2023 U.S. Grip Sport National Championship - Vin's Report

[Vinnie]

Hello folks - time for my writeup.  And I wish I had more time, because I like to do these but I am super busy at work.  So this won't be as robust as it would be if I were unemployed, but it will at least have a happier tone than the long one I'd be writing if there weren't other things distracting me from what I really enjoy.  But hey, at least I got to attend.

First off, thanks to Jedd for running another excellent comp.  It is something we have all come to take for granted since he does it every year and almost always more than once in every year, but it is no small feat to coordinate, execute, and compile these events.  Thanks to all the competitors for competing, and for reaffirming the high level of sportsmanship and indeed friendship that this sport has always boasted in greater measure than many others.

Now for my report; and my apologies in advance for it being heavy on the ME, but this one is MINE, and I hope all the other competitors will write one as well.  Let me start by saying that the only thing that I hoped to achieve at this comp was to close the 165 gripper with a block set.  The 165 gripper eluded me last year, when I failed my last two attempts at it with what I felt were near misses.  Grippers were the only event I actually trained for, because I don't have a good set-up or routine for much else right now, but I did actually train them and I am probably close to my best ever on them.  So I felt like my hope was reasonable. 

With 165 on the brain, on Friday evening, I left Long Island and picked Tim Butler up in New Jersey, and we drove to the Wyalusing Hotel, where Tim and I were each lucky enough to get a room in the Annex that was NOT up against the street (Tim got 402 and I got 403, which are actually on the second floor; I think the rooms on the ground floor are in the 300s).  Ben Helms was not so lucky -- he and his wife (who is expecting their first child; good luck to them!) were in 300, with such a loud street noise problem that they actually had to go to another hotel -- fortunately the Wyalusing knows of this issue and did not give them a hard time about that.  For future reference, avoid rooms 300-301 and 400-401 in the Annex, if noise matters at all to you.  I would also criticize the hotel's clunky-to-use wi-fi, which isn't a huge deal but was sort of annoying because these days I find that almost all hotels have such good wi-fi that it isn't an issue, and the Wyalusing Hotel should just century-up do that as well.  On the bright side, though, the Annex had what I thought was a great continental breakfast, right there on the floor where I was staying -- I do usually prefer a bigger, eggy/meaty breakfast, but at least they had great muffins and yogurt and good coffee and orange juice.  All in all, the convenience factor was worth it, and also their restaurant is terrific for a very reasonable tasty dinner.

OK, Yelp review over, back to the comp. I weighed in at 177.7, easily making the 83 kg (under 183 pounds) weight class.  Upon discovering that I was the only person in that weight class, I immediately added to my list of goals for the comp to win my weight class.  I thought this might offset my disappointment at finishing last in my weight class, which seemed rather inevitable.  Aside from being the smallest one at the comp, I was also the oldest, at 54, but not the only Masters entrant - Jason Dingey turned 50 recently, in one fell swoop destroying the hopes of ALL Masters competitors in the Grip World.  I mean, with the Masters group being just Jason and me, I was even more likely to place last in the Masters class than to win the 83kg, which is saying a lot, since I was the only one in 83 kg.

The events.

20 mm block set GRIPPERS:

I decided to open with that coveted 165 gripper for my first attempt at the first event.  That would sound horribly stupid, except for the fact that grippers are the one event where you can always drop down to a lower difficulty after a failed attempt.  My thinking was this:  I warmed up a little with some easier grippers, starting with a quick, chalkless TNS of Chaz's 132 Tetting, which he was kind enough to bring for me to try.  My TNS PR is actually 134 in comp and 135 while driving, so it was not a big surprise for me to succeed with the 132, but the fact that I hadn't yet warmed up, used no chalk, and still felt the handles grinding told me I was having an OK day.  To conclude my warm-up, I did a MMS close of the very 165 gripper that I hoped to block set.  Again I could feel the handles -- maybe not grinding like Joe Kinney butchering a COC 4, but this was a stronger close of a 165-rated gripper than I had ever done before (I have gotten a couple of closes of my 165 COC 3.5 where I had to review the video to be sure I got it, but this one I could actually FEEL without looking).  Once I slammed it, I stopped warming up and decided to open with it, because I was pretty cocksure I was gonna get it.

I got it, so after the first round of the gripper event, I was tied for first with Jason Dingey!  And I think maybe also with Jedd and maybe Luke.  But I was fine sharing the glory - it was the 165!  It was all I had come for, and with one squeeze, I had it.  And such a solid close, too.  I was thrilled (still am).

As I picked up my things and asked what time I should meet everyone for the dinner reservation, Tom Flesher reminded me that I still had three attempts left, and then four more events.  I figured ok, what the hey -- may as well see if I can put up some numbers that I will feel like I need to beat next year if I actually train.  I proceeded to make three attempts at 170, all of which were closer than I had any business expecting, but all failed.  As I did this, Jedd, Luke, Jason and others made their additional attempts.  When the dust cleared, only Jason succeeded with the 170, and there was a 5-way tie for second on the 165 among me, Jedd, Luke, Chaz, and Ben.  Definitely no shame sharing the number two spot with those folks.

2-inch Napalm Nightmare:

I need blocks for this because I don't reach the crossbar even if I lock out, unless I stand on at least the smaller blocks if not the taller ones.  I got 372 at Nationals last year, and then 382 just for kicks after my last attempt, so I would have liked to have gotten around 380 at this comp, where I was similarly unprepared.  I know these are not huge numbers, but I am a gripper dude in his 50s who had back surgery in his 30s, not some power lifter.  I warmed up with 354 and felt like I could manage 10 more pounds well enough not to risk a miss, so I started with 364.  I got that, and I also made 374 on my second attempt.  However, I missed 384 on my third and fourth attempts.  It wasn't the grip -- it is just too heavy for me to move.  After I failed it, just for kicks, I was able to get air on 384 without the blocks, but I couldn't reach the cross bar.  I then proceeded to rest for an hour while the big boys pushed it up over 500.  Well, maybe only Jason got that high, but there were some really big lifts in the high 4s.  Nice job, men.

2-inch Napalm pinch:

I ruined my prospects for improvement on this by having the best pinch day of my life at a gripmas a couple of years ago, when I got 242 on this implement.  Ever since then I haven't been able to get near that, so maybe it was an anomaly.  Anyway, I opened at 206 because I felt pretty solid warming up in the high 100s, and 216 went up ok for a second attempt.  226 did not feel so easy for my third, though, so I was not surprised to miss 236, which was getting pretty close to my unlikely 242.  I believe Tom Flesher, my fellow lawyer (almost) got pinch blocked at 226 as well.  But you know what?  It would not be unreasonable to say that, in the great scheme of things, 226 is not a bad two-hand pinch.  Not bad at all.

HOWEVER.

After missing 236, I was privy to the battle of the world records:  a good bunch of the competitors had yet to open, and three of them popped over 300, successively setting the world record somewhere around 310 and then breaking it.  Jason Dingey finished over 320, only because it was his last attempt and he clearly could have done more because he practically sent the crossbar flying with how forcefully he hit it.  And then Jedd did the opposite with 330, touching the crossbar like an asymptote touching a parabola, finalizing the day's world record fest at 330.  Ish.  Yeah, this happened.  Some guy at a comp did over 310 on two-hand pinch and came in 3rd.  And some other guy at the comp did over 320 on two-hand pinch and came in 2nd.  Just wow.  Part of me wonders whether, if I knew that people were capable of well over 300 on this, maybe I might have been shamed into doing just a little more ...

Little Big Horn:

Have I mentioned how much I hate this event?  I knew I would suck it.  And I did.  I think I opened at 153 because 148 felt ok warming up, but it was already getting difficult for me.  I got 158, too, but then on my third attempt I missed 163.  This thing gets hard fast!  Oh stop, please.  The event I mean; I am in my 50s.  But I did not expect to miss 163 after 158, and they let some folks do 168 while I rested for my final attempt.  I contemplated just going for the 168, which I THINK would be a 1-pound PR for me on the implement, but then I thought that it would be annoying to miss that being greedy when I had just missed less.  I think maybe I should have gone for the PR.  I got 163 easier than 158 had been.  I think maybe I was still warming up.  After I sucked at Little Big Horn (OK this time I deserve the joke), everyone else proceeded to kill it.  In my view anyway.  Luke and Tim ended up with a tie somewhere around 248.  Although that sounds stratospheric to me, they have both done more.  No world record on that one.

Medley:

There were 15 items, and I got 7; would have been 8 but at the end I forgot to go back and lift the Next Gen Blob, which I had gotten a couple of times warming up and I think I could have gotten with the time I had left, if I had not been puttering around with the things I should have known I wasn't going to get.  So 7 was the score but my result was in line of my usual medley performance of anywhere between half and three quarters of the items.  A few competitors got all 15, but it was not a super-easy medley -- they were just super good gripsters.  Kudos to them.

Conclusion:

Another success for the King of Pinch, but the fun was not over.  After the comp, we were a little late to our 6pm dinner at the hotel because Ben needed to clean and press the Inch dumbbell first.  And he didn't quite manage to do it.  Well, he cleaned it 5 or 6 times and almost pressed it 4 or 5 times.  This might be more impressive than cleaning and pressing it once, which he clearly is capable of and will likely do successfully the next time he tries.

And then we had the usual decent meal at a decent price at the Wyalusing Hotel.

And then we went to Grovedale Winery, where those of us who were sticking around Wyalusing for the night found out that Jedd actually has friends who are not gripsters, but who are, despite their griplessness, still very cool.  The winery owner let us make a bonfire and provided pizza and appetizers, and he let us taste some of their wines.  I bought a couple of bottles and so did others.  It was a great way to end the evening. 

I got back to the hotel after midnight, got a great night's sleep, and was home to my girlfriend in time for bingo.  Um, yeah.  She convinced me to go to bingo with her.  The jackpot was really big.  And I won.  But not the jackpot.  Just $33.33.  I won a $200 game split 6 ways.  I'll do the bingo writeup on their forum.

Peace.

Edited June 12, 2023 by Vinnie

[climber511]

As usual Vinnie - a great write up!  And congrats on your performance!  Some serious gripper company you're keeping these days!

I need to try the NN Pinch set up some time and see how it compares to the Euro for me.

[Kluv#0]

Fantastic results and write-up Vinnie! Huge congrats on achieving your goal of 165# 20 MM Gripper! Very strong close for any size person but under 180 LB BWT is sensational.

Edited June 12, 2023 by Kluv#0

[dubyagrip]

Congrats @Vinnie on the 165 close, awesome feat of strength.

[JasonD]

Great write up Vinnie, and great performance! If you actually trained some of these events, you’d do BIG things in the 83 class. As it is now, I’m in danger of you beating me in grippers. Well done, sir!

[Vinnie]

43 minutes ago, JasonD said:

Great write up Vinnie, and great performance! If you actually trained some of these events, you’d do BIG things in the 83 class. As it is now, I’m in danger of you beating me in grippers. Well done, sir!

I dunno about danger, but I do need a goal for next year, now that I think I can own the 165 ...

[Vinnie]

44 minutes ago, JasonD said:

Great write up Vinnie, and great performance! If you actually trained some of these events, you’d do BIG things in the 83 class. As it is now, I’m in danger of you beating me in grippers. Well done, sir!

And thanks, I was very pleased.  Congrats on your stellar performance, all around.  You are about the only person who can close 170 on a gripper and say it was your worst event of the night lol.

[Vinnie]

18 hours ago, climber511 said:

I need to try the NN Pinch set up some time and see how it compares to the Euro for me.

My PR on NN Pinch is more than 20 per cent more than on Euro, and based on the numbers I see from others, that may be the norm.  NN is also a little less abrasive to the webbing than Euro, although it will get you after a while like most pinch ...

You should come out to Nationals next year.  You'd be a celebrity, you'd place second in Masters (to Dingey, but I'd be there to give you someone to beat lol), and you'd see old friends.  You don't even have to qualify if you are over 50, although I don't doubt you could if you felt like it.

[climber511]

We'll see - this year is devoted to rehabbing my left knee (and a few other things) plus preparing for Teresa and my anniversary climbing trip.  Other than a scroll I made for one of my graduating throwers I haven't touched a single Grip item.  I'm actually thinking of selling much of my grip stuff that I never seem to use.

[Vinnie]

29 minutes ago, climber511 said:

We'll see - this year is devoted to rehabbing my left knee (and a few other things) plus preparing for Teresa and my anniversary climbing trip.  Other than a scroll I made for one of my graduating throwers I haven't touched a single Grip item.  I'm actually thinking of selling much of my grip stuff that I never seem to use.

Happy anniversary!  

 

[Hubgeezer]

On 6/12/2023 at 10:53 AM, Vinnie said:

Hello folks - time for my writeup…

With 165 on the brain, on Friday evening, I left Long Island and picked Tim Butler up in New Jersey, and we drove to the Wyalusing Hotel, where Tim and I were each lucky enough to get a room in the Annex that was NOT up against the street (Tim got 402 and I got 403, which are actually on the second floor; I think the rooms on the ground floor are in the 300s).  Ben Helms was not so lucky -- he and his wife (who is expecting their first child; good luck to them!) were in 300, with such a loud street noise problem that they actually had to go to another hotel -- fortunately the Wyalusing knows of this issue and did not give them a hard time about that.  For future reference, avoid rooms 300-301 and 400-401 in the Annex, if noise matters at all to you. 

Vinnie,

a. As is always the case, a Writeup in a Class by Itself by Vinnie.

b. Major question: How can a borough the size of Wyalusing, with a population of less than 600, have “such a loud street noise problem that they actually had to go to another hotel”?

Sounds like a scene out of one of my favorite movies, “My Cousin Vinny”, except that was a fictional comic story.
 

Hbgzr

[Blacksmith513]

1 hour ago, Hubgeezer said:

Vinnie,

a. As is always the case, a Writeup in a Class by Itself by Vinnie.

b. Major question: How can a borough the size of Wyalusing, with a population of less than 600, have “such a loud street noise problem that they actually had to go to another hotel”?

Sounds like a scene out of one of my favorite movies, “My Cousin Vinny”, except that was a fictional comic story.
 

Hbgzr

Thats a great question... 

 

Only thing I can think of, some people, like my mom are really sensitive to sound. Me, give me a bed and I could have slept through the grip competition. I slept through a Guns N Roses concert once. 

 

I'm guessing its an older building with older windows and sound probably goes right through them. If its on a main road, people are probably driving through it.

[Vinnie]

The hotel, when I booked, seemed very concerned about whether they had a room not abutting the street, and asked me what I thought about my tolerance for noise.  Maybe it is not traffic, but some sort of regular industrial routine.  I'm not sure, but Ben was quite certain he needed to change rooms.  And as noted, the hotel seemed anticipatorily concerned about putting anyone in these rooms, and gave Ben no trouble about going elsewhere without penalty.  As for me, in a room not in that location, I was fine.  But I also don't mind noise much.

[Jedd Johnson]

On 6/12/2023 at 1:53 PM, Vinnie said:

Hello folks - time for my writeup.  And I wish I had more time, because I like to do these but I am super busy at work.  So this won't be as robust as it would be if I were unemployed, but it will at least have a happier tone than the long one I'd be writing if there weren't other things distracting me from what I really enjoy.  But hey, at least I got to attend.

First off, thanks to Jedd for running another excellent comp.  It is something we have all come to take for granted since he does it every year and almost always more than once in every year, but it is no small feat to coordinate, execute, and compile these events.  Thanks to all the competitors for competing, and for reaffirming the high level of sportsmanship and indeed friendship that this sport has always boasted in greater measure than many others.

Now for my report; and my apologies in advance for it being heavy on the ME, but this one is MINE, and I hope all the other competitors will write one as well.  Let me start by saying that the only thing that I hoped to achieve at this comp was to close the 165 gripper with a block set.  The 165 gripper eluded me last year, when I failed my last two attempts at it with what I felt were near misses.  Grippers were the only event I actually trained for, because I don't have a good set-up or routine for much else right now, but I did actually train them and I am probably close to my best ever on them.  So I felt like my hope was reasonable. 

With 165 on the brain, on Friday evening, I left Long Island and picked Tim Butler up in New Jersey, and we drove to the Wyalusing Hotel, where Tim and I were each lucky enough to get a room in the Annex that was NOT up against the street (Tim got 402 and I got 403, which are actually on the second floor; I think the rooms on the ground floor are in the 300s).  Ben Helms was not so lucky -- he and his wife (who is expecting their first child; good luck to them!) were in 300, with such a loud street noise problem that they actually had to go to another hotel -- fortunately the Wyalusing knows of this issue and did not give them a hard time about that.  For future reference, avoid rooms 300-301 and 400-401 in the Annex, if noise matters at all to you.  I would also criticize the hotel's clunky-to-use wi-fi, which isn't a huge deal but was sort of annoying because these days I find that almost all hotels have such good wi-fi that it isn't an issue, and the Wyalusing Hotel should just century-up do that as well.  On the bright side, though, the Annex had what I thought was a great continental breakfast, right there on the floor where I was staying -- I do usually prefer a bigger, eggy/meaty breakfast, but at least they had great muffins and yogurt and good coffee and orange juice.  All in all, the convenience factor was worth it, and also their restaurant is terrific for a very reasonable tasty dinner.

OK, Yelp review over, back to the comp. I weighed in at 177.7, easily making the 83 kg (under 183 pounds) weight class.  Upon discovering that I was the only person in that weight class, I immediately added to my list of goals for the comp to win my weight class.  I thought this might offset my disappointment at finishing last in my weight class, which seemed rather inevitable.  Aside from being the smallest one at the comp, I was also the oldest, at 54, but not the only Masters entrant - Jason Dingey turned 50 recently, in one fell swoop destroying the hopes of ALL Masters competitors in the Grip World.  I mean, with the Masters group being just Jason and me, I was even more likely to place last in the Masters class than to win the 83kg, which is saying a lot, since I was the only one in 83 kg.

The events.

20 mm block set GRIPPERS:

I decided to open with that coveted 165 gripper for my first attempt at the first event.  That would sound horribly stupid, except for the fact that grippers are the one event where you can always drop down to a lower difficulty after a failed attempt.  My thinking was this:  I warmed up a little with some easier grippers, starting with a quick, chalkless TNS of Chaz's 132 Tetting, which he was kind enough to bring for me to try.  My TNS PR is actually 134 in comp and 135 while driving, so it was not a big surprise for me to succeed with the 132, but the fact that I hadn't yet warmed up, used no chalk, and still felt the handles grinding told me I was having an OK day.  To conclude my warm-up, I did a MMS close of the very 165 gripper that I hoped to block set.  Again I could feel the handles -- maybe not grinding like Joe Kinney butchering a COC 4, but this was a stronger close of a 165-rated gripper than I had ever done before (I have gotten a couple of closes of my 165 COC 3.5 where I had to review the video to be sure I got it, but this one I could actually FEEL without looking).  Once I slammed it, I stopped warming up and decided to open with it, because I was pretty cocksure I was gonna get it.

I got it, so after the first round of the gripper event, I was tied for first with Jason Dingey!  And I think maybe also with Jedd and maybe Luke.  But I was fine sharing the glory - it was the 165!  It was all I had come for, and with one squeeze, I had it.  And such a solid close, too.  I was thrilled (still am).

As I picked up my things and asked what time I should meet everyone for the dinner reservation, Tom Flesher reminded me that I still had three attempts left, and then four more events.  I figured ok, what the hey -- may as well see if I can put up some numbers that I will feel like I need to beat next year if I actually train.  I proceeded to make three attempts at 170, all of which were closer than I had any business expecting, but all failed.  As I did this, Jedd, Luke, Jason and others made their additional attempts.  When the dust cleared, only Jason succeeded with the 170, and there was a 5-way tie for second on the 165 among me, Jedd, Luke, Chaz, and Ben.  Definitely no shame sharing the number two spot with those folks.

2-inch Napalm Nightmare:

I need blocks for this because I don't reach the crossbar even if I lock out, unless I stand on at least the smaller blocks if not the taller ones.  I got 372 at Nationals last year, and then 382 just for kicks after my last attempt, so I would have liked to have gotten around 380 at this comp, where I was similarly unprepared.  I know these are not huge numbers, but I am a gripper dude in his 50s who had back surgery in his 30s, not some power lifter.  I warmed up with 354 and felt like I could manage 10 more pounds well enough not to risk a miss, so I started with 364.  I got that, and I also made 374 on my second attempt.  However, I missed 384 on my third and fourth attempts.  It wasn't the grip -- it is just too heavy for me to move.  After I failed it, just for kicks, I was able to get air on 384 without the blocks, but I couldn't reach the cross bar.  I then proceeded to rest for an hour while the big boys pushed it up over 500.  Well, maybe only Jason got that high, but there were some really big lifts in the high 4s.  Nice job, men.

2-inch Napalm pinch:

I ruined my prospects for improvement on this by having the best pinch day of my life at a gripmas a couple of years ago, when I got 242 on this implement.  Ever since then I haven't been able to get near that, so maybe it was an anomaly.  Anyway, I opened at 206 because I felt pretty solid warming up in the high 100s, and 216 went up ok for a second attempt.  226 did not feel so easy for my third, though, so I was not surprised to miss 236, which was getting pretty close to my unlikely 242.  I believe Tom Flesher, my fellow lawyer (almost) got pinch blocked at 226 as well.  But you know what?  It would not be unreasonable to say that, in the great scheme of things, 226 is not a bad two-hand pinch.  Not bad at all.

HOWEVER.

After missing 236, I was privy to the battle of the world records:  a good bunch of the competitors had yet to open, and three of them popped over 300, successively setting the world record somewhere around 310 and then breaking it.  Jason Dingey finished over 320, only because it was his last attempt and he clearly could have done more because he practically sent the crossbar flying with how forcefully he hit it.  And then Jedd did the opposite with 330, touching the crossbar like an asymptote touching a parabola, finalizing the day's world record fest at 330.  Ish.  Yeah, this happened.  Some guy at a comp did over 310 on two-hand pinch and came in 3rd.  And some other guy at the comp did over 320 on two-hand pinch and came in 2nd.  Just wow.  Part of me wonders whether, if I knew that people were capable of well over 300 on this, maybe I might have been shamed into doing just a little more ...

Little Big Horn:

Have I mentioned how much I hate this event?  I knew I would suck it.  And I did.  I think I opened at 153 because 148 felt ok warming up, but it was already getting difficult for me.  I got 158, too, but then on my third attempt I missed 163.  This thing gets hard fast!  Oh stop, please.  The event I mean; I am in my 50s.  But I did not expect to miss 163 after 158, and they let some folks do 168 while I rested for my final attempt.  I contemplated just going for the 168, which I THINK would be a 1-pound PR for me on the implement, but then I thought that it would be annoying to miss that being greedy when I had just missed less.  I think maybe I should have gone for the PR.  I got 163 easier than 158 had been.  I think maybe I was still warming up.  After I sucked at Little Big Horn (OK this time I deserve the joke), everyone else proceeded to kill it.  In my view anyway.  Luke and Tim ended up with a tie somewhere around 248.  Although that sounds stratospheric to me, they have both done more.  No world record on that one.

Medley:

There were 15 items, and I got 7; would have been 8 but at the end I forgot to go back and lift the Next Gen Blob, which I had gotten a couple of times warming up and I think I could have gotten with the time I had left, if I had not been puttering around with the things I should have known I wasn't going to get.  So 7 was the score but my result was in line of my usual medley performance of anywhere between half and three quarters of the items.  A few competitors got all 15, but it was not a super-easy medley -- they were just super good gripsters.  Kudos to them.

Conclusion:

Another success for the King of Pinch, but the fun was not over.  After the comp, we were a little late to our 6pm dinner at the hotel because Ben needed to clean and press the Inch dumbbell first.  And he didn't quite manage to do it.  Well, he cleaned it 5 or 6 times and almost pressed it 4 or 5 times.  This might be more impressive than cleaning and pressing it once, which he clearly is capable of and will likely do successfully the next time he tries.

And then we had the usual decent meal at a decent price at the Wyalusing Hotel.

And then we went to Grovedale Winery, where those of us who were sticking around Wyalusing for the night found out that Jedd actually has friends who are not gripsters, but who are, despite their griplessness, still very cool.  The winery owner let us make a bonfire and provided pizza and appetizers, and he let us taste some of their wines.  I bought a couple of bottles and so did others.  It was a great way to end the evening. 

I got back to the hotel after midnight, got a great night's sleep, and was home to my girlfriend in time for bingo.  Um, yeah.  She convinced me to go to bingo with her.  The jackpot was really big.  And I won.  But not the jackpot.  Just $33.33.  I won a $200 game split 6 ways.  I'll do the bingo writeup on their forum.

Peace.

Dude, you should write more.

Good job on your performance.  Always improving.