Thom Van Vleck
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I think it depends on how you grip. Some guys grip down in the fingers, but me, I get it up in the hand and when I gripped that smaller ring….it simply folded my hand and was painful. I could grip the bigger ring much easier. I have the same problem with “rings” over “D handles” in highland games. I can throw a “D” handle much easier and more often farther as a result.
Thom Van Vleck
Jackson Weightlifting Club
Highland Games athlete and sometimes All-RounderTom, your story made me think of a funny story that involved a high school buddy who later became one of my best friends. I was lifting weights and he heard about it and was commenting to two of my good friends at the time that he could beat me. They didn’t miss the opportunity to let me know about it…and soon a competition had been set! Well, long story short, I beat him! My first “great victory” haha. The loser, who is one of my closest friends today, picked up the nickname “Mr. America” which became “Mr. A”. To this day, he gets called that!
Thom Van Vleck
Jackson Weightlifting Club
Highland Games athlete and sometimes All-RounderYou and Chad!!! Go Get’em!!! I will expect results ASAP and when you do that Pub Crawl in Dublin on Monday, I’ll pop open a Guinness and join you from afar! Hopefully you will be celebrating victory and not soothing any wounds! Best wishes and God Speed!
Thom Van Vleck
Jackson Weightlifting Club
Highland Games athlete and sometimes All-RounderWhat happened to Larry? I’m guessing Leffler (AKA Goofy) won….and guess where he’s going next week….Disney World. I can’t make that stuff up …he’ll be in Disney World the day of my games.
Thom Van Vleck
Jackson Weightlifting Club
Highland Games athlete and sometimes All-RounderChad, I will get you a copy and get it signed but you have to come up Oct. 29th to get it….or I’ll give it away.
Thom Van Vleck
Jackson Weightlifting Club
Highland Games athlete and sometimes All-RounderSteve Scott will be up to my games Oct. 9 and I’ll ask him to bring some copies and you can get it autographed. Otherwise I think you can google it.
Thom Van Vleck
Jackson Weightlifting Club
Highland Games athlete and sometimes All-RounderAl, you would have to cut out those “fancy” band stretches that you and Chad are so fond of!
My first workout area had a dirt floor with a platform of old, warped, rough cut boards laid right on the floor with a couple of sheets of plywood across the top. The floor would sink and we would occassionally try to level it, but 99% of the time when you would try to do any lift off the floor you would have to contend with the bar rolling one way or the other. I was tall enough that I could hit the ceiling joists and I complained to my Uncle Phil. He lifted the bar overhead and had about an inch clearance and said, “I don’t see a problem here at all!!!! I wish now I’d dug out the floor, but if I’d screwed it up I’d gotten a butt chewin’!!!!!
Thom Van Vleck
Jackson Weightlifting Club
Highland Games athlete and sometimes All-RounderWas it replaced with a ring the same size as the one before?
I realize now I must have read that in Dinnies book and it became one of the “puzzle” pieces in my head.
I don’t claim to “know it all” even if sometimes I act like a “know it all”!!!
Thom Van Vleck
Jackson Weightlifting Club
Highland Games athlete and sometimes All-Rounder….and my best bench was 405. Those were goals for that reason. When I hit that deadlift and bench, I was 35 years old, I was at the point I wanted to focus on highland games and called it good. I knew that it would take a lot more work to reach a 700 deadlift (I believed I could have done that had I kept focusing on it) and there was NO WAY I’d ever bench 500 (I just didn’t have it as a bench presser)….so I quit there. Wayne was my hero and I didn’t want to beat him.
Thom Van Vleck
Jackson Weightlifting Club
Highland Games athlete and sometimes All-RounderWayne only benched close grip using the same grip he used on overhead presses. He only got in one power meet I’m aware of and that was the 1971 Missouri State Championships with he won. His best bench was 405. I think he could have done 500 had he worked on it….but my Uncle’s had a dim view of powerlifters! haha As I recall, Wayne entered that 1971 meet just to prove that an oly lifter could win it without much effort at the behest of his brother Phil. I recall Wayne front squatting 440 and back squatting 550…again, he never worked it, his back squat was upright and high on his back. He also hang cleaned 330 for 8 sets of 3 reps when he was in his late 30’s and his best Deadlift being 640. I saw him seated press 330lbs one time and he did 8 sets of 3 with 300. He used a high bench and got his feet behind him and got a great drive off his chest.
Thom Van Vleck
Jackson Weightlifting Club
Highland Games athlete and sometimes All-RounderTom, you and I seem to share more than a name. I LOVE Olympic lifting and if I would have had any talent in that area, I’d been an Oly lifter. I powercleaned 225lbs at age 16 weighing less than 200lbs….and couldn’t BACK Squat that let alone front squat. Even today, my best all time power clean is 310lbs and my best Continental is 380lbs (done at age 45), but my best front squat is 325lbs and that is done leaning forward terribly. I lifted at the Sports Palace and Jim Schmitz watched me and he said, “your thigh bones are WAAAAAY too long to be effective in the squat clean”. He suggested I stick to split cleans and snatchs. I just felt I could have much more success as a thrower (and I did!) and I’m glad I did….but if I had the leverage….I’m certain I’d been over there lifting!!
Thom Van Vleck
Jackson Weightlifting Club
Highland Games athlete and sometimes All-RounderMike, seriously, you and Rudy are two guys that I admire a lot and I hope to be just like you when I’m your age. Guys like you make it hard for guys like me to complain! I hope you are coming my Highland Games!
Thom Van Vleck
Jackson Weightlifting Club
Highland Games athlete and sometimes All-RounderTully, I’m sure you’ll feel good about beating up an old man…..HAHA. Bring it! Bring Big John with you, too!!!!!
Thom Van Vleck
Jackson Weightlifting Club
Highland Games athlete and sometimes All-RounderI don’t have any recollection of you being there, Tully…..haha.
Tully, you know I love you….in a manly way…not like Chad and Al kinda way.
I’m hoping John and I will make our return next year and maybe we can double the number of teams!!! If I were tall enough, I’d ask John Conner to be on my team…but I can just see me and him doing an overhead and all the plates sliding off and hitting me in the head.
Thom Van Vleck
Jackson Weightlifting Club
Highland Games athlete and sometimes All-RounderYeah, Tully, I agree. I thought that last year when me and John O’Brien drove 700 miles round trip to participate and you couldn’t even roll out of bed to drive 10 minutes to be there….HAHAHAAHA
Thom Van Vleck
Jackson Weightlifting Club
Highland Games athlete and sometimes All-Rounder -
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