The following is a post by AC. This past weekend he handles some lifters in a non-sanctioned powerlifting meet. I talked to him throughout the meet, and there were some things that occurred that ticked him off pretty well. Here goes…
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This past weekend, the college I currently attend held its annual “Show of Strength”. It is a school-run event directed by employees of the university’s rec center. I had a few people I coach (for free) lifting in the meet so I decided to go and help them. This was the school’s 5th annual meet and you would think they are pretty proficient at running a competition by now, right? Wrong . . . Wrong. The meet director had no prior experience in powerlifting and the head judges were incompetent as well. I’ll get to that soon. I had a bad taste in my mouth to begin with because of the people running the show, but during the rules briefing my suspicions of a poorly run meet were revealed to true.
Right off the start this 150 pound young male puts on his microphone to welcome us to the “5th annual show of strength”. He goes on about how the each lifter will have three tests to complete. Yes, tests. Not lifts. He calls each lift a test, rarely calling them the lift that they actually are. This was really annoying (Note by Justin: I’ll vouch for how annoyed AC was. I was on the phone with him during this briefing, and he was livid about the usage of goofy terminology). After that one of the head judges proceeds to call the lifters over to one side of the bleachers for the rules briefing. He goes on for a few minutes on why we should listen to him in the first place; he has experience in “strength and conditioning”, worked with some college football team, and has helped the L.A. Angels. This obviously means he knows lots about powerlifting. The briefing goes on for a few more minutes and consisted of three demos on how to do each lift and what to listen for with the commands.
Now in my experience you do not show up to a powerlifting meet not knowing how to squat, bench, and deadlift so it wouldn’t make sense that the lifts had to be described and taught to the lifters. I can understand explaining the commands, but not getting (crappy) tips on how to actually perform the lifts.
The warm-ups start and fifteen or so lifters have ten minutes to warm up. It’s ok though; there are three squat racks and a smith machine available to warm up on. Yes, they were told to use the smith machine to warm-up with. The silliness kept increasing.
The squatting started, so far so good. The bars were loaded in ascending order just like any other meet. There were few enough people to were all the weight classes went in one flight. My friend Brittney, who I coach, crushed all three of her attempts on squats, so that was pretty epic. When my other friends were lifting later in the flight I noticed some inaccurate judging. The more the “Tests” went on the more the judging degraded. Some squats were two or three inches high and they were getting the thumbs up. Just about no one, besides the people I coach, listened to all of the commands. The “Rack” command apparently became an option. Even the judge who gave the rack command was accepting attempts when lifters didn’t listen to him. The guy who gives the fucking commands! Can you believe that?
The biggest squat was 460 from a guy who I overheard weigh in at 199. His was a high bar squat that was 3 inches above parallel and he didn’t wait for the rack command, but he got two enthusiastic thumbs ups from both judges. My friend Dylan squatted just fine, but Justin S. got called for a “double-bounce” on his first attempt. I guess it was invisible to my eyes. He nailed his second and third attempt. Justin also got held at the top of the squat for about 7 seconds because the judge’s thoughts were lost (probably thinking about how good his biceps look), so I had to yell to remind this fool to give the rack command. He eventually did.
I am not going to go into too much detail on the bench press. My friend Taylor made a prediction that only the people we had coached would actually follow any of the commands. Actually, one other guy actually followed the rules, but just one. The judges gave thumbs up for people that didn’t wait and the spotters kept taking the bar before the judge gave the signal. There was a multitude of things that went wrong on bench. The silliness was accepted by the inexperienced staff.
Justin S. actually follows commands on this bench attempt
The deadlift…oh jeez. First, the judge only gave an auditory signal of down at the top of the lift (and did not give a hand signal) which is almost impossible to hear when you are actually deadlifting a max attempt. You were also allowed to drop the bar from your hands. So everyone who deadlifted “a lot of weight” got to drop the bar like a bunch of goons. Some of the ugliest lifting was occurring at this point in the meet with horribly rounded backs. Brittney, Dylan, and Justin all PR’d on their pulls which was awesome. I’m so proud of them, AND they all lowered the bar back down as well. Gustavo (who posts here) was also there and I believe he had some PR’s as well. Dylan pulled 575, and then on his second attempt they mis-loaded the bar which caused him to miss the lift. This was disappointing. There was another guy who pulled 575 at 199, and it was pretty impressive.
All in all this meet was horribly run, the judging was poor, and most of all I was really hungry (Note by Justin: This means AC was growly).
–AC
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Instead of looking at this as a big bashing article, look at it as a warning to any competitions you may find yourself in. If you’ve been following the site, you know that we really preach on putting yourself on the line in some form of competition. However, there are federations that have a sanctioned set of rules for a reason. As with licenses in certifications, it guarantees some baseline competence with the quality of the product. In this case, a sanctioned meet from a credible organization dictates how the lifts will be judged, and some baseline requirements for how the meet is run. Imagine if you were beaten by the lifter who was allowed to ignore the judges’ commands and squat three inches high — you’d be pretty pissed if incompetence prevented you from winning. Also, the more experienced the meet director is, the more smooth the meet will run. Be cognizant of these little details so that you can get the best out of your competitive spirit.
Is this A.C’s first 70s big article. If so, well done.
Great insight, thanks AC.
I have been itching to get involved in a powerlifting comp. Are there any coming up in the next few months that would be good for a first time comp?
I went to get a couple rib eye steaks at a dining hall last night. Turns out you order by the ounce. Asked for two 8 oz steaks – totaling 16 oz. When my order was ready, turned out they kid rang me up for two 16 oz steaks. So what’d I do? I ate them both.
70sBig.
Just entered my first competition – at CrossFit Reading, UK. A strength and power meet, they havent posted the actual events yet but just a list of what KIND of events to expect. I will get my ass kicked but really looking forward to it.
http://www.funckey.co.uk/news/strength-and-power-meet-2010-registration-and-revelations/
time to nut up or shut up
I had a sanctioned powerlifting meet, my first, this weekend. I went 8/9 and hit 182.5 – 92.5 – 200. I missed my third bench press. I came away with two things: I really really need to get my bench up and I’m slacking on the deadlift. There were some skinny high school kids who were squatting far less than me and benching about the same as me who pulled way more than me. There was a 75kg Indian kid who pulled 227.5, about 100kg more than his squat. Granted, I was the tallest lifter in the entire meet by like 5″. Anyway: lessons learned.
I’m competing in a non-sanctioned WL meet in about 11 weeks, so I’m going to change over to a more Oly-style template eventually even though I still have some novice progression left in me. Any general advice for doing so?
Oh yeah i forgot to mention that I live in Houston, so if anyone knows of some good powerlifting meets coming up near Houston I would love to hear about it. Thanks.
Epic, epic fail.
I’m wondering how the first four “Show of Strength” events went.
Rule #17 of competing is NEVER, EVER do an unsanctioned meet run by a park district, YMCA, or college rec department. It will almost always be run by incompetent fools. Lesson learned.
AC, atleast your lifters listened to commands, followed all of the rules of a regular meet, ect. They probably gained some great experience while all of the other lifts goofed off. Either your lifters did their homework on how meets should be ran, or you are a great coach (or both).
Also, AC, I watched a video of Rip on youtube (setting up the dl) and my problem is I roll the bar to my shins, when actually I need to line the bar up over midfoot, CROUCH until my shins hit the bar, lift my chest up and pull.
Just wanted to inform you I am learning.
=)
I like to think their performance was at least influenced by my coaching. Big smiles here for your discovery.
–A.C.
StonewallWells, go to http://www.powerliftingwatch.com/node/4421 and you can search for meets by state. You are probably too late for the USAPL Texas States this coming weekend, but there are a bunch of Texas meets, especially ramping up in June. Lots of them are APA, which isn’t as good as USAPL in my uneducated opinion, but whatevs.
next time I compete I’m gonna be all “hey, do you have a Smith machine where I can warm up for the squat test?”
Man, what a bunch of weirdos. Bet it would have been funny, if it weren’t so chafing to suffer through. Show of Strength – where high squats get an enthusiastic thumbs up!
StonewallWells – some friends and I are planning on participating in the USAPL Summer Power Fest in Spring, near you, July 10th. Do it! http://www.powerliftingwatch.com/powerlifting-meets/usapl/2010/summer-powerfest
@StonewallWells,
The meet @Jacob just posted will by my PL debut, its being held at my gym, so I figure what better time to put my nuts on the line. I’m really hoping for some people there weaker than me… but I have a feeling there will be some hosses wandering around. Should be a good time anyway…
@ 20rep (or anyone) — anybody have any idea how many meets are out there that aren’t posted on that powerliftingwatch link above? It seems like a disturbing number of the meets in my area (DC metro, including VA, MD, DC, NC, PA and NJ) are squat-free. . .
Damn A.C., atleast your lifters followed commands, and hit the proper requirements. I can only imagine how frustrating that is.
Question for all… I’m 6 weeks out from my first PL meet and I finally got myself a belt (Ya, ya I know). I’ve seen a lot of people talking about deloading to get used to the belt, but being six weeks out I would hate to deload when Im still seeing great progress (novice linear progression). Suggestions?
I don’t think you need to. Every time someone I know gets a belt they throw it on the following workout no problem.
–A.C.
@ Brian G,
Im no expert, but I’d try wearing it on your warm up sets for a few days to get used to it and if all feels well, start using it on the work sets. Maybe that would achieve both ends of not having to deload your work sets, but still getting experience wearing the belt at lighter weights.
A.C. and Ryan, Thanks guys. I’ll use it on the warm up sets to get a feel and if all is well (which I imagine it being) I will wear it right in to the work sets. Thanks again.
I threw my belt on without deloading and it’s worked out just fine.
Don’t forget to break it in! I think there’s a video somewhere on this site.
Breaking in a new belt, by the kind fellers that run this here site:
Brian, the belt will start adding to your workouts immediately. It won’t be comfortable for awhile, but that’s why we’re men and we can ignore such things.
I think it should be noted to all the Skinny Guys who are concerned about their abs – abs are just like any other muscle and they take extra calories to build. When I weight 170 I had a low body fat percentage, but you could HARDLY see my upper abs. I have sinced gained 21 pounds and even though I have more fat, you can see my abs have grown. You can’t see my abs because of the fat, but you can tell if I decide to cut, there is a 4pack waiting for me.
AC –
I deadlifted today and I don’t know how I feel. I lined my midfoot under the bar (i even marked my socks with tape at the correct position), gripped the bar, lowered my hips till my shins hit the bar (i think i’m really unflexable, because it started to feel uncomfortable), lifted my chest, (really focused on trying to lean back on my heels) and pulled. I don’t know if my lower back is still sticking out. Honestly, I felt a little soreness (not quite the right word) in my lower back than if I set up the way I normally do. Can’t tell if that’s good or bad. ughhh
I can help more with video.
–A.C.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=70s%20big
its official!
@AC, did you want to give these judges a knuckle sandwich? At least your peeps were dialed in and hit some PR’s.
Multiple sandwiches were ordered.
–A.C.
Since when is 70s Big defined as weighing over 200lbs?
yeah, that urban dictionary entry was weak. Male adulthood is 70sbig. Not all adult males are 70sbig.
1/10
EDIT* Male adulthood is weighing more than 200lbs.
@WCM025
If it’s comfortable, it probably is not the right position. Not sure if you have Starting Strength but please get that shit and read it. It will put everything into perspective.
That’s fucking nothing. My school (Northern Arizona University, curse the recreation department for eternity)had a “power lifting” “meet” in which we were to do “leg squats”, bench press, and dead lift FOR REPS given an assigned weight by weight class.
For some bizarre reason we started with bench because nobody but me trains the squat or deadlift and a bunch of people left after the bench. They didn’t clear off the 2 benches for us to warmup before the competition started and went ahead and didn’t give anyone time to warmup. Ok great. So the assigned weights for my weight class (174-199) were 220lbs on the bench, 250lbs squat, and 280lbs deadlift. Only cranked out 1 bench rep.
Squats came up and nobody was even close to parallel. It wasn’t even like quarter squats, but like barely knee-bends. Me and one other guy did full squats just to spite the retards who judged the event. One guy in my weight class got TWENTY KNEE BENDS! I got 9 good depth full squats.
Deadlift was just a bunch of bouncing the weight of the floor but I still won that with 13 reps because it was harder for everyone else to cheat.
The “judge” was some fat chick who has likely never performed one of the lifts in her entire life. Seriously, fuck my school’s gym and everyone who works there. We don’t even have bumpers or platforms and chalk is forbidden. We only have 2 squat racks and 2 benches.
i do apoligize that my definition was weak i.e. 90’s small. but thank you a.c. for redeeming the definition