Issue #9 NGB meeting times and locations

For those whom have office jobs, and I am certain for those with IT jobs that you have dialed in on your computer to work. You have had phone conferences from home, or a hotel. You have had internet web cam chats with your boss, or your customers for that matter. All of these tools bring communication among the masses available to anyone, anywhere in the world.  The days of scheduling a meeting to fit everyone's schedule, and to make sure everyone is in one place are over. Welcome to the 21st century. 

So why can’t USA Powerlifting grasp this concept? Here is the problem.

Every year since the inception of the ADFPA, there is an NGB (National Governing Body) meeting at the Men’s Open Nationals. This is the time every year where the representatives you elect from your state travel to discuss issues affecting the organization. Votes on new matters take place, and general business is discussed. There are also elections with for official positions within the highest levels of the USA Powerlifting.

Here are the problems that have cropped up over time with the timing and format of the NGB meeting.

A. It still is being held at the Mens Open Nationals only.

Now it was very logical to hold the NGB meeting at Mens Open Nationals. It has been the most well attended event in the organization history. Problem is the demographics of Powerlifting have changed, and it’s no longer the most attended event. This creates a challenge for many state representatives  to attend this event. Because many are lifters themselves and can not afford to travel multiple times a year. This creates a gap of representation at our NGB meeting for many states. 

B. Its held on Thursday before the Mens Open Nationals

The problem with that is many people have to take at least Friday off from work to travel to Men's Nationals, and can’t take more time off then that. Others do not have paid vacation time. Some get paid on commission and every day really is a working day.  And the rest often times have families and do not have the luxury of taking more time off. This causes some representatives not to attend the NGB meeting.

What this creates is a situation where those whom are elected now, get reelected almost unopposed all the time . And motions get brought up on the floor that no one from the states knows about, and gets passed by a narrow group of people. This in effect makes USA Powerlifting an Oligarchy. Not a Democracy, or an elected Republic as the leadership touts it to be. 

USA Powerlifting needs to take the following actions if it wishes to truly be a democratic body.

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why should I care?

I want to address one piece of feedback I got, and I want to address it to the masses since its likely others will ask the same question. It can be summed up like this, ‘why should I care?’. Up to this point, everyone whom has read this section of thepowerliftingforum.com has said agreed with at least some of the issues listed. Not only agreed, but said action should be taken now to resolve those issues. But others ask how this impacts them.

This is a good question. Because it may be hard to see how any of these issues impact you as a lifter. Most of you just do the following; send in your entry, train like an animal, compete, eat a big fat steak. Rest for a couple days and repeat. The thing is that all these issues listed tie back to one thing, and that is the contest you compete at. Where it be directly, or indirectly the issues do impact what you do as a lifter from the local level all the way up. 

Competing with USA Powerlifting means the highest standard of contest. Both its execution and for rules of performance. But this has lead to a leadership that I feel quite strongly has forgotten what has worked in the past, and rules are created yearly with disregard to its full impact. Further this leadership actions, or in many cases inaction, sends the message that it doesn't need to report to us. Us being the membership.

It's time to remind them that they do report to us. So in closing, this is why you should care. And start making noise to leadership to make some changes happen.

Back to USAPL Grievance page 

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Issue #8 Open Communication

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Issue #7 two hour weigh ins

Here is a topic that I am sure meet directors have had issues with. And this is the 2 hour weigh in. The 2 hour weigh states that “Weighing in of the competitors must take place no earlier than two hours before the start of the competition for any particular category/categories”. I am here to declare this rule unnecessary and impractical. 

I know the IPF loyal are going to scream about how this keeps the process of a meet legitimate, and prevents extreme weight cutting measures. And I won’t deny, I get the motivation behind the rule. When I encountered some federations where 48 hour weigh ins were allowed, and that lifters were using IV bags to rehydrate themselves, It was clear that someone in one weight class may be as far as 2 weight classes higher by the time they lift. 

This clearly skewed the results of a meet, but that was a one time thing. And the story of that meet went like wildfire across every circle n Powerlifting, and it was portrayed like it happens at all non USAPL meets. The reality of lifting is that any lifter cutting weight is going to try and do it regardless of the time before lifting.  I have been in weigh ins where the lifter is being held up by his handlers because he is so dehydrated. 

The other reason why I hold this rule in contempt is because it is almost impossible to enforce. From local to national and the Arnold, I have found this rule broken time after time. At the Arnold in 2011 I was at the very last weigh in, and arrived 20 min before it was over. I didn’t see the platform for over 3 hours. That tells me that people whom weighed in earlier, didn’t see the platform for over 4 hours.

I know for a fact that some of the most respected meet directors in this organization's history have outright ignored this rule. With the only exception being for those lifters who wanted to set American Records. Now why a rule that is so aggressively enforced by USAPL leadership is having such problems?

The fact is that 2 hour weigh ins require more manpower right in the middle of the met, and getting enough help at a meet of any size is very tough. Managing the updating of the scoring system, while a meet is going on is also very tough for even the most well experienced meet director. Doing this short handed is a logistical nightmare. This doesn’t touch the factor that some venues limit the allowed for events to happen, with two session and 2 hour weigh in style of running events, this forces the meet to go longer

Now I know that some are going to say that this is just a shortcoming of my meet directing abilities. But when major meet directors outright ignore it, the Arnold that is well staffed can’t pull it off, there is a flaw in the rule. Further the health benefits of having a 2 hour weigh in are overstated. Integrity and balance can be reached by implementing an 18 hour weigh in rule. Extreme weight cutting can be minimized, and meets can run more effectively. 

It is time for the USAPL to allow meet directors to use 18 hour 

Back to USAPL Grievance page  

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Issue #6 Lack of Speciality Bars.

USA Powerlifting is currently the only federation in Powerlifting that does not allow speciality bars during its contests. More so, it only allows the bar changes to take place if the bar on the platform is damaged somehow and unusable. The ADFPA prior to the change to USA Powerlifting allowed specialty bars to be used.

Now for those who don’t know what I am talking about, speciality bars are; squat bars and deadlift bars. And as of recent some vendors are producing bench press bars. These bars are designed for Powerlifting. Deadlift bars bend more in the middle, allowing easier grip. Squat bars are thick bars that limit bar whip, and are extra long for larger lifters. Bench press bars are longer at the collars to give the spotters more room to grab in case the lifter misses the lift.

One might ask why we are not allowed to use such bars. The answers I have gotten are;

1. Women lifters don’t like squat bars

2. Some countries/meet directors can’t afford them 

3. It provides too much help to the lifter

I would like to dispel these reasons 

With respects to Squat bars, we used them in the ADFPA, the complaints were non existent by women lifters when using squat bars. When I competed in an UPA meet this past November. All the women lifters used squat bars without a single complaint. Further upon asking some of these female competitors if they found the use of squat bars a problem. The answer was a resounding no.

The cost notion I find the most absurd answer of them all. Lets do some price comparisons.

ER Power Comb Rack $2850   

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Issue #5 Arnold Selection Process

The Arnold Sports Festival, anyone who has been part of bodybuilding, or Powerlifting, or even just followed the career of Arnold Schwarzenegger knows of this event. In 2008, USA Powerlifting became part of this event and started the biggest national event for Powerlifting for our organization. From the get go, I wanted to be part of this event, and enjoyed 4 years of competing at this event. I felt like I quailed for the big leagues in Powerlifting. At least I thought I qualified. In the end I was only part of an ‘invitational.’ 

Here is where it gets confusing. All the Powerlifting events have ‘qualifying totals’. But they are also considered ‘invitational’. Right away seeing this it presents a conflict. With rare exception, a qualifier means you have to lift a certain amount of weight to compete in a contest. In such contests I have seen if there are holes to fill in the lineup, then special invites take place. Otherwise if you don’t lift enough, you don’t compete. 

This contradicting method of qualifying for the Arnold has created a few unfortunate situations for lifters whom where qualified for the meet, but found themselves denied access with no clear explanation given. One such lifter named Becky Rich told her experience on the website http://www.usapltransparency.com/

The burly and moving target of qualifying for the Arnold took an unusual turn this past year for the Raw Challenge. Since 2008, those whom competed in the past years contest was automatically qualified the following year.  The USAPL leadership decided to change this qualifier less than 4 weeks before the Raw Nationals, and required anyone who wanted to compete at the Arnold Raw Challenge to compete at Raw Nationals. This took those whom chose to go to the Arnold directly by surprise, as we could not get ready for Raw Nationals in less the 4 weeks. 

Now what added insult to injury to this situation, was not only did the process change last minute to get to the Arnold. The leadership didn’t follow its own process.  It was found out later those 6 lifters whom never competed at Raw Nationals in the first place. And the one whom did, bombed out at Nationals. 

This situation has already started to anger high level lifters that have competed at the Arnold for a number of years. They are already making moves to compete at events that are in direct competition with the Raw Challenge like the Raw Unity Meet, and Raw 504. 

To make an event prestigious, you need to at the very least make it something that lifters have to earn. To make an event an invitational creates massive subjectivity. USA Powerlifting needs to scrap the current policy of selection to compete at the Arnold Sports Festival.  It needs to move to a qualifying total system only, along with no drug testing failures. To do this will go very far in restoring this event to being a premier event for the best in USA Powerlifting. 

Back to USAPL Grievance page  

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Issue #4 Rankings Database

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USAPL Issues Intro

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Issue #2 ending of Card reimbursements

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Issue 1# USAPL Logos

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