1st annual USSC Highland Games

[Ian McCrae]

Entry form is up!

[Ian McCrae]

Awesome! Hope she has fun.

[Paul D Mouser]

Nothing like a wedding to ruin everything eh? Kidding of course. I'll post something on here about it. My wife is making her strongman debut at this one!

[Ian McCrae]

I was planning on it! My wife competes as well. Then her brother decided to go and get married in May and ruined everything. Haha. Let me know how it goes

[Paul D Mouser]

Yes sir, that's me. My state championships is the week before, but honestly more people are buzzing about the team event because it looks so fun. I think it will be a blast. Interested?

[Ian McCrae]

I know I've seen your name before. Are you running the team contest in WVa at the end of May?

[Paul D Mouser]

Best of luck with this event- I'm a NAS guy but I like the spirit of what you're doing here. There are lots of others that share these feelings too. I introduced a Pole Push to my September show last year, which goes right along with what we're talking about, and people loved it. Some of the common strongman events we see now are a little too "pretty" or "friendly" in my opinion. A perfectly balanced, polished, and shiny steel "log" will never hold a candle to the stuff Capes, Kaz, and JPS were lifting in 87'!

Keep us posted on how it goes.

[Ian McCrae]

We're definitely on the same page there! I love watching the 1987 Pure Strength show with Capes, Kaz and Sigmarsson. That's almost what I was envisioning when I wrote the events up

[Paul D Mouser]

Wood and stone are more fun to watch! When I started using real logs in my meets people watching reacted differently; they got excited and more invested. Steel "logs" just don't have the same effect. There's a barbaric and dangerous feel to watching someone lift a tree trunk versus a man-made pipe with handles in it. As for stone, the same applies. Watch some old WSM footage of guys carrying the real Husafell stone versus shield carries from IFSA. Which one looks harder? Which one looks like it requires more brute strength? Which one keeps your attention more? The real deal stone does of course!

[Ian McCrae]

You're definitely right Paul. We wanted to do something a little different. The throwing implements are all the same, just in a medley. And the caber is there. But really, log and stones stem from old Highland events, so we wanted to have them in there too. Going for the rustic feel. All wood and stone. We think it'll be fun to watch too.

[Paul D Mouser]

I love the events, not sure I'd call it a "Highland Games" though as it appears much more like a strongman contest with awesome events.

[Ian McCrae]

Mark your calenders for September 6! The recently formed United States Strength Coalition will be having it's inaugural Highland Games festival and everyone is welcome to compete. No cap on the number of athletes. This will be in front of an arena full of people, so the energy will be high. The USSC promotes Strongman and powerlifting as well, so we've put our own little spin on the Highland Games. Guaranteed to be a good time for both competitor and spectator. Steve Pulcinella of Ironsport gym will be the announcer. As of now, the tentative events are as follows:

1)Throwing medley
2)Log clean and press for reps
3)Loading medley
4)Caber toss for distance
5)Stones

Entry form will be posted May 1st on the USSC website usstrengthco.com