2024 Yol Bosun Grip Contest - Vin's Report

[Vinnie]

As many of you know, Chris Rice (@climber511) came out of Grip Retirement to promote and host the Yol Bosun Grip Competition (at his home gym in Crooksville, Ohio).  At age 75, this was Chris’s first competition in over five years, since his “Last Gripmas Carol” in 2018.  That previous competition was one of my first, during my first year in grip.

So back to 2024.  I left home around 9:45 a.m. Saturday morning to pick up Anthony C. and Tom F., two of the same gang that were there in 2018.  But now, instead of Anthony introducing Tom and me to this weird sport, we were old friends who have been to many competitions together.  Finally, after over 5 years, I can say I don’t feel like such a newbie anymore!  The ride was fun:  I drove, and Anthony and Tom had an eight-hour conversation about professional wrestling which I know nothing about, all the while peppering everything they deigned to say to me with references to the Simpsons, which I don't watch.  I do remember once near exit 49 on route 70 they let me talk about coffee for a minute, and sometimes they avoided Simpson inside jokes when asking me to stop the car for them to pee.

We arrived at the Quality Inn, in Zanesville (where the closest hotels are), around 7:30 pm.  Chris Rice had graciously offered a preview of the implements and the medley to anyone who wanted to stop in the night before the comp, and Anthony and I decided, after 9 or 10 hours in the car, that another 25 minutes each way to Chris’s house to take him up on that offer was worthwhile.  Tom said he was too tired, however, so he stayed back at the hotel when we left, so that he could walk a mile over a bridge in freezing cold weather to a brewery, where he sampled beer and eavesdropped on patrons in order to learn more about their love lives but without realizing that he’d never get closure.

Meanwhile, at the Rice home, Chris and his lovely wife Theresa welcomed us enthusiastically, and soon Chris brought Anthony and me into his garage, which, he admitted, had once had a car inside it for a few hours.  But no more.  Inside this oversized man-cave are three climbing walls of varying difficulty and a collector’s trove of grip implements and weights.  Chris proudly showed us his Euro, his axle, his crazy homemade sledge set-up, and dozens of medley items positioned for use the next day.  He even took the time to show us a few of the quirks of some of his one-of-a-kind medley items, like a weird blob-sized item shaped like a sled whose trick was to find a bump on the side, a home-made extensor lift, and some other stuff.

But what really interested me was folklore.  Yes, folklore.  It is written in the hallowed halls, or threads anyway, of the Grip Board that Chris is a muse of Euro PRs.  The Euro-Whisperer if you will.  Some might say (and Chris couldn’t possibly be one of those someones) that people automatically gain 20 pounds on their Euro lifts if Chris even looks at them, and more if they actually listen to what he says.

I was not unaware of this lore, and hoped to partake of it.  My all-time Euro PR was 194 pounds, 16^th on the grip sports top 100 in my weight class, and not much more than the 182 that I got on the Euro at Chris’s previous comp in 2018.  So I said, “O Euro Whisperer of Crooksville, Can You Help Me Gain 6 Pounds On My Euro Lift So I Can Join The 200 Club And Be Deemed Good At Pinch?”  Indeed, I had heard Chris himself say to someone moments before, “If you can pinch lift 200, then you are good at pinch.”  Just 6 pounds, and I, too, could be “good at pinch.”  And The Euro Whisperer Replied, “Pshspsshspshshshs.”  I said, OK, but you don’t actually have to whisper, it’s just a nickname.  He then returned to a normal voice and said, “You know, I never told anyone else this, but after 40 minutes with me, I got Kody Burns (the current Euro World Record holder) 40 more pounds!”  I said, “Wow, no, I don’t think anyone has ever heard you say that, but I’ve been driving all day and I just need 6 pounds, so do you have 6 minutes?”  Then Chris replied, also uncharacteristically, “Well, really when people work with me they get more like 20 extra pounds.”  He set up the Euro with very little weight on it and had me show him what I did.  It was all wrong.  I needed to stand much more directly over the implement, hold it with my fingers pointing down, flare my lats and imagine squeezing pencils in my armpits to force my weaker fingers to share the squeeze, and try to tilt the thing a little forward and imagine hiking the whole thing behind me like a football while lifting it.  This was all very different from what I was thinking before, which was something more general like, “I guess I will grab this somewhere on top and squeeze hard and pull upwards.”  Chris told me that if I were to do all he advised, I would get my 200.  He said it like it was a done deal.  And I didn’t even have to kiss his ring, because he’s the Euro Whisperer, not the Godfather.  I filed all this away, thinking to myself, OK, I can try all that hocus pocus -- but I had better get my 6 pounds.  Because if I don’t, I am going to out Chris in my write-up for all this braggadoccio.  And I have heard that people actually read these write-ups.  I’d send Chris straight from Euro Whisperer to Charlatan of Crush.  Pinch Pretender.  Grip Ganef. 

Also, I noticed the grippers for the medley.  I picked up the hardest gripper: a choked RGC 175 gripper, closed it on the strap, and held it for a few seconds.  I planned to sweep the gripper portion of the medley, if nothing else, because I am a gripper guy.  That was the hardest gripper in it, and I had just gotten it with no warmup or chalk.

Aside (serious moment):  Chris was very generous with his time, coaching Anthony and me on our Euro form for no other reason than to help us.  Well, and also because I think he knew neither of us whippersnappers had a shot at beating him anyway lol.

So Anthony and I drove back to the hotel, and the day of the comp came.

Tom, Anthony, and I met in the lobby at 7:45 a.m. and drove over to weigh in and sample Theresa’s homemade breakfast, which we knew would be better than the hotel one.  When I first stepped on the scale to weigh in, I was .3 pounds over, so I announced to the woman recording weights that I would have to take off my pants.  She turned around to give me privacy, and Tom volunteered that I was just being polite, and she could watch me strip.  So she did, because, look at me.  Well OK, she turned back around, but I think it was just to look at the scale.  Made weight!  83kg, by less than a pound.

The events:

1.75 Country Crush Raptor

Well, I went in thinking hey, I can do 200 on a 2-inch crusher, so I should start at 200 for my first attempt on this smaller handle.  Watch out!  Good thing that warmups were allowed, and that other competitors warned me that the raptor is not as easy as it sounds.  My final result was 180.6!  But, never having contested this implement before (or even tried it), that would make it … a PR!  Chris tied me on that, and Clint beat us both by 10 pounds, so I started out tied with Chris for second but with no delusion of staying there.  This was really supposed to be a battle for first between Chris and Clint, and everyone else could hope for sloppy third at best.

Euro

(drum roll) I opened at 183, a pound more than my final result in 2018 and 11 less than my comp PR of 194.  My feeling was that I would make a 10-pound jump and (hopefully) get 193, than take my stab at 203, and still have room for more if needed.  I didn’t think I would need it.  But 183 flew up.  And then … 193 flew up, and really did not seem at my limit.  I was very consciously doing everything Chris had told me the night before, and … 203 flew up next.  I high fived Chris and thanked him.  He was, indeed, the Euro Whisperer – not the Charlatan of Crush!  And I still had an attempt left.  So Clint had finished at 208.  I figured 203 had felt so good, why not go for 213?  I did.  And I hit the crossbar and pulled right through to lockout, held it for a sec, and put it down slow.  It was my last attempt, and it felt like I could have done more.  All because Chris gave me his advice that gets everyone 20 pounds.  Unfortunately, I did not realize at the time that the weight class world record was just 8 pounds more, at 221.  I believe it would have been permitted for me to take a fifth attempt to try to break that record, and the way 213 felt, I think it might have been possible.  However, I also had just begun to get a tear on my dominant hand’s thumb webbing area, and had I gone for more, it might have adversely affected the rest of the comp for me.  I didn’t look the gift horse in the mouth – 213 blew my mind.  PR number 2!  Chris was 100% right that he knows what to do for Euro, and that people who listen to him will improve their lifts.  He got 223 for his lift, putting him into close second place to Clint, with me close at their heels.

Axle

Well, this is my weakness, because my deadlift form is so bad that people who see me do it laugh and make fun of it openly, realizing that I could not possibly think I am doing it right (and they are right).  I just yank the weight off the ground from a weird bent over position and kind of roll, pull, shrug it up to lock out, ending up where I should be but not getting there right.  And the challenge for me is the actual moving of the weight – my axle max IS my deadlift max on any bar, because the grip is not what is stopping me.  In 2018, I had gotten 270.  Since then, I have gotten as much as 308.  Well, this time my fourth attempt was 308.5.  So, albeit by just half a pound … PR again!  And Chris got 318.5, while Clint had to stop after his first attempt (303.5) because of his back.  That put Chris into first, Clint second, and me third, still all close.

Sledge

I had never done this before either:  two sledge hammers connected, and you have face lever both of them for reps, with two hands, inside a cage that protects your head and guides the lever motion a little.  It was about 32 pounds.  It was certainly easier than two 16s, because I don’t think I have ever done a face lever with even one 16, but it was not an easy thing to rep.  I got 6.  Clint got 7, and Chris 13!  So, again, PR, because it was something I had never done, and still Chris-Clint-me.

Medley

I’m not great at medleys, and I wasn’t great at this, but as I mentioned before, I did hope to sweep the six grippers:  MMS a COC 1, 2, and 3, and strap lift a coin with a choked 2.5, 3, and 3.5 (or at least from the ratings that is what I think they were).  At the beginning of the medley – tired from the previous events – I ran first to the COC 3, got that, and then tried to TNS the 1 in my left hand and the 2 in my right at once, to save time.  But the 1 slipped and I couldn’t get it without dropping the 2 and re-grabbing the 1, so I lost a little time.  I got the choked 2.5 and 3 right after, but I decided to leave the 175 for later and did some other things.  I was pleased to pinch lift two wide 35s and 5 tens on a bar, and I got a bunch of the lesser blobs but not the next-gen (I have done a next gen once, but wasn’t even going to try it this fried).  As my time ran low, I went back to the 175 choked gripper and … missed.  I just didn’t have it in me at this point.  I ended with 19 of the 41 items, which is par for the course for me – not up there with the big boys (Luke got 40!).  Clint got 23, and Chris 24.  Still Chris-Clint-Vin, but … that made me third in the lightweights!  As a result, I won a really cool handmade plaque that Chris and an engraver friend prepared for the top three in each class.

Overall, Luke won the comp, mostly on strength of the sledge and the medley; his other lifts were stellar but he was in second or third place until he just destroyed everyone else in those last two events.  Jason Dingey and Cliff, who many of us including me had never seen before, had run away with the first three events.  And the final placing was Luke, Cliff, Jason for the open class and overall.

So, third to Chris Rice and Clint, and 8^th of 16 overall, this was about what I might have expected – but with the added twist that I became one of Chris Rice’s ever-growing list of folks who got an extra 20 on their Euro!

And I’m not done with this Euro business.  I issue this challenge to Chris (not that it involves any challenge for him, but just kind of like a friendly bet type thing):  You hold another comp next year, with Euro as one event, and I will apply what you taught me and break the 83kg weight class world record for the Euro (at least the record that is there now, can’t be sure no one else will break it before me with something I can’t touch).

And I will also help with the comp, either by chipping in some cash if the cost is challenging, or by volunteering my time to help with whatever I can help with from New York. 

It was really such an excellent event, and I hope some other folks will do their own write-ups, to cover what I missed here, and to show the grip community what an important role Chris still plays in it.  16 participants is somewhat large for a grip comp, but it should be a little bigger next time.

Thanks to Chris, Theresa, and their son for all the work and hospitality, and to my buddies Anthony and Tom for coming with me, and to all the folks who came to the comp and made it impossible to win, and to the grip community for being a great place to hang out online and off.

Until the next one,

-  Vinnie

Edited January 20 by Vinnie

[Vinnie]

My 213 Euro lift is here: 

 

[Vinny F]

Vin - another great report making you feel like you were there. Personal favorite is the funny commentary and the winner for me in this one is Tom going to brewery to eavesdrop on others live life stories but not realizing he'd never get closure.... 

[Vinnie]

On 1/16/2024 at 1:55 AM, Vinnie said:

I issue this challenge to Chris (not that it involves any challenge for him, but just kind of like a friendly bet type thing):  You hold another comp next year, with Euro as one event, and I will apply what you taught me and break the 83kg weight class world record for the Euro (at least the record that is there now, can’t be sure no one else will break it before me with something I can’t touch).

And I will also help with the comp, either by chipping in some cash if the cost is challenging, or by volunteering my time to help with whatever I can help with from New York. 

@climber511 above quote from my write up, and it's an actual offer:  if it makes any difference in your calculations, I can chip in some coin and/or some cleanup time, to make it more palatable to run a comp next year.  All you have to do is include the Euro again lol.  Let me know when you start thinking about it.

Cheers,

Vin

[climber511]

Well - some not so great news.  I posted about the higher heart rate issue and feeling like crap while cleaning up the day after the comp.  Kinda concerned me and was actually thinking about seeing a doctor.  Went to Virginia Friday for Bennie's birthday and came home today (Sunday).  Was feeling rough - still weak but heart rate is coming down pretty well (its weird - it was going up when I laid down but better when vertical and moving around - a little breathing trouble at night at times - strange).  The bummer was the Covid test I took - positive twice 12 hours apart today (Sunday) - crap.  I thought I had escaped that particular critter up to now..  So I likely had it when all you guys were here for Yol Bosun - so please keep your  eyes on things and get tested if needed.  Lots of fatigue but starting to feel a lot better now.  So Covid wasn't too big a deal thankfully.  Hoping this is pretty much the end of it.   

[Douglas Carney]

Wishing you a full and speedy recovery, Chris.

[Vinnie]

15 hours ago, climber511 said:

So Covid wasn't too big a deal thankfully.  Hoping this is pretty much the end of it.

I've had it three times, as have my son and my girlfriend, and it hasn't been that bad for any of us.  Worse actually for my son, the teenager, than for the 50-somethings, but still not all that bad; least bad for me, the oldest of the three of us!  Glad you didn't get hit too hard.