Hungry Dog Barbell Podcast
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Hungry Dog Barbell Podcast
Evan Smith
Evan Smith, a dedicated athlete and National Guard service member, joins us on the Hungry Dog Barbell Podcast to share his fascinating journey of juggling rigorous CrossFit training with military duties.
Throughout our conversation, we explore the deeper themes of discipline, adversity, and the power of small actions. Evan's experiences illustrate how transformative sports and fitness can be, teaching invaluable life lessons in resilience and determination.
What's up, dogs? Welcome back to the Hungry Dog Barbell Podcast. This week I'm joined by Golden Lion training athlete, evan Smith, who also trains out of CrossFit Explode, located not too far from me. Evan trains or has trained with a bunch of past guests, so you'll hear a lot of familiar names. We dive into his life as a full-time service member United States National Guard being a father, his competitive nature and how that shines through, how he found CrossFit and his training and what it's focused on right now as a Golden Line training athlete.
Speaker 2:Enjoy the episode. So he did the food testing and he got his sensitivity for certain foods and just regular sugar, I guess, or added sugar, however that comes for most foods. He just nixed it in his diet and he said the inflammation is going down and right now he just returned to work this week. So he had a four-month recovery, I believe, and they said that was like two months ahead of time.
Speaker 1:So it's interesting you brought that up and made me think about that yeah, dude, that inflammation in your body is gonna, it's gonna stop all of your recovery. So you're doing workouts and then you're never able to recover. So your joints are just dealing with that from session to session. So I like, I guess I knew it in the back of my mind, but I wasn't, I wasn't changing my diet up for that, but like that was the first thing, I noticed that like I could do whatever, like sleep, eat well afterwards and be ready for the next thing. You know, right, so small, small benefits of like having a little bit of discipline, you know. But, bro, let's dive into this episode. Man, let's talk about crossfit, let's talk about your service, let's talk about things going forward, competing we'll talk about all of it. You know, one place I want to start at is like, dude, what's your training look like right now? Like, is there anything you're focused on majorly? Is there anything that you're training for? To give some attention to your training, what's that all look like right now?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so right now I'm actually I'm finishing up. As of today I'll have finished the Army Warrior Fitness tryouts for 2024. And I can backtrack to that if you want later. But what it is is the Army team. Most people through social media know't the Army has an actual CrossFit team. They have strongman competitions that they elect service member or service members that had a love for functional fitness and they were, you know, pretty darn good at crossfit or strongman or, uh forget what. The other one, like they did a video game team. There's a competitive video game team in the army. Um, but it's a huge recruiting incentive because you get kids that are like, well, I don't really want to join the army because, like, you either have to go to west point or the naval academy or whatever to compete in sports, unless it's just like a rec league or an intramural sport, like if you were in a town and you were a grown adult and you can't play sports anymore. So the Army provides or the Army stood up and now provides the opportunity to be on those teams.
Speaker 2:The stipulation is a majority of it's made up the fact of duty. I am an Army National Guard soldier, I work full time as a federal technician. So what that really means is I work for the federal government Monday through Friday I still wear the uniform and then all my drill weekends one weekend a month, two weeks throughout the year, and then a couple of schools in between. For my career progression I perform military obligations for the Army, but my training I've been doing quarterfinal, or, I'm sorry, quarterfinals. I've been doing, uh, qualifiers for that to possibly make it on the team um and we'll see what happens with that, but I did just get done um tfx, the fitness experience qualifiers.
Speaker 1:What is that January?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the main event is in January. Down in Texas there's a few of the gold line crew doing it. I know Traven Benton I'm pretty sure Traven won and his coach is Matt. And on the girls' side Tracy Johnson plays pretty high. I train with her very frequently at the crossfit explode um, there's a couple of. I mean that place has clutch athletes.
Speaker 1:My coach has a lot of uh members there yeah, you guys have been like really expanding the roster of like great athletes over the past few years. Like I know, like back in the day, like page was there, brian's always been like fit, but like now there's like you, rachel, I know she just moved or is moving.
Speaker 2:Yeah, rachel trich, tracy caris, that's dope, yep yeah, and then, like there's always how, where you, where you place, like keep going with that, like tell us more about it uh, so I I placed 16th and I had to decline my offer because I am scheduled to go to school. So the military requires me to go to school, um, every so often and it just so happens the weekend of the competition is the same weekend as in processing for the school, so I wasn't going to be able to make it. But, um, pretty much, to answer your question, as far as the all the qualifiers and, um, you know, the little local competitions is me my coach had uh a good talk about.
Speaker 2:I'm always fierce in live competition, like I. I obviously am a realist, like if I'm going toe-to-toe with the matt frasiers and the pat velners and stuff, you know more power to them. I know they're going to run all over me, but I will always bet on myself. I know what kind of competitor I am in um live competition. So whether I win or lose, like, I don't like to back down from anything. I hate losing, um you can ask my?
Speaker 2:kids. You can ask my kids, you can ask my wife, in fact, uh, the other day I got pulled in a lottery to go play flag football at the nova care center with uh, with a bunch of other service members. It was like the uso salute to service and even though it's flag football, I I don't like losing. So I had like three interceptions and a bunch of yards.
Speaker 1:I could carry, let's go.
Speaker 2:I might have busted my foot a little bit, but you know what they realized they weren't going to pass on me.
Speaker 2:It was a really good time. It was a really good thing. I hope the USOP set up and the Eagles are, you know, getting a lot of recognition for Salute for for salute to service members. Um, I love, I love that. But I had a really hard time throughout the years with online qualifiers so, like when regionals went away, it was like I felt almost like my world ended, because I was always like that athlete that was like kind of floating around anywhere between like the top, like 300, and every year I climb a little bit more and it's like all right, I'm gonna make a push, like I'm doing good this year, like I'm right there, and then regionals goes away. And then they came up with sanctionals. And the year, the year they did sanctional, or the year right before they did sanctionals, um, I had competed at Asbury park and there was a ton of games athletes there. I mean Chandler Smith's team won with uh, that was in Spencer 2019, something like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like 2018.
Speaker 1:Cause um, um so for people out there listening, like sectionals and like asbury park those were. Those were like, becoming what like semi-finals are now like. That was the progression before semi-finals. If you're not like up to the regional, like if you, if you don't, if you don't, if you don't go as far back across CrossFit as what regionals was, sectionals became that Asbury Park. Commonwealth was trying to be in there. Oh yeah, commonwealth was in the bid.
Speaker 2:Guadalupalooza, these were places that your top Granite games.
Speaker 1:Yeah, granite games. Those were places that it wasn't just your top athletes were going there for fun anymore. These were competitions that led to the game.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and obviously, like as a competitor, for all these years I've been doing this since 2000 I want to say 13 but I did start a little bit in 2012. I took a little bit of a break for, like, I went in for three months and then took a break for like four months. Um, you know, as a competitor and it's not the right answer, by no means. But when there's blood in the water, meaning there's a prize for us on the line, like you know, some of these, some of these competitors, they're trying to make a name for themselves, but they're also that's their money, they they're using to live. So I'm, yeah, just been lucky. I've had a full-time job and, you know, I'm able to pay my bills and still compete at the level that I I love competing at, even though it kills me every day. Um, but, like asbury park man, that was that was crazy just going on the same floor with some of those competitors and a majority of them had either been to the games or been to regionals and my team literally had to piece my team together the night before because both my teammates backed out that I competed with water blues with for a couple of years and my journey in the sport like really gave me great networking platforms, like that competition alone.
Speaker 2:I met one guy. His name steve bart. He uh, he co-owners um crossfit reconstructed in delaware, and he's been one of my best friends and it was just like that stepbrothers moment where didn't even know this guy messaged him on instagram or facebook and I was like, hey man, this dude backed out, I need someone to fill in. Can you meet me at Asbury park? He says I'm in. I found another guy. We all show up, don't don't know each other and me. I remember me and Steve look at each other and I'm like yo, we're like the same height, we're like the same person. And then later that night I was like I'm not driving home. He's like I'm not driving home either. So we got a hotel room, only knew this guy for like eight hours, and find out he's in the Delaware National Guard, I'm in the New Jersey National Guard and we became best friends. It was great and I still reach out to him. He's actually he's like a mentor to me in some areas.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's between the training that I do and the people that I want to be with um, like Aaliyah Miller, me and Aaliyah deployed together and, uh, we hit it off big time and you know she went on to make a good career out of what she's doing. Um, she looks that gypsy lifestyle but we would train. I know I said, oh, I text her from time to time and see how she's doing Um, I'm glad she's close to her family now and my training, kind of until I found golden line, was all over the place. I was with misfit for a long time and it led me to meet people and um. And then I I kind of I got deployed. I was still with on Misfit training, so I did Misfit training for about six years. Um was on deployment, still kept up the programming on that, but it was just blog programming um on the competitive level. And then when I came back, um, of course COVID happened and the entire world shut down and I decided to switch my programming to mayhem. You're right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then, uh, I saw progress, um, with mayhem programming, not that I wasn't seeing it with misisfit, it was just different and I think my body adapted to just the difference very well. And then after COVID, I did some more competitions, trying to get back into the competition run and I would say about last year I went to semifinalsals in 2022 on a team actually with uh um, jay the explorer yeah, no crossfit raid I was with uh um, oh, yeah, you were on that team with them.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, yeah, it was me chance elena and, uh, andrea, and we did mayhem and then once we came back from Atlas games, that was our semifinals that year. We're kind of like when are different ways? I kind of just fell off with the programming. I mean kind of did my own thing, then dabbled back in mayhem and then I did, I did the monster games and I was like I was good, like I placed in the top 10 there and you know, I was like something's just, like I know I can beat some of these guys and I did really good, but something's just I'm missing something.
Speaker 2:Um, so then when I came home I did mechon rush, um, as an indie in the elite division that year. Um, I did it the year before with my brother on a team and I loved it. Hands down, mechon rush is probably one of my favorite competitions ever. Tim does a phenomenal job. His staff is great, great. I've never had any. Yeah, I've never had anything bad to say. His wife is updating the board and I get I crack jokes and she just looks at me and I'm like, listen, I'm not here for a good time, I'm here for a long time, I do. I really do enjoy going down there, whether I spectate or compete. I love those people down there, they're great down there. Whether I spectate or compete, I love those people down there, they're great.
Speaker 2:Um, and I did that competition on, like, uh, pretty much a broken foot Like my. My foot was all black and blue and uh, I was like what happened? Like you know, everyone was telling me how good of a job I was doing, like the smallest guy there. Um, I think I felt right out. I think I finished 11th that weekend and I came home from that competition and, like I said, I hate losing and every time I walk through my door and if I don't win or get what I wanted out of something, as far as this sport goes, sport goes and it doesn't have to necessarily equate to money, you know, sometimes it's just a feeling Like if I don't feel like I accomplished what I want to accomplish, um, I open my door and I just feel like like crap, like I let my family down. Like you know, I'm supposed to be this, this role model, this, this father, this husband, this, you know, epitome of a soldier.
Speaker 2:And you know, I distinctly remember that year, back on Rush, when I came in and put my bags down, I hopped in the shower, kind of laid in bed, I just didn't feel fulfilled, like I missed something because I got time capped in two events at Metcon Rush and I was doing phenomenal out on the floor and other guys are just good, like that is the beauty of the sport. You know, you can get someone that is just Joe Smough off the street and they can end up being the next game's competitor. That is crazy to me and I like it. That is the beauty in this sport and the community. But I was like maybe I should start looking for a coach. So a friend of mine, nick Reed, that I had met down in North Carolina, said, you know, he gave me some recommendations. I talked to Ali about some recommendations and inevitably I settled on um golden line. So my coach, uh, greg Sturtman, we started working together and he was like hey, man, you have all these capabilities but we need to build you out throughout the year.
Speaker 2:So my training changed dramatically. Where I was used to picking what I wanted to do from mayhem, from misfit, you know, if I couldn't fit, you know pieces a through E all in at one shot and I do like B and C in the afternoon and I do D and E later in the day. Now it's you know, know, I have two sessions typically. Uh, one's just straight monostructural. Right now we're in kind of an accumulation phase because it's technically the off season still. Yeah, build up time, build up time. So a lot of like spending time time, build up time. So a lot of like spending time on machines.
Speaker 2:So rowing, biking, um, I have a runner at my house, um, all that not. So I'll actually do a lot of my crossfit and lifting. Before I do that stuff, um, unless I have off every other friday, like I had off today. So I'll do my non-sexy stuff in the morning. So, like, this morning was just 25 minutes on c2 bike and just feel it out, get the body fresh, get ready to maybe redo one of the qualifiers, um, and if I wasn't doing a qualifier, it'd be, like you know, go to the gym after that, um, monostructural stuff. So the bike, the road, the ski, the run, yeah, Um, later in the day I do warm up, probably some lifting, um, we've been hitting a lot of like uh, cleans, clean and jerks and snatches, um, would probably lead me into some close grip bench and or a back squat and then then I would have a little bit of skill work or like three sets of some kind of shoulder press box, step up some kind of little bit of weakness, a little bit of accessory, and then hit a workout and then a cool down and maybe some accessory stuff at the end, like dumbbell, shoulder rotate or external shoulder rotations from the knee.
Speaker 2:They're like a big one. So you just post up, put your elbow on your knee and have a dumbbell and just rotate it out, so it sounds mostly like Greg and golden line.
Speaker 1:They, you had like a mindset shift into going from I can just hit it hard to no matter what it is to like now hitting it hard, but hitting it smart too, right. And also just like gave an overall structure to your, your programming, right, like, so how, how did he get you to buy into that thinking and like what you're doing now, like the change? You were already there a little bit beforehand, but how did he get you like on this path of like yo, let's do this Like overall changes to what we're doing and it's for the better?
Speaker 2:I'm sure he's had a headache from time to time, but I'm pretty receptive. I like to think I'm coachable. Yeah, like. Growing up I played football and lacrosse and football was my main sport and the coaches always said I was coachable and I remember, I remember back then they were. I, I heard the term trust the process back then.
Speaker 2:And then, you know when my my coach now, when greg, said, hey, man, you just got to trust me here, because I sometimes, uh, being as seasoned doing this obviously not the professional level, but attaining or aspiring to be still get in my head and you know I'll text him and be like are we where we need to be currently? And he's like dude, we are probably further than you think. And he's like dude, we are probably further than you think. You may not feel it right now, but it definitely. I definitely got to give it to him. Man, uh, you know, being under him and being with the crew that I get to train with up at explode, and even even all my past friends and friends training partners, however you want to consider them there's, there's still my friends, they're my family.
Speaker 2:Um, you know, if you, you, everything works and nothing works in life, it depends how much effort you're giving to those things. If you want to do a marathon but you're not putting in the miles, then you're not going to have the results you want running that marathon Right. But if you put in those miles, those are controllables and you might find that you're going to either meet or see what you expected as a result. So, um, so you know, I I definitely trusted the process last year. Uh, there may have been some times where I'm like we're not doing enough and I might've done a little extra.
Speaker 2:And then he's like, hey, you got to stop doing a little extra because you're not realizing that it's affecting you the next day. Like, okay, but I had the best quarterfinals individually that I ever had. I was. I finished 86, I believe, in North America East, and so cracking the top hundred was a huge win this year and it was like you know, once you're in the top 200, it's a matter of seconds and a pound and a rep or two here Really small metrics, you know, very, very. It's like the micro and the macro just are on a microscope right.
Speaker 1:And then what he was saying is like those micro things you're doing are affecting the other, maybe even macro things that we're trying to accomplish, and like micro, macro, micro is going to show back up in those like seconds and minutes, right, like top 88 is different from 92 and then 88 to 92 could be the difference between, like, when five people don't accept their invites for whatever reason.
Speaker 1:You're not sliding down into that spot, you know it's all those small things and you need a coach there to really like highlight, like highlight those things for you because, like good athletes, what are they? What are they good at? Pushing hard? So, like backing off, this is the hardest part. Right, and I really love what you said right there about like the people around you and I think that, um, this, I think it was this morning sean fantuzzi shout out to sean just posted this morning. He's the man right, he, he just posted. I think it was this morning, it might have been yesterday.
Speaker 1:You know, days all run together like coaches will will look at like your reps and sets, the intensity of like your training, your volume and everything. But a lot of coaches forget about like training environment and that's so important to progress right like not everyone can or should just go into the gym and get exactly what they need to do and at the intensity they need to do at it, like by themselves. You know, right, like the people around you are gonna uplift you like into pushing harder. Right, like sometimes people think about like the competitiveness and being like I want to beat that person next to me as like bad, but like at the end of the day, that's what sport is Right, like oh, yeah, I you're not.
Speaker 1:I acknowledge that. We're both him Right and I want you to have your best day. I want me to have my best day. I want me to have my best day and I want it to be better than yours. You know exactly. That may not sound like the most wholesome thing, but that is what sports is, you know. Like, yeah, I want you Matt Frazier has a quote out there that's like that Like I want you to have your best day ever.
Speaker 2:Like oh yeah.
Speaker 1:But I've been preparing, I'm ready when I come here?
Speaker 2:Yeah, because it's just going to make the victory or the defeat that much more better. You know, you have someone on their best day and your best day and they edge you out. It's like man, like I gave it everything I had. Or, if you beat them, it's like gotcha. So, and you know, take it for what it's worth. I a funny short story. I, um, I live in the town that I lost going to the state championship to now, uh, back in high school, and my son plays for this town for football, and we use an app to communicate for the kids and the parents, like you know, uh, practice times and all that stuff. Well, the, they had canceled practice or whatever move practice because, um, the high school team was playing my high school team and I was like, oh cool, like I said go, my, you know, I went, I went to seneca high school and I put go seneca and it just lit up my, my, my fingers were thinking faster than my brain and when it went into the app and I was like, uh, oops.
Speaker 2:so I I'm a prideful person, I ain't taking my comment back, but I do see all sides and I didn't mean for it to go that far. But on the other hand, I had to explain to my son because I'm sure he was going to hear something at school the next day, because my wife was asleep and when she woke up and she saw her phone phone because she was getting text messages on the side she was. She called me at work. She's like what did you do?
Speaker 2:and I'm like, uh, so I I explained the situation and I said listen, my son's never played contact. Uh, he's never played football, padded football, he played flag um for a few years now. But I said I want him to grow up and have a little bit of pride and have a little bit of like a respectable chip on his shoulder. Because if we're not instilling that in kids in sport, why are they playing like all for the love of the game? But if you're just teaching kids to just go out there at a certain age, it's like hey, we want you to learn how to excel and be your best, even if it's not on the sports field. You know, at a certain time when their time is done, say it's high school or say it's eighth grade or say it's college and they're like yo, I learned these lessons through sport. That helped me succeed in life.
Speaker 2:Like adversity my son had so much adversity this year in football Like he's undersized, undermatched. That first two weeks he came home from practice he was the walking dead. When he walked in the house he just like dropped his shoulder pads and he's just moping around. I said dude, you got to eat. He's like dad, I can't even lift my arm to put food in my mouth. I'm like just laying on the floor, son, we'll just push it in there, um, but like he, there was like the switch this year. It's like he grew into a more respectable, compliant person and that's that's honestly.
Speaker 2:I wasn't trying to pop shots at the township here or anything, but I want those coaches to be instilling that kind of pridefulness.
Speaker 2:Like yo, I represent this town, I represent this community and when I go out there on that field or I go in there in that classroom or I go do some community service, I'm going to do the best I can do and I'm going to be respectable about it, but I'm in it to win it. I don't baby my kids. My kids learn the hard way about a lot of things, but I treat everyone the same in that aspect. And when I do CrossFit or when I coach CrossFit or when I coach my son's flight football, like I want them to be in the best mindset and be the best individuals they can be on and off the field with the lessons, because you're teaching character right now I see a lot of people, even in just my crossfit classes, where, like they're just going through emotion, like and Like and at some point I've definitely been guilty of it At some point that seeps from where you start doing it.
Speaker 1:Like, say, it's like you go through the motions of doing your empty barbell deadlifts right, like you're just going through the motion, not doing it with any intention. Eventually that will seep into so many other parts of your life that you're not even thinking about.
Speaker 2:It does Like.
Speaker 1:I had that realization earlier this year, the sentence that just hit me. I don't even remember where I heard it from, but the sentence that hit me was all the things you want lay on the other side of discipline. Yeah, it really does. Whatever you want, whatever way you want to take that dude, everything you want is on the other side of discipline, like yeah. Disciplining yourself to get that thing.
Speaker 2:I'm just as guilty, man I am not a perfect person in any sense in the fact that, like you know, I could wake up earlier and go do that monostructural stuff before work. You know, I've been really wanting to read more. So, like I said, I'm not great at it, but I stage a book in my office, so when I come into work I at least attempt to read one page, if the time being usually it's like some kind of army doctrine or some kind of policy, but at least I'm reading. Um, hopefully, down the road that discipline will turn into a full-fledged novel of my choosing instead of stuff. I'm like man, I really gotta read this because I don't want to, but I have to. But people sell them short.
Speaker 1:You discipline yourself to create a habit to get what you want. You're like. All right, this is what I want to get out of reading. This is why I want to start this Now. How can I get to that? All right, I'm going to get this book, this article, whatever it is, and I'm going to put this right here so that I see it every time I walk back and forth. And eventually, I'm going to put this right here so that I see it every time I walk back and forth and eventually I'm going to tell myself yo, you want this. You put this there so that you could get it.
Speaker 2:Pick it up and read it. I do that all the time. That's exactly what it is.
Speaker 1:That's how you create habits, like you are your habits and like it's like okay, I'm going to put this here and then, every day, I'm going to put another whether it's a dollar, a dime, a nickel or a penny in the bucket of what I want, by reading it with a little bit of discipline, and then I'll just continue that on, you know accomplish things.
Speaker 2:So we have in the military well, in the army we have there's a bunch of different schools. You know you've got to go to these schools to get certifications and certain levels of training on specific things. And I went to air assault school right before deployment and that is one of the tougher schools if you ask around the community, depending on who you ask. But there's a huge aspect of discipline in that school and one of the biggest challenges is packing your rucksack. So before you head to the school you have a packing list and most courses have a packing list, depending on what the school entails, deems, what goes on that packing list. Well, in this one there are specific items that have to be in your rucksack and you're going to ruck 6, 10, and 12 mile I think we did and you ruck. So upon entry you go to in-processing. You do zero days, zero days like smoke session, pt test, an obstacle course, and then the next day we did the six mile rough and at the end of the six mile rough you come into the pt field and you get lined up. Well, as you come in you get next to the person that finished before you, and then so on and so on and so forth. As soon as all the you know can classmates are in, you do a bag layout and if you don't have those specific items in your bag you fail. So going through the course, the graduation morning is your 12 mile rock. So you're going to graduate as long as you pass the time and you have all those items in your bag. After the ruck they don't check it before, they check it after. You suffer 12 miles. So if you're missing an item, I remember I'm out there. I finished like ninth out of like 200. Some people left on graduation morning and you're freezing because I didn't mind in georgia in december. So you're like it just looks like steam coming off everybody. You're out there waiting for the last person to come in. I think the last person at my class. The guy had a a fracture, a hairline fracture in his um fibula and he was like right in front of the truck. They have a pace car so if the pace car beats you, you you're done. Well, he was like limping in front of the pace car the entire time so we had to wait for him. So he like just made it and uh shout out to that dude I can't even remember his name, but that dude will always have my heart. Um, and they're like all right at this time.
Speaker 2:Everyone lay out your items for bag layout and you know, you definitely knew the people like me. Every single night of that course I laid all my items out on my bunk, I put them all back into my ruck and I checked them off every single night for 11 nights straight. So I knew I was not going to get ruled out because of something I wasn't going to be disappointed enough to do. So I had 11 check marks next to every item at the end of that course and I remember one guy had Everyone had the items at this point, but there was one guy that had an old set of PTs and they were going to kick him out.
Speaker 2:That's how crucial this school is If you don't have of PTs and they were going to kick him out. That's how crucial this school is. Like, if you, you don't have the right thing, they were going to rule you out. And after that you just did 12 miles and repelled and jumped out of helicopters. You know, went through all the training for this course. You could, you could fail out that easily.
Speaker 1:So oh, man, that's my horse fear, that's my horse fear's my horse like this the small things be. Like you're undoing, you know, because, like both people could get the big things right, like those are the big noticeable things, something small being like what? What fucks up the plan.
Speaker 2:I'm like, oh my god, you know yeah, I can't believe I'm this stuff right exactly so did you seem like a disciplined and competitive person, right like do you?
Speaker 1:can you remember a time where you first noticed like damn, I'm competitive as hell.
Speaker 2:I mean like I want to win In CrossFit or just in anything.
Speaker 1:In anything, because I feel like, really, if you brought this to CrossFit, you probably had it in you beforehand. So, like, do you remember an early experience where you probably had it in you beforehand? So like, do you remember early experience where you like noticed your competitiveness when you started to notice that?
Speaker 2:um, yeah, kind of. I mean like, growing up I was kind of overweight. So like when I moved to where I called my hometown, um, I remember I met my best friends and they're still my best friends. They kind of like bullied me, but they bullied me out of love Like I was just. I was not, I was predispositioned to not be an athlete. Like I was, I didn't move, well, I ate like garbage. I was a kid but I was overweight and it definitely, like you know it, it definitely made me a part of who I am today.
Speaker 2:But I remember I was like yo, if I want to play with these kids, I'm going to have to be just as good as them. And a little bit of that discipline started there. But I remember our high school had just been built. So then they started having organizations. They had youth football that just started and by that time I was a little more into sports. So my friends were like, yo, we're playing football, you're playing football. I said, okay, well, I'm overweight, so I'm on the highest weight group for this youth football league and they're not. So I'm like, right. I said wait a minute, I thought we were playing football. And they're like well, we are, you're just, you're just still fat so you're gonna be on the heavyweight group.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, so I was like fifth grade or sixth grade playing against kids that were going into high school and I remember, um, my coaches, they like saw something in me that I didn't. I was just, I was out there and I was like, well, if I'm gonna be here, I'm just gonna go have fun, if I'm gonna be here, getting my head kicked in for two hours and I had enough leverage and enough weight and I was small enough that I kind of sneaked through the defensive line. And I remember our first game, which we got obliterated, but I made a couple of tackles, just as this roly-poly kid. And over the course of that season, my coaches were like, you're not as unathletic as you think. And then throughout the years, it was like I kept getting better, kept, you know, keeping my head low, staying disciplined. I'd like work out at like I don't know when I get home from school, go for a two mile run and then I do pushups and lift weights and, um, my dad was in the Navy so we always had some kind of fitness stuff or some kind of yard work to do and, um, yeah, I just I distinctly remember making a sack when, um, back in like my seventh grade year and I was like, yeah, I like the way it feels when I do something right for my team and I'm like getting an acknowledgement for it. You know you get that big boasty head but at the same time it's like it's a team sport, like I'm willing to do anything for my team. So, um, and then you know, I had multiple experiences throughout the years, just in football and lacrosse and in CrossFit.
Speaker 2:Uh, I remember I started over at OTG in Williamstown way back in like 2012, maybe it was just before 2013 and I got a bulging disc. So I took a little bit of a break and when I was like I needed I wanted to go back, like I found CrossFit. I was a personal trainer and I turned on the TV one day. I was like I wasn't happy being a personal trainer. When I came back from basic training and I saw the CrossFit Games was on like ESPN2 or something, and I was like, wow, like I want to do that. And I was like, wow, like I want to. I want to do that, like I want to. I want to be a functional person that looks like that, that moves like that. You know that can pretty much do everything that the army requires me to do at a high intensity. Um, and that's how I ended up finding CrossFit. Well, then that injury happened and when I decided to come back, I was like, yo, I need to go back, I need to move my body. How I moved before A gym had opened up down the street from my house and it was so convenient I would go there every night.
Speaker 2:And they did, leading up into the open of that year of 2013, they did the open events from 2012. So never had I had no clue what they were. I had no clue what the open one was, but it was like. The first workout I did was the seven minutes of burpees and um, yeah, and I did it. And they were like yeah, that's a pretty good score. I'm like what's pretty good? And they're like well, you got into the hundreds and most people don't even get. Yeah, most people back then, like your top people, were getting into like 120, 130.
Speaker 2:Your games, athletes.
Speaker 2:And they were like you hit.
Speaker 2:I think I hit maybe like 101 or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that was all engine work.
Speaker 2:And I was like, huh, so you could do this as a sport on the tv, right?
Speaker 2:And they're like, yeah, so I did. Um, they actually made it in a little in-house competition. I took second and, um, I was like yo, I could be pretty good at this if I, if I worked on you know, I dedicated a little more time and uh, actually, that that gym is how I went and met my wife, met a couple of my really close friends. Um, you know, I got to give it out to jersey devil cross that you know. Uh, you know, they definitely set me up for a good spot in life. Um, hell, yeah, shout out to them, but yeah, they. Uh, that is probably when I felt like I could compete. And then I had an epiphany moment as far as, like, competing against top level people. You know, if you're a competitor in this, as far as, like the open and quarterfinals, semifinals, like you get on that leaderboard and you're like, wow, I'm beating this game's athlete or I'm beating this semi-finals athlete, and it's bound to happen if you're that competitive, like it's yeah, you know um.
Speaker 2:You know, for that open workout I beat some games athletes on that workout.
Speaker 2:I think I got roman krennikov on that workout, just on the shuttle run part, but then he like you know, he, he got everyone on the thruster part, so, um, but like, definitely, in live competition, like when I went to the monster games, um, and even back at Asbury park, like we won that final event at Asbury park against top level people and I'm like yo, no one's, no one's, unbeatable. Um, yeah, don't get me wrong, they're still really good, they're super fit Might not be able to touch that.
Speaker 1:But you know, if I'm, don't, get me wrong.
Speaker 2:They're still really good, they're super fit. But you know, if I'm there I'm going to give it my best and sometimes my best is enough to edge someone out and you know I like to surround myself with those kinds of people. You know I've had great, great training partners and they've definitely. Training with them definitely will bring out that, like you know, can you still compete with me? Because there's times at my age where I'm like I don't know if I keep doing this and every time I go up to explode I'm like a glorified punching bag um like uh, tracy will run circles around me some days.
Speaker 2:Uh, when Aaliyah was here I was like, hey, I'll come and just get beat up by you for a while. We loved it. That was, those are great sessions, but yeah definitely sharpen your ax. Absolutely Like. That was a huge thing with misfit, was you know? You sit there and sharpen and sharpen, and sharpen and when it's time to swing, it's time to swing, time to swing, so time to swing.
Speaker 1:I love that. So, bro, tell me, like what are you hungry for next? Like, what do you have your eyes on right now? I know you were doing the trials for Army Warrior. The Open's coming up. What are you really focused on?
Speaker 2:So I'm always going to focus on my individual performance, whether I'm on a team or not. I have the same mindset all year round. If I can make myself the most well-rounded individual, either in the sport of CrossFit or just outside of it, obviously, with my job, I'm always hungry to improve, because I only have so many years on this earth, just like everyone else. So if I'm not progressing, I'm not going anywhere. Um, as far as CrossFit goes, though, I will continue to build on myself as an individual, so that way, I may be able to support in the team If I'm blessed with the opportunity to support a team and go back to semifinals again, team.
Speaker 2:If I'm blessed with the opportunity to support a team and go back to semi-finals again, um, and if not, just, you know, continue to progress as an individual athlete. Put my best foot forward, be a good father, be a good husband, you know, be a good friend. Um, hell yeah to to all my you know friends, family and the uh, the training partners I have around me. Um, you know, but I am. I am hungry for this season. I'm hungry for every season, but seeing the progress over the last few years, especially under golden line, um, I'm always going to be hungry.
Speaker 1:I love that, bro. You just got to keep sharpening and then, when it's time to swing, be ready to swing, like I. I hear rumors out there that semi-finals might go to virtual like. Have you heard that and how do you feel about that? When you hear that?
Speaker 2:I have and it's it. It's gonna be strange just because, if you're asking me from the athlete standpoint, I mean I don't, I don't agree with it, only because you want your top athletes to make it to the games. Well, some of your best athletes thrive off of live competition. And then the sports already dealing with you know, uh, I'm not going to go into their finances. But then you got to figure out, okay, how are we going to make this fair? You got to have the judges um, you know, association send out judges to these gyms all over the world to judge the teams that may get to these in-house or, uh, online semifinals to compete. And it's like, well, what if the gym location is slightly different and it doesn't? Um, you know what if the the scores are skewed just because, like, the rope is closer to the wall and all athletes need to start at the wall, or you know whatever?
Speaker 1:so, right, I mean, as far as those whole things matter too, because I was watching the rogue rogue invitational and like before the event, with what the muscle-ups, like everyone else, was just standing out in front of their little pylon, right, like not, not hands on it. Dylan pepper had his hand on it and like looked left and right and no one else did so he took a step forward with, like with everyone else, if he hadn't done that, that's. That's like two seconds, which is a full rep, maybe multiple reps. You know, those small things are really important.
Speaker 2:It does. I mean I'll give you the biggest. I'm probably releasing the biggest secret, at least I think, when you go to a big time competition or like like at semifals and they put them batting down, but the plexiglass for the handstand push-ups and the tape line that they have, well, how the rig is set up, because you need to have, uh, support beams on each side, there's a little bit of a lift. So if you're doing, if you're doing like team handstand push-ups, it really does mess with you, because I remember back at Atlas Games we were doing synchro handstand pushups and I was on the right side of my partner and I had a little bit of a lift. My right shoulder is getting lit up because it's not being fully extended, because I can't, because if I do that my body shifts into the left and now, given everybody's in the same boat, so it's fair. But if the gym that you know, this athlete or this team is doing it at has something like that and that's the only way they can do handstand push-ups, because there's no feasible wall close enough, or within however they do their setup, if they do a floor plan again, um, you know they're gonna blow up differently than someone that has a wall and they're able to do it nice and flat and even all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 2:I just, I feel like there's too many uh variables with the online semi-finals and I also understand that crossfit has had difficulty in the past with semifinals, and there's always it's always changing Um, and that's just. Unfortunately, that's just the infancy of the sport as of right now, and maybe maybe we'll get better at it, um, maybe we'll get people in those spots that are better at it and, like I said, I'm not one to speak. I just I know, uh, based off of being in it for so long and and also being an army leader, what I can relate to CrossFit is like, if you want change to happen, it needs to happen from the top down sometimes. It needs to happen from the top down sometimes and you know, um not saying those people aren't in those places, but maybe there's better people, who knows?
Speaker 1:yeah, crossfitters are never happy, right? Someone commented on my my pet peeve box the other day and said their pet peeve was what was it? Oh, they didn't use enough of the countryside in Scotland for Rogue Invitational. So they gave us a great comp with the fittest people.
Speaker 2:And you slapped that in their face.
Speaker 1:And they didn't use enough of the country. Like what bro, like bro. So it's like I think both things can be true, that like we could be leaning too far forward into one thing and that's skewing our vision on growing the sport and sometimes crossfitters. As people, just we're never happy enough, you know, like it's spectators.
Speaker 2:Now they're not part of it. You know now, um, they're always going to see it, you know, they're always going to see how they want to see it sometimes, yeah, um, yeah, you know I, I'd agree with that statement, but maybe, maybe rephrasing the statement would have been better and like, oh, maybe next year they could do this, and then that you know that person gets what they want out of that, uh, that eve statement I'm like dude, come on now.
Speaker 1:It was a great competition. We got to see Tia and Laura go head-to-head. I know Eight events Through the first eight events, one of them won it. They went four for four back-to-back. That's exciting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's not even the game season.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and it's like it brings me back to what you said earlier no one's unbeatable. Why that's so exciting is because Laura doesn't lay down and say well, tia's going to win this, tia's going to win this. You know she fights back and a lot of times I'm sorry to say this, but other people, other top athletes. It looks a little bit like they lay down to Tia.
Speaker 2:Or for the men's side, when Matt was out there a little bit of lay down.
Speaker 1:I've always seen some people that fight back and like that's what makes things exciting. You know, like if you have a gymnastics workout and the top dude is also a gymnastics guy, common thinking would be like oh well, they're obviously gonna win, that I'm not gonna push too hard. But we love to see the uncommon when someone goes out there says f that I'm gonna beat you in what your workout supposed to be, you know.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I love those moments. I had that moment at monster games. I remember the last event of the weekend and I was like, well, I'm sitting in like 12th or something. Um, I'm going to, I'm going to place top five in this event because I might as well at this point. And sure enough, literally after the leaderboard refreshed, I took fifth in that event. I was like, wow, I'm so glad that I didn't. I didn't say something else or what happened. I should have said, oh, I'm going to, I'm going to win the lottery or something. Maybe it would have happened.
Speaker 1:But dude, just like in all those situations like don't go quietly, you know don't just lay down, no, that you know what.
Speaker 2:Um, sorry to cut you off back to that whole thing about my son and you know having, you know wanting him to learn those things like having a little bit of pride. You know, as a service member, for any service member it doesn't matter what branch of service law enforcement, firefighter if you don't have that kind of mentality at some point in your career, you're not doing the public any good. Like you, you have first service members, first responders. Like you're in a job that has a little more severity behind it and I'm not saying any other job is is more or less than anything. But you know when, when you do train to either save a life or take a life. Like you have to understand those repercussions and the severity of your training. And it's like you have to have a mindset behind them too.
Speaker 2:Like I'm not going to just lay down if I'm getting shot at, like there's, there's no way. If you put rounds towards me, you better be expecting rounds back, because by the time I'm out of rounds I'm dropping my magazine in front. That I do. I don't run. I tell that to my soldiers. They were like, hey, we're gonna go for a run. I'm like all right, you guys enjoy that. They're like you're not going. I said no, the army gave me bullets for a reason.
Speaker 1:Let's go so that's fine. Yes, that's back to putting meaning behind things, right, right, like I'm doing this for a reason, I have my reason, I know what it's for and I can hold on to it at all times. You know you find your reason Absolutely no-transcript.
Speaker 2:People sell themselves short so often in so many ways excuses, you know, if you just look at it, the reasons why you can't achieve something. No matter how logical you're making it out to be, it's still an excuse. So don't sell yourself short. If you want something, go out there, have a little discipline and figure out at least a starting point, and there's no perfect person. You're not going to get what you want.
Speaker 2:Rome wasn't built in a day, neither was America. Obviously it's still growing, it's still still in its youth and, and you know, the things you want are attainable. You know no one's. There may be someone holding you back, I don't know, but you know. If that's the case, then you might need to rethink some stuff. But definitely always be hungry for things you want, like set goals and and aspire to get them, and I just I hate seeing people that you know have these excuses. I tell my soldiers all the time like you can do school and you can succeed here, it's possible hell yeah, dude, you know what and what I want to say to the people there?
Speaker 1:there is no discipline. That's too small, right? No, I feel like I work with a lot of people that are like they overlook how something so simple and so small could add up to bigger and greater things. Right, like you know, even if it's as small as I'm going to wake up and the first thing I'm going to do is take a sip of water, oh yeah, see what that'll do for you. See, if it doesn't turn in two weeks into all right, first thing I'm doing is drinking a whole bottle of water. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:It's huge.
Speaker 1:There's no discipline. That's too small out there. Start the small thing, don't worry about it. If you want to write a book, don't worry about picking the freaking cover of it and who's going to be your editor and stuff like.
Speaker 1:All right, figure out your idea like something small, like write the word write the word the literally see what it takes off from there exactly like do the small stuff, like that's that, that small discipline is not too small. You know, I had to learn that and I want to share that with everyone else out there, you know.