CrossFit Open 18.0, Pressures of Programming and Fighting Mat Fraser - Dave Castro - #003

**Dave Castro** (0:00)
It's pretty cool, because now you're going to have people 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** (0:10)
Well, you like to throw a couple of curveballs in, right?

**Dave Castro** (0:12)
Yeah, and so this 18 has provided a nice little... It's going to get people talking about what might be coming.

**Chris Williamson** (0:20)
This is just another Dave Castro Instagram post, isn't it?

**Dave Castro** (0:22)
Yeah, basically.

**Chris Williamson** (0:36)
This is Dave Castro, the main man. How are you?

**Dave Castro** (0:39)
Good, thank you.

**Chris Williamson** (0:39)
Welcome.

**Dave Castro** (0:40)
Thank you.

**Chris Williamson** (0:40)
Welcome to London. 18 has just ended me. Can you explain where that came from?

**Dave Castro** (0:47)
Yeah, so the idea of doing an 18 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 within CrossFit. We've never made it a priority to execute on. And this year, Reebok asked me if I could come out and do this event with them. And they reignited that idea. They said, would you be open to doing a pre-open announcement? And I said, sure, let's call it 18.0. And so we decided to do it here. And the workout had to be true for CrossFit, simple, nice fight, two movements that are common to the open but with different twists.
The dumbbell snatch, we put a new standard on it, just bringing it down below the head before you make the switch. And then the burpee over the dumbbell is something new. We haven't seen that.

**Chris Williamson** (1:40)
Yeah, it is.

**Dave Castro** (1:41)
It's pretty cool because now you're going to have people 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** (1:51)
Well, you like to throw a couple of curveballs in, right?

**Dave Castro** (1:54)
Yeah. And so this 18 has provided a nice little, so it's going to get people talking about what might be coming.

**Chris Williamson** (2:01)
This is just another Dave Castro Instagram post, isn't it?

**Dave Castro** (2:04)
Yeah, basically, which is for Reebok and live and for this event.

**Chris Williamson** (2:07)
For sure. So yesterday on Instagram, I saw you trying to put Dan off during a photo shoot. Yeah. 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** (2:23)
Not during the games. During the games, people, they're pretty occupied with what they have to do.

**Chris Williamson** (2:28)
Yeah, that's true.

**Dave Castro** (2:28)
And they respect that I'm pretty occupied with what I'm doing.

**Chris Williamson** (2:31)
Yeah.

**Dave Castro** (2:32)
So during the games, no. But at other events and other stuff like this, yeah, guys, the guys, especially the guys I'm close with, will push me or poke at me and do stuff. But typically not at the games because everyone has their own things going on. Yeah, for sure.

**Chris Williamson** (2:49)
But maybe some of the open announcements or something like that, they might try and just nod you to it.

**Dave Castro** (2:54)
They'll make little jokes, but they're also very nervous at that point too because they don't know what they're about to do.

**Chris Williamson** (2:59)
Yeah.

**Dave Castro** (2:59)
And the open announcements are tough because they have to, I announced the workout and a few minutes later, they have to do it.

**Chris Williamson** (3:06)
You got to go.

**Dave Castro** (3:06)
Yeah. So it's a demanding environment for them.

**Chris Williamson** (3:10)
For everyone.

**Dave Castro** (3:11)
Yeah. Well, especially for those top athletes because of the fact that if you're not doing an open announcement, you get a watch workout, then you get a process and you get to see what everyone else is doing. Then you get to, you know, do I want to do it tomorrow? Do I want to do it Friday? You get to do all, you get to set your own schedule. Yeah. If you're a part of the open announcement, you don't get to set your own schedule. You have to do it within five minutes after it's announced.

**Chris Williamson** (3:33)
Especially last year with some of the new movements that we saw. Some of the stuff like the dumbbell cleans and then the racked up lunges as well and stuff like that. The techniques that everyone developed, you get the guys that do the open announcements, they're the worst. They get no chance to prepare.