The Richmond Open

Sid Zullinger arrived at my house at 5:30am as planned. Pat and I were packed and ready and we took off for Atlee high school in Mechanicsville just out side of Richmond VA. The trip is 86 miles according to Map Quest and we made it in time to line up for equipment check at 7:15. Sid weighed in at 225 and I weighed in at 263. The lifting didn’t get started until 9:30.
I could tell that the long time to wait for his squat flight was hard for Sid. With two flights of 15 ahead of him it would be a minimum of an hour and a half before his flight came up. His opener was 385 and he did it with ease. Willy Morris gave him red on depth. Because of Sid’s body shape his maximum depth is just past parallel, which is not quiet good enough for some national judges in the USAPL. Sid’s second attempt was 418. Once again he did it with ease. Once again Willy gave him a red light for depth. Sid’s final attempt was 437. He had to put some effort into this one but he locked it out. Unfortunately he took a step forward before the rack command was given. Ironically, Willy said the depth was good.
Once again the long wait to bench played on Sid’s nerves. He opened with 325. I lifted off for him and called instructions. I told him wait for the commands as I handed off. After he pressed I told him to hold it. He got three white lights for a textbook lift. As previously posted I had decided to do a bench only meet. I wanted to be able to coach Sid the rest of the time. Unfortunately, I had to leave Sid out on the platform to finish benching while I went to warm up for my flight. I set it up so that he and Mike Hill would lift off for each other. Sid jumped the commands on his second attempt and did not receive credit for a strong 347. I think if I had been there lifting off and instructing him he would have waited. His third attempt was a repeat of 347 but he was out of gas by then.
I was back in the back room doing a very quick warm up. I did 20x the bar, 10x135, 5x225, 1x315 and 1x365. I put on my tightest 46 Fury bench shirt. The sleeves were so tight that I new my circulation would be compromised so I took it off and put on the back up 46. I have to thank Rob Gormis, a big lifter and friend of Len Walker’s. I met him a couple years ago at the George Mason APA meet. He helped me warm up and get into my shirts. I did 1x455 with the shirt on. By this time I was breathing pretty hard and sweating profusely. I grabbed my stuff and went out to the platform area. Sid and Henry Girard were there to coach me and fire me up.
I took three unsuccessful attempts at 501. I could give any number of lame excuses for the misses. The backup shirt did not have a lot of pop in it. The national judges were not in place when the bar was loaded. The hand off was bad on the first attempt. The effort expended in coaching and loading for Sid took a bite out of my total energy. But, I have lifted in too many meets around the world in too many different circumstances to know that the only reason I missed those lifts was because they were too heavy. It was a little disappointing but this meet was about Sid and having fun so I put it out of my mind.
The meet director came to me after the first flight of dead lifts and asked if I could sit one of the judge’s chairs. I was glad to help out. Nick Mannetti jumped in from spotting and loading when Sid’s attempts came up so I could coach Sid on his way to the platform. His first pull was 425 and was really easy for him. I told him to go to the table and put in 475 as his next attempt. This was the first time he had done this so he told the official 475 and then 501. Sid did not know that he was to give just the weight for his next attempt, so when he came out to lift he thought he was lifting 475 when the bar was loaded with 501. When I told him to give his third attempt as 534 he told me he had already given 501 as his third attempt. I said “you just pulled 501”. He told me he thought 475 felt really heavy”. He entered 540 as his third and it was just a little too heavy. He pulled it to just below his knees and ran out of gas. I think the 534 would have gone.
There were user problems with the scoring software, so it was after 8:00 pm before Sid received his second place trophy for a 1244 total. He had a very good day. He met and impressed a lot of new power lifting friends and took home some nice hardware.
We stopped at the Mexican restaurant on the way out of town and devoured some fine food. We arrived back home at 11:15 PM, 17 hours and 45 minutes after we had left. It was a long day, but a good one, and Sid is now qualified for Raw Nationals in Charlottesville.

There has been some postings about the infamous Masters world bench team speedo on the USAPL Forum. I thougth it would be apprpriate to post a picture of it here.

Ready for Richmond!

On April 11, I will be heading down to Mechanicsville (Richmond suburb) for the Richmond Open.
I hit 405 unequipped on the flat bench last night for the first time in 3 years. I have nailed over 500 in both my past two shirted work outs. The American record for 275 - M4 (55-59) is 490. It looks like preparation and opportunity are about to come together for me. I decided to do bench only so that I could coach my friend Sid in his first meet. He has been training hard and made some great gains. I think he will go over 1300 Raw in his first meet ever.
I hate to open with an American record, because some judges (to remain unnamed) think that you deserve to be red lighted for the presumption. However, if that is where the shirt is dialed in at, then that is where you have to open. Just have to try to make it very clean.
My weight has crept up to the 260’s but my strength is back to where it was when I weighed into the 290’s. My legs and chest have put on a great deal of solid muscle. My shoulder has stopped hurting completely. I think I have to credit the chiropractor for the shoulder rehab. He told me that as he fixed my neck problems my shoulder problems would probably go away as well. This is stupendous, I was ready top go under the knife.