Re-motivated quest for gripstrength starting with IM#3 cert

[Geralt]

Hey people. 

Me and that silly #3 cert. Been on and off for a few years now, although I set up much too early in my training for that goal. I had a log for which I wasn't inspired at all anymore to update and my training got very loose, on and off. Been side tracked and figured out where I stood in training, and really thought about what worked and what not. Been losing some weight, although I wasn't that overweight, but I wanted to loose some flubber since I hope to reach my 40th anniversary this year. 

I have attended my first comp over here in the Netherlands and I won the gripperevent with a fair gap, while other events were reasonable/good and a few below average. Gripperwork does not work well for training allround gripstrength. This, however, made me think about what I want with training and where my goals exactly lie. I have done a lot of everything as well as grip as overall body and periods of solely gripperwork. In both I asked too much of myself and this did not bring me the progress I wanted and needed. This needed to change. And I had a big bagpack of experience both postive and negative.  

Last year I also trained with Joefrey Wibrin who I met in Belgium at his place, and last weekend I attended his Red Nail cert in Antwerp. Talking through the internet is one thing, but nothing beats meeting people and see them perform feats and train together. It's fun. And that is what I want to have in the first place. Fun, and a relieve of the stress/daily regimen that life brings. I am much more at ease at what I am doing and train now when I feel good, not because I am supposed to. Call it bio feedback if you want It works. I write stuff down much more. It works. I think why I do stuff. With what reason. I have specialized my grippertraining much more  and last two weeks I have seen progress in testing I haven't had for a long time. From January on I see a very nice curve that, with ups and downs, keeps rising. Last Friday I missed my 149lbs #3 by a hair CCS. So what I am doing works. Besides grip I also picked up my old hobbies again, drumming and even picked up a guitar. Live's about more (besides family which is most important) than training. 

So, I hear you ask, why post all of this. Well, perhaps there are more guys over here working their way up but asking a bit too much from theirselves. Measuring up against the gripmonsters that house this board. Although it is nice to see borders set and moved, it is more important that you keep fun in training and set and move your own goals. This year I am visiting the US with my family and part of the trip will be attending SJ4 and staying with Nathaniel Brous' family a few days before. This will be a lifetime remembrance for me and my family and I am looking so much forward to meeting all these great guys and galz over here. Thankful for that, that this is happening. So it will be FUN in the first place. As far as training goes, I keep doing what I am doing right now and that is keeping main focus on gripperprogress CCS. Will the cert fall this year, who knows. I haven't got a clue, although I am again very determined and motivated to reach this goal. My personal goal. I have got a few mini goals set for this. I will knock them off one at a time.  

Edited February 27, 2017 by Geralt

[David_wigren]

I'm rooting for you Geralt! That #3 cert will be yours.

[Chez]

I'm glad you are making good process towards the goal. I do miss reading your log. I know you will eventually get this cert. Keep grinding. Look forward to hitting some grippers with you this summer. 

[Geralt]

Thnx guys. I am probably not set up for CCS work, it is a very difficult range of motion. More guys over here are pretty strong allround but the CCS keeps making casualties heh even with the strong guys. So that puts things a bit more in perspective for me. In hindsight I would have been better off probably focusing on other gripstuff for a while but since I am feeling more and more confident my goal is still realistic, I keep up with what I am doing. Definitely looking forward to meeting up Chez, and thnx David for the root! 

[Fist of Fury]

Keep working hard and the #3 cert will happen. Why not try to climb the MM-ladder in the meanwhile?

[Geralt]

1 hour ago, Fist of Fury said:

Keep working hard and the #3 cert will happen. Why not try to climb the MM-ladder in the meanwhile?

I hope so, sir. I don't train MMS at all at the moment because the movement does not have carry over to my wide set work.

I believe that the correlation between MMS and CCS is that if you cannot close a #3 MMS, obviously you cannot close it CCS either, but that is where it stops in my opinion. I say this of course through own trial and error. This may not be the case for others. 

[Adam Juncker]

Definely gonna follow this as I train CCS almost exclusively. It would be cool to know where your CCS strength is now too. 

[anwnate]

Geralt.  I'm gonna say something that might sound silly considering you've been attacking this goal for a time.

Try seriously experimenting with your CCS set.  

Use a CPW 128-132 or something that's strong...but not your top end (because you can't "practice" the top end much).

The SLIGHTEST change in set can easily make the difference between a near miss and an easy smash.  

Nothing proved this to me more than working with my off (retarded) hand.

Experiment from all different angles...I had success with placing the handle end an 1/8" higher and angling the spring down a touch...but that was for my hand.

All our hands are made differently, from the palm size, to fingers (especially the pinky), to the thumb (think Jedd  )...you may be missing the "perfect" set for you.  

If that's the case, you could be "ready" even now.  Mess with it man (even if you have in the past)...at worst, you may learn what you DON'T want to do...at best, you may find something you've overlooked.

We are all rooting for you man.  Your persistence is an incredible motivator. 

[Tom Scibelli]

Good luck Geralt, I also want focus in on the #3 cert. Hope to get to meet you this summer!

[Fist of Fury]

3 hours ago, Geralt said:

I hope so, sir. I don't train MMS at all at the moment because the movement does not have carry over to my wide set work.

I believe that the correlation between MMS and CCS is that if you cannot close a #3 MMS, obviously you cannot close it CCS either, but that is where it stops in my opinion. I say this of course through own trial and error. This may not be the case for others. 

I didn't mean it like that. I know MMS stength can have little carry over to CCS, I'm in the same boat myselft, my MMS is probably 20 lbs stronger now.

What I meant was that it gives you something else to work with. If you focus only on one goal you might miss out other aspects of training that can make you stronger. Also, having other goals can be rewarding if you make progress. It gives positive energy. You might also find other training methods that you haven't found before if you work towards other goals. This could make you stronger and that can be the difference for your CCS work as well.

[Chez]

Geralt and I have discussed this but I want to mention it for the less experienced guys. I am a firm believer that MMS trickles down to CCS with grippers. If you can mms a gripper above your goal ccs gripper, ccs with that goal gripper becomes easier. For example if you work up to mms with coc #3, ccs with a coc #2 won't be that hard. Obviously you will have to practice ccs at that point to refine that technique. This way you can knock mms goals and work towards your ccs goal. You get the best of both worlds and stay motivated. 

[Geralt]

On 1-3-2017 at 0:56 PM, Adam Juncker said:

Definely gonna follow this as I train CCS almost exclusively. It would be cool to know where your CCS strength is now too. 

ATM It's pretty stable up to 145 lbs. From there on up it can go both ways and 150+ still proves a challenge. I have a tough 153 that Joefrey Wibrin also felt and he was surprised by the toughness of this thing also. It would be good for me to kill this one in training. Note that I did train parallel sets before, because it enables one to train the harder range of a gripper. the disadventage for this is that the dogleg is set further to the front of the hand(at least I did) compared to closing a gripper CCS. This can be a handsize matter what Nate also pointed out below. 

On 1-3-2017 at 2:09 PM, anwnate said:

Geralt.  I'm gonna say something that might sound silly considering you've been attacking this goal for a time.

Try seriously experimenting with your CCS set.  

Use a CPW 128-132 or something that's strong...but not your top end (because you can't "practice" the top end much).

The SLIGHTEST change in set can easily make the difference between a near miss and an easy smash.  

Nothing proved this to me more than working with my off (retarded) hand.

Experiment from all different angles...I had success with placing the handle end an 1/8" higher and angling the spring down a touch...but that was for my hand.

All our hands are made differently, from the palm size, to fingers (especially the pinky), to the thumb (think Jedd  )...you may be missing the "perfect" set for you.  

If that's the case, you could be "ready" even now.  Mess with it man (even if you have in the past)...at worst, you may learn what you DON'T want to do...at best, you may find something you've overlooked.

We are all rooting for you man.  Your persistence is an incredible motivator. 

Now this sounds very silly. lol Thanks Nate, you know it. What you describe is pretty much already how I train atm. I don't attempt (heavy) #3 CCS's at all during training (except for testing here and there) and my working range is much lower. This way I feel much more fresh and teach my hands full closes. I am getting in the 135+ range more consistently now (singles, doubles and triples) with CCS training and I hope to keep that consistently up, instead of being dependent of 'waves'. Last Monday I hit my 137lbs heavily filed BBGM pretty easy while it is a pretty sturdy gripper, compared to my 135lbs RB240. Rating isn't everything. 

On 1-3-2017 at 2:58 PM, Tom Scibelli said:

Good luck Geralt, I also want focus in on the #3 cert. Hope to get to meet you this summer!

Thanks Tom, you also a very consistent in your training, so it's a matter of time. It will be very nice to shake hands sir. 

On 1-3-2017 at 3:04 PM, Fist of Fury said:

I didn't mean it like that. I know MMS stength can have little carry over to CCS, I'm in the same boat myselft, my MMS is probably 20 lbs stronger now.

What I meant was that it gives you something else to work with. If you focus only on one goal you might miss out other aspects of training that can make you stronger. Also, having other goals can be rewarding if you make progress. It gives positive energy. You might also find other training methods that you haven't found before if you work towards other goals. This could make you stronger and that can be the difference for your CCS work as well.

Ok, I understood your post right, but if I am working on other sets than CCS, I will 'de-teach' my hands what I am programming now. Maybe that's mental, but at this point I have only one goal., you see. But I fully agree that it is very boring training. I know exactly what I am going to do for training. But, it is necessary. 

On 2-3-2017 at 3:04 AM, Chez said:

Geralt and I have discussed this but I want to mention it for the less experienced guys. I am a firm believer that MMS trickles down to CCS with grippers. If you can mms a gripper above your goal ccs gripper, ccs with that goal gripper becomes easier. For example if you work up to mms with coc #3, ccs with a coc #2 won't be that hard. Obviously you will have to practice ccs at that point to refine that technique. This way you can knock mms goals and work towards your ccs goal. You get the best of both worlds and stay motivated. 

True, parallel is much more fun training for me, and I like the fumbling with the technique. I am a bit different wired towards CCS work than you are. You came during your training for the CCS up to the point that the CCS of any #3 in the 150-155 range was a hattrick. For me, this will never get that way. I see this not as pessimistic thinking, but it's realistic to conclude that there are just differences in strength output seen between people. So I will need to put on more specific training for this than switching between different sets. My parallel set training brought me to the point where I am now, but the converting takes time. I have no idea where I would stand MMS right now. 

 

Lol, well, at least I hope to get this cert within 7 years of training. I take 2010 as my starting point, and I got injured during that time. 2011 was a very bad year as far as training went. 

Edited March 3, 2017 by Geralt

[Joefrey]

Nice to read that you've re-opened the topic. I know you can do it.

[Geralt]

12 hours ago, Joefrey said:

Nice to read that you've re-opened the topic. I know you can do it.

I got a better dot on the horizon again Joefrey, also because of seeing your cert and positive words. So far I am not going to log again, but I do work hard behind the screens. 

[Ouwe Rammer]

You sound like a wise man Geralt!