2023 Armhighland Gripstrongwrestling Powergames - Cornelius, NC - Vin's Report

[Vinnie]

All summer I have been looking forward to coming down to this greatly named North Carolina comp, and I almost flaked out because I am busy at work.  But I was carpooling with Anthony Clarino and didn't want to force him out, and was unaware that he was considering bagging it as well.  Somehow, we both just kept not backing out until it was too late to cancel our fleabag motel reservations, and once that happened, well, at least I am too cheap to pay for a room and not use it.  So we hit the road from Anthony's place in Queens in my old Honda Civic and got down to the Cornelius Red Roof Inn around midnight Friday, not too late since the comp was set to start at 11 am.  

We started out with 30mm block set grippers.  It seemed to be the same set as last year, when I closed the Tetting rated 156 with a 20mm block.  I've worked my grippers back up a tad since then so I was hoping to close that gripper again, but from 30mm.  But when I went to weigh in, the pull was too much and I just had to feel the gripper.  I had to caress it, and hold it to my bosom, and try it.  And without any warmup or chalk, I MMS slammed the 156.  And Jason Otto and James Retarides seemed so impressed I just wanted to bask in that a bit.  So I, uh, MMS slammed the 160.  This I thought boded well for my chances to close the 156 during the comp, since I planned to warm up and use chalk.  Or was that the warmup?

So I opened with the 156, and did chalk up, and got the 30mm close pretty handily.  See what I did there?  Handily.  Tee hee.  Anyway, Steven Samaniego (Pork Chop) opened around 140 and had told me he was only going to close about 140 bc of the 30mm width.  I should have realized that this is what he did last year, when I opened with 156 and he opened with 140, yet came back to close 160 on his last attempt and beat me.  I remember being so sad when he took home that beautiful wood plaque with a gripper on it.  Was he doing this to me again?  Um, yeah.  But unlike last year, I had trained grippers and I moved on to the 160 Tetting for my second attempt.  Got it!  Not easy, but hey, wider set, bigger gripper, I was pretty happy!  And Steven tried 151 for his second.  I missed my third and fourth attempts (I tried the 170 Tetting before trying the 164 GHP8 bc I do better with Tettings, but missed both).  And suddenly Pork Chop is trying the 160, just like last year!  I could not be mean and root against him.  I yelled support.  And the bastid got it!  I mean, good for him, he pulled it out!  Yay Pork Chop!  That is exactly what he did to me last year, predicting 140 and then taking away my plaque with a 160 close.  Except one difference.  This year, I got 160 too.  And ... tie goes to the lighter contestant.  Pork Chop graciously declined to insist that we reweigh ourselves to see if he was still heavier since weigh-in, and I took the gripper event. This tickled me.  And it is also a comp PR, because I never did 30mm grippers before.

Next was lever top.  Last year I got zero.  I had waited for some high school kid to fail it before my opening attempt, but the kid was strong and I suck at lever top, so I was not able to get my first lift.  This year, I was more cautious.  I went over to the bar and took it off to take a practice lift at 41 or so.  But one of the contestants told me I could leave the bar on the crossbar, and just take the little ball bearing off the lever top itself to signify it was not an official attempt.  So I put the bar back on and did 41 without the ball bearing.  But no one told the judge -- so he counted it as my first attempt while I thought I had not opened yet.  Then I "opened" at 46 and it wasn't too bad, so I went up to 55 or 56 (I forget which).  That was getting hard, and I decided to go for 62 next, and I just barely missed it.  But I figured I would get it on my fourth attempt, so I didn't sweat it.  Except I didn't get a fourth attempt, because that had been it.  Oh well.  This is not an event I have ever trained, nor one I will be putting up interesting numbers on (other than zero, which was interesting in a bad way).  So 56 it is.  Or 55.  Whatever.  Comp PR for me because I never did that in comp.

Then we moved to crusher, on which my personal best is about 155 pounds.  Or at least my comp best.  I decided after some warmups to open at 145, just to be safe.  Got that fine, but 150 was starting to feel hard.  And on 155, for my third attempt, I failed it.  But I had another attempt!  I had remembered to remove the bar for my practices!  Yay!  On my fourth attempt, I just barely eked out the 155, tying my comp PR.  Definitely pleased.

On to the V-bar!  I hadn't tried one of these since Nate's basement 5 years ago, when I think I just cracked 200.  But 200 seemed easy in warmup, so I opened with it.  Not too bad.  I had visions of making 10 pound jumps and ending around 230.  But oooooooooh no.  Someone wanted to do 213, so I just agreed to that as my second attempt, and ... couldn't do it.  Wtf?  From easy to no-can-do in 13 pounds?  I tried it again for my 3rd and 4th attempts, and fiddled around a little with standing on plates to help with the height.  Somehow on my last attempt, it hit the crossbar and I ended at 213.  Phew.  Comp PR for me, because never did that in comp.

Finally, one-hand Euro.  But first, we had to go on a coffee run for some starbucks.  James had a new client he was training who asked me to pick up a hot coffee on the run, and when we got back, the top popped off and I almost dropped it on the ground and into my crotch -- but I smartly held onto the cup despite the coffee spewing onto my right hands' many fingers.  Stubbornly refusing to drop the coffee in a manly show of pain resistance, I let that hot coffee fall only onto my hand as I slowly put the cup down and screamed in burning agony.  I did not spill it and he got his coffee.  I spent the next 20 minutes with my hand in the empty freezer looking for cold spots I had not yet warmed up.  And one-hand Euro was waiting.  I can do 190-ish two-handed, so I figured I should come in around 70 or so because I would likely need to do it left handed, or with my burned hand at lower than max weight.  So I opened on 75 and it was very easy.  I figured I would go to 85, and keep my burned hand on ice until just before, then quickly dry it off, chalk it up, and pick up a sandwich with habanero peppers in it to put heat somewhere else while I did my lift.  And that it what I did -- I walked to the Euro with hands just beginning to re-feel the burn, picked up the 85, hit the crossbar, took a bite of my habanero thingy, and put the Euro back down.  The hands were starting to burn again but that lift felt GOOD.  I was stoked (heat pun!) for 90.  And I kinda thought I might even get more on a fourth attempt.  However, on my third attempt, at 90, the burn was already starting to blister and the skin on my middle finger tore open a bit.  It was already not wise to be Euro pinching with burns on my fingers.  I took the cue and called it quits there.  85 it is.  Yet another comp PR - because know why?  Right.  Never did that in comp before.

Turned out I placed third in Euro and in V-bar, adding two $20 gift certificates to the $50 one that came with the gripper win, and really surprising myself.  I did train grippers, but still did better than I expected on them, and was pretty happy with my results on the stuff I hadn't trained.  Maybe when the burns heal I will train those things, too lol.

After the comp was over, we all went to a cute North Carolina Italian place where they pretend to make pizza (no, it's really good, the owner used to play pool with a guy whose cousin lived in New Jersey for a month in 1992, so .... pretty much same as New York pizza!).  Um, no.  Don't be in North Carolina and tell an Italian guy who lives on Long Island and works in New York City that your pizza is kind of the same.  No.  You have barbecue and bluegrass.  We do pizza.  I ordered the chicken wings ...

After that, we Retaride to James's house, where James coyly said, "I'm gonna show you the lowest rated COC 3.5 you've ever seen."  I had to laugh.  167 he shows me!  Ha!  I ran to my car, and James thought he had somehow insulted me.  But then I retarnide with MY COC 3.5 - rated 159.  You like light COC 3.5s I said?  How do you like THEM COC 3.5s!  Ha.  This one is almost as light as Jedd's COC 4!

And then we drank and told stories of griptimes past.  It was a pleasure to meet Robert Miller and his beautiful wife, and James's beautiful wife, and to hang with all the cool people who make up for nothing pizza with such good attitudes about life, and conversation.

Can't wait to come back to NC for AGP 6, and some more of the same.

[anwnate]

Loved it. Great report. Felt like I was there.

[ZRMMA]

Great job on the Gripper Win and loved the Sandwich/Euro moment!

[Vinny F]

Great write up... Good to see you and Anthony make the long trip again. You killed it on grippers. High intensity.

Can't believe you still pulled after the burn. Hope it heals quick so the "Crispy Fingers" nickname doesn't stick.

Overall, event was fun and Jason Otto organized well and thanks to James for hosting at his center. Good to see old friends and new ones. Claude & Hunter did great for first time. Hunter has huge potential to be at top of any event. I jokingly called him "rookie of the year".

I skipped on grippers as I had not trained them in over a year and rating options were not ideal for me.

Also got a 3.5 lb PR on lever top v. last year..but I don't like that at all.

I was pleased with my #'s, especially the 12.5 PR on the 2.5" Crusher from last years AGP and only a week from Heavy Hands. 

Happy with the 15 lb over bodyweight on 2" V-bar even though i missed my final that would have been +25 over but.

My hand was fried for Euro pinch so just took opener and passed on other attempts.

Congrats to the winners!

 

 

Edited September 17, 2023 by Vinny F