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How Does John Brookfield Stack Up?


Ari

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I do agree with Richard and Gazza-

Regardless of what Brookfield can or can't do, now or in the past, he has been an inspiration for a generation of grip guys in the US. Even if he isn't/wasn't the strongest, his place in the history of our game is assured.

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A few things. Why does it seem so amazing he could throw a 30lb Kbell 30 feet up? The 56 WFH stands over 18 feet, if you cut the weight in half you couldn't add 12 feet? I could probably throw a 30lb Kbell close to 30 feet up. I certainly wouldn't try to catch it. If JB can toss an 80lb hand to hand, why not catch a 30lb at speed. It's not like he has to stop it cold as soon as he touches it. I saw him on some morning TV show about a year or so ago, tearing cards, scrolling steel (he rolled up a piece of 3/4"(I think) round into a coil about 12" diameter), swinging a kettlebell at the end of at least a 10' rope, flipping a 32kg KB from hand to hand while spinning it with a finger in midair. I don't know if he's got the Strongest grip on earth, but it's right up there, I'd guess. All the folks who want a standard grip contest with him should then have to go match him at an equal number of his feats in a best of 10 or some such. Comparing him to current champions, is in my opinion, a bit unfair. Grip in the USA has only been popular for less than 10 years & really peaked in the last 3-4 years. He was doing stuff well before all the info was available, boards were up, and such.

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A few things. Why does it seem so amazing he could throw a 30lb Kbell 30 feet up? The 56 WFH stands over 18 feet, if you cut the weight in half you couldn't add 12 feet? I could probably throw a 30lb Kbell close to 30 feet up. I certainly wouldn't try to catch it. If JB can toss an 80lb hand to hand, why not catch a 30lb at speed. It's not like he has to stop it cold as soon as he touches it. I saw him on some morning TV show about a year or so ago, tearing cards, scrolling steel (he rolled up a piece of 3/4"(I think) round into a coil about 12" diameter), swinging a kettlebell at the end of at least a 10' rope, flipping a 32kg KB from hand to hand while spinning it with a finger in midair. I don't know if he's got the Strongest grip on earth, but it's right up there, I'd guess. All the folks who want a standard grip contest with him should then have to go match him at an equal number of his feats in a best of 10 or some such. Comparing him to current champions, is in my opinion, a bit unfair. Grip in the USA has only been popular for less than 10 years & really peaked in the last 3-4 years. He was doing stuff well before all the info was available, boards were up, and such.

I have a hard time seeing him having the timing to catch it. I knew the 56lb WFH was up there pretty good, however the aren't catching it coming back down. I would think that kind of weight and velocity would result in stuff coming off. If he can do it, awesomeness.

I am not an anti-Brookfield guy, he would whip my ass in any contest, I was just stating my opinion on one of his claims.

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A few things. Why does it seem so amazing he could throw a 30lb Kbell 30 feet up? The 56 WFH stands over 18 feet, if you cut the weight in half you couldn't add 12 feet? I could probably throw a 30lb Kbell close to 30 feet up. I certainly wouldn't try to catch it. If JB can toss an 80lb hand to hand, why not catch a 30lb at speed. It's not like he has to stop it cold as soon as he touches it. I saw him on some morning TV show about a year or so ago, tearing cards, scrolling steel (he rolled up a piece of 3/4"(I think) round into a coil about 12" diameter), swinging a kettlebell at the end of at least a 10' rope, flipping a 32kg KB from hand to hand while spinning it with a finger in midair. I don't know if he's got the Strongest grip on earth, but it's right up there, I'd guess. All the folks who want a standard grip contest with him should then have to go match him at an equal number of his feats in a best of 10 or some such. Comparing him to current champions, is in my opinion, a bit unfair. Grip in the USA has only been popular for less than 10 years & really peaked in the last 3-4 years. He was doing stuff well before all the info was available, boards were up, and such.

On Brookfield`s kettlebell vid he demonstrates some fairly awesome work with KBs. Such as; muscleout to the front with a 50 lber. He swings the 50 lber out front with straight arm, flips it onto his forearm and locks the arm for a couple secs. Deadlifts a 100 lber and a 150 lber by the handles with one hand. He stated he has another 150 lber that he DLs with the 150 he shows in the vid. The handles are 3 inches in width together.

He flips a 50 lber to a height of about 8-9 ft and catches it on the way down. He does a one handed clean with a 50 lber and at the top of the clean, releases the KB and catches it by the bell on it`side. Fairly amazing stuff I think

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On Brookfield`s kettlebell vid he demonstrates some fairly awesome work with KBs. Such as; muscleout to the front with a 50 lber. He swings the 50 lber out front with straight arm, flips it onto his forearm and locks the arm for a couple secs. Deadlifts a 100 lber and a 150 lber by the handles with one hand. He stated he has another 150 lber that he DLs with the 150 he shows in the vid. The handles are 3 inches in width together.

He flips a 50 lber to a height of about 8-9 ft and catches it on the way down. He does a one handed clean with a 50 lber and at the top of the clean, releases the KB and catches it by the bell on it`side. Fairly amazing stuff I think

With respect I do not think this is that amazing at all. I am wowed by JBs double kb juggling, bending, tearing and grip but I think that his KB work ( that I have seen) is for the most part quite easily achieveable.

Rydini Of The Shire

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On Brookfield`s kettlebell vid he demonstrates some fairly awesome work with KBs. Such as; muscleout to the front with a 50 lber. He swings the 50 lber out front with straight arm, flips it onto his forearm and locks the arm for a couple secs. Deadlifts a 100 lber and a 150 lber by the handles with one hand. He stated he has another 150 lber that he DLs with the 150 he shows in the vid. The handles are 3 inches in width together.

He flips a 50 lber to a height of about 8-9 ft and catches it on the way down. He does a one handed clean with a 50 lber and at the top of the clean, releases the KB and catches it by the bell on it`side. Fairly amazing stuff I think

With respect I do not think this is that amazing at all. I am wowed by JBs double kb juggling, bending, tearing and grip but I think that his KB work ( that I have seen) is for the most part quite easily achieveable.

Rydini Of The Shire

Achievable? yes I agree. Easily? I do not agree. The man tosses 100 lbers around like it`s a basketball. You ever had a 100lber in your hand Rydini? :)

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David Horne,

if contest results are a method which you use to determine how one athlete compares to others in a given field, how did you come up with Apollon ( Louis Uni ) being rated #2 on your list of greats a couple of years ago ( forget about the other athletes that were on your list of greats for now )? What formal competitions do you know of that Apollon competed in? Sure, people have heard about the tremendous account of him throwing over his head with one hand a barbell with a 2 3/8" shaft weighing 226lbs or him squeezing on a Regnier dynamometer 337.3 lbs.

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Ahh, someone (name?) who read the Iron Grip magazine. Well as you will know that Top 30 was listed for a bit of fun in the March 2001 issue.

As you can see by March 2001 there had been hardly any grip contests anywhere, only really the 8 British Grip Champs. http://www.gripboard.com/index.php?showtopic=14889&st=20

Nowadays this is different as there are so many contests (once again see the link), so it is easy to see who is doing what.

That list was the best I could come up with at the time, and would be quite different now. How times change!

David

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i had a talk with john brookfeild. very humble man. and i asked him about grippers. and says tthey are not to practical in the real world. don't carry over well. i agree with him there. but, he says they are good for testing your strength. and his workouts consists of kettlebells. and swinging a fifty pound hammer for 20 to thirty minutes straight. 25 reps then alternate to the otherside for another 25 reps. that is damn impressive. and they even showed him on tv. and he does go around performing his feats. but, he does it in front of audiences. because he likes preaching about lord. and he has to make a living.therefore he likes to get paid for his showing off his feats. and respectably so. that is his liveley hood. i tried swinging a 35 pound hammer. man i didn't last fifteen minutes. and i am a strong dude.

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Flexion of the hand (crushing for example) is an aspect of functionality that occurs hundreds of times per day within all of us. I would say that is functional. Woudn't you?

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not really. cause i know for a fact, that i can do six reps with the twos. and went fishing with my friend. who barely did the ones. and when you are gutting fishing, it is hard on the hands, pulling fishing nets etc. and man i could't keep up with him. even to hold on to a fish while trying to get it out of the net is hard. cause they are so damn slippery and you have to grip hard all damn day. so, i thought to myself. the grippers i hve been using are not much help in this type of work. i don't have much functional strength. like trying to carry over weight lifting to a job where you lift heavy objects all day. don't work. tried that too.

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not really. cause i know for a fact, that i can do six reps with the twos. and went fishing with my friend. who barely did the ones. and when you are gutting fishing, it is hard on the hands, pulling fishing nets etc. and man i could't keep up with him. even to hold on to a fish while trying to get it out of the net is hard. cause they are so damn slippery and you have to grip hard all damn day. so, i thought to myself. the grippers i hve been using are not much help in this type of work. i don't have much functional strength. like trying to carry over weight lifting to a job where you lift heavy objects all day. don't work. tried that too.

Does not say much. You doing six reps on a two and him barely doing the #1 can all be explained by technique.

With six reps on a #2 you do not have great crushing strength and you cannot expect to do extremely well in situations you just mentioned.

I only do heavy grip comp event training these days and my functional strength is very good. Far better than when I did the usual gym lifts.

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On Brookfield`s kettlebell vid he demonstrates some fairly awesome work with KBs. Such as; muscleout to the front with a 50 lber. He swings the 50 lber out front with straight arm, flips it onto his forearm and locks the arm for a couple secs. Deadlifts a 100 lber and a 150 lber by the handles with one hand. He stated he has another 150 lber that he DLs with the 150 he shows in the vid. The handles are 3 inches in width together.

He flips a 50 lber to a height of about 8-9 ft and catches it on the way down. He does a one handed clean with a 50 lber and at the top of the clean, releases the KB and catches it by the bell on it`side. Fairly amazing stuff I think

With respect I do not think this is that amazing at all. I am wowed by JBs double kb juggling, bending, tearing and grip but I think that his KB work ( that I have seen) is for the most part quite easily achieveable.

Rydini Of The Shire

Achievable? yes I agree. Easily? I do not agree. The man tosses 100 lbers around like it`s a basketball. You ever had a 100lber in your hand Rydini? :)

Zcor thanks for your response. In answer to your question I have not played with a 100lber before no. However I have played with 32kg KB and that I can throw around like its a joke. Not trying to inflate my status on the board, it just is the way it is. After being able to double flip the 32kb and throw it all around the shop and watch guys like Smitty ( Diesel) toying with the big ass kettlebell for double flips I have yet to see a JB clip ( apart from Double Kettlebell juggling) that is hard to achieve without a small amount of practice.

When I say 'easy' I mean relative to some of the awesome feats that he and others on the board does. In my humble opinion his KB work that I have seen is cool but not world class.

Rydini Of The Shire

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not really. cause i know for a fact, that i can do six reps with the twos. and went fishing with my friend. who barely did the ones. and when you are gutting fishing, it is hard on the hands, pulling fishing nets etc. and man i could't keep up with him. even to hold on to a fish while trying to get it out of the net is hard. cause they are so damn slippery and you have to grip hard all damn day. so, i thought to myself. the grippers i hve been using are not much help in this type of work. i don't have much functional strength. like trying to carry over weight lifting to a job where you lift heavy objects all day. don't work. tried that too.

Sounds more like functional endurance.

You could probably find situations where a petite woman would outperform a grip master given enough duration of the exercise.

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not really. cause i know for a fact, that i can do six reps with the twos. and went fishing with my friend. who barely did the ones. and when you are gutting fishing, it is hard on the hands, pulling fishing nets etc. and man i could't keep up with him. even to hold on to a fish while trying to get it out of the net is hard. cause they are so damn slippery and you have to grip hard all damn day. so, i thought to myself. the grippers i hve been using are not much help in this type of work. i don't have much functional strength. like trying to carry over weight lifting to a job where you lift heavy objects all day. don't work. tried that too.

Does not say much. You doing six reps on a two and him barely doing the #1 can all be explained by technique.

With six reps on a #2 you do not have great crushing strength and you cannot expect to do extremely well in situations you just mentioned.

I only do heavy grip comp event training these days and my functional strength is very good. Far better than when I did the usual gym lifts.

M.S. - I am right along with you. Key word; functional. I appreciate you taking the time to bring reality into this thread. It does not go unnoticed.

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not really. cause i know for a fact, that i can do six reps with the twos. and went fishing with my friend. who barely did the ones. and when you are gutting fishing, it is hard on the hands, pulling fishing nets etc. and man i could't keep up with him. even to hold on to a fish while trying to get it out of the net is hard. cause they are so damn slippery and you have to grip hard all damn day. so, i thought to myself. the grippers i hve been using are not much help in this type of work. i don't have much functional strength. like trying to carry over weight lifting to a job where you lift heavy objects all day. don't work. tried that too.

It has been said so many times before, and yet I find my self saying it again. Specialization must be seen as just that, specialization. Fish gutting and grippers are far from the same thing. If you want to get good at grippers no one would suggest a regimine of fish gutting unless you were in some old Kung Fu movie. I do not find it strange at all that your friend who, and I am guessing, fishes a lot does not have a problem doing it all day long but fails at grippers. Does he train grippers as often as he guts fish? Correlation?

If you want to create a functional grip do functional grip exercises. If your goal is fish gutting, gut fish. your correlation is like a dead lifter stacking fifty pound bags of potatoes, sure you are lifting weight and squating during the movement but it really is not the same, just like comparing fish gutting to grippers.

-Sean

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i thought we were talking about grippers carrying over to other functional uses. and these guys can crush my hands. we sometimes play around handshakes, try and make each other say uncle. they got good crushing grip.

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not really. cause i know for a fact, that i can do six reps with the twos. and went fishing with my friend. who barely did the ones. and when you are gutting fishing, it is hard on the hands, pulling fishing nets etc. and man i could't keep up with him. even to hold on to a fish while trying to get it out of the net is hard. cause they are so damn slippery and you have to grip hard all damn day. so, i thought to myself. the grippers i hve been using are not much help in this type of work. i don't have much functional strength. like trying to carry over weight lifting to a job where you lift heavy objects all day. don't work. tried that too.

Sounds more like functional endurance.

You could probably find situations where a petite woman would outperform a grip master given enough duration of the exercise.

ever tried taking a slimy slippery fish from a net. takes more then endurance. takes lots of grip strength. and edurance.

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ever tried taking a slimy slippery fish from a net. takes more then endurance. takes lots of grip strength. and edurance.

Yes I have. How do you know it takes a lot of grip strength?

Do you have a lot of grip strength?

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ever tried taking a slimy slippery fish from a net. takes more then endurance. takes lots of grip strength. and edurance.

Yes I have. How do you know it takes a lot of grip strength?

Do you have a lot of grip strength?

You should answer your own question. If the answer is yes, is it because a piece of paper says that you hold a certain certification?

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