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Where Is Our Following?


jvance

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I don't think it has been slow (though I fall into the rarely check category). It seems like everytime I'm on here there's another Sharkey vs Yori war going on, or there's John lifting insane hub weight, or there's Tommy doing what Tommy does, or there's a new MM0, or there's someone doing a squat lockout with 700lb, etc. That sounds pretty interesting. There are more competitions than I ever remember seeing. There are more accurate records and feats lists. It seems pretty active to me.

As far as the old guard going away, it's natural. People get old, people get injured, people accomplish what they want to accomplish, friends leave making it less fun, and people pass away (RIP).

Some of the guys doing big stuff when I joined: Dave Morton, Tommy Heslep, Heath Sexton, Chris James, Clay Edgin, Jedd, Eric Milfeld, Steve Gardener, Wade Gillingham, David Horne.

A fair number of those guys are still around on the board. I see Heath on here from time to time, Jedd is obviously here, Eric is as well, Steve STILL updates his training log, and I think I've seen David around a couple of times.

We have a lot of new guys doing similar things (big grippers, big pinch, etc.): John McCarter, Jonathan Vogt, Juha, Kody Burns, 164lb Eric 'fountain of youth' Milfeld, and bodyweight wise- I've got to throw a bone to Znosko, just to name a few. I'm not as active these days, so I have missed out on a lot of the current feats (especially bending).

Also, grip used to be a lot more spontaneous and unknown. You had the Praydis boys doing crazy videos, Dave Morton and Greg Amidon doing 100 rednails, and a whole lot of other stuff. It wasn't as well known and accepted that grippers varied and by as much as they sometimes do. Techniques weren't ironed out yet. There was a lot of fun going on: bursting beer cans, doing "feats", comps were random assortments of events, etc. A lot of excitement came from the unknown dynamic. I think people have become jaded these days since it seems like everyone is an MM0 and can 2HP 200lb. In 2005, a #3 close and 200lb 2HP made you somebody.

So, I think there's a lot of activity, and a lot of new and strong guys around. I think that what's changing is that maybe we're losing the "original guys," so it's an uneasy feeling of moving on. It's up to the new stars to create the atmosphere and excitement for the next generation. What makes the board awesome is how freely advice is given to newbs. I still remember being grateful to receive advice from Dave Ostlund (DU bending), Wes Peart, and the rest. There are 16yr old guys reading the board right now looking up to a lot of the new folks and maybe no one even knows. I was that 16yr old about 8 years ago.

*Protip- don't ask Steve for advice if you are asking a foolish question. He can get grumpy.

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From the opening post:

"As big as this country (and world) is, this board and the hand strength community itself is infinitesimally small in comparison. During my move to Texas I drove through some big cities with a bazillion cars and I thought to myself .... why are there like 20-30 people who regularly post on this board..... shouldn't there be more??? Why are we so few and far between?? Just food for thought."


Gripboard data that show increased particpation do not address this point of the opening post. Even if the number of Gripboard posts quadrupled from last year to this year, the writer of the opening post would still have a point that only a very small percentage of the general population is posting on the Gripboard. At least one reason for that is the one I provided: most people, even most athletes to whom grip is important, do not obsess about grip enough to join a subculture that is based around an exclusive focus on grip strength.
This is kind of like asking "Shouldn't there be more people interested in cup stacking?" A fair number of people in the world care about dexterity, and many even require good dexterity to do their jobs and hobbies. But very few care about it enough to join a cup-stacking forum.
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Wtf

Here ya go Tommy

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This is kind of like asking "Shouldn't there be more people interested in cup stacking?" A fair number of people in the world care about dexterity, and many even require good dexterity to do their jobs and hobbies. But very few care about it enough to join a cup-stacking forum.

Lol.

Cup stacking actually seems to be much more popular than grip. This video has 402.835 views. Compare that to a high profile gripper like Mike Burke and his wordrecord on the axle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaslPen9Zns. Only 1.099 views...

In general however I think most people care more about looks than strenght. I see very few people at my gym even deadlifting. The people that are seriously deadlifting however are very often interested in developing grip. They sort of 'get' what I'm doing. They could potentially join this forum for the info that can be found, but nothing more I think.

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Lol.

Cup stacking actually seems to be much more popular than grip.

Hmmm, keep an eye out for CPW's line of premium stackable cups :sorcerer:

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matt, you know they make tons of cups. practice cups, comp cups, weighted cups, etc. they really make us look restrained and reasonable.

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I've been here a long time it seems and the board volume comes and goes. One thing I notice is the subject content also comes and goes - as does my interest in each subject. If everyone is on say a gripper kick - I don't even read, let alone comment much and to me anyway it seems as if the board is dead. If it's something else I may become much more involved. Over time the thing that keeps me in grip is not actually grip per se but my climbing and keeping that hand and forearm strength up. I follow what I'm currently doing - if I'm Olympic lifting or Highland Games etc, I read a lot of those forums - I read a little about PL but not towards competition in any way - I've always read the climbing stuff and really enjoy the competition aspect of the Grip Sport world as it's about the only thing I can still be a little bit competitive at my age - the rest is read for education - but in all honesty I have to do a lot of forum reading to learn much anymore. I find books are generally better for that. I think (know) that after a while the same newbie questions get kind of old and it's hard not to just say to use the search engine and actually read some of the topics you're asking about and maybe that's why some of the old timers don't seem to post as often (or maybe that's just me).

I've made a lot of good friends through this little hobby - we're certainly not changing the world here but we're having fun. I said it years ago and I'll say it again. "Grip is the last strength sport for the normal man". Are we a "fringe" sport? Yep - and I have come to like it that way.

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I was surprised the competition yesterday didn't stir up more posts or threads. I was envisioning live updates and play by plays; only saw updates from Electron. Figured Jon Mc Carter's feats would've have lit the boards up.

You're not supposed to post updates to a contest that is taking place in different zones.

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^I hadn't really considered this, but this is an excellent point. It could give a significant advantage to those in western timezones.

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^I hadn't really considered this, but this is an excellent point. It could give a significant advantage to those in western timezones.

Aww snap, didn't know. My bad.

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matt, you know they make tons of cups. practice cups, comp cups, weighted cups, etc. they really make us look restrained and reasonable.

That's crazy. I watched a cupping video and, wow, that's some dexterity.

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Yeah that was a standard rule for previous postal meets we have done like WSH series.

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Is not dexterity part of grip training eh.. Now I wanna see some cup stacking certs, Bill? Randall? Cannon? Mr. Sorin? Jedd? Anyone?

;)

Edited by Six Barrel Shotgun
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dexterity training is actually a great supplement to grip. Dex balls, baseballs/softballs and even 6-8lb shot puts are a great way to keep the hands and fingers active and strong between workouts. I am actually planning on ordering a set of heavy shots to work with. The 8lbers are very challenging due to their size and weight.

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No doubt. And armwrestling has a bigger following worldwide than both grip and powerlifting, i think.. But in comparison to vanity associated sports, all strength sports could easily be considered niche. And thats sort of sad..

And not to get too far off topic, but when i stop and think about it, if it were to come down to a street fight, i would much prefer having strength than being cross-fit, or "vascular". Lol!

I think one of the factors here is with grip, the proverbial sh*t hits the fan pretty fast if you're trying to get anywhere grip-wise.

You can get by curling/benching and doing an occasional squat or deadlift for years which is what most ppl in commercial gyms do.

Unless you start pushing yourself and go heavy - this is easy.

Crossift is a step up intensity-wise (most of the time anyway) but still unless you're competing you can go through the motions after getting into the general groove of things for a long time.

Grip is different - (taking grippers as an example) unless you're satisfied closing whatever gripper you can close right away, stepping up is intense and requires some dedication (and pain) most of the general population isn't used to.

My 2c.

Edited by beef_supreme
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dexterity training is actually a great supplement to grip. Dex balls, baseballs/softballs and even 6-8lb shot puts are a great way to keep the hands and fingers active and strong between workouts. I am actually planning on ordering a set of heavy shots to work with. The 8lbers are very challenging due to their size and weight.

Yes. John Brookfield is a big fan of dexterity balls and such. He has released a booklet on the subject.

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^I hadn't really considered this, but this is an excellent point. It could give a significant advantage to those in western timezones.

I guess maybe it wasn't actually a rule, but having participated in several of these mega-comps, I just remembered it from the past. No big deal.

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