3 Star LB Jaylen Griffin from Rome, GA getting ready to get after it in Blacksburg. Gotta love it!
Light weight 505 lb. #500Club pic.twitter.com/5Xy7wmxK7C— J4YLEN (@JaylenGriffin_) February 19, 2017
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In B4 keyboard warriors start critiquing form in an attempt to inflate their own egos.
....as someone who can barely squat anything and is looking at online tutorials as to how to do this properly, it does look to me that he's not going low enough. Can anyone comment?
I have not squatted near that much so not beating my chest by any means. He looks to be right at parallel (or just above it if you're really nitpicking). If you're a believer of the "at parallel" squat approach then he's pretty much low enough. If you're a believer in the "below parallel" squat approach then you would say he didn't go low enough. Either way, that's a lot of of weight with at least decent form. I'm sure the S&C coaches will take care of any form deficiencies he may have.
His depth is actually pretty decent compared to a lot of recruit squat videos. He would be red-lighted in a lifting competition for being too high though. The standard is the hip crease needs to be below the top of the knee and he doesn't quite get that low. At minimum, the top of his quads needs to be parallel to the floor and he is slightly above that. Still pretty impressive for a 17/18 year old kid.
Yes this is what I was curious on. From what I've seen online, key is:
1. The "best" (FWIW - whatever that means) is basically dropping your butt below the knee
2. Don't have "hip wink" - which is tough for me since i need to stretch my lower body more, but he doesn't go low enough to have that issue?
Are you referring to "butt wink" when you say "hip wink"? If so, a lot of that issue has to do with your anatomy, femur size etc. Its not really a big deal in the near term, but some people think excessive butt wink over time, with increasingly heavy weights, can eventually lead to low back disk injuries.
One thing you can try is to work on your ankle mobility, which will increase how much your knees can travel forward when squatting. When your knees can't travel as far forward at the bottom of the squat, you will hit an end point and your pelvis will incur a posterior tilt (get pulled under). Once you start to ascend on your squat your back will return to a normal, flat position, hence the "winking" motion that is described.
That's probably more than you needed to know. It will get better with time though.
Yes exactly meant butt-wink. And thanks for the info!
Well said. From a competitive powerlifting perspective he's about 2 inches high. HOWEVER he's not powerlifting and what's important is that the kid clearly has some raw power. Like you said it's still impressive. When I GA'd under Gentry I can say that most kids that didn't come from the big time high school football programs had to learn form for the basic movements during that first Spring or Summer in the program. It's just a normal part of the process. However you love having kids who already have that raw strength and power. Hilgart will have him squatting 500 to depth in no time.
This right here, all day, err day.
This isn't picture perfect squat form from a competition perspective. It's also 505 fucking pounds. Hilgart will probably have the "I want you two inches lower" conversation at some point, but this is still a damn good squat.
Agree totally. This kid clearly has a lot of strength and power and can unleash that even more with college level strength training.
The guy that owns the gym I work out at used to the head strength coach at Arizona for years, and his big thing when squatting is that the knees shouldn't be in front of the toes at any time (which is what Jaylen and 95% of people doing this exercise do)-it feels weird to do it this way, but once the technique is correct, you can generate a lot more power. It also turns the squat into a total body motion instead of just relying solely on the legs. The squat is probably the best single exercise you can do in the gym as it activates the most muscle groups.
That said, squatting 505 as an 18 year old is very impressive. This, to me, is as impressive as when JC Coleman front-squatted about 350.
It depends to an extent on your type of squat however for most athletic training purposes this is generally how the squat is trained. I powerlift so I do a more stereotypical powerlifting style squat (wide stance, slightly lower bar position) which keeps knee positioning further back. However for olympic lifter or lifters who squat with more of an olympic style stance (narrow stance, high bar, and usually weightlifting shoes) the knees will track further forward by design. Again it just depends on how the squat is trained which depends on preference and/or body type and/or context.
Meh, he probably doesn't even lift.
Man that's really impressive.
Is that a Wake Forest shirt?
I still have my camp shirts... from 13-14 years ago. Who am I to judge?
I've still got my Chuck Amato Football Camp t-shirt. I'll break it out every now and then for a laugh.
via GIPHY
That'll come in useful when Coach parks in his spot.
Solid comment here
As I've passed 40, I definitely fear leg day...as the recovery now takes at least 3-4 days. I hate getting older.
As a fellow 40+, leg day is still easier for me than arm day. Guess everybody is built differently.
BIG SQUAT FRIDAY is beyond lit, fam.
This makes me happy.
LIGHTWEIGHT BABY
A leg for the man big Ron
I really hope someone tweeted this to Griffin in response to his squat video.
Lift days were never that much fun.
It's good to see the Dragon in the middle of this hopefully taking on a leadership role.
If you check out the HokiesFB Snapchat you'll see that Travon, Cam Philips, and Wyatt Teller all appear to be taking on leadership roles for their position groups.
Yea I really noticed Cam and Wyatt being very vocal on there yesterday. We had fantastic senior leadership last year so we're definitely going to need these guys to step up and be leaders.
funniest thing about this video is watching one of the Kish brothers in the background just struggling at dancing. After a couple seconds you see Pfaff (I think it was Pfaff might be Osterloh) push him out of the way
somewhat related: former VT OL Matt Lehr (graduated 2001 and had a nice NFL career) has become quite the bodybuilder. He trains with Branch Warren.
Name doesn't ring a bell. Was he an OL for us?
Yes, OG I believe
Man, I am so envious of that totally natural-looking tan.
I believe he was also popped for steroids in 2006 while still in the NFL.
http://grg51.typepad.com/steroid_nation/2008/04/ex-cowboy-curre.html
I'm counting 10x45 in weights plus a 45 pound bar (weight of olympic squat bar) which is 495. I'm wondering if those ends that are holding the weights on weight about 5lbs a piece. That would get to 505. Regardless, any squat that gets near 500lbs on a guy his size is CRAZY. He'll be like a guided missile mixed with a bulldozer.
If you look closer you can see a one smaller plate between the last 45 plate and the "ends holding the weights" - it looks to be a 5 lb plate.
You can indeed! So technically it's 505+.
Pfft. I just started squatting today and could handle 45 lbs. He's had plenty of time and clearly isn't showing linear growth compared to me.
But seriously, that's impressive.