Kirk Kawowski squat

[Drewfasa]

Hi Mark,
have you ever seen this video? Are you familiar with this lifter? I've searched the net and found nothing, which seems very strange as this is probably the most impressive squat video I've ever seen. Is he freaky or what?

http://www.youtube.com/v/L0lF4lm3efA&hl=en

[Mark Rippetoe]

Yes, this is the way it should be done. We called him Captain Kirk. Damned impressive. The name is Karwaski.

[Robert Callahan]

that is a very impressive 1003 pound squat!! Certainly light years beyond my level. One thing in that video made me chuckle though, all those spotters, essepcially the guy behind him holding his hands on Kirk's sides. I mean if he fails at 1003 pounds what are you going to do from that position? pick him up?? even the guys on the sides, if the catch it perfectly at the same time they will be catching 501.5 pounds each, not exactly a light weight.... Why I think power racks are more usefull, but i guess thats just me

-Robert

[Polynomial]

that is a very impressive 1003 pound squat!! Certainly light years beyond my level. One thing in that video made me chuckle though, all those spotters, essepcially the guy behind him holding his hands on Kirk's sides. I mean if he fails at 1003 pounds what are you going to do from that position? pick him up?? even the guys on the sides, if the catch it perfectly at the same time they will be catching 501.5 pounds each, not exactly a light weight.... Why I think power racks are more usefull, but i guess thats just me

-Robert

I noticed (with not much experience) that people fail on squats in two ways. First, they kind of stall, yell out for help, and you push the bar up to help them up. The other way is them simply dumping the bar in some direction. I always thought that the idea behind the side spotters was to "catch" the bar long enough for the squatter to get himself below the safeties (if there are any!) before the weight breaks his back/other things.
But I'd love to be corrected as we had some poor spotting in the gym.

[Mark Rippetoe]

The spotters are there in meets and in training for different reasons. In a meet, the spotters get the bar back to the rack for the next attempt. If they can keep you from getting hurt, they will, but most wrecks in a meet happen so fast that the spotters can't prevent them, and they have to keep themselves from getting hurt in the process. If you get stuck, they get the bar back to the rack, and you along with it. Since you are the one that missed the attempt, it is polite to stay under the bar and help them as much as you can. If you drop it, they just get out of the way.

In training, spotters take enough weight off of the bar that you can finish a stuck rep, if they are talented (if they are not talented, the can get you hurt when they make the load uneven). They have your training interests at heart, whereas meet spotters work for the meet director.