by Al Myers

MEET ANNOUNCEMENT

THE USAWA NATIONAL GRIP CHAMPIONSHIPS

Andy Durniat won the 2010 Dino Gym Grip Challenge. Will he return to defend his title and win the FIRST EVER USAWA National Grip Championships? In this picture Andy is setting the USAWA All-TIme best lift of 140 kilograms in the One Arm No Thumb Deadlift.

The Dino Gym Grip Meet was such a HUGE SUCCESS last year –  we decided to do it again this year.   The tradition of grip challenges have been around quite a while in the USAWA – thanks to Kevin Fulton’s grip meets.   However, this year the USAWA has taken  grip competitions to “a new level” as the USAWA Executive Board approved this meet as the USAWA National Grip Championships.  This is the FIRST TIME the USAWA will have a Grip Nationals – the start of a NEW tradition that I hope will continue for many years.

Considering this is a National Championships, a few things had to be done with this meet in order to fulfill our established USAWA rules of conducting a championship.  First of all, only Official USAWA Lifts can be in a Nationals – thus NO exhibition lifts.  However, we have a host of great grip lifts in our Rule Book so this was not a problem.  Second, traditional scoring will be done with age and body-weight corrections on the “total weight” lifted.  And thirdly, all individual body-weight classes and age divisions will be contested for National Championship Awards.

The lifts are:

Pinch Grip

Vertical Bar Deadlift – 1 bar, 2″, One Hand

Deadlift – Middle Fingers

Deadift – Fulton Bar, Ciavattone Grip

Deadlift – 3″ Bar

The 2011 National Grip Championships will be on Saturday, February 12th, 2011. Luckily this year the second weekend of February avoided Valentine’s Day!  For an ENTRY FORM (pdf) – NationalGripEntry