Category Archives: USAWA Daily News

USAWA Award Nominations

by Al Myers

It’s that time of the year again to nominate deserving lifters for the yearly awards!  The USAWA award program was started in 2009 to honor those individuals that displays outstanding achievements throughout the year in different categories.  I have been the USAWA Awards Director that entire time and was the one who started the USAWA Awards Program.  Part of the USAWA budget goes to these awards, which means that part of your membership dues support this program. These awards are awarded at the Annual General Meeting of the USAWA, which occurs at the same time as the National Championships.  Usually the USAWA Awards are “yearly” – meaning they are for the previous year’s accomplishments – but because of the COVID interruption last year please take that into consideration and “cast your vote” for efforts/performances over the last two years.    Now for a little “overview” of the rules for nominations:

  • You  must be a USAWA member to make a nomination or cast a vote
  • Nominated individuals must be a USAWA members to be eligible
  • Only one individual may be nominated per person per award
  • Two nominations for each award may be submitted, one for your choice of the Winner and one for your choice of the runner-up.
  • The awards are for the calendar years 2020-2021
  • An individual may be nominated for more than one award

These are the different awards for which you should chose your nominations for:

 Athlete of the Year – This award is for the individual who has accomplished the most athletically within the last year in the USAWA. Top placings at the Nationals and World Championships should figure in high. Also, participation in other Championship  Competitions such as the Heavy Lift Championships, the Grip Championships, the Club Championships, the OTSM Championships, the Team Championships, or the National Postal Championships could factor in.  Participation in elite IAWA events such as the Gold Cup should make an influence on earning this award as well.

Leadership Award – This is for an individual that has shown exceptional leadership qualities within the USAWA during the past year. Things that should be looked at are: going above the level expected of an Officer position, promoting sanctioned events with emphasis being on promoting National or World Competitions, promoting the USAWA by developing a strong club, writing articles for publications about the USAWA, or through other means.

Sportsmanship Award – This goes to an individual who possesses and shows great sportsmanship within the USAWA. The act of sportsmanship may be by conduct at all events, or by an specific example of exceptional sportsmanship.

Courage Award – This goes to an individual who shows the courage to overcome an obstacle in order to return to competition. This may be a comeback from an injury, or just having to deal with difficult personal issues but still shows the courage to compete in the USAWA.

Newcomer Award– This award goes to an individual who in new to the USAWA or has become involved again. It doesn’t have to go to someone in their first year of being involved in the USAWA.

As stated earlier in the rules, I would like you to submit your choice for the WINNER and your choice for the RUNNER UP for each award.  I will score it this way:  for each nomination per award I will give 2 points for the nominated winner and 1 point for the nominated runner up.  I will then add up all the points from all nominations with the person receiving the most points declared the winner and the one with the second most points the runner up.  So you can see that the Award Winners are chosen by YOU THE MEMBERSHIP!   That’s the way it should be done.

Please email me at amyers@usawa.com with your nominations.  The deadline for nominations is May 5th.  I’m only giving a week because it has been my experience with this is that if a person does not make their nominations shortly after reading this announcement, it never gets done.  So make it easy on yourself  (and me!) and turn your nominations in today!!!!

1ST Quarter Postal

By Denny Habecker

MEET RESULTS – 

2021 1ST QUARTER POSTAL MEET

We had very good participation again to start this years postal series. Nineteen men and seven woman competed in this meet, with a lot of excellent lifts being done. Abe Smith led the men and Sylvia Stockall topped the woman.

MEET RESULTS:   

1st Quarter Postal
January 1 thru March 31st, 2021
LIFTS – Bench Press – Feet in Air; Curl-Cheat – Dumbbell, One Arm; Deadlift- Fulton Bar, Ciavattone Grip

MEN
Abe Smith          – 39  – 177   – 295  –  100-L   – 305  –  700   –  671.86
Anthony Hose     – 52 –  231   – 305  – 100-R    – 305  – 710    – 663.34
Barry Bryan        – 63 – 187.8 – 253  – 55-R      -253    – 561   – 644.71
Al Myers            – 54  – 232    – 250   -90-R     – 335  – 675    – 640.17
Randy Smith      – 66  -195.5  – 175  – 97.5-R  – 278  – 550.5 – 620.64
Dave Hahn        – 83  – 146    – 130   -45 -R    – 162   -337    – 592.12
Nicholas Frieders – 20  – 150    – 200  -95-R     – 255   -550     -585.86
Denny Habecker – 78  – 191    – 154   -45 -R    – 220   – 419    – 584.33
John Carter       – 62  – 215    – 185  – 90-R     – 270   -545     – 575.69
Eric Todd           – 46 – 262    – 300  – 120-R    – 270  – 690     – 572.33
Chad Ullom       – 49  – 227   – 190   – 100-R    – 335  – 625    – 547.57
Barry Pensyl      -73  – 148    – 132  –  50-R     – 165  – 347     -529.59
LaVerne Myers  – 76  – 227    – 115  – 55-R      – 270  – 440    – 525.77
Dave DeForest  – 61  – 196   – 185   – 70-R      – 220  – 475    – 523.75
Robert Gilsdorf  – 68  – 140   – 115   -40-R      – 150   -305     – 449.38
Bill Clark           – 88 – 207.5 – 85    – 30-R      – 170  – 285     – 429.21
Lance Foster      -55  – 342    – 155  – 65-R      – 200  – 420    –  332.71
Chris Todd        – 41  – 267    – 260  – 83-L       – 0     – 343    – 268. 66
Leroy Todd        – 9   – 76      – 39.5 – 15-R      – 0      -54.5    – 142.68

WOMEN
Sylvia Stockall         – 63 – 140      -145    – 50-R     – 135   – 330     – 456.75
R.J. Jackson           – 59 – 107.8  – 110    -51-R      – 150   – 311    – 426.04
Elizabeth Skwarecki  – 40 – 143.7 –  140.5 – 55.5-L     -168   – 364    – 402.93
Lynda Burns            – 46 – 164    – 95       – 45-L       -160   – 300    – 322.89
Phoebe Todd            -10  – 109   – 42.5     -30-R       – 80    – 152.5  – 274.93
Chris DeRoller        – 59  – 160   – 55       – 35-R       -125   – 215     – 263.57
Janet Thompson     – 63  – 180   – 65      – 35-R       – 115   – 215     – 253.24

OFFICIALS:

Barry Bryan       – Denny Habecker, Barry Pensyl
Al Myers         – Chad Ullom, LaVerne Myers
Denny Habecker   – Barry Bryan, Barry Pensyl
Nicholas Frieders  – Bill Clark, Dave DeForest
Chad Ullom          – Al Myers, LaVerne Myers
Barry Pensyl         – Denny Habecker, Barry Bryan
LaVerne Myers     – Al Myers, Chad Ullom
Phoebe Todd        – Eric Todd, Lance Foster
Abe Smith –         – Bill Clark
Anthony Hose      – Bill Clark
John Carter         – Bill Clark
Eric Todd           – Lance Foster
DaveDeForest    – Bill Clark
Robert Gilsdorf   – Bill Clark
Bill Clark           – Dave DeForest
Lance Foster      – Eric Todd
Leroy Todd         – Chris Todd
Chris DeRoller    – Bill Clark
Janet Thompson – Bill Clark

Lifters With No Certified Official:
Randy Smith
Dave Hahn
Chris Todd
Sylvia Stockall
R.J. Jackson
Elizabeth Skwarecki
Lynda Burns

National Championships

By Al Myers

MEET ANNOUNCEMENT

2021 USAWA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

Good news for the USAWA is about here! After much discussion by the USAWA Executive Board, it has been decided that the USAWA is ready to get back to business.

I will be promoting the National Championship at the Dino Gym on June 19th.  It will be a one day meet with the Annual Meeting and meal to follow the day’s lifting. At the meeting we will as a group discuss the future plans for the USAWA – but I’m hoping that all will be in favor of just resuming normal operations.

The meet will be ran in the two-session format as normal for a Nationals.  The approved lifts for the Nationals are: Cheat Curl, 1 arm Snatch, Clean and Press with heels together, Deadlift with a Ciavattone Grip on the Fulton Bar, and the 1 arm deadlift.  This is a pretty straight forward selection of lifts that are pretty common all round lifts, so training preparations should be easier. I proposed these lifts with that in mind as I know this is “short notice” in regards to the Nationals announcement.

The Nationals will be limited to the first 15 lifters that register.  Space is limited in the Dino Gym and I don’t want a large crowd “packed around”. We still need to be cognizant of the COVID risk recommendations. If you are attending please don’t bring alot of people with you to watch.

 

ENTRY FORM (PDF) – 2021 National Championships Entry Form

Clark’s Gym Record Day

By Al Myers

MEET ANNOUNCEMENT – Clark’s Gym Record Day

Meet Director:  Bill Clark

Date:  Saturday, May 22nd, 2021

Venue:  Clark’s Gym, Columbia, Missouri

Weigh-ins:  9 AM

Entry Fee: None

Entry Form: None

Awards:  None

Membership:  Must be a current USAWA Member

Lifts:  Pick your own lifts to set or break a  USAWA record

Bill may be reached by phone: 573-474-4510, or mail:  Bill Clark, 3906 Grace Ellen Drive, Columbia, Missouri, 65202., or email: yeoldclark@gmail.com

***MUST PROVIDE CURRENT COVID VACCINATION STATUS TO ENTER***

UPDATE

Due to limited space in the gym, an entry deadline of MAY 15th is now in place.  If a large number of lifters register multiple sessions with different time spaces will be put into place throughout the day.  Nine people in the gym at one time is the maximum allowed.  At the current time masks are optional between lifts.

Contest Memories Part III

By Eric Todd

After competing in Tri-States Strongest Man in Canton, and then the JWC Strongman meet a month later, I was hooked.  I could not wait to compete in another; however, at the time, there were not nearly as many opportunities to compete locally as there are now.  The next meet I could find strongman wise was the next May, over half a year away.  When you are chomping at the bit to compete like I was at the time, that was just too far.

In the meantime, I kept perusing the strongman sites and training.  Back then we had Worldsstrongestman.com forum, Samson power forum, and two forums for the North American Strongman Society.  I might be missing a couple, but these are the ones I frequented early on in my career.  It is while looking over these that I somehow found my way to the USAWA website.  While looking at the contest selection, I saw a meet close to me in March: The Deanna Springs Memorial at Clarks Gym in Columbia.  While I was certainly not familiar with all-round, or all of the lifts contested in this meet, I did notice the crucifix was in this meet.  Since I recognized this lift as a strongman event, I thought “why not?”  I called Bill Clark and told him I was coming.

Back in the day, when planning to travel to a contest, I would look up the directions on Mapquest.com and print off directions.  Though not as old school as reading a map or using a sextant,  it was a far cry from the GPS that many of us use today.  So, that particular day, I grabbed my printed directions and start to drive.  When I arrived at my destination as defined by these directions, I was clearly at a residence and not a commercial gym, like what I was expecting.  Turns out I had entered the address for Clark’s house and not the gym.  Not good, as the cell phones in those days were not advanced like what we have today, and I could not look up the correct directions on the fly. I needed to find my way from Grace Ellen Drive to Grace Lane.  I was in the neighborhood of giving up, as the weigh in time was coming and going, but then stopped at a gas station where they helped me find my way.

I found the gym a few minutes after the competition was supposed to be starting, but I gathered my bag and walked through the door.  You can imagine my surprise when I walked through the door to see only two other individuals sitting there.  Welcome to the world of all-round.  And I thought Strongman was fringe!  As I entered the gym, I was impressed by the dusty display of trophies, the York globe dumbbell set, and the assortment of equipment that resembled a torture chamber.  The two gentlemen were Bill Clark and Joe Garcia.  They accepted me into the meet, albeit late, and we proceeded to compete.

Bill served as the official, and Joe and I the competitors.  Though the crucifix was not the same as what is contested in strongman, I was still decent at it and lifted 120 pounds (or 60 pounds a dumbbell) on this discipline. My cheat curl was also decent.  It was when we got to the other three lifts that I needed help.  The last three were the Deanna Lift, the Hand and Thigh, and Hip Lift.  The Deanna was comparatively decent, as I am not sure anyone knew what they were doing with the lift at the time.  I did over 200 pounds more at a later date.  It was with the hand and thigh that I really got to witness the lengths of Joe and Bill’s expertise.  They worked tirelessly with me to help perfect my technique for that day.  With it only being two lifters, they took their time to show me the ropes.  I ended with a 1475 pound effort, and I have not done a boat load more than this over almost 20 years and much training.  The last lift was the hip lift.  Though Bill and Joe gave me the same attention that they gave me in the hand and thigh, it was not to be.  I only lifted 200 more pounds in this discipline than I did the hand and thigh, which is unacceptable.  Bill said that some people who excel in the hand and thigh are sometime poor in the hip lift.  I assumed that this was me, as I always fell in this same neighborhood.  That is, until I got my own hip belt and was able to spend some time playing with the belt placement to figure out what works for me.  I have since gone well above the 1675 I did that day.

This was my introduction to all-round and the USAWA.  Bill gave me a few of the recent newsletters, and signed me up to receive the new editions.  I read through the newsletters and ordered a record book.  From this point, I started competing in all-round on top of strongman.  For quite a spell, I did not compete terribly regularly in all-round, as I was heavily focused on my strongman career.   I would occasionally compete at Clark’s or at the Dino gym, but it certainly took a backseat to strongman.  It was not until my strongman career came to an end that I became much more focused on all-round lifting, and it has been the sole focus ever since.  I sometimes wonder what success I could have had in it if I would have focused on it more during my prime, but I reckon I have no regrets.

 

 

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