I watched this young woman named Heather Connor compete at the RAW Nationals for the women’s division over last weekend. I was impressed by her third attempt at Deadlift which was 183 kilos which will be about 403 in lbs. Ever since then, there has been a bit of a debate about her third attempt. Did she deserve her 2 white lights and 1 red call on her third attempt?

Even though Heather was really shaky during the third attempt, she was able to lock it out at the top but the judges only gave her two white lights and one red. In my opinion, I thought she deserved 3 white lights for this lift.

In the rules of deadlifting at USAPL, there can’t be any downward movement… if you read some of the comments in that youtube video… they were saying there were some downward movements when the bar went past her knees. I watched the attempt more than enough times and I didn’t see any downward movements at all. The way I’m seeing it is that this girl was trying to straighten the bar since it was imbalance at the bottom. Since she was trying to straighten the bar, it looked like she was bringing the bar down but I didn’t see that. I can understand why some think there were downward movements while she was bringing it up but she was trying to balance the bar which she did a great job at.

I think the only reason that people are mad that they gave this girl a “good call” on her third deadlift attempt ’cause it made them mad that she pulled a HUGE deadlift and it’s gonna make others jealous. I think those saying it was a bad call attacked her out of jealousy and nothing more. They just wished they can pull a 400 lb. deadlift and they’re mad at her ’cause she did it.

I didn’t see any up and down movements… she brought it up pretty smooth, in my opinion. Once again, it looks like that ’cause she was trying to straighten the bar when it went past her knees and she didn’t stop. I thought the judges did the right thing giving her a “good” call.

I thought the lift was pretty impressive and it floored me. Someday I’ll be able to lift a 400 lb. deadlift and I will!

Kev