{By Ron L'Huillier)

This was my first time attending an ADFPF meet, and was the first such meet held at Six Lakes Michigan. The venue was the Community building of the Church of the Gentle Shepherd. This venue proved perfect for the 30 or so lifters that entered the meet. This meet had everything the bigger meets have! There were ADFPF t-Shirts available, and there was a superb concession area. The meet was EXTREMELY well run, and the small crowd was loud and appreciative. The spotting and loading was outstanding, as was the hospitality of all the meet staff.

The judging was VERY strict. I saw several lifts that looked good to me (particularly in the deadlift), but were turned down. One example I happened to get on video was Josh Decker's last deadlift at 667. Take a look at the video and look how long Josh had to stand with the weight before getting the down signal. This was Josh's final attempt, but I 'gotta' tell you... if it were my first or second attempt and the judge made me waste that much energy holding the weight for no apparent reason I am not 'gonna' be real pleased!

The announcer did a nice job of making things interesting for the audience by sharing things about the lifter before their attempts, and announcing State and American Record attempts (the only complaint I have is that the announcer only announced the lifts in kilos, in spite of many requests to announce in pounds as well).

Beckwith's Gym had 6 lifters competing, and all did a really nice job. Except for Josh Decker, this was each lifters first full power meet, and EACH LIFTER COMPLETED RAW! As soon as Josh Decker gets the results to me I will post them here. Also I apologize that I did not get as many photos as I would have liked because I was also loading much of the day.

The highlight of the meet for me was Josh Deckers record third attempt deadlift of 666.7 lbs. RAW @ 198lbs. It was the biggest deadlift of the day, and Josh looked to have strength to spare.