Having recently coached in both the American Open (AO) Finals and our local LWC championships, the following thoughts have become crystallized, although they have been percolating for a while. The LWC meet was a relaunching of the championships that had been lacking for several years. Although some of us pushed for qualifying totals for this event it was decided to go without them in what was to become an inaugural event. Qualifying totals were also a topic at the AO’s as they frequently are.
Qualifying Totals
Qualifying totals can often be a sensitive subject worthy of generating a range of opinions. The most obvious function of qualifying totals is to insure the quality of the competitive field. They, however, also serve as goals and incentives for up and coming athletes and consequently may also serve to keep the competitive types involved and moving forward with their training. While the less competitive types may see them merely as barriers, others see them as surmountable rungs on an upward flight.
Competitive Sport Program vs Recreational Program
The issue of keeping qualifying totals low needs to be placed in the perspective of whether or not the emphasis of a program is recreational or competitive.
The recreational mentality is geared to maximum participation with the participants deriving the benefits of physical exertion and camaraderie. This is the “everyone plays, everyone gets a ribbon” mentality which is perfectly acceptable if recreation is the primary motivation.
The goal of a competitive program is to determine who is the best, and if the championship event is the culmination of a series of events, it provides a crescendo to the year or season. There will be winners and losers and though that may be off-putting to the self-esteem-above- all advocates, it is the driving force behind competitive events and certainly even more so for the sport of weightlifting which has numbers that most can understand.
The SPLWC as an example
We held a meeting of the Southern Pacific Local Weightlifting Committee on November 1st prior to the SPLWC championships. At the meeting it was reported that 48 meet sanctions had been granted at that point. Undoubtedly there will be at least 52 this year, almost all if not all, without qualifying totals. This means we had at least 1 meet every week of 2019. Since there were no qualifying totals for any of them (including the championships), they all just became the same meet every weekend, just in different places. The championships (with 180+ competitors) did not provide a crescendo to the year (season). Pretty much the picture of a purely recreational program.
The Old SPLWC
Up until 1980, weightlifting was run by the A.A.U. and what is now the SPLWC was the Southern Pacific Association and the Pacific Southwest. Basically the former was Los Angeles and the latter San Diego.
In December of each year each of the two held an association championships with qualifying totals. In February, we held the Southern California championships which featured the best of the two associations with higher qualifying totals so that the level of competition was higher. In April would be the California State championships with the best lifters from the aforementioned Southern Pacific and Pacific Southwest along with the Pacific (San Francisco-Sacramento-Fresno). The qualifying totals would be higher and thus the level of competition.
After that meet, the Nationals would be held in June with the very best of the athletes from the California State Championships advancing.
This created a tiered competitive season with each step being more rigorous. This created great excitement and anticipation amongst both the lifters and the spectators.
Now in addition to these events there were local all-comers meets and junior only meets to provide competitive opportunities for the recreational and developing lifters so that they were not ignored and to keep the program from becoming short sighted.
The AO Series
The AO Series always generates arguments over the qualifying totals. I’ve never heard of anyone advocating for lower totals so that idea is off the table. What we actually have is a hybrid type of meet with both elite and recreational athletes eligible to compete. Raising the qualifying totals (which have been done albeit slightly), generally raises the quality of the C (D, E whichever) sessions, but not the top end. Most of the people advocating for higher qualifying totals are doing so in acknowledgment of the unwieldiness of such a large event and to some degree the subsequent de-emphasis of the A sessions.
I might also add that those coaches with numerous lifters spread over the various sessions might not be able to devote as much time and attention to their A session lifters and those are the athletes who more than likely will represent the organization in international competitions.
Spectator Appeal
With an eye toward future media exposure beyond live streaming, there might be more spectator appeal for the live event if it was all A sessions for both the AO final and the Nationals. Now I know that this will cut into the funding generated by entry fees and would be the primary argument against it, but at some point there should be some emphasis placed on showcasing our very best talent.
Right now only friends and family members are pretty much the bulk of the spectatorship for the B, C, etc. sessions. A well promoted event of A sessions only could draw large crowds. If needed we might re-consider having Regional versions (AO-Silver Series?) for the recreational level group and reserve the finals for the elite (lifestylers) only sessions. This would create greater excitement for the participants and spectators as it could eventually lead to tiered events. For example we could have the AO series with higher qualifying totals at each event. This would provide goals and incentives for the athletes and greater enthusiasm for the audience.
Thinking Ahead
We may have reached a point where we would need to do some long range planning for our national events. We are not bound to conducting them in the same manner year after year. The size of the participant field will probably not continue to grow at the current rate. More emphasis and attention needs to be given over to the elite level athletes. There needs to be more dedicated talent search and there needs to be some means by which identified talent can be connected to the best coaching. As a sport we have made substantial economic gains without giving sufficient attention to the development of the product we are putting on the platform. Qualifying totals are one point of consideration, but USAW is currently in need of a more visionary approach to the manner in which the sport is conducted.