 To be honest, Tom Walsh opening up at 75 feet, I wasn't shocked by that because in that moment, I did not think I wanted to beat. Having that clear mindset and the confidence. Why would you not be able to do that? Watching him struggle, it's terrible. I got beat by the guy I was supposed to be hoping for. I lost a lot of the passion I had for throwing. That's the reality too. It's a lot more than just throwing to win and go off. We'll just get to round six. Obviously, Walsh opens with a huge throw. 20, 90 opener. I think in a lot of competitions, most people could really easily mentally shut down. Like, shit, this is done. 75 foot, third best throw until the third best throw happened in round six. You get to that point and obviously, even to him to a certain extent, I would have to think mentally he just thinks he's got it. So then you kind of build, you get two throws, what, 21, 94, 21, 95. You're just kind of building up throughout the whole competition. I mean, this is like literally the kid dream scenario, right? I got one final throw. I got my last chance to win the whole thing. And clearly you put it together and you go from fourth place, you leapfrog everybody. You go up to, you hit 20, 91. And obviously, even just repeating it, it's like, I'm such a huge fan of the sport. I think that's one thing people don't get. So I mean, it was just an amazing performance. It's everything you would think. And one of the things I always talk about, it's like the mindset of an athlete, to be in that situation, the amount of pressure that's on, and to be able to come up and hit that throw, you can appreciate it if you're not a coach. But if you are a coach, I think it just makes you appreciate that performance on a whole nother level. Yeah, it's just, it's almost hard to describe. It's crazy now that the 22 meters nowadays is like, it's not like you had to go 20, 22, 30, you know? And it was like, you have to hit not just a PR. I mean, you got to hit a damn near a half meter PR and you did. And so at that point when you're there, you know, what was going through your mind going into that throw? That was a little wordy of a setup, but. Yeah, so a quick recap at the beginning was, I had some good ring warmups. I wouldn't say that I've shown them very far. I have a true pretty far of a 22, but it wasn't like I was blowing out the ring. I felt pretty confident. My first throw, to be honest, I tightened up a little bit and then from there on out, I went over to Ashley every throw and we just went in with a plan. The real plan was my training that week. I was really, to be honest, I was in PR shape. I was seeing really good technique, really good balance. So the big theme that her and I had together was, get a lifetime best, get a PR. To be honest, Tom Walsh opening up at 75 feet. I wasn't shocked by that because he does normally open up pretty big. We had a day between the qualifying and the final, which is unusual. And just the way the season's gone, when that happened, I was ready for that. The big thing that Ashley and I talked about was, we had a lot of horse analogies this year about finding your carrot, which is your incentive and kind of putting on the blinders, just like the horses do. That's cool, Tom did that. Like I respect him for throwing 75 feet. It's amazing. But I'm not gonna get caught up in that. And I think that's the biggest thing that I'll stress about this year more than anything. Like the 2015 world champion me or the silver medalist in the Olympics or silver in 17, would not have stood a chance in that competition. And I'll tell you that because I would have gotten so caught up with the head to head battle, fighting with emotion, rather than walking over to my wife and saying, okay, hey, I rushed a little bit and her giving me a technical cue or her just going back to the basics. Everything we worked on in practice, it was literally like I was just trying to execute for me. So going into the finals, I started to add a little bit more, little bit more speed, a little bit more gusto. I kind of had a little pace around and she said that she wanted me to go down swinging. She just wanted me to throw the ball far. At this point, I had no fouls, which for most of my career, I'm known as a guy who fouls all the time. So I had no fouls in the meet. So she said, make the ball go far. You know, I don't care if we fouls, like start opening it up. That kind of changed my mindset. Like, okay, let's go. So by the time we got to the sixth, right after the fifth round, going to the sixth, I walked over to her and she's just like looked at me and said, come away with the PR, you're ready for it. Truly, I felt like it was. Every throw felt like I was building and I was checking off the boxes of everything we worked in practice. It was very like she calls me a checklist guy because when I got my pilot's license, like I like things just, I like things in order. So as soon as I started to feel everything click, I went into that sixth round with the competence. You did tell me throw it like a light ball, which was a good thing mentally, I think with the aggression. And at the same time, I went into that ring and I felt more confidence than I've ever felt in a major meet or any meet, to be honest, because my training was ready. Every throw I took, I had five throws previously that were all kind of like building, building. Even though they weren't as far in terms of execution in the ring, I wasn't looking for that. So by the time I sprint out of the back, I'm facing the throw and I release the ball, I screamed like crazy out of a reaction because of course that's what I do. And in that moment, I did not think I want me. Like I wanted to stress that because people think, oh, you think you won. I didn't know if I won. I don't even know if I knew I PR. I don't know if I knew I meddled. I knew I executed everything that we were talking about in training. I mean, obviously a part of me that was just like, I at least got a bronze medal, I at least PR because that was the goal coming with the PR. Now, of course, when I ran over the stands, I think I yelled at her and I told her I loved her. But when we turned around after that, and I saw 91 the first place next to it, yeah, I even yelled a little bit louder crazy because it just that moment, it felt like everything clicked. And Ryan and Tom still had a throw after me, even Ramani too. I was clapping for all of them and hoping they were three far, which is a weird place to be in. But with Ryan coming back and throwing 22-90 almost till for the win, if he would have bumped me off, like I would have had crazy amount of respect for him. It's a hell of an accomplishment. So I was just happy to be part of that competition and happy that I checked off my boxes because that was our goal. Check off your boxes coming with the PR. It's really hard to tell yourself to stay in that zone because that's what everybody says. But that's the first time in my career that I truly, I think I executed that. That's awesome. I think one of the things that like I said, we're kind of our goal with this podcast is we're gonna be talking to more high-level athletes and successful coaches. And that's really the crux of the podcast. Not so much about, I'll probably ask you about your lifting and your eating and stuff, but the real thing is mindset. What you just said is such a, it's one of those things where people sometimes when you talk about mindset, they go, yeah, yeah, that's cool, but tell me how much I should be. What should I be doing in the weight room? Tell me, should I throw heavy balls? They focus on that. And you said, being in that same situation in 2017, you know, you may not, you kind of alluded to the fact, may not have had the same outcome. You just competed against yourself. You were just executing. Yeah, I mean, I would guarantee you would be the outcome because I was always competing off of the emotion and aggression and it always turned to even if it wasn't a head-to-head battle, that's what I was at least thinking in my mind, which I obviously had a lot of success doing that. So it's not always wrong, but in terms of this, this meet, you know, especially with everybody throwing the way they did, having that clear mindset and the confidence of me, just worrying about me, especially at the age I'm at, you know, that's really where I kind of started to enjoy this more and more, because I'm not focused on what Ryan, Tom, Dorell or Romani are doing. I'm just going to go back to the basics and try to make sure I'm doing what I want to be doing. Very cool. So now Ashley as the coach, now you're in that situation. So now talk about sixth round, you tell them to go out there and PR, there's got to be, you have your masters in human development and you know, leadership. So I have to imagine, and like I said, I'll ask you about that, but you're using that. So what's the exterior? You're saying go out PR, but what's going on? What's your mental dialogue? And what's your dialogue to Joe? You know, I think that in one of the things that Joe and I have talked a lot about with the collegiate throwers is just, you know, I think people have this idea in their head, like they have this number, like if I throw this, then that'll look good enough. You know, so you have this like, this like first layer of like, if I throw this, it's decent. And I'm going to feel like, you know, I didn't embarrass myself. I didn't look stupid, whatever. And then there's that the next layer where like, ooh, if I threw this, it would look really good. If I threw this and then got this place, you know, so you kind of have this order of like acceptable in your mind, especially like now with everything being so public. And I think that, you know, I think that that doesn't go away, you know, when you get to be at Joe's level. So I think that, you know, for us, it was like about having a good showing. And like I said to Joe, we talked to the college kids about this. It's like, I tell them, you know, if you're in 20 meter shape, be a 20 meter guy when it counts. You know, that's the thing like I tell my collegiate guys, like don't, don't come out to practice and show signs. You could throw 20 meters, then go to the meet and throw 1850 and think we're going to clap our hands about it. Like that doesn't make sense. Like be who you are. And so everything that Joe was doing and training, it's like, well, you are in shape to throw PR. So it's like, why would you not be able to do that? You know, it's just kind of like, that's what you do when you're in shape to do that. One of those types of things. So, you know, I was pleased with, you know, obviously the first round was a little bit iffy, but you know, he came back on the second throw and secured the final whatever in his building and every throw, but it got to a point where I said to him, I was just like, hey, look, they're nice. They're good throws, but they're not helping. It's either going to be, you're going to swing for it and it's going to be, wow, that went far, but I couldn't hold it in or it's going to be a PR. And like that's the only option. There's no option for anything else other than that. And I'll tell you what, like I've had a lot of nerves with a lot of the stuff that he's done. USA's was probably, you know, like my resting heart rate was probably like 154. You know, so it was great. And I mean literally, because I had my Apple watch on, it was tough, but at Worlds, you know, after he'd thrown 21 high, I was like, you know what? After everything that he's kind of been throwing the last year, even if he would have thrown 21 90 something and it would have been like, oh man, first time Joe didn't get a medal and a major, but it also would have been like a decent showing to the point that like I would have been like, hey, like that wasn't bad, but I also wouldn't have known in the back of my head that he had more than that. So that was why like the final was kind of like, hey, like you're in a really cool opportunity where you don't really have pressure. So just like enjoy it. And I think that's the thing that we talked about a lot. It was like, look, last year was a little bit rough. You've gotten yourself to a pretty good place. We think you're in PR shape. Like enjoy where you're at and have fun and see what you can do. And I think that that making it kind of light and it wasn't me like being fake light because I've had to do that a lot. It was like genuinely like, hey, like why not swing? Why not see what happens? Like kind of like who cares? You three found the final like Delta 21 90 something. So that's, that's cool. It actually wasn't as nerve wracking in the final as some of the other experiences that we've had, but it was cool to see him in a state where he was seemed very collected and he handled himself like a true veteran. And I think that that was like, obviously really rewarding to be able to see him in that place. That's awesome. Now as his wife, what's going through your head as his wife? I think that the hardest thing about the whole thing is you don't want to see somebody that you love struggle. As a coach, you don't like to see your athletes struggle because, but it's just different. Like if my athletes are struggling, like part of me will be like, all right, well, what about this, this or that? Or like, how can we figure it out? And it's more business. I care about my kids, but it's not, it's not the same as, you know, I don't go home with them. Right. So like watching him struggle is like, it's just, it's terrible, you know, because you want to be able to help. It's the same as anybody else's spouse. Like if you saw your spouse struggling, it would like really bother you. Now, if they were struggling with something that you thought that you could help them with, then you'd probably have even more like bigger to try to find a way to get it going. I really think that it was a lot harder when he was in a bad place than it is when he's in a good place. Because when he's in a good place and he goes out, if it works out, cool, if it does it, it's like we still knew he was in a good place. When he wasn't in a good place, that's when it was really tough because I just, I don't like to see him upset. You know, and so it's like, if you were throwing 2190 something at Worlds, he would have probably been a little bit like, oh man, like I could have done better than that, but it wouldn't have been like, hey, I want to quit throwing. Right. I'm not good anymore. You know, you're still, yeah, I mean, you're still worth in the world if you do that, so. By the way, yeah, I might kind of just point that out, that's a testament to where your mindset is like, yeah, 2190, I mean, Jesus, I might as well hang it up. It's like, you know how many guys would be like, I can throw 2190, but obviously when you've thrown 2257 and you've been already accomplished what you have, you might think you're on the downcloth, but it's also, I think right, probably a reflection of the numbers as a whole collectively of the throw of the shot in the last four years has skyrocketed. I mean, obviously this competition was clearly the greatest competition ever, that you know, that's an interesting point that you think you might hang it up at 2195 or something. Yeah, I mean, I would have thought it then, but definitely last year in this indoor season, there was definitely a low point we had. You know, I don't know if it was like the come to Jesus moment, but it was an indoor meet here at Ohio State. I had two Chinese athletes that came over to work with me. It was, I was throwing was pretty brutal. And there was a lot of backstory to it too, but I was at the meet, which you should never try to like coach or help somebody and compete yourself. So that was my first mistake, but like I got beat by the guy I was supposed to be helping. Oh, wow. So, and my mom was there and my step dad, and of course Ashley is there and her kids are there. And you know, it just doesn't look good. You know, it doesn't feel, obviously it doesn't feel good. We should look at what else you really are interested in. Maybe it's, maybe this is time to kind of move on. And like I was 100% on board with that. It's probably makes sense. Like I lost a lot of the passion I had for throwing. That was just like, hey, that's the reality too. You know, it was one thing if you start losing it, but you see the reality of that happening. You're like, all right, well, that's the writing on the wall. Let's, let's see what the next step is. So for us, you know, every, everybody's can remember that competition. I think for Ashley and I and my parents who are glad we're in Doha because they were here in the kitchen talk, it's a lot more than just throwing to win in Doha. It was this crazy roller coaster of emotions, getting back on track and changing things and trusting each other to get to the point. And that was the big whirlwind that I think we're going to take away from that more than anything that actually happened in that meeting. I don't think she knew I was going to do that. I think people who know me know I'm a little bit more like calculated and that's, that's not really the move.