Ben Kinczel had every reason to be encouraged after finishing in second place in the USA Powerlifting California High School Open’s 75 kilogram (165 pound) division on Nov. 17 in Hayward.
After all, the 14-year-old Kinczel, a Los Gatos High School freshman, was competing in his first-ever powerlifting competition and finished as the runner-up—to an 18-year-old high school senior, no less.
“It wasn’t the highlight of my career, because I could’ve done better,” said Kinczel, whose finish earned him a berth in the High School Nationals in March. “But I still think I did pretty good and for this being my first competition, it was pretty fun.”
A powerlifting competition consists of three core lifts: squat, bench press and deadlift (performed in that order). Each athlete has three attempts in each exercise to lift as much weight as possible for one repetition. The winner of each weight class is the lifter with the highest total weight (sum of the best of each of the three lifts).
Kinczel’s lifts totaled 948 pounds–320 for the squat, 214 for the bench press and 414 for the deadlift. Kinczel usually totals 1,005 pounds for his three lifts, but a couple of factors held his numbers down on competition day.
“In the week leading up to the competition, I didn’t eat as much food and did a bit more cardio, so I wouldn’t go overweight,” he said. “So, I wasn’t as strong as normal on competition day. Also, the weights and bars were different than the ones I train with. That makes a little difference.”
Kinczel was also red-lighted a handful of times, meaning he received a “no lift.” Power lifters receive a red light if they fail to lift with proper technique or err in following commands from the judges, such as when to start and stop the lift.
For Kinczel, it was the latter that proved to be his Achilles heel.
“For the squat, there’s a person in front of you, and they give you the command to start the lift and rack the weight,” Kinczel said. “And, I forgot to listen to the squat command. Next time, I’ll be better at listening to the commands, and that will help me to not fail some of my lifts.”
Kinczel plans on making dramatic gains in his bench press, which is the weakest of his three lifts. Kinczel chalks up his superior lower body strength to tricking, a sport that combines martial arts and gymnastics.
In fact, Kinczel started to powerlift consistently in August 2023 to supplement his gains in tricking. Once he started to see incremental gains in powerlifting, Kinczel decided to switch his sport of focus.
“I started to develop more of a passion for powerlifting and have been consistently training ever since,” he said.
Kinczel, who doesn’t turn 15 until August, has a personal-best of 465 pounds in the deadlift, 335 in the squat and 235 in the bench press.
“One of my main goals is to break the deadlift record for 14-year-olds,” he said. “I’m going to try to somehow deadlift 700 pounds before I turn 15.”
Kinczel doesn’t have a private coach, but relies on his older brother for nutritional advice. He also looks to his father and sister for support.
“My dad inspired me to train consistently in powerlifting starting in August 2023,” Kinczel said. “He bought some equipment for our garage, and my siblings and we would work out there all the time.”
Nowadays, Kinczel usually trains in the LGHS weight room with a lot of his friends from the football team.
“Lifting with my friends is a lot of fun, and gives me another reason to do it,” he said. “It gives me motivation to finish strong.”
