Commonwealth and Oceania Powerlifting and Benchpress Championships

[teamfatboy]

Folks,

I thought this had been publicised before - it's on FB anyways - but here's the story:

500 of the best lifters, from 16 countries, competing in equipped and raw, three-lift and bench, right in Manukau. It starts TOMORROW (December 4th) and runs thru Sunday 8th

Goodlift has the video stream and chat: http://goodlift.info/live.php

So does Ustream: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/commonwealth-oceania-championships-2013

The details are here: http://www.sportsground.co.nz/files/site/826/4/Pdf/131119230101ZYRDMEVE.pdf

The schedule's here: http://www.sportsground.co.nz/files/site/826/4/Pdf/131125005451YLAOQLEW.pdf

Lifting starts tomorrow with the equipped three-lift.

Bench (both equipped and unequipped) is on Thursday.

Raw lifting starts on Friday, runs thru 'til Sunday - there is going to be a MASSIVE amount of iron moved!.. 

The New Zealand lifters, and those of the other nations, all need your support, so come on, turn up and make some noise!

[Pseudonym]

Thank you TFB! I noticed today that we didn't have this event in our calendar, but I hadn't got a chance to post it up (too busy prepping the Gymnation Challenge polls).

 

Who do we know who's competing? I know Phedder is... Are you? Any other forum members?

[teamfatboy]

Yep, I'm competing, and I know of at least one other member, just can't remember her name <doh>

 

There are two great guest lifters from the US:

Kimberley Wakford, an Under72 lifter with a 221 kg deadlift; and

Mike Tuscherer, who's got a 900kg total, raw!

 

PS, Pseu, can you sticky this so it stays up 'til Sunday, please?

[Gym rat]

Good luck to all who are carrying the flag for gym nation

[Leeroid]

Abbey is competing.

[OnlyHuman]

Who do we know who's competing? I know Phedder is... Are you? Any other forum members?

DevastatingDave ... he is more of a lurker than a poster tough. 

[Destamoon]

Loving the live score updates from the goodlift stream

[majorflavazz]

yeah loving the live updates, cool to watch, some strong guys there i just watched Tonka break the Commonwealth squat record right now looked easy @ 372.5kg.

I just wonder why they go really deep as they do in other comps they all looked more parallel than anything or is that alright.

[Leeroid]

Are u asking why they squat so deep? Or you think they're not going deep enough?

[Pseudonym]

Oh yeah, I did know Abbey was competing. Good luck to you all!

I'll try and get along at some point over the weekend.

[majorflavazz]

well compared to your squat Leeroid yours looks deep but watching theres it looks not low enuff, mine arnt the best but i thought in these comps theyd be more deeper like the one in your 220kg vid

[Pseudonym]

PS, Pseu, can you sticky this so it stays up 'til Sunday, please?

Done.

I've also changed the date to Sunday, otherwise the calendar will think the event has been and gone... we'll have to add a function for multi-day events at some stage.

[Dinahlady]

major-flavaz wrote:

well compared to your squat Leeroid yours looks deep but watching theres it looks not low enuff, mine arnt the best but i thought in these comps theyd be more deeper like the one in your 220kg vid

[Pseudonym]

Isn't there a sort of spring-load reflex that helps you "bounce" the weight back up? Similar to loading up a squat suit. Isn't that part of the reason to go deep?

 

(Apologies if my profound misunderstanding of powerlifting has caused large numbers of you to face-palm. I hope to remedy my ignorance this weekend!)

[Destamoon]

Isn't there a sort of spring-load reflex that helps you "bounce" the weight back up? Similar to loading up a squat suit. Isn't that part of the reason to go deep?

 

(Apologies if my profound misunderstanding of powerlifting has caused large numbers of you to face-palm. I hope to remedy my ignorance this weekend!)

You're right man, its called the stretch reflex. That's basically the tradeoff between an olympic style squat and a powerlifting low bar squat. Squatting ATG and using the full stretch reflex allows you to get out of the hole much easier compared to slightly breaking parallel and then going from there. The downside (in my opinion) is that it's much harder to stay tight throughout the whole range of motion. It all comes down to personal preference and leverages as well.

You get a similar situation with wide grip vs narrow grip bench press, as well as conventional vs sumo deadlifts.

[Leeroid]

major-flavaz wrote:

well compared to your squat Leeroid yours looks deep but watching theres it looks not low enuff, mine arnt the best but i thought in these comps theyd be more deeper like the one in your 220kg vid

[Leeroid]

You're right man, its called the stretch reflex. That's basically the tradeoff between an olympic style squat and a powerlifting low bar squat. Squatting ATG and using the full stretch reflex allows you to get out of the hole much easier compared to slightly breaking parallel and then going from there.

 

Also this is only possible if you do have the required flexibility. Otherwise, you'll only end up rounding your back.

Probably the best example of the divebomb technique. Pat Mendes, Olympic weightlifter.

 

[Abbey]

Divebomb squats are the best. It's good when it is heavy. I am a divebomber lol. But it has it's ups and downs and flexibility is a big thing. I squat my most when I can get the bounce out of the hole. 

 

As as for the judges .... They are human. There are always bound to make mistakes. I failed a squat at nationals for depth. Yet I went right into the hole to get the bounce. I even had it on video and it was very low. BUT I just said to myself it's human error. At this comp I think the judges have been pretty good. But sometimes some judges are stricter than others. There was one lady judge and when she judged the bench press I swear people were getting a good 2-3second pause. Some of the pauses were crazy long. But I guess it's the luck of the draw. Lift hard or go home.  

 

[Pseudonym]

Divebomb squats ... has it's ups and downs

I LOL'd.

How's everyone doing in this comp, Abbey? How'd you go? What about Phedder and TFB?

[teamfatboy]

Divebomb squats ... has it's ups and downs

I LOL'd.

How's everyone doing in this comp, Abbey? How'd you go? What about Phedder and TFB?

Abbey did great, but I'll let her tell you about that..

I had a fun day, will post a write-up in my journal, but after a case of the yips in my first squat, I finished the day having achieved a long-standing goal (four reds/side) of a 227.5kg deadlift - three white lights.

I even caught up with Opti (i think!)

[Pseudonym]

I saw you compete, TFB - you did well! I took some pics/vids of the event (including you) which hopefully are ok. I'll post them up as soon as I've got the Challenge out of the way, and my computer chugs its way through processing them.

[Destamoon]

 

Also this is only possible if you do have the required flexibility. Otherwise, you'll only end up rounding your back.

 

 

 

 

Good point, buttwink is bad

[Pseudonym]

OK, finally I've had a chance to process my photos from the Championships. Sorry it's taken so long - this last week has been crazy with the Gymnation Summer Challenge and other admin-type stuff.

I was there Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, so these are photos of the 3-lift unequipped powerlifters in:

83 Sub Juniors, MI, MII, MIII, MIIII
83 Juniors
83 Open
105 Open, MII, MIII, MIIII
120 Sub Juniors, Juniors, MI, MII, MIII, MIII

This was the first powerlifting comp I'd been to, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The thing that impressed me most (well, apart from the jaw-dropping amount of weight being moved) was the military-like organisation of the proceedings. I guess by the time I arrived, they'd had several days to fine-tune this, but they flew through the competitors at an unbelievable rate. The loaders were changing the weights like a Formula 1 pit crew, and the last lifter had barely left the stage before the next one was being called on. I'm sure that played a huge part in keeping the adrenaline and excitment in the competition.

Most of these photos are of the squats, because when it came to the bench and deadlift, I discovered that still photos just don't do justice to the athletes. So I switched to video instead. Hopefully that's worked - I'm going to have a look at it now.

​In the meantime, here are the stills...