John4cars Posted February 29, 2008 Share Posted February 29, 2008 Hello John III, welcome to the GB! You should go even if you only play with the implements afterwards. The live coaching and ability to ask questions and make new friends will give a huge boost to your training. Thanks. Odin/Bob I will mark it on my calendar then! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jad Posted February 29, 2008 Share Posted February 29, 2008 Looking forward to meeting you John III! Josh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Manion Posted March 12, 2008 Share Posted March 12, 2008 So, has a start-time been settled on yet? I haven't done much bending lately, focusing on a powerlifting competition. Also, even though I start some very intense PL training next week, I can't to give the grip work another go at the qualifier, especially the "hey look what I can do" stuff afterwards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John4cars Posted March 12, 2008 Share Posted March 12, 2008 (edited) Is it cool if I bring one of my buddies to the event? Edited March 12, 2008 by John III Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Manion Posted March 12, 2008 Share Posted March 12, 2008 Is it cool if I bring one of my buddies to the event? I guess it's okay as long as you let Scott know well enough in advance, since he's hosting it and has only so much space available. Maybe send him a PM just to be sure? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GetAGrip87 Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 Is it cool if I bring one of my buddies to the event? I would like to keep the spectators to a minimum, but I would love for you to bring you friend if he is going to compete. It's only $10. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GetAGrip87 Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 The Comp STARTS at 12:00. Be early so we can find out what order we are going in. Does everyone who is coming to the comp have my Address??? If you don't, send me a PM as soon as possible! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John4cars Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 Is it cool if I bring one of my buddies to the event? I would like to keep the spectators to a minimum, but I would love for you to bring you friend if he is going to compete. It's only $10. That's cool. I will ask him if he intends to. He is the one at my work that closed my #1 Coc 3 times in a row like it was nothing. I figure he should be able to do some lifting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John4cars Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 I was looking over the list of events and the minimum weights to qualify. Wow, I don't think there is one event I could do anything even close to those numbers! Would I still be able to try to do some of the lifts with much lower weight, just to see what I can do? I am obviously not going to be able to qualify for anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GetAGrip87 Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 I was looking over the list of events and the minimum weights to qualify. Wow, I don't think there is one event I could do anything even close to those numbers! Would I still be able to try to do some of the lifts with much lower weight, just to see what I can do? I am obviously not going to be able to qualify for anything. Most Definately!!! Everyone is there to do THEIR best, learn, and have fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bencrush Posted March 26, 2008 Author Share Posted March 26, 2008 4 days left guys. Still on the fence? Jump down and drive over to Scott's house for a good time training and demonstrating grip strength. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jedd Johnson Posted March 26, 2008 Share Posted March 26, 2008 I encourage anyone on the fence to get to the contest. These guys are doing the sport a great sevrice by holding both a qualifier and a mini-clinic for the events. Again, I applaud you guys for putting this on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Manion Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 Well, is literally 1 a.m., Sunday, March 30, and I just got home from a whirlwind of a day. Big thanks to Scott Harris and his family for their hospitality, and to all the guys who showed up for a pretty nice contest and an awesome after-party of "let's see what you got" demonstrations. I'll write more later, but right now, I need a shower and some serious rest, having been up since 5:30 Saturday morning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big nasty Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 DIDO Brad thank's to Scott and his family for giving us grip junkie's a place to have fun. It's was a blast to watch these guy's showcase there skill's there's plenty of stories to tell when we recover. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bencrush Posted March 30, 2008 Author Share Posted March 30, 2008 We had an awesome time last night at Scott's house. Thanks again to Scott and his family for the venue and the awesome food! I unfortunately puked everything up on the ride home due to too much caffeine and NOS, but dang it was even good coming back up, haha. I'll have to recheck my results tabulations with Scott, but I can at least list the winning performances per event. Keep in mind that this lasted quite a while, somewhere around 6-7 hours, so a few of the events some people just took "token" lifts to get something on the board or to qualify for the USGC. GRIPPERS: Heavy Elite! Not a calibrated gripper, but a very stout gripper. Somewhere in the 180s. 2HP: 200 won the 2HP. I misloaded and screwed up the winner's totally secure chance of hitting 210 and then 220. Very sorry about that! REVERSE BENDING: Hard 5.5" G5. Oh by the way, the winner of this event has NEVER reverse bent before yesterday! Yes, I hate him too:) I'd rather reverse bend a 6" G8 than what the winner bent here. Hardest stock won. There were other G5s but they were much easier than the Diamond head G5s that won the event. 2" VBAR: 276. The winner went for a final attempt of 291 and it was too much. Couldn't even clear the floor with it. The minimum height of 2" was strictly observed. Not an FBBC 2" vbar. Just a homemade version, but it wasn't super grippy in my opinion. AXLE DO DEADLIFT: 313. Used my 9 year old Apollon's Axle for this event. By this time people were not really caring too much about the contest. So most just took token lifts or tried to hit the qualifying standard. There were a few that would have gone 343-353 for sure. MEDLEY: 13 objects in 29 seconds. That was blazing fast actually. All the objects had to be loaded onto a platform of some kind. A Blob (50 pounds) was the centerpiece. Nobody but the winner managed to lift it that day. Although I got air a few times but didn't have the strength to load it. There were a few objects that looked easy, but that were hard enough to stun a few people who might have otherwise underestimated the difficulty of that particular object. All in all, a wonderful time was had by all! The after contest playing was at least as fun as the actual contest for most of us. That's what makes the world go round. Saw plenty of badass feats and stunts afterwards. Here are a smattering: Josh did a lot of stuff afterwards worthy of mention. 2 finger closed a #3, did a 1HP of (5)10s with R&P, hovered (6)10s, some sledge levering, super strict plate wrist curl double with a 35... Brad bent every horseshoe in a 30 mile radius. And some phonebook tearing. He also did some cert bending. I'll let him talk about that... John tried out a bunch of new grip stuff and had a great time. Got some pointers on RT and put them to use to nail his very first RT PR... Scott did a lot of armwrestling training afterwards. I think if he was honest, he'd just admit that he set up this contest to lure armwrestlers into his garage, haha! It's nice seeing the fire in your eyes when you talk about AW man. Just like Allen Fisher... Dan showed us some nasty card tearing strength. Blew through a deck faster than I've ever seen before. Monster strong. Then did some phonebook tearing. And some armwrestling training... Jason did some awesome plate curls with a 35, did some cert bending, armwrestling training, and more. I'll let him brag (and rightly so) about the big bending stuff he did... Much more to come from all these guys. Thanks to everyone for coming to have fun and smash some stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John4cars Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 I also would like to say thanks to Scott and his family for allowing us to get together at their place and for all of the double burgers!! I just woke up and thought I was going to do some shoulder work this morning. But when I got up I realized I am more sore than I have been in about 10 yrs. Lol. Nothing but rest for me for the next few days! I will write more later today when I get a chance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bencrush Posted March 30, 2008 Author Share Posted March 30, 2008 Forgot to mention that everyone deserves a special thanks for humoring me and watching my boring crushdown shit. I know it's not glamorous, but you guys made me feel good anyway and gave me your attention. Good times! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Eaton Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 Great stuff guys Looking forward to hearing what else went down Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jad Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 I had a blast and would like to thank Scott and his family for their hospitality, Dan for driving, and Jason for all the AW tips. It was great to meet some new people and hopefully they'll get bitten by the grip bug. John III has some great baseline wrist strength and his G2 that he reversed looked like a J it was so off center, if he straightened his bending out, who knows... He's also has some long fingers so he could have a bright future in grip for sure. Been up with my daughter since about 6:30 am and didn't get to bed until about 1 so I'm still wiped out but I'll write a more detailed version later on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MalachiMcMullen Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 WoooHoooo! I'm looking forward to vids/pics/write-ups!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jad Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 The way the contest went for me... Grippers: We had one guy judging set depth while the other judged close so this was pretty strict. I closed the Heavy Elite which is a SE spring, looked to be 1/8" mount, and I think Scott measured the spread at 2 11/16?. Missed my #4 for the rest of the attempts. No good attempts on the #4, have gotten much closer than that at home and usually I'm stronger in the contest setting, so that was disappointing. On a side note, I got to try Big Nasty's "Heartbreaker" #3...WOW! I came closer on my #4 and I tried the Heartbreaker twice before we even started grippers. I'd love to see what this thing calibrates at. It has over a 3.5" spread and steel handles. Hard #3 doesn't even describe it. A #3 only by stamp and spring size, it's not even comparable to any #3 I've ever touched. His old single stamp #4 is alien too. It felt like Beatty's Pro. Ben missed my 182.5# 3.5 by the thickness of a quarter and mayble a slip of paper. I believe Scott and Big Nasty closed a #3 and I think John PR'd as well. I don't remember what Dan or Brad got. 2HP: 200 went up easy, next was 210 (or so we thought) and it went up easy too, called for 220 and upon visually checking the plates I realized there was only 200 on (I was counting on them only adding 2 5's for 220) and so we reviewed the tape of 210 and it was indeed 200. We loaded 210 up and I just missed it by an inch or two on the rest of my attempts. Kind of sucks but I should have checked the weights before I pulled so it was my fault as well. Don't remember what the others got. I think Dan hit a PR on this too. Bending: Jason loaned me some pads because I couldn't find mine, so I wrapped up a G5 and smoked it. It felt really good so I jumped to a bastard and got nowhere. I passed the rest of my attempts because I didn't want to hurt anything for the aftershow. Dan, in his first reverse ever won the freakin event! John III bent a G2 bolt into a "J". Lots of PR's on this event. 2" Vbar: I'm not sure on this one so hopefully Ben or somebody will jump in. I know I got 220 or 221 but I don't remember if I got the 251 but I'm not sure. I know Scott has it written down. The bar was a 2" pipe and flange from the hardware store. I don't know how it measures up spec wise to the FBBC but it wasn't seasoned worth a crap, just bare metal before we started the event and some guys would rub some chalk on it before the event. Ben owned this event with a 276!! Again judged very strictly with someone on the floor at eye level with the marker. Axle deadlift: I think Cheryl went quite a bit over bw on this and did it with zero technique; impressive to say the least. I just did some token attempts to avoid bombing the event. I think I ended with 313 maybe and passed on the rest? Ben won the event but could have gone much higher as well. Brad using his HUGE strength made the weights look easy and you could definitely tell it was a grip event for him. Big Nasty and John III passed on this one 2/2 injuries I think. Medley: lots of cool stuff in here, beside the assortment of blobs, both hex and York, there was a brass knuckle deadlift, Don Larkin style thin pinch, and 4 standard 10's with a bar through it. I'm probably missing some stuff but that's what stood out in my mind. There was a 42.5 York (actually weighs 43 and some change) there that was the "fatman profile" and luckily for us it has decent texture because if you threw a fresh coat of paint on it, it would probably stop some inconsistent 50# blob lifters. Scott and Ben were both darn close to loading the 50# blob and I was impressed that John III, for being new to grip could do the 4 10's lift. 4 standard tens, especially those with the hammertone paint are a TON harder than oly plates. After show: Ben was crushing down everything in site and Dan and I couldn't believe how easy he made a KOAB look (cheat kinked). We both tried it and couldn't move it. He also blew through a deck of cards. I figured he could tear a deck but I didn't realize he was good at them, it was impressive. He smoked my IM TUG7 IM after about 7 hours of grip and was no-setting his easy #3 with both hands. My favorite part was when he took down a piece of hex iso bar that had been stumping me forever. It was nice to finally see that bar go down. John III: I couldn't make this up; He brought a blender to the grip contest that nobody could screw the bottom off of He was also nice enough to film feats for everyone. We exchanged some cool ideas for home equipment. I'm not sure if he got to show off any or if he got tied up in filming everyone. I think I've got him talked into coming to the BBB. Dan absolutely destroyed a deck of cards. It was like Tommy's tearing video, super fast! I think somebody has been practicing. Most importantly, I believe he won the AW grudge match against Scott He was giving horseshoe bending and card tearing lessons to all. I probably should have payed more attention to both since I suck at both but I was probably off trying to pinch something. Scott was pulling all comers, I don't know if he even attempted any grip stuff? He also was doing some snatches on a thick handled db and for those that think that is easier than a kettlebell, you should try his db. We have a 28kg KB at the gym and it's easier to snatch than that db. Brad mangled a bevy of horseshoes. I don't even know how many but there's a pic of him holding a handfull of S shaped horseshoes that puts it into context. I think he got sick so I don't know how much he did after the contest? Big Nasty was giving everybody AW tips all day, it was great! Ben told me how big he was but until you see him you don't really appreciate it. I won't spoil his hidden talent but people took pictures so you'll soon seen. We were pulling and he was telling me to lock my lat and he said feel mine when it's locked and "I'm going to bring the bus". His lat felt like one of those huge canned hams! I remember thinking "that's his lat, I don't think my leg is that big". He levered a 12 pretty easily and got busy with the 35# plate curls. He sells THEEE crushdown pads so as Interim President of the Feat Cheaters Club (until Clay returns) I give them my highest recommendation. Ben refers to them as the Caddy Pads because they are the Cadillac of crush pads. I can't wait to see the purists blow a gasket over these. Cheryl closed my IM TUG 5, TNS, with her index finger hanging off the top of the gripper and her ring finger barely on the bottom a couple of times. In other words, she closed it with zero technique. Her hand is about is big as mine if not bigger and she's about 120# and has steel cable looking forearms. I can't imagine being a 120# woman trying to pull her It was great to pick her brain too on the pulling and I enjoyed listening to her comments on the Roman vs Allen F. AW matches we watched. I hope she comes out for some for grip contests. I wanted to get the following feats done in the after show: 6 10's: nope but I hovered them and finagled a "lease" with Ben so I got to take them home and they'll be going up shortly with video intact. 5 10's R&P: done and almost lefty as well clean 2 35's: nope: can pull em and turn em over but they fall out after that; I can't stabilize them on top 35# PWC: done, actually got a double 42.5 York R&P lift: done with both hands Other stuff I just tried 42.5 York strict curl: done 50# York Blob RP lift: nope, felt like it was going to take my callous off and I pussed it and let off TUG #5: TNS index finger Easy #3: 2nd to last thing I did for the day: 17 parallel reps righty, 4 lefty Also closed my R&P Trainer on 7,7 with RP. If you don't have one of these from Mlstrass you need to get one. They are so sweet and I think everyone there would agree they pretty much blow the tugs away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egg_uk Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 great write up josh, nice aftershow feats as well. i bought one of the r&p trainers as well, they are awesome. i had been debating buying tugs and im glad i didnt now. sounds like everyone had a great time, props to scott for hosting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twig Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 Awesome stuff, Guys. John III: I couldn't make this up; He brought a blender to the grip contest that nobody could screw the bottom off of Funny how the real world humbles the greatest amongst us. I had a jar of pickled onions a few weeka ago where the lid was so stiff the jar smashed before it came off! Sometimes, John, you just have to accept defeat and buy a new blender! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Eaton Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 I'm waiting for Sweeney to weigh in Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vikingsrule92 Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 Awesome stuff, Guys.John III: I couldn't make this up; He brought a blender to the grip contest that nobody could screw the bottom off of Funny how the real world humbles the greatest amongst us. I had a jar of pickled onions a few weeka ago where the lid was so stiff the jar smashed before it came off! Sometimes, John, you just have to accept defeat and buy a new blender! Sounds awesome guys!! That reminds me of a story about Aaron (sorry man I have to tell this). He tried to open this one jar for qute a while, then Heidi (his wife) takes it and twists it off easily. Hahaha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.