2023 New England's Strongest Grip - Arm Lifting Super Series Stage 1 - Vin's report

[Blacksmith513]

4 hours ago, Vinnie said:

No one reached out to me with any sort of explanation, so I only found this out when looking online at the results:  It looks like everyone at the New England World Series Stage 1 got zero for the Saxon Block averaged into our comp results, so we all placed really low in the Stage 1 standings.  I assume that the reason we were given zeros is that the event was incorrectly judged so that our reported lifts were impossibly high, and I certainly agree that it would not be fair to the competitors at OTHER venues to count those inflated lifts.  But the lack of communication and video left us with zeros instead of credit for the lower lifts that we actually did, in many cases probably correctly.  Out of about 24 in my weight class, I placed 17th, where I would have been around 6th or 7th if I had been credited with even a basic, easy lift on the block, and as high as 4th if I had a decent lift for my weight class.  That's disappointing, but maybe less so for me than for someone who might have been in contention for prize money.  It wasn't malicious of course, and there was no really good way to handle it after it happened, but it really shouldn't go down this way.  I hope the promoters make some effort to coordinate Stage 2 and future events (maybe a general meeting between overall promoter and all the venue promoters), so as not to do this to athletes again.

Instead of giving everyone a 0... They should not even factor that lift into the overall score, just remove it..  A 0 It just brings the average down way too much.  

Thats BS.  If it wasn't judged correctly thats on the judges whoever organized the comp. 

[Vinnie]

1 hour ago, stranger said:

They didn't say why? Just zeroed all you guys? Do you have any videos?

I had my own personal video of my best lift or two, but those were at the point where the calls were too lenient so Riccardo said those lifts were no good.  But it was last man standing unlimited attempts, and I had started low (because it was my first time trying the implement) and made several absolutely perfect attempts that I did not video because I knew I'd do more, and I only started videoing when I was in high numbers -- but those lifts were not good.  The promoter's video recording ran out of memory so he did not get the whole comp.  I really think that given today's capabilities, these comps should just be recorded in full.

It's not a big enough deal (to me) to try to get anything changed at this point, I just think some care should be taken to keep the promoters in multi-venue comps consistent with each other.  King Kong seems to work.  This should, too.

[stranger]

3 minutes ago, Vinnie said:

I had my own personal video of my best lift or two, but those were at the point where the calls were too lenient so Riccardo said those lifts were no good.  But it was last man standing unlimited attempts, and I had started low (because it was my first time trying the implement) and made several absolutely perfect attempts that I did not video because I knew I'd do more, and I only started videoing when I was in high numbers -- but those lifts were not good.  The promoter's video recording ran out of memory so he did not get the whole comp.  I really think that given today's capabilities, these comps should just be recorded in full.

It's not a big enough deal (to me) to try to get anything changed at this point, I just think some care should be taken to keep the promoters in multi-venue comps consistent with each other.  King Kong seems to work.  This should, too.

Understood. What was the problem with your lift? I'm asking because I've seen some absolutely garbage lifts get passed even after review.  

[Vinnie]

1 hour ago, stranger said:

Do you have any videos

I only took a couple of my own videos, might have taken more if someone had told me my lifts would only count if I took my own videos of them.  I do remember them saying any records would have to be caught on video, but I didn't expect to set any records.  This is not a huge deal to me.  I don't think I got robbed of anything in terms of prizes, just got ranked lower than I should be because there is a zero instead of what I can actually lift on the block.  I know my top lifts should not have passed, not disputing that.  Our whole venue got world-record level lifts because they were mistakenly passed, so I get that they can't count those.  I don't think there is much to be done about the past - can't arbitrarily decide what numbers to use.  But zero is just as arbitrary.  Probably should be just eliminated from our stats altogether.  

[Vinnie]

5 minutes ago, stranger said:

Understood. What was the problem with your lift? I'm asking because I've seen some absolutely garbage lifts get passed even after review.  

 

(not a good lift but I did many with less weight that were fine)

[Chez]

6 hours ago, Vinnie said:

It might make sense for promoters to require that all comps be videoed in full.  That wouldn't eliminate the possibility of communication and judging problems, but it might help reduce the effect of them.  Anyway, not the hugest deal, glad it happened in a comp I wasn't super-invested in, and probably had little effect on me, and hopefully it didn't mess anyone else up, either.  These multi-venue comps have a lot of appeal once these kinds of kinks are worked out.

I agree with the videoing of lifts vin. Tim and I are running Kk I. nj and plan to video each lift right at the cross bar in case we need to do a video replay for a close call. All sports have replay challenges now so it makes sense we do as well since it’s relatively easy to set up