2014 July - New York Grip Throwdown 2 - Buccos1

[Buccos1]

Sat (7/26)

New York Grip Throwdown II

Grippers - 20mm Block

#2 (112) -- good

GHP5 ( 118) -- good

SM ( 123) -- miss

SM (123) -- miss *

Ironmind Hub

60 -- good

65 -- good

70 -- good

72.5 -- miss

Rolling Thunder

120 -- good

125 -- good

130 -- good

135 -- miss

Sledge Deadlift

12" -- miss

10" -- miss

10" -- good

11" -- miss

First off, this was only my second grip comp. and the prior experience paid off ... in a lot of different ways throughout the day. Chez ran a great show and Andrew was a great host. Made my first trip to Connecticut too!

I had a pretty good idea where I was at with grippers coming in, and am right around 120 with a 20mm block set. (Chez watched my set and validated what I had suspicions of: I've been "hand setting" and not getting much upper body into it, which is hurting my numbers. Will definitely start to work on this.) My opener of 112 felt really easy. The 118 GHP5 was a little tougher, but still not that bad of a close. On my third attempt with the 123 Super Master, I just missed ... maybe 1mm. On my final attempt, I retook the 123 and gave it everything I had, and closed it (even heard a slight click), but in my contortions trying to kill that last 1-2 mms, I turned the handles backward and the ref was not able to see when they closed. (Definitely another thing I need to improve on is my gripper-close position/control!) But, I was definitely happy with the progress on this.

With the Hub, going in, I wanted 65, and knew I had a decent shot at 67.5. On my last Hub workout, I hit a PR 67.5, which felt solid ... even held at the top briefly. At the comp, I got all messed up on my warmups and was debating if I should drop my opener to 57.5 instead of 60. Hand and thumb were hurting too from grippers and miscalculated Hub warmups. (My warmup attempts actually went like this: 57.5, 50, 55 ... wasn't even thinking on that first one.) But, when it came time to roll, the 60 felt easy. The 65 felt even better than the 60. At this point, I decided to take a shot at 70. I knew any more attempts in the 60s would soon drain me to the point that the longer I waited, the less chance of having a shot at 70 was possible. So, without giving it too much thought, I chalked up and attacked it, trying to not overthink it. The actual attempt felt solid ... was never a doubt in the grip throughout the lift. (On many of my attempts at 65 and then 67.5 the past few months, I had a solid ascent, and then lost it at the top ... too many times to count!) The 70 gave me a long-term goal in the Hub and the American record in the 93kg class.

Going into the Rolling Thunder, I knew 140 was a pipe-dream after the first two events. Chez' RT felt different then mine too ... more "slippery" I guess. My first two attempts felt OK, but not solid. The 130 was just about to slip before I got the "down" command. I think I broke 135 from the floor, but didn't have much left on it at this point.

The sledge deadlift event was tough. Everyone had ample time to mess around with it beforehand, but a lot of people (myself included) probably wasted too much during warmups/testing, which really messed the attempts up that counted. In my own training, I have been able to get around 15" on a 12lb. sledge with strict form. This set up was a little different, in that you could have had very strict form on the way up, and still had the ball drop, if your grip was causing any shake in the handle (even if it was perfectly flat). This messed up a few people. Like Chez mentioned in the contest thread, a small jump on this thing was huge. This was also a new lift, and as Chez stated, it is in the early stages/planning for adjustments. I love this event, but would like to see maybe a smaller ball on the head, so that incidental shaking doesn't cause a bad lift. I tried 12" and the ball fell off immediately. My second attempt was 10", which was on the way up, but I dumped the ball somehow. I tried 10" on my third again and it was an easy attempt. Hands were done by the last attempt at 11".

It was a great contest and it was very cool to meet some of the guys from this board and some new people. (I'm pretty bad with names though! LOL) It was awesome seeing Chez slam grippers. Dude's a beast! Watching Eric R. effortlessly rip the Rolling Thunder up was insane with the weight he was using. Amber's Hub lifts were awesome! Her numbers will keep going up on that. We did a quick bending session afterwards and it was great to see all of the interest in bending ... stuff like that keeps me pushing forward with it. A bunch of guys attempted a DC1 I brought. I wish I had an easier starter shoe, but the DCs were the easiest I had. Mike Sharkey was the first person to get movement on it. (A couple of guys were so close to getting that first movement too.) BTW, the DC1 was on the more difficult side, so no doubt we would have had a lot of bend UL2s if I had them! All-around, everyone did a great job, especially a lot of first-timers.