TGA Member Spotlight: Jason Steeves

Today, I want to spotlight someone from The Grip Authority, my Grip Strength coaching site, Jason Steeves. Jason is someone who has put forth a great deal of effort in order to improve his technique and accomplish his goals in the area of Grip Strength development.

A lot of people are surprised when they join TGA because it is not like a lo of other Membership Sites. The way I run TGA is I try to be like a coach, sort of as if we are all on a baseball or football team. As the Coach, I try my best to help develop everyone on the team (the members).

And just like any conventional sport, where each player needs specific skills and must improve certain parts of their game in order to excel in their position, each one of my members has their own particular goals, and I do my best to help them all develop them.

Part of being a coach is to put out recognition of the improvements that I am noticing, and in the past I have kept this recognition primarily within the TGA group itself, BUT, now I want to bring some of that recognition outside as well.

Jason is a great example of a coachable member on the team. By coachable, I mean, he takes suggestions and gives them an honest try in his training to see whether they work for him, and then gives me feedback so I know it is working (or not).

Jason makes my “job” as “Coach” easy – Jason regularly makes comments on the TGA Blog about the monthly features and instructional videos, and even sometimes I’ll get an email from him.

Jason is also a great team player. We have a private Facebook group for the Members at The Grip Authority, and he is one of the most active members, often making posts within threads, “Liking” posts, and showing others encouragement when they post videos.

So I sent a note to Jason a few months back about doing a spotlight here and he agreed. I have been meaning to post it for some time and wanted to go ahead and do so today.

Interview with Jason Steeves

Jedd: How did you learn about TGA?

Jason: I think I first heard about TGA through the Grip Strength Radio pieces you were doing Jedd. I really enjoyed them and the call ins and wish that more people would’ve participated as there was a lot of good information floating around and some good interviews.

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Jedd: Did you have any reservations about signing up?

Jason: I guess I just wasn’t sure what to expect so I didn’t end up signing on towards the end of the first year you had TGA running.

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Jedd: Why did you end up joining The Grip Authority?

Jason: I’m in a position that I can help support grip to some extent and want to really help Jedd and the others that are devoting so much time and effort to get this thing off the ground. Once I was on there I found a wealth of great training information and have implemented much of it into my own.

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Jedd: What were your expectations when you joined TGA?

Jason: Get in touch with more of the grip community and to improve on my own endeavors in grip.

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Jedd: What are some of the things you have learned since joining The Grip Authority?

Jason: There’s a lot that I’ve picked up here at TGA. Some of the pinching volume and reverse bending tweaks are what stand out in my mind. Probably the thing that I’ve learned that gets utilized the most is implementing the band hammer curls which I super-set with band press-downs. This is a tremendous recovery aid (I think it blows the pipes up a tad too :D). Reverse bending if I end up doing to much of it can really bugger up my elbow area. These exercises can take that pain away significantly and quickly.

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Jedd: What are some of the features you like about The Grip Authority.com?

Jason: I really like the audio, workouts of the month and the interaction we get on Facebook although I wish more people were more active there as well. For anyone who’s reading this some of the best coaching you can get is to shoot a video of yourself and put it up. People are usually very friendly and knowledgeable in this community and can help bring your gains to the forefront. I think that for TGA to be the best that it can be we need that interaction vs just waiting for Jedd to show us stuff all of the time. Use the group, interact.

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Jedd: What are some of the improvements you have made since coming onto The Grip Authority?

Jason: I can specifically state that through information that you’ve provided us my wide pinch drastically improved allowing me to pinch my wide 35’s, 5 dimes, get almost 70# on a 4″ HSS pinch trainer I made, 50# Legacy blob and damn close to my blob50 and regular York blob.

I also took my reverse bending from wobbling gr8 bolts to demolishing them, red nails, all sorts of FBBC stock and placing certs on the Benders Battlefield and David Horne’s World of Grip. I’m also sitting at a half decent spot with my 5/8″ braced bending.

I didn’t really focus real hard on grippers last year but maintained a level of being able to close my #3’s with a parallel set anytime I want and have TNS my 2.5 a few times.

My two hand pinch is also on the way up. I’ve been mainly using my Saxon bar for the past bit but am consistently getting pulls of 215 or so and the number keeps climbing.

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Jedd: Who else do you think should join TGA? Anyone you think would benefit from the info in particular?

Jason: Definitely anyone with any sport aspirations. A persons hands and wrists are the final link of our power transfer and to many people misuse lifting straps leaving them gym strong but not work strong.

One of the main reasons I like it is it’s fun though. Doing feats of strength like the oldtime strongmen, farmers and tradesmen is a good show for anyone. Eyes open pretty good when you start quartering decks of cards, bending steel, ripping phonebooks, etc.

The grip community is also really good and most people freely share information and stories as well as implements and such to people who’re in need. Plus it’s pretty interesting to figure out who all of these characters are, talk with them and compete with them. I love this sport 🙂

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I really want to think Jason for letting me do this spotlight with him and for being a long-time supporter of my site and my efforts. It has been awesome watching him improve on many lifts, especially his pinching feats. The “student” has truly surpassed the teacher in this case, as well, because I think he would thoroughly Kick My Ass in a reverse bending contest now.

As a kid, I always saw myself one day becoming a baseball coach, since it seemed like I played baseball FOREVER, but after trying that here and there, I realized that it just wasn’t my passion to do that.

Instead, my passion is Grip Strength Training, Feats of Strength, and things along those lines, and it feels awesome to watch a video of one of my guys or gals (yes, I have women on the site too) accomplishing awesome feats they have been training so long and hard for.

Jason, keep up the great work. I look forward to seeing even more out of you.

For everyone else who’d like to come aboard The Grip Authority, <= click that link. Jedd

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Tags: bending, feats of strength, grip strength, nail bending, steel bending

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