Inaugural Rippetoe Invitational Meet Recap

**Joe Leppo** · 11-04-2012, 11:36 AM

The inaugural Rippetoe Invitational Meet was simply awesome. As with every other Starting Strength event I’ve attended (including the Atlanta 2012 SSS and the recent SSCAC), the Meet was well organized and supported. Every lifter I spoke with during and after the Meet was very enthusiastic; pretty sure everyone enjoyed themselves as much as I did.

We started off the day with weigh-ins at 0800 and a rules clinic was held at 0945. Following the Rules Q&A, in order to give a few lifters slightly more warm-up time, the Meet lifting started at 1020. Contested lifts were the Squat, Press, and Deadlift, with a 10 minute break between each lift. Squats & Deadlifts were contested in pounds, with the Press using Kilos (due to bumper plate use). Competition finished at approximately 1400, with a short awards ceremony/presentation concluding around 1430.

Event t-shirts were great, with a “twenty seconds” reference included on the back of the shirt. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, watch the video of Kirk Karwoski on Competition. As I’ve mentioned in other forum posts: simply incredible presentation by Kirk – lot of good stuff in that hour, well worth your time.

Also, the Meet Certificates (for all competitors) were designed so that you can place them in a 8x12 frame with space allotted for the event card, showing all of your attempts and final total from the Meet. They even included a USPS priority mailer so that your certificate and Meet card don't get lost or mangled during travel back home. I thought this was a nice touch of class and very cool--I know I'll be framing mine eventually.

The state of California was well represented with 5 lifters traveling to Wichita Falls, as well as the Starting Strength Coaches Association with at 7 x SS Coaches lifting, and 5 active duty military members also lifting in the Meet. We had 2 Navy, 1 Marine, and 2 Air Force Service members lifting and also placing in their respective weight classes. Obviously, we need to get some Army and Coast Guard personnel to attend the next Meet--Slackers. (Please correct me if I made a mistake on the number of attendees.)

This was my first Meet, and I was a little nervous. However, all of the lifters and spectators were extremely supportive toward all the competitors. It didn’t matter if your Squat attempt was 170 lbs. or 570 lbs. There was also a lot of friendly banter; a couple of times on my way to the platform I had to stop for a second and regain my composure and concentration, after someone said something funny enough that I was laughing out loud.

I was way too conservative on my planned attempts. Some good natured ribbing from Rip and Stef helped me lift a lot more weight than I though I was capable of. I set new PRs in all my lifts, and I know that a lot of other lifters set multiple PRs as well. By the time the Deadlift rolled around, Rip was picking my second & third attempts for me—at one point he told me to go sit down, he already had my next weight written on the card. (Thanks again, Coach.) Rip, Stef, and the other SSCs in attendance provided a lot of great technical advice and coaching to all lifters.

Humorous side note: I have pretty thick skin and have no trouble handling good natured ball busting from other guys (i.e. Rip calling me a sandbagger), but once Stef told me to “quit being a pussy,” I simply had to lift more weight. No other option, period.

Those of you that couldn’t attend due to work, family, etc. – you were missed. For all of those who clamored for the Meet and then didn’t register or attend—your loss; you missed an epic event. Show up next time—assuming we can convince Rip to do this again.

Thanks again to Rip, Stef, Bryan, our spotters, and volunteers for pulling off a memorable and truly fun event.

**sking1001** · 11-04-2012, 12:50 PM

Good write-up Joe...thanks! Congrats on your PR's and to all who participated.

Rip, I showed this picture to my youngest son, and he said, "That's a SWEET sword!"

**hanch** · 11-04-2012, 08:01 PM

Joe, Tom or anyone else who took a bunch of pictures: can you post those somewhere for those of us who didn't think ahead and bring a camera?

**Michael Park** · 11-04-2012, 08:15 PM

Joe,

It was good to see you again. I didn't realize you also PR'ed your press and deadlift. Nice work! I'll join you in registering in advance for next year's event if it comes to be. I was also impressed with how well the staff from WFAC ran the event. I had a great time competing and an even better time getting to know the other lifters. Hopefully, I'll see some of you again.

**Red Finn** · 11-04-2012, 08:31 PM

I must say, it looks like the group is about to offer Rip as a sacrifice to the gods, and then enjoy the feast.

**Dr. Manhattan** · 11-05-2012, 06:50 AM

Thanks for posting the full recap, Joe. It was a pleasure to meet you and everyone else! Congrats to all on your lifts and hopefully Rip will be compelled to do it again... I had only a short drive, so I commend all of you who drove hundreds of miles and flew!

Like you, I was a nervous wreck and failed to meet everyone properly. All lifts were PRs for me; I've never attempted a 1 rep PR.

All in all, it was a great event with Good People.

Greg J

**Matt Reynolds** · 11-05-2012, 01:19 PM

Lifting at the Rippetoe Invitational:

Had to cut about 12lbs the day before the meet. Everything went as planned. Weighed in in my underwear at 274 at 8:15am. At 9am, I after rehydrating (45min later) I weighed 287. Thank you pedialyte, gatorade, broth, ramen noodles, and waxy maize.

Found out during the rules meeting that it was a progressive weight system, so that the weight on the bar never went down. This was problematic, (but fine, no excuses) - but meant that since all my openers were higher than the biggest weights lifted by anyone else on their 3rd attempts, that I would be following myself all day. Because of this I pushed all my openers up a few pounds, planned on passing on my second attempt (only 2 min between attempts) and then go for broke on third attempts with only 4 min between first and last attempts. It certainly made the competition harder, but it added a fun additional piece of strategy...

Squat: 525x1 - easy, but tripped on the way out of the rack. Everything still went fine.

575x1 - PR with no wraps. I think most of you know how awful my hip osteo arthritis is, but if you didn't you'll see my heels are about 12" apart on my squat (and I'm forced to high bar) because its the only way i can hit parallel. Was happy with this weight and had to grind a little in the middle.

Press: 275 opener x 1 - actually was a crappy rep, lost balance a bit and strained my back right before lockout. You can see my knees buckle a little bit before lockout as I lost my balance. I was lucky I got 2 white lights for a good lift on this one. Because I strained my back a bit on this one and because I really wanted a deadlift PR, I decided to pass on my 2nd and 3rd press attempts.

Deadlift: 705 opener - easy

Passed on 2nd attempt to get 4 min between attempts...

725 - HARD - grinded to the top and locked the weight out, but then before I could put it down I lost my grip and dropped it. - MISS. UGH!

Still the 705 raw is a raw meet PR and I fully locked out the 725, so I'm happy with that - just wish I could have hung on. I'm used to a smaller diameter deadlift bar, but no excuses.

Ended up totaling 1555 raw, which I'm fairly happy with and won best lifter and big awesome sword from Rip. The meet was very well run and smooth and it was a blast seeing everyone lift and getting to hang with Rip and Stef on Saturday night. Tom has some amazing pics, but for now heres the video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAM93...ature=youtu.be