I can't talk to anybody about coming to Texas.
Speaker 1:That's a big deal. No, lebron stuff.
Speaker 2:It really, it really is. And then you've got but people who didn't. So Aaron Medina, for example. He played with me on tampa um. He took the season off because he went to the police academy in austin. So I already told him I was like you know that you're gonna play for me next year. He's like oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, like all right, no signing with another team, I will kill you. He's like yeah, yeah, yeah, cool that's funny.
Speaker 1:So what was going on in vegas? I heard you talk about it earlier. I saw a bunch of posts of grid going down out there. What was that? Like an expo? What was?
Speaker 2:happening. We were at the olympia for our double header, so half of our season, our regular season matches, were there. But milton hit, so 90 of like the people involved with grid league are in florida. Well, yeah, so we got as many people out as we could as soon as and it escalated so quickly. That's what she said, I know.
Speaker 2:But saturday go into practice. Um, my best friend still plays for tampa. He was going into practice. I was going to practice here. We were talking on the phone, we were both kind of like venting. You know, anxiety will do that to you because we're getting close to the masses. So we get in, go to practice four or five hours later we're still at practice and then leave in the afternoon. Touch base again. I was like, hey, um, that tropical storm that was supposed to be coming to texas apparently is now a hurricane and heading to you. He's like what? So now we're watching it. So that was the saturday. Sunday rolls around, and now it's going to be a cat three. Monday rolls around, now it's going to be a cat five and we're like everybody needs to get the fuck out right you need to leave.
Speaker 2:The eye of the storm went right over my best friend's house and he did not leave. He stayed um wow so there.
Speaker 2:There was a lot of people that made it out and there were some people that were afraid to leave. There were some people that, by the time they made the decision they could leave, were stuck because the roads were stuck, the airports were shut down. I mean, it was bad. It was real, real bad. So fast forward to Vegas. We were just we had there was plan A, b, c, d, all these plans for who made it, who didn't make it, what to do with the teams, who's going to play? It was we had three teams that couldn't play because they didn't have enough players or whatnot. So they combined them and made a super team. So they were. They were basically playing like kind of exhibition style, just so the other teams so even itself out, but it also they did like two point systems. So we don't have conferences anymore, we're all just one and then we're all in one bracket.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So what they did away with because of all of this, playoffs were determined by point differentials, your win and losses. So they had like a primary match, and I forget what the other one was called right now, but they did. They had two separate matches. So it was your primary match you got. If you won, you got double the points. So if your team won by four, you got eight plus points added to your total.
Speaker 1:And you stayed in the higher part of the bracket.
Speaker 2:Well, there was no part of the bracket yet, because the other teams still have to play, so there's just a list.
Speaker 1:uh, if you lost though, and it was your primary match.
Speaker 2:Same thing, double the points and loss. Now, oh, secondary, if it was your secondary match and you lost, it was just a zero, so you didn't add or take away. If you won, you just got one point added. So the three teams that couldn't play are all now playing before the playoffs, because they have to play in order to see if any of them are making it into playoffs.
Speaker 1:Like right now currently.
Speaker 2:They're going to play the weekend of the 16th.
Speaker 1:Like upcoming yeah. Upcoming, like upcoming yeah.
Speaker 2:Upcoming. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the weekend that's supposed to be playoffs and championship now has to do these makeup matches too. Plus, they're doing Grid 6 that weekend too, like a scaled version for people that want to do that. Yeah, then there's a wild card, because there were three teams and you need a fourth team, but then there was a wild card because there were three teams and you need a fourth team, but then there was a. It was this whole thing, and we lost that by one point.
Speaker 2:We lost the wild card position by one point. I was like damn it. We also had a team full of rooks. I mean I think there was just a handful of us that were vets all rookies, highly talented. Really like couldn't have asked for a better group of people. Worked really hard, but yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, lost it by one point, damn dude Fucking Milton, fucking Milton. Fucking Milton man. That's really cool, though that Grid has matches and events like at fitness expos.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was crazy. The Olympia was hacked.
Speaker 1:I'd never been, I think I've seen that actually have they been at the Arnold before in Columbus?
Speaker 2:I'm not sure, I'm not sure I don't know.
Speaker 1:I know I saw CrossFit there before they had the open events going on, but I thought I saw some non-CrossFit looking stuff happening back there. That's really cool, though I've been wondering about what was going on in Vegas. That's part of the reason why I wanted to reach out to you, and then, when you guys were making the Houston announcement, I was like, oh, this is perfect, I can find out both of the things, everything at once, yeah. Everything I love it.
Speaker 2:It was an interesting time because we were waking up and helping. I was on pit crew, I was judging, and then we had to hire a couple of guys because we didn't have enough men to play. Like our girls made it, we had enough girls to play but we didn't have enough guys to play. So like the night before sitting at dinner with the owner and like going through prospects that we can hire and then teach the next day, three hours before the fucking match, how to do things.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:All the fucking rules and stuff and what to do. It's nuts, it was. They picked it up very well. I mean very grateful. One of them, his wife, plays for the shark, so he's been around a little bit so he knows some things he knew a little bit yeah yeah, yeah. And then the other one was, um, he was signed up to be a rep because he wanted to get involved with grid anyway, so, but he ended up being like a hell of an athlete.
Speaker 1:We're like oh you can reach the nine foot nine ring Guess what you're doing today Not the circle back to the rigs, that's so funny, you're the guy, you'll get it next year.
Speaker 2:The guy he went against is a friend of mine and he's just fast. He's like Paul. He's been practicing. We knew that's the person they were going to throw in and we're like Dakota, you know, godspeed.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We at least got a point, because before we weren't, we were just gonna be staring at the ring. We had nobody that can do it, so we weren't, we were just gonna be staring at the ring. We had nobody that can do it. So we were like, okay, literally no one can do it. The guy that was scheduled to do it was stuck in Florida. So we're like here we go. Random guy you're thomas shine welcome to the big league, oh buddy, what a fucking welcome.
Speaker 1:So, speaking about speaking about players and you talk about contracts, do do uh, players get paid, like in their contracts from the grid league, from the teams, or just just from sponsors, but the teams are kind of responsible for I wouldn't say they're responsible, but definitely lead the way in sponsorships.
Speaker 2:I haven't paid out of pocket ever, so like hotels and sites and everything has all been covered through sponsorships. I've been very fortunate. I don't think that people understand the power that the league has. I don't know if that's the right terms, but they have so many followers and there's so many people that want to support these athletes and there's a lot of people who really don't use social media to their advantage or they feel kind of awkward, maybe asking for help this, that or the other. I've ran the karate school for 20 plus years. At this point We've got kids that go to nationals and whatnot, and it's like you're always looking for ways to help these families fund these endeavors Right, and it's the same thing.
Speaker 2:It's the part of sport it's the same thing. Now the league's very good and they've gotten much better the past I would say two seasons, maybe even three where they they focus on sending out sponsorship opportunities to the athletes. So we'll get an email that these are potential new sponsors.
Speaker 2:you have to fill out this questionnaire and then the whoever the sponsor is, whatever their company is, we'll look at the little things, the little answer forms that they had to fill out and they'll go through and see which ones they like, and then they'll go contact that athlete and whether it's sending them products, and then you get like discount codes and you get your little dividends off of that. And then, too, the Atlanta Wild do a really good job of just really having fun social media videos of their athletes. So I'm going to have to like, maybe copy some of that. Personally I'm not good at that, but I'm going to have to get good at that for the athletes Cause my goal is yeah, but it's like not just working out.
Speaker 2:They'll ask them like what's your favorite color, what's your favorite food or whatever. And it's funny, Like they're they're really getting to know the athletes and I think people need to know that too. Like, yeah, there's some bad-ass athletes out there, but they're also just kind of like a regular human you know yeah. Some are a little quirky. I mean, just like what, what goes on in your brain? You?
Speaker 1:got a Gen Z person at your gym and then make them the intern for social media and that's what you got to do. There's your path, right there A little Gen Z or a little 17 to 24 year old.
Speaker 2:Probably going to have to be my 13 year old there you go. I'm going to have to hire him because he's always telling my mom I can make the videos better than you. I'm like, okay, here's my phone I can make the video he's like you can do better.
Speaker 1:I'm like, okay, get him a $150 road Mike, hook him up, boom, he's good to go. That's all you got to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but but yeah, they're. They're very good at helping us with that, for sure, for sure, way better than they were back in 2019. Sorry, guys, but it's true. It's really true.
Speaker 1:Growth is great.
Speaker 2:Growth is great. Growth is great and it's interesting because I think that before there's just so many people in Florida and now, especially with us being out here in Texas, I really thought a lot of my athletes would come from Florida. But a lot of them are going to be here. Like CrossFit, enoch is the home gym for the season and they're very blessed. It's a very big space and there's no classes on the weekends. So it's like I mean they have a community one every once a month, but other than that it's open on the weekends, which is perfect for us so we can have our practices, we have the space for the practices. That's right, like on the outskirts of Houston, so you're not like driving downtown in the city getting lost or anything. City traffic, but it's looking really city traffic. So, but it's it's it's looking really really good Like the, the prospects of getting sponsors already, like it's looking really really good for us. So I just want to keep that momentum going.
Speaker 1:That's dope. I'm excited for you guys, excited to see it expand more. You know like I want to see fast fitness, like all over the place. So before, before I get to the very end, right, um, let me ask you this about crossfit like since bosman took over and it's gone backwards now a few years ago, we've seen the emergence of more like people hate on and call it circus tricks, right, like the he he's put in how to even describe it? Like very gymnastic skills that we've never seen before. Some might call it graded league-esque, right. How do you feel about, about any of that?
Speaker 2:um, yeah, to be honest, I did not compete in the open this year. Um, I broke my wrist february 1st and I came out of the cast the week one of the open, so so it's my first open. I couldn't handle the 35 pound dumbbell like it. Just it hurt and I was like, well, okay, not even gonna mess with this this year and I thought I would be more sad than I really was and I just wasn't.
Speaker 2:Um, crossfit has changed a lot since covid and I've lost my personal drive to want to compete in it as much. I like the local stuff, I like my friends that I meet there, but I'm not so driven to make the games anymore. I'm just not. That being said, I don't have a problem with it like that. I have a problem with the way the open is run. I just this whole and the bigger chunk going into quarterfinals now, the bigger percentage. I'm like you might as well just go back to the five weeks of the open, because that's what you're doing it is the same damn thing, you're just charging more money.
Speaker 1:So when you look at it like that's what's annoying?
Speaker 2:yeah, it's like yeah, what are? What's the point?
Speaker 1:well, I'll say charging more money, and then for the most part, we're not seeing the return on it, right, cause most level headed people are all right with paying more money If you get like value out of it.
Speaker 1:But it's like all right. So you made the open shorter, same amount of money that you added another weekend with four more workouts that resemble what we would see in the last two weeks of the open, and you're charging more for it, right? I love what it does for the people that were on the bubble before the, the 10 to 25 percent, that 15 percent in there, because now it motivates them to be like, oh, I could get two percent stronger and now I'm in quarterfinals. And then, right, they can build on that year after year because for them there was kind of nothing, right, you do the the crossword open and then like, unless you're the, the tip of the spear, it's, it's over for you. But now you're more incentivized to to chase progress yearly for that 15. But I mean, is that worth 75 from however many tens of thousands of people now?
Speaker 2:I mean, is it worth it for the everyday person? Probably not, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I don't know. I think that the way the games were handled and that's all I'm going to say on that I think that it rubbed a lot of people the wrong way and I don't know if the sport is going to grow Because of that. I think that high rocks is going to grow. I think that gridling is going to grow.
Speaker 2:I think that USAF is going to grow because those athletes that want an outlet are going to go to those sports. Now Right, because they're organized, because they put the athlete first. They're not like money hungry, if that makes sense. I mean, I'm not super versed in high rocks, I just know a lot of athletes have switched over to it, which I called it when all that stuff happened in August. I don't know, I think in an unpopular opinion. I think that the sanctionals was probably the best thing that they did. It offered more incentives. It offered more incentives. It offered more opportunities If you wanted to compete. The last year of sanctionals there was like one a weekend, if not two, because there was over 50 of them.
Speaker 1:I feel that that was peak CrossFit right.
Speaker 2:I really do, because now you've got these people who love it so much but couldn't make money at it, so it's like they're dying financially. Now they can make money. You could go to Dubai. You didn't have to win the damn thing. You won an event. You won $30,000. Just one event. So it's like you've got athletes now that can actually be an athlete in the sport, still make money and still be an athlete. And people were bitching and complaining about it. Bring back regionals.
Speaker 1:Well now you have semis and it's still like not. It's really confusing to me, because I thought that it was collectively agreed that sanctionals was like the best idea Maybe not the perfect format, but the best thing to happen as far as competitively and now they're talking about making semis virtual. I'm like how? Like it's one of those things that when I first saw it online, I'm like this has just got to be spam. It's not real. There's no way that someone's really thinking that let's make semis why? Who would be someone's really thinking that let's make semis? Why? Well, who would think that's the right thing to do? You know?
Speaker 2:well, and then you got to look to how many masters, competitive competitors are there age groups, shit, con. All all the old school people are. Now you know we're up there and it's like they could care less. They could care less separating them out the way that they did this year mistake. And if they're really going to separate teams out again next year, I'm just like why You're no longer competing for a spot in the games unless you're in the all-age group, right, the young people or whatever, not that they're young, young. But unless you're in that age group.
Speaker 2:Yeah, unless you're in that age group, crossfit could care less, seemingly.
Speaker 1:Can't speak for them, but it's seemingly on paper they could care less.
Speaker 2:Hey, but their argument is we still call it the CrossFit Games. You know, Legends presents the CrossFit. Games or however, it's worded is a little sketch.
Speaker 1:I just had a guy on that was working at the Adaptive Games and I think it's really cool and I agree that they probably do need their own because they're never going to get the highlight from CrossFit that they deserve.
Speaker 2:You need consistency right Like. Consistency breeds trust, and if you don't have that with it, everything's going to change again next year. When was it December, when they'll start making announcements?
Speaker 1:again of all the changes for the next year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you just gotta sit back and write everything down and figure out okay, do I want to compete in this year's crossfit games or do I wait for next season with the new changes that are coming along, because you know it's going to change yeah, and I think what you just said right there is the nail on the head.
Speaker 1:Like most people have just lost or don't know if they should trust and cross it anymore and their argument back is like trust us because it's us. Okay, Like the methodology and just you know, observable, measurable, repeatable fitness and caring about your nutrition. Those are the parts that I like and I like all the people that come in to do it in my gym that I go to. But like Don Fall and Dave Castro, I'm going to say this and I'm going to leave this in the episode. I like Dave Castro. He's a cool character. I don't know what the idolization problem is with people of him like right, yeah, I like the theatrics of his presentation of everything.
Speaker 2:Like, I like that stuff, I like it's great what stuff is gonna be.
Speaker 1:I'm always wrong, but I, I keep saying it dave castro went to the vince mcmahon wwe school of how to run sports and he is crushing it and what keeps happening is people fight against that like, no, like. Okay, vince McMahon is a scumbag. If you haven't watched the documentary on Netflix, go watch that. It's great entertainment about the WWE and stuff.
Speaker 1:But he was successful for a reason in what he did, like the theatrics that he this man painted storylines, and that's the big thing that CrossFit lacks, like we're talking about with grid league. We need to tell the athlete's story and then people will get invested in them. Like we need theatrics, we need storylines to make it a sport right. The fitness makes it something that you watch, you know. The storylines make it something that you care about, and he made it entertaining so I love that part about it.
Speaker 2:I know I'm not waking up like oh my god, is dave castro still having his job giving back to him? He's right like bro. It's just weird, that's weird.
Speaker 1:I think people are weird when they do that with anyone. I don't care who it is, you know, it's just nuts. Sophia. At the end of the episode here, tell us what you're hungry for. What's?
Speaker 2:your big goal right now. I just want people to be afraid when we step on the grid. That's all. I'm not hiding any athletes. I'm not going to surprise you with who our rookies are. Once they come out and they're announced, you can go stalk them all you want to, because Texas is coming in. I can't guarantee a championship out the gate Like that's a little naive, right but we're going to fight you.
Speaker 1:Hell yeah.
Speaker 2:It's going to be fun. It's going to be a good time.
Speaker 1:I'm excited man, excited to see it expand more again. I was like damn, when they made that announcement, especially Houston. I'm excited man, excited to see it expand more. Again I was like damn when they made that announcement, especially Houston. I'm like oh, it's coming, yeah, you know, and I agree. Somewhere it said like oh, sophia Davenport's the right person to put it in. I was like that's, I agree with that one. Aw thanks, yeah, some may say I'm a little mouthy, but whatever, I'm just passing it.
Speaker 1:That's awesome In my opinions. Passionate, that's awesome. Well, sophia, thank you for coming on again. Man, it's been another great conversation you. You were saying like 20 minutes at the beginning. Look, we talked for an hour, easy, do you have anything at the end of the episode for the people here, anything else to say?
Speaker 2:come like our page, support our players. Be good time. You want to know the name.
Speaker 1:Yeah I was gonna say tell us the name, tell us the the names will be and the like, the instagram names, so people can follow um well, instagram hasn't been updated yet and you'll be the first ones to hear.
Speaker 2:We are the houston bandits all that stuff is coming out in the next uh couple days actually, so you're the first ones that get to hear it that was the hardest thing finding name Like something that wasn't like too texty corny, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Weird, yeah, because you don't want to get locked into this place. I mean you guys might move, you know but you want to have something that represents you also.
Speaker 2:You know Right right, right right.