The Gym Bros, Results & The Ladies Killed It - Gripping in the New Year Write Up

[Amy]

Lots of cool stuff happened last weekend at Gripping in the New Year. My apologies for the length.

This past weekend was dually sanctioned Gripping in the New Year at our facility here in Meridian, ID. If we're connected on social media in some shape or form., you have caught some highlights of how amazingly well this comp went and some ridiculously impressive feats of strength that happened.  In total we had 15 registered competitors (a HUGE success for such short notice). One competitor had to pull out so 14 actually competed. I am so proud of everyone and it really makes my heart happy. The entire atmosphere these last two shows is complete positivity and encouragement, high fives and hugs. I love it and it's truly been remarkable to be surrounded with such positive and uplifting people. 

The HW Men 

I'll start with something that just blew me away. A group of gym bros showed up to my free training days three weeks before the competition willing to learn and wanting to compete. The three of them really are gym bros in every sense of the word but they are also pretty strong and have no background training grip. I was teaching them about the Silver Bullet and they were messing around with the grippers. Two of them literally just grabbed the COC 3 from me and closed it. Of course I was shocked and then they both closed it again and basically didn[t understand what the big deal was.  Of course I explained the certifications, offered assistance after the competition if they are interested in pursuing certification and really hope they choose to. Their lifts were good and they did really well in the competition but with more time for the silver bullet practice they definitely should have gone to at least a 3.5 for this event if not higher. The preparation time just wasn't there. One gym bro is only 21 and the other I am guessing early 30's.

Lots of Highlights from The Ladies Side

There were five of us which includes two teen women. The local news also made a visit and aired a nice piece on empowering other women through grip.

Dani Schwalbe, MW Pro Strongwoman and my training partner. Dani has only been training with me since mid October and on Sunday she used a COC 2 on her Silver Bullet for an outstanding 16.21 seconds. She is contemplating an attempt to break my now 5 year old record, six since I set it the first time before I leave for the Arnold. Crazy how fast that time has gone and I’m certainly looking forward to it being broken sooner rather than later so hopefully the ladies can move forward with increasing this record. Dani is officially ranked #1 MWW for 2018 in Armlifting USA which was our primary goal when she started training.

LaCale Pringle Buchanan literally walked into the facility with no exposure to any implements, arrived 30 minutes late once the competition was in full swing (maybe she didn't expect that we would make her compete) so she missed out on any instructional opportunities or time to figure anything out. Rolling Thunder was the first event and she pulled an outstanding 126 lbs! She hasn’t strength trained since her college athlete days and is officially ranked #2 for Armlifting USA HWW for 2018. She’s raw but man oh man, she’s got crazy potential.  I will upload her vid on IG this evening if anyone is interested in seeing it.

Madelynn AKA Mojo my daughter, made me so proud. At a young 15 years old, she was able to pull 76 lbs on the RT, used a trainer on the Silver Bullet and pulled an outstanding 129 lbs on her double overhand axle! I suspect her max is at least ten pounds higher. I missed her attempts due to the news people. Madelynn also broke the Half Penny Lift world record for her age division as well and another female teen set the Half Penny Lift record for her age division so that was fun for them! Promoters please know....teen girls will compete for coffee gift cards from the local, cool kids coffee place. It's just too easy...

My own training is back on point after a 1.5 year hiatus from the gym. After I won my strongman pro card I was burned out and not finding any joy or fun in my training. I knew time would heal and I would get back to the gym sooner or later. Personally grip hasn’t been on my radar for a long, long time because I felt like I was on an island and the women just weren’t competing. It is exceptionally challenging training grip and strongman simultanously and I always felt torn between the two. As of now, I have no interest in competing in Pro Strongman Shows, so I am able to just focus on grip for now.

 Dani and I used to train strongman together and I was able to rope her in and get her excited about grip. She decided she wanted in on this ride and in mid-October I started back to consistent training.  So this year has just been sliding in and re-establishing my base strength. Elizabeth and Yvonne had previously posted training vids with the COC 3 years ago and in mid December I starting posting my progress on the Silver Bullet with the COC 3 and some of the progress I have made with the COC 3.5. Much improvement has been made since then. I fully expect to be using the COC 3.5 at The Arnold.

 I was undecided prior to the comp about using the 3.5 because I have held it in training. My concern was if it was a bad day and I missed the set that I wouldn't have anything left to at least get the COC 3. Riccardo talked to me about being smart and tackling one hurdle at a time.

So, I am pleased to say that a woman has finally officially used a COC 3 in competition on the Silver Bullet. The day of the competition I was running a fever, so I only took token lifts enough to win the competition. And thankfully Riccardo’s advice was fresh in my mind so my only goal for the day was to use a COC 3, just as a symbolic gesture of that barrier being officially crossed. Like the old saying goes, competition is where it matters not in token training videos. My time was reflective of the fever I was running and for some reason I walked with the gripper inserted in the bullet. I scored a measely 3.25 seconds but now have plenty of jokes and training videos walking with the Silver Bullet. You will for sure be seeing those on IG soon and either rolling your eyes or laughing as hard and Dani and I.

 I am eager to use The Arnold as a warm up for the actual world championship in Russia in May. It’s been fun coming back to grip with even more enthusiasm as before and a great training partner has been a game changer. I’ve already figured out a few tweaks on some things that are yielding good results. It’s been fun to look back on all my old training logs and videos on elitefts with the COC 2, 2.5 and 3 and see the progress..

Sorry about that rambling…..

 One more….

 Mike Corlett now has company in the Super Master group, Eric Ettesvold. Another complete new comer and former HIghland Games thrower. Eric trained on his own for about a month for this competition and did very well! Not sure what implements he actually used, however I do know I gave him the strap and bullet for silver bullet. He's a great guy and his axle he had lots more in the tank, he ran out of attempts if I recall correctly.

 In the end, it’s been an extremely productive 2.5 months out in Idaho and we’re just getting warmed up out here!! 

 

All the vids are posted here and/or under my tagged vid section

https://www.instagram.com/strongamma/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 4, 2019 by Amy

[Kluv#0]

Great job Amy and congrats on being the first woman to officially use a #3 for SB!! Your event looked very good and If you ever have one in summertime count the Greshamgripper in:)

[anwnate]

Great write up and Congrats! 

[Amy]

15 hours ago, Kluv#0 said:

Your event looked very good and If you ever have one in summertime count the Greshamgripper in:)

I believe we're shooting for early June for the next comp, so if there were any lingering frustrations or records from Russia that didn't happen, we can slide right in again and give them a whirl. So mark your calendar now! 

[Kluv#0]

3 hours ago, Amy said:

I believe we're shooting for early June for the next comp, so if there were any lingering frustrations or records from Russia that didn't happen, we can slide right in again and give them a whirl. So mark your calendar now! 

I don't know about the Russia stuff but do know you are one of the best all-time. I have a late May grip event but will make the drive to Idaho for sure.