Jack Rozema | Clydesdale Media Semifinalist Series

We catch up with Jack again this year to see where he is in his journey to make the CrossFit Games.  After last year coming so close at the North America West Semifinal, Jack takes a run at the North America East Semi This Year.

What is Clydesdale Media Podcast?

We cover the sport of CrossFit from all angles. We talk with athletes, coaches and celebrities that compete and surround in the sport of CrossFit at all levels. We also bring you Breaking News, Human Interest Stories and report on the Methodology of CrossFit. We also use the methodology to make ourselves the fittest we can be.

I was born to kill it.

I was meant to win.

I am down and willing so I

will find a way.

It took a minute and I

didn't have to ride away.

what is going on everybody

welcome to the Clydesdale

media podcast where we are

featuring the athletes of

the North American

semifinals and for the

third year in a row I have

the pleasure to talk to

Jack rosimo what's going on Jack

Not much, man.

How are you doing?

I'm doing well.

Yeah.

So before I dive into a bunch of stuff,

when I do these,

I like to do enough

research to get a good idea

of who I'm interviewing.

But for a lot of these

semifinal interviews,

I've talked to you guys

enough times at the competitions,

on these interviews.

And so it's really just kind

of a catch-up.

But for you...

I went to your game site

just to kind of get, like,

your numbers for the last couple years.

Your profile pic on the game site.

Oh, on the CrossFit Games website?

Yeah.

Yeah,

that's still from my days at Ohio

State Wrestling.

So I think that was, yeah,

I think that was my, I don't remember,

even remember, like,

my freshman early days, like freshman,

sophomore year.

So that was already, I don't know,

eight years ago, seven, eight years ago,

something like that.

so I just pulled it up uh it

is if you said if you said

college wrestling picture

this is what would show up

in the dictionary yeah yeah

that sounds about right

yeah no facial hair growing

there yet really just uh

just a little yeah I think

I was 19 or 20 probably in

that picture so it's crazy

almost 10 years ago then

yeah and you have you've

not changed are you gonna

just leave it forever

My picture?

Yeah.

Yeah, I don't have a reason to change it.

Like you said,

there's not really a better

athlete picture.

I'm just living the wrestling vibe.

Are you trained as a

wrestler to have the death

stare whenever you get your photograph?

Uh, not really.

I think I would think I

thought I was a lot tougher

back then than I actually was.

So it was more of a persona

trying to put on, you know?

Um, so I don't, I think I was just like,

don't feel like smiling that day.

Maybe I think I can't just kind of blurry.

Maybe I had a little bit of

a black eye on my left eye that day.

Maybe I just didn't feel

like smiling cause I was

getting beaten practice so bad.

That's probably what was going on.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So in years past,

we've talked about your

Ohio State days because I

live here in Columbus still to this day,

just north of the city.

But you grew up in Michigan.

Are you back in Grand Rapids?

No.

So I've been,

I've made a couple moves with

the army so far.

So I'm active,

I'm an active duty attorney in the army.

So we, I grew up in Michigan,

went to school and law

school at Ohio state where

I wrestled and then went to law school.

And then, um,

I did two years at Fort Riley, Kansas.

Uh, that was my first duty station.

And then now I'm at Fort Knox,

Kentucky as of last, last summer.

So that's why the last two

years I was in the West this year,

I'm back in the East.

So that's kind of why.

Are you full-time army warrior fitness?

Um, so not technically.

So I'm affiliated with the team and I'll,

when I go to comps like, uh, you know,

semis and Wadapalooza and

larger events like that,

I'm part of the team.

I represent the team,

but my contract with the

army is such that after I

graduated law school,

I have a commitment to the JAG Corps.

So I have to be a full-time

attorney for a certain number of years,

um, before that contract is up.

And so I'm still in that

initial four-year contract.

And even though I'm

I'm qualified as a CrossFit

athlete to be on the team.

The powers that be in the

Army have basically said, not right now.

We're not going to allow you

to be a full-time CrossFit

athlete right now because

you're still in that initial contract.

But the good part is this

assignment at Fort Knox has

allowed me to be –

Basically,

as much as I could be full time

without actually being full time on paper,

because my office,

my attorney office with the

JAG Corps for United States

Army Recruiting Command is

like three minutes down the road.

So I'm able to kind of come

and go more so throughout

the day than I would

otherwise at like a

traditional job where I

would have to find um a gym

to train at you know either

the the crossfit gym in

town which is kind of what

I would do in kansas you

know I would have to drive

30 minutes to work and then

figure out how to train

either before or after it

and so this way um the last

year has been good because

it's been a lot it's been

it's allowed me to train a

lot more focused and just

make more use out of the hours of the day

Real quick, Jamie Latimer,

who is my co-host,

and she was with me last year at Semis.

She's from Lansing,

so she's got to love those boys.

Yeah, for sure.

That's where I'm from,

like an hour west of

Lansing and Grand Rapids.

I was up there for her.

She's competing Masters this year,

and I was up there for her quarterfinals.

I love Grand Rapids.

Any chance I can get to go over there,

I love that place.

Yeah.

Yeah,

we just went to a concert there last

week.

So I'm always trying to find

excuses to go back.

Because I love the area,

especially during the summer.

It's the best like from now

until Labor Day.

It's I love there's nothing

better than West Michigan.

So that brings up the question.

They have an amazing

competition there every

year called Fresh Coast.

Have you ever been or do you

plan on ever going?

So, like, yeah,

I'm pretty sure we're

talking about the same one.

Fresh Coast Fit Fest in

Muskegon on the lakeshore.

Me and two guys,

the two guys that are on Team 8th Day,

so 8th Day CrossFit in the east,

I think they were, like,

one point away from making

the games last year.

So last summer I did the

Team of Three male with Dylan and Michael,

and we won it at the Team

of Three competition for Fresh Coast.

So, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, and Rich showed up last year,

Rich Froning.

Yeah, yeah.

It was weird.

I didn't even know that he

was going there or, like,

was going to be there.

And I just, like, looked over,

and he was just, like,

sitting there on the beach.

So it was kind of funny.

We were like, what's up, man?

So, yeah.

So it is my goal to make it

up there for that this year.

Yeah, it should be fun.

Yeah, it's always a good time.

Yeah.

I mean, CrossFit and beach and lake, like,

why not?

Yeah, this this past year they had,

which I'm trying to still

be a part as much of a part of that can.

I'm kind of obviously not

co-located with it,

but they had wrestling.

They had beach wrestling

there last year to to kind

of hit the wrestling part again.

So to basically just throw a

rope down in the sand like

a ring in this basically

kind of freestyle wrestling rules where,

you know,

you just kind of also from your

feet and whoever gets a

takedown or a push out gets points.

And so it was kind of cool.

They had like their CrossFit floor,

like rig floor set up.

And then 50 yards this way was like the,

the peer, they call it peer wrestling,

like the peer Michigan logo,

but they flipped the M

upside down and do a peer wrestling.

So they, so they'll have probably,

I would assume they'll have

that again this year with

CrossFit going and then

beach wrestling going right next to it.

It was fun.

Yeah,

all Jamie ever talks about is the

competition.

And then I think it's called

the Pier Restaurant where

everybody goes and they're

hammered after the competition.

Yeah, it's right there.

It's like right up the parking lot.

Yeah, it's good.

Good stuff.

Yeah, that's how she sells it to me.

So I don't know if that's

just my personality that

she's selling to.

Yeah.

So we talked about Rich.

Are you still a Mayhem Athlete?

Absolutely.

Yeah, I'm Mayhem.

I'm fully Mayhem everything.

I love what they stand for, their values.

I've been working with Coach

Jake Locker a little bit

more this summer.

He's definitely what would be my coach.

I'm not, I guess, the same as...

I'm not I'm not someone who

likes to have who feels

like they need or likes to

have a full time coach that

I'm always kind of hip to hip with.

But definitely Jake has

helped me out a lot this year.

So definitely following

mayhem more than anything

and much more this past

year and working with Jake

and everyone there.

And now Fort Knox, Kentucky,

where I live is like.

less than three hours from

mayhem so um kind of going

down there as much as I can

to do little training camps

and prep for stuff which I

think next week I think

next week we'll be going

down there to kind of prep

for semis to do like a

little mock semis out there

at least all the all the

events too so that'll be

fun so hillar was down

there like a week or two

ago yeah I saw that I

haven't watched his uh I

haven't watched his video

yet I saw he posted one

like 48 hours at mayhem or something

Yeah, it was really, really enlightening.

They showed where,

I can't remember the guy

who kind of runs the facility,

but he was talking about how like,

this is how you kind of

qualify to be able to work

out in the back room.

You know, like if you're still alive,

you get to work out back here.

If you're eliminated,

it's for the athletes that

are still alive.

Okay.

And it seemed like really brutal,

but it made perfect sense.

Yeah.

Yeah, for sure.

It's like, you know, it's a,

it's something to strive for, you know,

if you haven't reached that level yet.

Um, and yeah, it's a,

it's kind of an elite

membership of people that can,

that can be there and to

kind of build each other up and, and, um,

make each other better that, so, you know,

environments a lot

environment can help you a lot and who,

who you surround yourself

with is a major indicator

of where you're going to go.

So that's where,

that's why I like that area too.

Getting to know you over the

last few years,

you just seem like-minded

with a lot of the people there.

Yeah, absolutely.

Faith Family Fitness Service

is the order in which and

what I try to strive to

have my life be revolved around as well.

Absolutely.

So before we get into the CrossFit stuff,

you had a child recently.

How's that going?

This is your second?

Yep.

So we got two girls.

Yeah, we got Riley,

who will be three in August.

So she's two and three quarters now.

And then Jordan, my youngest daughter,

was born in November.

So in three days, she'll be six months.

So that's been...

It's been an adventure.

It's been fun.

My wife is awesome.

She deserves all the credit

for them being who they are.

She's in the trenches, as I like to say,

every day as a stay-at-home mom.

We're blessed to be able to

be in that situation.

It's been awesome to...

Be a dad, you know,

definitely puts things in

perspective for what you

want your life to be and

the example you want to set.

So that's been a great journey so far.

Not so much the nights that

they decide they both don't

want to sleep on the same exact night,

which makes the next day

and recovery and life in

general a little bit more challenging.

But, you know,

that's what everyone who

pretty much everyone who

has kids will say.

It's the most challenging,

but the most rewarding thing.

One of the most rewarding

things you'll ever do.

Yeah,

we got really lucky because we only

had one,

but I'm kind of a night owl and

my wife is like an early riser.

So she would go to bed early.

I would stay up with the

daughter and we'd go to bed.

Then she would sleep in long

enough for my wife to kind of get up,

get her stuff together.

That's good.

Yeah, compliment each other.

That's good teamwork.

You got to have good teamwork like that.

It's important for sure.

Yeah.

So sleep's good now going into semis?

Did you say sleep's good?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah,

they've both been well above average

sleepers just when we talk

to other people about their

kids and just what you read

and see about other kids.

I mean, Jordan's six months.

She's kind of going through what they say,

like a six-month sleep

regression right now, but it's not.

Most nights,

they both sleep through the night.

That's good.

It's been good.

I talked to some friends and

they look at me with their

nine month old baby and they're like,

we haven't slept in like

eight months because she don't go,

she don't go down for more

than like 90 minutes.

And I'm like, yeah, that's rough.

I wouldn't know.

But yeah, so it's everything.

No, everything's been good.

Leading up to semis, like feel good.

Body feels good.

Training's going good.

Everything is really can't

complain about anything.

So with all this going on in

your life and you get closer to semis,

is there a part of you that

it's hard to kind of set

the priorities still as you

get closer to semis?

Or is that something you and

your wife talk about quite a bit?

I think we do talk about it a lot,

and we have a very good

open relationship where it's like, hey,

if I'm sucking in this area,

we'll just tell each other, hey,

you're falling short here.

You're doing great here.

What you're doing here is bothering me.

So we just have a very...

strong relationship of communication,

I think.

And we kind of have those

expectations already from

just our first daughter and

kind of going through the season already.

You know,

she's fully so supportive and so

understanding of how much

time it takes to dedicate

to training if you want to

really be successful in this sport.

Um, so, and just kind of one example,

what I just said, like when some,

when the girls get up in

the middle of the night or one of them,

you know,

she's getting up 90% of the time.

Cause she realizes that like,

I'm trying to sleep to go

to work and train, um,

and come home and be

present at the same time

and just with other things going on.

But, um,

I think it's just a shared

understanding that

intensity kind of ramps up

once the season,

the open is here and the

season kind of then gets going.

We have our kind of set schedules.

And so those two kind of

things work in tandem.

Our experience at Fort Riley

before when I had kind of a more intense,

my job as an attorney was a

little bit more time

demanding and I lived

farther away from the office.

So being here has been a

nice change in pace where I

can just focus more for a

couple of different reasons on,

on CrossFit,

but also be really home more

hours of the day too.

So it's definitely teamwork.

Um, like I said, she's amazing.

Um,

I owe her a lot of credit for just

putting up with my,

putting up with my crap when I'm,

when I'm gone a lot,

doing multiple sessions a day,

plus working plus, you know,

being involved with men's

groups or church activities

or that we both,

we both do those as well.

But, um,

It's just – yeah,

it just all comes down to teamwork,

communication.

Faith is at the center of our relationship,

which is a huge foundation for us.

Neither of us are perfect.

I'm far from perfect.

I make mistakes all the time,

but we just communicate

with each other and we get it done.

So with – so you're in the Army.

How much –

I guess I don't understand

what the JAG Corps does.

Are you representing soldiers?

Are you representing the Army itself?

How does that work?

So both.

Yeah, both.

It just depends on what job you do.

And that's kind of what the

appeal and what the JAG

Corps kind of hangs its hat

on is you can get this

broadly skilled range of

stuff because when you come in,

there's kind of a templated

experience of –

You do legal assistance,

which is when you just work

in an office and you basically do,

you have clients that are

soldiers and retirees and

family members of soldiers

and retirees that can come

to the legal assistance

office and get legal help

with anything other than

criminal matters.

That's a whole different field.

Like if they're on,

if they're under investigation,

if they've been charged with a crime,

that's trial defense services,

which is its own part.

So you can be

an army prosecutor, essentially.

You can be an army defense counsel,

which is what I just said, trial defense,

trial defense services.

And then there's this whole

kind of bucket of stuff in

between there that you can

be administrative law,

which is what I do right now.

And you basically do just,

you advise commanders in

the command on how to

basically do their jobs within regs,

within, uh,

Title 10 of the United States Code,

which governs the military.

And so you're really just in

the sense your client really is the army.

And you might be advising commanders,

you might be advising the

unit that you're attached

to for how to hold events,

how to discipline their soldiers,

whether they can do certain

fiscal or monetary ethical

things along with that

align with both different bodies of law,

like just

united states code or army

regulations or department

of defense instructions

there's this whole body of

stuff so yeah that's kind

of a long answer of what

you just asked is the army

the jag corps and you know

the navy and the air force

and the marine corps have

their have their jag corps

as well you are just you

are that services attorneys

for whatever job that

you're currently in and

there's a variety of them

And then is it typical you

just stay in whatever group

or bucket or can you be moved around?

So there's kind of some

flexibility with that.

As you go along in your career,

you can stress to the

command and to the

leadership that you want to

specialize more in some areas.

At the end of the day,

you go where the Army needs you.

It's the Army's needs,

and then your needs go beneath that.

Typically in the JAG Corps,

you move more often than

other assignments in the Army.

You'll probably move every

two or three years.

Two is kind of the default.

You have to kind of beg and

plead to stay somewhere

longer than three or four years.

That's really typically only

granted if you have family

situations or if you're

trying to specialize in a certain area,

but typically they're going

to shuffle you around.

You can't really sit in one area.

You can't just say, hey, oh,

I really like military justice.

I want to be a prosecutor

for my entire career.

You might be able to get

away with specializing for a few years,

but once you reach a

certain rank and you've

been a certain place long enough,

they're going to just have

to keep shifting you around

because that's the way things work.

Okay.

Is it your goal to retire

from the army or have you

not made that decision yet?

Uh, my wife and I,

we haven't really made that decision yet.

I don't,

we don't see ourselves staying in

for a 20, 25 year career, um,

in the army.

But, um, yeah, I,

it's kind of just a year to year thing.

One of, you know, the JAG Corps, um,

the three-star general who's the,

the judge advocate general

of the army came and visited, um,

when I was at Fort Riley.

And just one thing he said

stuck with me is that like,

even he has someone who

obviously would advocate

for you staying in the JAG Corps.

Um, but he was like, Hey, I just, it's a,

it's a decision that you

and your family should look

at on a yearly basis.

Like,

annually you should check in

and say do we like what

we're doing do we like

where we are and are we

happy with those two things

and if the answer is no

then go do something else

so I think once we you know

I think we'll still every

six to twelve months we'll

check in and say hey do we

like where we're at and

where we're gonna go and if

not I'll do something else

When and if you become a civilian,

are you still an attorney

in civilian life?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So if I choose to.

So for a few different reasons,

I chose to take the bar exam in Ohio.

So I'm a licensed attorney in Ohio.

But now that I'm coming up

on four or five years as an attorney,

I can...

I can most likely transfer

to most other states because the bar exam,

when I took it,

it was kind of transferring

this thing called the universal bar exam.

And so really,

once you take a state that

has the UBE and you score high enough,

which I did to basically

transfer into any other

state that also does the UBE,

You can just say, Hey,

I've been practicing for a few years.

I have this score in my UBE.

I want to practice here.

Now you pay your, you pay your attorneys,

a bar association fees,

and then now you're

licensed in that state as well.

So, um, I can, yes,

you have to be a full on

licensed civilian attorney first,

and then you join the JAG Corps.

That's kind of how it works.

Okay.

Makes sense.

Um,

so the CrossFit brought back the

service open.

Do you think that's important?

Yeah, I think as well.

I think it's definitely

important to involve those

different bodies of people

that obviously I think are

the lifeblood of the

community in a lot of ways.

And I think it's good that

they show that they're

still supportive of that.

Absolutely.

And then Mayhem is doing their own...

The version of that everyday hero.

And they're including

frontline workers like the

medical profession teachers.

Do you participate in those

things or because you have

bigger aspirations in CrossFit?

Does that kind of go on the back burner?

So honestly,

if I hadn't been traveling last week,

I may have done that

everyday hero qualifier

just to kind of do a few

workouts and do the in-person,

assuming I won the military version,

the military leaderboard to

do the comp in Cookville.

But yeah.

just for a couple of reasons.

Um, mainly like you just said,

my goals are to make and be

competitive at the CrossFit

games this year.

Um, that obviously takes priority.

And so things kind of leading up to that,

um, I just chose not to do it this year,

but I might, I might do it next year.

Because you're so close to mayhem.

Would it be fun to watch if,

because if people don't

know the everyday heroes

ends with an in-person

competition with each, each, um,

group of people having a

representative and then you

compete against each other

to kind of see is better than police,

better than fire.

Friendly competition is great like that.

I love seeing that.

I think that's June 22nd is

the day that it's an

in-person in Cookville.

If I'm able to go watch, honestly,

I'm going to try to because

it'd be cool to see.

I think you're right.

I think it's male-female teams

of this different service

groups so yeah like you

said law enforcement

against military against

teachers against emt or

whatever it is that

whatever they have their

leaderboards so yeah it'd

be fun how much smack talk

do you think happens in

that event yeah I hope a

lot I think I think the

sport needs more more smack

talk and not not as much uh

kumbaya high-fiving which

is good I'm not saying

that's bad but I just think

it's I think I think smack

talking and uh friendly

competition is good

So,

so you already talked about the last

year you were in the West this year,

you're in the East.

There is a perception that

the East is a much harder

region than the West,

but if that's so it's going

to have more spots than the West.

So do you look at it as an

advantage or disadvantage

coming back to the East?

I honestly, the way I look at it,

my goals are not to just make the games.

I mean,

I want to be – my goal straight up

this year is to be top 15 at the games.

so it's just, just as a,

just as a benchmark, you know,

it would be my rookie year,

assuming I make it, um,

I want to play stop 15 and get,

and then get invited and compete in rogue,

um, in Scotland this year.

So those are kind of my goals.

I mean, I just look at it as I'm in a good,

you know, I'm 28.

Like I said,

my training last year has been great.

Um, that's my goal.

I want to,

I want to go win every event

that I'm going to,

that I'm a part of and just

put the best version of my

skills and hard work, uh,

um and support system out

there and see what happens

and so that being said I

don't I'm of the viewpoint

that whether I'm in the

West East or even Europe

this year looks the most

stacked when you just look

at the scores of all the

semi-finals um doesn't

matter what semi-final in

I'm gonna I'm gonna go to

the semi-final um I'm gonna

podium at the semi-final or

be close enough to it to

secure my spot at the games

and it doesn't matter where

it is that's kind of my mindset

Okay.

So let,

let's go a little timeline last

year in the West,

you were flirting with that

qualification spot.

You were bouncing,

you were kind of in that

little group that was bouncing above,

below, above, below.

And at the end of the

weekend you fell just outside.

Yep.

Was there anything you

learned that weekend that

took you forward that now

gives you this belief?

Uh,

I think I learned where I needed to

work more.

Um,

I learned just the holes

that I had were too big of

holes to be competitive in

an event that only has six

or seven events in a weekend.

If that's for me, it's like, hey,

barely touching a barbell

and doing a crap ton of

inverted gymnastics and

hanging gymnastics and rope climbs, um,

and just,

and just dialing in sleep and

nutrition more, which I,

which I've been trying to do.

Um, then that's, that's what I have.

So I, I've always,

I've always had good self-belief and, um,

knowing that I can be out

there and compete with them.

It's just, it's just hard.

It's just been hard when

certain movements have came

up that I just didn't,

don't have a strong background in.

And so that's the, over the last year,

I've been trying to work in

those areas as much as I can.

And so that's just, um,

Yeah, so that's what,

even without the events being released,

those were my mindset,

but now with three events

being released that I'll

have a moderate to heavy barbell in them,

I think it's as good a year

as any for me to go out

there and execute and

compete right alongside the

best of the sport.

If you were forced to call

your shot on one event, what would it be?

Definitely the snatch ladder.

I think I can challenge the

best in the world if not win that event.

Assuming I don't miss,

but I don't plan on missing.

I love barbell work.

Strength has been a strength for me.

If I go out there with the

right strategy and hit all my snatches,

I think I can win that

event across the board.

I got to say, Jack,

in the three years I've talked to you,

this is the most confident

I've ever seen you.

And I love it.

I love every bit of it.

Yeah.

Confidence comes from preparation.

Your offseason,

you did some comps this

year with some big hitters in it.

You started with Crash Crescendo.

You did that, you podiumed.

It was not a, it had a heavy,

top heavy group of guys and you podiumed.

Did that give you some confidence?

Yeah, that did.

It was, it was a good, it was a good, um,

solid weekend of just,

of just like you said, being there with,

with Austin Colton and

James and a lot of other,

of other great athletes of

throwing down in that environment, um,

with a lot of loud screaming people.

And a lot of those,

a lot of those events

really hinged on how well

you could execute.

And even though, even with that event,

I had a bunch of stuff that

I didn't execute to perfection, but, um,

Yeah,

I think that that was a good event to

test where I was at the time and carry.

I still have the notes from

that competition that I

kind of frequent in my training.

So yeah,

it definitely was a good experience.

So tell me about that.

You take notes after a competition?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I always,

I always do whether I'm testing events,

um,

before a competition or usually the night,

the night of a, of a competition, uh,

whether, you know,

whether it's a multi-day

competition or not,

I just kind of take some

time by myself and write in my phone, um,

whether it's a Google doc

or iPhone notes and just

write out the event,

write what I was thinking, right.

As it started, right.

What I was thinking, um, you know,

in the middle of where it

was starting to get hard,

like how I paced it and broke up the reps,

um, and stuff like that.

And I just, um,

I always,

I just try to break stuff down as

much as I can to tie,

even if it's something

super small that I can

carry on and reference back later.

I try to do that as much as I can.

So, yeah.

So as someone who was not at crash,

from what I understand,

it is an event that is run

so professionally.

It's like being at a semifinal.

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

A hundred percent from the

way that they have the,

have everything laid out to

how you get corralled and

everything is right on time.

And just the, you know, the judging,

the movements,

the workouts that are

programmed or well-rounded tests.

Yeah.

It's just a,

it's just a super zoomed in

version of semifinals basically in a,

you know, you walk in and you're like,

Oh yeah,

this is a regular everyday

CrossFit gym that they just

turn into an elite field of

people that come want to

compete against other

compete against other

people in the sport that are really good.

And they have all the toys.

Yeah, yeah, they do.

Yeah.

So you get to work out at mayhem sometimes,

but like,

I've never seen a trapeze total bar.

No, me neither.

I don't think anyone did

before they showed up there.

We saw some hints that it

was going to be in the in the event,

but I never did one until we got there.

So when a competition offers those,

for lack of a better term, odd objects,

is that good for you in the

offseason to kind of like

just get your hands on

weird things at times?

Yeah, I think it's good if you can.

If you can get practice on

anything that's going to be

in the competition, it's good.

But I think if you can do it, if you can't,

whatever,

you just better go out there and

figure it out.

I say that and then this year,

semifinals is about as

classic CrossFit as it's ever been.

Absolutely.

I love the events.

I've always been a big

advocate of getting back to just, hey,

let's do really simple triplets, couplets,

short chippers of the classic movements.

We don't have to get crazy

and try to reinvent brand

new movements every year and blah, blah,

blah to try to make the wow

factor or whatever.

I think we just need to

stay stick to the basics of

what made it attractive and

what made people want to

get out there and compete

in these events and that

they're exciting to the

finish and I think I think

this year is since I've

been competing is the best

semi-finals program so far

but we'll see how it goes

uh so trish asks if I'm

interviewing jason statham

you ever get that

Someone literally – I

honestly haven't gotten it that much,

but I just had friends over

for dinner like two nights ago,

and he just said the exact same thing.

So that's hilarious.

So it must be a few people think that,

I guess.

It's got to be like the

gruffy beard thing.

It's probably when I don't shave, yeah.

So that's funny.

I mean,

a good part about being in the Army

is like if you –

they have certain policies

now that are pretty beneficial to you.

The downside is, yeah,

you move around every

couple of years and stuff like that.

But even me as the dad,

I get 12 weeks of leave for

when you have a child.

So that's why I've not been

to work in a couple of

weeks other than training, obviously,

but I've not done my

attorney job in a couple of weeks.

So whenever I get a chance to not shave,

whenever I get to the army,

I will not shave one more

time in my entire life.

Trish admits she doesn't have her

eye focus on that's all

right I'll still take it um

and then back to the auto

lynn uh nijiri says the odd

objects are good practice

for athleticism which helps

in the games yeah yeah I

would agree with that for

sure so so you finish crash

you you have a great run

there then you get to

wadapalooza and talk about

like nothing going as planned

Well,

I think things went planned from the

Snatch Complex, the lift that they had.

I hit the number I wanted to there.

And then it was just, yeah,

like it did rain all weekend,

which everyone dealt with.

You know, it wasn't just me.

So they changed the events a little bit.

And I'm someone who does not

have the slightest bit of a

swimming background.

I've tried and I continue to put in.

Yeah.

Uh, to put in, you know,

I try to do different workouts,

get input from coaches, uh,

people with swimming backgrounds.

I'm like, Hey, watch, watch my stroke.

And they're like, yeah, that's God awful.

You got to work on that.

And I'm like, I know I'm trying.

I watch videos.

I do different workouts.

Um, I've gotten better.

Like, you know,

I'm certainly not one of

the best swimmers or not

certainly a good swimmer,

even in the eyes of CrossFit yet.

But that's something that

obviously you're going to

deal with when you go to a

lot of Palooza and,

and once you get to the games, um,

Um, now that now they're in Texas,

probably maybe a short pool swim, um,

if at all.

So I think I'll,

I think I've gotten to the

point where I'm like, Hey,

I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

I'm not going to put as much

of an emphasis on swimming, um,

because I think it just, for me,

it's a net negative.

It takes away from other

holes that I can work on.

Um, and so, yeah,

that is kind of what

happened to a lot of blues that there was,

I was the last one in the

water and the last one out of the water,

um, for that swim.

And that kind of set me back.

Um, and then still just the other,

the other events, uh, same, just,

just execution errors, um,

here and there and,

and a really good field.

It was, it was a stack field.

So, um, it is what it is really short.

I think there was only five

events that year.

So, um,

or this past, this past year.

So it is what it is.

Also two things.

One, um, I swam at Ohio state.

So you did.

Yeah.

Nice.

So I, when I watched CrossFitter swim, my,

I,

get like sure don't watch me

even some of the good ones

are not really like using

the best form yeah and the

other thing I learned a

long time ago was that the

correlation between

wrestlers and swimming is

not a good one not great no

no good or swimmers

wrestlers that can swim

Yeah, not often.

Not often, nope.

I think Chandler might be

the only good one that's

ever came out of D1

wrestling that's a good swimmer.

That's a good point.

Yeah, I don't know.

And then,

so Carolyn Prevost co-hosts a

show with me now, and she always says,

like, her swimming is terrible, but...

Like you said,

it's not advantageous for

her to make it better.

She's only ever going to get

maybe five places better in that.

Exactly.

And what does that take away from other?

Because it's only ever going

to be one event.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, it's only going to be one event.

And that's why me, I'm like, Hey,

if I make it to the games, you know,

you got 12 to 15 events.

Swimming is one of them.

I'll grip my teeth and try

to crack out at best middle of the pack,

maybe beat five or 10 guys.

And that's just going to be what it is for,

for now, for the foreseeable future.

Maybe I'll,

maybe I'll have some kind of

breakthrough or I don't know.

It's like a mental thing with me.

I, I,

I literally used to just be

absolutely terrified of the

water of basically like one

step above like, holy crap,

I'm going to drown.

Like it was,

I was like barely one step above,

like I knew I wasn't going to drown,

but it basically felt like

it when I jumped in the water,

especially doing something else first.

Now I'm like,

I've definitely gotten to the

point where I can jump in

the water and swim half mile mile.

If I need to, it's going to be pretty slow,

but I know I'm not going to drown.

And I know I might be able

to beat a couple of people.

So, but that's, but you know, that's,

that's hard when you're at

an event like a lot of

Palooza and that's one

sixth of your score.

Like it's, it just is what it is.

Yeah.

You just don't want to end

up like easy Muhammad,

like floating around in the ocean.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I want to avoid that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um, so, you know,

you're a military guy and

military guys are known for

like being punctual timeliness.

You go to Wadapalooza and like,

it's all up in the air.

Does that,

does that mess you up or can you

go with the flow?

No, I think I'm pretty good with the flow.

I think I say this all the time.

There's a lot of being in

the Army that I enjoy, but in a way,

I think it's just my

personality or just the way

I've grown up.

And I don't know my experiences,

my collective experiences,

but I'm the most non-Army

person that you'll probably

meet on the street.

If you met me on the street,

you probably wouldn't know

that I'm in the Army just

because the way I talk and

I'm laid back and stuff like that.

So, yeah, I...

I'm generally unbothered by

certain because I'm just like, hey,

I can only control what I

can control and the event

schedule and the weather

and certain like that.

I try to spend zero time and

energy on things that I cannot control.

And that's one of those.

So.

So I'm just going to finish

up with how's the health?

My health?

Yeah, it's been great.

great we got nothing I got

zero injuries which I'm

extremely blessed um

nothing nothing nagging um

you know as long as my as

long as my girls keep

sleeping pretty uh pretty

regularly uh should be peak

should be should be ready

to peak but no my health is

great so you're in optimal

shape heading into

semifinals you've got all

the confidence in the world

and you truly believe this

is your year to get over that hump

yeah no I absolutely I think

I can I think I can go out

on the floor and put my my

best product on the floor

is good enough to win um

whatever whatever's thrown

at us so I and like like I

said before that that comes

through preparation that

mainly comes from my faith

and my support system

that's the first thing

that's most important to me um and so

Having that at the foundation,

having Christ at the center

of my life is where I

derive all of my motivation, strength,

and trying to find my path

and what that's supposed to be.

And for now,

I'm going to try to be the

best CrossFit athlete I can be.

And I think that that

version of myself is good

enough this year right now to be good.

So I'm a Christian man,

and it's a lot of work to

keep Christ in the center of my life.

Things come and things go,

and it's really hard,

and it's what I try to do.

You're a mayhem athlete.

Paige Powers this week came

on the Savant show and

talked about how not making

it to semifinals or the

games this year because of

the penalty situation.

It's God's plan,

and it may be a way for...

How impressed were you with

that response?

And I know I would be so upset.

And the maturity she showed

to come out that way was

just so impressive.

yeah no that's super

inspiring um I think that

that I think that's

indicative of someone who

has their values as in the

place that they say they do

um and when they say hey

jesus is lord of my life um

and all I'm trying to do is

glorify him in everything

that I do and romans 8 28 says um

You know, we know that in all things,

God works for the good of

those who love and move and

call according to his purpose.

And so if you actually believe that,

you have to show it in your

actions and your beliefs.

And no matter what happens with you,

it's actually funny.

I just sent this to my

buddies the other day.

I think it was yesterday

because I was listening to

a sermon about Philippians 4.13 that says,

you know,

I can do all things through

Christ who gives me strength.

And that's often quoted as, hey, I can...

do and achieve and go chase

and pursue all these things

um because I have christ

but actually the context of

that verse is the previous

verses it's about paul

writing about how he's

content in every any and

every circumstance um and

so that's that's the

context of that verse is

christ gives you the power

to be content whether

well-fed or hungry whether

living in plenty or in want

um and so I think that you

know you can take that and

apply it to every

season of life um and say

hey I'm content my purpose

is to glorify god um and I

know that he's I know that

in all things um he's

working for the good of

those who love him and

called according to his

purpose so I think that

that's super inspiring to

hear people actually live

that out and be bold and

proclaim it it's cool you

said that because

philippians 4 13 is my

tattoo oh is it really nice

awesome that whole thing

right there awesome yeah cool

nice well jack as always

it's so fun catching up

with you um we will be

rooting for you to make the

games uh you know

appreciate that you're a

columbus guy at least for

part of your life yeah I'm

definitely go bucks I mean

I grew up the west side of

michigan so michigan state

fan um I don't like seeing

the university of michigan

win anything um so I'm

definitely am on board with with uh

the ohio state university go

bucks buckeye nation

that'll be a part of me

until I die absolutely

because because of what

that city and um what that

group of people school

community church family all

different things that come

from columbus I love it so

I'm always glad every time

we talk for sure so you and

page smiths are going to

represent in knoxville yeah

absolutely the lady buckeye

she'll be doing that as well

nice yep so with that thank

you so much for being on

hey everybody in oh jamie

had to yell go green she

had to yell go green for uh

from lansing yeah jamie hey

that too go I'll say go

green absolutely um with

that thank you everybody in

the chat you guys have been

awesome jack as always good

luck in lux knoxville and I

just tried to look for

hotels right now so

hopefully I'll be there weeks to reach on

Sounds good.

Thanks, brother.

Appreciate it.

All right.

Thank you, everybody.

See you next time on the

Clydesdale Media Podcast.

Bye, guys.