Here it comes again.
Old Man rant.
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I was just talking to Dan as he drank some pre training whiskey in my office about this and decided to write about it.
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Yes, Dave Tate has talked about this as have many others, but here is my two cents.
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As a meet promoter running Strongman and Powerlifting meets for many years, I’ve seen pretty much everything, and this one thing bugs me.
Not too much else does.
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Everyone gets a trophy.
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Do You Really Need a Trophy?
Or do you just want to lift?
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There are so many classes and divisions, it’s almost impossible to not get one.
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Let’s look at how this works.
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If you look at a meet entry form there are:
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Divisions:
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- Raw
- Raw with wraps
- Single Ply
- Multi Ply
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Follow that up with classes:
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- Amateur
- Pro
- Police/Fire/Military
- Military Pro
- Military Am
- Masters
- And more
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And then there are the age classes.
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- Open
- Teen
- Junior
- Masters
And many of these have age brackets.
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On top of that there are a ton of weight classes.
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So, you have an almost unlimited variety of ways to get a trophy.
You can enter a meet with 75 lifters and have one or two in each class.
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If you are a trophy hunter this is awesome. You are virtually guaranteed one.
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But what if you actually want to compete against someone, or against 10 or 20 people in your class to see who is the best?
It’s almost impossible.
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And no, I am not referring to one federation.
This is systemic.
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When I started competing in Strongman, there was one class, Open.
That’s it.
You went, you competed against everyone and if you sucked you didn’t place in the top 3.
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Yes, that was me many times.
So what.
It made me want to get better.
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In Powerlifting it was different but not so much.
We had far less classes years ago. And there was a ton of competition.
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You’d got to a meet and lift against whoever was there.
I remember many years ago I showed up at one of Russ Barlowe's meets in Maine and was pretty sure I had the win in the bag. I knew who was in my class (308 Open) and I was confident I was going to win.
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And then HE walked in.
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Billy Mimnaugh. He was a BEAST and I knew he was a LOT stronger than me.
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Well, there goes my win. Did I let it get in my head and not compete?
No. I was prepared to do my best and hoped there was some way I could at least place second.
Second place is first loser, but against Mimnaugh, I’d have taken it.
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Well, to my surprise, one of my friends looked at the roster and saw he was in a different weight class that day, I think he cut to 275, but I am not sure.
My spirits went right back up, and I ended up with the win.
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My point?
Go to a meet and compete against whoever shows up.
Go to a meet and pray there is competition in your class.
Pray there are 20 people in it.
Why?
That’s how you get better.
After all, it is a competition right?
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Here is what I’d love to see.
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Redesign the format and make it like this.
Three Classes
- Open/Pro
- Amateur
- Master
Three Weight Classes
- Light
- Middle
- Heavy
Two divisions
- Raw
- Equipped
Now you’ve got a meet.
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I’m pretty sure this will never happen, but it’s something I’d love to see.
Competition makes us better. It makes us strong(er).
Isn’t it why we do this?
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And before you start giving me hate mail, I acknowledge 100% that the people currently lifting are playing by the rules and divisions, and if this allows them to win a meet, great.
It’s not the lifter’s fault that everyone gets a trophy.
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And I understand, at least I think I do, why things are done this way.
Running a federation, or a meet is a business.
Doing it this way seems to make more people show up and makes the sport grow.
Feds make more money and promoters do too.
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I am not in the meet running business for the money personally. Every single meet I’ve run has been to benefit a charity, so my voice on the business side is probably not valid.
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I’d love to hear your thoughts on my ideas about changing the classes and divisions to make things more competitive.
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Leave a comment below.
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And, one the meet promoter side, on November 16th we are running the RPS Boston’s Strongest Push Pull at TPS and we have 7 spots left open for lifters.
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This show will benefit the Claddagh Fund (the Dropkick Murphy’s charitable organization) and the Everett Pop Warner Football organization.
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If you want to have a great morning benching and deadlifting for charity, go to:
Totalperformancesports.com/registration
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And sign up now!
If you don’t want to lift, but want to support the event please come by and pay the $10 spectator fee on the 16th and watch some great lifting.
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I hope to see you on the platform or in the audience.
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Did you miss last week’s log?
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Oh, yeah, follow us on Instagram too.
@TPSMalden
@tpsmethod
DM ME QUESTIONS THERE TOO!
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Vincere vel mori
C.J. Murphy
October 3, 2019
