Six records set in AAU powerlifting competition
May 19th, 2010
Originally found at www2.timesdispatch.com
Written By, Eric Kolenich
Four Lee-Davis High School football players set AAU powerlifting American records last Saturday at the third annual Push/Pull Challenge at their school. All four set their records in the dead lift. Two more Confederates dead lifted more than 500 pounds but didn’t break records.
Two players from Chesapeake’s Indian River High School set American records in the bench press.
Lee-Davis junior Calvin Davis dead lifted the most — 573.2 pounds, an American record in the 220-pound weight class and 16-17 age group. Davis was an all-state and all-Metro wrestler in the 215-pound weight class this year.
“If you were to go to high schools across the country, for a team to have six kids pull in over 500 and four to pull American record holders, you just don’t see that,” said Mike Craven, owner of Mike’s Olympic Gym in Mechanicsville and the strength and conditioning coach for the Lee-Davis football team.
The dead lift starts with a barbell on the floor. The lifter bends his knees, reaches down and grabs the bar. He stands up straight lifting the bar to his thighs without bending his arms. He has to lift the bar only once. This tests what is called “absolute strength.”
Craven said Lee-Davis players train intensely on the dead lift because it mimics the stance of a block in football.
Lee-Davis football coach Jason Meade started the Push/Pull Challenge in 2008 as a way for football players to condition competitively during the spring.
“It really gives them a midpoint between the previous season and the next season,” Meade said. “It gives them something to work for though the spring.”
Meade, who is leaving Lee-Davis to coach in Marietta, Ga., next year, is happy for the individual development of his players; they set more records this year than ever before. But he would like to see more teams compete in the future. Four teams competed last year and only two this year.
“At the heart of it, this was built around a team competition,” Meade said.
