2017 July - SJ4 - Rich Cottrell

[richcottrell]

 Trip Report – SJ4 – Rich Cottrell

I will have to break this report into a few posts over a few weeks otherwise I will get never get around to making it happen…

and I am going to jump around with the timeline, but I will try to use bold headings to let you know what I am talking about.

The Bending Competition:
Nate begged me to shoot the video for SJ4, but he waited untill just about the last second.  Actually it was like 4 weeks out, but for me that was not enough time.. also,          I will be honest, I got burned out on doing "grip video" after the whole Living Legends DVD experience, so I really did not want to do video for SJ4.  That said, Nate is my best friend in this world of grip, and I knew about all the painful details he worked out to make that day - and night- one of the most epic events for GripSport and for the entire Grip Community.  How could I say no to Mr. Ambassador?

I will post later about the Video stuff, but this is the part where I tell you I had to literally argue with Nate to convince him that I would NOT compete in order to take video.  You see, one really can't do both at the same time and focus 100% on either.  [Hats off to Jedd; as he always finds a way to compete at a high lever and still get some video].
Seriously, I had to literally argue with Nate to let me “just” do the video and not compete.
Honestly, I did not care about the NOT competing part, but it was a little depressing knowing I would miss out on time being able to talk with people and meet some people for the first time... there were internet friends that would become real people finally, but I was now “semi” in charge of the video... so the focus of my energy was redirected there to help document the event, and I was now going to have to be more of a Fly on the Wall.

About a week before the comp I came to this realization:

I was going to be like “that guy” at Woodstock.  You know "that guy" who in 1969 took so many drugs on the VW Bus ride to the Woodstock Music Festival, that he fell asleep when he got there.  He woke up three days later only to hear Jimmi Hendrix playing the last chord of the Star Spangled Banner.  

For the Woodstock Generation, either you were there or your were not there.  While "that guy" was there, he slept through the whole festival high as a kite.

By agreeing to do the video, I was now going to be "that guy" at the Woodstock of Grip Competitions!  Only I would have to stay sober.

While I would be there physically, I was going to miss out on much the Grip Event; the Grip Event that either you were there, or you were not!

But, Then a light bulb went off...

Even though I stopped bending in November due to a beer induced bending injury, I decided to throw my hat into the bending competition, [while I did not tell Nate, I figured there was no way I could film it properly if I was competing; and I knew it would be the last thing that happened for the official SJ4, so i figured i would have soooooo much footage already I could always say my batteries were dead when nate yells at me for not filming the bending too... also, considering I had to argue with Nate NOT to compete in the fist place, i could lay the guilt on heavy for the big guy.]. So the plan became; I would put the camera down at the end of the night and try to bend... just so I could say:
“I was there!"

Bending Strategy:
While I did not think too hard about strategy here was my approach:
1) I was not going to use my own wraps.  I knew the house wraps would be WAY better broken in then mine.  Also, then I would only have to lug around my video gear at SJ4.

2) You could pre-wrap three bars as long as they were 3 different diameter bars. 
Before my hand injury, I was only bending 60D nails and drill rod.  At 7” my best complete drill rod bend were “i” bars and I only ever wobbled “K”. 
So I wrapped three bars.   An easy 3/16”, a base line ¼” bar (that is  equal to a yellow nail - correct?), and  a 9/32” bar, which I figured would be just as hard as  the “K” drill rod I never completely bent before. 

While I did not have mental confidence in success with that 9/32” after not bending in 7 months, I figured I would be able to pre-wrap it, so IF I felt strong and IF the adrenalin of the competition filled me with inner strength, maybe I would try it.  If not it would just sit there.

Looking back at strategy #2, I did NOT feel strong.  Also, I can say that I was NOT filled with adrenalin.  Not to say the Bending Competition was not invigorating.  As a matter of fact, it was rejuvenating for me.

You see, it was a super long day.  I was up at 4am to shower and load the car.  I wanted to be at the hotel by 6:30am to rig and wire the last lights.  As usual with early crew calls, I slept very lightly and probably was awake at 3am as I nervously tried to sleep while my brain was filled with “worst case scenario” thoughts about the video work.

When it came to the bending part of the night, it was the first time the camera was away.   What was it 8pm at night?  I was tired from holding the camera, and just as sweat covered as everyone that day...
But, the camera was finally away for good.  And I could finally relax and enjoy the chaos.   It was a long hot day [More on that for another time] so it was great to have a beer or two and just relax and compete a little.

To be fully honest, I was never a real competitor for bending.  I just wanted to EARN my shirt that says “I was there.”  I put zero effort into preparation    As a matter of fact I did ZERO bending the week before the competition, and I did not bend anything until my 3 Min started at SJ4.

There was only one board to pre-wrap your bars on, so I just used the floor and foot method to wrap my three bars.  In hindsight, while this was not a strategic decision, it might have been a happy mistake.  In wrapping the bars that way, you never get a real tight wrap, but for this competition, you only have 3 min to bend as much as possible.  If you have a wrap go wrong, the time you will waste re-wrapping it will put you out of the competition.  With a slightly loose wrap you probably will be able to successfully put them on multiple times without the next bar ruining the wrap.  That is my new theory at least.

For example on Delmar’s first bend – I think it was 5/16”--  it turned out to be just shy of 2” after he threw it to the floor to move onto his second big bar.  As he hastily tried to put that first bar back into his wraps, either the tightness of his original wrap, or the saying “haste make waist” took over and those wraps were less then optimal for him for the rest of his 3 min.  While he still bent 5 or 6 of these bars, I would have to think he could have done more, or at lest had more time in the end to bang out some easy ¼” bars (which were worth 210lbs) had he not been forced to mess with his wraps during the competition.

 

For me, my first bend was a ¼”  in the end I was told I did 9 of them.  If that number is accurate, I think because my wraps might have been a little looser to start with, maybe my “looser” wraps held up longer for me. 
I am the only person to get 9 bars out of one set of wraps.  Jose got 8 out of his, and Shawn and Anton  got 7 out of theirs. 
Had Delmar not had a problem with is wraps, he surly could have bent at lest one more bar and taken first place.

 

back to my 3 min of bending.... I did try that 9/32” bar  after maybe 3 or 4 of the 1/4" bars, but right away I knew that was not going to happen so I gabbed that easy  3/16” to put away as fast as I could before returning to the ¼” bars.
In hindsight, I knew that 9/32” bar would not happen.  All I was thinking about was the TIME saving in the ability to pre-wrap three different bars.  I did not think about it being a waste of TiME to even try.  Not to mention a waste of ENERGY…  If I just bent another little bitty 3/16”, and no one else’s score changed, I would have beat Jose for 4^th place by 20lbs.

Had I gone after a ¼ instead --and had I been successful-- then I would have had a total of 2180 and I would also have beat Andrew Dabe for 3^rd.  (Again if no one else score was changed) but:

If all competitors bent with this strategy of: Not wasting any time, and true conservation of energy, I am sure I would have placed below my 5^th place finish.
I would also have to say in hindsight, none of us looked at being the most economical in our use of the 3 min.

But this was super fun.  Probably the only people who watched the bending were the 9 or 10 of us who were competing.  It was almost like dock workers playing quarters before the delivery comes in.  There was this chaos in the corner, while everyone else was doing their own things..  It was super fun.  Thank you Nate for creating the idea, and Delmar and Andrew Pantke for making it happen.

DVD’s of the SJ4 competition bending will NOT be available.  Either you were there or you were not.

Edited July 21, 2017 by richcottrell

[richcottrell]

Here are the bending results as logged that night.

[anwnate]

You rock Rich!  Thank you for all your efforts...the day of and before.  Few people will know all you did to make this contest a success.

As always...good reading.  

[JHenze646]

I watched the bending as much as I could but I kept "hitting the bars" with the bender competing and my teeth started hurting.

[Anton.Torrella]

Good recount rich - I agree with your theory using slightly looser wraps to continue shoving new pieces of steel in them - in hindsight I remember many times training when I've tightly wrapped a nail, bent it, then tried to shove the same size bar right back into those wraps and it totally not working - great time at the too-hot-for-dvd bending comp!

[richcottrell]

On 7/26/2017 at 10:08 AM, Anton.Torrella said:

 - great time at the too-hot-for-dvd bending comp!

I just caught your joke.

too-hot-for-dvd...
as seen on TV?