Future of powerlifting? (with all these Feds and everything else)

[Hardlifter9]

Since we have like 10 times more feds than we really need (only need 2-3...), and with all the different gear options, where do you guys the sport is heading?

Olympics is way too unlikely yes. Direct public interest isn't too high, but most average people find powerlifting to be "cool" (most people find it impressive to compete/win/set records etc., I dont know if this is just my experience or not though, but I certainly remember people didn't care as much when I won medals at high level track meets). Powerlifting also doesn't have the same image as bodybuilding, given the vast majority of people find serious/pro bodybuilding to be unappealing (unattractive).

Raw powerlifting seems to be growing, at least here in Canada... memberships and entries are going up every year and it's pretty much raw lifters. The issues are based around the extremely large number of feds. I mean what other sport has like 30 different federations lol.... IPF and maybe something like WPC is definitely enough. That gives you the drug tested and nontested along with the option of competing double ply. You tend to wonder where all the smaller feds are heading towards anyway.
Public understanding is definitely growing too, I mean I don't think even a third as many younger guys lifted like 20 years ago as compared to now. More lifters = more strong guys = more likely to compete = sport grows.

Anyway, what do you guys think?

[Valrknut]

There should seriously be two feds. One for gear, one without.

[GetHimABodyBag]

Raw powerlifting. Looking more joocy. Bye bye SPF Hello High Bar. Mark Rippletoad competing in Masters.

[zmcdole]

I honestly don't think a lot will change other than the increase in the number of raw lifters. I honestly don't think multiply will last, but who knows, it's big in the midwest and on the east coast so we'll see. It will never be mainstream because it's associated with unmentionables and the media does a fantastic job of making that stuff sound worse than Hitler and it's very confusing to people who don't know better when you start trying to explain gear.

The number of feds and poor judging won't go away either most likely because there's no way to govern it. Plus this is an ego driven sport. We're all in it for vain reasons whether you admit it or not and those that are in charge of certain feds will never succumb to anything other than they want to do and therefore they won't change unless the people that support what they do migrate to another fed.

The best thing that can happen to powerlifting will be the continued support of quality federations. This will hopefully draw the best lifters and the others crappy non judging/we don't even follow our own rulebook feds will implode. Even if that happens it will still always be an underground sport and your relatives or friends will always look at you and say, "Is that where you do this?" while making a clean and jerk motion.

[Rusty56]

I don't mind all the feds. It seems to me that most people who only want 1 or 2 feds want powerlifting to somehow be in the Olympics. I see no advantage in having limited feds vs many feds.

[JPowerlifter]

Raw powerlifting. Looking more joocy. Bye bye SPF Hello High Bar. Mark Rippletoad competing in Masters.

I agree RAW is where its at! Its making a huge come back!

[tinytim1]

Nothing wrong with all the feds, if you want more competition then join one of the bigger ones. I love what's happening with powerlifting in australia, big things to come over here

[WN86]

I know this much: there are so many federations and different opinions about raw vs geared or single ply vs multi ply, etc. that it is exceedingly difficult to separate the BS from what's legitimate as a novice to powerlifting. It's overwhelming. It's absolutely ridiculous that people even compare raw to geared and literally sit and argue over it considering that it is obviously two different things. It would seriously go more mainstream or at least be better if they had 2-4 federations of raw and geared, maybe 2 for each with some differences. And clear rules that they follow for each that are universal among meets. The more confusing sh*t is, the less it appeals to people. I seriously have spent hours staring at my screen reading about this fed or that fed or what makes this gear different or what is considered raw in this fed or that "gear is stupid" or whatever that even when my lifts start to get decent that I would be apprehensive about competing, raw or geared.

I guess that's a rant, but it would seriously help if it was all less confusing and clusterf*cked.

[Dogmai]

I think its really more of an issue if you're an untested and multi-ply lifter. If you're tested and raw or single-ply there is really only one option and that's the IPF which is biggest and most professional fed in the world. Sure there is the WDFPF but they're really just a joke compared to the IPF. The amount of untested feds both in the US and Worldwide is baffling though. As said, surely WPC was enough? Why did GPC, GPA, IPA, etc appear? They all have the same damn rules as far as I can see. Ok maybe a few differences over raw with wraps and without...

The IPF are still trying quite seriously to gain IOC recognition and I think they will oneday, though whether they will ever gain entry into the Olympics is another question all together.

[Jason2459]

IPF has been IOC recognized for quite some time now and is included in the World Games.

[WHT_LIGHTNING]

The IPF are still trying quite seriously to gain IOC recognition and I think they will oneday, though whether they will ever gain entry into the Olympics is another question all together.

doubtful, if the Olympics could, they would get rid of weightlifting but it was one of the originals, so it has sort of been "grandfathered" in. I can't speak for the rest of the world, but here, there is far more interest in powerlifting than weightlifting. I would tell people that I competed in weightlifting, and they would as "is that where you squat, bench, and deadlift" (well some of them would, others would just look baffled), and I would then explain it, etc.

[Jason2459]

doubtful, if the Olympics could, they would get rid of weightlifting but it was one of the originals, so it has sort of been "grandfathered" in. I can't speak for the rest of the world, but here, there is far more interest in powerlifting than weightlifting. I would tell people that I competed in weightlifting, and they would as "is that where you squat, bench, and deadlift" (well some of them would, others would just look baffled), and I would then explain it, etc.

They did almost get rid of wrestling which is also one of the first in the modern Olympics and also in the ancient games.

[WHT_LIGHTNING]

They did almost get rid of wrestling which is also one of the first in the modern Olympics and also in the ancient games.

yup, caused a huge backlash and it got saved. If wrestling can go, I am sure weightlifting can go as well. Neither are really high on attendance, etc. Weightlifting seems to be making a little bit of a comeback in the US (thanks Crossfit, SRS) but it still is wicked small.

[WorldDomnit]

Geared lifting will never die. You haters can pray all you want.

Emphasis on never

[WN86]

They did almost get rid of wrestling which is also one of the first in the modern Olympics and also in the ancient games.

I would have quit watching altogether if they did that. That was such bs, not to derail the thread, but seriously they wanted to get rid of one of the oldest and most original competitions of the Olympics. What the actual living f*ck?

[WHT_LIGHTNING]

Geared lifting will never die. You haters can pray all you want.

Emphasis on never

it won't ever die, but it will never be "mainstream" again

IMO, of course.

[Dogmai]

IPF has been IOC recognized for quite some time now and is included in the World Games.

Not quite...
http://www.powerlifting-ipf.com/file...sletter2.0.pdf

[arian11]

They did almost get rid of wrestling which is also one of the first in the modern Olympics and also in the ancient games.

yup, caused a huge backlash and it got saved. If wrestling can go, I am sure weightlifting can go as well. Neither are really high on attendance, etc. Weightlifting seems to be making a little bit of a comeback in the US (thanks Crossfit, SRS) but it still is wicked small.

I would have quit watching altogether if they did that. That was such bs, not to derail the thread, but seriously they wanted to get rid of one of the oldest and most original competitions of the Olympics. What the actual living f*ck?

I believe Mike Tuchscherer said in his interview with Rippetoe that he heard they kicked out wrestling from the Olympics to force them to make rules changes they wanted. Once they made those changes, they re-instated the sport. Basically, wrestling was too boring and people were stalling when they had the lead. So they made changes to counter that and make it more aggressive I guess to get more viewers.

As far as powerlifting, raw lifting is definitely growing. USAPL yearly memberships are supposedly growing. Geared lifting might decline in the next coming years but I'm sure there will still be those few who will cling to it and keep some of the feds alive and they'll just compete in their own small group.

[InspecktaDeck]

Lets not get geared lifting too confused with poor judging. Just because a certain group [cough]WESTSIDEBARBELL[/cough] dominated the sport for several years and demanded gift lifts and happened to lift geared.. doesnt mean all geared lifting is poorly judged. It would be a sad day to see geared lifting drop off from powerlifting. I saw a lot of geared lifters this weekend squatting to depth, pausing benches, and locking out pulls, solid judging = solid lifting.

[Hardlifter9]

I don't mind all the feds. It seems to me that most people who only want 1 or 2 feds want powerlifting to somehow be in the Olympics. I see no advantage in having limited feds vs many feds.

or maybe they want to compete against everyone...

The olympics would be a terrific goal if it was realistic and the olympics was actually adding sports.

[Synthetickiller]

Here's my take on it.

PLing won't become an olympic sport unless you simply do away with all gear. I won't call that raw (that'll be discussed in a bit). The olympic committee seems to love standardization & PLing as a sport is not standard. Too many feds, different forms of judging, differing equipment (weights/bars, stands vs mono-lift, etc), the allowance of gear assisted lifts (this will never fly).

All feds & judging aside, that can be dealt with. The issue is supportive gear. Now before people begin their counter-arguments with, "other sports have made strides in supportive gear from track cleats, to swim suits, goggles, bikes, skis, etc." It's fairly easy to tell someone is getting 200+ lbs out of a squat suit. The fact that Oly lifting has none of this is a huge hurtle for geared powerlifting or even "raw."

Raw is another thing everyone's talking about. Raw is new. People have been using belts, tennis balls behind the knees, material to wrap the knees (and elbows back in the day) since the sport began. Watch the evolution of suits from Ed Coans era in the 80s (very little if any support) to single ply suits giving guys (and girls) 200+ in the squat alone. Just start reading or watching interviews with old powerlifters, especially when the sport included the curl & you had to clean the weight above you to squat it. Big change compared to today. The sport itself has had no real standard for a very long time & has constantly evolved. This provides too many hurdles. This would force people to ask, "What are the origins of powerlifting & what is powerlifting at it's core?" These can't be answered as different feds in powerlifting had different lifts depending on what parts of the country they were in.

That, my friends, is where the problem lies. Powerlifting has never had standards. While we are (or were) moving closer to that, the advent or "raw" & version of "raw" put a damper on that as well.

[Silentpoet]

I didn't even know weightlifting was still in the olympics based on the awful nbc coverage. The only thing I could find was the supers, and even that was just the clean and jerks not the snatch. Powerlifting probably wouldn't get much more coverage. NBC is pathetic. Absolutely a travesty in their coverage.

[Hardlifter9]

Here's my take on it.

PLing won't become an olympic sport unless you simply do away with all gear. I won't call that raw (that'll be discussed in a bit). The olympic committee seems to love standardization & PLing as a sport is not standard. Too many feds, different forms of judging, differing equipment (weights/bars, stands vs mono-lift, etc), the allowance of gear assisted lifts (this will never fly).

All feds & judging aside, that can be dealt with. The issue is supportive gear. Now before people begin their counter-arguments with, "other sports have made strides in supportive gear from track cleats, to swim suits, goggles, bikes, skis, etc." It's fairly easy to tell someone is getting 200+ lbs out of a squat suit. The fact that Oly lifting has none of this is a huge hurtle for geared powerlifting or even "raw."

Raw is another thing everyone's talking about. Raw is new. People have been using belts, tennis balls behind the knees, material to wrap the knees (and elbows back in the day) since the sport began. Watch the evolution of suits from Ed Coans era in the 80s (very little if any support) to single ply suits giving guys (and girls) 200+ in the squat alone. Just start reading or watching interviews with old powerlifters, especially when the sport included the curl & you had to clean the weight above you to squat it. Big change compared to today. The sport itself has had no real standard for a very long time & has constantly evolved. This provides too many hurdles. This would force people to ask, "What are the origins of powerlifting & what is powerlifting at it's core?" These can't be answered as different feds in powerlifting had different lifts depending on what parts of the country they were in.

That, my friends, is where the problem lies. Powerlifting has never had standards. While we are (or were) moving closer to that, the advent or "raw" & version of "raw" put a damper on that as well.

Well it seems the IPF provides the closest you'll get to standardization. That is, their classic (aka raw) division.
What is the real purpose behind geared lifting anyway? I know how it started, but what's with the popularity of it among lifters? The reality is that you're not really benching or squatting that weight on your own, so what's the real idea behind doing it? Is it just the idea of "benching" 1000lbs one day? Is it more fun cause you move bigger weight?

To me (being a former sprinter myself), geared lifting seems like having downhill sprint events. You'll get faster times of course, but so what? A belt can be compared to something like track spikes, where it lets you maximize your own performance, but doesn't directly enhance your lift.

[isaku900]

...sooooo olympics, and talking down to geared lifting.

two things that have been hashed and re-hashed over and over again on this site.

one of which is an automatic lock.