The next item of business today is a member's business debate on motion number 11157, in the name of Roderick Campbell on Scotland's outstanding year of sport. This debate will be concluded with that. Any questions being put, and I would invite those members who wish to speak in this debate to please press the request-to-speak buttons now or as soon as possible. Mr Campbell, if you are ready, if you would like to open the debate, seven minutes please or thereby. Thank you, Presiding Officer. It will not have escaped the attention of anybody in the chamber that the 18th of September saw historic vote take place. This vote, the first of its kind at the taken place, had the ability to lay a marker down in history. It was an opportunity to reject a centuries-old system that some believed was outdated and unrepresentative and which saw a very high turnout of approximately 85 per cent. I can see the looks of one Opposition member here thinking, what is this about? I speak, of course, of the ballot that took place of the members of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, based in St Andrews, over whether or not to allow female membership. I am certain that we all welcome the decision by the RNA to allow female members at last with some 85 per cent of members in favour. I personally hope that the days of the so-called old boys' clubs will soon be nothing more than a distant memory. However, this was only one quite momentous occasion in Scottish sport this year. I am aware that I only have seven minutes to speak, and I do not want to feel all that time reflecting on the glorious sporting achievements of our sportsmen and women in the past 12 months, but I very easily could. I am certain that everybody speaking in this debate today could devote their time to listing all of the sterling achievements of Scotland's athletes, and still there would be one dedicated, hard-working professional athlete missed out or one achievement overlooked. We can all agree, however, that all our athletes across all sports deserve our thanks and our praise for their performances in 2014. Even our national football team, who have undergone something of a renaissance under Gordon Strachan, I think that we can all agree that 2014 was indeed an outstanding year of Scottish sport. Indeed, it is almost a cliché to say that we are running out of clichés to describe how exciting the two biggest sporting events to occur in Scotland in recent years, the Commonwealth Games and the Ryder Cup were. The Ryder Cup saw some of the world's most famous golfers to send on-going eagles for what was, by all accounts, an exceptionally well-organised and well-run event. There was even a Scottish golfer, Stephen Gallagher, in the European team, who did the country proud over the weekend in helping to contribute to what was recognised as an excellent team effort, led by the Irish captain, of course, Paul McKinley. As for the Commonwealth Games, they produced a brand-new list of heroes who will dawn posters on bedrooms throughout the country to aspiring children, hoping to emulate their achievements. If the photo book of the games that was delivered to, I think, all MSP officers earlier in the week, is anything to go by, there are certainly some inspirational images for our young people to look up to. Team Scotland had its most successful games ever, and Scottish sport will hopefully soon reap the rewards—indeed, some places already are. Areas across Scotland benefited from the Commonwealth Games, perhaps not directly, by being able to host an event, but indirectly by receiving funding to help to improve sporting facilities in their communities. In North East Fife alone, Cooper's skatepark will soon be up and running, courtesy of a cash injection from the 2014 Legacy Fund, and several schools and clubs received funding to help improve sporting experiences for children and young people in the area. Indeed, another half a million pounds worth of 2014 Legacy funding was recently announced, which I'm sure will be put to excellent use in the community's fortune enough to receive a share of it. It's my genuine hope that sporting achievements that we have witnessed from our athletes can be a positive example to our young people going forward. We could all stand here today and sing the praises of those who have achieved so much this year. They rightfully deserve our praise for their successes and for entertaining us so well. Their dedication to their sport is unquestionable. They resolve to being the best in their chosen field, undeniable. It's, however, no good to simply admire our current sporting idols. We must look to improve upon the current crop of star athletes, and the only way to do so is to look at grass-root sport. Local sports club, whose members devote their time, money, blood, sweat and tears to providing sporting opportunity for local youngsters are those who truly deserve our admiration. It is at this level that our sporting stars of tomorrow are born and nurtured. Groups such as Fife floorball club, which this week helped to raise money with the Cacoddy Lions club for Rachel's house children's hospice and who attract over 30 children to their weekly training sessions, or clubs such as the How of Fife rugby club in my own constituency, who offer rugby clubs to hundreds of local children every week and who this year saw two of their Illumini run out for the Scottish national team at Murrayfield. For those of us who used to play rugby in the past, we can perhaps just look on enviously at the facilities and opportunities that are now available. Whilst nothing can ever prevent the Scottish climate from taking a turn for the worse, the improved facilities, better pitches and more equipment available to local clubs are all vital components to providing a more enjoyable experience for our young people. Hopefully, they can also help to encourage them to carry on with sport as they grow older. It is fair to say, however, that I think that more can be done to provide even more sporting opportunities for our young people. I want to close, if I may, by considering the work that has already been carried out by the Scottish Government to ensure that Scotland's year of outstanding sport in 2014 can hopefully be replicated in future years. I have already spoken about the 2014 legacy funding, which has benefited many clubs in societies in North East Fife, and has already benefited from up to now. Coop, however, in my constituency will soon be home to a community sports hub. The active schools network, meanwhile, has also been credited with providing millions of opportunities for young people to be involved in sport, according to the Scottish Government's website. I am aware that this arrangement is in place with all 32 local authorities until next year, and I look forward to hearing what the future holds for this network. Presiding Officer, 2014 has been an excellent year for sport in Scotland and for Scottish athletes. I look forward to being able to say the same thing for 2015, which of course brings the British Open once again to my constituency, and with it, no doubt, some new sporting heroes. I now call on Liz Smith to be followed by Kenny MacAskill. Four minutes, all thereby at ease. I commend Roderick Campbell for bringing this member's business to the chamber. In a week that began in Glasgow with the BBC Sports Personality Awards and Prince Harry's very eloquent speech at that event, in which he reminded us that it is all of the power that sport has to change for lives forever, it is very appropriate indeed to celebrate the role that Scotland has had in 2014, as Roderick Campbell has rightly said, a year like no other. As somebody who has spent 40 years of my life very actively involved playing very different sports, a very considerable wide range of ability I have to say from beginner to international in one sport, but also coaching many youngsters from very different backgrounds, I believe sport in Scotland in 2014 has given us a great deal to think about for the years ahead, and these are the themes that are featuring very strongly on the cross-party group on sport, which I co-chair with Alison Johnstone. It goes without saying that I think it's a particular pleasure for Mid Scotland and Fife MSPs to celebrate the hugely successful Ryder Cup at Gleneagles, and Roderick Campbell's right to point to the British Open coming back to Mid Scotland and Fife next year. I think that we can also forget about curling, because not only were there 10 of the 12 GB medalists in this year's Winter Olympics from Scotland, but seven of those curlers live near or in Stirling. Hosting major sporting events or producing elite talent is not just a matter of pride or benefit to our local economies, as record numbers of spectators are testament to, but it reflects something that I think is further ingrained in each one of us and society at our love of competition. I think that competitive sport develops a work ethic. It develops and reinforces social bonds, friendships and a sense of community, and I think that qualitative measurements do not exactly help when it comes to putting a value on this, but if you look at the faces of the school children who took part in all the associated sporting events this summer, I don't really think that you need these, because I think that sport speaks for itself. For many people, I think that it's a spectacle, as well as the sport itself. It was clearly evident from the 600,000 visitors to the Commonwealth Games who witnessed elite-level competition in world-class settings, including in sports for which they were previously unacquainted. For me, some of the greatest joys of this summer were witnessing the successes in so-called minority sports such as squash and netball and bowls, which attracted huge crowds. For a very important part of that, I think that it was the improvement in broadcasting that accompanied these sports, and the immediate interest in some of those areas has greatly increased. I think that that is a very healthy sign. I have to say that I am appalled when anyone says that competitive sport should be banned. I can think of nothing that is more contrary to the spirit of young people to real life or which does more harm to the self-discipline of young people. I think that Roderick Campbell is right when he says that part of the legacy is something that we must attach great importance to. Competitive sport, in my estimation, must return to all schools and be enshrined in the legacy that we shed for years ahead. Something that I think can help that is the growing value that we attach to lots of different sports, rather than those that, over time, have dominated the school timetable, perhaps football, rugby and hockey in athletics in years past have been those dominating ones, but times are changing, and I think that that is greatly to the benefit of more youngsters participating. I think that schools hold the key in many of the areas, but we also have to accept that we need to do more about a cultural change. That is something that Sports Scotland is very strong on just now. It is something that comes up time and time again at the cross-party group on sport. Our previous co-convener was Margot MacDonald, which was a point that she made very regularly. There has to be a cultural change in how we react to sport. I think that that is true for music and languages, but it is perhaps more engaging when it comes to sport, for people of all backgrounds and tastes. It can inspire a passion, creativity and innovation that perhaps is missing for too many youngsters. It is for that reason that I warmly welcome the wider coverage of sports, male and female. Again, Roger Campbell is absolutely right to point to the absolutely correct decision that was made by the Royal and Ancient to invite women to be members. It is lots to celebrate. In conclusion, I hope that the legacy of this phenomenal year is measured not just in quantitative improvements in participation rates and changing people's perception about health, but that there is a much better attitude and culture for what is something for which I have a very considerable passion. Thank you very much. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I join in the thanks to Rod Campbell for bringing this debate. I simply want to echo the points that he himself has made. It has both a national and indeed a local aspect. It also has both a review of the successful year past but also the opportunity to look forward, I think, to even better times on a national and indeed on a community scale. It has been a great year for sport, not simply in the city of Glasgow, and I think history will probably record that it was transformational for the city of Glasgow, an opportunity to look forward to future successes, not simply to look at historic successes in the past. Equally, as Rod Campbell also mentioned, to other communities, whether Glen Eagles or indeed communities, the length and breadth of the country Scotland is a better place for what was achieved not simply by those who were doing so on the basis of their paid and salaried commitment, but by those who did so on a voluntary basis, whether in helping out in the Commonwealth Games or as Rod Campbell himself correctly said, who are the unsung heroes who support sport at a grassroots level on a daily basis and have done so when it was not perhaps as favourable times as they are now. I think that it has also been transformational in that there has been a recognition that sport is not simply an individual action that you take, that you can join a club or take out a gym membership. There is a clear recognition now at governmental level that we have to do so and encourage participation for the public good. It is not simply individual, even if some sports are individual pursuits, it is the collective good. That is why I simply want to echo the comments made by Rod Campbell. It has been good for the elite, but it has also been good for the grassroots, and I know in terms of the grassroots commitment that Rod Campbell has at his heart. He mentioned how a fife, and I know the lobbying that he did for that club. I, too, paid tribute to its success and its international players that have gone on to success and have worn the Scottish jersey, but the efforts that he has put in to try to ensure that they have the facilities to ensure that there can be future success to match those who are currently pulling on the dark blue jersey. I know myself in my own community the success that, for example, Lochhead Unboxing Club has had. It comes from a challenged area. It has had its difficulties in the past, but it also remarkably deals with some challenging individuals and turns them round. This has been a remarkable year for them. The success of Josh Taylor in winning a gold medal has been felt not simply by every member of the club but by the entire community. The success of Lewis Benson getting there and unlucky in the draw and unfortunate not to go further has also, as I say, benefited the entire area. At grass-roots level, I see it in eastern Edinburgh, as well as it is seen in north east fife. However, there is a possibility for a future to build on the legacy, not just in the past, to compete internationally to go for bids. We are not going to get a Champions League final because of the size of our stereo, but there are other international events that we can bid for and have now a track record of success that I believe puts us in a position to look forward to success and to further international events. However, as particularly Rod Campbell says, it is about the grass-roots. I remember many years ago speaking to the late David Taylor, who made the point that in Scotland we had in football some of the best professional facilities for a small nation anywhere in the world and yet we had some of the worst community facilities anywhere else in Europe. That is why we have to ensure that the legacy is not simply in where we go at international competition or even regional or national competition but what we do at grass-roots level. The days of blaze pitches for young footballers have to be consigned to the past as 3G pitches are bought in. It is not simply, as Ms Smith mentioned, in terms of football and rugby. It is all those other sports that have also got a boost boxing, as I have mentioned, but in numerous other sports. That is the opportunity to make Scotland a better place to put it on the global map in sport but also the opportunity to build a grass-roots sporting opportunity and to recognise that sport is, for all, irrespective of their ability and their size of their wallet. Equally, we have to allow that opportunity for those who have that opportunity, as in how a fife to compete on an international stage. That is being done. It can be done. We look back with success but we look forward to an equal successful future. I will now call on the minister to make the closing speech in behalf of the Government. I suppose that at the end of any year there is a tendency to look back at what was gone before in the preceding 12 months and there is absolutely no doubt that, in what has been remarkable and the most exciting of years generally for Scotland, it has been an incredible year for Scottish sport. The eyes of the world were on Scotland in 2014 and I believe that we have conducted ourselves very well in that regard. I think that it is particularly appropriate that the last member's debate of this year gives members the opportunity to offer their own perspective on this year's sporting achievements. I would like to thank Rod Campbell for bringing the debate to the chamber to let us do just that and thank those members who have taken part as well. I would like to turn to some of the highlights of the year. As Liz Smith reminded us at the beginning of the year's Scottish curlers, she made the point that sterling curlers in particular had phenomenal success on the world stage, particularly winning medals at the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games at Sochi. Those talented and committed athletes helped to promote the game in Scotland and as outstanding athletes and ambassadors helped to inspire many people to try curling and become more active in their lives. The success in Sochi certainly kickstarted an outstanding year for sport in Scotland. Turning to the summer of the sun, most of the time the venues were ready and Scotland was a proud host of the 20th Commonwealth Games. The Scottish Government backed its commitment to the funding of £382 million, 66 per cent of the total games budget, and we saw Team Scotland achieve its highest ever total medal hall, winning a total of 53 medals across 10 sports. Rod Campbell rightly spoke of a list of heroes that are too many to mention all, but I would like to mention a few. I was very privileged to be at the Judo Scotland reception on Tuesday, and the judokas who took part in the Commonwealth Games were all in attendance. It is worth reminding us that we got 13 medals from 14 competitors. That was the best medal hall for a single sport at a single Commonwealth Games, and there was clear pride at that achievement at Judo Scotland. I was very pleased to see them bestow honorary life membership in the organisation for all those athletes who had taken part as a part of Team Scotland at the Games. I think that they were described as the highest honour they could bestow on their members. Of course, there was also at the Games the inspirational performance of Lindsay Sharp, who rose from her sickbed to claim silver in the 800 metres at hand in a tremendous example of the triumph of human willpower commitment and dedication. It was the outstanding achievement of our Lawn Bowls team against the outstanding backdrop of Kelvin Grove, who was the emergence of Ross Murdoch, yet another great Scottish swimmer. There was also a 13-year-old Erie Davies, Scotland's youngest ever Commonwealth Games athlete and a medal winner, too, an extraordinary achievement for someone so young. No-one will of course forget the mailman Charlie Flynn, if ever there is someone who could rank as personality of the year in any field, let alone sports personality of the year. It has to be the charismatic Mr Flynn. Of course, we should remember that there were four medals for Team Scotland in five Paris sports, and I think that we should be particularly proud of having delivered the highest number of Paris sports medal events in Commonwealth Games history, and, unlike the Olympics, they were integrated fully as part of the Commonwealth Games. Featuring as the start of the show was, of course, the city of Glasgow. We, Glaswegians, are very proud. We are sometimes defensive of our city, but in this case, in the case of the Commonwealth Games, there was no need to be defensive in every reason to be proud of the people of Glasgow and the people of Scotland rose to the occasion. Prim among them, of course, were our marvellous Clyde Siders and Cast members from the opening ceremony. The Games heralded in a new generation of passionate and enthusiastic volunteers who were central to making the games the best games ever. I would like to put on record my thanks and appreciation to all those who volunteered over the course of the games. I recently visited Volunteer Scotland, who are based in Stirling, and met Games volunteers there. I was able to announce that the Scottish Government supporting Volunteer Scotland was over £114,000 to harness this enthusiasm from the Games to promote the rich and diverse benefits that volunteering can bring. Rodd Campbell spoke an important role of volunteers. I recognise it and very much support it. As well as our volunteering legacy, we want to see the legacy of increased participation. Of course, that is more than investment that Kenny MacAskill was touching on in terms of the inspiration that individual athletes can bring to those who look up to them. That is part of the legacy. Of course, it is about investment. Rodd Campbell touched on that. There have been more than 100 projects supported by the 10 million legacy active places fund. Yesterday, in Casimolc, I was able to attend an event to mark the 20-word projects that are being funded by our £1 million legacy 2014 sustainable support for community fund. Games equipment is now being used across the country. Grainsmouth stadium athletes will be able to run on the Hamden run track in their games facilities. It is now open to the public. It was recently at the Emirates arena, and one of the best things that I saw there was the members of the public in using those facilities. I should say something about the Ryder Cup, of course. Cardin would have helped. I managed to hear the point anyway, Ms Smith. I am just about to turn to the Club Golf programme, which is an excellent programme to touch on that. Of course, where we can deliver that type of initiative in other sports, we will seek to do so. I would say that the budget is, of course, limited if we had more. We could do more, but, of course, that type of initiative is something that we welcome and will try to support. I want to talk about the Ryder Cup, because it was another example of Scotland's ability to deliver. It also reinforced Scotland's status as the home of golfers. In 45,000 golf fans from across the globe packed the course of each of the three days' play. Liz Smith mentioned the BBC Sports personality of the year award, as well as the very moving tribute to those injured service personnel that she mentioned who took part in the Invictus Games, as well as Chris Hoy getting his very well-deserved lifetime achievement. Of course, Team Europe won Team of the Year and Captain Paul McGinnell very graciously. His first thanks was to the people of Scotland. As with the Commonwealth Games, our people were a vital part of the success of the Ryder Cup. Of course, as well as securing the legacy from the Commonwealth Games, we want to secure a legacy from the Ryder Cup. We do not want to be the home of golf, but we want to be the future of golf. To underline that commitment earlier this year, the Scottish Government announced additional funding of up to £1 million over a four-year period to help to introduce yet more youngsters and families to the game through the club golf programme. We have encouraged more than 350,000 youngsters to pick up a club and get involved in the sport of golf. I am running out of time. I could have wanted to talk about the tremendous achievements of our national teams and cricket teams, which have of course qualified for next year's World Cup. We have seen impressive performances from our rugby team. Our women's football team is now ranked 20. First and World came so close to qualifying for the World Cup. The men's team has greatly improved and on-course to qualify for Euro 2016. However, I should turn to close. 2014 has, of course, been an outstanding year. Of course, we look forward to, Presiding Officer, next year Scotland will host the word gymnastics, IPC swimming, world-orientering championships, as well as the European Judo and European eventing championships. Of course, the open returns to Scotland in 2015 and 2016, and St Andrew's will welcome back the British Women's Open next year. Our ambitions for the years ahead are to build on the reputation that we have established through this year's achievements as the perfect stage for major events. 2014 has given us the experience and the knowledge to deliver. 2014 will be hard to live up to, but I am confident that we have many outstanding years of sport ahead of us as well. Many thanks and thank you all. I now suspend this meeting until 2.30.


As a Ravens fan, we're used to the process in the off season. It may start a little slow, then it may pick up just a tiny, tiny bit, but then it slows down a lot after that and it's a lot of the same old stuff. But this off season, this off season was far from the norm. It wasn't your typical Baltimore Ravens off season. And they did a lot of stuff where they went above and beyond more than they have in a really, really long time. But to talk about exactly what they did and to talk about exactly some of the reasons why they may have done it, I couldn't do it alone. I had to bring on a very, very special guest to help me out. And you know just what I mean You too, team, keep it clean You see my boy, he like, automated, automated Well, that's my homie, ain't that right in Ravens? Team, keep it clean. Very, very special guest in the building. And before we get into the subject at hand, let me introduce you to the kid. Yeah, we first and foremost appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedule, out of your busy day to come join us over here, team, keep it clean. But how'd you get started? Let everybody know what you do and how you got started doing it. You do a lot of different stuff. Yeah, so first and foremost, I wanna say I appreciate you having me on this show because I am a team, keep it clean member. I'm a subscriber and all that stuff. So big shout out to you. I always like to give you your flowers because you are the person that I go to when I wanna hear opinions on Ravens news. But all that being said, basically my start came from way before people knew me. To be honest with you, when I was in high school, I was really indulged in YouTube. I just, every time I got home from school or whatever, I was always consuming YouTube and different things like that. And it got to a point to where I wanted to start creating content. So I flirted with it from here and there and then eventually, way later, like a decade later, I ended up blowing up from doing a LeBron James impersonation. Oh yeah, it does. That one, yeah. Don't talk about this stuff. I did that video, it went pretty good. It was on ESPN, it was everywhere. And after that, I was kinda just like, okay, I got something here. And pretty much I put my foot into the ground and just kept running. So once again, that's pretty much how I got my start. And it's been cool to see it too, man. I remember before I knew who you were, I saw the LeBron James video. Man, this dude like spot on with his LeBron James impersonation. But how has it been? Cause we see you work with the NFL, like doing stuff with the Ravens and whatnot. We see you work with the NBA, obviously getting the shoes and that and all that. And I'm like, oh man, I was moving, man. How has that experience been for you? Just to be like reaching those heights. To be honest with you, it's all surreal. Like even to this day, like I'm about maybe five years into it, like actually establishing a brand and actually building on top of that. So I'm about like five years in and it's still surreal to this day. Just having the connections that I have. You know, basketball players who send me sneakers. Like you just say, like the people like James Hart and Steph Curry, different things like that. And these are like top tier guys. It's like, whoa, hold on. It's really cool just having it. Cause it's like, bro, like these are the type of situations that you dream about as a kid growing up. I want it to actually be a sports journalist. So I ended up leaning into this sports journalistic lane, but it's through creating content. So it's kind of just like, not only am I fulfilling my dream, but I'm also getting the benefits of working with the NFL and the NBA. So if you would have asked me when I was younger, like, did I imagine doing this? I probably said I would hope to do it, but I never would have thought I'd actually be doing it. So, you know, and it's a surreal feeling. Yeah. And now you're doing it. So for all these people, so they can see your stuff, see what you're working on, see what you've been doing, let everybody know where they can find you at, whether Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, all that good stuff. Bet. So you can find me anywhere on any platform. It don't matter what you're looking for. It's at the Kid Galway. So that's D-A-K-I-D-G-O-W-I-E. Once again, D-A-K-I-D-G-O-W-I-E. I like to sound like those little lawyer commercials. Like if you're looking for a settlement, be called, we should have called, you know. I like to give it like that so people know what I'm talking about. All right, and I put everything down below in the description too to make it easy for people. Even though you made it easy for everybody, I'm gonna make it even easier for them so they can find you. Now, you said you were about five years in, right? Yeah. So was Eric DeCosta. And Eric DeCosta did this off season. He's done things quite differently than he's done the previous five years. And he's taken a much, much different approach, a much, much more aggressive approach. Now, I know you have been somebody that's been very adamant, been very outspoken when it's come to the Ravens approach at the wide receiver position and how it's been and how it's impacted the team over the years, especially recent years and how you feel like they should have always done more. How do you feel about this approach? How Eric DeCosta and them have handled things this off season at the wide receiver position? Man, listen, this approach that EDC just had, this off season, I don't even know how to explain it. I'm just like, I'm fulfilled. The moment we landed OBJ, I was like, okay, we getting somewhere. And I just had my fingers crossed for Zae Flowers or Jackson Smith and Jake, but I was like, one of those two, just give me one of those guys and you won't hear a peep out of me. So when we got Zae Flowers, I was like, oh yeah, like, I'm done and you can get whoever you want.  I got my guys and that's what I'm ready to, I'm looking forward to that. So it's really cool though, because you kind of just see the gradual build. And I know that we gave them a lot of flack at the wide receiver position, but then also look at our tight end position and you know, they beefed that up the year before. So you beef up the tight ends and then you beef up the wide receiver room. It's just like Lamar really just has so many weapons and they're all different type of players. And I think that's what I love most. It's not like the same type of caliber of wide receiver or the same type of caliber of tight end. Every single person has a unique thing that they bring to the team. And I think that's what really separates us from the rest of the NFL. And I think that's what makes us the most excited. Now, what do you think prompted this change in the way that Eric, the cost to attack the position this year? Lamar's contract. That's the way I look at it. I'm just like, bro, like you have a superstar quarterback. And when I say superstar, I'm not just talking about, you know, some guy that's glorified in Baltimore. Like we're talking about a guy who has ties to Florida to pretty much like brought that bridge over. Cause I don't know where it transpired from, but Florida has a very big Ravens fan base. And you're one of them. So it's like, it's cool to see somebody, you know, connect that bridge. Cause it's like, oh, we have a quarterback from South Florida. How do you have that going on? You got kids and baseball players from other countries wearing his jersey. And it's like, yo, we really have something here. So just to have that caliber of a player when that's up in the air and you got to make sure he's satisfied. Oh, you got to, you got to, you know, overdo or step out of your comfort zone and do what you need to do in order to keep him happy. So that's how it was. Yeah, that's true. It's very important to keep Lamar Jackson happy, especially if you're going to be investing in Lamar Jackson, it's important to invest in him in more ways than one. And the Ravens definitely did that this off season. Now, of course we wish that this would have happened years ago and they tried some different things and whatnot. They took some different swings. They took some safe swings and some risky swings. Most safe swings as far as the first round picks like a Hollywood Brown or Rashad Bateman. And then there was some, some like, well, you know, I can't even really say risky swings, but there's been a Deshaun Jackson, there's Bryan, there's a Sammy Watkins, there's Seth Roberts, there's a really sneeze. So the Marcus Robinson, so solid guys, but yeah, you get it. But right now where the Ravens are sitting at, Rashad Bateman, Odell Beckham, Jr., Nelson Aguilar, Devon DuVernay, James Proshay, I think it's to be determined, we'll see what happens. Tyler Wallace, I think he's to be determined as well. Zay Flowers, do you feel like what the Ravens have right here, right now is enough to get the job done? In my personal opinion, I do, but you know it, you know, the whole de-hop thing's still lingering. Like, I don't think we're gonna make the move. I don't think we're gonna make the move, but you know, it's just, it's there, you know, it's there for the taking, but the current guys that we do have, I do believe that it's enough because we just gotta keep in mind what Lamar Jackson was capable of doing with the guys that he had, you know, the Seth Roberts, the Miles Boykins, the Hollywood Browns. And you know, I liked Hollywood a lot. Like, I'm a big guy on Hollywood. So it's like, you kind of get your Hollywood and the Zay Flowers, but in a stockier form, more willing to take those tackles and just different type of things like that. So I just feel like the versatility, once again, of the White Receiver Room really benefits us a lot. Nelson Aguilar, he can contribute, he's a Super Bowl champion, but when you have a Odell Beckham Jr., you finally have like your true number one. Or, you know, Rashad Bateman, if you consider him the true number one, he still has to prove that, but I have a lot of faith in him. I like that pick as well. So I think just, it's the injury bug, man. If we can get past that injury bug, that will decide everything. But if we have a healthy Ravens team, there's no doubt in my mind that we can get it done. Man, you brought up DeAndre Hopkins. And I almost wish in the interview that he did the other day, I almost wish Brandon Marshall and them ain't even asked about nothing with Lamar Jackson and Ravens. I wish they wouldn't even brought that up because like, man, I was hoping, man, especially when we heard the report that Lamar Jackson asked for both of them, like both OBJ and DeAndre, I was like, all right, Lamar, hey, I'm right there with you. And then when it got like right before the draft and it was all these rumors about, oh yeah, DeAndre Hopkins and Ravens, they closed, they closed.  Right. But it didn't end up happening. And then when they drafted, they flowers, like for me, it was a bit of sweet thing because it was like, oh, okay. They drafted, they flowers. And then when I like did some more research on it, I'm like, okay, good pic. I like the pic. But at the same time, I think that had sort of officially ended the DeAndre Hopkins to the Ravens.   We can tell ourselves we ain't going to get them, but if you got to save that little space, like hold on, but maybe something like that. It's sitting there in the reserve, but I'm going to chill. We going to see, but I'm going to chill. I expect him to go to the Buffalo Bills though. But again, that's just me. I think that that's where he ends up. But we'll see. But it's been really nice to, it's really nice going into a season and not having to have the conversations, not having to have the dialogue and the topic of conversations about why receive it for the Baltimore Ravens because it really feels good this year. It really feels like they got that handle. They got that taking care of. And it's crazy because it almost feels like not that there are too many mouths to feed, but like that's a good problem to have in my opinion. When you have a plethora of web, because just on why I receive it alone, like again, going down a list, Odell Beckham, Junior Rashad Bateman, Zay Flowers on top for your loan.  But then you still got Devin Duvenay, you still got Nelson Aguilod too. And then we'll see who else makes it out the cut. But just why receive a loan. It's like, okay, Raven set up nice right now.  So we got, we still got one of the best tight ends in the game and Mark Andrews. So it's like, before we even get to tight end, it's like, oh, they, they, they might be set. But then you get to tight. It's like, oh man, you got Mark Andrews too. Isaiah likely coming too. And now with, with somebody else who, I've seen a lot of people ranting and raving about him. It's Charlie Collor. And they think that he could be special as well. So we'll see what goes down with that. But as far as something that you brought up before, Lamar Jackson being happy. How, how do you think Lamar Jackson's feeling right now? Going into this season. And to be honest with you, I feel like Lamar Jackson is aesthetic, but he trying to keep it on the low. He's trying to play the humble card. Like, oh yeah, you know, this is cool. You know, I got what I like. Nah, Lamar is excited because you look at the Rosses that we had before. And I'm not going to say like Lamar was completely helpless, but there could have been room for more help for him. Especially when it comes to the targets. You know, we had the whole wide receiver conversation. So it was like, now you're in a position, like you said, where you have so many mouths to feed. And that's a great problem to have. It's like, okay, like I got to feed Zay. I got to feed OBJ, but dang, Nelson right there. Oh, dang, you know, Doof is over here. I call him Diet Debo Samuel. So it's like, so you have all these different mouths to feed and it's like, okay, like if somebody does happen to get hurt, knock on wood, you just got another replacement. It's really next man up. And it's a quality man that's stepping up. It's not just like you getting the bottom of the barrel and Ravens are going out here and getting somebody extremely past their prime. It's like, no, you have a young guy that's going to step in and be that next person up. So I think he's aesthetic to be honest with you, between the contract, being the highest paid player in NFL history, having a wide receiver room, having a tight end room, you still got your backfill, new offensive coordinator. There is no reason why Lamar should even be humble right now, I'll be talking about that. That's just me though. Now, something that you mentioned earlier, which I really liked, you talked about the receivers and the different skill sets that they bring to the table. That's a beautiful thing because that just makes it that much better. That gives you that many more options and different looks you can give to defenses. Now, speaking about looks that you're giving to defenses, how do you feel and what are you expecting from Ravens new offensive coordinator, Todd Munkin? To be honest with you, I expect to air it out this year. I really do expect to air it out. I think that obviously the run game will still be our bread and butter, but I think that in terms of actually drawing up great schemes that's going to get us a lot of passing yards, that's going to get us down the field, kind of speed those drives up, I should say, not really waiting down to the play clock, trying to play the whole clock management thing. We're not doing that, bro. We trying to put the points up like it's basketball, 24 second shot clock and we done it. So that's kind of where my mind is. I expect Todd to kind of just come with that type of intensity. And then on top of that, you look at the quarterbacks that Todd Munkin had in the past between like, what's dude's name? Jamis Winston.  And I'm looking like, hey, Jamis, he was airing it out. We have Lamar Jackson. I feel like he can do the exact same. So draw up some similar schemes and we'll see where we can go from there. But I do expect this to be Lamar Jackson's, like in terms of yardage, his best passing season. Yeah, I like that. Now, without putting you on the spot, but at the same time, put you on the spot. Let's get it. Record prediction, how good or bad do you think these Baltimore Ravens are going to be this year? I'm going to be completely honest with you. Since I am on the spot, I'm going to be completely honest. I haven't even looked at the schedule like that. But I'm going to just go off the top of my head and say at most four losses, at the most four losses, I plan to be at maybe 10 games this year because I am going to some away games. I plan on pulling up to the Jacksonville game too. OK, OK. We're going to see, but I'm going to say four losses because once again, the Baltimore Ravens under Lamar Jackson, we don't lose that much. We may lose when it matters, but we don't lose that much in the regular season. So I'm not seeing a real bad season in terms of losses.  That's how I look at it. All right. And now, how far do you think these Ravens could go? All right. So humbly speaking, humbly speaking. I do, man, I just think that the Ravens are always that underdog team. Like it doesn't matter what we do. It doesn't matter who we have. Regardless of what's taking place with the team, people always count us out. And I say like the way that the media cycle goes, it's you leave the Baltimore Ravens out of the top list. So whether it's the top teams at the AFC or top teams or whatever, they keep us off these lists.  Then after that, it's, oh, Lamar Jackson should be in the MVP conversation. Then we get to the playoffs. Oh, we're banking on the Ravens and then things go left. It's like when you doubt us, that's when we're at our best. So the way I look at it is as long as we keep that underdog mentality, they can really take it all away. I mean, that's what we've been built on. Like the Ravens have never been that team that you expect to really show out. And then when the year comes, it's like, oh, nah, this team is for real. So I think they can go all the way. Now granted, the AFC is very hefty. Is it? Yeah. It's got an easy feat. So if you're in realistic, you do have the teams like the Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills and all these other squads. But it's like, I really think that this is the team that can get it done. Once again, barring the injuries. Right. That's big. That's really been our Achilles heel. All right. So, Gary, A, appreciate you again for coming through. One more time before we get out of here. Let everybody know where they can find you at. Once again, you can find me at DA, K-I-D, G-O-W-I-E. And once again, that is DA, K-I-D, G-O-W-I-E. If you need constant teaching, you can have it by hand. But I appreciate you for having me. Oh, for sure, man. For sure. Thank you, man. I love the content. I'm a subscriber myself. And I just wanted to give you your flowers while I was here. Appreciate that, man. Thanks again for coming on. Hey, team, keep it clean. Make sure you follow him on everything. Everything will be down below in the description so you ain't got no excuses as to why you couldn't find it, even though he done spelled it out for you. And it's simple. And we're going to put it on the screen too. So it's simple. But we'll put it in the description too. So it's simple. Love y'all. I appreciate you. Team, keep it clean. We out.


Welcome back to our channel. Today we're going to show you how to create a super 8mm film look using assets like film grains, film mats, and film burns that are all available in our new creators pack we're giving away this holiday season. If you want to know more about that creators pack we have links down in the description below. We also have an amazing giveaway waiting for you at the end of the video so make sure you stick around. Now let's jump in. So we've got our Premiere Pro project open. We have different shots from Artgrid laid out on our timeline and straight away you can get that 8mm film look by going to the creators pack and starting off with the mats. So you can just take the first mat from here, drag it on top of your footage and straight away you can get that super 8 look with the 4x3 aspect ratio. If you don't know anything about the super 8 format, basically it's a format invented in the 1950s. It started to be very popular in the consumer market at the late 1960s where families were using this format to film their vacation videos, their family videos. So by nature a lot of those films look very shaky or unprofessional. That's what unique with the super 8mm format and that's what we're going to try to achieve today. It also reflects on the type of footage you want to choose. So we're going to look for some shaky shots. That's pretty good. That's not shaky but that's a nice dog right there. This looks pretty good. I think we're going to go with this shot. So let's take the mat and put it over this shot and boom straight away. Looks good but like I said before we can make it look better. The second thing we can use is grains which was very common in the super 8 format. So we have different type of grains here. We can start testing them out. Again all you need to do is take the specific asset you want to try and put it on top of your footage and your mat.  So select the grain go to effect control and change the blend mode of the opacity. You can go with either lighten or linear dodge or screen whatever you like and fits the style you want to achieve. I think we're going to go with lighten so we have more grains here to test out. Let's see. Let's go and zoom in on the clip. And yeah that's super grainy and that's what we pretty much want. You can also duplicate the grain layer to get a stronger feel of the grain. You can do that by pressing alt on the keyboard just dragging the clip and that will duplicate it. You can change the scales to get bigger grains play around until you get the look you're looking for. You don't have to stick with the original look of the super 8. You can go crazy with it. That's why we have different options in the creators back. So why would you want to try to achieve the super 8 millimeter look? Either you want to create a nostalgic video that could fit the super 8 millimeter look but also it's super trendy these days. A lot of big commercials from Nike, from Adidas, big brands are going with that specific look. Also a lot of these brands that are making these commercials use different split screens that are inspired from the film look. So we've added these kind of split screens that are right here in the creators back. Super simple to use just drag and drop and crop your footage according to the split. That is also very trendy and you got a lot of different assets in the creators back to stylize that look and take it to the next level like we're going to do right now. We can add another asset from the pack which is film burns. We have different film burns and we can preview them so that looks pretty cool. Let's look at some different film burns right here. That looks also pretty cool. I like that one. I think that's the closest for what we want to get and these assets are actual film that we've burned to get that look. So that's the closest you can get to a real film burn look. This is also pretty cool. We can just test it out. Let's throw it right over here. Just go crazy with the blend modes. See what type of results it gives you. Let's see. Yeah, that's too much. So we're going to choose screen that looks the best and like with any asset here you can change the position of the asset. You can change the scale of it to fit your needs. You can also put the different assets like the film burn or the grain under the mat so it won't affect the mat. So just like this now it affects only the footage and you can also play with the opacity itself. Not only with the blending mode so you can do it either by double clicking opening the channel and just start playing with the amount and the opacity. Let's move it to fit the specific frame that we have but we have this line. We can get rid of it pretty easily by just creating a mask and asking the film burn to fit our frame and we're going to feather this.  We took care of this specific shot but now we want to transition to this shot and we want the film burn to help us do it so basically we can apply the same assets to the next shot. So let's scale the footage a little bit. Let's take this to the center. We're going to take this part where it goes in that's going to be our transition and then goes back out. Okay so we want this specific part to be right on the cut point between the two shots. We're going to change the blending mode to screen and that pretty much is it. Let's see it. Another simple but effective trick you can do is changing the frame rates for your footage. Super 8 is known for its choppy look. The original format was filmed in 18 frames a second so the way you can get the same frame rate is by applying an effect called posterized time. All you need to do is go to the effect window right in post and we got the posterized time just drag and drop it to your footage so in the effect control we have it on default for 24 frames per second. We can change that to 18 frames per second and now you get that choppy look that is very familiar with the super 8 millimeter look. You can also go with the extreme look and go with I don't know 12 frames per second. Yeah that's very choppy. Less of the style we want to achieve. Let's go back to 20. That's more like it. The next thing you can do is basically just play with the color so what we're going to do here is just open the workspace for color grading. Naturally a super 8 millimeter look is not that contrasty. It has low highlights, pretty crunched shadows and a little bit of green tint to the shadows so that's what we're going to try to do here. So we're going to lower down the contrast and the highlights as well as getting the shadows a bit darker and the whites we're going to lower down. Blacks we can go with this and also we're going to reduce the saturation a little bit. Not that much. That looks pretty good and let's go with that green tint in the shadows. We're going to go into curves. Go into the green channel and grab the shadows. Just tweak it a little bit. I would also add a little bit of yellow in the highlights. Let's take the highlights and the color wheels. Take it to the yellowish and of course if you want to get more of an accurate grade for your 8 millimeter look just go watch original footage filmed with an 8 millimeter camera. Use that as your reference. Naturally the 8 millimeter film look was softer than what a digital camera can capture today which is a much sharper image. All we need to do is basically add some blur. Let's go back to the effects and we're going to add Gassian blur and give it a little bit of blur. Let's see like two percent maybe three. So let's zoom in to our clip to see the blur effect. We're going to turn on and off. The image looks softer now and that fits to the style and look that we're trying to achieve. But we have more assets in the creator's pack. You can try it out on your footage like flares so we have a lot of different flares here. That might be too much for what we're looking for but this could work pretty nicely. Let's put it somewhere without any film burns to see the effect. That's just a taste and a sample of what you can achieve. You can also go into the Artless Sound Effects Library and download some 8 millimeter sounds. We have links down in the description below. So we hope this video helped you out. If it did slapity slap that like button. Also we've seen the metrics and you guys watch our videos without subscribing to our YouTube channel. Subscribe to our YouTube channel with that notification bell on to never miss another video like this and a lot more coming soon so subscribe. If you want to get your hands on this creators pack and all the assets we've used in this video to create that super 8 millimeter film look we have links down in the description below explaining everything about it. Now let's talk about that giveaway. One lucky winner will win a junior art grid subscription together with the creators pack we've shown you in this video. All you need to do is comment down what do you want us to talk about next. Here is the lucky winner from our last giveaway. Congratulations to you my friend. Until the next time, stay creative.


In this video, I'm going to be showing you all the ways to make money and LP in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. And if I missed anything, make sure to comment down below a better way if you found out on how to make money or LP. One of the early game ways to get items is by just running around the Asado Desert and picking up a bunch of items. So you just basically, if you have the running ability or the dash, it's a little bit easier to quickly grab and press A. You just run around, collect all these expensive items on the floor. You can day reset or hour reset in order to get them to respawn again. And Serbe provided a good list of all the items that you can get when you're running around.  Well, you can just quickly come here and grab some monies off the floor, pick them up, and it should be good. Another great area that you can go to and pick up items is going to be East Province Area 3.  So again, if you see sparkly things on the floor like Smooth Rock, these items sell for pretty good money. So just pick those up, run around, grab what you need in this area, and if you need to do the day skipping, you can do that as well once you feel like you got all the expensive items on a certain route that you've discovered. I'm not exactly putting down the route because you guys might come up with your own specific routes to farm money here. But then once you're all done with this, you can sell the items, save, do the day skip, come back, go on your route, do it again. And the best place is sometimes that a lot of people suggest is just following the main path. You should find a couple of sparkly items that give good drops like there. And as you're picking items up in this area, here is a list that Cereby also has of some of all the great items that you can find while running around in this area. So take a look at that screenshot. And if you want, I will make sure to link everything down in the description below as well. This money method requires you to have a little bit more stronger Pokemon in order to do this. But what you're going to want to do is head over to Medali on the east side. Once you arrive in Medali, you're going to want to go around and talk to this guy here.   And what the amulet coin is going to do is once you equip it to a Pokemon at the front of your party, it's going to increase the prize money you get from battles. This will essentially help you get more money from every trainer battle, every gym battle, the Elite Four, the final part of the game, which we'll talk about, just money everywhere. This is just good to have and will increase all the great money amounts you'll get in the game. Before we move on to the next method, I'm going to need you to hit that subscribe button. Hitting that subscribe button lets me know that you enjoy these videos and I'll keep pumping them out. Thank you. Another great way to earn money in this game is by using Pokemon such as Meowth with Payday, Persian with Payday as well, because the higher level, the more money. And you have an option of Godango, which knows a move called Make It Rain. The difference is Godango is a lot stronger than Persian and it's a stab on top of that, which is really good. So it hits more basically. Persian's move is also stab, but Godango is a lot stronger. So that's an option. So we can just show you real quick what happens when you fight a Pokemon here. Here is a Psyduck and basically Godango's here and we're going to be fighting it. And all we're going to do is hit Make It Rain, baby. All those coins, oh, that's a lot of rain. Then the coins get scattered everywhere.  So you can do this on Pokemon while you're in the way. Another way we can maximize money out by using either Payday on Meowth or Make It Rain on Golden Goo. You can try to fight some trainers.  And let's fight them. So this is going to be attempt one. We've earned 160 in prize money. Okay, we're going to make it rain now. Got 160 in prize money and an extra 370 if you saw that. Okay, this time we have the Amulet Coin attached to Godango. We're going to also use its Make It Rain move and take out this trainer.  Obviously, this example is just, you know, not a lot of money, but it's a great way to figure out, hey, this is how do I maximize my money when I'm battling trainers throughout the Paodea region. And as you move to harder trainers, you're going to get more money. And you can do this also in big battles like the Elite Four, anywhere, basically any battle in the game. Do this. It's just extra money for no reason. And it's great. And if you didn't want to collect 999 coins to get Godango, you simply just have to do this with Persian and Payday. And Meowth are plenty in the area. The best places to find Meowth, by the way, are going to be around this town, right?  And to get gimme ghouls, all you know is you got to find them in ruins and towers in the little treasure chest. Pretty simple to find them. Another way that you can collect rare items and get extra money in your game is by catching Pokémon with the ability called Pickup. And what Pickup is going to do essentially is after every single one of your battles, the Pokémon have a chance of having an item on it. So the best method to do this is go ahead and just catch five Grievards. There's other Pokémon with Pickup, but for this video, I wanted just to use the new ones. So I got my whole entire squad of Grievards here and you can see that they do all have the ability called Pickup. This is going to be really big. So basically the higher level, your Grievards or whatever Pokémon you have that has Pickup, the better items you'll get as you keep paddling Pokémon. They have a random chance of picking up. So let's just go ahead and battle some Pokémon here and see if we get anything on our dogs. Okay, I did a few battles on this hill to give you an example. I didn't really want to leave the spot, but you can see that our Grievards, if you look at the little icons, have started to pick up some items. Again, the higher level your Pokémon is, the better items it can get. Eventually, if these Grievards all hit level 100, I'm going to start having very high chances of picking up things like bottle caps and rare items that you'll be finding around in the desert, and you can just start selling off these items to make money or just use them to IV max a Pokémon stat out. Those are great options to do, but this is another thing that you can keep in mind with a bunch of Grievards or any Pokémon that you choose with Pickup. Okay, for reference, the Tiny Mushroom is going to be worth 250 Poké Dollars, the Big Mushroom 2500, Pearl 1000, Big Pearl 4000, Pearl String 10,000, the Stardust at 1500, Star Piece at 6000, the Nugget is 5000, the Big Nugget is 20k, Pretty Wing is 500, and Rare Bone are 2,500. So just screenshot this if you want to keep this as reference for the expensive items. If you don't care, just sell off all these items and see how much money you get. Another great way to earn some good cash in the game is to do the tier of raids. The higher the star difficulty, the more items that drop that you could eventually sell for money. One stars are going to give the lowest rewards, but it's great in the early game. Two stars, three stars, four stars, just the same amount of stuff pretty much, and once you enter the higher tier range of five and six, you're going to get good items in multiple quantity that you can sell for good amounts of money in the game. Battling Wild Terra Pokemon, the ones that are glowing yellow that you interact with in the world, are great ways to also earn LP. You can either KL them or catch them and add them to your collection. Depending on the level of the Pokemon and where they are in the higher difficulty, is the amount of LP you'll get or doing them. Interacting with Terra Rain Dents is a great way to get LP. You don't necessarily have to enter them. All you have to do is just click on them when they're sparkling and glowy. You can see this is a three-star Terra Rain Dents. I'm going to pop off and I earned a thousand LP from clicking on a three-star one. To essentially farm Terra Raid Stars, you just want to open up your map, see which ones are available and just click on them, head over towards them. This is a two-star Terra Raid Dents and you get 700 LP. Four-star Terra Raids will give you 1200 LP. And interacting with five-star Terra Raid Dents will give you 1500. Six-star Raids, which is defined by a purple glowing icon, are going to be giving you... Wow, that's a cool six-star Raid. They're going to be giving you 1800 LP. And six-star Raids you can reset by doing the day skip in this game. So you can cost to get 1.8K if you don't want to run around, but I think running around and hitting multiple Terra Raid Dents is a lot easier. This is a great way to earn LP. All you have to do is simply go to the TM Machine and exchange materials for LP. Now, it depends on what materials you have because depending on the rarity of the Pokemon or the frequency of how much you get is the amount of LP. And what I've noticed is one of the best LPs to get in the game are going to be over 100. And the only Pokemon that you could spam over 100 of them and get tons, as you can see, have 579 Epinii dust. This is from the Experience Level Up Method. But all you have to do is just make a basic ham sandwich that increases the normal encounter power.  They're all going to be dropping this specific Epinii item. And if you want to check that out after this video, you can watch the Experience Guide. Great stuff there. And it's good for early game and game wherever you want to basically do this farm. And 150 LP so far has been one of the biggest LPs I've seen in the game. Epinii dust, 150 LP. Let's see what happens when we sell 579. Here we go. I just made 86,000 LP from that. And I wasn't even really trying. I was focusing on experience farming and I got that. So this is a really passive way to make LP.  This is accessible in the post game. And basically all you have to do is walk into whatever Academy you are in, depending on the version of the game, and walk over to the desk recipient. And once you're there, he's going to mention something about the Ace Tournament. Once you enter the Ace Tournament, you're going to be fighting four traders. And if you have the Amulet Coin attached to your main Pokemon, who is supposed to sweep everything, it's a great idea to have a high level Pokemon. This should take you about 20 minutes or less, depending on your strategy for this fight and how broken your main leading Pokemon is. And you should net over a 100k plus 100 to 120k per run with Amulet Coin. If you want to get away with Pokemon also using Payday or Make It Rain, that might be an option if you could figure out how to do that with these tournaments. It might take longer, but it might be worth the money. Go ahead and try that as well. But that's the best method for the end game farming when it comes to money. This way is very effective because you're also leveling up a lot of Pokemon in your party because it's very good experience on top of very good money. So those who combine make this a very good end game strategy. It's a big money and big experience all at the same time. Of course, the biggest way of getting a lot of LP and money is from just doing the main story. They give so much. Gym battles give a lot. Team star battles give a lot of LP. There's just so much to get from just playing the game normally. But these other methods are just great for using if you need to add that extra cash to your wallet. There are a lot of other things to do in this game. So check out this video right over here. You won't regret it.


We demystify what goes on behind the therapy room door. Join us on this voyage of discovery and co-creative conversations. This is The Therapy Show, behind closed doors podcast with Bob Cook and Jackie Jones. Welcome back to the next episode of The Therapy Show with myself, Jackie Jones, and I'm going to say it, the wonderful Bob Cook. Oh, I do like how you start that, Jackie. And in this episode, we're going to explore working with the challenging client. That is a great phrase. So I'm going to start by asking you a quick inquiry. And that is, what do you, as a psychotherapist, what do you define as challenging?  XXX, it's an interesting phrase. So what do you think of? Or how do you define the word challenging? Depends what day you ask me on, Bob, because it probably changes. Sometimes I find working with couples challenging because, you know, being in the middle and being a moderator to a certain extent. Yeah, there's lots of different degrees of what challenging is. And again, you know, I'm being completely honest here. It depends what day you catch me on. If there's a client that is very demanding of my attention and I'm feeling tired, then I would find that quite challenging on a certain day. If I'm going through something in my personal life and the client is going through something similar in theirs, I would find that client quite challenging. I couldn't put it in a box. OK, so I will attempt. Was that the answer you wanted? No. Yeah, no, it's a very, very authentic answer. And I think I understand where you're coming from. And I will put it in a little bit more of a structure for you and why that I think about it. I don't really like the phrase. It's the same. I don't really like the phrase when people talk about mistakes and so on, but I certainly don't really like the phrase when people talk about difficult clients. So so let's stay with challenging because that's the remit of this podcast. Now, I think it falls into a structure. So one therapist say that it falls into two roads, one where they haven't been trained and they haven't got the information or they haven't got here's how to work with particular clients. So an interesting one and all the counsellors on listening to podcasts might scream at me, but I'm going to say it anyway. I've a counselling courses can run from six months to six weeks to three years to four years and you get very good counselling courses. But one of the big drawbacks, I think in counselling courses, per se is they don't I don't deal with how to work with psychotic clients or disturb clients and psychotherapists tend to. So you see, I think that if if people come with strong personality disorders to counsellors, they would find that very challenging, mainly because they haven't been trained to deal with that type of person. So when people say, oh, this person is very challenging, it may well be because they haven't been trained to to know how to work with that client. Yeah, they have to go off and have some CPD training or some extra specialist training to have that information to work with clients. So I'm doing some training with some Slovenian therapists, actually. Next week, I think in is on how to work with specific personality disorders. Now, many people perhaps doesn't have the information. So if somebody comes from a personality disorder, they may they would find that very challenging if they haven't got the training to know how to work with that person. Yeah, yeah. If that makes sense. Yes, yeah, totally, which is why it's really important that, you know, we do do continuous professional development and go to supervision and all those sorts of things, definitely. That's one subset and the second one is is what you hit on, really. I think a lot of people term clients as difficult or challenging when the material that the client brings hits on the unresolved material of the therapist. Yeah, which is what you sort of 100% definitely when you said if you were doing certain personal issues in your own life and that person came with the same personal issues. So you had a lot of identification, which meant that you might term that person quite challenging because it's actually challenging for yourself. Yes, yeah, which, you know, the longer I am a psychotherapist, the more sometimes I think the universe throws me certain clients in order that I reflect on myself. Yes, so perhaps they should actually pay you. Yeah, you know, sometimes I do think that. You know, but I understand if we move away from that humor of that and and really in the business, they call what we're talking about counter transference. Yeah. And that's the client that comes along and they're actually, you know, as you talk to them, you're identified as a personal identification. So so, for example, if you have some parts of you which are depressed, that hasn't been resolved because of certain traumas in your own history and you haven't worked on that in therapy or you haven't dealt with those issues and a client comes along that is depressed. Yeah, then it might be quite challenging to work with that particular client because they may, you know, actually hit parts of yourself, which is very similar to them. And therefore you then both when the risk of ending up submerged in a co-dependent relationship instead of dealing with the feelings of the depression. Yeah. And that's called in the business counter transference. It's might be called a project of identification, which is type of counter transference where we identify with the content of the person's board, which then hits our unresolved processes in ourselves. Yeah. And then we will call that type of client or we might call that type of client challenging. Yeah. And there's no way of foreseeing that necessarily with clients in the early days. No, yes and no, I think. Yes, in the sense that we, you know, we can't always legislate for things that might actually hit on our own personal stuff, who can in some ways have good guesses. So in other words, if you have had a particularly traumatic history and you haven't dealt with things, which perhaps are to do with abandonment, neglect or trauma, whatever we're talking about, then I think of people that work, you know, I was thinking in your area of expertise, really, I was thinking people have been fostered or people have been adopted or people have had traumatic histories to do with abandonment, neglect or we sort of know that if we if we have had that in our own history, then there's a good chance that what they're talking about might actually, you know, we might actually identify with that. So instead of taking people to where we need to go to, which is to their feelings, we may intellectually talk about it instead. Yeah, so we might have good guesses that we don't work with certain people because that might happen unless we've done the therapy and resolved it inside ourselves first. Yeah, you are right, by the way, I also agree with you that you can work with many clients and suddenly as you go down the layers, things to pop up and expect and sometimes with certain clients' histories, I think it's important to think twice as a clinician if you haven't resolved those issues yourself. Do you work with them? And then the other side of it, of course, is you might think you've dealt with them and then actually you find out you haven't. Yeah, I'm thinking of life events, really, do you know what I mean, that can make it quite challenging for us to see people? Like if we, you know, are going through a separation that is kind of like in the present, it can affect us with certain clients if they're coming after going through a separation or if there's been a death in the family or, you know, a life event in the here and now, I get what you're saying about the past and unresolved issues, 100 per cent, but it can be that you've been working with a client for quite a while and then suddenly a life event happens that kind of puts you in a different place. Oh, well, if you've got a life event that was happening, I think I'm just thinking of what you might be talking about. So I don't know, you're part of the dyes. Yeah. Or I don't know, you've been made redundant to work or. Yeah, these are these are the issues you're talking about. Yeah. And then it's up to you as a therapist, I think, whether you take time off work, which then opens up a whole maybe different podcast that we can do at some point in the future, you know, as a therapist. What do we do if a life event happens? And we need to take time out. Well, it is another podcast, but all therapists should have in, you know, have people that they can refer to people who can take therapists. So, you know, you know, that's for I think that professional therapists to have organised, really. So they have got people they can refer to. But that is another podcast. It's a very good podcast. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you know, I just think a friend of mine, who's father died recently, they took three months off. I was thinking of another well-known therapist, his 21 year old son died in a motor car accident and he took a year off. So I think of those are the duty of care issues that therapists need to attend to.  Yeah, you have to make adjustments, I think, which is like, OK, can the supervision, I'm in therapy. Have I got enough support to deal with these things so I can move away from identification with the client? Yeah. And come from an adult to adult perspective. Yeah, which is kind of, you know, what we've been talking about now. The the other side of a challenging client could be one that is attempting to push the boundaries a lot of the time. Which, you know, I think that sometimes comes into the therapy session as well, where they try to extend the sessions or. Manipulation and things. Yes, but yes. And. If you've had adequate training and you have the information how to deal with these profiles and you have supervision. Then you. In most cases are able to to deal with the types of clients you're talking about, which are clients that are in napping out. They're passed on to the present. Now, there are certain clients who are pretty might be particularly disturbed or have a fragile adult that will act out in a way which you find personally hurtful. Yeah. Yeah. What you have to do is take into supervision. And if it's still, if there's still not enough resources there, have a second supervision in the week. And if still doesn't work, you'll have to go into therapy.  The reason why I brought that up, I was watching a television programme called New Amsterdam. I'm not sure if you've watched it, but I quite like it. There's a psychotherapist that works in a hospital and he had a client who was getting overly attached and he stopped seeing this client. But then this client kind of made contact through his family members. And, you know, he got a bit dark in places. But it's, it's that's keeping your boundaries.  But there's also that other side of it that is that ethical to stop seeing a client. It got me thinking watching this programme. They're all different ethical dilemmas. Yeah. As well. I might be for the podcast. But you see, I don't necessarily define those as challenging clients. Okay. That's what I'm trying to say right at the beginning of this podcast. What are you called challenging? Yeah. No. I think the types of clients that you're talking about, we could put into particular if we wanted to, and we've talked about many podcasts narcissistic or borderline or any way we've talked about this before in podcasts. Now you would expect that type of behaviour from those types of clients. Yes. Yeah. You would be trained on to know how to do with that next. So the, the, the dramatisation if it's true or not new Amsterdam, I don't know what type of programme it is. But what you're probably talking about is a borderline client because that's the drama of these types of programmes, which then probably follows the therapist and you have these darker things that you're talking about. However, in the first place, any decent professional psychotherapist would have been having supervision to do, to, to talk about what to do next. Yeah. Yeah.  Yeah. Yeah. There's a wonderful programme by the wonderful, a wonderful DVD became a cult DVD called What About Bob. Now quite like the title, not, not quite like it. And it had the person, Bill Murray, who was in Grand Hock Day. Yes. And Richard Dreyfus, who's very well known as well. And Richard Dreyfus was playing the American psychiatrist. Now in the UK, we could say psychotherapist. And Richard, and that's Richard Dreyfus.   But the narcissistic psychiatrist took on this client, which is Bill Murray, and then he decided to go on holiday.  And of course, what happens then is this paranoid schizophrenic client or borderline client, however we want to define it, then gets a complete flashback to his own life. And then he decided to go on holiday. And then he decided to go on holiday.  And you've got all the dark things you're talking about here. But of course, in reality, the professional psychotherapist is trained to be able to work in a sensitive manner with these types of profiles. Now, if they are trained to be able to do that, they shouldn't be doing the job. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know what to say back to that. Except that I know what you're saying in the terms of people who are clients who are very pushy with boundaries, entitlement and all those things. And I know the therapist has to learn how to handle all these clients, but a very good training and some of the therapist that uses supervision can deal with most of these so-called challenging clients. Yeah. Because in the end, what is happening is they are enacting out their past into the present. And hopefully the supervisor, sorry, the therapist takes these people to supervision. So I'm going back to that. You've got two categories, I think. One is when you haven't had the information of the training to deal with these clients, and then you need to, I think, prefer or not take them on. Yeah. Then you get the clients who hit your buttons and talked about earlier on. And you've got counter-transference. And there's some of the experiences haven't been resolved in the therapist. And then it becomes quite difficult and the clients and the therapist gets merged together. How that can solve itself is through supervision and therapy by a therapist. If that doesn't work, then the therapist needs to, I think, prefer on. Yeah. So taking on board everything that you've just said then, I think it's really important for the therapist to reflect on the sessions and to be self-aware of what's going on, which links into the supervision and things. Absolutely. And I know I've just listened to myself and perhaps I'm being a bit too concrete here and there's blurred edges. I do realise that, especially if you're starting to build up your clinical practice and you're not that experienced and XXX. So perhaps I'm being a bit concrete and these things will happen. I really do want to emphasise supervision there and your own therapy. Yeah. And I was a therapist that always stayed in therapy or had access to therapy. So I was one that just did 160 hours of therapy and then just stopped. So I always had access to therapy and I always used therapy a lot for all many of the things that you're just talking about where clients who are talking about probably the most fragile or traumatic issues and may actually hit on some of my own stuff. I really do please or take a plea for encouraging therapists to have therapy, to have access to therapists and to use supervision very wisely. Yeah. Because in the end are there such things as challenging clients? That is a very interesting question. Yeah. Given what we're talking about here. Maybe there's such things as challenging therapists. Which is kind of my opening statement when I said to you it depends what day you ask me the question. We're going back to that very common sense answer of yours. You know, the many therapists are often very challenged because they have clients who actually are actually hitting their own buttons and then they transfer the word challenging onto the client. And in fact, perhaps their own history is very similar to the clients that have come through the room. They're the most challenged of their best of the client. So we're back to what you said right at the beginning and I said in a very sort of humorous way while perhaps the person should be paid is the client rather than you. But it's an interesting one, isn't it? Yeah, it is. And I think, you know, this podcast and other episodes as a whole, you know, for me, it encourages me to just be more curious and have self reflection, you know, after seeing a client and to look at how it went from my point of view as well. Obviously, I'm in the session for the client but when I come out, does anything stay with me outside of that room of the client? Because to me that's a bit of an indicator that there's something going on. That's right. So if we want to have indicators here that there's something going on for the therapist that's been stirred up by the content of the client, I'll give you some indicators. Number one, that you start thinking about the client outside the sessions in an obsessive way. Secondly, the client appears in your dreams. That sounds scary. No, I have many clients by the way have appeared in my dreams and my third is still my supervisor, both usually. That's two things. So somebody, yeah, a third one will be when you find yourself meandering, thinking about your clients and unable to concentrate on your work.  I suppose that's the obsession if you like. All these indicators are that the content of the client has an earth unresolved psychological quantum of yourself. Yeah. And that's when you need to go to supervision or therapy. Yeah. And as a caveat to that, I want to just say it's, I don't know, it's not like it's just a job and you do the job in that hour and you don't really give two hoots about your clients outside the therapy room. I didn't want to give that impression if that was the one that I gave.  When I walk out of my therapy room, I don't think I'm going to be able to go back to being Jackie as opposed to Jackie the therapist. Yeah. Absolutely completely because otherwise you couldn't, you would not be able to do your job and your life, your life would be very difficult. Yeah. So absolutely on another level completely, I start working clinically after 38 years. And I was thinking the other day and I've actioned it and I'd like to write a sort of a book which would be quite existential about clients and about what we can learn from clients maybe in a metaphors symbolic way. And I started to reflect and think about lots of clients and actually I could think about many, many clients and that was quite nice because it meant that I was, those clients had stayed with me. Yeah. Quite nurturing and soothing. And I could think, oh, yeah, I think about how they've got on and quite a lot of professional satisfaction in my successes. And I think in my elder years and my retirement, that's very nice. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And that's another level altogether. 100% and I get that in a nice warm fuzzy feeling in my stomach and I think I feel the same way with fostering to a certain extent. I've got a bit of those kids in me and I carry that forward. Yeah. Yeah. In an appropriate way. Yeah. In an appropriate way. So getting back to the title of this podcast, I don't know if we have challenging clients and I don't know if we have challenging purpose. I suspect they sort of go together. I think that is a lovely place to end. It's an exploration. That's what we're doing. We're pulling back the curtain on the therapy room. And I think we've done that well. Yeah. Thank you so much. Yeah. In a very relational way. Yes. Yeah. 100%. So what we're going to be looking at next time is the importance of boundaries, which kind of follows on quite nicely from this session. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. It follows on very well because we've been talking about boundaries a moment ago. Yeah. So we're going to do the next one on the importance of boundaries and the one after that about the use of the self and self disclosure in the therapeutic process. Well, you know, I'm looking forward to both those podcasts already. Me too. Me too. Literally. I can't wait. I will see you in the next podcast Bob. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Take care. You've been listening to the therapy show behind closed doors podcast. We hope you enjoyed the show. Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review. We'll be back next week with another episode.