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2017 International King Kong Grip Challenge - October 28th


Eric Roussin

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2 hours ago, Royz said:



I'd like to single out Tanner Merkle. 4th overall with three guys above him who are all (at least) 25kg heavier than him!  Proving that weight isn't very important in grip. Amazing performance.

Mr Tanner would be competing in the 93k class if he decided that its worth the effort to train deadlifts (i.e. the axle). Therefore your argument is flawed (apart from the fact that outliers should not be treated as mean/median). Tanner would probably be good for 200 kg or so in the axle IF he added muscle tissue to his legs and back required to pull that kind of weight. If I stopped training deadlifts I would soon enough have the strongest thick bar grip by a good margin in the 66k class on crusher-type handles. Climbers who decline to train muscle adding exercises like deadlifts will always have very high grip strength for their bodyweight. Does not mean bodyweight is not important in grip it just means that you can compete in a lighter weight class and get away with it unless you have to do the axle deadlift. Mr Tanner would be nowhere near the top at his current bodyweight if the crusher lift was substituted with the axle.

His thickbar grip is exceptionally good no matter what (and he is of course fully entitled to avid mass building lifting) but your argument is not.

I fully expect this to be misinterpreted as criticism of Mr Tanner as opposed to criticism of your, imo, factually incorrect argument (see eg NAGS list for the most contested lift, the 2HP).

Mr Tanner has done nothing wrong, he displayed huge strength in relative as well as in absolute terms but almost all of the rest of us have added considerable bodyweight by doing heavy ass deadlifts, hence the problem with your line of reasoning.

At the end of the day the contest was won by a pretty large individual even without the requirement to be able deadlift a decent weight.

Edited by Mikael Siversson
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33 minutes ago, Mikael Siversson said:

Mr Tanner would be competing in the 93k class if he decided that its worth the effort to train deadlifts (i.e. the axle). Therefore your argument is flawed (apart from the fact that outliers should not be treated as mean/median). Tanner would probably be good for 200 kg or so in the axle IF he added muscle tissue to his legs and back required to pull that kind of weight. If I stopped training deadlifts I would soon enough have the strongest thick bar grip by a good margin in the 66k class on crusher-type handles. Climbers who decline to train muscle adding exercises like deadlifts will always have very high grip strength for their bodyweight. Does not mean bodyweight is not important in grip it just means that you can compete in a lighter weight class and get away with it unless you have to do the axle deadlift. Mr Tanner would be nowhere near the top at his current bodyweight if the crusher lift was substituted with the axle.

His thickbar grip is exceptionally good no matter what (and he is of course fully entitled to avid mass building lifting) but your argument is not.

I fully expect this to be misinterpreted as criticism of Mr Tanner as opposed to criticism of your, imo, factually incorrect argument (see eg NAGS list for the most contested lift, the 2HP).

Mr Tanner has done nothing wrong, he displayed huge strength in relative as well as in absolute terms but almost all of the rest of us have added considerable bodyweight by doing heavy ass deadlifts, hence the problem with your line of reasoning.

At the end of the day the contest was won by a pretty large individual even without the requirement to be able deadlift a decent weight.

If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas. 

I think what you meant to say was, "great job Tanner!"

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Was fun to compete in this year's KK'17. Congrats to all male and female competitors! Special shout outs to Steven Millard- who finished top 15 overall as a master lifter- does not promote himself but is a baad man. Thomas Larsen, who pulled 330lb on V-bar and has only trained on it less than 3 months!! Tanner, what can you say about this young man... 224 plus on Crusher?!?! Bryan Hunsaker for hosting 21 and still posting huge numbers. Eric Roussin who just competed in Florida less than a week beforehand and wins 93KG class- simply one of the best ever. Jedd Johnson, last but not least- worldwide grip legend for many, many years and producing a WR in the flask!! Top 5 overall finish and winner of 120kg -Congrats and appreciate his consistent greatness. I always say about Jedd, to put your lifts on front street like he has for over 15 years and still manage to kick butt is very impressive.

Edited by Kluv#0
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2017 International King Kong Grip Challenge

Venue Standings

1 - Iisalmi, Finland - 43 points (Promoter: Jouni Mähönen) - TOP VENUE
2 - Ukraine - 41 points (Promoter: Ivan Pupchenko)
3 - Salt Lake City, UT, USA - 36 points (Promoter: Bryan Hunsaker)
4 - Moscow, Russia - 28 points (Promoter: Andrey Terenyev)
5 - Järvenpää, Finland - 27 points (Promoter: Harri Tolonen)
6 - Ottawa, ON, Canada - 21 points (Promoter: Eric Roussin)
7 - Wyalusing, PA, USA - 19 points (Promoter: Jedd Johnson)
8 - Detroit, MI, USA - 15 points (Promoter: Andrew Pantke)
T-9 - Parkton, MD, USA - 14 points (Promoter: Patrick Maizels)
T-9 - Arendal, Norway - 14 points (Promoter: Eirik Bruun Ingebretsen)
T-11 - West Deptford, NJ, USA - 11 points (Promoter: Nate Brous)
T-11 - Melbourne, Australia - 11 points (Promoter: Andrew Lea)
T-13 - London, England - 9 points (Promoter: Dan Thomas)
T-13 - Brentwood, TN, USA - 9 points (Promoter: Gil Goodman)
15 - Edmonton, AB, Canada - 8 points (Promoter: Jason Steeves)
T-16 - Gresham, OR, USA - 5 points (Promoter: Michael Thomas)
T-16 - Italy - 5 points (Promoter: Aldo Alberico)
18 - Mindoro, WI, USA - 4 points (Promoter: Allen Heineck)

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@Ivan Pupchenko Your point about the women's classes is quite valid. King Kong has grown to the point where more than a single class should be offered. Andrew and I like to take a few months after King Kong to not think about King Kong, but this is something we'll be examining in the new year.

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45 minutes ago, Eric Roussin said:

@Ivan Pupchenko Your point about the women's classes is quite valid. King Kong has grown to the point where more than a single class should be offered. Andrew and I like to take a few months after King Kong to not think about King Kong, but this is something we'll be examining in the new year.

Thank you very much Eric! I understand how much work you did with Andrew! We all will wait for the next KK, and categories will add more motivation to girls for training...

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58 minutes ago, Eric Roussin said:

@Ivan Pupchenko Your point about the women's classes is quite valid. King Kong has grown to the point where more than a single class should be offered. Andrew and I like to take a few months after King Kong to not think about King Kong, but this is something we'll be examining in the new year.

HAHA Eric so right once all the metals and banners are out we sort of "shut down" till after the new year.  

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I'd like to point out that Jouni Mähönen competes in -93kg most of the time. He weighted him self after breakfast etc. this time. So he is usually around 10kg heavier than Tanner.

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7 minutes ago, Mywor said:

I'd like to point out that Jouni Mähönen competes in -93kg most of the time. He weighted him self after breakfast etc. this time. So he is usually around 10kg heavier than Tanner.

So that makes two light(ish) guys in the top 5... :tongue

Edited by Royz
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26 minutes ago, Tommy J. said:

Yeah that comp is huge! Holy moly!

This is not an untruth. Feelings aside, looking at this post unbiased, its hard not to agree. 

Ive met Tanner. Hes a nice guy. And even though i thought i wouldnt be very fond of him given some of his views towards the sport, i did enjoy visiting with him. 

However, with regards to Tanners thickbar ability, he does have huge hands.. Giving him tons of potential on thickbar and wide pinch. Even he acknowledges that physical advantage. Move his bodyweight up to match (most) guys with similar size hands, or take away some of his hand size so he evenly matches with most guys his weight, and then hes back to an even playing field. Relative to BW and pound for pound arguments, Tanner is still not in the same category as more well rounded competitors like Kody Burns, Adam Glass, Gil Goodman, Yori Skutt, Eric Milfeld, Andrew D. Eric R., etc.

yes, his 1 hand thickbar relative to his BW is eons above just about all of us. But, im not bashful about pointing out that its mostly due to his hand size relative to his light BW. 

When bigger/heavier guys with similar hand size demonstrate the same or better 1 hand thickbar prowess, nobody seems to take note. Then when you put an axle in Tanners hands, everyone gasps at how unfair it is. Nobody tried to do the same for the guys i mentioned above? Those guys just made it happen on the axle. And grippers. And 2hp.

 

I would like to point out, that if you held a comp with all the guys i listed above, scored solely off BW, and did the big 3 grip lifts as the main events, Tanner would come in last. and yes, Yori would also certainly beat him when scoring off BW. Yori is the lightest guy to close a #3, and had a pretty boss axle lift, and a killer 2hp relative to his BW.

 

Tanner is super strong on 1 hand thickbar, and blockweights relative to his BW, yes. But to tout him as THE BW phenom in gripsport for that 1 great talent (that he definitely has a great physical advantage for) might be stretching things a bit.

usually when anyone else has just 1 or 2 really strong grip tricks, nobody jumps up and down about it. Example: Tommy Heslep was probably one of the most monsterously strong gripper guys in history, and most certainly relative to his BW.. that guy was well under 200lbs by a long shot, (like 170'ish i think?) and was manhandling #4's and double TNS'ing #3's better than almost anyone ever. But since his level of ridiculous strength just so happened to be on a grip implement that tries to get shunned these days (grippers), nobody seems to mind forgetting about him. And i dont see anyone getting offended over giving Heslep the "yeah whatever". So why should it be any different with Tanner?

Tanner lifted double bodyweight on the axle!! You don't think that is super strong? Tanner beat everybody on grippers at NAGS championship - you see a lot of guys floating around that can do that with less than a year gripper training? Bent red-nail first time trying. His pinch is very good. I appreciate your comments but to say Tanner is only super strong at 1 hand thick bar is not true. Less than 1 year of grip training- Legend!!

Edited by Kluv#0
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3 minutes ago, Tommy J. said:

Yeah i told him his axle was good, but he didnt seem interested in hearing it.

but yes, i said "super" strong at that 1 thing. 1 hand thickbar. That doesnt mean i think hes weak at other aspects. That means exactly what i saud verbatim.. hus 1 hand thickbar far exceeds hus other grip lifts relative to hs bw.

 

and im not sure if your aware, i was the FIRST guy to bend a red nail on his first try.. with video proof. And im also not sure if your aware, but im one of a handful of guys that get to say im not easily impressed when it comes to unbraced short steel bends. 

I did see your video and that was awesome, along with your long list of grip accomplishments. Relating to your post and mine- agree to disagree with you, have a wonderful upcoming week and Happy Halloween

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Dedicated climbers tend to start at a much higher level than the rest of us (eg Gil, Tanner etc.), for obvious reasons.

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5 hours ago, Mike Rinderle said:

If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas. 

I think what you meant to say was, "great job Tanner!"

Awesome response Mike! Everybody worked hard in this competition and deserves a hats off to all the great achievements! Factors vary greatly with everyone.... and at the end of the day.... we do good at the lifts we work hardest on and which best suit our mechanics and genetics! We use what the good Lord blessed us with and try to capitalize on it the best we can through hard work doing what we love!

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21 minutes ago, WestSlope said:

Thanks Mike! Great job overall, but excellent job on the 4th place stub finish! Four of the masters class men in the top 25 is a damn fine showing.

Arto Joronen, I don't know that you ever visit this board - maybe a friend will extend my congratulations for his decisive class victory. I'm honored to be across an ocean and be able to compete against a grip athlete of your caliber. I hope that next year those of us in the masters class can give you a run for your money.

Also, a huge thank you to Brian Hunsaker and his wife for being fantastic hosts and gathering a great group of men to compete with.

Steve

 

Was great to meet you Steve. Huge props on setting PRs left and right. Congrats on easily pulling over 200lbs on the crusher after your four contest lifts. 

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7 hours ago, Tommy J. said:

Yeah that comp is huge! Holy moly!

This is not an untruth. Feelings aside, looking at this post unbiased, its hard not to agree. 

Ive met Tanner. Hes a nice guy. And even though i thought i wouldnt be very fond of him given some of his views towards the sport, i did enjoy visiting with him. 

However, with regards to Tanners thickbar ability, he does have huge hands.. Giving him tons of potential on thickbar and wide pinch. Even he acknowledges that physical advantage. Move his bodyweight up to match (most) guys with similar size hands, or take away some of his hand size so he evenly matches with most guys his weight, and then hes back to an even playing field. Relative to BW and pound for pound arguments, Tanner is still not in the same category as more well rounded competitors like Kody Burns, Adam Glass, Gil Goodman, Yori Skutt, Eric Milfeld, Andrew D. Eric R., etc.

yes, his 1 hand thickbar relative to his BW is eons above just about all of us. But, im not bashful about pointing out that its mostly due to his hand size relative to his light BW. 

When bigger/heavier guys with similar hand size demonstrate the same or better 1 hand thickbar prowess, nobody seems to take note. Then when you put an axle in Tanners hands, everyone gasps at how unfair it is. Nobody tried to do the same for the guys i mentioned above? Those guys just made it happen on the axle. And grippers. And 2hp.

 

I would like to point out, that if you held a comp with all the guys i listed above, scored solely off BW, and did the big 3 grip lifts as the main events, Tanner would come in last. and yes, Yori would also certainly beat him when scoring off BW. Yori is the lightest guy to close a #3, and had a pretty boss axle lift, and a killer 2hp relative to his BW.

 

Tanner is super strong on 1 hand thickbar, and blockweights relative to his BW, yes. But to tout him as THE BW phenom in gripsport for that 1 great talent (that he definitely has a great physical advantage for) might be stretching things a bit.

usually when anyone else has just 1 or 2 really strong grip tricks, nobody jumps up and down about it. Example: Tommy Heslep was probably one of the most monsterously strong gripper guys in history, and most certainly relative to his BW.. that guy was well under 200lbs by a long shot, (like 170'ish i think?) and was manhandling #4's and double TNS'ing #3's better than almost anyone ever. But since his level of ridiculous strength just so happened to be on a grip implement that tries to get shunned these days (grippers), nobody seems to mind forgetting about him. And i dont see anyone getting offended over giving Heslep the "yeah whatever". So why should it be any different with Tanner?

Here are Tanners lifts (rough estimate or from leaderboards: 1HP (~99lbs), vbar (313lbs), stub (44lbs), Tips Tester (203 1H, 370 2H)  , stirrup (221) and grippers (165-170RGC) are all on high levels if not near the top with his thickbar. The fact that you guys say that he is a one trick pony is purely incorrect; his worst event is pinch which he has come a long way in the past year.  Give him a year to focus on other events including axle and he would be equally on level with many people that are indeed 50lbs heavier. If you want to compare others numbers to those go ahead because there aren't many people that can match all of the at any weight class therefore putting him at an elite level. 

Edited by Lucasraymond
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7 hours ago, Kluv#0 said:

Tanner lifted double bodyweight on the axle!! You don't think that is super strong? Tanner beat everybody on grippers at NAGS championship - you see a lot of guys floating around that can do that with less than a year gripper training? Bent red-nail first time trying. His pinch is very good. I appreciate your comments but to say Tanner is only super strong at 1 hand thick bar is not true. Less than 1 year of grip training- Legend!!

Agree 100%

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6 hours ago, Tommy J. said:

Thanks

allgood man. Im not easily offended simply by being disagreed with.

 

That said, my post above also should not strike any chords with anyone. It is very much my opinion.

 

heres my True sentiments on Tanner

hes frustrating.. i understand that he has to keep a low(er) bw for his main sport, climbing. But what i see in Tanner, just based solely off his numbers, age, freight train start to grip, is that he has the potential, and physical tools, and youth, to literally take many aspects of grip to a skyrocket level. ......IF, he ever decided to go ahead and put on more muscle and REALLY take things to the next level.

Kodys 2hp is going to be very hard to beat, even if a guy like Tanner ever decided to go after the record. But, i think Tanner could easily make a 1-2 year nice and slow transition into becoming a near 500lb axle puller if he ever decided. Seriously. Thats how optimistic i get when i learn of a guy like Tanner. Picture Tanner as a lean 200lb guy. And then picture him at a lean 220lbs.. i literally believe that if he could deadlift well over 400lbs, he could also man handle that same weight on the axle. And then some. 

Seriously... were talking about a guy who i'd bet money on right now being able to farmers walk 2 inch db's at his current bw. 

Basically, right now hes good. Damn good. But i think he could be even better if he quit listening to other whiners of the axle being unfair, and instead focused on it and totally decided to make the axle his bitch.

I agree with that but when you have two passions like he does (climbing and grip); you have to live somewhere in the middle. He isn't just your average rock climber either. As far as the axle thing, I am totally on board with your opinion and I am merely average at it. 

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29 minutes ago, Lucasraymond said:

Here are Tanners lifts (rough estimate or from leaderboards: 1HP (~99lbs), vbar (313lbs), stub (44lbs), Tips Tester (203 1H, 370 2H)  , stirrup (221) and grippers (165-170RGC) are all on high levels if not near the top with his thickbar. The fact that you guys say that he is a one trick pony is purely incorrect; his worst event is pinch which he has come a long way in the past year.  Give him a year to focus on other events including axle and he would be equally on level with many people that are indeed 50lbs heavier. If you want to compare others numbers to those go ahead because there aren't many people that can match all of the at any weight class therefore putting him at an elite level. 

I am new to this.... but I have to agree with my buddy Luke! Not many folks pulling those numbers regardless of body weight! I couldn't imagine if he packed on 50 pounds of BW. If his numbers would go up in conjunction to his BW then that would be UNREAL!

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Guys lets get back to the topic on hand and that is the discussion on king kong and the said results of the contest.

If anyone wishes to have a conversation/debate about said person(s) or types of lifts (no matter the type of tool used) and how it relates to the core movements of grip start another thread for it else where on the board.

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Well this latest little debate was initially at least not about Mr Tanner per se but rather whether bodyweight matters in grip strength competitions. Someone suggested that Tanner's achievements proves that bodyweight is not a factor in grip strength.

The KK results have on several previous occasions been used as a source for discussions on this topic (grip strength/body weight).

Mr Tanner competes in the 83k class and is, unsurprisingly, nowhere near the world records in the 'big three' (grippers, 2HP and axle). Why? Because size matters. The axle record (all organisations) is 230k+ and held by an individual that weighed 160k or thereabouts at the time, the 2HP record is held by Kody (93k) and the gripper record is held by Andrew (105k). Kody is an outlier as demonstrated by the fact that of the number of competitors that has gotten within 10% of his level in competition none was below the 105k class. If we had serious price money in grip the hardest grippers would be closed by people like Brian Shaw.

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4 hours ago, WestSlope said:

Likewise Tanner. I look forward to seeing you at future comps. I'll have to pick my comp lifts better next time. But, yeah, fully psyched to hit 206+ - thanks! The powerlifter dudes were great fun as well. Dave and Willy I think? Did Willy overhead press 315?

he did press 315 overhead waiting to do the vbar

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4 hours ago, WestSlope said:

Likewise Tanner. I look forward to seeing you at future comps. I'll have to pick my comp lifts better next time. But, yeah, fully psyched to hit 206+ - thanks! The powerlifter dudes were great fun as well. Dave and Willy I think? Did Willy overhead press 315?

Yeah man he totally did! Just low key overhead pressed 315 in between grip attempts 

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@Boulderbrew@Mikael Siversson @riccardomagni @Jedd Johnson @WestSlope @rsmdon

Mikael, I'm putting the bodyweight thing to bed.  I have big hands - I'm 6'8.  Tanner and I are about equal wrist-to-middle-finger.  Tanner might be 2.5 inches bigger on hand span!  I've never seen a hand-span like that!  Tanner is impressive across the board - he won every event at our venue with some really strong guys present, and did so at his ultra-light bodyweight, relative to me.  I'm about 300 lbs, and while I can surely out lift Tanner in almost any weightlifting/strongman discipline, Tanner could probably beat me at almost anything in grip.  300+ on the VBAR - not his bodyweight, his grip which is correlated to his hand size and his training (by the way, he can lift more than the 313 or whatever he got).  World Record on the Crusher - clearly not his bodyweight, but his grip.  Pinching and open-hand are very different and require specific training.  His pinch will get there, believe me.

I'll concede something weight-related on the axle, but if the hands aren't there, I don't care if you weight 500 lbs, you aren't pulling 400, end of story.  All good axle lifters have the hands to back it up, period.  Show me one guy that can pull a big axle and has no other grip skills - you can't. 

The weight argument is a crutch, and it is unfounded.  Tanner is walking proof of what is possible if the grip is there.  Yes, he's playing with a different deck than most people - I am a massive human and he makes me look like I have a child's hands.  But end of the day, bigger and stronger hands are a much better indicator of performance in grip sport than bodyweight.

Go up to the discussion of my buddy Uili.  Yeah, he overhead pressed 315 (a light weight for him) in between events.  He took 4th at America's Strongest Man last week.  He outweighed everyone at our venue and is a huge guy!  Did he win a single event?  No.  His grip is good, not great, and I believe he took 4th, at our venue, and on an event basis, was behind Tanner, Steve and me on every discipline.  Go figure...weight doesn't matter.  By the way, if not for Static Monsters, we'd of had 4 pro strongmen, all massive guys, and everyone would have lost to Uili.  Follow the logic?

This long-standing myth of bodyweight is a joke.  Earlier this year, I did seated Rolling Thunder for reps at 200+, and closed a GHP 7 laying on the ground to illustrate it.  My 300lbs can't help me in either scenario - I can do it because of my grip.

Tanner's performance proves that the correlation of weight to grip performance is tenuous at best, perhaps rearing it's head on a rare occasion.  And if you go back to last year, I conclusively correlated the same thing on the basis of 2016 King Kong results.  Go look it up.

Aside, Tanner is an incredibly nice guy, humble and fun to lift with.  I hope we can cross paths, again, soon.  He can be a great diplomat for the sport and has massive potential going forward.  Tanner, congrats on an epic performance and all the best to you, brother!!

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The organizers of King Kong do a great job of selecting the 4 lifts to balance out hand size!! Exactly how grip should be contested

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16 minutes ago, Bryan Hunsaker said:

@Boulderbrew@Mikael Siversson @riccardomagni @Jedd Johnson @WestSlope @rsmdon

Mikael, I'm putting the bodyweight thing to bed.  I have big hands - I'm 6'8.  Tanner and I are about equal wrist-to-middle-finger.  Tanner might be 2.5 inches bigger on hand span!  I've never seen a hand-span like that!  Tanner is impressive across the board - he won every event at our venue with some really strong guys present, and did so at his ultra-light bodyweight, relative to me.  I'm about 300 lbs, and while I can surely out lift Tanner in almost any weightlifting/strongman discipline, Tanner could probably beat me at almost anything in grip.  300+ on the VBAR - not his bodyweight, his grip which is correlated to his hand size and his training (by the way, he can lift more than the 313 or whatever he got).  World Record on the Crusher - clearly not his bodyweight, but his grip.  Pinching and open-hand are very different and require specific training.  His pinch will get there, believe me.

I'll concede something weight-related on the axle, but if the hands aren't there, I don't care if you weight 500 lbs, you aren't pulling 400, end of story.  All good axle lifters have the hands to back it up, period.  Show me one guy that can pull a big axle and has no other grip skills - you can't. 

The weight argument is a crutch, and it is unfounded.  Tanner is walking proof of what is possible if the grip is there.  Yes, he's playing with a different deck than most people - I am a massive human and he makes me look like I have a child's hands.  But end of the day, bigger and stronger hands are a much better indicator of performance in grip sport than bodyweight.

Go up to the discussion of my buddy Uili.  Yeah, he overhead pressed 315 (a light weight for him) in between events.  He took 4th at America's Strongest Man last week.  He outweighed everyone at our venue and is a huge guy!  Did he win a single event?  No.  His grip is good, not great, and I believe he took 4th, at our venue, and on an event basis, was behind Tanner, Steve and me on every discipline.  Go figure...weight doesn't matter.  By the way, if not for Static Monsters, we'd of had 4 pro strongmen, all massive guys, and everyone would have lost to Uili.  Follow the logic?

This long-standing myth of bodyweight is a joke.  Earlier this year, I did seated Rolling Thunder for reps at 200+, and closed a GHP 7 laying on the ground to illustrate it.  My 300lbs can't help me in either scenario - I can do it because of my grip.

Tanner's performance proves that the correlation of weight to grip performance is tenuous at best, perhaps rearing it's head on a rare occasion.  And if you go back to last year, I conclusively correlated the same thing on the basis of 2016 King Kong results.  Go look it up.

Aside, Tanner is an incredibly nice guy, humble and fun to lift with.  I hope we can cross paths, again, soon.  He can be a great diplomat for the sport and has massive potential going forward.  Tanner, congrats on an epic performance and all the best to you, brother!!

Bryan,

I could not have said it better myself. I’ve had this conversation before. Grip strength seems to be the least affected by body weight and total body strength as does say powerlifting, weightlifting or strongman! That is evidenced by guys 200 or below pulling as much or more weight than guys in the mid to high 200s and beyond. It’s disheartening to see others discredit someone’s lifts and try to make excuses as to why someone is so strong. Give the guy his credit no matter who.... because at the end of the day.... if he lifted more than us then there is no excuse.Grip as most of us know is a completely different animal! Way to break it down as an over 300 pounder brother! Tanner did great, I don’t know him at all but am extremely impressed with him and congratulations to you and to all others with the confidence to put themselves out there before an often critical world!

Joe Sullivan 

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