Tag Archives: Al Myers

2006 Nationals

Here is the next installment of past nationals in an effort to preserve a more complete history. This one is from 2006.  They are all transcribed from the “Strength Journal” by Bill Clark.  This was an idea of Frank Ciavattone’s and was presented at the national meeting.  Enjoy a little piece of history:

2006-Nationals

Lifting a Giant’s Stone

By Al Myers

The rugged coastline of the Giant's Causeway.

The rugged coastline of the Giant’s Causeway.

I know I keep carrying on about the great time I had in Belfast for the Gold Cup, but I have another story I would like to share with everyone.  First of all, Stevie had invited me to stay with him so I got to “live like a local” for a week.  Stevie and Heather (along with their great dog Hamish) treated me to a week I’ll never forget. They were extremely gracious hosts.  Stevie knew all the best pubs in town and we had a fun time, but those stories are more suited for private conversations – not a public blog.

A few days after the meet Stevie took Brandon and me to the Giant’s Causeway located at the northern point of Northern Ireland.  It’s a place I’ve always wanted to see because of its unique large rock formations.  We enjoyed a great scenic tour getting there which really set the stage for seeing the causeway. We were fortunate to have a nice day with clear skies for our visit (which is a RARITY in Northern Ireland).  On the way as we were driving along the coast Brandon asked “What is that land?” as we looked across the northern channel looking at a large land mass on the horizon.  Stevie replied, “that’s Scotland”, which left both of us amazed how close Northern Ireland is to Scotland!

Once we reached the Giant’s Causeway we had a little hike before actually getting to see this marvel of nature.  You’ve heard the expression “pictures don’t do it justice”, well, the Giant’s Causeway should be the example of that!  I’ve never seen such a large expanse of strange hexagonal stones stacked up in what seems like perfect symmetry.  Parts of it look like its man-made – but you know it’s not.  It all natural made from volcanic activity in some strange manner that I can’t explain.

This story of the Giant’s Causeway isn’t complete without the legend on how it came to be.  Stevie filled us in on this folk tale and it seemed a little unbelievable to me, but then again there’s leprechauns in Ireland so who am I to question it.    I’ll give a quick summary here.  Apparently at some past point in time there was an Irish giant living in the area who had a rival giant who lived across the channel in Scotland and they would hurl insults at each other across the water.  Finally things got personal to the Irish giant and he decided it was time to “face off” and fight the Scottish giant so he built this huge bridge out of stones (the remnants which are now the causeway) between Northern Ireland and Scotland.  However once reaching Scotland he snuck up on the Scottish giant and saw that he was MUCH bigger and stronger than himself, so he fled back to Ireland in fear. The Scottish giant seen him flee and then gave pursuit chasing the Irish giant across the bridge. Upon reaching home, the Irish giant ran into his house and told his wife what was about to happen – that he’s no match for the strength of the Scottish giant and he was on his way to beat him up.  His wife then took matters into her hands, wrapped the Irish giant in a blanket, laid him in the bed, and told him not to speak.  When the Scottish giant reached their house and asked where the Irish giant was, the wife told him that he was out hunting and it was just her there with their small child. The Scottish giant immediately noticed the large size of the Irish giant’s child (which was the Irish Giant!) and thought that this kid’s dad must be huge!  The nice wife then made the Scottish giant some biscuits but she secretly hid an Iron bar in them.  As the Scottish giant bit into the biscuit it chipped a tooth!  The wife profusely apologized and said that never happens to her husband when he eats her biscuits as he has super strong teeth!  Now the Scottish giant was feeling that he may have taken on a fight he couldn’t win, so he flees back to Scotland tearing down the bridge as he goes so the Irish giant couldn’t pursue him, leaving only the Giant’s Causeway on the Northern Ireland coast.

Now that’s a good story!  I still don’t get the moral of it though.  I assume it is that a wife can be quite convincing in telling a lie, or possibly you better not complain about your wife’s cooking or you will get an iron bar in your biscuit.  Either way, it does make a good point about a wife cleaning up a mess her husband got himself into……… but I’m getting off track here so back to the real story.

Lifting a Giant's Stone on the Giant's Causeway

Lifting a Giant’s Stone on the Giant’s Causeway

As we walked along the causeway I was amused watching Stevie pick up stone after stone as we walked along the rocks.  He was like a little boy in a candy shop finding perfect stone after perfect stone.  There were lots of tourists there and I noticed them watching Stevie with intrigue as he was rassling around with the stones.  I’ll say it – he did look a bit like a crazy man showing his extreme enthusiasm playing with those rocks.   Upon leaving we came upon a big stone just sitting right by the path leading down to the causeway.  Stevie and I looked at it as it had called our name and our instincts of being stone lifters and all round weightlifters took over and we just had to lift it!  The beauty of lifting stones is like catching fish – the story only get bigger after the fact.  Stevie estimated the stone to be well over 300 pounds, but both of us knew deep down it wasn’t really that heavy.  But that doesn’t really matter anyways, as it still gave me a great sense of accomplishment lifting a Giant’s Stone, which hopefully as the story grows it will become I lifted a Giant Stone!!!

Enjoying a Bushmills in Bushmills!

Enjoying a Bushmills in Bushmills!

After the long day, Stevie took us to a nice little pub in Bushmills which is located only a few miles from the Giant’s Causeway.  Brandon and I had a couple of drinks to celebrate a day we wouldn’t forget!

(BTW – I did leave the stone right where I found it. It’s located by the path just as you descend down to the causeway.  You can’t miss it.)

Jack Shanks and his Stones

By Al Myers

One of the great highlights for me attending the IAWA Gold Cup in Belfast was getting to meet Jack Shanks.  Jack is “Stevie’s Father” and the person who has inspired many of us to take on the Dinnie Stone Challenge.  Jack is an extraordinary man and it was an honor getting to meet him.

Jack Shanks talking to the lifters at the 2021 IAWA Gold Cup prior to the Shanks Lift Challenge

Jack Shanks talking to the lifters at the 2021 IAWA Gold Cup prior to the Shanks Lift Challenge

After the completion of the meet Stevie had arranged for a special contest for lifters to challenge themselves in the Shanks Lift.  The Shanks Lift is a fairly new IAWA lift named in the honor of Jack Shanks.  Two years ago when it was approved Stevie performed an exhibition of it at the 2019 IAWA World Championships that I hosted in Abilene, KS in which he lifted an amazing total of 330 kilograms making Stevie the first person to set a record in the Shanks Lift.  At Belfast, seven lifters took part in the Shanks Challenge under the watchful eye of Jack.  There was some great lifting, with Paul Barette winning the event, followed by Steve Andrews in second and Gary Ell in third.  Before the contest commenced Jack gave a presentation of how he trained to be the first person to correctly lift the Dinnie Stones 50 years ago (1972).   No one had been successful with Donald Dinnie’s challenge to lift the stones in the previous 100 years! It was a very interesting presentation to me (and one I wish was recorded so I could listen to it again) as Jack was very meticulous in his training plan.  He had rings made to match the rings of the Dinnie Stones and even attached them to training stones so he could progressively advance his training poundages.  The talk ended by him recalling the day he lifted the actual Dinnie Stones in front of a large audience at a publicized event.  I’m sure he was very anxious at the time to accomplish something he had put a lot of work into!

A few days after the Gold Cup Stevie took me to his parents’ house and I got to sit down with Jack and enjoy a nice visit with him over a cup of coffee and biscuits.  He still lifts to stay in good shape and showed me his personal gym in his garage which contained weight equipment that’s museum worthy.  I was privileged to see his training stones which he still has in his back yard.  They have shown the wear of years in the elements but still quite impressive in size and shape.  The total weight of his training stones are over 800 pounds!  Jack told me he was pretty confidant after lifting his own stones that he could lift the Dinnie Stones.  I want to point out that the first time he seen the Dinnie Stones was when he lifted them!

Jack Shanks and his training stones.  Pictured left to right: Stevie Shanks, Al Myers, and Jack Shanks.

Jack Shanks and his training stones. Pictured left to right: Stevie Shanks, Al Myers, and Jack Shanks.

It was a great honor for me to be part of all of this.  Now onto some good news – next year the Gold Cup will AGAIN be in Belfast and everything is planned to make it BIGGER and BETTER than this year.   Stevie is hoping to get more lifters involved in the Shanks Lift Challenge, and Jack will be there to oversee things once again.   I encourage all lifters to put this event on your personal meet calendar!

Farewell

By Al Myers

This will be my last blog as webmaster for the USAWA.  Now I may write more blogs for the USAWA, but only after the new webmaster ET approves, edits and publishes them.  This also marks the end of my duties of the USAWA Secretary/Treasurer position.  Eric and I have been working together to make a smooth transition over the past couple of months but now all that is done!  The USAWA funds are now in his hands for organizational transactions and I’ve “tidied” up the website so he won’t be burdened by jobs I’ve left undone.

I’m not going to make a sappy farewell speech here, but it has caused me to reflect on the past 12 years of being the administrator of the USAWA.   That should be the official title instead of Secretary/Treasurer because that it what the job is.   It’s a weekly (and sometime daily) duty of attending to something involved with the USAWA.   It may be updating the membership roster, taking in a deposit to the bank, updating the website, attending to Executive Board matters, writing a blog for the USAWA Daily News, or just responding to an email from a lifter.  It’s way more work than anyone realizes.  I know Eric will be up for the job and I encourage all of you to keep giving him encouragement and “pats on the back” because he sure isn’t doing it for the money!

After taking over this position from Bill Clark 12 years ago I had no intentions of doing it forever (or as long as Bill had!).  Bill was the only Secretary/Treasurer the USAWA had known as he held that position for 22 years since the beginning!  Now I know most of us have had our disagreements with Bill over the years, but I give THAT GUY a big hand for holding the USAWA together for so long.  I fully understand the effort and energy he had given to the USAWA, as well as the many hours of his life.  I’m very grateful to him for that. I tried my best to not “drop the ball” after everything Bill had accomplished and I hope what I’ve done will be seen as being successful from my USAWA peers as the years move on.

Now let’s get behind ET and the new Executive Board and keep the USAWA going strong!

 

New Lift – The Rim Lift

By Al Myers

I performed the Rim Lift at the 2018 IAWA Gold Cup in Eastbourne England.  I feel it will be a great new lift for the USAWA!

I performed the Rim Lift at the 2018 IAWA Gold Cup in Eastbourne England. I feel it will be a great new lift for the USAWA!

At the National Meeting the USAWA membership voted to accept a new lift put forth by the executive board for approval. The Rim Lift was presented to the EB for new lift status back in 2020 before the COVID pandemic by LaVerne Myers.  LaVerne had “tested out” the Rim Lift at the 2020 Grip Championships he promoted as an exhibition lift.  Several lifters took part after the meet in trying out the Rim Lift, in which all seemed to really enjoy it.  A few lifters went over 300 pounds in this trial – Jason Payne did 340, and Dave Glasgow, Eric Todd, and Chad Ullom did 300 pounds.  LaVerne, at 75 years of age, did 280.

The Rim Lift is an official lift in the IAWA-UK, and has been for a long time.  The USAWA rule for it is the same as the IAWA-UK rule, which is as follows:

Rim Lift

The lift may be performed under the official rules of the Deadlift, Hacklift, or Jefferson Lift while only holding onto the rims of the gripping plates with the thumbs on the inside and the fingers over the rims of the plates.  The maximum plate diameter is 18 inches. If smaller plates are used for the gripping plates larger (18″ max diameter) plates may be added to the outside. The gripping plates must be flat and smooth on the inside surface, and the rim cannot be deeper than 1 inch.  It is an infraction to grab any handles, holes, or specially prepared areas on the plates to aid in gripping.  Any length of bar may be used as the distance between collars is optional. The lifter must finish the lift in an upright position and under control.  Once motionless, the head official will give a command to lower the bar.

At the meeting I made an amendment to the lift proposal to accept the prior lifts done at the Grip Champs to count retroactively and be the first Rim Lift records in the record book.  The Rim Lift will be added to the updated USAWA Rule Book.

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