MEETS POSTPONED

By Al Myers

The decision has been made by the USAWA Executive Board to postpone all meets till further notice.  This includes temporally suspending accepting sanction requests for new competitions/events.

The meets postponed (I say postponed instead of cancelled as we still hope to be able to host some of these in the fall) are the Heavy Lift Championships, the Lebanon Valley Record Day, and our USAWA National Championships.  The second quarter Postal Meet will still be contested.

Also, I have decided that the IAWA Old Time Strongman World Postal will be cancelled this summer.

These were hard decisions to make but it is the responsible thing to do in these trying times.

HEAVY LIFT CHAMPIONSHIPS POSTPONED!

By Eric Todd

This decision has not been an easy one for me.  It came with lots of time and deliberation (and coaxing from mama).  I detest living as though I am afraid of something which I am not.  However, it felt imprudent at this time to go on with the heavy lift championships next month as planned.  I don’t want to be the guy responsible for other people getting sick.  At any rate, we are postponing this indefinitely.  Notice I said “postponed” and not “cancelled.”  This meet has been contested annually since 1994.  I don’t wish to see that run end, particularly on my watch!  So, it is my intention to still host this meet in 2020.  Hopefully this pandemic foolishness will slow down, and we can go back to living like free people. I will keep membership informed, but I will most likely be looking at a date in the fall that does not conflict with nationals/worlds.  I will also be contacting those athletes from whom I have already received entries to see what you want me to do with your entry fee.  You can apply it toward the meet later in the year or I can tear up you check.  Your choice. In the meantime, as my optimistic club members recognized, this just gives us more time to train for it in order to put up huge totals.  In the meantime, stay safe everybody!

1st Quarter Postal

By Denny Habecker

The 1st Quarter results are in and we had great participation despite the pandemic we are going through right now. Eric Todd’s KC Strongman Club had 7 entries, and it was great to see 3 entries from Bill Clark’s gym. John Strangeway was the top male lifter by a wide margin and R.J. Jackson edged out Sylvia Stockall in the woman’s division.

MEET RESULTS

1st Quarter Postal
January 1, 2020 – March 31, 2020

The Lifts- Swing – Dumbbell, One Arm, Deadlift- No Thumb, One Arm, Deadlift- 2 Bars

John Strangeway   – 41  – 206   – 110 L – 225 R  – 550 – 895 – 802.62

Dave Deforest       – 60  – 195   – 50 L   – 170 L  – 390 – 610 – 669.23

Abe Smith            – 38   – 181   -115 L  – 195 R –  390 – 700 – 662.55

John Carter          – 61   – 219   – 75 R   – 200 R  – 350 – 625 – 648.35

Denny Habecker   – 77   – 182   – 61 R  – 132 R   – 253 – 446 – 631.40

Barry Pensyl        – 72    – 150  – 57 R  – 113 R   – 250  – 420 – 626.33

Eric Todd             – 45    – 257  – 115 L – 175 R   – 402 – 692  -574.20

Mike Lucht           – 37   – 230  – 100 L  – 175 L   – 402  -677  – 560.89

Bill Clark             – 87   – 209   – 10 R    – 135 R   – 200 – 345  – 511.42

Chris Todd          – 40    – 275  – 90 R   – 160 R   – 382  – 632  – 482.56

Dean Ross         – 77    – 237   – 40 L     – 95 L    – 190  – 325 – 397.55

Lance Foster      – 54    – 347   – 45 L    – 141 R   – 302  – 488 – 381.10

Leroy Todd        – 8      – 17.5  – 17.5 R –   40 R  –  70 – 127.5 – 368.35

Woman’s Division:

R.J. Jackson      – 58    – 106     – 50 R    – 95 R  – 180    –  325   –  537.54

Sylvia Stockall CAN – 62    – 140     – 50 R    – 96 R  – 210    – 356    – 534.95

Beth Skwarecki – 39    – 143     – 61 R    – 121 R – 263.5 – 445.5 – 490.31

Lynda Burns     – 45    – 180    –  45 L     – 110 L – 210    – 365    – 367.51

Phoebe Todd    – 9      –  93     – 23 R      – 40 L   – 70     – 133    – 277.50

Crystal Diggs   – 33    – 165    – 30 R      – 75 R  – 150    – 255    – 255.43

Lifters with Certified Official:
John Strangeway – Eric Todd, Lance Foster, Chris Todd
Eric Todd           – John Strangeway, Lance Foster
Mike Lucht         – Eric Todd, Lace Foster, John Strangeway
Chris Todd         – Eric Todd
Lance Foster      – Eric Todd
Leroy Todd        – Eric Todd
Phoebe Todd     – Eric Todd, Lance Foster, John Strangeway
Dave DeForest  – Bill Clark
John Carter      – Bill Clark
Bill Clark         – Dave DeForest
Dean Ross      – Denny Habecker
Crystal Diggs  – R.J. Jackson

Lifters without Certified Officials:
Abe Smith
Denny Habecker
Barry Pensyl
R.J. Jackson
Sylvia Stockall
Beth Skwarecki
Lynda Burns

The Hand and Thigh

By Eric Todd

HEAVY LIFT CHAMPIONSHIP – THE HAND AND THIGH

Joe Garcia pulls a big hand and thigh at the Heavy Lift Championship at York

Joe Garcia pulls a big hand and thigh at the Heavy Lift Championship at York

(Due to the Corona virus, as of right now no official decision has been made on the Heavy Lift Championships.  We will keep an eye on the situation and make a decision before long.  As of right now, I am proceeding as though it will go on, but will keep the membership informed)

The Hand and Thigh will be the second lift contested in the Heavy Lift Championship, which is being contested on May 9th this year. When I last hosted in 2018, this was the article I posted regarding the execution of the lift: Hand and Thigh

I am not going to go so far as to say the hand and thigh has a richer past outside of IAWA/USAWA than the neck lift, but it certainly has a more well documented past. Many of the Old Time strongmen of past used the hand and thigh as part of their routine.  This very lift was one of those contested when John B. Gagnon bested Warren Lincoln Travis for the unofficial title of World’s Strongest Man as mentioned in my last article on the neck lift.  It was also included in Travis’s “Challenge to the World,” which was included as part of his will upon his death in 1941.  This challenge included 10 feats that must be performed, including several that were repetition lifts, within 30 minutes.  One of the items on the list is a single successful effort with a 1600 pound Hand and Thigh.  The man who successfully completed the challenge would be awarded Travis’s “diamond-jeweled gold and silver” championship belt.  To date there have been no takers.

Travis had a protégé by the name of Charles Phelan who, like Travis, performed his feats at Coney Island, New York.  One of the lifts he performed on Coney Island was the Hand and Thigh, where he was credited with a lift of 1125 pounds.  Phelan was also known for his capacity to entertain, as he would tell jokes between his feats of strength.

The famous Canadian strongman, Louis Cyr is credited with a lift using the hand and thigh method of 1897.25 pounds. More recently, a strongman who was inspired by Cyr performed the hand and thigh out in New Jersey.   His name was Jack Walsh, and he claimed a hand and thigh of 1500 pounds around 1950.  Iowa strongman Archie Vanderpool claimed a lift of 1840 pound in the hand and thigh.  He utilized the method of a bar through two barrels to get the weight up in lieu of the big bar attached to a chain method that we use in the USAWA today.  When I first saw a picture of him using this style, it seemed familiar.  That is because I had seen Milo author, and renegade strongman, the heavy metal iron master himself, Steve Justa using that method in the book “Rock, Iron, Steel” that he authored.  Apparently, Justa’s father was a friend of Vanderpool.  In the book, Justa claims to have lifted over a ton using this method on multiple occasions.  While he did compete at least once in the USAWA (it was a Kevin Fulton meet back around the time I was first getting started in the all-rounds), I do not believe he has ever performed this lift in competition.  I am sure that is a rather abbreviated record of old time strongman performers who have been known for the hand and thigh lift.

That brings us to the hand and thigh lifting done in the USAWA, which, from any meet I have witnessed was done under professional judging within strict guidelines.  In the Women’s  class I am including any lifter who has gone 600 pounds or more.  Our number one here, Armorkor Ollennuking is in a league of her own with 1100 pounds in this discipline:

1) Armorkor Ollennuking  1100 pounds 1997 Zercher

2)Jacqueline Simonsen 810 pound 1994 Nationals

3) Cara Ciavattone 702 pounds 1996 New England Championships

4) Jaenne Burchette 700 pounds 1991 Nationals

5)Mary Jo McVey 605 pounds 1993 Worlds

6) Jenna Lucht 600 pounds 2014 Old Time Strongman Championship

7) Amy Burks 600 pounds 1998 Zercher

 

For the men, I am including lifters who have gone 1400 pounds or better. Again, our leader is in a class of his own, with Joe Garcia hitting 1910 pounds:

1) Joe Garcia 1910 pounds 1997 Zercher

2)Frank Ciavattone 1610 pounds 1995 New England Strongman

3) Eric Todd 1510 pounds 2015 Heavy Lift Championship

4) Al Myers 1505 pounds 2010 Deanna Springs Memorial

5) Jim Malloy 1400 pounds 1995 Worlds

6) John Carter 1400 pounds 1996 Zercher

7) Steve Schmidt 1400 pounds 2004 Backbreaker

8) Sam Huff 1400 pounds 2005 Deanna Springs Memorial

9)Joe Ciavattone Jr. 1400 pounds 2013 Heavy Lift Championship

The Hand and Thigh has a rich history both in old time strongman performances and the USAWA.  I am sure we will add to that history at this year’s Heavy Lift Championship.

Justa, Steve. “The Hand and Thigh Lift or the Quarter Deadlift.” Rock Iron Steel: the Book of Strength, IronMind Enterprises, 1998, p. 52.

“Louis Cyr.” <i>Wikipedia</i>, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Mar. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Cyr.

Murray, Jim. “Jack Walsh — World’s Strongest Man?” Iron Game History, vol. 4, no. 5, Oct. 1995, pp. 10–11.

Myers, Al. “Hand and Thigh Club.” USAWA, 2 Aug. 2011, usawa.com/hand-thigh-club/.

PeoplePill. “Warren Lincoln Travis: Strongman – Biography and Life.” PeoplePill, peoplepill.com/people/warren-lincoln-travis/.

Wood, John. “Archie Vanderpool.” Www.oldtimestrongman.com, 12 Oct. 2017, www.oldtimestrongman.com/blog/2016/08/23/archie-vanderpool/.

Wood, John. “Charles Phelan and His GIANT Kettlebell.” Www.oldtimestrongman.com, 6 Dec. 2018, www.oldtimestrongman.com/blog/2018/12/05/charles-phelan-giant-kettlebell/.

David DeForest New Official

By Al Myers

I always like to add new officials to our USAWA Certified Official list!  Welcome David DeForest to this list!  David is a longtime member of Clark’s Gym in Columbia, MO and has been lifting for many, many years.  He brings a wealth of officiating experience to the organization, as he has been active as a lifting official most of his life.

I want to add that David has accomplished the USAWA official’s certification FASTER than anyone ever has.  He passed the first part, the written exam, less than 3 months ago and already has wrapped up the practical exams.

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