I’m finally getting around to writing this, a few weeks after the fact. But, the Portland Highland Games 2010 was a success and a ton of fun. Three of our crew competed: Myself, Chris, and Roy. Chris and I were in the C class (Remember, a C gets a degree) and Roy was in the Novice class.
We spent a fair amount of time practicing the weight for distance and the open stone prior to going in this year. Roy built a make-shift weight for distance out of pipes and plates. And it served us well. Though we did break one of them! And he had to make a second one.
While I know my own spin technique leaves much to be desired, I did get quite a lot of complements from the more experienced competitors. So, it turns out that practice does help … who knew?
We’re all quite new at this sport. We assumed (wrongly) when we first started that our Olympic lifting would carry over far. Wrong. While we are often among the strongest guys at our level, our technique is so far behind that we can’t utilize our strength and power correctly. We get killed by guys far less athletic than us.
This is actually good news. Just like the Olympic lifts, once we learn the technique and get better and better at that, our power will transfer and the weights will start going a lot farther.
Here are some vids. (The pic above is me with the 56 pound weight for distance. Let me tell you now, 56 pounds spins you more than you spin it – see my wipe-out below.)
28 Pound Weight for Distance
56 Pound Weight for Distance
Hard, this is very hard!
Open Stone
Caber … Well, Not so much!
And here are a few pics of Roy (sadly, I ain’t got no vids):
