Kern US Open Updates

All that fucking hard work for those timestamps, and they stopped working as soon as the stream ended, sorry guys. for some reason the first few hours (including some bench and all squats) seem to be gone
Highlights i put together after the fact:
Larry Wheels 881 deadlift: The Kern US Open USPA Powerlifting Competition | Day 2 - YouTube
Larry Wheels 512 Bench Opener: The Kern US Open USPA Powerlifting Competition | Day 2 - YouTube
Larry Wheels 590 Bench: The Kern US Open USPA Powerlifting Competition | Day 2 - YouTube
Larry Wheels 611 Bench miss: The Kern US Open USPA Powerlifting Competition | Day 2 - YouTube
Brandon Allen missed 887 deadlift: The Kern US Open USPA Powerlifting Competition | Day 2 - YouTube
Chris Bridgeford 805 deadlift: The Kern US Open USPA Powerlifting Competition | Day 2 - YouTube
Yury Belkin 893 deadlift: The Kern US Open USPA Powerlifting Competition | Day 2 - YouTube
Yury Belkin missed 925 deadlift (hook grip): The Kern US Open USPA Powerlifting Competition | Day 2 - YouTube
Yury Belkin 529 Bench: The Kern US Open USPA Powerlifting Competition | Day 2 - YouTube
Yury Belkin missed 925 deadlift (mixed grip): The Kern US Open USPA Powerlifting Competition | Day 2 - YouTube
Andrew Herbert 848 deadlift: The Kern US Open USPA Powerlifting Competition | Day 2 - YouTube
JP Price 606 bench opener: The Kern US Open USPA Powerlifting Competition | Day 2 - YouTube
JP Price 628 bench: The Kern US Open USPA Powerlifting Competition | Day 2 - YouTube

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From Chris Duffin on facebook: New Generation Bars and feedback has been positive! HOWEVER - some hook-grip deadlifters reported some difficulty with the bar - so we’re definitely going to be doing some deep analysis on this issue before we bring the bar to market!

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Why was Larry’s opener so low compared to his second and third? 77lbs seems like a pretty big jump for bench press

Curious as to what the specifics are. What features would make a certain deadlift bar harder to hook and not also make it harder to mixed grip?

Also Belkin got fucked by it lol

I agree, it seems like a very big jump

Not 100% sure, I think some people were saying they thought the knurling was causing skin to tear…
Also just saw in the comments of a vid of Shawn Doyle’s squat missed, a bunch of lifters who competed at the meet said the squat bar also wasnt good (not sure why) and neither was the platform (too bouncy)

Edit: pretty obvious but apparently the issue with the squat bar was too much whip. Watch JP Price’s 455kg attempt and you can see exactly how tough it must have been!

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They also used a Kabuki Strength deadlift bar which apparently is different from other deadlift bars, I saw something in the comments about that. I think quite a few people underperformed on deadlifts.

Apparently the knurling on them is totally different from other bars, on top of some actual structural things.

What was the judging like on Saturday? I just saw a video of Ben Pollack’s 3rd squat and it looks like he wasn’t even at parallel, today there were plenty of squats that were way deeper and didn’t pass. For real, this is a problem. The IPF snobs will have a field day.

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Is this your 8th post on squat depth at the Open?

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haha, its hilarious, but he certainly has a point, they were all over the place

I’ll he honest, I am a big fan of Ben’s, but I have to disagree that that squat wasn’t to depth. I think it was exactly to parallel, and that should be legal. Take a look at Brandon Lily’s depth at the Backyard Meet of the Century back in 2012. That depth shouldn’t be turned down, and it wasn’t.

You have to let him go on this one. Those judges were watching a different meet. I felt that a lifter or two were favored on the squats Saturday. Where as today they redlighted good lifts then gave them their third when they cut it high to keep them in the meet.

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That made me laugh out loud in an empty room

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I’m pretty sure it was more than 8 by now, but who’s counting anyway?

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What fed is that meet with Brandon Lilly, SPF? By USPA rules you are supposed to squat below parallel, not just barely or around parallel. Try that at your OPA meet and I guarantee you will bomb out.

I’m not going to go on and on about this depth thing because it’s obvious that something is wrong and I’m not the only one pointing it out, but generally speaking from what I have seen USPA has been reasonable in terms of not red lighting good squats, although some questionable ones have certainly passed. Today they wanted ATG. There is a saying that it is better to let a thousand guilty men walk free than to lock up one innocent man, this looks like the complete opposite.

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I 100% agree with everything you said. To clarify: I wasn’t saying judges in all federations should allow squats to that depth, different feds have different rules but I do think that that is the depth that should be how the rule book goes in all feds

Don’t worry, it’s not like I’m trying to dictate to you how it should be, and I’m seriously interested to know how the judging was on day 1. Not all feds have the same standards and that’s just how it is but when rules aren’t consistently applied within a fed then I see that as a problem.

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All Of Ben’s Squats. its interesting that he got the one red from the side judge on his opener. It looks to me like the second squat was the highest.
Opener (:white_circle::white_circle::red_circle:): The Kern US Open USPA Powerlifting Competition | Day 1 - Blue Platform - YouTube
Second (:white_circle::white_circle::white_circle:): The Kern US Open USPA Powerlifting Competition | Day 1 - Blue Platform - YouTube
Third (:white_circle::white_circle::white_circle:): The Kern US Open USPA Powerlifting Competition | Day 1 - Blue Platform - YouTube
Another angle of third: THE WRPF Americas on Instagram: "@phdeadlift with a clean 771 squat to secure his third attempt āšŖļøāšŖļøāšŖļø"
First:
Ben%20Pollack%20first%20squat%20depth
Second:
Ben%20Pollack%20second%20squat%20depth
Third:
Ben%20Pollack%20third%20squat%20depth

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The judging quandary will never be solved. The lifter’s coach/handler is supposed to observe the judging and adjust attempts accordingly. The lifter should also train multiple stance variations so that if stance adjustment is needed on the fly to attain depth, that stance variation will not be foreign to the lifter. Slavish adherence to openers expecting the judges to hand out birthday gifts is not the right approach. JMHO

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It looks to me like Ben Pollack should have bombed out, nothing against him but just for the sake of fairness.

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