Strong Arm Tactic Report

[CMunger]

First off, quick results, cuz I don't see them anywhere else: The Robs took first and second, Shane Larson took 3rd, Jedd took 4th, and I believe Jeff Peterson got 5th. Joel Sward's sister had a baby (?) so was unable to make it.

Overall Highlights:

Monkey Hands had a couple pretty good whacks at the #4, and several people closed the #3 and got certified.

Bissonette and Rob W had a kiss your sister tie on the plate pinch.

Shane Larson coming out of nowhere. He was tied for 1st going into bending, but lack of bending experience and practice really hurt him. This kid's gonna be scary.

Rob F bent a 4" Blue. Yes, 4". No, really. 4"

Sam "I've never bent before" McMahon put a pretty significant hurt (kink) on a Red nail screwing around before the Plate Pinch. Strong cat, that one.

My highlights:

Shane Larson walked in with his brother, and a little light bulb started going off. I asked them where they were from in SD and in a real Small World moment, they grew up about 2 miles from our farm and we rode the bus together.

I was a gnat's ass away from closing one of the #3's in the gripper contest. Almost. I wish I'd have started cramming for the gripper portion a few days sooner.

Nothing memorable in pinch and RT for me. Just that I could really use some work there.

In bending, I made a tactical error. I chose to try to open with a 4.5" bend, and because of the short length, borrowed a kevlar wrap to try. In retrospect, both counts were a mistake. My logic was that with the shortest open, I might be able to get away with fewer bends, cuz I'm not very good with volume. But I failed pretty miserably and spent a lot of energy and gave myself a huge bruise trying. Big kick to the ego and self-confidence. Decided to go back to my terry towel and nail a sure-thing to guarantee a full bend with a 5.5", then made a safe move to a 5" for my 3rd bend. I obsessed about my failure for a bit, but Rob F. made the whole point moot with a 4 3/4", 4 1/4" and 4" series. The guy is just amazing with the really short stuff. Lesson learned was: open safe, and run what ya brung.

In Conclusion: Great fun time. BC: thanks for putting the contest on. Gordon: thanks for donating the hot sauce as bonus prizes. Very nice touch, and I wish I'd have finished in a qualifying spot for one. I finished near the middle of the pack 12th, so I met my goal of not finishing last. But as they say, when you're not the lead dog, the view never changes, so I'm hoping to improve my skills enough to at least change the view a little bit for future grip contests. Two Thumbs Up.

[Matt Van Weele]

I had a great time meeting everyone. There was lots of awesome stuff going on most noteably Rob W. missing the #4 by a quarters thickness and Rob F's awesome battle that he won with a four inch blue. I myself got 10th which is what I wanted. I really was surprsed in bending. I got a yellow then a blue and a 5.75 blue on my first tries with these things. I never liked bending nails and only tried it a few times but I think I will have to start practicing. Once again Great Contest. Congrats to all and thanks to BC for putting on a great show.

[austinslater]

Awesome report guys and congrats! How did the other board members like Jedd, matt m, etc do?

[Matt Van Weele]

Jedd was fourth and seemed off in the grippers. I think Matt M was around 6th or 7th.

[The Mac]

Seems like a great contest!!

[smitty]

Called Jedd and like Matt said, he definitely felt off on the grippers

Jedd said it was an awesome contest!!!

Good job EVERYONE

[bballdad]

Good report!!

Way to go guys!!

Good bending Matt!!

Rob and a 4" blue! Awesome!

[JamesG]

A 4" blue is awesome! Is there gonna be a full report? Cant wait

[JeffPeterson]

It was alot of fun. It was nice to meet the Rob's and Jedd, they were all cool guys. It won't be long before Rob W. does the #4. This guy has comic/super hero looking forearms.

[Rick Walker]

Sounds like a great time was had by all!!

Congrats to the Vigeants-I told everyone after BFGS 1 that the Vigeants were going to be a force-Monkey and Midget-they are awesomely strong.

Jedder-my man-one of the dudes to watch out for in 2004. He had an off day-but you did the CREW proud brother!

Brian-good job on a contest well done . Excellent that this sport is moving forward!

Rick Walker

[Tom of Iowa2]

The Robs took first and second, Shane Larson took 3rd, Jedd took 4th, and I believe Jeff Peterson got 5th. Joel Sward's sister had a baby (?) so was unable to make it.

Overall Highlights:

Monkey Hands had a couple pretty good whacks at the #4, and several people closed the #3 and got certified.

Bissonette and Rob W had a kiss your sister tie on the plate pinch.

Shane Larson coming out of nowhere. He was tied for 1st going into bending, but lack of bending experience and practice really hurt him. This kid's gonna be scary.

Rob F bent a 4" Blue. Yes, 4". No, really. 4"

Sam "I've never bent before" McMahon put a pretty significant hurt (kink) on a Red nail screwing around before the Plate Pinch. Strong cat, that one.

Thanks for report.

Great contest.

IF things keep going the way they are going and IF everybody shows up at Ricks contest?(which is quite a ways off...in other words enough time for significant progress to be made )

Possibly?three number #4 closes in one afternoon?

[Tom of Iowa2]

For those who tried it?

How did that brand new Iron Mind Rolling Thunder feel compared to the one(s)you've tried before?or trained with at the gym?

[bseedot]

What a great contest! It ran as smoothly as I could have expected. Video and pics to come and they tell the story better than I can. But some highlights:

Rob W. utterly destroying a Super Elite on his first gripper attempt. After seeing that I thought he had a real shot at the #4 and becoming the fourth official #4 closer, but it wasn't to be that day.

Jason Adamski, Jeff Bissonnette, and Sam McMahon all closed a #3 under certifiable conditions and the close-up pic was taken for Sam as well.

To be in the Top 10 in the gripper event you had to at least be able to close a COC #3.

Jeff B. and Rob W. tie with 195 lbs. on the two-hand plate pinch. Only the weight of the plates was counted and the loading pin and spacers used added approximately ten pounds.

Shane Larson won the IronMind Rolling Thunder deadlift with his opening attempt of 215 lbs.

Rob F. bends a 4" IronMind Blue nail. You'll love the video of this! Rob headed straight to the camera to unwrap the nail.

To be in the Top 10 in bending you had to bend at least a Blue nail.

It was a great atmosphere and I hope that everyone enjoyed themselves. A huge thank you to all of the out-of state guys who traveled here!

I have extra t-shirts if anyone wants to purchase them. $20 (shipping included) within the continental US. eMail me at carlt005@umn.edu from without the continental US and we'll figure out an appropriate shipping adjustment. You'll see the shirts shortly in the pics. I have XL, 2XL, and 3XL.

BC.

[JeffPeterson]

I think that now makes 10 coc's from MN. I know there are two more that will be there any day.

[EricMilfeld]

Okay, I've just returned my jaw to its normal position.

All you guys:

Edited February 2, 2004 by EricMilfeld

[Jedd Johnson]

What a great contest. The nature of it was very different from BFGS, especially with the limited attempts (one per turn, three turns per event), where as in BFGS, there were three turns until everyone failed twice. I knew this going in, as I emailed Brian Carlton about a thousand times the last couple of weeks with at least 3 questions per email. I knew I would have to use solid strategy instead of just psyching upo for a big lift every time.

First event was grippers. We formed a line from the corner of the table and everyone had announced their openers. Brian made it clear that in this event, you could either start low with an easier close and then climb the ladder or start high and work back if you missed. Before the event I tested the grippers out and figured I would be able to close gripper marked 23. I got up to the table and could not put it away. Brian mentioned being like 2 millimeters away. Not sure what the time limit was, but I gave the gripper a try lefty, then two right attempts and after never closing it, I made way back to the end of the line.

21 men later, and I was back at the table. I dropped down one gripper ( can't remember what it was, perhaps and elite. Failed a couple of times, swore and slammed the gripper down in disgust. (Sorry if I offended the smoking hot journalist major that was there - I get pretty intense).

Another turn comes around. I knew this would be the last trip to the gripper table for me so I Vasily Alexeeved myself into focus and closed a COC three. I definitely wasn't happy with my gripper performance.

As many noted - I was off a bit. I have to believe it was a combination of jitters and the warm-up. I am used to training grippers after like 2 hours of full body training, and my juices just weren't flowing. Plus I took an entire week off for my hand to recover, which thinking back, I believe was too long. Did anybody else have this feeling?

I think the next event was the double pinch. ( My memory is terrible.) My only strategy was to try to lift higher than the other guys without dropping the weight on my attempt. Obviously, I was tentative and probably could finished higher in the event if I would have taken the chance. However, something that made me take it a little easy was when Monky Hands missed a pull that should have been easy for him. His hands were still moist and they slipped off the discs when he tried to pull. Of course, per the rules, there was no re-chalking. He was doine for that turn. I knew after watching that that all of my attempts would have to be deliberate and sure so I didn't take any chances. Nowhere near my PR on this event, I pulled something like 185. They were great plates. Nice machined rough texture on them, but the ridge was sharp as hell.

Rolling thunder event came next. I thought the implement felt pretty good. I wouldn't say it was any harder than the one Smitty and I train on. I pulled a PR on this, if you count the pin. I think the weight was 177.25 and the pin was estimated at 7 pounds, so totaled up it was over 180. I've only ever broken 180 off the ground - never given it a ride to full deadlift. I Vasily'ed this one again. Didn't want to have it slip out of my hand in front of this group of monsters.

Finally came the bending. I think the Vigeants and I were the only ones who bent using the Terminator style. Even after filing and taping the ends of all the nails I wrapped, I managed to puncture my towel on every attempt. Someone is going to get hurt. I'll never understand why Ironmind can't pay some homeless dude or a desperate college kid to run thoise things over a griner to bevel off the edge of those daggers....

Anyway, I matched my PR CRS bend with a 5 inch blue. These nails are nothing compared to the CRS which will be used in the next Grip Bash, by the way. I cut a quarter inch off for a 4.75 and the cut the rest of the inch off and tried to match Midget's bend-to-come by torquing a 4 incher. It was not to be. The end flew through my cheap ass towel and I could not manage an advantageous-enough re-wrap within the 2 minute limit to chest crush it into a U. i did put the slightest wave into it however.

I was shocked to find out that I managed fourth place, as I was not keeping track of the standings in my head. I enjoyed meeting everyone. I just wish I could have video'd more of it. It was really tough with so many guys around to ppoisition my self to video and strategize at the same time. Lots of feats occured at this event.

I was pleased to find out after the event that I still had enough left in me to flip an 850 pound tire.

It was great meeting Brian and all the others, seeing the Vigeants again, and watching the Journalist major walk around with her camera.

A big thanks to Jeff Ford for letting me stay at your house.

That's my account. Gotta get to work now.

-Jedder-

[Bill Piche]

"and watching the Journalist major walk around with her camera."

HAH!

Congrats on the contest and good report!

[David Horne]

Jedd,

It's not easy competing.

But you're learning so much each time.

Massive well done to all.

Brian please send me the result for inclusion in Iron Grip.

David

[bseedot]

Yeah, I forgot to mention the broadcast journalism major. Julie contacted me earlier last week after reading the grip article in the Pioneer Press. She took an interest in the story and wanted to research grip further for a news broadcast that is only done a couple of times per semester here at the U of MN. She stayed for almost the entire contest, recording it and talking with the competitors. I'll meet with her some time this week on campus for an interview and she said that I could have a copy of what she makes.

The word keeps spreading!

BC.

[SqeezeMasterFlash]

This contest rocked! I overestimated my ability on the grippers, but I PR'd by 20lbs on the plates. My bends were ok, but everytime they poked through my towel and by my third attempt it felt like I was bending a 5" blue bare. The bend went fine but I couldn't chest crush it enough to get it under 2 inches. Put a pretty good size hole in my hand though .

All in all a great contest. I'm definitely traveling to a few more this year.

[tmmicklabs]

Great Report to a great contest.

You guys rock.

[GordonV]

The contest was outstanding!

It was great putting names and faces together. I am still in awe of Midget's 4" blue bend! I don't think I could break a 4" pencil, much less bend a 4" blue.

Grippers.

I was pleased with my performance, I was able to put away the hard #3 that BC used to taunt me at my certification. The elite close eluded me, maybe it is psychological but the Tetting grippers just felt different at the close than IM grippers.

Two handed pinch.

I had a serious rectal cranial inversion here. I guess maybe my elementary school teachers may have been on to something for always marking me "unsatisfactory" for "reads and follows directions well". I kind of missed the part where there were 3 attempts period. I had not practiced this event before hand and in warm-ups I pulled 165 rather easily. I did not want to start out too high since we couldn't go back so I opened at 150#, second weight 165#, third lift at 170#. The 170# went up no problem and I think I could have done 10-20# more. It was not until I was telling BC what I wanted for my next attempt and he said "your done" that it all sank in. Oh well, spilled milk.

Rolling Thunder.

I can't be too disappointed since I don't do thick bar and I had not touched a rolling thunder before. I think I made it to 145#.

Bending

Opened with a blue, second bend 5 1/2 blue, third bend 5 1/4 blue. Bends 2& 3 broke through my rag and gave me nice deep matching bruises on each palm. Fortunately, I did not end up with puncture wounds like Squeeze Master Flash, but I think I am going to find myself a chunk of Kevlar for future use.

I think I ended up 8th, but I was most excited about my short bends and closing the hard #3.

Great performances by everyone! Nice mix of abilities and a really great turnout.

On another note:

Rob F brought his WT to the event. When discussing a 800-1000# closing force gripper, it is easy for the reasonably intelligent, rational mind to understand that it will never be closed by a human hand. When you actually hold the WT in your hand and see this MONSTROUS CHROME CAR SPRING hanging out the top, the first thought is "NO Fricking Way! Never Ever Ever Ever Gonna Happen!" It is then that you achieve full understanding that even the hint of a discussion about the closing of the WT raises serious questions about mental capacity or sanity of the individual believing that it will be closed.

To those guys who received the hot sauce, be careful, it is really hot! I am not talking about MN hot, I mean really hot. It only takes a couple teaspoons to provide good warmth to a batch of chili. There is some variability from year to year based on what comes out of my garden (this year's is a bit milder), but a buddy of mine used it straight to make hot wings for a party a year or two ago and even the chili heads couldn't eat them.

Sorry for the long post, but I had such a good time I had to share.

[Sean Dockery]

Great stuff Guys!!

[Bearcat 74]

Excellent job guys.

[Clay Edgin]

Great reports and great contest! Wish I could have been there! I think Rob is only the second guy to have closed a BBSE, right? Nathan Holle is the other one, as far as I know.