USAWA

Interesting to me Ben, was that afterwards Al related to me that he feels his Highland Games training/competition using ring weights makes him do well at this lift. I thought it was an astute observation. He explained how the throws with the ring weights are thumbbless out of necessity. Also, he showed me that most is the force is applied for the throw with your hands open/fingers extended. He made the lift look easy. With a 555lb 3″ bar Deadlift on the books, I too feel Al is a gripster.

I’ll add a layer to this. You see, Al is not built to be a great thrower so he did everything he could to add to his abilities. For example, there was a study one time on shot putters that every inch in height added 8 inches to your distance simply with a higher release point. Most of the top guys are 6’3 to 6’6 and Al was short in comparison. In order to increase his radius on the spinning throws he developed a grip where the weight was held in the middle knuckles of his hand rather than the palm of his hand. If you look at the photo of him lifting the Dinnie stones you can see where he has that ring. So Al developed tremendous strength with that grip. Al was always looking for every angle and every way to develop his ability to lift more and throw farther. Right down to the way he gripped the weights.

haha Thanks guys. You are right Thom about me being at a disadvantage in stature when throwing with the top pros. I remember looking up(literally!!!)at Ben Plucknett (the great American discus thrower) when competing with him at a past pro games, and figured I must be giving up 3 feet in arm leverages!!!!

Now a little more about this “finger grip”…..

At Worlds Peter Phillips of Australia introduced a potential new lift he called the “Phillips Grip Deadlift”. The idea was that it would be pretty much like the overhand thumbless grip deadlift, except the bar could not touch the palm or thumb. It was to be held in “hook” of the fingers. It got referred to the IAWA tech committee for review (wonder if there’s been any notice for that to occur yet??? hmm… not that I’ve heard and I’m on the IAWA tech committee now!!)

So I decided the other night in the gym to test this Phillips Grip DL out to “see for myself” if I thought it would make a good new lift. Guess what? I did EXACTLY THE SAME WEIGHT as I can do in the overhand thumbless deadlift!!! I’m sure the intention is that it is harder, but it didn’t seem that way to me. I would like others to do this comparison as well as that is the only way to see if it “is a good lift”. It is possible my grip strength in this may be the exception.

It doesn’t make sense to me to introduce a new lift that is so much like another similar lift that the weight lifted is the same. Al

Yeah,Ben,you are right. It isn’t a grip feat but definitely a superb wrist feat. I feel that a strong wrist and a strong grip (should) go together.