The 1998 USAPL Men's Nationals held in Denver July 3-5 Date: Mon, 06 Jul 1998 02:26:03 -0700 From: Deepsquatter Subject: 1998 USAPL Men's Nationals Judging was fine. Pretty strict but nothing I didn't expect. If I had a criticism at all it would be that the judges were a bit leniant on the pauses. I think it was in part due to the use of the IPF rule in which there is no "press command". As we discussed before there is no set time for the pause, rather it must be motionless. Touch and goes got red lights but I think most guys were looking for longer pauses. As far as my lower poundages went, the fault was totally mine. I wasn't really pleased with my lifting. I only went 4 for 9 and only hit one PR. My training, such as it was went pretty well, at least for the squat and bench. I really expected to total much higher and I had a chance to get well inot the top 10 but it just wasn't there. No excuses, I just didn't get it done. For specifics: Squat, opened with 644. Recalling the hole I had dug for myself in challenging the refs to "come and get me" I sunk it even deeper than usual - actually deeper than I planned. Got a bit squirlly but I came up with it pretty well. I heard the crowd go "whoooooo" as I hit bottom. Took 683 for my second. I think this was a better lift, formwise than the opener. Up and down pretty easily. Third attempt with 705 was doomed. I screwed up my setup and didn't feel good about it. Got the command. Started down, stopped about halfway down.Was out of position on the balls of my feet instead of the heels. Kept going down, started up and..........as Mike Armstong put it "got crushed!" Had I not screwed up my set up I think I could have gotten it. Bench opened with 385, my heaviest opener ever and 5 lbs less than my old PR. Up easily. Jumped to 418 on my second. Lost it halfway up out of the groove. Repeat on my third. Locked it out but lifted both head and butt. Good call by the refs. In retrospect, I should have taken 407 or so on the second to add to my total. I hit 420 in training but that wasn't right after squatting. One 400 plus bench would have been enough to get top 10. My goal was to hit PRs in everything on second attempts though. Didn't work out. Chalk that one up to learning. Deadlift. Usually, my "money lift". Most days I can count on pulling 20-30 lbs more than I squatted. Not this time. Didn't feel great in the warmup room. The weights went up but not as fast I'd have liked. On top of that my left calf had started cramping during the squats. Hurt during the bench but really bothered me durung my leg drive in the pull. Opened with 644. Pretty easy. Took 677 for my second. Got to the top. Just before the down signal I started to lose my balance, falling backwards.. let go. WAs it the calf? Hell, I don't know. Repeat on third. Let it get out in front of me. Stopped at knees. Oh well. Coulda, shoulda, woulda didn't. All in all, I had a great time. It was by far the best meet I'd ever been to. Great venue. Big screens on either side of the platform - one with scores and the other with the view of the platform. Two more big screens in the warmup room. I got to meet lots of people that I'd only seen in magazines or met on the net. Picture this. First guy I met was Eddie Coan. Next was Wagman. No, we didn't get in a fight or anything. :) I've got to give Dan his props. The guy is put together. At about my height and maybe 200 lbs he's got to have 18" arms. The guy is in shape. I noticed that in most of the classes the top guys were really in great shape. Most of these guys have added tons of muscle to their frames and had pretty low body fat. Wade Hooper, Dan Austin, Dave Ricks, Rob Wagner, Tony Harris, Bill Windscheif, Phil Leader, Todd Earnest and Brad Gillingham are all some of the most impressive lifters I have seen. Brad Gillingham is about the widest human I've ever seen. His second deadlift )804) was EASY!!!!!! I learned a lot....I've got a ways to go. I guess it's time to start doing the things I should have been doing all along - eating less crap and MORE good chow. Dropping some fat (I've built up a surplus) and trying to fill out my frame. Bink is a monster. The weight limit idea for SHW won't work. Yes, Bink sports a large monoab but the man has a MASSIVE frame and tons of muscle. Huge muscular legs and arms. I don't think he could get to 308 unless you started cutting legs off. Tall, THICK and wide. Literally filled two chairs. To everyone: if you can get to a national meet. GO!!! If you go as a spectator , fine. If you go as a lifter,better. I got to talk about lifting with Eddy Coan, Kirk Karwoski and Rickey Dale Crain. Getting tips from great lifters is something the average guy doesn't come across every day. After my DL warmups, I got to watch Eddy giving Wade Hooper technique tips on his sumo dealift. YOU DON'T GET THAT IN THE GYM!!!! To me, that alone was worth the plane fare. Next year....TOP 5! - ---- Jason W. Burnell ================================================================= Date: Mon, 06 Jul 1998 20:30:55 -0700 From: Deepsquatter Subject: Re: Strength_List: Re: The "infamous" Deepsquatter...I'm back! Mister Sunshine wrote: > Maybe I'm wrong, but his was your 1st national level, yes? Yes and no. I've done the AAU Nationals 2x. The level was not quite the same in terms of having the same number of great lifters but the judging is very similar. It was more related to things I did/didn't do in training. > CAn you tell HOW you botched the setup? Didn't take your time (as much as > you ought) to have everything planted solid? I didn't get my foot position right. For me that is the critical thing. I only did walkouts to 685 this time. The 683 at the meet felt heavy but I was able to walk it out ok. Next time I'll go heavier on the walkouts.Say, 720 or so. I'll get my chance pretty soon. I've got Raw Nationals Sunday. Then a week off. Then 6 weeks to train for the AAU North American Championships. I've got to take another shot at my 700s before the year ends. If I can stayin one piece it will be mine! > Care to divulge what those tip[s were??? I plan on being able to do sumos > at (and beyond) my previous best of 476 (lbs) someday. IT was things on bar position, shin position etc keeping the back flat before the pull. I'd really hve to show you as it would be almost impossible to describe without visuals. - ---- Jason W. Burnell War Stories by Pat Hall Well for me it started out with the squats and almost became a horror story for me. I was fired up and ready to open well in the 220 first flight. There was two since we had 23 lifters. So I am excited to have a good day I feel good! My opening squat I buried and it felt good and in the groove. I turn around, look at the lights two reds! I am thinking F*@%! If they called me for depth it's gonna be a short day. Well my coach found out it was being locked out at the beginning of the lift. So I said I can fix that! Next squat went down started to come up got forward and basically good morninged 650 but, good lift! Thank God! I was ready to cry after the first one! So I figured if I wanted to be in the hunt for top three I needed 705 but after the good morning I was nearly spent! So like every other over zealous lifter I call for it thinking I could get up for it! So this time I let my coach wrap my knees ( which I usually always do my self!) I was using the new z wraps and he had them so tight I thought they might well be bleeding when he took them off! So I am fired up again I pull it out of the rack it feels good I start to go down when I hit half way my legs stop and I buckle in half the spotters were good and they saved mine and alot of others lifters butts kudo's to them. So now I am wondering if I would placein the top ten my worst nightmare (I thought) was about to happen. So I lowered my opening bench to 451. I did a three second pause with it and bam like a rocket it went up. So I call for 473 same pause but it shoots over my face to quick luckily my heavy lockout training paid dividends and I finished the lift good lift. So my ego kicks in and I ask for 501. Now honestly I had done this weight on more than one occasion so it seemed logical to me. So I get out there last bench and I am so fired up that I blew the start count I realized it half way down and when I came off my chest it went my twisted forward and I missed it anyway. So it is time to deadlift so I am happy. I opened at 705 something I felt I could do on my worst day. Well I get fired up cause I am getting my second wind now and blasted the weight off the floor but because of lack of concentration that I usually have my shoulders rolled forward and the top half of the deadlift was quite a task but I got it done. Now the man to beat in the first flight was Bill Windschief from Texas. We were tied on the squat but he benched 485. I knew he was capable of a big pull but like me he was tiring. So I called for 727 which I had pulled before but geeze I was tired! When he saw my next he called for 733! So I get out there with everything I got left and give it a rip. It blast up past my knees but it was crooked and I lost my momentum! So I feel like I am definitly fried especially in the hips, glutes, and hams. So Bill yanks his dead and I am out of gas! Then someone I am not paying attention to pulls ahead, Scott Zwaanstra! I am in the back parking lot in tears thinking what now. So my fiancee and coach come out to give me the pep talk. I tell them I am out off gas there is nothing in the tank. But I am gonna try my last dead conventional use some different muscles maybe to get this friggin weight. I dug down to a place I had never gone before nobody had pushed me like this before. I came out for the final attempt I grabbed the bar and said to myself this is it you bastard you didn't put in all this training for nothing! So through my head back and yanked with everything I had got it to my knees time to hit second gear but second gear was gone I blew my wad on the take off and it went crashing down to the platform. Should I go shoot myself now? Well I stepped back for a second and the big picture told me in the biggest class at the toughest nationals in years I hung with the big dogs. I pulled out fifth with a 4 for 9 day! Not bad. But I'm pissed now so look out next year!!!!! Pat "going to war" Hall Here is how the placings broke down. USAPL 114 Gainer 198 Benemerito 275 Leiato SHW Gillingham USPF 132 Taylor 148 Hooper 165 Austin 181 Ricks 220 Harris 242 Douglas For videos of the meet: Call Crains Muscle World for a wide selection of PL tapes- 1-800-272-0051 or crain@ionoet.net Phil Andrews(Brackley Enterprises- the Clean Power Guy) has the USAPL Nationals tapes. 1-761-789-6116 I know I've got an email address for Phil but I can't find it. The are $25 per day or $65 for all three. Day 1 114-165 Day 2 181-220 Day 3 The Big Boys Jason