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Thor did impossibly good considering he hasn't competed in a few years. I think he was just lacking a little muscular endurance because of that and just being a little beat up from the deadlift and stones the day before. I did notice he seemed to be going lower than everyone else on squats.
@@tomlucasrccrawlers9108 I think people underestimate how big of a difference depth makes. One Mitch looked like 6 inches from parallel not 2 and two 2-6 inches is like 10 to 2 reps being completed and its wild he thinks it would only drop him to 7
My big takeaway from looking at the results is that Trey Mitchell has done a fantastic job recovering from a huge injury. I’m very happy that it looks like he will come back to and surpass his peak form.
i don't know how long you've been following the sport so i'm gonna assume 10 to 20 years at least, and it's always sad for us viewers or fans how often promising talent gets wiped out by accidents. so many names i remember that could have been the next WSM but injury struck.
anyone recovering from Achilles injury is phenomenal, what's bonkers is that he has retained his place among the elite strongmen of the world, Excellent job Trey.
The squat is the ultimate controversial lift. Same issue in Powerlifting. Simple solution I've been saying for years: sensors on the hip and knee, hip sensor must go below knee sensor for the lift to be legal. Problem solved.
@@stoempert I'm a powerlifter, it's literally the one thing there tends to be beef about, especially when it comes to all time world records and how you can be in any fed to set one. Bench commands a bit here and there but squat depth is debated a lot.
Same here, I was honestly surprised Brian ignored that, even his wife made a snide remark about how he needed to go lower. I thought the testing was done to work these kinks out, but whatever, It's water under the bridge at this point. Mitch is still an unbelievable competitor and so is Thor. Barring this mishap and the wrong order to the axle (weight wise) in the overheard press medley, the show ran really well for its 4th year.
@@MicheldiedThe lowest he's squatted was at WSM where they had bars to parallel on the sides of the globe squat setup. I was wondering why his hamstrings were not even parallel. This was an awful execution of the event. I'm all for spectacle, but of course, brand-new barely tested machines don't work.
I'm way more impressed with Thor than Hooper. His first big competition since coming out of retirement, broke two records, and won five of eight events. Also this is all after recovering from a torn pec. If he stays healthy he is going to dominate now that he has a gauge of where he and his competitors are at.
This is actually Thor's third big competition since coming out of retirement. Thor came in 4th at the Arnold Strongman Classic 2024 (Mitch won) and months later came in 2nd at at the Arnold Pro Strongman in the UK in 2024..and Mitch won that one as well. Mitch also won the Rogue Invitional last year, the WSM last year and the Giants Live this year, setting several new world records along the way. and Thor has competed in Strongman events for 15 years since 2010...Mitch only since 2022...is still in his twenties and is getting stronger every year.
I was going to post that scoring in strongman should be more like f1, with 1st bringing in 25, second 18, etc, with bigger gaps between places. Even with this system Hooper would’ve won though
Aivars said that the testing was done at too light weight. When he started he knew right away his foot placement was wrong. Most people set up feet as if it was a barbell squat. Mitch setup for a smith machine. Lastly, everyone was too cautious going down. Mitch went down very quickly and hit the bottom hard, but not hard enough to trigger the sensor.
Do you think that finishing first in an event should award you more than 1 extra points than second? I feel that would make everyone strive harder to place 1st instead of play tactics
I think 1st place should give extra 0.5 points if you win the event by certain percentage. It would award complete domination of an event compared to winning just by 1 second. If you are so much stronger than competition in an event i feel like you should be awarded
My god, it is simple math. How silly people are to think something odd was happening. When Thor won the event Hooper was 2nd or 3rd. When Hooper won, Thor was 7th or 9th. Hooper was higher overall. Simple😊
@@charliewalker9443 Obviously I understand how the scoring system works, duh. I'm talking about them not rewarding 1st places enough. It's similar to the F1 old scoring system, where world champions pretty regularly had less wins than 2nd place competitors. Then they changed it. Maybe they will do it here as well, at one point. I think they should reward winning an event more than this, with a bigger gap in scoring compared to the 2nd place.
@@zoltanzukaly7231 🤣 All you are doing is rigging the points. The system is absolutely fine and has been used many times before and known about, this is why you have to be strategic in events. Give winners of events too many points and they don’t try in the events they are poor at because they have a buffer. Thor was not strong enough in the events he was not good enough in. When Thor lost events, he was 9th, 4th & 10th. When Hooper lost he was 2nd, 2nd, 3rd, 2nd, 3rd & 4th.
You can’t have a competition where there’s so many loopholes, you spend your time strategizing rather than actually training. I don’t think we need ridiculous apparatus to do squats. Just do goddamn squats.
@@Ont785they want gimmicks to attract more casual fans. That is why they used a gutted car for the leg press last year. Oh look hes pressing a car, when in reality it was a 1600 lb shell with windows wrapped to hide the inside.
It's a shame too because Thor is actually a 1000lbs squat king. I was not a fan of that apparatus at all, I think it changed a lot of the outcome. Also Thor won 5 out of 8 events alone... This just didn't feel right with the points and all.
He's been training a lot of powerlifting movements. I'm not surprised he looks good squatting a standard bar vs. a weird ass smith-machine-esque strongman doohickey
Get yourself a bar, set it in the rack for a bottoms up squat. Find your depth at parallel with a knees forward, back upright, high bar like setup. Now don’t move your feet. Shift your knees back and your but up. Presto. Hooper is always thinking.
Think most angry would be Brian and not at any competitors but him and his team took a lot of time to design and make the "APPARaTUs" and it ends with controversy.
he has failed 4 consecutive times in the last 4 years including this year on weird new mechanical contraptions, maybe going back to tried and tested is wiser, and what's even more appalling is that the video was CROPPED! WTAF! if you were gonna crop it why even bother with the damn contraption!
Brian has 100% good intentions I have no doubt but his new "contraptions" always seem to be finished just a few days ahead of competition. This means insufficient time to really test them in a multi athlete competition. He does seem to have enough ex strong men friends to do this. Last year it was the car leg lift which left people scratching their heads. Maybe be less experiments or much earlier testing of equipment and ground rules could be considered.
The contraptions keep things fresh. Bring new people in, too. Watching the same guys do the same lifts comp after comp, year after year get boring. And that’s the problem. Lack of continued interest and dropping viewership.
I find it even more infuriating, that Lucas Hattons second Deadlift was retroactively taken away. He got the down signal from the judge in the front of him. At that point, it doesn't matter if your lift was actually good or not. If the lift wasn't good, the judge shouldn't have given the down signal. Therefore the judge made a mistake. And as far as i followed the debate about strongman judging, I understand, that judge mistakes to the lifters advantage (undeserved lift given a down signal) will stand as will a judge mistake were a good lift was not given the down signal. You win some, you loose some. It feels like this hurt a core principle of strongman judging. You don't RETROACTIVELY take away good lifts, even undeserved ones. It feels so fn wrong.
@@HunterXVII Can't recall the lift right now, so I don't know if it was good or not. But I think there is a big difference to a lift given and than retroactively taken away (Hatton with the down signal), too a lift (even deserved) not given.
@@vekk134 he did but I saw a couple of guys given reps that looked way worse, on the upside he pressed it well, he's definitely looking well on his pressing!
One thing I can say in defense of the situation, is that the athletes have been acquainted with the equipment and the foot stance has been measured in advance for their height and size. What I see, is some people squatting straight down, and some hinging, almost like a lowbar squat, or an RDL. I'm more against not giving Evan that deadlift because I saw other competitors thumbs be as far from the bar as him.
Really? “The Biggest WTF Moment at Strongest Mam on Earth?” That’s your takeaway? How about Thor’s incredible performance? Mitchell being Mr. Consistent. The surprise third place finish. I knew right away this is not a channel to be taken seriously.
@@rickiovine2170Hooper’s consistency has been a thing we’ve known for the past three years now. I mean he’s had two back-to-back podiums on SMOE so his win is not surprising at all
I think squats or deadlifts for reps in general are a bit goofy. They went with a powerlifting approach to the “raw” deadlift (straps and a deadlift bar have never been truly raw in my eyes), I think you could literally just do the same thing with a max 1rm squat out of a monolift, hip crease to the knee and it would be a better event.
@@difficult_aardvarkjust cause you do a max squat as one event doesn’t mean it’s powerlifting. That’s like you saying baseball and cricket are the same cause they both hit a ball with a bat.
Mitch is a very hip back squatter. He was measured chest up and knees forward deeper in his squat. Under the heavier load, he went back to hips back and shins vertical. This set him higher while still having feet in same place
Like mitch's anatomy i too the same my hips and quads stretched slight above parallel if i try to go down my body collapses and caves in bar rolls up to neck and die 😂so i dont listen to others go as deep as i can whick slightly above parallem but not 90degrees
Glad I wasn't the only one that was really annoyed by the squat haha. Edit: 100% agree, Mitch did his job and won fair and square. Some errors on the promoters side, but the contest was still amazing, really glad it's on the strongman calendar. And, Thor with is pressing back would be a true monster. Thanks for the video!
At the end of the day the squat was incredibly boring to watch, there was no mention because it took so long for each athlete to come out one by one and get set up. And when it's a one horse race even less of a spectacle. There weren't even overlay graphics in the events showing weight and athletes names for casual fans.
I disagree, I think everything you said is why it’s the best one to watch. I don’t wanna watch a competition, I wanna watch an individual push themselves to the human limit.
If you set depth using a high bar squat with maximum forward knee travel and then do the event using a low bar squat with little forward knee travel, then the depth you hit during the event will be significantly higher. It was poorly planned to allow them to use different form during the event than they used setting up the machine. That's how Mitch got away with this.
Stop making stuff up. If you think Brian and the refs (including Ed Coan) don't take notice of whether someone is doing high bar or low bar, you're an idiot. Why don't you show proof of Mitch doing high bar during measurements?
@@HumanMechanism How the hell would you enforce people having the same form in setting the depth and in the actual comp? Hell, some squats I lean forward more and some I do less, and I don't even do it intentionally.
@@zekrinealfa1113 I mean, you're right and thats exactly the problem, you can't. I know for sure I don't have the exact same form during warm up set and working set, can't imagine between 400lbs and 800lbs. Hooper bottomed every squat on their machine, so ultimately he didn't cheat and Shaw and the judges determined the same thing, but that event is never coming back without modifications lol
@@scottkain8977 Cut hoopers squats in half, he still wins. Hooper won by points significantly. Thor also got very low in the events he didnt win. Mitch won, get over it.
Have them set their feet, measure where the tops or bottoms of their kneecaps are and yeah, put a bench or a band or whatever at that height where their ass will touch it. They cant set their feet wider and they must touch the bench or band
problem is it can add 10-20% if you lightly bounce off it with the hamstrings - then it's a box squat and not the same as having to change direction on your own
I have a better solution , just use a normal bar and a qualified judge and make the athletes go atleast 90 degrees . Its better than those weird contraptions
@@uoiuo Even 90 degree should not be acceptable. Under/ deeper than 90 degree. How under/ deeper than 90 doesn't matter, just to he deeper and that's it.
I don't understand why they simply didn't use what most powerlifting meets use. Which is hips at/below knees. Because yeah, if you have long bones you might hit 90 degrees of knee flexion that high.
Because new machine was gonna 'wow' and 'awe' spectators, it sure did that but not the way they intended for the 4th damn consecutive year!! Brian we love you but do better!
Hooper 2 inches lower ??? What? Nah man I think you've got 4-5 inches to go. Also look a prime Thor was like 2022 -2024 if he hadn't retired early and just worked through. What might be the best version of Thor may still be to come, but I think people forgot what a monster 2016-2018 Thor was and how even just matching that now would blow the feild out of the water.
Honestly, I disagree with a lot of your assessment, not because the assessment is wrong (though I heavily disagree with the "what are you testing" argument), but because I think the premise of the athletes finding tricky ways to game the event is wrong. I think it comes down to the fact that the squat implement was fixed and guys had to find ways to work around a fixed apparatus and the ones who did, did better. I don't think there was any intention of trying to game it, I think it was just "it feels better when I do it this way and it still fits within the rules". Adapting to implements is part of the sport. You can make your same argument that for different athletes it was testing something different for nearly every event in strongman that isn't the deadlift. A great example is the axle press. Mitch uses the split jerk and momentum to get the bar up and dip under it so his final press is less range of motion to lockout, Thor uses almost purely pressing power. What are you testing? Pressing power? Who can use momentum and dip under the bar the best? What about the guys with better shoulder mobility where the bar is lower than the ones where it sits higher...? It's not fair that because their shoulders a bit healthier that they have to press it a couple inches more... What are you testing on a grip event? Who has the bigger hands that can hook grip and who has the smaller hands and are screwed because they actually have to hold the bar and can't just hook grip it? What are you testing in stones? Who is taller and doesn't have the lift the stone as high, who has the best tacky, who's arms are longer and doesn't have to squeeze as hard? That's why I disagree with the "you're testing something different" argument. You can't guarantee you're testing the men exactly 100% the same AND that part of the test is your ability to adapt to implements. I can get behind the rest of what you're saying though.
Exactly. Every smart athlete is going to game every event as best as they can. It's like complaining that whoever has tacky that sticks better is gaming the system in atlas stones.
What we did test was Hooper's integrity. He failed miserably. He knew he was cheating the fans and his fellow competitors out of an honest squat competition. He was the only one who received that type of advantage and due to his arrogance, he even bragged about it after he was done, full well knowing he only did half squats. That tells you something about his personality. That's like Thor deadlifting 500 lbs and getting credit for 1000 lbs and gloating about it. He would never do that. The other competitors aren't like that either, only Mitchell the Sooper Snake would do that, as he has proven!
@@jaylongton Nah, don't think so. Let's go to Thor for example. And keep in mind, I'm not talking about the 2017 viking press controversy w/ Eddie Hall... but Thor's viking press in general. You're not allowed to double dip, so what does Thor (and a lot of other guys) typically do? He leans way back to get under for the lockout, then straightens up... that's essentially using your back to double dip rather than your knees. Same w/ Mitch and a lot of other log pressers who lean way back on the log to bench it up rather than press it w/ their shoulder up. Are they all cheaters w/ no integrity? What about Rob Kearney's method of resting the bar on his lap on the deadlift so he could essentially squat the bar up instead of hip hinging through the bar? Is he a cheater with no integrity? I can go on and on with all different events and different ways guys modify movements to make it easier, and I don't see you calling them all cheaters with no integrity... You're own analogy is wrong. You're using an analogy of cheating to call it the same thing... but a closer analogy is the way Thor puts the deadlift bar in his fingertips to get an inch or two less range of motion. Is he a cheater with no integrity for not fully gripping the bar?
@@MrSpwnthank you for talking so much sense. I think there are alot of upset thor fans. Even without the squat event, hooper would still have won the show.
Shaw Classic is already one of the best events. SMOE is legitimate. This type of judging/apparatus controversy is not uncommon to the sport. Brian will learn from these minor mistakes.
The real problem is the silly machines they use in an attempt to be more entertaining?. If you’re gonna squat then use a barbell and squat. Have 3 judges and make them judge. Just ridiculous.
nobody wants a barbell squat. its strongman, it need sto be a spectacle. Have you never watched worlds strongest man. putting boring as weights on a bar may as well go watch boring ass powerlifting. Strongmans about power and spectacle.
They have theese stupid event so that they will lift heavier weights. If they did real squats and deadlifts everyone would see that powerlifters are much stronger than strongmen.
I mean, I know Hooper won, overall he had the most consistant performance and he is the guy to beat these days… But Hafthor was clearly the actual strongest man there. I don’t know if his pec tear will prevent him from maxing out his press but if he closes that gap up forget it.
@@user-od9mj3cx2eits not cheating if the rules dont prevent it. its a skill issue on everyone else's part, and im not a superfan of him or anything. hes just the smartest guy there and just as strong as everyone else
Thor is the strongest puller there, but he is indeed not the actual strongest man there. If Julius Maddox showed up he would crush everyone there in bench, but one single type of strength is not what strongman is testing for. Thor definitely has potential to become the actual strongest man there, but he's not there quite yet.
You can’t say that Thor was the strongest one there. He put on a really really good show, but he had weaknesses. He was the strongest there in 5 events, but Mitchel was close in all of those 5 events. It’s true you pretend this is a 1v1 competition between Mitchel and Thor, then Thor would have won according to these performances. If you say it’s a best 5 out of 8, 1v1. But realistically if this was a best 5out of 8, then both of these men would have insanely different strategies.
I think Halfthor can peak his over the head pressing next year, and with that win a few next year perhaps end 2025 with a 505kg dead lift and retire 2026?
doesn't matter if Thor gets his pressing back, If we keep getting these contramptions Mitch will still win because he seems to be the dude who finds loopholes first
I just screamed at my computer when Mitch started squating. I'm a former elite powerlifter and what Mitch did was half squats at best. I have some ideas how he fooled them all but that's not the thing, he fooled them all that's the thing. Thor is the strongest squater but Mitch did 7 more reps at a weight Thor normally plays with.
100% I'm not sure how people keep supporting this d bag ! He's so dang cocky That what he said to thors coach made me sick! If thor had his shoulder strength it would be different
@@user-od9mj3cx2eHe competed within the rule set that was provided to all athletes. That is literally the opposite of cheating. You want to call it unfair or unsportsmanlike? Sure, you can make that argument. But if you’re going to call someone a cheater you need to be able to point to exactly which rule of the event was broken. Otherwise you just look foolish.
Relative placing has bitten Thor before. He would be the 2014 WSM if it weren't for Warrick Brant advancing to the finals as high performing 3rd place finisher in his heat (the only time I think they ever did that) and the getting between Big Z and Thor in the squat (Thor wasn't a great squatter yet).
Squats should not been in smith machines, smith machines are for comercial gyms. In Strongman things are different than powerlifting, but rhat doesn't mean the blueprint is no there already, like with the deadlift, just take an axel or a T-bar, wich looked absolutely fantastic in ghe Arnold's and let them go at it. This is not to detriment Mitch's effort and power, dude is really really good, but those squats where objecively bad. With the right setup he coul still win or finish anove Thor, so it wouldn't matyer much... But the fact Brian let it go just hurts his own comp, wich jad other issues, but all around was solid. Also, great video my dude.
fr, he didn't even mention in this video how different guys will have leverages that will impact their ability to squat in a way that has no bearing on how strong they actually are. this is true to an extent with nearly every event in strongman, but not nearly as much as with the squat
IMO it wouldn’t be hard to set the stops a set number of inches above the knee or a percentage of the competitors height such that even if you got into a good morning position it was still a real rep. The big issue here is just that 90 is too high and more importantly competitors are able to change where they are measured vs where how they actually lift.
I really appreciate the comment about triggering spectators - as a fan this show pissed me off with the over the top strictness which the commentators often couldnt understand which left the fans in the dark. Deadlifts like evan getting no repped was a huge wtf moment, however much the athletes were told in advance, it was a poor watch. Make simple rules like, oh we will only allow 6 inch straps so if you choose to have it in your finger tips, you best have damn good grip. Easier for athletes, easier for fans.
Such a Mitch thing to do. Now, I think Mitch is an incredible athlete and he’s obviously been shown to be extremely consistent, however, he doesn’t really strike me as a strongman in the sense as a Thor or Tom does. It’s too calculated, too optimised - it takes out the fun.
If the competition was only between Thor and Hooper, who would have won and had the most points? Clearly Thor would have dominated his azz! Instead, because of the number of competitors, a loser like Hooper becomes a winner? The point system is horribly flawed and this example exposes that. Thor has 5 wins with 2 world records while Hooper has 2 wins with one by way of cheating the squat and no world records. One on one, Thor blows him away! The number of competitors should never change that result.
@@jaylongton lol, what if the whole event were just about pressing then? Thor would end up with a score of zero i guess....hooper finish top 3 in about everything, thor didnt
Right! That's when I got started watching strongman. Always considered him a GOAT bc he was lean AF, plus 5x champion. Some say "his competition wasn't as stiff, an easy 5 wins, but his competition included the likes of Zydrunas, Brian, Phil Pfister, and Terry Holland
@@jaylongton Every single one of his major competitors sadly speak highly of his unique ability to be consistently good across the board and call him one of the best strongmen of this era, but thank god we have the greatest loser of all, mr jay fucking longton himself, to know better and call the sad and pathetic M Hooper out. Being a worthless piece of garbage himself, jay knows trash when he sees it, and should be trusted in this matter as an expert of some caliber.
Great video! I agree that the squat depth for Hooper was too high. That is not his problem, that was an issue with the equipment and rule set that the promoters need to figure out. All things being equal Thor might have won the squat, but Hooper still would have won the overall comp.
People acting like it’s even physically possible to have a “fair” sporting event, generally. You play and win by the rules of a sport. Literally no sport on earth is an objective measure of pure skill.
12:15 the better alternative is points shouldnt be based on whether you come first or last in an event, it should solely be based on how much you lifted. For eg, if you came first in deadlift you shouldnt get the max set points rather it should be like your deadlift was 450kg, therefore you get 450 divided by 100, equals 4.5 points. That way everyone is gramted points based on their strength rather than relative position of other atheles rankings.
To fix the squat they need an apparatus that connects to each persons legs and triggers at 90. So no matter how they do it they have to at least hit the same depth. Brian is trying to get rid of the tricks people have played to do better than they should’ve. With that will come learning curves from the other side. I went last year and had a blast. Even though it’s a bit long.
If they wanted to do something like this apparatus, the load mechanism had to be adjustable to allow athletes to squat deeper as well. The only thing that was adjustable is bar height, and foot placement. Two athletes with the same height can have the same bar height but entirely different levers (and technique) and one may squat way lower than the other. The load only being able to be lowered to a single position was the issue. But then, that would mean even more time resetting the machine between lifters.
This wouldnt fix it since athletes withblarger ankle mobility can go not as deep. They should check for hip to knee and ensure hip is at the same level of the knee. Similar to.how bench should check elbows vs shoulders
They should pick an angle for an "official squat" and cut a foam block for each competitor. Before the competition, measure the distance from the competitor to the floor while at the correct angle. That way the judge can just determine whether or not they touch the foam block.
It reminds me of a training video from Brian's channel where Nick and Eddie said "squats are always so hard to judge, because tempers get flared". I am not surprised this happened with this event, even the videos Brian put out the squats looked high. I tend to prefer deep squats. At the end of it all, it's up to the comp to set the rules and events correctly. Weird they were so worried about grips in the deadlift compared to squat depth.
People can talk all they want about Mitch winning the squats because he's a gamer and whatnot, but for all the talk from different people, including Brian, about how this show would really indicate who the strongest person is and bla bla bla, we certainly didn't get evidence of the strongest squatter winning...
I have always thought that there is a huge flaw in the point system strongman uses. Thor could win the deadlift by nearly 200lbs, but only gets one more point than second place? Same with Tom on stones etc. How about a points per pound system? You do 800, 900, 1000lb for your 3 deadlifts and are successful... You get 2,700 points. And so on for the other events. It's a real representation of the work your doing AND it encourages everyone's best lifts across the board. Thoughts?
@@theKashConnoisseur it would just shift the problem, now the most well rounded strongman across all events wins, with the points per pound rule, the strongest deadlifter would have a huge advantage
@@Gamog9 There's no perfect scoring system. In a points battle, you get rewarded for consistency more than singular epic performances. That's how Thor can win the majority of events and still not win the competition. Wouldn't it be nice if instead of scoring each event evenly, they scored each event according to how difficult it was, so that the overall strongest man would win the strongman competition? I don't see why that would be considered a "problem".
@@theKashConnoisseur i would argue the overall strongest man is also the most consistent, so he already wins with current system. i just don't see why you should be rewarded for singular events epic performance as you called it. Because the strongest in a singular event is not the strongest overall.
I think the point system is fantastic. Competitors should absolutely be penalized proportionally to how weak their weakest event is. If two guys are going head to head and guy A deadlifts half as much as guy B but edges him out by one pound on every other event, I don't think it's fair to say guy A is stronger than guy B just because he won more events. You can't just get completely blitzed on an entire event like that and still get called the strongest. Having 15 other competitors to put your weak events into context and fuck up your score appropriately is absolutely fair.
Its a smith machine. Doesnt matter if mitch was 2 inch lower he would have won still. Thors coach even said they did their foot placement as if it was a barbell and that was a mistake costing thor a big loss of power. This was more akin to a leg press than a true squat
Mitch even said before the event that "if you get your foot placement right it's easier than a conventional squat". The dude is strong as hell AND is the best at finding advantage in the rules. That's how the game is played. Look at the rogue " if the log is in your lap when the time elapses, you can finish the lift", what did he do, he got the log into his lap and sat and rested and then got the last rep. He's smart as hell and with his strength is why he keeps winning. More power to him
When I saw the squat apparatus build on Brian's channel I knew it was going to be weird. Trying to 'reinvent' a barrel squat was unnecessary. Brian's has like 4 vertical pipes like a double Smith machine. It definitely looked like it would be a pain to try to align yourself to rep on it. The WSM version is a simple lever and basket. Works perfectly. The result - as we see - controversy.
Thor looked way stronger entirely . That squat was a high way robbery plain and simple . Any novice can even say that wasn’t even close to Parallel at all
You need to talk about the dumbell situation aswell we’re Thor clearly locked out we’re Mitch didn’t this whole show was shit show. Watching this made me realise why strongman will never be taken seriously
Even Brian can use some advice. Brian, if you want to measure who really is the SMOE by not allowing suits, then you might aswell drop the $tup¡d machinery for squatting/pressing and maybe... MAYBE consider the Steinborn squat.
Competition was amazing. I was there, second row. Judging was fair and consistent. Rules were thoroughly explained before and I can tell you that Brian Shaw is a class act and was a very detailed and precise competitor and I am seeing him to be the same as a promoter.
Yeah he should have pulled the bar through the safeties so that he could reach some arbitrary deeper depth so that you wouldn't have to whine on youtube. It's a self respect thing.
Any of those squats from SMOE are still deep as hell compared to equipped powerlifting. Brian tried this apparatus and people clearly don't like it, it will change for next year I am sure.
Because it wasn't his job? The athletes have to lower the weight until it literally cannot be lowered anymore, and with control, and that gets a green light on the machine. Brian gave the commands. No matter who was in it, they literally could not lower the weight lower than they were all doing, because the load can only move a certain distance until it stops. If Hooper were to hit parallel, he would basically release the bar at the bottom to either push his knees forward more or bodyweight squat to parallel, then go back to the bar.
@@dyelbodybuild5601 but how would he have get any lower? He lower it till light turn green and got the lift signal, if that count, that not his problem
@@vekk134 If all you are going to do is wait for the machine to give you the green light then remove Ed Coan from the sideview position as if he is doing something
The competition is a dynamic event, things don't always go perfectly. Hooper is the current strongest man on earth, and not just because of this weekend. 💪
The squat is the same as the WR for axle overhead press , mitch did a split jerk , thats not common in strongmen but its not against the rules, so he has the WR, this is the same situation
@@xDeathBySpikesx very common for the WR axle overheas press being with a split jerk, sure on lighter weight classes but Im talking about Mitchel, so ir would be compares to his oponents
They should of just used a normal bar and a qualified judge and make every athelete hit 90 degrees or no rep is counted , i don't get why strongmen squat is always so gimicky with boxes and some weird contraptions in events .
Brian Shaw sent me a personal invite to compete at SMOE, but I declined the offer because my performance would have been so stellar that nobody else would have had a chance and I felt this would have been unfair.
I mean if you’re using essentially a smith machine it isn’t going to necessitate a natural movement pattern like squatting while trying to balance essentially. Was wondering when someone would take advantage of the way strongman generally sets up squats. I better not see anyone that complains about powerlifting parameters if they’re gonna defend Mitch tho. I’m on Mitch’s side with this personally. But defending this while complaining about other sports doing the same thing is hypocritical (addressing the comment section not Bromley)
This show is going to be great. It could be the number one strongman event in the years to come. It's so new, it'll take time to iron out the kinks. What amazes me about strongman is how a guy can win 62% of the events, but place second. The points system has always seemed a little wonky, but I'm not heartbroken over it. Mitch Hooper is a great champion, as well rounded as a strength athlete gets.
So if the competition was only between Thor and Hooper, who would have been your points leader? The simple answer is Thor. So due to the number of competitors and points, it turned a loser into a winner. That should NEVER happen! Thor is clearly the 2024 SMOE!
It looked like ego lifts... You could automate this with height or vision sensors, but realistically that is what the judges are for. Hopefully next year they can flesh this event out more.
Imagine working so hard for an event like this and someone decides to cheat. Stuff like this is why strongman will never be taken seriously. Just feel bad for the over competitors
They went with a powerlifting approach to the “raw” deadlift (are straps and a deadlift bar truly raw?). You could literally just do the same thing with a max 1rm squat out of a monolift with rules being hip crease level to the knee and it would be a better event. If you absolutely had to make it look cool, attach both ends of the bar to a two sided anchored cable pulley machine that cranes up your cool looking weights. Strongman shows wanting to be the heaviest to crown the strongest has this issue of wanting to implement gym lifts to do so. You want to keep the strongman aesthetic but shit like this will keep happening until it’s accepted that powerlifting (outside of sumo deadlifts and wide gripped scorpion setup benching) has the best barbell lift rule set.
Yeah dude this was awful. He was nowhere close to parallel, and doing speed reps, whereas everyone else was getting depth and doing it slow and controlled. Why is there *always* some kind of fuckery with Mitch? Then you see how Hatton/Evan weren't given clearly acceptable deadlifts.. smh
Cause he understands the rules of the events and figures out how he can use any rules and his abilities to his advantage. And the others don't, and then see it as unfair because they don't take the time to do the same or have the ability to do the same. And people hold that against mitch, stupid to me, sounds like poor losers and or people who dont understand.
@@mathewdennis4964That's all well and good but it's very distasteful, and undermines the legitimacy of the sport as being about finding the *strongest* guy. If we were watching a tennis match and someone figured out the rules allowed them to wear shiny stuff that hindered his opponents vision and did that and won, it'd be 'legal' or whatever, but *everyone* would agree that guy is a douche. Because the match didn't show us who the better tennis player is, it showed us one of them was clever enough to make how good he is more or less irrelevant.
Mitch has been lucky a few times now, but the notion that there is always some kind of fuckery with Mitch is nonsense, and other strongman athletes use loopholes and tactics constantly as well but it does not get the same attention as Mitch, likely due to his winning streak. He even push-pressed the axles to silence the haters and took that event, but no one has mentioned that.
@@Pepe-pq3om In the Republic Socrates tells his interlocutors that there is no point really making laws in kallipolis and even generally. Why? Because when *people* are good they don't do injustice to one another. When they're bad, too, laws don't work like you'd want because as soon as you get a law, you get a work around. Then maybe you patch that whole, but guess what? People find another way to cheat it. Think of tax loopholes and stuff. The Ideal Strongman Rulebook doesn't exist. But honest men do,
the better alternative for the point system is pretty easy actually, just have pointsheet for every event based on the performance. not based on the ranking
2018-2020 Thor was the well rounded Thor you are talking about. His dumbbell press was second(320lbs straight up) to only Mateusz and his log was 213kgs. Thor was Mitchel 2.0 before Mitchel came into strongman.
@QueenToKingOfSpades an 80% Thor using stricter form>>>>Half-squat Mitch. He even flatout stated in one of his videos at THAT Thor is basically untouchable.
@@Lee-ic2yn So, using a tried and true method being used by olympic athletes for ages is "cheating"? He's just being brilliant in trying to be the most efficient in the movements so he can lift bigger weights. The others just have to do the same. That's a stupid argument.
@@danielsimard6506 it takes much of the strength element out of the lift. Eddie Hall's completely strict barbarism of the axle press compared to Mitch's split jerk makes Mitch's look laughable. It's like comparing a 1000lbs deadlift from floor to lockout with perfect technique...to a Rob Kearney jerkoff the bar up your legs session.
Another issues is the points system. Someone said that more points should be given to winning an event, which also makes sense. However, when you do this you are also penalized more harshly for a poor performance as well. Out of curiosity, I applied the Formula 1 point system which is as follows: 1st 25 pts, 2nd 18, 3rd 15, 4th 12, 5th 10, 6th 8, 7th 6, 8th 4, 9th 2, 10th 1. In this scoring system Thor only gets 2 points for the overhead and 1 point for the dumbbells. Mitch ends up with 149 and Thor 140. It's ironic that Thor looses by the identical 9 points.
Point system is fine. Thor lost NINE points on the overhead medley, of which Mitch won, WITHOUT the split-jerk. Mitch was barely behind Thor in every one of Thor's wins. Mitch nearly won every event. Thats how Thor won his ASC against Mateusz. Mateusz has a relatively bad deadlift, and Thor is the king of deadlift, so that point gap could not be made up with the other events, because every win Mateusz had, Thor was 2nd or 3rd. Also, to say that the point system isn't important completely disregards everybody else that isn't realistically vying for the win or podium. Might as well have comps with 3 or 4 guys then. It's like saying "screw you" to everybody else that wasn't Mitch or Thor. I still stand by the regular systems, BUT gaming the machine was dirty and not even a part of the sport, as the leverage deadlifts like car/barrel deadlift couldn't be cheated on, just optimized by leaning back and pulling back instead of up. When I saw the spreadsheet of Mitch's 10 reps to Thor's 3, I was saying, "It's Kevin Faires in 2021 all over again, where he did 20 reps and the machine wasn't doing it's job and had too much slack."
