USAWA

To all past and current USAWA members. This post is aimed at all of you, not just Eric. But I’m singling him out because my brother and cousin were really impressed by him.

It’s like I told Joe (brother). Everyone has their “thing.” Mine is hand strength. Sometimes I’m at the bottom of the heap when it’s not a hand strength contest. Other times, if the events suit my strengths, I’m near the top.

I’m pleased that I got out of my comfort zone and did the Strongman Challenge because there is no “winning” when you are always assured of the outcome, with no struggle. And sometimes having the lowest total is actually winning. Not being facetious at all. Showing up and putting forth as much effort as safely possible, being kind to others, talking with people and getting to know them better, and soaking up the atmosphere is about as close to nirvana as I will probably get.

Eric, you are truly a class act man. Thanks for posting that video. I enjoyed it and my family all watched it at least once. My brother Joe and cousin “Little” Kenny were impressed that you took the time in between some of your big lifts to ask me how my lifting was going. That might not jump out at you since it’s how you genuinely ARE (thoughtful of others and congratulatory when others succeed or at least give something a shot, even if it’s an eventual “fail” or “no lift”) – but they’ve both been around many types of strong guys (cousin was a very strong track and field athlete, TKD black belt, etc…and brother Joe was a Navy guy who has been around SEALs more than once…he’s not a SEAL for the record) and they understand that as great as the USAWA contests are – with the camaraderie and sincere desire to help others set PRs and have fun – they are unusual in the strength world to some degree.

This is NOT how all strength contests go. Not all athletes – especially the stronger ones, because let’s face it…the stronger you are, the more focused (usually) you are on hitting a preset goal total or following a comp gameplan, etc – are willing or want to (and that’s no dig on anyone who doesn’t want to, you are at the contest for YOU…not someone else, I get that) help out a fellow competitor. Especially one that’s not as experienced or as strong.

I know I’m not telling you anything you don’t know with your strength comp record. But it’s good to stand outside yourself sometimes and try to remember what it’s like for others at contests that are not at your high strength level. Seemingly little things can make a lifelong difference in that person’s life and the way they perceive strong people in general and strength contests in particular.

So this post might seem a bit over the top or dramatic on my part. But it’s definitely been on my mind to say it.

All the USAWA contests I’ve gone to over the years – since 2002 – I have been treated like family. I have had guys loan me equipment. When doing so (and they knew this) would mean that I would place above them in whatever event they were loaning me the weight belt (for example) for.

I’ve learned a lot about good sportsmanship in USAWA contests. I was brought up right to begin with. Taught to treat others with respect. But I was not an athletic kid or adult. Still don’t consider myself to be what most would term “athletic”…although we all have our strengths. So I had to learn about sporting etiquette like most guys do these days. Through the Internet and mostly from competing in various contests over the years.

The first strength contest I did was the 2002 USAWA Super Grip Challenge. I bring it up because I think it was Kevin Fulton (don’t remember for sure, so if someone remembers specifically saying that to me, please let me know it was you) who told me (after I thanked him for being so patient and nice to me when I was a total beginner and asking a bunch of newbie questions throughout his contest) that {paraphrasing}

In strength sports, one year you’re on top of the heap. The next year you might be injured and the beginner you were rude to is now totaling more than you. And, since you were rude to that beignner last year, he mistakenly thinks that’s the standard that other beginners should be treated by – and he perpetuates a vicious cycle of adversarial relationships throughout his sporting and sometimes even personal life.

And for me this rings very true in the grip contests. Most of the guys in grip comps are great. Much like USAWA. Occasionally, I’d run into a guy who went out of their way to be rude or disrespectful. And more than once, usually a few years later, that same guy who once treated me like pond scum was coming to me with questions about how they could improve their gripper strength or steel bending or card tearing or vertical bar performance.

And guess what. It would’ve been much easier (and I’ll admit that I have acted childishly a few times, but later tried to make things better in most cases) for me to say – “I’m not helping you. You treated me like crap. So enjoy the downward slide and now you’re doomed to watch me get stronger than you ever were or will be.” That’s the easier path. I didn’t take that path many times though. My wife Carrie has heard me talk about guys who I was helping (via phone, Internet, instant messaging, etc.) with their grip and bending training over the years. The last few years, with strange regularity, there have been more and more guys that I have invested large amounts of time and psychic energy in to help their training. Then, after they succeeded or hit their goals, they suddenly “forgot” that I had helped them and didn’t even have the decency to say “hey, thanks for spending so much of your time helping me, idiot.” Don’t get me wrong though. The bulk of guys were very thankful. I try to remind myself of that when I get the frequent e-mail plea for help with such and such training. I turn 99% of these requests down now due to time and energy vampires. Sad but true.

And most important of all – I have gained so many great lifelong friends. Just wanted to thank all of you that I have met and become friends with (or even just acquaintances) over the years.

Outstanding post Ben!

I am in complete agreement with everything you said – and that is one of the reasons I love the USAWA and the people involved with it. Dinoman