Birthday Special Episode | Matt Borris interviews Jordan Kunde-Wright

Welcome to the platform podcast where we talk to coaches, athletes, experts, and real people to learn about their approaches to training, nutrition, mindset, and much more. I'm your host, Jordan Gondira, founder, and head coach of the Twinsy Disketable Club. And I'm on a mission to help others build sustainable, healthy lifestyles. This week, it's Mother Day! And I somehow agreed to let Matt Boris hijack my show and interview me because he insists that people want to hear it. But I'm a data guy, so we'll see what the analytics have to say in about a week or so. But self-deprecation aside, thank you for your continued support. I am incredibly grateful that you listened to this podcast. The best gift you could give me for my birthday is to go register for the Twinsy Disketable Open on October 23rd and come up to the Twinsy Dis. And I've interviewed on the show and meet this wonderful community of people that would be the most amazing thing that you could do. Just go to our website twinsydisketableclub.com for details. And if you haven't already, please be sure to leave a review and rating of the platform podcast in your app of choice. And support my work by supporting our sponsors, whose links you'll find in the episode notes. And don't forget, if you want to step on to the platform and compete in Getable Sport, please reach out to me. I help athletes of all levels reach their goals without wasting time using my integrated online coaching approach. You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube at twinsydisketableclub or email me at twinsydisketableclub at gmail.com. Now, let's step on to the platform with me, Jordan Kunde-Wright. Thank you again for listening and I truly appreciate your indulgence. Oh, my name is Matt Boers and I have just hijacked the platform podcast. Today, I will be giving everyone what they deeply wanted. I'm going to interview Jordan Wright, the founder and head coach of the Twinsy Disketable Club and founder of this podcast. Everyone, welcome. Jordan. Thank you, Matt, for welcoming me into my own podcast. This is weird. Yeah, no worries. Thank you for letting me hijack the podcast on behalf of all the listeners that have been listening to your podcast. And we've had some questions for you and really just wanted to subject you to the same process that you've given to us about everything. So thank you for allowing us to do this because I know you're basically getting ready for a little vacation and kind of checked out everything. Yeah, it's been over over a year. Now that we've been in lockdown and that we're coming up on a year of the platform podcast too. And my wife just finished her graduate program for nursing school. So we had talked about this a long time ago that whenever she graduated, we were taking a family trip somewhere so that we could celebrate her accomplishment. So we're going to go spend a week on the beach in Florida, which is great. We're all fully vaccinated and get to get to wander down. And I'm actually going to see Bobby Hicks while we're down there, I think. Oh, it's so fantastic. Well, congratulations on that and graduates to her. I mean, going through a graduate degree program during a pandemic with everything. That is some of the one through grad school during peacetime. I can't even imagine. And she and she worked in an emergency room throughout that entire pandemic as an emergency room technician that entire time as well. So she she was on the front lines during the in the pandemic while also going to nursing school. For. So she's she's a wonder woman in my in my basic opinion. I think she welfished the definition. So basically during this whole vacation, you're doing stuff with the kids. She's locking herself in a soundproof room and sleeping. That would she would probably love that. But she's going to say she needs to study for the NCLEX. And she's going to be able to do that at least a couple of hours of day because she still has the, she still has the license or exam to take. So she will, but I will do my damnedest to make sure that she sleeps. Eats well sits on the beach and relaxes as much as is humanly possible as much as I can facilitate that from her, which is not her strong suit. So that's why my mind is just like I have and she is way more of an overachiever than I am, obviously. The proof is in the pudding there. So I will do the best I can to facilitate that. But yeah, everyone's really much a rip a book out of her hand replace it with a drink and just go from there. You just set the drink next to the book and, you know, whichever she picks up is probably the right choice for her in the moment. Oh my gosh. That's fantastic. Congratulations. That's fantastic. It's great for your family too. So, um, so a lot of us have gotten to know you through listening to the podcast and, you know, obviously me and you have had a chance to talk. You know, we are a part of the Canadian kettlebell. Was it the coalition that you went in? Yeah, I think I have a negative. Yeah, yeah. Refore. I have four group. So, you know, we've all had the chance to do that. But, you know, I think what a lot of us are really interested in you've done such a great job with the podcast and you've introduced us to so many people and really gone to a lot of who they are and what they are and how they train. And, you know, I know personally I've taken a lot of inspiration and a lot of notes and things from it. So I really just want to be able to get everyone to have a chance to really learn a lot about you all in one spot instead of, you know, spacing it together through everything. So, I think really when you start off with, you know, you just mentioned your wife and the amazing accomplishment. Tell us about your family. We've got bits and pieces, but give us the full. Yeah, sure. Yeah. So, well, we'll start with just my immediate family is my wife Stephanie. We've been married for 13 years in August. So, back in back in 2008 we got married here in the Twin Cities actually. Okay. We've been together for over 15 years now met in college or university for those of you in the in Canada or Europe need to call it university. We met a university. We actually went to the same elementary school though, but we never really. Yeah. So, that's an odd coincidence. There's a lot of those weird coincidences throughout our throughout our path together, but yeah. So, I lived in Moorhead, Minnesota for a few years and went to probes field elementary and my wife is born and bred and lived in probes field elementary her entire probes. She which probes with elementary she was born and bred in Moorhead, Minnesota and lived there her whole. Life until she went to college. So, very different past like she moved one time in her entire childhood. I moved like 10 times before I graduated high school, but one of them happened to be Moorhead, Minnesota. We went to the same elementary school, but that's neither here nor there. We have two we have two wonderful kids. My daughter Kira is going to be seven in August and my son Rowan is five. He just turned five in March. Yeah, they're 19 months apart. So, that was one of those, you know, we had the first we had the first one. And then we were having the conversation about like, well, do we put the goalie back in the letter? Do we keep the goal in bold? Or, you know, you know, we're like, well, take us a little while with the first one. So, we'll just, let's just see, we'll just let it happen as it happens. Literally, literally, the day of my daughter's one year birthday. So, when Kira was turning one as we're in our third floor walk up in Chicago. And my parents are like parking their car and coming up the stairs to our third floor walk up in Chicago. I hear maniacal laughter from the bathroom in our apartment. And my wife is laughing because she just took a pregnancy test and we're pregnant with our second child. So, so yes, we've got two kids, you know, we're not quite Irish twins, but they're about as close as we could manage. So, you know, 19 months apart, it's pretty close, which is, which is great. They're, they're great kids. They, they love each other and they play with each other. And we've got a boy and a girl. And so, you know, the, the debate reaches on whether or not to have a third one or not. And, you know, but well, you know, you have a kettlebell team. That's like another four kids right there. It reaches me at least a decade every, every, you know, 12 months. Yeah. Yeah. No, no, it's fate. How is, how's everything been with lock down with two young kids? Mostly good. Mostly good. Like, you know, I try, I try and keep a perspective of gratitude on the whole thing, which is important for me. And I try and do that with everything because of course it's hard. It's hard for everybody right now, you know, and I, but I try and be like, nobody that I know or love has, has, has, has died or had severe complications from it. Like, we're 95% certain that my wife got COVID like in March of last year because she was in the ER treating people and like she was sick for like a month. You know, I slept in the basement in my office to, to, to separate, you know, to, to decrease my risk. You know, but, you know, but all that said, like, she's okay. Our kids are okay. My parents are okay. Her parents are okay. Like, so, you know, in the grand scheme of things, like, I try and keep that perspective of like, yes, this has been really fucking hard. Yeah, at the same time, we're mostly good, right? Like, we both stayed gainfully employed the entire time. I never got laid off. My company was completely online before this ever happened. We were 100% remote. So my job was never in jeopardy because I couldn't go to an office and she works in healthcare. So clearly she was, her job wasn't going anywhere either. You know, so like comparatively with, you know, the struggles that other people have gone through like, yeah, it's emotionally hard and physically hard. And like, I feel, I worry about, you know, some of the impacts for our kids from a development standpoint. But like all in all, we're really lucky and things have been really, really good for us. So I have nothing but gratitude for how fortunate we've been throughout the whole thing. You know, and, you know, for me, with the mechanical club was my saving grace throughout the whole thing. Honestly, like, when we, when I, when I founded the club, it was, you know, 2019, it was before all of the craziness happened. And it was, you know, I was going to the athlete lab and teaching like one day a week out of the athlete lab. And I had, you know, Greg Anderson shout out to Greg showed up. This was my first consistent guy that would come like and come, you know, regularly. And we, we started training together and he hits CMS and snatch relatively quickly, which is awesome. You know, because he's in the legends category. So he was at 16s and he did, he did like, I want to say like 240 something reps in with the 16 kilo. So, you know, he just came in and destroyed destroyed what he needed to. He's a beast. He's a, he's a beast, dude. He's so good. He's so good. But he, Ellie, he came in with, he had such a good background already with, he did a ton of a ton of hard style training before and he like, he, he walked a lot and does a lot of nasal breathing and stuff. And like it was really like and had martial arts background and all of these things. So he had a great base to, and I just had to teach him kettlebell sport. And I just had to teach him some technique. And he had CMS really quickly. Now we're working to get him to MS, which is a different, a different beast because he's got to go up and wait. And, you know, you know, the hard style technique doesn't translate as well to the heavier bells. Right. So he's got a, he's got a, he's got a, he's got a rework some of his technique, but he's, he's awesome. You know, and so, but for, for many weeks, many months, it was just me and Greg, you know, showing up and training together and then added another person. And then, you know, it was kind of like hit or miss. And then, but then lockdown happened in, I was like, well, shit, what am I going to do? I'm like, wow, fuck it. You know, the world is giving us lemons right now. I'm just going to, I'm just going to like train people for free via zoom. I don't care. Like I just, I'm just going to do, like, I just, I just want to do something positive. And like, I need connection. So I'm just going to put it out there. And I'm just going to like, I'm just going to train people via zoom. And so I started doing zoom classes. And then, like, head a couple more people sign up. And then, and then it was like, oh, well, if you can do it via zoom and other people were locked down too. So it was like, we got Audrey from Texas and, you know, and then Nikki from Texas. And then I got another, you know, I got, you know, got Jay and Alaska reached out to me. And, you know, I was like, he, and he heard the podcast. And that's how he found me was from the podcast. And, you know, so it's like, so I've got, I've got people in Texas. I've got people in Michigan. I've got people in, people in Texas. People in, people in Louisiana, Alaska, like all over all over the country. And so the club just got bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. And now it's, you know, a, you know, between 20 and 25 people, you know, and any given time and, and still growing, which is, which is fantastic. So, you know, in a given session, we might have five people. We might have 15 people. We might have 10, you know, but it's, it's been awesome. And it was a COVID forced the removal of the physical barrier. Of like, you don't have to be local to train. And it actually works really well for kettlebell sport. And I, I figured out a way to kind of train people, and I got, and I asked them, how do you want to be trained? Do you want individualized programs? Or do you want like everybody doing the same workout, but with different pacing and different weights and, you know, and it works, it's worked really well. And it's been great because we get that sense of community and connection that we all kind of need right now, especially during all of this struggle. So it really, really helped. And it was, you know, like I said, before I got on this whole diet, it was really my saving grace for all this because it was just my attempt to like find the social connection I was missing. And, and I was fortunate that I found it with with so many people within this community. And, you know, so now every time I log on to coach, I, you know, I know there's going to be at least a handful of people that are going to show up. And they're going to push me and we're going to push each other. And, you know, it's been, it's been fucking phenomenal, honestly. Yeah, I have to say, I, we've experienced the same thing too. So we had a, my, my little team, we, we started out with a five person Zoom workout because we were upset we couldn't compete together. We noticed, you know, six weeks later, we have 38 people on our Zoom workout from all over Canada, Europe, this net. The silver lining, I think the kettlebell community has really just kind of stopped. Hey, you know, you know, you know, to be a US or a Minnesota or a Texas or BC club or an Italy club. It's, we can all merge together. I feel, yeah, I feel, I feel like as a, as a, as a business person, I'm like, God, did I miss brand this whole thing calling it the Twin Cities kettlebell club? Should I just call it like the, should I have just called it like the internet kettlebell club? Yeah, at least people know what your, your name is. No one understands the riddle struck a right? So that's not true. Don't, don't, don't let, don't let Steve hear you say that. Oh, no, we take great pride in that because people understood they'd run away. So I mean, though, that I was kind of getting my next point like how, how strong the club is getting. So the, the 2025 athletes, are they all competing sport? I mean, what's the, what's the competition bracket looking like for you guys? Are they all just training for October? What, what do you guys kind of have in mind? It's a, it's a solid mix. I mean, I would say the majority, the majority of people do kettlebell sport, but I have, I have a handful of people too that are just that are just doing GPP or lifestyle coaching nutrition coaching, right? So there's a handful of people there that are, that are just doing that. And I actually have one local athlete here who is actually a high level college football recruit. He's a, he's a 15, he's a 15 year old tight end who is six foot four and 243 pounds. So he's me, but athletic. Well, and he's 15. Yeah. So he's, he's one of the top, he's one of the top tight end recruits in the, in the state and he'll soon probably be one of the top tight end recruits in the country. Because he's, he's incredibly hard worker and incredibly talented. He's got great hands, good, you know, a lot of great things going for him. So I'm working with him on nutrition and stuff, which is great. So there's, you know, there's a good, there's a good mix, but we have, we have, you know, a solid, you know, 15, 15 to 20 athletes that are, that are working on kettlebell sport and in our, in our, ready to, ready to compete, you know, within a few months notice, they're, they're ready to compete at a kettlebell sport competition. And yes, it's, it's going, it's going well thus far, my, my hypothesis of, of, of training has worked out well so far and everybody's performing really well. They're making me super, super proud because they, they just, they kick ass every time it's time to step on the platform. It's amazing. That's great. But getting away from the gym and that I kind of want to get a little more into you. So we've talked about this a lot, but kind of the same question you threw at me, it's take me back to six year old Jordan and walk me through your entire athletic career up until kettlebell. I'm going to get comfy. Well, I'll try and keep it as brief as I can. No, we want the goods. Come on. I was, I grew up in an, I grew up in an athletic family. So my dad, my dad, his senior year of high school was the number one golfer in the state of Colorado. So he was a, he was a great high school golfer and actually got a golf scholarship in Colorado. My mom, she held her holds the hundred yard record for her track and field team back and back in the back in the day. They obviously it's meters now, but back then it was yards. So my mom was like an amazing track and field athlete, very, very fast, very, and, and she has a great arm and she was just a, she's just a great athlete. She hoarded all of that speed because I'm not that fast. You know, I come from an athletic family. My brother, my brother Jason is, you know, six years older than me. He was a great, he was a great soccer player and a great football player. Even though he was like only five nine, there's only like five nine, five ten, but as a court and as a quarterback, but he could throw the ball, like 60 yards with his left hand and like 50 yards with his right hand. He's a phenomenal athlete, just ambidextrous and, you know, he was still, he will still tell you that he's the best athlete in the family to this day. There's often passionate disagreements about that. So absolutely no competitiveness in your family. No, none at all. My mother is the most competitive person in our family, actually, like it's my, my mom, it doesn't matter if we're playing tic-tac-toe or, or like we have a very competitive family environment. My brother, JJ, is the middle child. He's, you know, he's not as, he's still very competitive to get me around, but he's, he's not as asshole competitive as the rest of us can be. He's much more accommodating, not full trash talking during tic-tac-toe. Yeah, yeah, he's much more accommodating, you know, but he's a great golfer and a great boulder and, you know, he kind of, he got the raw kind of the rind of the deal that he, he never got to, we moved around so much that he never got to fully pursue what he was best at, which was, you know, he was a great endurance athlete. And he probably would have done really, really well as a soccer player, or he would have been done really well as a, as a, as a quarterback and football had he played football, but growing up, but he, he didn't play football until high school. And, and even, even until he didn't play football until junior year of high school because he had been a soccer player before that, but then we moved away from a school that didn't, we moved to a school that didn't have a soccer team and then he had to pick up football and he was a wide receiver instead, but, which his problem was. As, as, as fast as my mom was, and as slow as I am JJ, JJ is only like a step or two faster than me, and I was, I was a hundred pounds every than him, so he, he could catch everything you threw near him, but he wasn't, he wasn't super fast as a. Yeah, well, he got open because he was a tactician and anything you threw knew him, but near him, he would catch, but I mean, we came from a program that ran, I mean, in my senior year, we had three 1000 yard rushers, so we, you can, you can imagine. 10, 10, and we, and we, I think we had like 500 total yards passing and, you know, we were the small school, small school Illinois football, you know, it was, it was, I had 21 kids in my graduating class. So our, our on our football team is 61 kids in our graduating class, 20, 22 kids on our football team, you know, so I played both ways and, you know, et cetera. Yeah, I was, you know, three yards in a cloud of dust kind of thing, but of that 20 of that 22 man roster, like nine of us went on to play college football, so, you know, we were, we were a very, very good football team, which was fun, and I was a multi sport athlete, I played, I played football, I was, I was actually probably a better baseball player than I was a football player, even though I ended up getting, I ended up getting a college football scholarship. I was actually probably a better baseball player than I was a football player, I started on the varsity on the varsity baseball team, and I led my conference in RBI's and batting for three, three years, the three years that I played baseball, which was, which was cool. I got to got to play on the, on the same team as my brother, he was two years ahead of me, so he was a senior when I was a sophomore, so we got to, we got to play on the same, on the same baseball team, and actually we hit a home run in the same game, which was cool. My dad is really kind of cool. My dad said he had a dream the night before that we did that, so it was actually, you know, it's one of those kind of weird, cool. I'm sure mom would have said she would have hit two. Well, probably yeah, but, uh, but it was, it was a really cool kind of coincidence because I think, like I think JJ had like two home runs that year, and I had more than that. So it was cool that it happened in the same in the same game, you know, one of his two home runs happened in the same game as mine. So it was, it was very cool. So I played a lot of sports. I actually was on the cheerleading team as well, because, okay, I didn't, I didn't play, I, the one sport I didn't play in high school was, was basketball. And the reason for that was, I was, by my junior year of high school, I was so focused on getting a football scholarship and getting as big and strong as I possibly could. I didn't want to gain, I wanted to gain weight in the off season and get as strong as I could and not run gassers and, and lose a whole bunch of weight that I had worked hard to put on for football. I, I, I, I instead, uh, helped throw basket toss and do seat lifts and things like that on the cheerleading team, which came in handy when I played, when I played rugby in college, I already knew how to do lifts when it was time for lineouts, I, I already, I was actually very good at that. And as the guy you were lifting, thank you for making that seriously because you have any idea how much it sucks hitting the ground when your litter can put you up, but not down. Oh, yeah, no, that, yeah, that, that didn't happen. None of my flyers ever hit the ground. So, thank you. It's very, very important to me to make sure that that didn't happen. And we won a lot of lineouts because I knew how to lift. So that was good. So you got your scholarship offer, are you, you're going to say the name of the school or no? Oh, sure. Yeah, I, I went to a, I went to a very conservative Christian college called all of it, Nazarene University, and it was not all football because it was not that good of a football player. It was, it was a third for football, a third for choir and a third for academics. So I, I, I happened to be a very, very, very talented singer, much more talented singer than I was. Then I was football player or anything else. I was the top tenor in the state of Illinois, my junior year of high school, and then I did not, not as well, didn't do as well my, my senior year, but I was, I was honors all state inquire. Both my junior and senior year. Yeah, I remember Sarah telling me if she ever gets on the podcast, you might have to do it and solve together because of that. So yeah, I was, I was much, I was much, much to my choir director, Shagrin, I was much more talented at singing, but much more dedicated to sports. So, but I, I did get it, I did get a, a combined full ride between those three things, but I ended up transferring away from that school because the football coach never checked with the choir director, whether it was okay for me to miss any choir rehearsals. And so I was going to lose my choir scholarship after the first semester. And they were like, no, it's fine. We'll just up your football scholarship. And I was like, no, you don't understand, like I've been a singer since I was four and I've been a football player since I was five. These two parts of my personality cannot be bifurcated. I specifically chose this school because I could do both things. And we'd be good at this. I need to be able to do that balance. Yeah, balance balance was super important to me. And so I transferred away from there and went to a division three school called Luther college here in Iowa. And I did choir for all three years. I played football for the, for the remainder of. And then just to back to going football. So reuse or high school, you played both sides. What were you in college? In college, I was just a center. I only played one. You played center. I played center. Yep. So yeah, I was the least athletic, smartest person on the offensive line. I wouldn't say because like you are responsible for the quarterback's life. Much like we were talking about lifting and rugby where, you know, I'm, you know, you're lifting that lock in the air. You're responsible because you can kill him. You are responsible for protecting the. Yeah, I was, I was very, I was very proud of and protective of my, my responsibility as as the starting center for handling all of the offensive line calls and all of the audibles at the line of scrimmage. And we actually ran a no huddle offense in college. So all of our play calls happened at the line of scrimmage. This, we were early to that party because this was, this was 2000, this was 2000, 2003, 4 and 5. So we were, we were one of the first college teams that were doing entirely no huddle in our offensive coordinator had actually been doing no huddle offense is for, well, he was an offensive, our head coach. There's an offensive coordinator before that and he had been doing no huddle offenses for 10 years before that he had been trying to fast break football. Basically, he called it tempo control football because we would go as fast as we wanted to when we wanted to go faster as slow as we wanted to when we wanted to slow down the game. So, but because we were able to call our entire playbook at the one scrimmage, we could dictate the pace of the game. And we took the, we took the pace to the defense and not vice versa. So I was very protective of my responsibility and right to call all of the, to call all of the protections at the line of scrimmage was a lot, that was a lot of fun. And you know, I took that job very, very seriously. That was, that was something I was very proud of. Yeah, so I mean, we've talked about it before and we're going to get into it a little bit more with your coach, but what were a lot of the traits that you had that you think made you the best of that as opposed to other linemen. Despite what people think you're in the trenches, you need to be smart, like you're not just a big guy that just poisters. I mean, if those guys get destroyed. So like, can you like, I know we're going to talk a little more about kettlebell. I'm a big football fan. So I love to hear about what makes a great center. What makes a great omen. And what did you have to use to adjust to making that kind of a system work and keeping the quarterback alive. I think, I think the thing that I took the most pride in was that I didn't just know the offensive line calls. I knew the route concepts. I knew the blocking schemes. I knew what I knew what every, every player on every play was doing for the entire playbook. I knew what the X receiver was doing, what the Z receiver was doing, what the what the tight end was doing. I knew what I knew what F and H were doing and depending on formation. And then I knew all of the permutations and combinations of those variations, depending on what the defensive alignment was or whether we changed and changed to a different formation. So if we went if we went three wide versus two wide. And so if we had two running backs and two wide receivers in a tight end, I knew how that change the layout of a play call as opposed to if we went three wide or if we went four wide. And I knew all of those combinations of permutations, depending on whether the defense was in a three three five or whether we're in a three five three or whether they were in a four three or three four three four over four three stack like four four stack. I knew all of those things. And I mean, to be honest, I studied football more than I studied anything else in college. I I spent hours and hours and hours watching film, studying the playbook. I knew every in and out. I like I would tell our wide receivers whether or not they ran the right routes. Sometimes when they came back to the to the to the huddle based on the call that had been made. I would I would handle the line calls and the quarterback would handle some of the other some of the other calls. And then there were times that I I called out a tight end or a wide receiver based on whether or not they did the right thing that was. I pride I pride in myself on knowing every single every single responsibility of every single person on the field, no matter what was called. So my I was I guess I would say I was obsessive. That's probably what made what made me what made me good is. And I wasn't great. I was just good. I was never great. I never made all conference. Like I was honorable mention was the highest ever got highest recognition ever gotten college. So I was never great. I was just good. But I was obsessive. I was I was going to squeeze every last bit of talent I could. I was going to I was going to milk. I was going to milk every last ounce out of my physical ability that I could by making sure that I was never under prepared. But we're not even getting to the visit. That's my next question. We're just talking about the mental and psychological after that. Now you have a 320 pound guy coming straight at you and you're covering both a gaps. So kind of we're going to get I want to get more to how this leads into your kettlebell sport. But can you tell us. I mean what kind of physical preparation you said you you did a lot to gain weight gain muscle. Yeah. Can you tell us a lot about not only the preparation you did, but just give us an idea of what it takes physically to be in those trenches. I was the second strongest person on our team. And I can say that unequivocally because the guy that the guy that lined up across from me every single day was an inch taller than me 20 pounds heavier than me. He was he was just a better natural athlete than me. He was an all American. He was my nemesis. So Scott Romans was was a great, great football player. And a great dude. He's a great human being. But he was my fucking nemesis. He was my rabbit that I chased every day in practice because he was just better than me at everything. And so when I benched for 55 he benched for 75 when I squatted 55 55 he squatted six when I you know it didn't matter what I did. He was just always better than me, which drove me fucking crazy. But it made us both better, which is great. Friendly helpful competition. You've seen on our our group chats. My long cycle. I chase Andrew the boy. And I can't catch me. Yeah. I think most of us do. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe we team up. But yeah, I know. I mean, that's, I mean, you know, like we've talked a lot about this about, you know, there's competition. There's friendly competition. And I think that is really what you get. You get that person that you can be friends with. But you're like, I'm coming after you. Yeah. And we, and then like he's in the nose guard and I'm in the center. So we've lined up against each other every single day. Like day. You guys have heard of play after play. Yeah, we've heard each other. And, you know, you know, so there was definitely that deep level of respect because he knew I wasn't going to back down. I knew he wasn't going to back down. And, you know, frankly, you know, between the two of us, we knew more often than not. He was going to win. And I was not. But I was never going to concede that. I was going to make him earn every inch of that every single day on every single snap because I'm too stubborn and competitive to ever admit that. But now, you know, many years, many years later, I can admit that I knew. And he knew that he was probably going to win a lot of those matchups. But it made me better. Hopefully it made him better. But I was never, I was never, I was never going to back down. So I trained, I trained really, really hard. I, I lifted hard. I mean, I would say 12 months a year. I lifted hard. I ate well, mostly well. You know, I ate a ton, I had to eat a ton of calories. Thanks for tuning into this episode of the platform podcast. We interrupt this interview to share some exciting updates about the prizes and sponsors for the first annual Twin Cities kettlebell open happening October 23rd, which we'll be hosting at the athlete lab here in Little Canada, Minnesota in the heart of the Twin Cities. 27 degrees a peril is designing our event T shirt and has given us a discount code TC KB 10 for 10% off all of his apparel. She'd definitely check out especially the limited edition big Tim shirts, which are coming out to support my man Tim Boyer, who's lost almost a hundred pounds now. So they're only available for pre order until May 20th, so get them all you can. And as with all of the orders, $4 for every shirt that you purchase goes to support one of several mental health charities, which you can choose when you check out, which is really, really awesome. There's a list of charities that you can choose from to support with your donation, which is fantastic. Also, Barefoot Athletics has gift certificates for six pairs of Ursus Barefoot training shoes, my personal favorite for snatch as well as deadlift and GPP. And as I've mentioned before, Belivator by Dennis Vasilov has given us two belts to give away. Our friend Nikolai Pushlov from the Seattle kettlebell club is providing his new made in the USA pro kettlebells for competitors to try out and use on the platform if they choose, as well as support from Kasparin Nutrition and others. So if you have other ideas or connections to interested sponsors, please reach out to me and please don't forget to register for the event on our website, twinsidyskillableclub.com. And now let's get back into the interview. What is your nutrition plan look like? What were your daily intakes? Like five, six thousand calories, you know, so in season, we're talking in season in season. So when I'm doing like during two days, what I can tell you when we go to cafeteria during two days, you know, you're on the, you're on the meal plan. So you can just eat whatever, whatever you want, because you've already paid for as much food as you want to consume. I had a, I had a two tray approach. One tray would just be like bowls of cereal with whole milk. So I'm like, God, because I love cereal. I'm former, well, you know, fat kid, right? So like, um, I would get, I would get like two bowls of Lucky Charms, a bowl of cocoa pebbles or cocoa pops, whatever. A bowl of frosted flakes, a bowl of what a captain crunch and like, I would get like five or six bowls of cereal in whole milk, eat all of those. Then eat my regular meal. So whatever, whatever. That was like my premium meal just to get my calories up. And, and then I would eat like whatever I was having for food, which was like, you know, eggs and bacon for breakfast, you know, eggs and bacon and pancakes or whatever for breakfast or like salad and tacos and whatever for lunch. And whatever dinner was right. But like at every meal, I had my plate of my tray of regular food, but I had a tray of just like cereal and milk because that was the one thing that even when I wasn't hungry or whatever I would still eat because it tasted so good and I loved it. Um, that I would just eat it. I would just pound those calories because I needed those calories to keep my weight up in the 280 plus range, like two between 280 and 300 is where my coaches wanted me to play. Um, they would have loved to see me at 300 plus, but I couldn't I just like I'm six foot nothing, you know, and honestly, I think my ideal playing weight was probably 260. That's when I played it as a freshman. And that was when I felt like the best combination of strong mobile and healthy. Maybe that's just the accumulation of injuries over time. But, you know, my freshman year of college is when I remember being my best combination of strong, agile, light, fast, you know, I wasn't light. I mean, it's 260 pounds, but I felt like my best that like my, and that's what I walk around at now is between 250 and 260. You can carry the weight though. That's kind of what you're saying. You were comfortable carrying that. Yeah, I could, like, I mean, at 260 pounds, I had a 30 inch vertical. I, I benched for 50. I squatted five. I ran a five flat 40. So like, I wasn't, I wasn't like, that's combine numbers right there. Like I could, I could do okay. Like, you know, but when I got 280, 290 plus, like my speed went down to 5354, you know, like I slowed down a lot. My agility went down a lot. Like I just couldn't move as well. And I didn't like it. And I'm able to go to your cardio ability to carry that extra weight, like I don't have the frame to carry that heavy weight. You know, so, but that's, but when you're going up against a guy who's 63 320, like, there's a 60 pound difference. If you're playing at 260 and there's a, you know, there's a 40 pound difference. If you're playing at 280. So I understand what my coaches were trying to do. They were just saying you need more mass to go against the guys that you're competing against day in and day out. But what you need to be heavier, I just never felt as effective at that weight, but I understand the, the push and pull between. In a perfect world, if you can carry all your positive attributes to this weight, that would be lovely. Yeah, that would be great. But I can't. No, I couldn't, I couldn't. It doesn't work that way. Same thing. Rugby, my coaches. Yeah, you know, first team lock, you're saying you should be about 275. I'm like, okay. Yeah, yeah, 100 pounds. Every when I was, then I was five years ago. Yeah, yeah, literally. Yeah, I go, I'll just tack on there 25 pounds. No problem. I should feel. And that's why that's why I didn't play college baseball, by the way, is because the college football coaches wanted me to play at 280 in the college baseball coaches wanted me to play at 220 to 230. I was saying you couldn't just lose and gain 60 pounds like that. So I did, so I did track and field for the first two years. And then the same guy that I was talking about, Scott Romans, came out and I was trying to get over 50 feet on the shot, but. And I was, I was, I was right there. I was like right on the fringe of it. And he hadn't been doing track at all. And he came out on his first day of practice. Two weeks after the start of the season and decided he was going to come out for track and field because our coach was after him and he threw it a foot past me and hit over 50 feet. You know, on the first day of practice. And I was like, all right, I'm going to play rugby because the rugby team had been after me for two years to come play, to come play props. So I decided I was going to go play rugby instead because I couldn't, I couldn't get my ass kicked by Scott in the spring too. I just couldn't handle it. So I wanted to transition to come, but you know, I'm a rugby guy. You're a guy we bonded over this where you tied head or rear loose header. Do you play both loose loose only. And that's because my freshman year of college. I had my, I had my left shoulder surgically reconstructed. I, I dislocated it over 20 times. I continued to play. Because I was on a football scholarship and I, and I was starting as a freshman. I didn't want to lose my starting job. So the fact that my shoulder was coming out of socket regularly did not matter. I braced it up and I continued playing. I actually played with my shoulder out of socket on a two point conversion. We talked about this about half an hour ago. I did something pretty stupid and similar. Yeah. Yeah. So my, my shoulder, my shoulder, for the first time it came out and stayed out before it had what it would pop out and it would come back in, which got less and less painful the more often it happened until it was coming out when I would just put on a t-shirt. But yeah, it, it came out and stayed out. And I tried to take myself out of the game, but we had just scored a touchdown on the play that it came out. I got, I got the middle linebacker, by the way, with my left arm, which is what put my shoulder out of socket. I got, I got up to my block on the second level, which is what got us in the end zone. So good on me. You earned it. My shoulder stayed out of socket and I was trying to take myself out of the game. I was running towards the sideline to tell the coach like, hey, my shoulder is out of socket. And he's like, no, no, he thought I was coming off because I thought we were kicking an extra point. And he's like, no, we're going for two. We're going for two. So he's given me the two fingers. And I didn't tell him like, no, my shoulder is out. I was just, and I didn't think like, I'm not smart enough to just go down to the ground and have the reps stop the game because I injured. No coaches saying go back in the game because we're going for two. So I go in, I go in and line up. I snapped the ball with my, with my left shoulder out of socket. And I go get my block on the middle linebacker. Again, this time I just took him out at the knees. And I got my block on the middle linebacker and we made our two point conversion and we scored. And then I came out and the, and the trainers were like, yeah, no, you're, you're done. Yeah, I'm like, yeah, no, yeah, I know I tried to take myself out last play. And, you know, so I made the block, but I got it, but I got my job done. Yeah, I did my, I did my job. So yeah, I don't remember where we started this actually, but, yeah. No, I was, I was, I was, that was the whole thing. And you know, we're going to get into like, so we'll fast forward us a little bit. So I mean, your powerlifter, you're playing college ball. You're running calm by numbers. You're going up against massive nose tackles. Somehow you've gone from this to kettlebell sport. Bridge that gap for us. Yeah, I know. Small quite, I like asking small exact questions. I know it's perfect. No, it's perfect. I love it. Open ended questions. Yeah. So I herniated two discs in my back with two games left in my senior season. I was so close after having played full contact football for almost 14 years. Geez. I, I, I, I herniated two discs in my back in like game six or seven of my senior year. I popped a whole bunch of like it and kept playing with an injured back, which is great. Don't do that. And, and, but I started losing feeling in one of my legs and took myself out at half time of game number eight of my senior season and never stepped on a football field again. And when you're cleaved from one half of your identity, that abruptly and not on your own terms, like I was fully prepared to be done playing football at the end of the season, but not in the way that it happened. So I went into this kind of deep depression and started, well, we shouldn't say started continued in abusing painkillers and drinking way more than any 20 year old should in combination at least 20 when this was happening. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, so that I went to a really dark place. I put on a whole bunch of weight. So from when I, when I was a month removed from the college football season in November, I was like 280 pounds by February, I was 330 pounds by a year later, I was over 370 pounds. And, and I got really, so I got really, really fat. And I was fortunate enough that I discovered, well, I had met my wife, you know, she was my fiance, you know, my girlfriend at the time I decided I wanted to make her my fiance and then eventually my wife, obviously. I also decided I didn't want to be a fat piece of shit at my own wedding. So I was going to lose a whole bunch of weight and I had discovered kettlebells before that and started training kettlebells a little bit as part of an adjunct like just circuit training weightlifting high intensity interval training. And I lost like, I lost like 80 pounds in the first six months or so training training that way. And then I got laid off from my job, which was, which was great. And so my part time job, which had been working at a supplement store to save extra money for our wedding became my full time job. And while I was while I was working in the supplement store, I studied for the Nazum CPT and I got my CPT and I went and started working at lifetime fitness. And one of my one of my managers there was an RKC instructor and he he was like, oh, well, you've done kettlebells a little bit before you should try this, you know, and so we started doing Turkish get ups and he showed me long cycle and he showed me snatch and he was like, well, you know, the the secret service snatch test is 10 minutes non stop, you know, that was with a 24 kilo kettlebell. The secret service snatch test and I was like, oh, okay, cool. You know, I was like, have you ever seen kettlebell sport? And I was like, no, what is what is that? And he showed, so he showed me a YouTube video and I saw, I don't even remember who it was that he showed me, but it was one of the old school heavyweight Russian kettlebell champions, you know, 32 kilos, double long cycle for 10 minutes. And I was like, oh, that looks super cool. And I was like, yeah, I can do that. You know, I can do that because even even though I got super fat, I never stopped lifting. I was still really strong. And as you know, you know, weight moves weight. So even if, you know, when I was 350 pounds, like I was still benching over 400 and squatting over 500 and, you know, so I was still pretty, I was still the muscle still there. I was still strong. So in my head, I was like, oh, yeah, they're like, oh, he's doing double 32s. You want me to do double 24s for 10 minutes? I can do that. And I was like, sure, no problem. Yeah, that's, that's what I thought in my head. It always looks easy when you see it on YouTube. And I'm so easy. And then that's a lot of all back. I didn't even break us. Yeah, yeah. And so he was, he was like, yeah, you know, give me a 10 minute. We fine. You can do 10 minutes. Give me a 10 minute long cycle sat with the 24s. And I was like, okay, cool. And I came out like, you know, any 23 year old asshole would. And, you know, I was banging out 10, 12 reps in the first minute. And then, and then 11 in minute two. And then seven in minute three. And, you know, I don't, I don't even know what I like, I know I got somewhere around 60 reps in like in the first in the first five and a half minutes. But none of them would have counted in competition. Like, like, like, like, let's make no mistake about this. Like, I had no form. I had no idea what I was doing. It was just on the rebound. No, it was just, it was just my, it was just my, you know, my manager who is a Marine laughing at me while I was trying to prove that I could make the full 10 minutes. And he knew what was coming. But I didn't because I was a 23 year old asshole. And, you know, I, I, I, and I'll be honest, a lot of like even my rugby buddies, they look at kettlebells, like, oh, they're light. How hard is that? I'm a trium. Yeah, I made it to one thing. I made it to like minute six and couldn't literally could not push another rep anymore. I dropped to the bells. And then I, like, just laid down on the floor in the, in the angel position, heaving, like, just like, you know, I'm like, just dying. And I'm like, so I can't believe that I couldn't finish the 10 minutes. And then the, like, and then the lights start to come in, you know, and I'm like, I'm like, what's that? Oh, I'm going to throw up. At first, I was like, wait, what's happening? And then I was like, oh, wait, I know exactly what's happening. I'm going to puke. And so I got, I got up off of the floor at lifetime fitness, and ran out the door. And I was a personal trainer, like, I was a professional fitness, I was a fitness professional at this point. And I like, in my own gym had to, the gym that I train clients and I had to get up off of the middle of the fitness floor, run out the door and throw up because I, yeah, because I embarrassed myself and couldn't, and couldn't do what I thought I could do because my ego was, was, was too big. Amazing how two bells can squash egos so quickly. And from there, I was hooked. I knew this was love because it just, but it was, it was literally the hardest thing. Like, I was just like, I suck at this. I have to be, I have to be able to do this. I have to be able to do this. Right, like, and, and now, you know, fast forward, you know, whatever, 13 years, or whatever, 12 years, something like that. And yeah, my best output with the double 24 is on long cycle is 68 reps in practice, never in an official competition. So I've improved by maybe a handful of reps in that many, that many years. But they're, they're, they're actually quality, you know, count wood count with fixation and everything. So, but yeah, that's, that's how I initially discovered kettlebell sport and like I, I got hooked fairly early. That was, you know, way back in 2008. And, or 2009, and then I got my first, I got my first kettlebell certification from World Kettlebell Club in 2009 from Catherine Eimes, and then had Valera Federico come out to my gym in 2010 and got more. That's fantastic. A couple more certifications in 2010. And I've been at it ever since. So it's been over a decade now of, you know, lifting kettlebells and I've, I've kept off the hunt, you know, the hundred pound weight loss. I've kept off for over a decade now. And kettlebells is kettlebell sport. And in particular, but kettlebells, just in general, has really been the key to that because it's like, you work it into the entire program of nutrition and activity and sleep and all this. And it all works. Well, it's the competition piece of it, right? Like, from, from a competitive athlete, like, I couldn't, I couldn't get away from that. Like, if I, if I just work out to work out, it seems pointless to me. No, no, no point. But if I have something that I have to go compete in and I have to step onto the field, you know, I've got to, I've got to step on the platform and perform. That, that is enough to get me in the gym three to five times a week, pushing myself to, to that same point, like damn near throwing up, you know, I'm, I'm ready to go to that to that dark place several times a week, just for the sake of competition. Just for the sake of, you know, of getting that feeling again of being under the lights, even though I'm an old man. I can't, I can't do that shit anymore. But we have old man's strength, which you don't understand. Well, they will eventually if they're lucky. Oh my god. So I had a bunch of other stuff, but we're getting a little tight. So I want to ask one more question. You can go, we can go over. I don't care. I don't care. That's okay. Perfect. I got three more questions that here we go. We just reload here a little bit just a little bit of the dirty. This is, this is going to be my birthday episode. I'm going to, I'm going to be 38 years old when this episode drops. This is when I was 38 last year. Yeah. Okay. So we've gotten to maybe you're okay. Even if it's the answer, give me something else. I want to know about your best personal kettlebell left, not coaching, not something you experienced. I saw you watched Jordan underneath the bells. I don't care if it's practiced by yourself one armed. What is one of the, you put down the bells with that set and you were the happiest you've been with the sets. What was it? That's a great question. Thank you. I think it was honestly the, I finished 140 reps in 10 minutes on jerk with double 20s. Holy crap. Dennis, Dennis was, I had been trying to train for a 24, for a 24 kilo triathlon. And Dennis, Dennis, Dennis Vasilov was my coach. And we had been pushing for that. And I had continued to, to miss the numbers he was putting for me on the 24s. And like any good coach, he was like, I don't think you're ready for the 24s. And he backed me down to the 20s, which was a blow to my ego. But I was like, okay, you know, Dennis Vasilov, what are you going to say? He's your coach. He's your coach and, you know, he's Dennis Vasilov. Like what does he know other than everything? Everything. So he backed me down to the 20s. And I pushed, and I was working, I was working on 20s for several months. But he had consistently been pushing me at 14 plus RPMs on jerk on the, on the 20s. 14, 14 to 14 to 20 RPMs, depending on the length of the set. So if we were doing a longer set, my pace was 14 RPMs. And if we were doing shorter sets, it was 16, 18 or 20 plus, depending on how short the set was. And so I had been working on, I had been working on my capacity on jerks for a long time. And it was time for a test set. And, you know, he had, he had me at, you know, 14 RPMs for the full 10 minutes on jerk. And he had me, he had me at 20 RPMs on snatch for, for, for the 20. So the goal was 200 snatch and a hundred and 140 plus on, on jerk. And I, I, I hit 100, I hit 140 exactly. I hit 140 exactly on the nose. So that was probably, yeah, that was, that was the, that was the jerk set. I was, I was probably most, that was the, the kettlebell set. I was most proud of, we won't talk about the snatch set. I didn't, I didn't, I didn't hit 200 on the snatch after. Well, you're, you're not one of those weirdos like me that prioritized snatch. I mean, I was, you know, in Biathlon though, like snatch gets you half the points that, that jerk does. So like it made, it made more sense to, and I'm better at jerk. I'm just like, I'm a masochist. The localized suffering is easier for me than, than the, the, the heart rate. And, play, it's, it's that quote you said and you brought up and during, uh, Anders interview, it's like jerk is the frame. How much punishment can you take as an online menu can take it? You know, as long cycle is the engine, how much rev do you have? And then snatch is the driver, the technical, the OCD stuff. So you just gripped it and ripped it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I, I, I suffered through it. And honestly, like, you know, like any kettlebell sport ass, while I was like, I could have done more. Like that. I was like, I was like, I could have hit 150. I don't think any, I don't show me a kettlebell sport athlete that's ever been happy with his set. Back in 82, I could have thrown a football over the mountains there. Oh, yeah. I could have thrown away. If I first got a chance to start, we wouldn't, we wouldn't own states. Yeah. Yeah. It was one of, yeah, it was one of, but yeah, that's probably the, that's probably the one I was most, probably most proud of. Because I didn't, uh, I didn't think I could do it when he, when I saw it on the paper, I was like 14 RPM is for the entire 10 minutes. I don't think I can do that. Yeah. You crazy, crazy man. I was like, I was like, you know, there's no way. But I hit it and I was like, okay. Yeah. You know, so I, and I've, I've never done better than that in a jerk set. So no. That's awesome. Yeah. Okay. So getting to a topic close to my heart and something we've talked about a lot, especially since we're coming up in October. I'm going to be home brewing a beer for your company, because you know, I work at a brewery. I brew. I need you to go. It's pronounced brewery. Brewery. Hey. Um, I need you to go on a tangent right now about your favorite fermented beverages. Oh, God. All right. So for context, um, Matt works in a brewery. And I am a trained bartender. Um, so I actually, I did not know. I actually worked at a bar in college. That's a like a high end wine bar and gourmet food. And so I got trained by people who know what they're doing. And then I worked in, when I graduated, I worked in Chicago as a bartender. Um, so I actually am working Chicago. Well, I was a bartender. And then I was a bouncer. Um, so I told other, it's a whole other tangent. But, um, so I, I love all things alcoholic. My family has what we call the disease. Um, and, you know, I come from a long lines of degenerate gamblers and drunks. Um, but I will have a good time in Vegas. Yeah. I, so, yeah, I, I do love myself a fermented beverage. Um, and I love myself, uh, you know, anything alcoholic really, but, um, so what are your favorite styles? I mean, like, uh, when it comes, so for talking beer. Um, I, I prefer, I prefer malt forward beers, but I'm also seasonal. Like, I'm that, that's, that's part. That's part of the, like, working at a high end restaurant and everything. Like, when you see, like, how food, food and wine pair together. And then you learn all about how different beers are made. And you learn how different beer profiles pair with different food profiles. Like, you, you, you understand combinations of flavor profiles. But in general, I like, I like, uh, I like less hops. I don't like high IBUs. Um, I don't, I shouldn't say, I don't like, I just, it depends on the context. They're not your preference. They're not my preference. If, if I'm just drinking a beer for the enjoyment of the beer, I like Belgian triples. I like German my box. I like German margins. Um, or, or American margins. I like malt forward beers a lot. I love a good logger that is, that is flavorful. But a lot of loggers, especially in the States are very watery and very simple. And not really well profiled. You like craft loggers. I like craft loggers. Yes, exactly. Well, um, well, and, and they don't have to be crafting that they're fancy. But like, there are some really good loggers here in Minnesota that are made in the German tradition that are very flavorful. And not, I don't like macro brood loggers is probably the best way to say it honestly. The problem with a macro brood is their brood that everyone doesn't not like them. Any good beers should have or wine or spirits should have people that don't like it. Because it's not their palate. Yeah. Which is great. Could be well made. Smilux. Amazing beer. I don't like it. Not for, oh, I love it. I love smitties. Malbok. No. You give, you say, hey, I got six options. One's a Malbok. Not for you. Yeah. And, and, and, and, and, and I'm, and I'm the guy that's like, somebody's like, oh, I got this double hop IPA that's phenomenal with mosaic and, and 95 I.B.U. W. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, thank you. Oh, no. Give me, give me the shandy. You know, like, you know, like, you know, it's the line list tonight. Um, but so, yeah. So I, I just, I very, I like, I like malt for October fest is my favorite style of beer, especially in the fall. I don't drink it all the time. Although I have at times, I have to keep my, I have to keep my? I have to keep my, I have to keep my, I have to keep my, just keep my, I have to keep my, I have to keep my. Um, Okay. By the way, I like to use, and, and I like to drink it every day. Um, I like to drink it every day. I would drink in two days. you know, but you know, and then when we get into summer, I like moving more towards a lighter citrusy, happy, you know, profile, you know, I like loggers and I like rattlers. But I love Belgian triples. I love Belgian doubles. Like you and I, you and I very much have, you know, we've connected on on how much I like, I love a good Belgian triple so much. Right now, I have the Larian triples last night. It's a triple Belgian triple fermenting in my basement. Yes. So that will hopefully make the trip. No, no, I mean, sorry, I mean, make the, make the trip in that it will finish fermenting well and make the trip in the brewing process, not make the trip, not make the trip. I don't expect it to make the trip from now to October. I fully, I fully expect that you brew at least three other batches, like one for the one for every one, one for you and one for me, and that is such the tight five thing is like, we've brought stuff for other people, but the rest is for us. Yeah, how many works for you in today? Exactly. Yeah, fuck off. Fuck off, fly half. Exactly. You're so cute. Put your hair down. Go, go do your Zulu run because you scored all of the tries with the rest of us while the rest of us were working up for them. Okay, last question and you know exactly the question that's coming. Do you want to say or should I? So the question is if you could give yourself one piece of advice or if you could give a new lift or one piece of advice, what is it? You know what? Let's break up into two. Okay. You can go back in time and give yourself one piece of advice. What would you give? I honestly, and I'm going to go a different direction than a lot of people do because a lot of people don't give themselves advice. I would say you don't have to play offensive line. You can be lighter. No, I'm serious. I'm totally, totally serious because I think one of the mistakes that happened for me in my life was that I was, I'm six foot nothing. And like my brother, my brother Jason is 160, he was 165, 175 pound quarterback. My brother Jason was 185 pound wide receiver. And I was a 260 pound offensive lineman because I made myself into that. I my, my sophomore year, I was 200 pounds. My junior year, I was 265 pounds. Like, you made a call to self and made myself into that by deciding I was going to break all of my, all of my high school's weightlifting records and eat like a fucking madman and be in the gym by six a.m. every day and the off season, all of those things like I could have just as easily committed myself to being a 225 pound linebacker slash running back and been at a much healthier weight for my frame and been a much better expression of my athletic capability. So that's a really great realization where just because you had that frame didn't mean you had to have it and you could have taken action. Yeah. Yeah, I could like, so if I, if I could tell my, my younger self something would be like, you don't have to, you don't have to do what your coaches tell you they want you to do. If you don't feel comfortable that like even in college, like they were pushing me to be 283 hundred and I could have just said, no, I want to play at 250. And if it, like if I couldn't get the job done at 250 pounds, even though it was the best expression of my athleticism, then that's on me. But I would have been healthier. But I even say it's on the coaches. Well, there's that. But you know, but it's also hard like when you're 19, 20, 21 years old, like to tell your coaches, no, this, I know, to have that level of autonomy over what you think is best, right? Like I'm, you know, I have a bad history of being a people pleaser, especially a coach pleaser, you know, and wanting to do whatever my coaches say. So that would be the advice I would give my younger self. If I'm going to the next new lifter that comes into the gym, they want to get in good at kettlebell sports. What are you telling them? What's the first sit down? The first, the first thing I would tell any new lifter getting into this sport is master the technique first and the weight will come. Trust that technique trumps weight because the biggest mistake I see in the sport over and over and over again. And I'm guilty of it myself. And you know, you just heard my story of, whoa, right? As we come in with an ego thinking that we need to do a particular weight based on our ability or based on our strength or what we think is the right weight for us. And the technicians always win. There's a reason Dennis Facilla has never been beaten. And it's not just his freak genetics. It's that every single rep looks the same at this point in his career. And it's not because his technique has always been perfect. Go back and look at his sets from 2006, 2008, 2009. You see progression. His technique was not great. And it's gotten better and better and better and better and better and more precise. And you see that the people that focus on perfecting the craft of the technique are the people that last. So the number one advice I would give to any new lifter is focus first on the technique. Be a technician and the weight will come. You will get stronger by virtue of the programming, by virtue of time and consistency. But if you focus on getting perfect technique as soon as possible, you will get better so much faster than anybody thinks that you can because you just focus on the process results come. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and as much as I hate quoting my college offensive line coach, because he was kind of a dick, if you focus on all of the little things, the big things take care of themselves, focus on the details and the big things take care of themselves. He was a dick. Sure. I am officially going to hand you back over the reins of your own show. So thank you for letting me take it over. I know from talking to all sorts of lifters that wait anxiously every single week for the next episode that we've wanted to really kind of get a get a hold of you and really just just still down everything we've heard over the 40s and what episodes. So honestly, we really appreciate and I had a blast doing this. This is it's fun throwing questions at someone that has to answer them because it's being recorded. Thank you. I appreciate you hijacking my podcast and the the pressure from from the RAV4 group to put my own details out there. I do. I do genuinely appreciate it. And this was a lot of fun for me too. So thank you very much, man. I appreciate you, man. No problem anytime, my man. So get some sleep. Get ready for that vacation. Have fun with the family and at any point you don't want control of your show, the RAV4 group will happily take it over for you. All right, I appreciate that. Thanks, man. Cheers, brother. All right, see you, dude. Thanks for listening to this episode of the platform podcast. I'm Jordan Kunde-Wright. We'll be back with a new episode for you next week. Please don't forget to register for the Twin Cities Kettlebell Open on our website, Twin Cities Kettlebell Club dot com. And if you have a question or a suggestion, please email me at Twin Cities Kettlebell Club at gmail dot com. And don't forget to follow us on social media at Twin Cities Kettlebell Club. And if you want to step under the platform and compete in Kettlebell Sport, please reach out to me. Until next time.