Ring HSPUs in the Games

[Mike Paul]

Is it me or did Rob Orlando really blow this. It seemed that the rules indicated you could start at the bottom, head on the floor, push up into extension, then let the feet come down and repeat, essentially only doing the concentric portion. Rob started every one trying to start in the up position, lower and then raise. The energy he wasted was enormous. Rob's an amazing athlete but he didn't use his head on this one.

[Mike Paul]

Originally Posted by Mike Paul

Is it me or did Rob Orlando really blow this. It seemed that the rules indicated you could start at the bottom, head on the floor, push up into extension, then let the feet come down and repeat, essentially only doing the concentric portion. Rob started every one trying to start in the up position, lower and then raise. The energy he wasted was enormous. Rob's an amazing athlete but he didn't use his head on this one.

whoops, just seen that the analyst panel mentioned similar. Sorry just watching videos now.

[Eric Montgomery]

It's possible he thought he was getting a stretch-reflex by doing that, for the same reasons that you can bench more if you don't have to do a PL competition style pause at the bottom of a bench press, or the fact that you can press more if you start at an overhead lockout rather than a rack position. But ring HSPUs don't lend themselves to stretch-reflex very much so I'd guess that's why most others did them starting at the bottom.

[Christopher G. Woods]

Another possibility is that he's just accustomed to getting into the inverted position with arms extended. If that's how you train, it would be awkward to try using a different technique in competition.

[Mike Paul]

Originally Posted by Christopher G. Woods

Another possibility is that he's just accustomed to getting into the inverted position with arms extended. If that's how you train, it would be awkward to try using a different technique in competition.

Granted - but he obviously got to the point where he blew, and struggled to get any further, and he didn't take the opportunity to see what others were doing or to re-evaluate what he was doing. There was another competitor who just fell on his head the first few times, but eventually got it together from watching others.

I thought Rob's tactics in the Move the sandbags from here to there were suspect as well. No one who tried throwing the bags down the steps got to loading the wheelbarrows quickly.

It shows that where there's leeway in how to do something, it's not just the 10 components of fitness that count but how you use them.

Great watching the whole thing though. And easy for me to say watching from my comfortable armchair!

[Mike Paul]

Originally Posted by Eric Montgomery

It's possible he thought he was getting a stretch-reflex by doing that, for the same reasons that you can bench more if you don't have to do a PL competition style pause at the bottom of a bench press, or the fact that you can press more if you start at an overhead lockout rather than a rack position. But ring HSPUs don't lend themselves to stretch-reflex very much so I'd guess that's why most others did them starting at the bottom.

I'd have been surprised if he thought that, especially with the fact that a natural bottom point would probably have meant the head going into a hole in the ground. Relying on a stretch reflex when your head has to touch the ground sounds very suspect. I think Chris's explanation is more likely along with the fact that they only got instructions on the exercise verbally just before the task. It would be easy to miss the difference between starting in the up or down position and how that affects the amount of work done and the difficulty of the manouever at the stage of the competition. It was just painfully obvious to anyone observing how much Rob was using up just to get into his start position compared to say Mo Kelsey.