Quick Note from Matt Hand of Strong and Far

Hello my beautiful Yellow Roses of Texas, 

I would love to welcome you outstanding highland athletes to the Strong and Far Nation. My friend Dom Gonzalez and I both being retired NCAA athletes, and current strength athletes wanted to create a place where all the strength sports could live together and grow the world of strength athletics. Bringing together Powerlifting, Bodybuilding, Strongman, Olympic Lifting, and in your case (and mine) the Highland Games.

We have had a really good start to our endeavor with help from some of the most premier athletes in their sports. One of which you know really well in Duncan McCallum. And also we have had interest from world renown powerlifters and olympic lifters as well as a guest spot from the World Champ himself Matt Vincent. 

So what does this for you, StrongandFar.com is a place where you, as athletes, can ask questions, answer questions, watch training videos, and pick up new and great ideas for you to get better as a Highland Gamer. As well as being able to promote yourself on a national and international level to get to new games and meet and/or recruit new athletes. We encourage interaction and the sharing of ideas so that the sports grow and you The Strong and Far nation grows as well

So, If getting better at the Highland Games or any strength sport is your goal, Then StrongandFar.com is the place for you!

Please take time to browse our website StrongandFar.com

Like us on facebook, facebook.com/strongandfar

and follow us on twitter and instagram @strongandfar

Thank You So Much For Reading,

StrongandFar.com Co-Founder

Matt Hand

Props to Brandy Richmond (rugby puns make me giggle)

13 October, 2012. 

The day began as many others before, with the alarm blaring DaRude's "Sandstorm" at 4:30am.  I leapt out of bed, hopped in the shower, and waited for my friend Sara "The Greek" to arrive.  Today was actually NOT like many other days; today was the day of my very first Highland Games competition.  To say my nerves were a wreck would be an understatement.  Sara and I made our way to Ft. Worth, unsure of what to expect... unsure if we had gotten ourselves involved with competition too early in our training (after all, we had only attended four practices).  Once we arrived, time seemed to pass in hyper speed – people welcoming us left and right – people telling us to go here and there for photos with sponsor advertisements – people overloading us with helpful information.  It was a whirlwind, but a fun one at that.

As I stepped into the trig for my first braemer stone throw, I glanced quickly at Britt (my awesome coach) and Sara for confirmation that, well, I wasn't going to make an absolute fool of myself.  Then, I felt this rush and made my first throw... it barely flew...I think the distance was 18 feet.  Disappointed in myself, I walked back to the girls to continue watching the others throw and observe their throwing forms.  I was welcomed with several people high fiving me and telling me each throw on this first day was a PR... this is how I tried to think of my first Games.  I still had moments where I was down on myself because I do not like to be the worst at events, but I had a BLAST and learned so much!  I tried out varying techniques from different girls to see what worked best for me and sought to improve each throw.

My favorite event of the day was definitely the hammer throw.  As of this point, I am only able to spin once; however, I think I will be able to throw it very far by working on my fitness and technique more.  Caber... oh, the dreaded caber... this beast of an event was held after lunch.  I looked at the qualification caber... stared at it long and hard... and internally hoped I would pass the qualification round.  I did not.  As upset as I was, everything turned out fine and I was able to watch the experienced ladies and fully cheer them on!  Let me just say, the wind was brutal, the sky was grey, it was raining, and I am amazed at every single lady who was able to flip the caber.

NOTE:  Our original caber broke (it was around 15 feet high and 65 pounds) so the qualifiers opted to throw the next highest caber (around 17 feet high and 80 pounds).

The day, as a whole, is classified as WINNING in my book.  I met a lot of fabulous people.  I discovered Highland Games to be a sport I'd like to continue with for as long as possible; everyone is truly like a member of the family.  It motivates me.  I want to better myself in order to be better with competitions.  I played basketball (6 years), soccer (9 years), participated in swim team, and have a red belt in taekwondo... I most recently played rugby for a few years.  The last time I felt such a drive to do well was playing rugby in 2010.  Although I am extremely overweight now, my inner athlete that I have buried for 10 years is struggling to get out.  I was nominated for a month's worth of training through James Bullock and I am anxious to start his program.  Keep watch for me... the Games season is trickling off but come February my scores will be much improved.  It is my goal to become one of the leading ladies in Highland Games.

 

You can find Brandy's scores here:

http://www.nasgaweb.com/dbase/resultsathlete3.asp?type=nasga&athletename=Richmond,Brandy&athleteyear=2012

Another damn Irvin kid! (by way of marriage) - Erin Ireland

  I am a plain Jane country gal from a small town in Arkansas.  I am a mommy of the two most adorable boys ever (what parent does not say that).  I tend to be quiet and reserved around people I do not know very well, but do not let my outer shell fool you.  I am a quirky, dorky, free spirited nerd.  It does not take much to get me excited and the little things mean more to me.   I love knowledge and my little family.

             I have always been physically active since I was a wee child.  I grew up on a dairy farm and participated in sports.  I ran track and played basketball all the way to college.  I then became a rescue swimmer in the Navy.  I currently volunteer with the National Park Service along with outdoorsy activities.

            I watched my first highland game in Stillwater, OK.  I instantly had to try this fascinating sport.  When I stopped being pregnant all of the time, I competed in my first game at the Iron Thistle this April.  Since then, I competed in Joplin and in the Celtober games.  Just after a handful of experiences, I have fallen in love with the games and the magnificent people it comes with.  I have a lot of hard work ahead of me.  My goal is to make the highland games part of my life.  Also, to defeat my most feared enemy, weight for distance.  I am excited to get to know everybody in this little community.  I am looking forward to seeing everybody in the field next year.

 ~ Erin Ireland


As ever photo credits to Larry Ventress at Pioneer Photography. http://pioneerphotography.photoreflect.com/store/store.aspx


You can catch Erin's scores here:
http://www.nasgaweb.com/dbase/resultsathlete3.asp?athletename=Ireland%2CErin&athleteyear=2012&type=nasga&x=16&y=8

Meet Keli "The Amazon" Glover!

My name is Keli and I am a 34 year old mother of two very busy children. I live a very busy life where I am chauffer, maid, chef, and of course cheerleader for my active 11 year old and 14 year old. I am also an overweight, slightly lazy woman that loves ice cream and a good cheeseburger way more than I should. Not really someone you would look at and think, “Hey she must be an athlete.” Don’t get me wrong. I have pursued many different activities for varying lengths of time including running, weight lifting, boxing, and bike riding, all with varying degrees of intensity and success. I still would much rather sit on the couch and read a book.

About a year ago I met some of the most amazing people I have ever known. Friendly, helpful, down to earth, foul mouthed, funny, caring…I could go on and on. They were athletes of all shapes and sizes, but their one uniting factor: they wanted to teach people all about their sport. They were Highland Gamers. My husband, Jim, had entered a Highland Games just for the fun of it and these awesome folks bent over backwards to help him and to make sure he had a good time. By the end of the day, he had learned so much and had such a great time, he was hooked…and so was I. I decided I just had to try it. You see not only were men involved in this crazy sport, but women were as well. And these women weren’t catty, they didn’t care that I was fat and didn’t have on makeup with every hair in place. They were awesome. And they all wanted me to come outside and play.

Unfortunately that would have to wait. That particular event pretty much marked the end of the Highland Games “season” in these here parts and I would have to wait 3 months for a Games close enough for me to go to. During these three months, Jim and I practiced what we could with what equipment we could piece together; but without someone to show me what I was doing, I didn’t make any forward progress. February rolled around and with it, the Texas “kickoff” games were fast approaching. We of course wanted to enter, but a family conflict would keep us from competition. We heard tell of a seminar being put on by the Vincent Brothers, Matt and Andy Vincent the day before the games and decided we could make it to that if we drove down and back to our eastern Oklahoma home in one day. (let me just interject here and say, if you ever get a chance to do an all day or even half day clinic with one or both of these guys, DO IT!) I learned so much that day! I came home sore from head to toe, hungry as a hippo, and so excited to compete in my first games.

April and the Iron Thistle was my first. Eight women of varying degrees of
experience, a beautiful day, an awesome location, all combined to make a fantastic time. The best thing about your first games, every throw is a PR (personal record) and the “old timers” will tell you It probably will never happen again. I ended the day in 7^th place, which was better than I had expected to do by a long shot. Since then I have done 3 more games. A “backyard” games in late July gave me some much needed practice as well as a couple of new PRs and very nearly a heat stroke, but a darn good time none the less. At the Tulsa Scottish Festival in September I really felt like I was getting the hang of some of this stuff and even won two of the events (I must mention that this is only because two seasoned veterans I was competing against decided to bomb out on the height events and handed it to me on a silver platter. Thanks Britt and Terri!) My kids even gave it a whirl in the “lads and lasses” highland games for kids and both of them loved it. Several PRs at Tulsa gave me a much needed ego boost and some footwork drills shown to me by a short bald man I am convinced may be a leprechaun, gave me something extra to work on at home. This all brings me to October and the Texas Celtic Women’s Challenge where I was honored to compete on a team of 5 women against two other 5 women teams. As far as I am concerned, this is the ultimate Women’s highland games event and everyone should give it a try at least once. Each team makes up a cool name, the prizes are sweet, and the swag was outstanding. My team, Blood Bath & Beyond, ended up winning, but it had to be a close one, as the teams were neck and neck all day. I ended the day with 5 PRs out of 8 events, and while my throws are nowhere near as good as several of the women there, I was extremely pleased to have beaten my previous best efforts and I feel that helped my team get the win.

I have had an awesome year. I made a million great memories, met a lot of great new friends, spent some quality time with my husband, and I can’t wait to do it all again. My season is over for now, but I see a lot of work in my future over the winter. Next year I plan to do twice as many games, I want to see some big PRs, and I want to turn that $@#* caber.


As ever photo credits to Larry Ventress at Pioneer Photography. http://pioneerphotography.photoreflect.com/store/store.aspx

Check Keli's Scores here
http://www.nasgaweb.com/dbase/resultsathlete3.asp?athletename=Glover%2CKeli&athleteyear=2012&type=nasga&x=30&y=3

Like a phoenix ...

Like a phoenix from the ashes, like the kraken from the deep, like yeast in a good sourdough, we will rise!!!

The last six months have seen lots of change and challenge for your intrepid Texas team. Many miles, games and milestones have come and gone. You will simply have to take our word, the season happened. For some of us the off season has begun, like it or not. Now comes the time to regroup, rebuild and reacquaint ourselves with our goals.

BUT! Before all that heavy lifting and soul searching, something fun. Over the next week or so we will introduce you to all the new throwers who picked up Highland Games in our area. There will be pictures and intro articles to the handful of new ladies in our region. After which we will return you to your regularly scheduled games reviews, rants and raves about products, lifting and conditioning advice  and the occasional musings of WHY we do this thing.

Dublin TX Highland Games & St. Patrick’s Day Festival

The little town of Dublin TX (Irish Capitol of Texas, so says Rick Perry!) is the site of the Dublin Highland Games. This year we got to throw on Saturday the 17th, St. Patricks Day itself.

Dublin is a small town with a huge heart; the people are out in droves at the parade and fairgrounds. Everything is done up in green, from the painted shamrocks on the intersections, festival signs, streamers and all the fabulous dressed up in their best Irish outfits. Lots of good food, fun and frivolity, and even historical re-enactment!

It was a beautiful day, not too sunny, little wind and no rain; it couldn’t have been a more suitable day for throwing. There was a big class, for the men and masters divisions. The women’s class was 4 throwers, and it was an excellent showing for the ladies.

As always the festival atmosphere at Dublin is great, with a crowd of people always moving in and around the throwers, hooting and hollering for the big throws and everyone loves the caber toss. Dave and Nancy (who also host the Salado Highland Games) do an amazing job and make the day easy and enjoyable.

I was very pleased with my throwing that day, and picked up some good scores as my sheaf is coming together, and my stones are moving in the right direction (i.e. farther away from me!). The best part is always the people, spending a day with the fun Highland games people makes all the travel worth while and enjoying a laugh with everyone is the best part of the day.

The drive home reminded me that Texas is a surprisingly beautiful place.

Vincent Brothers Clinic - Feb 25

Vincent Brother Clinic – Fort Worth Texas
Feb 25, 2012

The newly turned professional Highland Games Brothers. Andy and Matt Vincent put on an amazing Highland Games Throwing Clinic in Fort Worth, Texas, Saturday Feb 25. It was held in conjunction with the Noth Texas Heavies Kickoff Games.

The Saturday clinic was an all day affair with a good crowd that had a variety of experience. There were brand new - never thrown in games before people, all the way up to Competitive A men’s throwers years of competition under their belt. Andy and Matt Vincent are lifelong athletes with an extensive background in sports, and their guidance over the day showed that they have amassed a wealth of knowledge about movement, speed, power and how to get the most out of what you have.

The day started in order of the classic events. Stones, weights for distance, hammers. Then cabers, followed by the height events, weight over bar and sheaf.

Personally speaking, it was the most useful day that I have spent learning and exploring what to do with the implements for Highland Games. I was totally gassed the next day for the competition, but it was worth the sacrifice for what I learned. Seeing the different styles of Open stone movement that they discussed with each person really gave me the sense that Matt and Andy were taking into consideration each individuals ability. Personalized attention of that detailed nature is rare is a mass setting and I think it really demonstrates their eye for explosive movement and throwing, as well as the fact that they really wanted everyone to get something from them that day.

I got a great view into how a power athlete looks at the events, some different stances to try and I really made some massive improvements in all events. I am excited to see this carry on into my season. I can’t wait for the next clinic so that I can get some more lessons and refine my throws some more.

Andy and Matt placed 1 & 2 in their first Pro games in Phoenix, AZ last weekend. Congratulations to them both and another nod to them for putting on this amazing clinic.

Matt can be found HERE on the interwebs.
Andy can be watched HERE doing his thing.