2014 June - United States Grip Championship - Tom Scibelli

[Tom Scibelli]

Wanted to do a quick write up on Nationals, this was the first Nationals I have been to and my second grip contest. First off, it was really awesome meeting so many people from the GB that I've only seen on youtube videos and read what they've wrote on the GB.

Venue- Andrews gym was awesome, great facility with everything you could ever need. The drive took around 6.5 hours

1st event-Grippers- I would have liked to get a little bit higher on this event, but a month before the event I tried to make a run at the ghp7 cert, so i think widening up my set hurt me a little, but I was glad with 150R and 145L. I was really cool seeing a table full of same brand grippers brand new in 5# increments, it's a real game changer for contests going forward.

2nd event-2hp- Probably my most disappointing event of the day, although it was a contest PR, I really was expecting to hit 175ish. The only cool thing was being able to get tips from Kody (he was running the 2hp for my platform). I might have been pinching too narrow now that I think about it.

3rd event-Axle- Going into this I knew my axle numbers would be low due to a back injury and not really working with the axle for the last couple weeks due to plateauing, so I was happy to get 316. Got some good tips from Brandon Gerber that I think will really help the numbers go up in the future.

4th event- pinch curl- This was a new event for everybody, but overall I was happy with my performance. Jon Vance give me some tips on it that saved my left hand attempt, else I would have bombed out on it.

5th event- Sledge DL- This event has really evolved since it first came out, people are really finding ways to increase the length on that handle. I pr-ed on this event based on some technique pointers from wojo and jon vance and Luke too. For me it's more about hanging onto the handle and not letting my fingers brake away that determines whether the lift will be made or not.

Overall great experience, really great meeting so many strong gripster, looking forward to competing again.