Articles
Reponse to the new USA Weightlifting National Meet Qualification Procedure
August 15 2014
August 15 2014
For the most part, the reaction among weightlifters to the new USAW national meet qualification procedures has been positive, but there has been a surprising (to me, at least) amount of objection.
I want to just address a few examples of these objections directly rather than trying to compose something entirely.
The following chunks in quotations were pulled off of various FB posts. Below each one is my response.
1. "What other sport is worried about their events becoming too big? Attended by too many people? It's not an exclusive club, it's a sport. And they wonder why the US is lacking competitive international USAW athletes. If you stifle excitement for the sport created over the past few years, you stifle those excited future or current"
Every sport is worried about their events becoming too big. There is a limit to how many athletes can participate in a given event logistically. However, that is really not even relevant. There is conflation in this post of the sport as a whole and its national championships. No, the sport is not an exclusive club - it is open to anyone who wants to follow the rules of the game and participate. These new procedures do absolutely nothing to change that. Literally anyone can still compete in a sanctioned USAW meet - they could theoretically do it without ever even having performed a snatch or CJ prior to the event. So how does limiting who can make it to nationals reduce participation by new lifters in the sport?
We had better international lifters formerly when national event qualifying totals were higher than they have been in the past few years (and, in fact, total membership was lower) - so claiming changes like this are what's responsible for USAW not having better international lifters is demonstrably untrue. How is making it harder to qualify for a prestigious event stifling excitement for the sport?
New lifters who are excited about the sport will train and compete no matter what their chances of making it to a national meet, because they enjoy the sport. If they're dissuaded from lifting because they have to work a little harder to make it to that level, then they're not going to contribute anything to our pool of potential international lifters anyway and honestly, that's exactly the kind of person this and any sport can do without.
The kind of athletes who can make it to the international level are the kind who are willing to work hard and WANT to work hard, not the kind who want to exploit easy qualifying totals to get to an event. If a higher qualifying total and the need for more work to get to a national meet doesn't motivate you, you're not going anywhere in this or any other sport.
2. "What happens to athletes who want to compete for the hell of it? How does this attract and/or encourage novices to compete? If we cater to only the "top" athletes, then we better have a bomb ass USA weightlifting team in 2016."
Athletes who "want to compete for the hell of it" have no business at a national meet! Do the players in the Super Bowl and the World Series just "play for the hell of it?" Lifters who want to train and compete casually have plenty of opportunities to do so at local and regional meets. Restricting entry to national meets doesn't affect those people one bit. Catering to only top athletes is entirely appropriate for a national level meet - the meet exists solely for top athletes. It's the National Championships, not the Big Fancy Hotel Competition for Anyone Who Just Wants to Lift for the Hell of It.
Why would any novice believe it makes sense for them to be lifting at the national championships? That's like a little leaguer being upset that he can't make it to the World Series.
And if you want a "bomb ass" Olympic team, you need the TOP lifters to lifter better, not more people at a national meet. How does raising standards and expectations and increasing competition make our top lifters worse? It forces them to work harder and dedicate themselves more. Imagine that?! Hard work and dedication for Olympians!
3. "There's another viewpoint not being espoused much, so I'll do it: growth can cause pain, but how bout we react to the pain differently than what has been proposed? How bout we make national weightlifting contests huge events, needing many ballrooms in a hotel to conduct? The sport will likely grow faster than ever before, and many of us will see our long held dream come true, namely Weightlifting becoming as popular as football, baseball, or any of these other big sports. This could happen--within a couple of years at the rate we've seen the past few years!! What a wonderful thing that would be. USAW's current solution seems a bit anti-Adam Smith, comparing things to economics. Sure there'll be pains associated with weightlifting becoming, for example, a popular high school sport, but "bring it on!" We should be less focused on logistics--how am I to coach several lifters at the same time at a national meet (solution: don't. You'll now have enough funds to hire several sous coaches)--and more focused on having the sport become exceptionally popular. Pain is good in this regard. Accept it, love it!!!!"
There are so many logistical reasons not to make national meets large like this and so obvious to any athlete or coach who's ever been involved that I won't even bother to explain. Your saying that we coaches shouldn't be worried about logistics could only be said by someone who doesn't coach or lift and have to actually deal with this. Easy to say from the sidelines. But again, the logistics are incidental anyway.
The point is that a national meet needs to be a prestigious event into which athletes must EARN entry. There will be athletes who train hard their whole lives and never qualify for the national championships - that's fine. That's how it should be. Just like in any other sport - you don't get to go to the highest level of competition just because you participate and think it's cool to lift in a hotel on a stage. You have to prove, through hard work and commitment over a long period of time, that you deserve to be there with the best of the sport.
Suggesting that huge, easy-entry national meets will make the sport grow big like other popular sports is utter nonsense. Every one of these popular sports is stratified by skill level as it should be. Novices don't go to the big show just because it would be fun for them. They train and compete and see who the best is, and the best continue to advance and compete with their peers. The sport can't grow if growth is reliant on people who want it to be easy.
4. "Time will tell how good of an idea it is. I don't think it helps the growth of the Sport. A better National event yes, but possibly not so much for the crowd watching. I personally like multi platform lifting and with extreme growth comes many more coaches. I don't know too many businesses that would cut there services in half or even thirds."
First, the purpose of USAW is to develop Olympians and world class competitive lifters, not to entertain spectators or to make a profit. So any argument focused on those latter two things, or attempting to frame the organization as a conventional business, is inherently problematic and should be dismissed out of hand. That said, I'll continue.
The growth of USAW has brought more coaches and athletes to the sport, which means more money for the NGB through memberships, certification fees and club fees. That's great. It also means a larger and growing pool of athletes to draw from. Also great - the larger the talent pool, the greater the probability of discovering the top tier talent we need for successful international competition. And that talent will emerge through competition as they work their way up the ranks.
Regarding the crowd... If they don't enjoy watching the sport of weightlifting, they shouldn't watch it, just like I don't watch football or baseball because I don't find it interesting. The sport is about the athletes, not the spectators (especially as an Olympic sport, not a professional sport). The spectators will come along with greater athlete participation, as we've already seen. And as I've said above, making the national championships easier to get into and larger is not going to increase athlete participation, but it WILL hurt the ability of USAW to produce the best possible lifters, which requires competition among the top lifters to force them to push harder.
Again, saying you don't know businesses that would cut their services is irrelevant (as profit is not the primary goal for an NGB) and a conflation of two different things - a national meet, and the entire array of USAW income streams (such as all local and regional meets, athlete and coach membership fees, club fees, and coaching education). So even if the number of lifters at the national championships is cut to 30% of what it was this year, that's a minor reduction at best, particularly considering the low entry fees and high cost of running such a meet. I would say, in fact, it's negligible and certainly nothing to be concerned with. National championships entry fees should not be considered a primary revenue source - not even on the list.
All in all, I have to say I've been surprised by the amount and level of objection, and disappointed to say the least. This change is something that has been needed for a couple years already, and I applaud USAW for taking this step.
If you're upset because the national championships or American open is now out of your immediate grasp, how about you get back in the gym and train like an athlete? Work harder for longer and earn it like every athlete has to.
See the USA Weightlifting documentation here
I want to just address a few examples of these objections directly rather than trying to compose something entirely.
The following chunks in quotations were pulled off of various FB posts. Below each one is my response.
1. "What other sport is worried about their events becoming too big? Attended by too many people? It's not an exclusive club, it's a sport. And they wonder why the US is lacking competitive international USAW athletes. If you stifle excitement for the sport created over the past few years, you stifle those excited future or current"
Every sport is worried about their events becoming too big. There is a limit to how many athletes can participate in a given event logistically. However, that is really not even relevant. There is conflation in this post of the sport as a whole and its national championships. No, the sport is not an exclusive club - it is open to anyone who wants to follow the rules of the game and participate. These new procedures do absolutely nothing to change that. Literally anyone can still compete in a sanctioned USAW meet - they could theoretically do it without ever even having performed a snatch or CJ prior to the event. So how does limiting who can make it to nationals reduce participation by new lifters in the sport?
We had better international lifters formerly when national event qualifying totals were higher than they have been in the past few years (and, in fact, total membership was lower) - so claiming changes like this are what's responsible for USAW not having better international lifters is demonstrably untrue. How is making it harder to qualify for a prestigious event stifling excitement for the sport?
New lifters who are excited about the sport will train and compete no matter what their chances of making it to a national meet, because they enjoy the sport. If they're dissuaded from lifting because they have to work a little harder to make it to that level, then they're not going to contribute anything to our pool of potential international lifters anyway and honestly, that's exactly the kind of person this and any sport can do without.
The kind of athletes who can make it to the international level are the kind who are willing to work hard and WANT to work hard, not the kind who want to exploit easy qualifying totals to get to an event. If a higher qualifying total and the need for more work to get to a national meet doesn't motivate you, you're not going anywhere in this or any other sport.
2. "What happens to athletes who want to compete for the hell of it? How does this attract and/or encourage novices to compete? If we cater to only the "top" athletes, then we better have a bomb ass USA weightlifting team in 2016."
Athletes who "want to compete for the hell of it" have no business at a national meet! Do the players in the Super Bowl and the World Series just "play for the hell of it?" Lifters who want to train and compete casually have plenty of opportunities to do so at local and regional meets. Restricting entry to national meets doesn't affect those people one bit. Catering to only top athletes is entirely appropriate for a national level meet - the meet exists solely for top athletes. It's the National Championships, not the Big Fancy Hotel Competition for Anyone Who Just Wants to Lift for the Hell of It.
Why would any novice believe it makes sense for them to be lifting at the national championships? That's like a little leaguer being upset that he can't make it to the World Series.
And if you want a "bomb ass" Olympic team, you need the TOP lifters to lifter better, not more people at a national meet. How does raising standards and expectations and increasing competition make our top lifters worse? It forces them to work harder and dedicate themselves more. Imagine that?! Hard work and dedication for Olympians!
3. "There's another viewpoint not being espoused much, so I'll do it: growth can cause pain, but how bout we react to the pain differently than what has been proposed? How bout we make national weightlifting contests huge events, needing many ballrooms in a hotel to conduct? The sport will likely grow faster than ever before, and many of us will see our long held dream come true, namely Weightlifting becoming as popular as football, baseball, or any of these other big sports. This could happen--within a couple of years at the rate we've seen the past few years!! What a wonderful thing that would be. USAW's current solution seems a bit anti-Adam Smith, comparing things to economics. Sure there'll be pains associated with weightlifting becoming, for example, a popular high school sport, but "bring it on!" We should be less focused on logistics--how am I to coach several lifters at the same time at a national meet (solution: don't. You'll now have enough funds to hire several sous coaches)--and more focused on having the sport become exceptionally popular. Pain is good in this regard. Accept it, love it!!!!"
There are so many logistical reasons not to make national meets large like this and so obvious to any athlete or coach who's ever been involved that I won't even bother to explain. Your saying that we coaches shouldn't be worried about logistics could only be said by someone who doesn't coach or lift and have to actually deal with this. Easy to say from the sidelines. But again, the logistics are incidental anyway.
The point is that a national meet needs to be a prestigious event into which athletes must EARN entry. There will be athletes who train hard their whole lives and never qualify for the national championships - that's fine. That's how it should be. Just like in any other sport - you don't get to go to the highest level of competition just because you participate and think it's cool to lift in a hotel on a stage. You have to prove, through hard work and commitment over a long period of time, that you deserve to be there with the best of the sport.
Suggesting that huge, easy-entry national meets will make the sport grow big like other popular sports is utter nonsense. Every one of these popular sports is stratified by skill level as it should be. Novices don't go to the big show just because it would be fun for them. They train and compete and see who the best is, and the best continue to advance and compete with their peers. The sport can't grow if growth is reliant on people who want it to be easy.
4. "Time will tell how good of an idea it is. I don't think it helps the growth of the Sport. A better National event yes, but possibly not so much for the crowd watching. I personally like multi platform lifting and with extreme growth comes many more coaches. I don't know too many businesses that would cut there services in half or even thirds."
First, the purpose of USAW is to develop Olympians and world class competitive lifters, not to entertain spectators or to make a profit. So any argument focused on those latter two things, or attempting to frame the organization as a conventional business, is inherently problematic and should be dismissed out of hand. That said, I'll continue.
The growth of USAW has brought more coaches and athletes to the sport, which means more money for the NGB through memberships, certification fees and club fees. That's great. It also means a larger and growing pool of athletes to draw from. Also great - the larger the talent pool, the greater the probability of discovering the top tier talent we need for successful international competition. And that talent will emerge through competition as they work their way up the ranks.
Regarding the crowd... If they don't enjoy watching the sport of weightlifting, they shouldn't watch it, just like I don't watch football or baseball because I don't find it interesting. The sport is about the athletes, not the spectators (especially as an Olympic sport, not a professional sport). The spectators will come along with greater athlete participation, as we've already seen. And as I've said above, making the national championships easier to get into and larger is not going to increase athlete participation, but it WILL hurt the ability of USAW to produce the best possible lifters, which requires competition among the top lifters to force them to push harder.
Again, saying you don't know businesses that would cut their services is irrelevant (as profit is not the primary goal for an NGB) and a conflation of two different things - a national meet, and the entire array of USAW income streams (such as all local and regional meets, athlete and coach membership fees, club fees, and coaching education). So even if the number of lifters at the national championships is cut to 30% of what it was this year, that's a minor reduction at best, particularly considering the low entry fees and high cost of running such a meet. I would say, in fact, it's negligible and certainly nothing to be concerned with. National championships entry fees should not be considered a primary revenue source - not even on the list.
All in all, I have to say I've been surprised by the amount and level of objection, and disappointed to say the least. This change is something that has been needed for a couple years already, and I applaud USAW for taking this step.
If you're upset because the national championships or American open is now out of your immediate grasp, how about you get back in the gym and train like an athlete? Work harder for longer and earn it like every athlete has to.
See the USA Weightlifting documentation here
If you want to lift at a big fancy hotel just for the hell of it, go to the Arnold.
I completely agree with your take on this. My initial reaction was "Wow, guess I'm going to have to work even harder!"
Also, you say that the "the purpose of USAW is to develop Olympians and world class competitive lifters, not to entertain spectators or to make a profit," but isn't that kind of a chicken/egg thing? In other words, isn't a huge factor in developing Olympians and world class competitive lifters having the resources to do that (which I understand the USAW lacks)?
3 people per weight class get to stand on the podium - there will be up to 15 people lifting per weight class. That leaves 12 people not on the podium (4 times the number on the podium). But yes, those 15 people will all be relatively competitive - why shouldn't they be?
And as I explained in the post, the money issue is being attached to this inappropriately. People want to watch and support a sport in which we're good - they want to see Americans on the podium at Pan Ams, world championships and the Olympics. To do that, we not only need talented lifters and coaches, but competition among them to push them harder and get the most out of them.
The popularity has increased greatly within the growing CF community, which helps, but you can't dilute the sport and harm the top athletes' chances of performing at their best because you're worried about losing 4% of your annual revenue or pissing off a few people who, based on their reaction to news like this, have no chance of ever being one of those top athletes anyway.
This is just like every other sport in the world. The vast majority of participants are not very good at it, but they play/compete/train because they enjoy it, and they enjoy spectating. There's no condition of being able to compete at some elite level to their caring about the sport (imagine if every baseball fan decided to no longer watch baseball because they felt it was unfairly difficult for them to get into the world series). Where does the revenue from these other sports come from? Certainly not from the top athletes. It comes from sources like advertising and sponsorships that are predicated on large crowds - crowds made up of people who, at best, participate at a recreational level.
There are a ton of local competitions that will continue growing in number that these lifters can do, and if they train their asses off and have some talent, they too will have a chance to compete with the best in the country. And with tougher competition and the increasing exposure of the sport, we will find more talent and push that talent farther, getting us better results internationally, which will in turn get more people interested in the sport.
America has gone so far towards "everyone should get a participation ribbon" that it's even been affecting national level weightlifting, and this is a great step forward in curing that. That's what Nationals is essentially for... it's a proving ground for the best of the best, not the best of the rest.
A proving ground for the international stage and the Olympics is not the place for the best of the rest, unless they are in the stands cheering for the best of the best. Why is it so hard for so many of us to get behind that idea?
I believe that it is often best to learn to take pride in where you really are, no excuses. So you didn't make nationals, but you took 4th in your region? Kick ass! Be proud of that, but know that it takes more than that to make Nationals. It is totally OK to not ever be able to make Nationals, especially if you know for sure that you have done everything right and gotten the best coaching you can get.
Not everyone has the inherent physiological gifts to make Nationals, and of those that do not all of them have the time or are in the right location with the right trainer. Most of us could never walk onto the National Stage, even if we all started training as children, because most of us are not supremely gifted for this sport. That's totally cool. None of that changes the way I feel while I am under the bar, and that is what should matter the most to us.
Underneath it all, weightlifting (and sports in general) are supposed to build character, and it is poor character for us to want something that we do not deserve for whatever reason. It is fantastic character, on the other hand, to celebrate the achievements of those who DO make it to Nationals, and to go there or watch it on TV and enjoy the performances. Be motivated, be captivated by the sport, and don't be jealous of those who do earn their spot at Nationals, and this sport will grow like a weed.
Not getting a larger pool of competitors at Nationals. If there were only 5 people that would be a problem, but we have too many as it is. Narrowing the field to a size where people can actually know most of the competitors and have a great selection of rivalries across weight classes, with talent continuing to evolve as the sport gains participants, is really the best way to grow the sport. Greg really hit the nail on the head.
I'm not sure I follow you - 15/20 rule as in you have to open within 15/20 kg of your announced entry total? Seems to me it would have no effect here. You're qualifying based on an actual total performed, not any announced total that may be higher than your highest qualifying total prior to that meet. How would you use that to make a world team? You could announce a higher entry total to get into an A session, but that doesn't get you on a team - you still have to make the necessary total for ranking. And in this new system, there will likely be only A sessions, so it seems like that rule won't come into play much if at all. I must not be understanding what you're getting at here.
Also think that entertaining spectators and making some money are not things to be dismissed out of hand-one of the reason our sport loses athletes to football is that football has enough money to offer scholarships, and enough of an audience to offer fame. If weightlifting continues to prevent a talented athlete from getting either, then we will continue to see all our Olympic Gold Medalists sacking quarterbacks or rushing for first downs. That money football has comes from the entertained spectators. So maybe it shouldn't be the primary goal of the NGB, but I think it ought to be on the list.
Maybe a series of Regional meets would be a good compromise to allow for more audience exposure, and give people who are not going to make that top 15 or 20 a chance to lift at a meet beyond the local level? There is a lot of pride and validation of effort that comes with qualifying for a meet...even people in other sports who never make it to the World Series or the Super Bowl can look back on making it to the State Championships or some such. In weightlifting, we don't have that right now, not in a meaningful way (qualifying totals, competitive pipeline, or the like).
And I could just be totally wrong. These are only my thoughts.