DAVE CASTRO | CrossFit Open 18.0 and Fighting Mat Fraser

Chris Williamson 0:00 (wind blowing) Mr. Dave Castro?

Dave Castro 0:07 Yes.

Chris Williamson 0:08 Main man, how are you?

Dave Castro 0:09 Good, thank you.

Chris Williamson 0:09 Welcome.

Dave Castro 0:10 Thank you.

Chris Williamson 0:10 Welcome to London. Um, 18.0 has just ended me.

Dave Castro 0:14 (laughs)

Chris Williamson 0:14 Um, can you explain where that came from?

Dave Castro 0:17 Yeah, so the, uh, the idea of doing an 18.0 or a pre-workout before the Open starts has been something that's been floating in my head for years. I've always wanted to do it. We've never activated on it or moved on it, uh, within CrossFit. We've never made it a priority to execute on. And this year, Reebok asked me if I'd come out and do this event with them, and they s- they reignited that idea and they said, "Would you be open to doing a pre-Open announcement?" And I said, "Sure, let's call it 18.0."

Chris Williamson 0:46 Uh-huh.

Dave Castro 0:47 And so we decided to, uh, to do it here. And the workout had to be true, core CrossFit. You know, simple. Nice bite. Uh, two movements that are common to the Open, but with different twists.

Chris Williamson 0:59 Yeah.

Dave Castro 0:59 The- the- the dumbbell snatch we put a new standard on it of just bringing it down below the, uh, head before you make the switch.

Chris Williamson 1:07 Mm-hmm.

Dave Castro 1:07 And then the burpee over the dumbbell is something new. We hadn't seen that.

Chris Williamson 1:10 Yeah, it is.

Dave Castro 1:10 So it's pretty cool 'cause now you- you're gonna have people, uh, assuming, and they might be assuming right or they might be assuming wrong, that that burpee that we just introduced will be the burpee in the Open.

Chris Williamson 1:21 Well, you like to throw a couple of curveballs in, right?

Dave Castro 1:24 Yeah, and so this is- this is- this, uh, 18.0 has provided a nice little, uh, it's gonna get people talking about what might be coming.

Chris Williamson 1:31 This is just-

Dave Castro 1:32 We'll be all.

Chris Williamson 1:32 ... another Dave Castro Instagram post, isn't it?

Dave Castro 1:34 Yeah, basically-

Chris Williamson 1:34 (laughs)

Dave Castro 1:34 ... but just for Reebok and live and for this event.

Chris Williamson 1:37 For sure. Um, so yesterday on Instagram, I saw you trying to put Dan off during a photo shoot?

Dave Castro 1:43 Yeah.

Chris Williamson 1:43 Um, have the guys ever tried to put you off during the games? Have they ever tried to come up behind you and whisper just random movements in your ear so that you end up, like, saying the wrong thing or forgetting?

Dave Castro 1:53 Not during the games. During the games people ... they're pretty occupied with what they have to do.

Chris Williamson 1:58 Yeah, that's true.

Dave Castro 1:58 And they respect that I'm pretty occupied with what I'm doing.

Chris Williamson 2:01 Yeah.

Dave Castro 2:02 So, uh, during the games, no. But at other events and in other, um, stuff like this, yeah, guys, the guys, especially the guys I'm close with, will, uh, will push me or poke at me and- and do stuff. But, um, but typically not at the games.

Chris Williamson 2:16 Uh-huh.

Dave Castro 2:16 'Cause everyone has their own things going on.

Chris Williamson 2:18 Yeah, for sure.

Dave Castro 2:18 Their own demons they're facing.

Chris Williamson 2:19 But maybe some of the Open announcements or something like that, they might try and just nudge you or-

Dave Castro 2:23 Uh, the Open announcements they'll try to ... They'll- they'll make little jokes, but they're also very nervous at that point too.

Chris Williamson 2:27 Yeah.

Dave Castro 2:27 'Cause they don't know what they're about to do.

Chris Williamson 2:29 Yeah.

Dave Castro 2:29 And the Open announcements are tough because they have to, uh ... I announce the workout and a few minutes later they have to do it.

Chris Williamson 2:35 You gotta go.

Dave Castro 2:36 Yeah. So ...

Chris Williamson 2:37 For sure.

Dave Castro 2:38 It's a demanding environment for them.

Chris Williamson 2:40 For everyone.

Dave Castro 2:41 Yeah. Well, and- and especially for those top athletes because of the fact that, like, you know, if you're not doing an Open announcement, you get to watch the workout then you get to process and you get to see what everyone else is doing. Then you get to, you know, "Do I wanna do it tomorrow? Do I wanna do it Friday?" You get to do all ... You get to set your own schedule.

Chris Williamson 2:56 Yeah.

Dave Castro 2:57 At ... If you're part of the Open announcement, you don't get to set your own schedule.

Chris Williamson 3:00 For sure.

Dave Castro 3:00 You have to do it within five minutes after it's announced.

Chris Williamson 3:03 Especially last year with some of the new movements that we saw.

Dave Castro 3:05 Yeah.

Chris Williamson 3:05 Some of the stuff like the dumbbell cleans and then the racked up lunges as well-

Dave Castro 3:10 Yeah.

Chris Williamson 3:10 ... and stuff like that.

Dave Castro 3:11 Yeah.

Chris Williamson 3:11 The techniques that everyone developed, you get the guys that do the Open announcements, they're the worst. They get the- no chance to prepare.

Dave Castro 3:18 Uh, they're-

Chris Williamson 3:19 No coaching.

Dave Castro 3:19 ... not always the worst though. Like you even look at, uh, Matt, Matt and Scott when they did eight ... I guess it was 18.3, the snatch.

Chris Williamson 3:28 Squat snatch, yeah.

Dave Castro 3:29 Squat snatch event. Um, Matt had the fastest time in the world I think.

Chris Williamson 3:33 Nailed it.

Dave Castro 3:33 No, he, uh ... No, Ben ended up having the fastest time. He beat him at the last minute, but Matt had the second-fastest time.

Chris Williamson 3:39 With no prep.

Dave Castro 3:40 On his first go. Yeah.

Chris Williamson 3:41 Do you know if he repeated that?

Dave Castro 3:43 I don't think he did. I'm pretty sure he did not.

Chris Williamson 3:45 I think you know when you've emptied the tank, don't you?

Dave Castro 3:47 Well, I don't think ... Here, it's not even emptying the tank. I don't think he emptied the tank. I think he could've gone faster. It's more of, um, he didn't need to do it again.

Chris Williamson 3:55 Have you done enough? You don't need to end-

Dave Castro 3:57 He- he did-

Chris Williamson 3:57 ... yourself ready for next week.

Dave Castro 3:58 Yeah. He-

Chris Williamson 3:58 Right?

Dave Castro 3:58 He's looking at the marathon. He's looking at the complete picture.

Chris Williamson 4:00 Yeah.

Dave Castro 4:01 He doesn't want to win just that event. He wants to win the whole thing.

Chris Williamson 4:03 For sure.

Dave Castro 4:03 So he did enough for him to be set up for success for- for the rest of the competition.

Chris Williamson 4:08 I understand. Um, so Reebok and CrossFit have got a really strong partnership now. Um, today's community I think has shown just how cool that can be and the sort of small events that you can do locally that affect CrossFitters that are on the local level.

Dave Castro 4:22 Yeah.

Chris Williamson 4:22 Um, can you explain what the partnership with Reebok's enabled you to do that you might not have been able to do without them? Has there been more accesses? What have you been able to do with Reebok?

Dave Castro 4:33 Yeah, the partnership's been great. They've exposed us to a new, uh, community of people that traditionally, um, that we wouldn't target or work with just in the mass fitness community outside of, uh, you know, bringing in media, bringing in people who aren't from your traditional CrossFit realms. Um, we actively don't go out and try to promote ourselves. We let the brand promote itself organically. We let it grow by word of mouth.

Chris Williamson 4:59 So this year it looks like more than half a million people might do the Open.

Dave Castro 5:03 Hopefully.

Chris Williamson 5:04 420 or something last year? 420,000?

Dave Castro 5:07 Something like that, yeah.

Chris Williamson 5:08 Um, how does it feel knowing that your pen and paper is going to influence the lives of so many people?

Dave Castro 5:12 Uh-

Chris Williamson 5:12 Like if you ... What you write on a piece-

Dave Castro 5:14 Yeah.

Chris Williamson 5:14 ... of paper is literally gonna de- define someone's weekend.

Dave Castro 5:18 Yeah. It's, uh ... I don't think about it like that too much. But it is, like, if I step back and think about it, that is pretty s- cool, significant. But I think it ... I- I don't look at it that way. I'm thinking more about the test that I have to program being that it's ... Here's what I'm thinking about. Programming a test that's gonna, um, rank the fittest in the world, but also be appropriate for 400 other thousand people.

Chris Williamson 5:39 Gotta be inclusive, right?

Dave Castro 5:40 Yeah. That anyone can do it.

Chris Williamson 5:42 Do you find-

Dave Castro 5:42 You know, and here's the thing about the anyone can do it. That- that statement is true, but it's also misleading in the fact that anyone can do it if you ... You need some experience, right? Like, you need to have a l- you need to know how to do some basic CrossFit movements.

Chris Williamson 5:55 For sure. Even the scale.

Dave Castro 5:56 Even the scale.

Chris Williamson 5:56 Yeah.

Dave Castro 5:56 Even the scale. You still have to have some concept. I would say-Not anybody can do the scale division, but a majority of the world can. You just have to have some understanding of CrossFit-

Chris Williamson 6:08 Yeah.

Dave Castro 6:08 ... and the movements to participate, which isn't asking a lot, and which is, it makes sense, you know?

Chris Williamson 6:13 Yeah.

Dave Castro 6:13 'Cause if, if it, if it was set up that anyone could do it, we'd just have, you know, a walking competition.

Chris Williamson 6:18 There'd be no accomplishment, right?

Dave Castro 6:19 Yeah. Well, you'd, you'd have to do movements that are so basic that have no instruction.

Chris Williamson 6:22 Yeah.

Dave Castro 6:23 And essentially all of our movements, our body weight movements, anything with a barbell, there's some level of instruction or some level of technicality to them that you have to, uh, do.

Chris Williamson 6:33 For sure. Um, so you said that you test the Open workouts-

Dave Castro 6:38 Mm-hmm.

Chris Williamson 6:39 ... yourself-

Dave Castro 6:39 Yeah.

Chris Williamson 6:40 ... sometimes before sending them to anybody else.

Dave Castro 6:42 Yes.

Chris Williamson 6:43 Do you ever find that you're fearing them as you write them down, or wanting to back off the intensity, seeing as you know that you're about to punch yourself in the face with it in about 30 minutes?

Dave Castro 6:51 Well, here's what I fear with the Open workouts. I, I just, like, I, I fear not... I don't mind doing them when I'm creating them in that process.

Chris Williamson 7:01 Mm-hmm.

Dave Castro 7:01 But I mind once scores have been established and once people have done them, 'cause now you see, oh man, a, a middle of the pack time is this.

Chris Williamson 7:09 (laughs)

Dave Castro 7:09 Now I have to do that or better.

Chris Williamson 7:11 Uh-huh.

Dave Castro 7:11 I get the anxiety from them when I have to actually do them and I know other people's scores.

Chris Williamson 7:15 You're gonna watch that score go up.

Dave Castro 7:17 So when I do them in prepping for them before anyone's ever done them, I'm not too worried about it, 'cause I know it's like, I'll get a sense of-

Chris Williamson 7:23 You're number one in the world, right, in every Open workout. (laughs)

Dave Castro 7:26 Yeah, exactly. I'll get a sense of how it feels and how the movements feel, and overall that it hurts. But, but then when I do them... 'Cause I'll test them, and then during the Open week, I'll do them officially.

Chris Williamson 7:37 Cool.

Dave Castro 7:37 So, like, I don't use my scores from when I tested it.

Chris Williamson 7:39 Okay.

Dave Castro 7:39 I make it official, and I do it within the window with a judge and go through the whole process.

Chris Williamson 7:44 I understand.

Dave Castro 7:45 And, uh, th- that's when I fear them. But in the creation... And, you know, some of them, like, I don't like movements like thrusters and the things people typically don't like. So when they have those in there too, I'm not excited about testing them.

Chris Williamson 7:56 Yeah, the... I bet so. Um, so new 908s been released this week. Um, what is your favorite pair of Reebok shoes from over the years? Have you got a favorite pair that sticks out?

Dave Castro 8:08 I never really think of my shoes.

Chris Williamson 8:10 Yeah.

Dave Castro 8:10 I just move.

Chris Williamson 8:10 Okay.

Dave Castro 8:10 And like, I just... I'm good, I've... And it's kind of how I've been brought up. It just, you wanna be prepared for whatever-

Chris Williamson 8:17 Just crack on.

Dave Castro 8:17 ... you have.

Chris Williamson 8:17 Well, that's the Salem mentality, right?

Dave Castro 8:18 Whatever you're gonna... Yeah, whatever you're gonna work with, whatever you're gonna use, you make it happen. So the, uh, same, I feel the same way about barbells. Barbell is a little different. I'd rather that... Of course you want a nice one, but if you don't have a nice one, you can, you can make it work.

Chris Williamson 8:29 For sure.

Dave Castro 8:30 Yeah.

Chris Williamson 8:31 Uh-

Dave Castro 8:31 So... But I do like these, they feel great. And I felt, I, I thought the 7s were great. I think these are great.

Chris Williamson 8:35 Yeah.

Dave Castro 8:35 Yeah.

Chris Williamson 8:35 A little bit more of a heel drop in these, I noticed, which feels quite good.

Dave Castro 8:38 Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Williamson 8:38 Really, really good. Um, what's the coolest group chat that you're in?

Dave Castro 8:43 Coolest group chat?

Chris Williamson 8:44 Yeah. On iMessage or, like, WhatsApp or whatever. Have you got some cool group chats that you're in?

Dave Castro 8:49 No. I, I have some business text groups that I'm in-

Chris Williamson 8:53 Uh-huh.

Dave Castro 8:53 ... with some of my core team, and, uh, those I don't really... They're just all business.

Chris Williamson 8:58 Okay, I got it. Um, so I wouldn't like to guess how many gyms you've been to around the world.

Dave Castro 9:03 I don't know anymore, but I've been to a lot.

Chris Williamson 9:05 An awful lot.

Dave Castro 9:06 Yeah.

Chris Williamson 9:06 Um, have you got a top three coolest?

Dave Castro 9:10 Gyms?

Chris Williamson 9:10 Yes.

Dave Castro 9:11 There's some-

Chris Williamson 9:11 Any that come to mind?

Dave Castro 9:12 There's some gyms in China that were really cool that I just remember that were very unique, and partly because they were in China and you wouldn't expect to find such nice CrossFit gyms. I mean, I didn't. I mean-

Chris Williamson 9:22 Yeah.

Dave Castro 9:22 ... you can't... Once I was there, now it makes sense. But before I went, I went a couple years ago, I had no idea that I'd find some of the nicest CrossFit gyms in the world in China.

Chris Williamson 9:31 Such an emerging market for CrossFit as well.

Dave Castro 9:32 Yeah, exactly. So that was, that was unique. Um, yeah, I don't have a, a favorite CrossFit gym.

Chris Williamson 9:40 Mm-hmm.

Dave Castro 9:40 I just, I like-

Chris Williamson 9:41 Some of those ones.

Dave Castro 9:42 They, they all have such different flavors and such different looks-

Chris Williamson 9:44 For sure.

Dave Castro 9:44 ... and such different, um, experiences that... They're all unique in a different way.

Chris Williamson 9:49 Yeah, definitely. Bu- but also the exact same training methodology-

Dave Castro 9:53 Yeah.

Chris Williamson 9:53 ... that arrives in a, in a culturally different way, right?

Dave Castro 9:56 Yeah, totally.

Chris Williamson 9:57 Um, you're in the Hunger Games and there's only other Games athletes there. Who's gonna be the hardest to kill?

Dave Castro 10:04 I don't even know what the Hunger Games are.

Chris Williamson 10:06 You know, like, Battle Royale? You've got to, like, try-

Dave Castro 10:09 Like WWF? (laughs)

Chris Williamson 10:10 Kind of. Kind of. Okay. Who... WWF, who's gonna be the hardest to get out of the ring do you think?

Dave Castro 10:15 Um...

Chris Williamson 10:15 Out of all of the Games athletes from this year?

Dave Castro 10:17 From this year?

Chris Williamson 10:18 Yeah.

Dave Castro 10:18 Out of all the Games athletes?

Chris Williamson 10:19 Yeah.

Dave Castro 10:19 Let me think about that. Well, I think Matt's pretty... Here's what I respect about Matt and why ............................ 'Cause he's really a fighter. And what I mean, I don't mean a physical fighter, but I mean a mental fighter.

Chris Williamson 10:28 Mm-hmm.

Dave Castro 10:28 It's like he really wants to win no matter what it takes. And in years past, there's been athletes who, um... And even now you still hear some that, uh, "I'm just competing against myself and I, you know, I wanna do as best as I can." But the reality is when you get out there, you have to compete against those to your left and right, and you have to do better than even what the best you can is or what it thinks it is-

Chris Williamson 10:50 Uh-huh.

Dave Castro 10:50 ... if you wanna win. And Matt understands that. And when you watch Matt... And Rich Froning had that too.

Chris Williamson 10:55 100%.

Dave Castro 10:56 When you watch those two, they're not trying to do the best they can. They're trying to beat the guy to the left and right of them.

Chris Williamson 11:01 Absolutely.

Dave Castro 11:02 And sometimes that doesn't even mean they have to be the best that they can. It means they could be 70% of what they are and they're still beating the guys to their left and right.

Chris Williamson 11:09 That's what, that's what makes a good competitor, right?

Dave Castro 11:11 Exactly.

Chris Williamson 11:11 As opposed to just a good athlete.

Dave Castro 11:12 So that t- type of mentality also would make the type of person I wouldn't want to fight in a cage or I wouldn't want to be with in a-

Chris Williamson 11:19 Absolutely.

Dave Castro 11:19 ... in a scenario like that.

Chris Williamson 11:20 Yeah.

Dave Castro 11:20 Because they, uh, they want to win at all costs. And that's, that's a powerful thing.

Chris Williamson 11:26 I know.

Dave Castro 11:26 And it's, uh, it's powerful.

Chris Williamson 11:28 Thank you. Dave, I appreciate your time.

Dave Castro 11:30 Thanks.

Chris Williamson 11:30 Thank you very much, man.