Hi Rob.,
Yes, I’ve been catching up with things and saw the result. Novakov is a deserved winner, especially since he got stung last year. Tom won 3 events but the hold was his downfall. Check Loz’s visit to the Stoltmans on YT & you’ll see even then his doubts about the apparatus they use for holds. Looks like a modified cable ext machine. He noted it hit his forearms but not his grip. The warning signs were there.
Pritchett: best placing of his career. Same as Caron and I think they’re both the same age, c. 39-40. Amazing rebound as I thought his hamstring injury 3 years ago was too big a problem.
Shaw: uh oh! Great lifts in the gym but competition is a different beast. He wasn’t even close. Can’t see no. 5 coming.
Richardson: after all the hype a disappointment but just qualifying isn’t too shabby. His time will come.
A lot of feedback on the competition. Plus is that it took place and that was a miracle in itself. Negatives: the run-off for the heats and the haphazard way the events were chosen at the last minute. The secrecy didn’t help either. Maybe a wake-up call for the organisers. Hope so.
How’s the training going? Nice weight on the Viking Press.
For the last few years, Shaw has put up these big deadlift numbers a week or 2 out from a contest, then under performed. Maybe it’s time he woke up to the fact he ain’t 30 anymore and has a lot of mileage on the clock. Biggest sore loser.
Pritchett never gets the kudos he deserves, they just gloss over his name. All cause hes working class and non extroverted.
Yeah, Richardson needs another few years, Hicks tore a biceps…carrying and anvil I think?
Ah mate, the organisers haven’t a clue, and this no live stream doesnt work in 2020, they need to get with the times. What other sport tells you the results and makes you wait months before showing the footage? Absolute joke. Dont see it changing neither.
Anyway, the Shaw classic next month. If theres no lockdown and everyone’s not sick lol
Hi Rob,
Did I read somewhere that Pritchett has a job in a factory? Incidentally, have you seen the latest video doing the rounds: Pritchett’s 9-year-old son doing a 100kg deadlift!
Shaw: it’ll be interesting to see how his own show goes. I can’t see him doing worse than WSM. Geoff Capes got it right, Colin Bryce has too much power and it’s beginning to look that he needs to cede some of it … but will it happen? Now we wait till after Xmas for the screenings of the contest. It is a staple of the UK viewers but if Strongman wants to build then it needs something more.
Hicks: yeah! Tore his biceps carrying the anvil. Something’s up with the number of injuries like that. Okay, it’s not something new–recall Magnus Samuelsson tearing his regularly–but it seems to happen with greater frequency now. Might just be the increased weights rather than anything else. Hicks we wrote about, but Singleton tore his when cleaning a dumbbell for pressing. Eddie Hall messed his up when doing some kind of comedy roll for his TV series. Wheels when lifting a stone. Nah, God knows. Nothing seems to link them. I’m just grateful that my light weights don’t make me open to such frequent injuries. Anything over 600lbs dead and squat, and a 230lbs press is my max. That’s high enough. Over that may be pushing the limit too much for me.
Yeah Pritchett is a FT metal worker. Haha, yeah hes son is up to 114kg…gonna be a big lad.
I think Shaw should do better with his own hand picked events and equipment, but who knows.
Bryce; I’d say Capes is right, obviously channel 5 here are paying well, and because it’s been a Christmas / new year family show for decades. But times have changed, it used to be youdidnt find out who’d won, now you know as it happens ,so its ruined for the fans. Of course, if it was live then we’d all see how poorly organized it is.
Injuries; I dont think it’s so much the heavier weights, the Arnold Classics are the heaviest shows and they seem to have less injuries (because its better organized).I think it’s the sheer number of events within a short period that does the damage. Its too much, some of these guys are in their 40s or pushing it).
Even last year at the Masters, Glenn had the guys do 10-12 events I think over 2 days. Phil tore a muscle in his inner thigh flipping a car, it still isn’t right. The heats / qualifiers should been done separately from the final…just like the Arnold’s.
Hi Rob,
Agreed about Pritchett. Amazing what he does. F-T job and I think he also runs his own gym. Make that 2 f-t jobs then and the family makes 3. His son’s hit 114kg now. Bloody hell, that is dispiriting. I can recall struggling with one plate (60kg) when I first began deadlifting.
As for Shaw, he should be the perfect one to organise an event. Bryce did some Strongman early on but I think he also did Olympic bobsled. Is he stuck in a TV contract? It has been ludicrous getting updates on the recent WSM event. People sworn to secrecy–athletes included–yet the information is available. No footage. WSM’s own facebook page was a joke. Cheap but little of interest. Shaw’s knowledge is acknowledged by his peers so, in theory, his contest has great potential, but let’s see what happens.
Injuries: actually, the Arnolds have gotten a bad name recently, particularly with the deadlift problems. Something to do with the platform I recall. A plethora of hamstring injuries raised some questions but I think a new surface was installed.
Shocked to read about Glenn’s competition. 12 events. What? I admit, I’d like to see 8 events at the WSM, Arnolds and Europes, but 12 is pushing it. I like the idea of heats of 5 competitors: top 2 qualify and perhaps the best 2-6 third-place finishers go through too. This would make things easier and allow the top 2 to go easy on the last event. Then an agreed break prior to the main comp.
If nothing else, I think the issues with the WSM have raised a lot of critical responses to the organiser’s decisions. Change will have to come. WSM still has the cachet of the name: it’s the trophy of Kaz, Sigmarsson, MvMagnusson, Pudj, Big Z and Brian Shaw. But it’s losing a lot of its lustre.
To be honest, these exact complaints have been being made about WSM for 20 years, going back to when Dougie was still running the show. The exact same complaints.
They actually don’t want anyone, especially the athletes, to know the events in advancs. Which is actually good, you have to be ready for anything.
WSM is a TV show. Period. Always was, always will be. That will never change. Without TV it ceases to exist. And it’s internet presence has always been a joke. They would prefer that no one gets any updates and that there is NO crowd at all for the events.
Injuries come in waves. Right now it’s biceps. The trainng will change and it’ll be something else. Biceps tears makes the rounds every 10 years or so.
Top level shows were commonly two day events in the 2000’s. Saturday was qualifying heats, Sunday was Finals. If you missed the cut, you could work as a volunteer on Sunday and hang out with everyone. WSM used to take two weeks, one event a day. It is currently better for the athletes. Two weeks was destructive, and it was wasy for them to get cold waiting on camera crews and crap. The current expedited version is a lot better for everyone involved.
Yeah am aware these issues have been raised for a long time.
Honestly though, I respectfully disagree, an athlete should know what events they’ll be doing a least a month in advance, going into an event you’ve not prepared for may well increase the risk of injuries.
Plus, in many cases events being changed is because of poor organisation, which just pisses off the competitors even more (as many have made it known).
Here in the UK, Britain’s SM takes place in January, we dont get to see it until December, thats BS for the fans. Same with the WSM, we dont see it here until after Christmas. Whether or not they want people not to get updates, theres spoilers everywhere, fans find out.
The internet imo has helped propel the sport much further, certainly it has in the UK, its given a solid platform to the bigger personalities of the sport and because of which theres more and more younger guys and girls getting into the sport here than ever before.
Personally I think it should be similar to the Arnold’s, only the top 10-12 best of the best go head to head over no more than 6 events over 2 days. Heats or qualifiers should be done months prior to the big show down.
I don’t think it actually does. The idea is really about having a level field. Historically, the guys don’t all have access to the different forms of equipment. The idea is to have events structured in such a way as to test strength in it’s diverse facets, as opposed to test proficiency at an event. It’s not a level field if 2 guys have a given piece of equipment and the rest don’t. And some guys will build (Or have built) the equipment if they know it’s an event. The idea is, train for strength and show where you’re at by how you do at the events. These days it is everyone having and training on the specialized stuff and developing technique like an O-lifter or PLer. The idea is to level the field.
That being said, it’s a losing battle to try and keep the genie in the bottle in the internet age. In the television age, the whole idea was to drive ratings by no one knowing the end result. Other programs still do that. The ending for Lost was a tight secret, for example. Should they switch gears and leave behind an outdated model? Yes, obviously, but how do you convince them and what do they change to? Binge watch on Netflix? Live stream? Change comes slow.
I certainly hope Shaws show does takes off, tbh though, I dont know it will. But i reckon the new UK Arnold show with Hall at the helm will be a massive success here. Looking forward to it.
Yeah that’s right, forgot about the platform, I dont think they used a platform at this years Arnold?? Maybe because there was no crowd, just a few family members of the athletes. But, one things to be said, at least they dont have the guys carry anvils or loaded events on sand lol.
No. of events; yeah and that was a masters show! When Glen hosted the UKs here in NI, it was 15 events over 3 days, I mean that’s just ridiculous!! If people want to see the biggest weights being lifted carried, pulled etc, then the number of events needs to be realistic.
Absolutely, WSM is losing its lustre, i can see the competitor’s voting with their feet eventually, you can hear it in some of the interviews with Big Loz, Bryce doesnt hold all the cards, without the athletes there is no show.
Having been lucky enough to have spoke with several of the top competitors and people who know them well, they really hate events being changed at the last minute, again, a lot of the time it happens because of poor organisation. Of course, their professional and get on with it on the day, but they aint happy about it.
If youve several events in a final say, you can still give notice of those events and still have a diverse range of strength tests.
As a fan, i personally (as am sure most do) want to see the biggest weights lifted, pulled and moved etc, if the competitors haven’t trained an event specifically going in, then we aint going necessarily see the the greatest amount of weight being lifted, pulled or moved. If someone is going to comepete in strongman, it would make sense they train somewhere their going to have access to most of the equipment specific to strongman to be on a level playing field.
I think its Jouka Ahola who is credited for being one of the first guys to really start training with specific tools for strongman. The sport has evolved greatly from those first early years.
I have to admit, i loved watching WSM at Christmas/new year, but yeah, times have changed. How they well be convinced? Money talks, am sure if the price is right they’d change. Live stream or even pay per view would work. LS works for the Arnold.
Don’t forget too, the implements are shipped in. Sometimes there is a problem in shipping or something breaks in testing during setup. It’s the narute of the event. It’s not competitors going to where they keep the equipment, it’s a whole circus brough tin for a week.
Oh absolutely. Of course that’s the other thing the idiots do, have men weighing up to 450lb compete in countries with extreme heat and humidity, great idea. And where did they host the contest this year, yup, the hardest covid hit country in the world…ya couldn’t script it.
Was just looking at host countries there, wsm has only been hosted in Europe once since 99, and that was 11 years ago. Yet the US, Africa, and South East Asia have each hosted it several times each in the last 20 years. You think given that the physical culture movement started in England, Germany and the US, the 2 former would have at least hosted it at some point, but not once. Or even in Poland or Lithuania, given theyve produced some of the greatest strongmen of all time In the last 20 years or so.
I was in the Philippines when they held it there. Couldn’t image them doing it in Metro Manila. Exhaust fumes and smog is horrible plus the average hunidity is near 80% and the temp over 90f. Could have held at hundreds of beautiful resort islands instead.
I suppose now with Strongman having the potential for growth then it’s time to look at other avenues. I can recall Lawrence Shahlaei saying that, when he first started, contests were held in a car park. Now some of the shows are in front of 6,000-10,000 people here in the UK.
Of course, with Thor in GoT (albeit in a minor role) and the live streams during the pandemic there is a heightened awareness of the sport. Is it financially viable to break from the current format? I think it has to do something. Bodybuilding is creeping back under the carpet–I don’t even know who the current Mr Olympia is–and Olympic lifting will forever be tainted by corruption and national interests. Powerlifting is even more niche than Strongman although Crossfit has had greater success.
There have to be changes but what these will be will depend on the next few months. If the Shaw Classic provides a template to follow–and Shaw’s analytical nature makes it likely–then, well, who knows. Ultimate Strongman looks like it has great ideas. Maybe…
I live close to Columbus Ohio, and for the past few years have gone to the Arnold show, mostly just wandering through the exhibition hall. I’d occasionally stop to watch part of a weight lifting, power lifting, or strongman event. But it was kind of random, and I had no sense of how the competition was developing.
Of course, last year, in-person attendance got cancel, so I ended up watching most of the Strongman stuff live stream. I was stuck at home anyway, and nowhere to go, so I figured why not. I rather enjoyed it. Hell of a lot more convenient than battling the crowds downtown. (If you’ve never been to the Arnold, it can be difficult to walk through the exhibition hall on Saturday afternoon, just due to the crowd density. People are packed in like a Tokyo subway at rush hour.) Of course, it would have been cool to witness some of those lifts in person. But I’m not a hard core fan, so being able to watch in the comfort of my family room had it’s pluses. I do wonder if live events with those kind of dense crowds are going to come back any time soon?
This has been being said for 20 years as well. I competed inside venues with thousands of paying attendees in the 2000’s. And in parking lots in front of mostly family and friends of competitors. It doesn’t seem to actually change much, but there are always guys making this observation about how it has grown since they started competing. The truth is, in most cases it’s just that the guy commenting started competing in bigger shows, and/or somebody nearby was more active in promoting and rounding up sponsors.
Look at the attendance for Britain’s Strongest Man in the 2000s. Look at it for 2019. Still the same? Maybe not a valid comparison worldwide but with the leverage Bryce et al have on WSM…
