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Armlifting USA at the 2019 Arnold Classic


riccardomagni

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6 hours ago, Mywor said:

Great job guys! 

 

Definitely right direction for armlifting, 

Thanks Jesse.  We think so also.

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  • 4 weeks later...

The fact that @Jedd Johnson wasn't invited to this is a joke.  Guess you can't risk having someone on the committee for a competing organization come in and beat everyone.  

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40 minutes ago, Mike Rinderle said:

The fact that @Jedd Johnson wasn't invited to this is a joke.  Guess you can't risk having someone on the committee for a competing organization come in and beat everyone.  

CEO, are you sure Jedd wasn't invited? I would be shocked if he wasn't as he was overall 2018 Philadelphia Visegrip champ, Former WR holder IM #4 SB and last time I checked Ohio and Pennsylvania are neighboring states.

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16 minutes ago, Kluv#0 said:

CEO, are you sure Jedd wasn't invited? I would be shocked if he wasn't as he was overall 2018 Philadelphia Visegrip champ, Former WR holder IM #4 SB and last time I checked Ohio and Pennsylvania are neighboring states.

He was not invited. Like I said... joke.

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20 minutes ago, Kluv#0 said:

CEO, are you sure Jedd wasn't invited? I would be shocked if he wasn't as he was overall 2018 Philadelphia Visegrip champ, Former WR holder IM #4 SB and last time I checked Ohio and Pennsylvania are neighboring states.

He wasn’t invited 

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1 hour ago, Mike Rinderle said:

The fact that @Jedd Johnson wasn't invited to this is a joke.  Guess you can't risk having someone on the committee for a competing organization come in and beat everyone.  

I asked the same question about Jedd not getting invited. He is one of the best anywhere. 

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 Wow!! Still time for the person(s) to invite Jedd. #G.O.A.T.  Undercurrents of jealousy, pettiness and delusion might be in play.

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Does somebody have the current list of invited grip athletes? I bet that would be interesting...

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4 minutes ago, Joseph Sullivan said:

There is 7.....

Names?

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Just now, Kluv#0 said:

Names?

7 lightweight men and 7 heavyweight men

Ricardo Magni

Eric Roussin

Andrew Durniat

Thomas Larsen

Tanner Merkle

Cody Burns

Jouni Mahonen

odd haugen 

clay edgin

Carl Myerscough

Alexey tyukolov

Roman Padnowski

kytill sarcev 

Jesse Pynnonen

 

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8 minutes ago, Joseph Sullivan said:

7 lightweight men and 7 heavyweight men

Ricardo Magni

Eric Roussin

Andrew Durniat

Thomas Larsen

Tanner Merkle

Cody Burns

Jouni Mahonen

odd haugen 

clay edgin

Carl Myerscough

Alexey tyukolov

Roman Padnowski

kytill sarcev 

Jesse Pynnonen

 

Great list but no Jedd and Gil Goodman is laughable

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7 minutes ago, Kluv#0 said:

Great list but no Jedd and Gil Goodman is laughable

No @Lucasraymond is pretty darn laughable too.

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First, I would like everyone to understand that it took the two of us just over a month to come up with this list. We changed the format of the invitation structure a handful of times, finally settling on this one. Our initial iteration was to include a lightweight and heavyweight women's class, as well as three to four men's weight classes.  However, the format of the Arnold is unlike any other contest most of us have experienced. Having worked with Odd Haugen  at the Arnold a couple years for mas wrestling and  dealing with such strict time restraints, I can tell you that there is absolutely no wiggle room for us to spill over past our allotted time. The Concourse stage in the hallway of the Expo is shared on an hourly calendar, and that hour has to include our set-up, event, awards, and tear down each day. I would like everyone to consider what it might be like to have to set up and run a competition with 20 athletes, some of whom may not speak English and require additional translation, and then tear it down in an hour.

Riccardo and I spent dozens of hours, and that is no exaggeration, cultivating this list of athletes.  Whether you want to believe it or not, objectivity was at the forefront  of our decision-making process.  Riccardo and I have both been competing in powerlifting for probably a combined 40 years and we've been exposed to an entire alphabet soup of federations, each of whom thinks they are doing the right thing and each of whom despises any competing organization because they think the other people are playing favorites in some way.  So it was really important to us,  not just as members of the board of Armlifting USA, but as promoters of this event, to seek out who we thought were an all-star cast. We did also consider whether some of these people we wanted to invite were likely to come.  People like Brian Shaw, who would do very well, but will be there competing for cash money in strongman. And there were several incredibly strong gripsters, both male and female, who turned us down in our initial private discussions because there wasn't money on the line.
 
The weight classes we decided on were an Open Women's category,  a lightweight men's category under 100kg,  and a heavyweight men's  category over 100kg.  We thought that at most we would be able to have 20 competitors participate in a single event  in our 1 hour time slot on each day,  So that meant we had to break up the three groups into roughly 7 competitors each, with possibly more for the silver bullet because that wouldn't take as long to run.
 
Now, there is no question that Jedd Johnson is one of the best gripsters/armlifters in the United States.  I've known Jedd  since my beginning in grip in 2003, and met the man for the first time at the Global Group Challenge in 2004.  He's been a friend and in many ways a rabbit I have tried to chase with some of these grip feats.  But is he one of the 7 best *in the world* over 100kg when it comes to the events we're contesting? All of the HW's invited, excluding me, can do well over 190kg on the axle and 110-115kg on the RT. (as an aside, I'm only participating in the silver bullet). The idea that Jedd wasn't invited because he is in a competing organization misses the mark and only serves to stir the pot Why wouldn't I want the exposure for myself as a promoter and as a director of Armlifting USA  through Jedd's  social media following and his podcast?  
 
Someone also said to me privately that they thought the invitations were put together by Randy Strossen because we're using Ironmind equipment. What, you think he's sitting in some dark office wringing his hands over the list like an evil mastermind, laughing maniacally while writing my mortgage checks? No I pay my mortgage like a real man - with my wife's salary.
 
We used the Armlifting USA rankings and past results to help guide us in finding those top 7 as well. So why didn't Gil Goodman get an invite? Because neither Riccardo nor I know what kind of numbers he can hit on the events we're contesting. Is he high enough caliber to compete at the Arnold under 100kg? I think so, yes. 
 
We have a short list of people who were right on the cusp of getting those initial invites and Jedd  is on that list.  Also on that list is arguably one of the best in the world Harri Tolonen. Harri  is setting World Records  at practically every contest these days and is only really getting started in the sport. Gil is on that list, so is Mervi Pekki, Joel Dircks, and a dozen others. 
 
We knew that no matter who we invited, somebody was going to be upset that they weren't invited. Or in this case,  people were going to be upset that their friend wasn't invited.  It's okay to be upset, because it shows that you care about your friend and you care about the sport. But to call our efforts "laughable" or "a joke" is a little insulting. If you wanna know why it's insulting, I'm gonna let Riccardo talk to you for 2 hours a day on the phone for a month and see how it feels haha
 
We gave those initial 20 invitees until November 1st to sign up. You could call it us giving them the right of first refusal as a reward for being arguably the top 20 in the world in this sport. Out of those 20,  8 have signed up already.  Most of the remaining athletes who have not yet signed up have indicated they want to come, but have not yet entered.  As you can imagine, committing to paying for a flight and 3 days in a hotel at the Arnold can be expensive. A couple have declined, citing personal objections, financial hardships, or injuries. On November 1st, another round of invitations will go out. Those who received the initial invitations will of course still be able to enter, but now will have to do it before  this new batch of folks toss their hats in the ring.
 
 
 
 
 
 
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30 minutes ago, ClayEdgin said:

 

First, I would like everyone to understand that it took the two of us just over a month to come up with this list. We changed the format of the invitation structure a handful of times, finally settling on this one. Our initial iteration was to include a lightweight and heavyweight women's class, as well as three to four men's weight classes.  However, the format of the Arnold is unlike any other contest most of us have experienced. Having worked with Odd Haugen  at the Arnold a couple years for mas wrestling and  dealing with such strict time restraints, I can tell you that there is absolutely no wiggle room for us to spill over past our allotted time. The Concourse stage in the hallway of the Expo is shared on an hourly calendar, and that hour has to include our set-up, event, awards, and tear down each day. I would like everyone to consider what it might be like to have to set up and run a competition with 20 athletes, some of whom may not speak English and require additional translation, and then tear it down in an hour.

Riccardo and I spent dozens of hours, and that is no exaggeration, cultivating this list of athletes.  Whether you want to believe it or not, objectivity was at the forefront  of our decision-making process.  Riccardo and I have both been competing in powerlifting for probably a combined 40 years and we've been exposed to an entire alphabet soup of federations, each of whom thinks they are doing the right thing and each of whom despises any competing organization because they think the other people are playing favorites in some way.  So it was really important to us,  not just as members of the board of Armlifting USA, but as promoters of this event, to seek out who we thought were an all-star cast. We did also consider whether some of these people we wanted to invite were likely to come.  People like Brian Shaw, who would do very well, but will be there competing for cash money in strongman. And there were several incredibly strong gripsters, both male and female, who turned us down in our initial private discussions because there wasn't money on the line.
 
The weight classes we decided on were an Open Women's category,  a lightweight men's category under 100kg,  and a heavyweight men's  category over 100kg.  We thought that at most we would be able to have 20 competitors participate in a single event  in our 1 hour time slot on each day,  So that meant we had to break up the three groups into roughly 7 competitors each, with possibly more for the silver bullet because that wouldn't take as long to run.
 
Now, there is no question that Jedd Johnson is one of the best gripsters/armlifters in the United States.  I've known Jedd  since my beginning in grip in 2003, and met the man for the first time at the Global Group Challenge in 2004.  He's been a friend and in many ways a rabbit I have tried to chase with some of these grip feats.  But is he one of the 7 best *in the world* over 100kg when it comes to the events we're contesting? All of the HW's invited, excluding me, can do well over 190kg on the axle and 110-115kg on the RT. (as an aside, I'm only participating in the silver bullet). The idea that Jedd wasn't invited because he is in a competing organization misses the mark and only serves to stir the pot Why wouldn't I want the exposure for myself as a promoter and as a director of Armlifting USA  through Jedd's  social media following and his podcast?  
 
Someone also said to me privately that they thought the invitations were put together by Randy Strossen because we're using Ironmind equipment. What, you think he's sitting in some dark office wringing his hands over the list like an evil mastermind, laughing maniacally while writing my mortgage checks? No I pay my mortgage like a real man - with my wife's salary.
 
We used the Armlifting USA rankings and past results to help guide us in finding those top 7 as well. So why didn't Gil Goodman get an invite? Because neither Riccardo nor I know what kind of numbers he can hit on the events we're contesting. Is he high enough caliber to compete at the Arnold under 100kg? I think so, yes. 
 
We have a short list of people who were right on the cusp of getting those initial invites and Jedd  is on that list.  Also on that list is arguably one of the best in the world Harri Tolonen. Harri  is setting World Records  at practically every contest these days and is only really getting started in the sport. Gil is on that list, so is Mervi Pekki, Joel Dircks, and a dozen others. 
 
We knew that no matter who we invited, somebody was going to be upset that they weren't invited. Or in this case,  people were going to be upset that their friend wasn't invited.  It's okay to be upset, because it shows that you care about your friend and you care about the sport. But to call our efforts "laughable" or "a joke" is a little insulting. If you wanna know why it's insulting, I'm gonna let Riccardo talk to you for 2 hours a day on the phone for a month and see how it feels haha
 
We gave those initial 20 invitees until November 1st to sign up. You could call it us giving them the right of first refusal as a reward for being arguably the top 20 in the world in this sport. Out of those 20,  8 have signed up already.  Most of the remaining athletes who have not yet signed up have indicated they want to come, but have not yet entered.  As you can imagine, committing to paying for a flight and 3 days in a hotel at the Arnold can be expensive. A couple have declined, citing personal objections, financial hardships, or injuries. On November 1st, another round of invitations will go out. Those who received the initial invitations will of course still be able to enter, but now will have to do it before  this new batch of folks toss their hats in the ring.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Clay,

Thanks for your fast response. So what formula was used to choose the top competitors, , as to who was the best suited for the 3 events being contested? And, was it only people who have competed in prior armlifting USA competitions? Or was it out of of pool of the known gripsters that you thought would be the best of the best?

Joe

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43 minutes ago, ClayEdgin said:

 

First, I would like everyone to understand that it took the two of us just over a month to come up with this list. We changed the format of the invitation structure a handful of times, finally settling on this one. Our initial iteration was to include a lightweight and heavyweight women's class, as well as three to four men's weight classes.  However, the format of the Arnold is unlike any other contest most of us have experienced. Having worked with Odd Haugen  at the Arnold a couple years for mas wrestling and  dealing with such strict time restraints, I can tell you that there is absolutely no wiggle room for us to spill over past our allotted time. The Concourse stage in the hallway of the Expo is shared on an hourly calendar, and that hour has to include our set-up, event, awards, and tear down each day. I would like everyone to consider what it might be like to have to set up and run a competition with 20 athletes, some of whom may not speak English and require additional translation, and then tear it down in an hour.

Riccardo and I spent dozens of hours, and that is no exaggeration, cultivating this list of athletes.  Whether you want to believe it or not, objectivity was at the forefront  of our decision-making process.  Riccardo and I have both been competing in powerlifting for probably a combined 40 years and we've been exposed to an entire alphabet soup of federations, each of whom thinks they are doing the right thing and each of whom despises any competing organization because they think the other people are playing favorites in some way.  So it was really important to us,  not just as members of the board of Armlifting USA, but as promoters of this event, to seek out who we thought were an all-star cast. We did also consider whether some of these people we wanted to invite were likely to come.  People like Brian Shaw, who would do very well, but will be there competing for cash money in strongman. And there were several incredibly strong gripsters, both male and female, who turned us down in our initial private discussions because there wasn't money on the line.
 
The weight classes we decided on were an Open Women's category,  a lightweight men's category under 100kg,  and a heavyweight men's  category over 100kg.  We thought that at most we would be able to have 20 competitors participate in a single event  in our 1 hour time slot on each day,  So that meant we had to break up the three groups into roughly 7 competitors each, with possibly more for the silver bullet because that wouldn't take as long to run.
 
Now, there is no question that Jedd Johnson is one of the best gripsters/armlifters in the United States.  I've known Jedd  since my beginning in grip in 2003, and met the man for the first time at the Global Group Challenge in 2004.  He's been a friend and in many ways a rabbit I have tried to chase with some of these grip feats.  But is he one of the 7 best *in the world* over 100kg when it comes to the events we're contesting? All of the HW's invited, excluding me, can do well over 190kg on the axle and 110-115kg on the RT. (as an aside, I'm only participating in the silver bullet). The idea that Jedd wasn't invited because he is in a competing organization misses the mark and only serves to stir the pot Why wouldn't I want the exposure for myself as a promoter and as a director of Armlifting USA  through Jedd's  social media following and his podcast?  
 
Someone also said to me privately that they thought the invitations were put together by Randy Strossen because we're using Ironmind equipment. What, you think he's sitting in some dark office wringing his hands over the list like an evil mastermind, laughing maniacally while writing my mortgage checks? No I pay my mortgage like a real man - with my wife's salary.
 
We used the Armlifting USA rankings and past results to help guide us in finding those top 7 as well. So why didn't Gil Goodman get an invite? Because neither Riccardo nor I know what kind of numbers he can hit on the events we're contesting. Is he high enough caliber to compete at the Arnold under 100kg? I think so, yes. 
 
We have a short list of people who were right on the cusp of getting those initial invites and Jedd  is on that list.  Also on that list is arguably one of the best in the world Harri Tolonen. Harri  is setting World Records  at practically every contest these days and is only really getting started in the sport. Gil is on that list, so is Mervi Pekki, Joel Dircks, and a dozen others. 
 
We knew that no matter who we invited, somebody was going to be upset that they weren't invited. Or in this case,  people were going to be upset that their friend wasn't invited.  It's okay to be upset, because it shows that you care about your friend and you care about the sport. But to call our efforts "laughable" or "a joke" is a little insulting. If you wanna know why it's insulting, I'm gonna let Riccardo talk to you for 2 hours a day on the phone for a month and see how it feels haha
 
We gave those initial 20 invitees until November 1st to sign up. You could call it us giving them the right of first refusal as a reward for being arguably the top 20 in the world in this sport. Out of those 20,  8 have signed up already.  Most of the remaining athletes who have not yet signed up have indicated they want to come, but have not yet entered.  As you can imagine, committing to paying for a flight and 3 days in a hotel at the Arnold can be expensive. A couple have declined, citing personal objections, financial hardships, or injuries. On November 1st, another round of invitations will go out. Those who received the initial invitations will of course still be able to enter, but now will have to do it before  this new batch of folks toss their hats in the ring.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thank you for the detailed response Clay.  I appreciate it.  I would only have one follow-up:

Why would you have two thickbar events and no pinch unless trying to tailor this for a certain set of competitors?

Edited by Mike Rinderle
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Jedd has done it the right way, very popular and is North American G.O.A.T - having such a great, new venue many feel Jedd should have been shown respect(regardless of what you think He might lift on axle, RT or do on SB- Former WR holder just like you))- especially since he lives 3 blocks away, LOL. Larry Bird and Magic were on the original dream team '92- Iam not saying Jedd is washed up like those two were but point hopefully taken. Gil Goodman pulled 413lb at 2017 NAGS and is CTD certed plus has incredible gripper skills- He would be top 3 lightweight on that current list W/O question. Glad you guys are going to correct when next round of invites go out Nov. 1

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One last thing.  Jedd trains for whatever the events are in the contest.  With 5 months to train, not many people would take him if he specialized in any event you came up with.  He certainly wouldn't embarass himself.

 But, if you are going by who the top 7 in the world are right now I get it.  But, there are certainly names on that list that don't make it.  I mean, no offense to Riccardo, but top 7 in the world?  Over Gil?  If it's top 6 plus the guy promoting... then never mind.  I get that.  I'm competing in any contest I run too.  

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2 hours ago, Mike Rinderle said:

Thank you for the detailed response Clay.  I appreciate it.  I would only have one follow-up:

Why would you have two thickbar events and no pinch unless trying to tailor this for a certain set of competitors?

The reason was two fold: first, we wanted to use equipment that we thought was the most commonly available. We guessed that a large portion of the population who train grip have access to RT, AA, and grippers. 

The second reason was that our Armlifting USA rankings are predicated on those 3 events and we thought that the credibility of the Arnold as a venue could draw the best American talent, which would then help us put together the best Team USA possible for worlds next year. The Armlifting Professional League in Russia uses these as standard events in the sport so as an affiliate country Armlifting USA adopted them too. I should note that any Armlifting USA contest doesn't HAVE to have only these 3 events but our contest does. 

The Team USA thing is important to be because I made it a personal goal of mine to bring the strongest team in the world to St Petersburg next year. I wanna stand on top of that podiums the guys I called out on This Week In Grip months ago! 

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5 minutes ago, Mike Rinderle said:

One last thing.  Jedd trains for whatever the events are in the contest.  With 5 months to train, not many people would take him if he specialized in any event you came up with.  He certainly wouldn't embarass himself.

 But, if you are going by who the top 7 in the world are right now I get it.  But, there are certainly names on that list that don't make it.  I mean, no offense to Riccardo, but top 7 in the world?  Over Gil?  If it's top 6 plus the guy promoting... then never mind.  I get that.  I'm competing in any contest I run too.  

Riccardo is the top American in the rankings in the 100kg & 110kg classes. He'll be competing in the under 100kg class. Jedd is ranked in the under 125kg class, so he'd be considered for the over 100kg class, which is totally stacked. If we had the luxury of more time for more competitors, we'd have all the weight classes and Jedd would have received his invite already. 

Riccardo and I of course talked about whether we should compete and if we felt we were qualified. I told him I didn't feel like my RT PR of 100 and AA of 187 were good enough to be a part of those events and he agreed. We also agreed that Riccardo was on the cusp because there could be guys stronger than him out there but opted to invite him because of his rankings. 

I don't think either of us knew about Gils 413 axle but that could have definitely caused things to have played out differently

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