Looks like we're all in agreement of how crappy this is. I told him it was going to be a heavy set, might move really slow and grindy, and don't touch the bar unless it was visibly moving DOWN. We went over this three times. He's just an inexperienced spotter and panicked.
Ideally I wouldn't trust a first time spotter for a heavy PR set, but he was the only person available. I find I just can't stay as set and tight at really heavy weights without a hand-off. DJ, you never take a lift off on bench - how do you stay tight? Do you have a trick, or just prefer the loss of tightness to the (good) chance the person will fucker up the hand off or spot?
I've found that having someone give me a hand-off for sets across is a good way to teach them, when mistakes won't make much of a difference. If I'm doing 3 or 5 sets of 5, the first set should be a no brainer, so a less than perfect hand off doesn't fuck up the set. I've taught several of the trainers at this gym to hand off and spot correctly this way, but none were available at the time.
Thanks Hat, welcome.
Thanks Ramrod. Interesting name you've chosen, but glad you're here.