4th and final leg of the WSH tomorrow

Tomorrow finds Laurence Shahlaei and myself on a jolly down to Stafford to join most of the rest of the motley UK crew for the last WSH leg.

David Horne's ever creative mind put together the idea of reforming what old school all-round lifters used to call 'postal leagues'. Only with the World's Strongest Hands it was taken world wide. With around 10 venues based in Europe, the UK and the USA combined with a standardized set of equipment (each venue/promoter received an identical set) and a limit of just three tests (some venues added addtional ones but these do not count towards the main scores) you had a good formula.

The three tests are: 2 hand pinch (using a Eurp pinch), David Horne Wrist Developer and the Vulcan Gripper. Tomorrow, both here in the UK and also in the US there's a very good chance that 1 of at least 6 or 7 athletes may have peaked just in time for a world record on the first event.

My last days training of any kind was Tuesday and Monday had me doing my last grip workout. Both yesterday and today have seen my lower back spasm. This is either from previous over work or the inactivity/resting up. A good nights sleep and I hope to put together a good enough performance to place first in the last leg. I say that with an apparently on-form David Horne and an ever improving Nick McKinless threatening to upset me. That's without ignoring the potential for Adam, Aaron or Jedd in the US to put together three decent sets of numbers.

As it stands I think we're looking at our most competitive leg to date. There are enough athletes with a potential to pull over 110-kilos that we can claim never to have seen so many lifts of that caliber in one day. The DHWD will probably need to be a level 10 or better to keep in the scores and Paul Knight, David and myself all have the potential for a level 21 on the Vulcan.

It's gonna be interesting.

British... best at grip??

In David Horne's recent and almost finished World's Strongest Hand series (the last leg is on Nov 13th) the Brit's have dominated. With the exception of Aaron C in leg 1 the top three has been Nick McKinless, David Horne and or myself. I'm guessing, regardless of positions, it'll be much the same in the final leg. One might argue that many of the top 10 on down are, or were, unfamiliar with the equipment and or the events. But David sent out the gear some months back, the rules are well known and so on.

So the question is... what do we have here that makes us different? The main advantage is, if nothing else, experience. David has well over 10 years plus, Nick not far off David's and I'm just behind. The other singular aspect is probably an obsessive level of determination. Although others may see us as fortunate freaks of hand strength (and in Nick's case just a good all round athlete) it misses out on the sheer grit and effort put in.

If you look at those just behind us you'll see a similar story. Indeed, it could easily be argued that with another 6 months or a year they will equal what we are doing now. In time... all records, efforts and victories will be beaten.

But not, as per the line in Gladiator, today.

World's Strongest Hands - leg 1 results

This past Saturday (14th) saw leg 1 of the WSH four legged event. You can see the results HERE

I managed 2nd out of 59 athletes - not too bad considering it was only 2 weeks after the Euro competition

World of Grip - Worlds Strongest Hands 2010

World of Grip - World's Strongest Hands Series 2010

David Horne recently announced, following the success of the W.O.G./Super Series, his intention to hold a series of world wide grip events in a similar format. Info for this is as follows.

Dates:
Leg 1 - Saturday 14 August, 2010

Leg 2 - Saturday 11 September, 2010
Leg 3 - Saturday 16 October, 2010
Leg 4 - Saturday 13 November, 2010

Events:
1. Two Hands Pinch Lift
2. Wrist Developer
3. One Hand Vulcan Gripper - 20mm block close

Venues: All around the world

Overall promoter:
David Horne and World of Grip
Contest promoters:
David Horne – Stafford, England
Steve Gardener – Gloucester, England
Juha Harju – Helsinki, Finland
Chris Rice – Crooksville, Ohio, USA
Dave Thornton – Three Rivers, Michigan, USA
Eric Milfeld – Fort Worth, Texas, USA
Jedd Johnson – Wyalusing, Pennsylvania, USA
Adam T. Glass – Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Aaron Concorran + Tim Struse - Tucson, Arizona, USA

Competitors:
You can compete at any venue. The same events and apparatus will be used at all venues.

Trophies:
There will be ‘World of Grip handshake logo’ trophies (as seen at the Britain's) for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of the overall placings. For the individual 4 legs there will be medals for 1st, 2nd and 3rd.

Entrance fees:
£10 GBP ($15, 12 euro) per leg, or £25 GBP ($37, 30 euro) for more than 1 leg, ie. All 4 legs.
All payments are made to the individual promoters by cash or paypal, then after each leg they will send the relevant payment to me through paypal.
To compete at Stafford please send the payment through paypal to world_of_grip@ntlworld.com

Rules:
To follow

Results:
The results should be sent to me on the day of the contest and no later. So that I can type up the overall results as soon as possible, and get this up on the forum the next morning.
At the end of the 4 legs, the overall scores will be compiled to find the overall rankings and winner. The trophies and medals will then be sent out to them.

Video:
I will do a video, which I will put on youtube showing how to referee the events, etc.

Standardized equipment for each event has been sent out today (June 25th) to all agreed promoters.

W.O.G/BHSA Super Series Leg 2

Did ok. Tied for 1st with Loz here and 2nd overall by virtue of David Horne having a better days 2 hand pinching than Loz and I. We had success with 109.99kg and him 112 or so. All three of us attempted more than the current world record so that's a good sign. Loz beat me on the weaver (strapless is BRUTAL) and I pulled the most across both camps on the Rolling Thunder (I think I've only lost once in competition on that) with 107.9-kilos or around 240lbs'ish.

I've also just seen on facebook a guy who works for the company which makes equipment for the WSM (or at least the last one). I'll load some photos as and when he adds me as a buddy. Loving their axles and dumbbells.

2HP World Record

So I mention yesterday my intention to, if need be, crawl over the road to do my best to break the world record (David's 115-kilos effort) with a target of 117-kilos. Now David and I, both in posting and via a chat on MSN had talked about my idea of retiring from competition following the Euro's in August.

David said, quite truthfully, that I might find it difficult to give up the competition scene come the time. So it was a little amusing (deffo eyebrow raising) to see a declaration of his intent to, and I quote, ''If you break my record, I will take it back, and very quickly. My training lifts right now are very strong''. Now if David is, as he says, capable that's all well and good. But I've also been thinking of the idea that at some point one has to give up the idea of a record never being broken by anyone else.

With the rare exception most records end up being broken. It is the lot of a former record breaker to see someone come along and take your record from you. It is what it is. If David has it in him to do more, then great, the bar gets raised and those that follow have some more kilos they need to add to their bars in order to beat him. But at some point David, myself and any other wanna-be record holder will have to take it on the chin. Our records will fall.