2009 September - United States Grip Championship - climber511

[climber511]

US Nationals 2009

I met Andrew, Dave and Zach at Andrews Gym – he has everything a man could ever need to get strong – very nice setup. The drive over to Jedd’s was uneventful but fun. You can learn a lot about people, their thoughts, training etc on a seven plus hour drive in a van. Andrew’s knowledge is exceptional and his thoughts are based on experience and not just book learning. Dave is the quiet man and Zach did Calculus homework part of the way and told us about his surgery and therapy – it sounds like he has a very good guy working on him and his progress is way ahead of schedule.

We all stayed at Jedd’s which was really nice, no rush the next morning to get up and moving. Ham and egg burritos, fruit and pastries along with lots of coffee got our hearts started and ready to go. Jedd’s new garage gym is awesome – unlike the old dungeon he had before. Lots of room, good lighting, tons of equipment – sweet, sweet setup. Guys started showing up and we got started pretty much on time.

Grippers – I did my usual easy 3 close and failed at the harder 3 to start off next to last after the first event which seems to be the norm for me. I really need to train grippers but they are just so boring – I really doubt it will ever happen – but I am tired of always losing because I can’t close a descent gripper. Frank set the tone here for his performance all day. No real surprises with the rest of the pack.

Two Hand Euro Pinch. Andrew and I were the only ones at 48mm. It felt slick as I warmed up and I opened light at 198#. As he and I went on, it felt better and better but I sure wish I had opened higher so I could have had a couple higher attempts – my 218 lift felt real easy. It was probably the right way to go but it cost me dearly later on. Quite a few PRs it seemed as we switched to 54mm. Frank broke 200 at his first contest – wow. Some people surprised themselves I think. Jedd set a new American record and came oh so close to the World Record – I think maybe at Gripmas it will fall.

Axle DL. Thank God my back never bothered me but my lack of training showed here I think. With my dead lift so close to my hand strength – it takes me longer to pull my lifts and I have to hang on longer than those guys with strong backs – they are up and down in a couple seconds while I am grinding it up at best. Anyway – I did manage a nice 353# lift easily and had 363# up plenty high but didn’t get my hips through fast enough to get the down signal from Smitty. I was losing it a split second too soon – still a good lift for me considering. Frank did very well here also. Andrew did his normal bury the field act here – this really was the deciding lift for who won the overall.

Weaver stick – I should have done just a quarter pound less for a third attempt – this was my big mistake for the day and certainly would have put me ahead of Frank and pretty close to Brent. I had two attempts left and was plain stupid on my choices. I was oh so close on my top weight twice but just didn’t have it. This was where Frank dropped a lot of points – the only weak spot he showed all day. Andrew was the surprise here but I guess nothing he does any more surprises anyone very much now. Eaton opened too high and scared me he was going to bomb but it worked out all right.

Medley. I was sitting in fifth place going into the medley by the smallest of margins over Brent and Frank and knew I was in trouble. Brent has been just tearing up his medley training here lately and I was sure he would pass me up. Frank was an unknown but I guessed he would do well and he did. One less for him or one more for me would have switched our finish positions. Watch out for this young man – he is coming on fast. And something you may not know about him is that he doesn’t even have Olympic weights – just standard plates and a bar. No power rack etc at all. So the next time you think you don’t have enough equipment and that’s why you aren’t strong – think about that.

The after show was fun as usual, with me watching much more than playing – I was whupped. High lights were Mike and Brent’s bends, Andrew’s 95# KB juggling, and some Blob lifts on the new 58# blob Jedd has. Of course a ton of stuff was going on all at once so forgive me if I missed something you did that was a PR for you – I’m sure I missed some things. Lots of great food, a couple beers (Frank is too young to even drink (hehe) and visiting with old and new friends. Hubgeezer has the coolest shoes ever and was just like I pictured him. Mike and Melissa are great people and I apologize for not talking with you both more but I get all tunnel visioned at comps and miss a lot. I saw Robert and his lovely wife again – super nice – the people involved in this sport are simply the best. I got my first ever hand massage from John – now I know what Jedd has been raving about all this time – my hands weren’t even tender the next morning.

Next morning was French Toast, sausage, and the usual coffee – then we helped Jedd tear down the tent he had set up and hit the road. Lots more training and competition talk made the time go fast back to Andrews- then another couple hours back home.

I also have a bag of grippers from Jedd and Andrew to calibrate – fun fun fun!