Thoughts and Ideas for Competition in Florida

[Nigel Blackburn]

Hello fellow grippers,

 

After looking at the general locations of most gripsport meets, I noticed that the Southeast region is criminally underrepresented. To grow the sport, I think it would be beneficial to cover as many areas as possible--not only to spread awareness of the sport, but also to give more opportunities and places to compete. The location would be in Tallahassee, Florida. Tallahassee is located in northern Florida, so it would also be very close to states such as Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, etc. I feel it is a solid central location to many highly populated areas and cities. Yes, the weather is hot and humid here, so I think the logical move would be to schedule the hypothetical competition somewhere around November-February. 

Admittedly, I am still very new to the sport and I would like to get more experience under my belt before hosting a competition. This is more of an idea at the moment, and I wanted to test the amount of interest. I'm fairly certain that I can get a good amount of locals to try it out and compete. I will try to advertise as much as possible and we'll see what happens!

Also, I have full support from a gym owner here (at Tallahassee Strength Club) to host a competition.

I would love to throw in events that are both visually appealing and easy to understand. The idea is to get new people interested!

Please feel free to offer your thoughts and opinions.

Thanks!

[Vinnie]

As long as I am available, I would plan to fly down from NY to attend.  My Dad lives in Lakeland so I would bundle it with a visit to him.

Ideas for events: 

-Euro 2HP, so you can get your record but also it is a great implement;

-Grippers, duh; probably 20mm although I'd love to see TNS or NS, but no one else likes that except for Joe Sullivan and me;

-I love an anvil!  Little Big Horn or similar might be better than a real anvil of course, because loadable would be better for a contested event as opposed to the real anvils used in the Nationals medley;

-Something off the Dube Cube (key pinch implement) might be fun because it is less dependent upon hand size and body muscle (max numbers on all of the Dube Cube options are in the 30-50 pound range I think);

-COC Silver bullet might be fun;

-the May Reddit Grip challenge was fun:  see how long you can hold your body weight on an axle.  Usually tops out at about a minute, plus or minus a few seconds, so not too crazy long if you have 20-30 contestants.

Anyway, I'm probably in if you do it, unless I am just not available that day.

 

[Nigel Blackburn]

2 minutes ago, Vinnie said:

As long as I am available, I would plan to fly down from NY to attend.  My Dad lives in Lakeland so I would bundle it with a visit to him.

Ideas for events: 

-Euro 2HP, so you can get your record but also it is a great implement;

-Grippers, duh; probably 20mm although I'd love to see TNS or NS, but no one else likes that except for Joe Sullivan and me;

-I love an anvil!  Little Big Horn or similar might be better than a real anvil of course, because loadable would be better for a contested event as opposed to the real anvils used in the Nationals medley;

-Something off the Dube Cube (key pinch implement) might be fun because it is less dependent upon hand size and body muscle (max numbers on all of the Dube Cube options are in the 30-50 pound range I think);

-COC Silver bullet might be fun;

-the May Reddit Grip challenge was fun:  see how long you can hold your body weight on an axle.  Usually tops out at about a minute, plus or minus a few seconds, so not too crazy long if you have 20-30 contestants.

Anyway, I'm probably in if you do it, unless I am just not available that day.

 

Good ideas; thanks! I think 4 events will be the magic number in will adhere to. I would love to do 20mm gripper (pending the collection I have by then). I like the 20mm set because it levels the playing field (assuming the contestant can set the gripper). I also like the idea of having something different like the Dude Cube; I've never tried it but it looks interesting. At the moment, I'm very partial to having the Flask as the pinch event since it seems to run quick and smoothly. I think the Euro would be a lot of fun, but I might hold off on that one for the first meet I host--mainly to keep it simple. For thick bar, there are a lot of things to choose from. I'm thinking of a 2.5" Crusher, axle DL, or something along those lines.

Also would be great to have you down in Florida, Vinnie!

[Guest]

36 minutes ago, Vinnie said:

As long as I am available, I would plan to fly down from NY to attend.  My Dad lives in Lakeland so I would bundle it with a visit to him.

Ideas for events: 

-Euro 2HP, so you can get your record but also it is a great implement;

-Grippers, duh; probably 20mm although I'd love to see TNS or NS, but no one else likes that except for Joe Sullivan and me;

-I love an anvil!  Little Big Horn or similar might be better than a real anvil of course, because loadable would be better for a contested event as opposed to the real anvils used in the Nationals medley;

-Something off the Dube Cube (key pinch implement) might be fun because it is less dependent upon hand size and body muscle (max numbers on all of the Dube Cube options are in the 30-50 pound range I think);

-COC Silver bullet might be fun;

-the May Reddit Grip challenge was fun:  see how long you can hold your body weight on an axle.  Usually tops out at about a minute, plus or minus a few seconds, so not too crazy long if you have 20-30 contestants.

Anyway, I'm probably in if you do it, unless I am just not available that day.

 

You’re on point with the TNS Vin! Haha

[Rob McMurren]