2008 September - United States Grip Championship - climber511

[climber511]

2008 GGC

• Grippers – I think this is the third contest I have tried that #$&%&%&% COC #3 of Jedd and Smitty’s. Each time I have come closer and closer, and this year Smitty said it could not have been any closer and not been closed – NEXT TIME you lousy blankity blank gripper – next time! Some day I really should train grippers.

• Euro Pinch – I have been doing better since I changed to 48mm – I took my own small plates to make up for taking out the extra small rubber from the 54 mm that most used in case Eaton and I tied, (my set up ended up I think 3.5 oz heavy) – turned out that darn John just skipped right over my best lift and beat me anyway – I tried buddy!

• Axle DL – I’ve pretty much said my piece in the other thread on this one already. I think I might have done one step better sumo but who knows.

• The Medley – not much I can say except this thing was a beast – it was strong and I was weak – way too much wide pinch for this boy – this event really hurt me overall (scoring, not body). I was happy to see my items actually slowed a few people down some. And I got that dang plank of woe or whatever Jedd called it – pretty happy about that – not many did it. I full dead lifted several items that I just couldn’t load – crap! That would have made a huge points difference for me.

• Bending – The selection was absolutely perfect it seemed with nice even jumps at least on the ones I tried. I really wish I had known the selection and poundage numbers ahead of time so I could have trained with the same steel. I started too conservatively - think I might have been able to do the 555# bar if I had had an attempt left. It still ended up a poundage PR for me but I really want a shot at one of those 555# bars. Everything being the same length should be the standard from now on for all bending events – it eliminates any questions about poundage versus length difficulty. Great job Eric and Jedd!

Overall – incredible performances by many people. As usual terrific camaraderie was shown by everyone. The new guys I met all seem like old friends now after just one day with them – it’s incredible that I have met so many people during my time in grip and everyone is a great guy. For the first National Championship, I think the results represented the strides that have been made in the last few years in performance levels really well. In the past many – including myself - have said how the records etc will change if the Strongmen types etc get into grip – I just don’t know now if that is going to be as great a factor as I used to think. The top guys in grip right now I believe can hold their own with about anyone. A few of the big guns were absent here but the level of strength shown was highly representative of the best of the best of past comps.

This was the first grip competition I have done where I was disappointed afterward. In past ones, I was able to get into my normal very focused “tunnel vision” – “game face” or whatever you want to call it – for whatever reason, I was just unable to do that this time and ended up with the feeling I was sort of on the outside looking in on myself throughout the whole day. Kind of hard to explain but even Eaton noticed and commented on it to me later. Weird.

And this is for Jedd – Lorraine (the woman nobody knew) is not my new girlfriend buddy. She is Andrew’s friend from KB Grivory Sport, and came to watch him and learn about grip strength. She is very big into organizing (and competing in) the Grivory Sport (competition) aspect of KB lifting. Andrew got me in touch with her and she and Andrew are going to help me via internet etc with my training so I can get my feet wet in GS (like I need another strength sport to train for - hehe). As another Masters lifter – it was interesting to talk about our shared recovery problems with hard training. Hopefully the things she and Andrew showed me technique wise with the KBs will help me. For anyone interested, she has a much better than average knowledge of that sport if you have questions.