Just finished my second ever Tactical Strength Challenge this past Sunday.
Competition is fun!
It is quite different between training in the gym, and then being forced to be at your best on a specific date and time.
Luckily this time I didn’t have to drive to Sacramento to compete as Crossfit West in Santa Cruz was holding it at their facility this year.
Before we get into what happened, let’s talk about my goals for the event. I was looking to improve over what I did the previous year when I competed. I was also looking to place in the Top 3 internationally. Unfortunately I won’t know those results for some time as it takes awhile to compile on the results from many different gyms.
Lastly I wanted to beat everybody at the gym in all three events. Sorry, I have a thing about showing up at a Crossfit, and beating people at what they do, of course in a friendly way. (Most of the competitors there trained at that Crossfit.)It was just an added component of competing for me.
If you are unaware of the TSC it is a 3 event competition.
The first event is a maximum deadlift. You get three attempts, at its basically powerlifting rules.
The second event is dead hang pullups for reps.
The third event is a 5 minute kettlebell snatch test with multiple hand switches for reps.
There are different classes for men, women, novices, masters and elite. I competed in the open class as that’s where most of the competition is. This meant for me the pullups were with bodyweight and the snatch was with a 24kg bell.
The video below shows you my results.
Deadlift
I opened with an easy 425 lb. deadlift. I moved up to 455 and hit that as well. As was deciding between a 475 and 485 deadlift for my last attempt. The latter felt right so I went with that and pulled it fairly easily.
This is a competition PR and also one for recency. I’ve hit 505 in training before and am in the process of working back up to that point and beyond it, as after I accomplished it I stopped dead lifting for sometime.
I followed much the same training as before. And the heaviest I’ve lifted in training so far this time around was 425 lbs.
For the deadlifts I also used anchoring and the “summoning saxon” technique, two great mental training tactics that definitely helped out.
Pullups
Then came the pullups. In my training I’ve been working towards one arm chins. I really hadn’t been doing much high rep work at all.
I tried but did not beat my previous record of 21. I only tied it.
Next time I’ll train a little more specifically on bodyweight pullups for reps.
Kettlebell Snatches
Last came the event that I knew I would do the best in as it’s something of my specialty.
(You can check out Kettlebell Snatch Domination for how I train it. There’s also a bonus called How to Kick-Ass at the TSC which will help you out on the other exercises that comes with it.)
I used a competition bell that Buck had brought. He came all the way from Chico to compete. I’m still not sure that was the best call as I had been training with the thicker handled dragondoor kettlebells.
In the end since I had not taken care of my callouses like I should have before-hand I ended up with a couple blood blisters.
I could feel them start to come on. You’ll see in the video I start doing more hand switches at the end. But this was competition and I had to finish strong.
It slowed me a little but my goal was to break 150 which I did with 154 reps. That beats what I did last year with 146 reps.
The Results
Overall I’m very happy with my results. We will all have to wait and see what the final results come to be.
I didn’t beat everybody in every event. I was far ahead in the pullups and the snatches. But one guy there beat me deadlifting. He also had the advantage of weighing 50 more pounds then me.
Did anyone else compete? I’d love to hear your experience below.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Comments
Thanks, Logan! You “walk the walk”!
Hi Logan, great results in DL!!! Were competition rules allowing unlocked elbow in the snatch?
hey bro.
i follow your progress and all, and it’s impressive in most any light, but these “snatches” look more like swings. the girl next to you looks to be doing actual snatches.
surprising, in that you usually come across with good video demos and information.
i’m just saying.
jv
Jon… listen up dude, you DON’T make any f-cking sense whatsoever… those ARE Snatches, the gril next to Logan is doing other types of Snatches i.e. More HARDSTYLE (RKC) Type Snatches, thus exploding more outta the bottom position into the lockout position…
BUt if you put in retrospective, the way the girls doing it is actually LESS effective for a ALL out snatch test, wether that’s for 5 minutes or 10 minutes… because the way it’s done for super high reps or longer period of time, or BOTH, is with the More relaxed “GS” Style! In other words, like the ELITE Kettlebell Lifters in RUssia do it! That is, As much as relaxed as possible, using the BARE MINIMUM Of Tension possible, thus saving MORE ENergy in the longrun for MORE reps per minute & Greater Force & Power output over the 5-10 or MORE minutes of time during the test! You understand what I’m saying over here dude?
Logan did NOT do swings, neither did he do high pulls… I can Promise you this & I ALSO speak from personal experience that what Logan does, is in fact SNATCHES! All of them, yeah man, it’s TRUE that they’re NOT locked out snatches like you see in Competition (although even in Competition there’s somewhat of a “Unlocked Lockout”)… but nontheless they ARE Snatches, the Kettlebell goes OVER the head on every rep, if you watch closely & pay a lot of attention to the Snatches being performed over the 5 minutes period, you can most definitely see that I’m right with this shit!
So to come the my own conclusion, there is NO definitive “Perfect Technique” or 1 way to do Snatches or 1 Snatch technique to rule them all… no f-cking way my friend! EVERY ELITE Kettlebell lifter out there will tell you that there ISN’T one specific Snatch Technique that is suitable for everyone, or that if you DON’T do it “that” way or “this” way that you’re not doing Snatches…
For example, let’s take the GREATEST Kettlebell Lifter out there nowadays! He’s been called the Michael Jordan of Kettlebell Lifting! I’m obviously talking about Ivan Denisov over here, He himself said that there ISN’T such a thing is the Perfect Technique in ANY Kettlebell Balisitic/Competition lift… And believe me, when HE says something like that, then it’s completely TRUE & LEGIT! Hands down! Period
I hope this has answered your question in the shortest way possible, if NOT, then See what Logan has to say about it in his response… have at it!
All I can say is the judges counted them at this competition so you can take it up with them.
I think I’m going to retire from ever snatching the 24kg bell for speed again. That means I’ll compete in the Elite class next time. I’m tired of this…
From https://www.tacticalstrengthchallenge.com/rules.html:
“A snatch is defined as swinging a single kettlebell between the legs with one arm, bringing the kettlebell overhead in a single motion, and locking it out overhead with a straight arm.”
According to the rules, the judge was in error if any rep without a straight arm lockout was counted. Anything less than straight arm is a partial, not a full rep.
The same way you should be red-lighted in a powerlifiting meet if you do not go below parallel in the squat or touch the bar to your chest in the bench.
I hear ya Logan… I still get shit about my Snatch form & how “they’re NOT snatches because you didn’t lockout any rep” crap & BULLSHIT to this very day… I will also do MORE GS Style Snatches in the future, just to show these morons & haters that I can do way MORE then ONLY Snatching the 24KG Kettlebell for Speed… just like you said, I’m beginning to get tired of this shit as well