Mindset After Not Making It To The CrossFit Games, Current Training Methodology and Why Josh Bridges Is So Dangerous - Dan Bailey - #004

I sat down with 4 times CrossFit Games Athlete and all round legend Dan Bailey while he was in the UK for Reebok's Nano 8 Launch Event in London. I was incredibly impressed with how candid, humble and honest he was. He's an exemplary character to the CrossFit community and professional athletes worldwide. Find out how where his mindset is at after his toughest 2 years of not making it to The Games, why Josh Bridges is the most dangerous man in CrossFit and his approach for fighting an army of tiny horses. Check out everything I recommend from books to products and help support the podcast at no extra cost to you by shopping through this link - https://www.amazon.co.uk/shop/modernwisdom - Episodes You Might Enjoy: This Is How To Master Your Life - David Goggins - #577: ⁠⁠⁠lnkfi.re/SN-Goggins⁠⁠⁠ How To Destroy Your Negative Beliefs - Dr Jordan Peterson - #712: ⁠⁠⁠lnkfi.re/SN-Peterson⁠⁠⁠ The Secret Tools To Hack Your Brain - Dr Andrew Huberman - #700: ⁠⁠⁠lnkfi.re/SN-Huberma Get in touch. Join the discussion with me and other like minded listeners in the episode comments on the MW YouTube Channel or message me... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/ModernWisdomPodcast Email: https://www.chriswillx.com/contact Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:05Chris Williamson?

  Mr. Dan Bailey.

• 0:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 0:07Chris Williamson?

  Welcome.

• 0:07Speaker 01

  Thanks for having me.

• 0:09Chris Williamson?

  How are you feeling in the UK? You good?

• 0:10Speaker 01

  Good, yeah, yeah. It's my second time here. Not to London, but second time here.

• 0:13Chris Williamson?

  I heard the only place you've ever been in the UK before is Manchester, right?

• 0:16Speaker 01

  Correct.

• 0:16Chris Williamson?

  Uh huh.

• 0:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, down at Sam's Gym.

• 0:19Chris Williamson?

  That train?

• 0:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, that train, yeah. We did a good dudes camp, Josh Rich and I down there. We had fun, yeah, it was good. I mean, we spent a lot of time at the gym, obviously, but...

• 0:27Chris Williamson?

  Um, so, on Instagram yesterday, I saw Dave trying to put you off during a photo shoot.

• 0:32Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 0:33Chris Williamson?

  Have you ever, have you ever tried to just sort of give him a little nudge or whatever before he's got into a workout or like whisper random movements in his ear?

• 0:40Speaker 01

  We, uh, we go back and forth every now and then on things like that, but no, I, uh, Dave treats me like a little brother sometimes, so I appreciate it and, you know.

• 0:50Chris Williamson?

  You get the drift, yeah.

• 0:50Speaker 01

  We have fun with it, yeah.

• 0:51Chris Williamson?

  That's cool. It's such a good interplay seeing you guys. You're obviously such good friends.

• 0:55Speaker 01

  Right.

• 0:55Chris Williamson?

  And it, I think that seeing the guys that are at the pinnacle of the sport that are still so tight and you can kind of see yourself and the relationships.

• 1:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:05Chris Williamson?

  Like, it's really, really nice. And I think that sets a really good example for the community as well, which must feel empowering for you guys.

• 1:12Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, absolutely. It's good to know you guys see that.

• 1:14Chris Williamson?

  Really, really do.

• 1:14Speaker 01

  Because it's authentic, it's legit, yeah.

• 1:16Chris Williamson?

  Um, so can you talk to me about your changes in training styles over the years? So what are you doing different now than you were five years ago, 10 years ago?

• 1:23Speaker 01

  Sure. Um, I think a lot of new crossfitters, like right when I got in, obviously it's like volume, volume, volume, you know? You're trying to play catch up almost on all these different things that you have to learn. And then as you kind of get through some of that, you kind of start to figure out how to do muscle ups, how to snatch properly, how to, you know, you get your technique down and your mechanics down, then some of that volume I've kind of dropped off a little bit in specific times of the year and focused more on the quality, getting in more intensity, getting in more simulations of actual workouts that you're going to see in the open regionals or the games and not so much of the beat down, so...

• 2:02Chris Williamson?

  You don't have to get as much time under the curve, maybe?

• 2:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, kind of.

• 2:06Chris Williamson?

  Sort of turn the training volume?

• 2:07Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:07Chris Williamson?

  Be a little bit more specific?

• 2:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, especially when you start looking at, like, the regionals, uh... Timeframe in the regionals weekend is pretty set, right? You know, you're going to compete for three days and you're probably going to do two workouts a day. Maybe it's three scored workouts, but there it's really one workout that's crushed together or something like that. So as long as you're training within those confines and improving your weaknesses in those in that kind of parameter, you're going to be doing enough.

• 2:32Chris Williamson?

  I guess that comes with the experience as well, right?

• 2:34Speaker 01

  Sure, sure. It comes with the experience, yeah.

• 2:36Chris Williamson?

  So Reebok's got a lot of bases covered with its range of CrossFit shoes now. So you've got Nano, Speed TR, Legacy Lifter. Is there a shoe that you keep on finding yourself wearing all the time?

• 2:45Speaker 01

  Um, I've loved the Nano. I'm actually kind of partial to Speed TR. I'm a big fan of any shoe that I can put on and go run three miles immediately, as well as it's not going to get torched on the rope.

• 2:58Speaker 01

  I'm pretty happy with, I'm excited with, and that's kind of what I lean towards.

• 3:01Chris Williamson?

  You find yourself in those a lot then?

• 3:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, like being a little more mobile and that kind of thing, knowing that I have the capacity to go.

• 3:07Chris Williamson?

  That athletics background, I guess, for yourself.

• 3:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, so I'm a little bit picky too when it comes to the shoe, like my foot has to feel right in it.

• 3:14Chris Williamson?

  Dave says, Dave is literally the opposite. He was like, put a shoe on me, as long as it's a shoe.

• 3:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, he's good to go.

• 3:20Chris Williamson?

  As long as it's a left and a right, I'm sweet.

• 3:21Speaker 01

  Right, yeah. See, no, I'll get a little bit picky, like I'll put it on immediately, start judging and that kind of thing. Yeah, that's just the way it is.

• 3:28Chris Williamson?

  What do you think Danny Broflex thinks of the new Nano 8?

• 3:31Speaker 01

  He's really focused in, he'd be really focused in on one word. It's right there, yeah. I don't know if there's like a subliminal thing there, like Reebok might have done that on purpose, I don't, probably for him.

• 3:43Chris Williamson?

  If he came in, do you think he would have written?

• 3:45Speaker 01

  He thinks it was, yeah, he'd probably be like, let's, we can X out this, we don't really need any weave, let's emphasize the flex. Yeah, that's probably where he'd be at.

• 3:57Chris Williamson?

  I want to talk about your mental resilience after a tough couple of years.

• 4:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:01Chris Williamson?

  Can you talk to me about your mindset at the moment and how it's been over the last few years?

• 4:06Speaker 01

  So in 2016, when I actually, when I just didn't qualify, that was the worst. I mean, that was the most disappointing and I, you know, I had my whatever, two week pity party or whatever it was. And it's like, okay, you know what, get over it, like you didn't make it, it's what it is, move on. And the thing that people. I think the thing that I was forgetting, or the thing that I have an easy way to like lose sight of is that like, hey, you've been one of the best CrossFitters in the world for the past five years. No one can take that away from you.

• 4:34Chris Williamson?

  Yep.

• 4:34Speaker 01

  You did that. Like, it's done and you accomplished it. And you didn't make it this year and you didn't deserve to go. Like, those other guys did. They beat you. They did better and they, I don't know, trained harder, trained better, whatever you want to call it.

• 4:45Chris Williamson?

  Yep.

• 4:45Speaker 01

  Um, that's just the reality of it. I'm a big, like, coming to terms with exactly what happened. Like, exactly what the reality of the situation is. Not, oh, poor me. I was screwed in this event, or I was whatever. And it's like, yeah, some of that might have happened, but you still lost. It doesn't matter.

• 5:00Chris Williamson?

  I understand.

• 5:01Speaker 01

  And what the reason is. So, um, but in terms of the resiliency, I kind of look at, um, like, the Games is important to me. And being an athlete is important to me. And being the fittest man on earth is always something that I've been trying to do, trying to accomplish. But there's so many other things that I would like to be remembered for. Like, if I die and all that's on my gravestone is, here lies the fittest man on earth in 20 whatever.

• 5:23Chris Williamson?

  Yeah.

• 5:23Speaker 01

  Uh, I'd be pretty disappointed with myself. I think I would look at that as more of a failure than not making it to the Games one year, or never making it to the Games again. So, while it, uh, it sucks, I kind of, you have to have a short-term memory when it comes to those things. It's done. It's in the past. What are you doing tomorrow?

• 5:42Chris Williamson?

  I think that's a really admirable quality, and I think that's probably what makes you competitive, to have been around for so long.

• 5:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:49Chris Williamson?

  Um, what's the coolest group chat that you're in?

• 5:53Speaker 01

  Oh, man. There's a, I'm in a cool group chat called Ohio Till I Die.

• 5:58Chris Williamson?

  Right.

• 5:58Speaker 01

  Um, Ohio is the state that I grew up in, in the United States. And, uh, it's not very, from the outside, most people don't think Ohio is anything. But my friends who I grew up with were real passionate about Ohio. And, uh, we have like a handful of sayings that let's just like, everything's earned in Ohio. Like, you have to earn it. Everything has to hurt a little more if you want to accomplish the same thing, if you're from Ohio, for whatever reason. And we're big on, uh, Ohio sports, so.

• 6:23Chris Williamson?

  Hard place, breed hard men, right?

• 6:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, like, uh, exactly. Like, uh, Ohio State football, the Cleveland Cavs, Cleveland Indians, and the Cleveland Browns. And Cleveland is not. Known for being very good at any of those things, right? But the Cavs are obviously a shining spotlight the past handful of years because of LeBron James. And LeBron's from Akron, Ohio, which is really close to where we all grew up. So anytime there's a Browns game or an Indians game or something.

• 6:46Chris Williamson?

  Is it just non-stop?

• 6:47Speaker 01

  Oh, it's non-stop. Like, I want to make a book. Actually, my buddy Dave, he brought up the idea of making a coffee table book with like pictures from Cleveland sports. Because Cleveland Browns, for those of you who don't know, are the worst American football team statistically in history. Like, they are absolutely terrible. But we have like a diehard, like, I don't care, we're still gonna root for you. But they're just, they're so bad. It's terrible.

• 7:09Chris Williamson?

  Couple more click ones. Have you tried 18.0 yet?

• 7:12Speaker 01

  I have not, no.

• 7:13Chris Williamson?

  Are you looking forward to it? Are you gonna do it?

• 7:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm gonna do it. I had a couple of issues with my back recently, and so looking at that one, that's like a red line windout.

• 7:20Chris Williamson?

  Oh, yeah.

• 7:21Speaker 01

  You know, backsmoker.

• 7:22Chris Williamson?

  That ended me. So bad. It felt so bad.

• 7:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'll hold off, but I will give it a try, yeah.

• 7:27Chris Williamson?

  You're in the Hunger Games.

• 7:29Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 7:30Chris Williamson?

  With only other games athletes.

• 7:31Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 7:32Chris Williamson?

  Who's gonna be the hardest to kill? Who do you not want to come up against?

• 7:35Speaker 01

  Based on experience, Josh Bridges, for sure. Time in the military. So he's got a particular skill there that most people don't have.

• 7:44Chris Williamson?

  Yeah.

• 7:45Speaker 01

  Um, who else?

• 7:47Chris Williamson?

  Him and that mustache are a stone-cold killer, aren't they?

• 7:49Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, the stash. Like, he'll never get rid of that. He's done. He made the shirt with his face on the back like he can. That's your image now. Yeah. Um, I don't know who else I would pick. That's such a good question. Um, I'm trying to think of who else has been up there.

• 8:02Chris Williamson?

  I think Josh, I think Josh Bridges is enough to end everyone's world for that.

• 8:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, he's kind of the easy choice there.

• 8:08Chris Williamson?

  All-American hero, right? Final one. Would you rather fight 20 duck-sized horses or one horse-sized duck?

• 8:15Speaker 01

  Uh, the 20 duck-sized horses.

• 8:19Chris Williamson?

  Okay, you're gonna e-mom it?

• 8:20Speaker 01

  Huh?

• 8:21Chris Williamson?

  You're gonna e-mom the horses?

• 8:22Speaker 01

  No, for time.

• 8:23Chris Williamson?

  For time?

• 8:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, for time. We're just gonna go.

• 8:26Chris Williamson?

  Redline it?

• 8:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, redline it. When you're talking about fighting life or death, like, yeah. 90 seconds of all-out fury. That's what it's gonna be. That's all I have.

• 8:32Chris Williamson?

  Done. Man, thank you so much.

• 8:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, thanks for having me on.

• 8:36Chris Williamson?

  Appreciate it.

• 8:37Speaker 01

  Really appreciate it.

• 8:38Chris Williamson?

  Cheers, man.

• 8:39Speaker 01

  Alright, take care.