Tournament Afterword.....

So all and all the tournament went great! We didnt have as many athletes as I was hoping for but it was probably for the best, we learned alot about what to do and not to do for our future decathlons.
Here are my thoughts for next time:
1 - Lighten up the weights for SOME of the events, the swing/farmers walk combo was abit heavy to expect high scores in the short time limit and quite a doozy on grip/forearm strength for the rest of the day.

2 - Not so many SNATCH events next time. 3 of 10 events with different loads & reps was alot on the palm skin, and for one competitor, it decided the outcome of the tournament. I think having one major snatch event would suffice in testing an athletes skill level.

3 - More lower body events. I dont think we tested leg strength/endurance enough, only one event had heavy full range squats. I understand that swings,snatches,deadlifts,getups & figure 8/uppercuts do place loads on the legs but nothing quite like full range squats or lunges!

4 - Have an earlier cutoff date for registration. One thing I never thought about until it was way too late was that I never put a deadline for signups. Having a deadline of 2-3 weeks prior to the actual event day would help with the schedule of events for the day and how the day will flow.Still allowing for possible "day-of" registration but making it unfavorable.

5 - Adding in some bodyweight only movements. Even though it is a "kettlebell" event, I think that bodyweight movements would help to level the playing fields abit for a wider range of athletes & ability levels. Pullups,bar/ring dips,HSPU's,box jumps,burpee's,pistols,pushups & even maybe some sprinting or hill runs just maybe in our events future!

6 - Having weight class's. I do believe bodyweight of an athlete can give one a HUGE advantage or disadvantage in competition, could you imagine Brock Lesnar fighting BJ Penn! I think for the next tournament we will have 2 weight class's; HEAVYWEIGHT(men 180+,women 150+) &
LIGHTWEIGHT (men 179-,women 149-) We will see how well this works or not and go from there for the future.

7 - Using TONAGE TOTAL for more of the events. Seeing as how our 90 SECOND MAX WEIGHT/REP SINGLE KB PRESS EVENT was the deciding factor for 1st & 2nd place, a difference of 980 pounds, I think we will use this unit of measure more. I've always been a greater fan of strongman competition than powerlifting or olympic weightlifting, seeing an athlete lift the heaviest weight they can and as many times as they can & maybe even for a time limit or best time is just impressive on any level.

8 - Having plenty of the required kettlebell weights. Seeing as how we didnt have any pre-registration I wasnt gonna go out and buy a bunch of kettlebells for the CHANCE of needing them. Along with a registration deadline, that will allow me to plan on having enough kettlebells to run mulitple athletes for one event. Even with the 3 athletes we had, we didnt have enough heavy kettlebells which slowed us down at one point quite abit.

9 - Different scoring for TABATA protocols. I loved the tabata event, we might even add 1 or 2 more for the next tournament, but with scoring the highest,lowest rep round all the athlete had to do was maintain for the time limit. I think next time we will do max reps for the tabata intervals and have some different time lengths & intervals. This will also change things abit & add huge degree's of difficulty to the whole event.

10 - Adding a more challenging respiratory cardio event. I think most of the events challenged athletes cardio level to some degree but no single event maxed out the respiratory cardio and I believe it to be a huge factor in ones overall fitness ability.

For now, those are the major changes to happen for next year. Speaking of next year we have already set the date for our next tournament: MARCH 27TH, 2011. We are gonna keep this event going on a 5 to 7 month rotation, I hate that some events like this,strongman or powerlfiting or crossfit competitions, are only once a year yet you can find some sort of short or long distance run every weekend through the year. This way everyone has plenty of time to rest & train between tournaments!

Until next March, SWING IT HARD & SNATCH IT FAST!