Worlds Strongest Hands Series Grip Competition, Leg 4 Review

Saturday 13 November 2010 was the final leg of the 2010 Worlds Strongest Hands Series presented by David Horne’s World of Grip.

The series was a 4 leg event held in 10 dispersed locations with a total of 91 people competing in a balanced test of overall hand strength.

The Minneapolis location was held at The Movement Minneapolis, with 8 competitors. This leg was the toughest of the 4 with some phenomenal lifts occurring and a new world record emerging for the Two Hand Pinch Deadlift.

The Movement Minneapolis competitors:

• Terry Anglin, age 40, 162 lbs from Quad Cities, Iowa
• Ryan J Pitts, age 37, 190 lbs from Grand Mound, Iowa
• David Sandel, age 27, 168 lbs from Minneapolis, MN
• Joe Tebbi, age 57, 208 lbs from White Bear Lake, MN
• Brad Ellingson, age 43, 195 lbs from Maple Groove, MN
• Jon O’Donnell, age 26, 170 lbs from Edina, MN
• Mike T Nelson, age 36, 215 lbs from White Bear Lake, MN
• Adam T Glass, age 27, 208 lbs from Minneapolis, MN

Leg 4 featured 7 total events at the Minneapolis location.

Events in order.

• Two Hand Pinch Deadlift on the European adjustable pinch apparatus, 4 attempts, rising bar
• Reverse Bending on the World of Grip Wrist Developer, 4 attempts, rising bar
• Gripper closes with a 20 mm set block on the World of Grip Vulcan Hand Gripper, 4 attempts, rising bar

After these three official events we moved to the 4 local events.

• 2″ Vertical bar deadlift,  best total for right+ left, 4 attempts, rising bar
• Overhand axle deadlift, 4 attempts, rising bar
• Two hand pinch deadlift for reps with 45 lbs plates, 60 seconds maximum reps
• One hand deadlift on the strongergrip plateau buster, 4 attempts, rising bar

Scores are as follows along with rankings

1. Adam T Glass, 180 lbs pinch- 1, level 9 gold bend- 1, level 17 gold gripper- 1, 630 V bar total (295L/335R World Record in Contest)- 1, 395 axle- 1, 36 reps pinch DL- 1, 527 lbs one hand DL- 1. Total points 7.
2. Ryan J Pitts, 133 lbs pinch-2, level 5 gold spring bend-2, level 12 gold gripper-2, 485 V bar total (235L/255R)-2, 300 lbs Axle DL-2, 32 reps pinch DL-2, 330 one hand DL-2. Total points 14.
3. Joe Tebbi, 105 lbs pinch-4, level 5 orange bend-5, level 4 gold gripper-4, 415 V bar (205 L/210R)-3, 265 axle DL-3, 20 reps pinch DL-4, 310 one hand DL-5. Total points 28.
4. David Sandel, 115 lbs pinch, level 6 orange bend, level 5 gold gripper, 375 total V bar (180L+195R), 245 axle DL, 24 reps pinch DL-3, 277 one hand DL-7. Total points 30.
5. Jon O’donnell, 105 lbs pinch-4, level 7 orange bend-3, level 5 gold gripper-3, 335 V bar total (175L+160R)-7, 265 axle DL-3, 12 reps pinch DL-6, 300 one hand DL-6. Total points 32.
6. Mike T Nelson, 80 lbs pinch-6, level 5 orange bend-5, level 4 gold gripper-4, 400 V bar total (195L+205R)-4, 235-6, 15 pinch DL-5, 315 one hand DL-4. Total points 34.
7. Brad Ellingson, 85 lbs pinch-5, level 1 orange bend-7, level 5 gold gripper-3, 360 V Bar total (175L+185R)-6, 255 axle DL-4, 10 reps pinch DL-8, 320 one hand DL-3. Total points 36.
8. Terry Anglin, 85 lbs pinch-5, level 2 orange bend-6, level 3 gold gripper-5, 305 V bar total (145L+160R), skipped axle event-7, 11 reps pinch DL-7, 217 one hand DL-8. Total points 44.

This was Ryan’s 4th leg, Mike T’s 4th leg, Brad’s 4th leg, Dave’s 2nd leg, Jon’s first leg, Terry’s 1st leg, and of course my 4th.

In the international stacking for leg 4, placings are as follows: Adam T Glass 11th place, Ryan J Pitts 26th place, Dave Sandel 37th place, Jon Odonell 38th place, Joe Tebbi 39th place, Brad Ellingson and Mike T Nelson tied for 42nd place.

For the cumulative total of all 4 legs, rankings are as follows for all Minneapolis competitors for all 4 legs (out of 91 people total): Adam T Glass 11th place, Ryan J Pitts 24th place, Mike T Nelson 31th place, Brad Ellingson 32nd place, Dave Sandel 46th place, Austin Acree and Adam Sagers tied for 71st place, Jon O’Donnell 76th place, Terry Anglin 79th place, David Dellanave 80th place, Kathi Burger 81st place (5th place out of 10 for Womens division).

I am very proud of everyone who came out to play. With the exception of Ryan none of the people who came out to the MN location consistently train grip. It takes guts to show up to a sport event when you have no time invested in training for it. I hope all of you return for the 2011 series, which will most likely feature new contest events and twice as many contest locations.

A look at my performance during this contest.

Many people speculated I would pull a top 10 finish for the series. I knew it would be very hard for me because of my extremely limited time training the two hand pinch. I bend often and use grippers monthly. I worked as often as I could with both the Europinch and my strongergrip pinch bar, often pinching 4 days a week.

My placings were Leg One- 1oth place, Leg Two- 11th place, Leg Three-11th place, Leg Four- 11th place.  I consistently did well bending and gripping, and consistently sucked for pinching.

My pinch in competition was flat out ugly. I made several mistakes including using too thin of a pinch width for the first three legs, cutting my thumbs too close to event day on the euro’s lip (legs 2 & 3), and hitting maximum pinches too close to the event day (legs 1 &3). I am not saying I could have done any better either, not excuses simply an answer to the number of friendly questions of “what the fuck happened with your pinch?”

My bending on the Wrist Developer was good all events, and I managed to improve during the series. I do not see anything I would have changed with this event in training or competition.

My grippers were by far my most improved area. My level 17 close in leg 4 was a goal of mine since I first touched the vulcan. I believe level 18 will be attained by the end of December, as it is a substantial jump from 17.

As I mentioned above in the beginning, the World Record in the Two Hand Pinch was moved up 8 lbs by US Grip Champion Jedd Johnson, who lifted 262 lbs last Saturday. The record was broke three times in one day, David Horne broke it in the UK, followed by Lawrence Shahlaei 20 minutes later in the UK, followed by Jedd the next morning in the USA.

Massive congratulations to Mr. David Horne for winning the series, David took 1st place 3 out of 4 legs and proved he has some of the strongest hands on the planet. David trained like a rabid animal the last 6 months to take names and kick ass for this.

One final word, a personal request. The grip world is pretty damn small gentlemen. I am not tracking why I am seeing comments about about me from those of you who didn’t compete. If you didn’t show up for the 4 leg contest than keep your fucking trap shut.  There were 6 locations in the USA, you could have came out. I will be holding contests here in Minneapolis through out 2011, I will be at Grip nationals next year at Jedds house. Who knows where else I will turn up for contests? Let’s all keep our shit talking to zero and let the score sheets do all the talking. I believe this is called a mature request.

The next grip contest for The Movement Minneapolis will be held in January 2011, as part of the new American grip league being formed by Jedd Johnson. I do not know all the events yet, but count on grippers, two hand pinch, and axle deadlift.

The 2011 Worlds Strongest Hands will be announced soon, I heard a rumor it may start earlier in the year. If you have any interest in Grip Sport this is a perfect starting point for you. With the number of new contest locations there will most likely be a site close to you. I will post updates as soon as David provides it.