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Steel Benders Hall Of Fame


Mike Rinderle

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Voting was held over the last month on the Benders Battlefield and 6 new members were elected to the Steel Benders Hall of Fame. Congrats to all the new entrants. Over 21 people received votes this year and the top 5 + ties were elected. They join a who's who of bending elected in the first class last year.

The new members are:

David Wigren (2012)

Carl Ansara (2012)

Jedd Johnson (2012)

Mike Rinderle (2012)

Mike Hadland "Booyah" (2012)

Mike Krahling (2012)

They join last year's stellar class of:

Ben Edwards (2011)

Aaron Corcorran (2011)

David Horne (2011)

Eric Milfeld (2011)

Pat Povilaitis (2011)

Paul Knight (2011)

Joseph Greenstein: The Mighty Atom (2011)

John Brookfield (2011)

John Beatty (2011)

Dennis Rogers (2011)

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  • 6 years later...

is there an updated list for this thread?

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1 hour ago, richcottrell said:

is there an updated list for this thread?

Unfortunately the Bender's Battlefield died.  There was never another class.

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45 minutes ago, Mike Rinderle said:

Unfortunately the Bender's Battlefield died.  There was never another class.

Why not port that to here and add to it? Maybe set up a webpage. I dunno. Bending gets no damn love.

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2 hours ago, KapMan said:

Why not port that to here and add to it? Maybe set up a webpage. I dunno. Bending gets no damn love.

As with any community. It can only stand when it’s supported by the people within it. I would love to see steel bending blow up big again. But it can only do so when there’s passionate people who are prepared to dedicate time and effort supporting it. I used to be one of those people. But unfortunately I’m not sure I’m one anymore. 

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2 hours ago, KapMan said:

Why not port that to here and add to it? Maybe set up a webpage. I dunno. Bending gets no damn love.

I'd love to see some of it resurrected.  I know they ported over the horseshoe benders top 20 list and are keeping that alive.  Alas, I think Wiggy may be right.  Interest in bending was at or near an all time high from 2010 - 2013.  Even then, an all bending forum didn't make it.

We think grip is a tiny subset of strength sports, but bending is a tiny subset of that subset.  A couple hundred that dabble and 10-20 who are serious about it at any one time.  

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Your close with the 10-20 being serious at a given time. That's about the number of benders I deal with maybe 30 but that's stretching it.  

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17 minutes ago, Andrew P said:

Your close with the 10-20 being serious at a given time. That's about the number of benders I deal with maybe 30 but that's stretching it.  

I think a lot of it has to do with the toll it takes on you if you are bending often at a high level.  Beat me up worse than when I was playing hockey 4 nights a week.  You can only go hard for so long before you have to take a long break.

Also, if you are bending seriously, you can pretty much forget about improving your grip strength.  At best you are stalled usually.  By serious, I mean bending hard stock 3-5 days a week minimum.  I was always a 6-7 day a week guy.  Sometimes a couple times a day.  That gets expensive too.

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1 minute ago, KapMan said:

That blows

Hard

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3 minutes ago, Mike Rinderle said:

I think a lot of it has to do with the toll it takes on you if you are bending often at a high level.  Beat me up worse than when I was playing hockey 4 nights a week.  You can only go hard for so long before you have to take a long break.

Also, if you are bending seriously, you can pretty much forget about improving your grip strength.  At best you are stalled usually.  By serious, I mean bending hard stock 3-5 days a week minimum.  I was always a 6-7 day a week guy.  Sometimes a couple times a day.  That gets expensive too.

Jesus really?  I can only do 2 and thats a week with hard 60ds

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2 minutes ago, KapMan said:

Jesus really?  I can only do 2 and thats a week with hard 60ds

I always say, "why do something  when you can overdo it."  Haha

I never did high volume, but I bent something hard almost every day.  Really tore me up.  Especially when I was bending a lot of really hard shoes. Not for everyone. But (for me) it worked.

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5 hours ago, KapMan said:

Bending gets no damn love.

One of the best aspects about it IMO.  Always been a singular pursuit of an (at-the-time) impossible target.  The one constant in my life for the past 10+ years.

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2 hours ago, Mike Rinderle said:

I'd love to see some of it resurrected.  I know they ported over the horseshoe benders top 20 list and are keeping that alive.  Alas, I think Wiggy may be right.  Interest in bending was at or near an all time high from 2010 - 2013.  Even then, an all bending forum didn't make it.

We think grip is a tiny subset of strength sports, but bending is a tiny subset of that subset.  A couple hundred that dabble and 10-20 who are serious about it at any one time.  

This is definitely something we could look at resurrecting.  Does anyone have the old criteria for selection that was used?  I remember some of it but old age has taken it’s toll.  :upsidedwn

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3 hours ago, Mike Rinderle said:

I think a lot of it has to do with the toll it takes on you if you are bending often at a high level.  Beat me up worse than when I was playing hockey 4 nights a week.  You can only go hard for so long before you have to take a long break.

Also, if you are bending seriously, you can pretty much forget about improving your grip strength.  At best you are stalled usually.  By serious, I mean bending hard stock 3-5 days a week minimum.  I was always a 6-7 day a week guy.  Sometimes a couple times a day.  That gets expensive too.

the sustainability of bending is actually an interesting thing to talk about.  Maybe we could start a new topic.  maybe we should...

Think about Brookfield for a second.  While he did cert the RED, he was bending long before and then still doing his own thing long after getting his cert paper from Iron-Mind to hang on the wall.  
Maybe the "single rep max" system of PR-- which also seems to be what the whole FBBC style of short bar certifications tracks -- could also learn something from some of the steel snapping stuff that David Horne continues to do...
At the SJ4 Comp, we did a timed bending event that was not only about the single rep max.   We still was a hell of a bunch of fun on that short contest yet it did not destroy us physically for the next day.

Sustainability is the work i keep thinking about.

Maybe it was both the high financial cost of that continuous bending combined with the high stress a single rep max puts on the  body that made that previous approach to "Mass Bending" unsustainable. 

My question is, with the people who are still excited by bending -- or the guys who are actually still training bending -- as apposed to the guys  how are  just reading the old grip board  like myself -- could there be something brewing again in Bending?
 

THAT ALL SAID...
This is The Grip Board, so I say lets continue some sort of Steel Benders Hall of Fame.  
If the Bender's Battlefield really died, we could either plagiarize their original list, or come up with "our" own.

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6 minutes ago, richcottrell said:

the sustainability of bending is actually an interesting thing to talk about.  Maybe we could start a new topic.  maybe we should...

Think about Brookfield for a second.  While he did cert the RED, he was bending long before and then still doing his own thing long after getting his cert paper from Iron-Mind to hang on the wall.  
Maybe the "single rep max" system of PR-- which also seems to be what the whole FBBC style of short bar certifications tracks -- could also learn something from some of the steel snapping stuff that David Horne continues to do...
At the SJ4 Comp, we did a timed bending event that was not only about the single rep max.   We still was a hell of a bunch of fun on that short contest yet it did not destroy us physically for the next day.

Sustainability is the work i keep thinking about.

Maybe it was both the high financial cost of that continuous bending combined with the high stress a single rep max puts on the  body that made that previous approach to "Mass Bending" unsustainable. 

My question is, with the people who are still excited by bending -- or the guys who are actually still training bending -- as apposed to the guys  how are  just reading the old grip board  like myself -- could there be something brewing again in Bending?
 

THAT ALL SAID...
This is The Grip Board, so I say lets continue some sort of Steel Benders Hall of Fame.  
If the Bender's Battlefield really died, we could either plagiarize their original list, or come up with "our" own.

As a former moderator of the BB site and the person who conducted the annual HoF vote and tabulated everything, I have no problem with someone taking this list and running with it.

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2 hours ago, Buccos1 said:

One of the best aspects about it IMO.  Always been a singular pursuit of an (at-the-time) impossible target.  The one constant in my life for the past 10+ years.

 

But no one talks about it unless they post a “look what I did” and even then theres what 3 here that currently post regularly.

No innovation, no nothing except ancient stuff from 5-8 years ago. David horne seems to be the biggest promotor with his steel shredders contest (which I wasnt aware of because apparently its like fight club)and then you have 1 contest here. 

Im an idiot though, what do I know. I just feel a way about things. 

 

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16 minutes ago, KapMan said:

 

But no one talks about it unless they post a “look what I did” and even then theres what 3 here that currently post regularly.

No innovation, no nothing except ancient stuff from 5-8 years ago. David horne seems to be the biggest promotor with his steel shredders contest (which I wasnt aware of because apparently its like fight club)and then you have 1 contest here. 

Im an idiot though, what do I know. I just feel a way about things. 

 

Wish you could have been around between 2010 and 2014.  Man, we had us a time.  There were probably 50-75 guys regularly bending and posting.  It was amazing.  Guys sharing tips and techniques.  Videos being made.  World's Strongest Man Finalists climbing the horseshoe ladder.  We were jolly green giants walking the earth.  Lol

It just all died away.  It will get big (relatively) again someday.  Always does.  Seems to come in waves.  Just takes a few passionate guys to lead the way and get everyone interested again.

There are some guys in Russia doing some crazy horseshoe bends in the past couple years.

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10 hours ago, Mike Rinderle said:

I think a lot of it has to do with the toll it takes on you if you are bending often at a high level.  Beat me up worse than when I was playing hockey 4 nights a week.  You can only go hard for so long before you have to take a long break.

Also, if you are bending seriously, you can pretty much forget about improving your grip strength.  At best you are stalled usually.  By serious, I mean bending hard stock 3-5 days a week minimum.  I was always a 6-7 day a week guy.  Sometimes a couple times a day.  That gets expensive too.

I was the same. Bending almost daily, with heavy 2-3 hour sessions. I had blisters and wounds on top of blisters and wounds. 

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Here's the Horseshoe benders list.  It was transfered over here.  Still some guys climbing it from Russia.  Not sure you could replicate the short bending lists and keep them going.  We had about 30 levels of calibrated 0-1 drill rod in each length from 5" - 7" that Mike Krahling calibrated, stored, and sold for the certs.  Doubt there's enough interest now for that kind of investment.  We had certs for every style of bending in just about any level of wraps from barehand to thick doubles.  

 

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3 minutes ago, Mike Rinderle said:

Here's the Horseshoe benders list.  It was transfered over here.  Still some guys climbing it from Russia.  Not sure you could replicate the short bending lists and keep them going.  We had about 30 levels of calibrated 0-1 drill rod in each length from 5" - 7" that Mike Krahling calibrated, stored, and sold for the certs.  Doubt there's enough interest now for that kind of investment.  We had certs for every style of bending in just about any level of wraps from barehand to thick doubles.  

 

Yup wish I got into it in the prime. Would of learned more and probably be a better bender then I am now. 

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48 minutes ago, David_wigren said:

I was the same. Bending almost daily, with heavy 2-3 hour sessions. I had blisters and wounds on top of blisters and wounds. 

Those were the days old friend.  Cletus (USA) Vs. The Swedish Fish (Sweden) in some sort of bending challenge to the death every month for about 2 years.  😀

🦈 vs. 👨‍🌾

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The problem with bending is simply how to do it without destroying one's body.  Everyone I know just goes for a max bend every session - with little to no actual "training" to condition the body for the stress.  Until this is figured out I can't see how the sport can be sustainable.  Everyone know "how" to train for it - just no one does it.  When every other post talks about another person tearing something up - it doesn't really serve as an invitation to start.

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Talking to a bunch of sick high level benders the amount of time to heal after a massive bend can take a month or more. 

If the judging system I'm putting into place works and the judges want to add more categories such as Bending in Battlefield only wraps I would be game to expand. I already want to add a braced bending list to the page.

I would continue with horseshoes but I've yet to find a good wholesaler that will work with me at the volumes I would need.

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