Dave Kirschen: IPA Nationals Meet Write-up

This past weekend, I, along with some of my training partners competed in the IPA Nationals in York, Pennsylvania. Although my focus is getting ready for the Coalition PRO/AM in March, I didn’t want to show up at a pro/am with gear that hasn’t been meet tested. This past weekend the goal was to make some conservative PRs, and put my METAL gear through its paces for the first time on a meet platform.

For those that are new to, or inexperienced with gear, competition is an essential part of learning to use it. A meet will throw surprises your way that training won’t, which can make your suit or shirt behave in ways you didn’t expect it to.

It sure did for me.

Weigh-ins

This was by far the lightest I’ve been in the 198-pound class. I weighed in the day before the meet at 194 pounds, without cutting weight. I didn’t worry about this because my training numbers have been good throughout the cycle at this weight.

Squat

Warm-ups

Throughout warm-ups, my squat felt great. I started early so I could take my time with my last few sets. After an easy warm-up with 685 pounds, I felt ready to go. Since I had a lot of difficulty getting to depth in training, we kept the straps very loose. They could fall off if I let them. This is how I wore them for my first attempt. My projected attempts were 730, 780 and 820 pounds (800 would be a PR).

First Attempt

I realized when I got under the bar that my rack was a little low. I generally am better off with the rack too low than too high, so I went with it rather than re-setting. Bad move. The take-off was shaky, and I got into my knees on the way down. It took me forever to hit depth and I ran out of gas on the way up.

• Missed 730…F*ck!

Second Attempt

There were only eight guys in my flight (six of whom were raw) and there was no break before second attempts. By the time I got my wraps off and sat down, it was time to start getting ready for the second attempt.

• I took the 730 pounds again and made it, but it was a grinder. My take off was better, but it still took me forever to get to the hole. I just felt like I couldn’t sit back easily enough. At least I was in the meet now!

Third Attempt

Since 730 pounds was embarrassingly hard, we only bumped it to 760 pounds for the third. Since I hit my PR total with a 750 squat, this would still put me on track for a good total, even if it wasn’t a PR squat. However, this was the same song, new verse. It took me about eight “back” calls to get into the hole. By the time I hit parallel, I just didn’t have enough gas to make it back up.

• Miss.

This was extremely frustrating because I hit a clean 780 pounds a few weeks back. But, this is an example of how new gear can surprise you on meet day. Back at Eastside, I was training on familiar equipment and going at my own pace. At the meet, with a different bar, different rack, and faster pace, all the little technical flaws I was able to work through in training bit me in the ass on the platform.

Based on this performance, it’s clear that the ACE suit is too much support for me. It starts binding early, and I have a very hard time pushing my hips back and descending. This suit would work wonders for a more straight up-and-down squatter, but it doesn’t stretch enough for me to push my hips back as much as I need to. For a little dude, I have proportionality big thighs, and the tight legs of the ACE just don’t give me enough room to squat correctly.

For March, I’m going to give the Metal Jack Pro Squat Suit a shot. Based on conversations with some of the other sponsored guys, it looks like this suit was designed around many of the difficulties I and others had with the ACE. Plus, I got to put my hands on Pegg’s at the meet (his suit I mean) and the Jack material definitely has more give to it.

Bench Press

As bummed as I was about the squat, I didn’t want to let my bed-crapping in the squat distract me. After warming up using boards, I was set to open with 520 pounds. I kept the collar high on my opener so I wouldn’t have a problem touching

First Attempt

I still took a while to touch, and when I did, I came very close to beating the press command.

• Good lift.

Second Attempt

520 felt light, so we upped it by 40 pounds for my next attempt. I left the collar where it was, hoping the extra weight would give me an easier touch. It did, but the weight was a little sluggish on the way up.

• Good lift This incidentally, was a weight I missed twice at my last meet.

Third Attempt
Since 560 was hard, I called for 580 pounds on my third attempt to break my PR of 575 pounds. I lowered the collar a little to get more pop out of it. The combination of more weight and more collar made this the easiest of all three attempts.

• While we made the right call based on how my second attempt looked, I really felt like I could have hit 600 that day.

The ACE squat suit may not be ideal for me, but the ACE shirt fits me like a glove! For those that follow my log, you might remember that I didn’t like it when I first worked in it. Those days are over. Although the Jack looks cool, you couldn’t pay me to switch shirts right now! It wasn’t an easy learning curve, but man was it worth it! I should also mention that I was about 11 pounds lighter at this meet than when I hit the 575 pounds.

This is yet another example of gear behaving differently on the platform than in the gym.

Something I feel also made a big difference this cycle was the heavy shirted board work I added. After handling 675 and 700 pounds on boards, 580 felt like nothing in my hands. This helped me stay patient and do the right things during the lift.

Deadlift

Deadlift PRs don’t normally come easy to me, so my original goal was to pull 610 pounds to squeak past my PR of 605, just to get the ball rolling again. However, after putting on a clinic of “How to Suck at Squats,” I now needed to pull 620 pounds to get a PR total. We set my attempts at 540 (a very easy opener to save the PR bench), 590 (to break 1900) and 620 (for a total PR).

For the deadlift, I’ve been wearing the ACE squatter with no brief. I never found a sumo deadlift suit that I liked (Metal or otherwise) and always pulled in canvas squat suits. As with my other lifts, this was my first time pulling in the ACE at a meet, however, my results in training were good.

First attempt

The weight felt like it literally shot off the floor, so much so, that I almost lost my balance at the top.

• Good lift.

Second attempt

I still got a nice pop off the floor and just needed to keep the momentum going for lockout.

• 590 didn’t really feel any heavier than 540.

Third attempt

• Miss – and a stupid one at that.

Long story short, I was over-pysched and started the lift with sloppy form. My hips were too high and although the weight came off the floor nicely, it got out in front of me and I couldn’t get my hips forward to finish. I felt like I had the strength, but made the lift harder than it should have been. Still, this was an improvement over March, because I couldn’t manage more than 560 pounds at that meet.

Although It didn’t work for me in the squat, the ACE is a keeper for the deadlift. Because it’s polyester, I can get the straps just a little bit tighter than I could with my canvas, which gives me more pop off the floor. If you’re a sumo puller, I highly recommend you give this suit a shot.

Although the numbers don’t really reflect it, I actually came into this meet much stronger than I’ve been in a long time. The nagging back injury that caused me to pull out of the August Pro/Am, didn’t bother me at all, and the changes I made in my training paid off strength-wise. As soon as I can get my squat gear dialed in, I think I’ll be on track for a very big day.

Day 2

While I stumbled, my training partners came up HUGE.

On day 2 of the meet, Danny Deimbert, Eric “Baboon” Halvorsen and Justin Enes showed everyone what consistency is all about. Collectively, they went 26 for 27 in attempts, with each of them hitting landmark PRs.

• Danny got his elite at 220 (actual weight 211) with an 1850 total.
• Eric, (in only his second meet with us) got his first official 700 squat, 600 pull, and an 1805 total at 308.
• Justin had a huge day, posting his first 800 squat, 500 bench (505) and 2000 total (2015).

Seeing these guys getting it done was honestly bittersweet for me. On one hand, I’m immensely proud of them, on the other, I felt like I was letting them down by not rising to the occasion myself. Watching them get it done is plenty of motivation to get my ass in gear for March!

Some other fun stuff for the weekend:

• Our friend, Andy Vale, hit his first 1000 pound squat (a 70 pound PR). It’s always inspiring seeing a lifter bust through a big barrier like he did on Sunday.
• Dan Kovacs hit a HUGE 2202.5 raw total at 41 years old. Every single lift looked easy. One of the most impressive displays of strength I’ve ever seen.
• Steve “The Iron Ferret” Rizzo managed to weasel his way into an invite from John to train at Eastside. Hey, someone has to hold the bench boards, might as well be him.
• I caught the Ferret intensely checking out Ellen Chaillet during the meet. I only caught him because I was also checking her out. At least the little goblin has taste.

A few people I really need to thank…

All of my training partners at Eastside and Apollon, including Mike Stuchiner, Anthony Ditillo, Danny Deimbert Justin Enes, Eric Halvorsen, Steve Rizzo and especially John Bott for all the help throughout the years.

Dave and Traci Tate and also elitefts.com. Not only for the support, but for all you guys have done for strength sports as a whole. A special thanks to Kris Brock for taking the time to help me get my equipment right, despite her workload helping actual paying customers.

My soon-to-be wife Liz, for putting up with the whole thing.

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