Running A Powerlifting Meet (Part 1)
How to do it right
Nowadays it seems like almost every gym that is even somewhat familiar with powerlifting wants to run a meet. Great — the sport is getting more popular! Not so great — those meets are usually run like crap. Here are my thoughts on how to make sure your first or n-th meet doesn’t suck.
Date
It all starts with the date of the meet. Powerlifters need to prepare for meets. It takes time to peak, they probably have planned macro/mesocycles too. So, if you announce that you are running a meet 2 weeks before, just how many real powerlifters will show up? Not a lot, if you ask me. 3 months is ideal, but slightly less is ok too, depending on what caliber of powerlifters are you aiming at. Stronger guys will not jump a meet that’s been announced only a month beforehand. Beginners, on the other hand, shouldn’t have a problem.
Before picking a date, you should also think about whether you are planning to run this annually. If so, then pick a month of the year and stick to it! A week earlier or later is not a big deal (if announced early enough), but if you decide to move a meet from November to September, that’s not great. Ideally, since most meets are run on the weekend, you should just pick the n-th weekend of that month. So, for example, everyone will know that on the 2nd weekend of November this meet will happen every year. I can assure you, many powerlifters will be very appreciative of such consistency.
Lastly, make sure you scout out what other meets are running near your meet date. If possible pick a date which would allow lifters from other meets to join yours! Clashing schedules will never be in your favor if other meets have been already established and well known. And if they are of high quality — well, no one will care about yours, unless you offer something so good (prizes?) that powerlifters will be willing to forgo the other meets just to attend yours. In my opinion, trying to undermine other meets like that is not classy and some people will see it that way. This could damage your reputation and have a backlash. In other words, play nice.
Rules
When announcing the meet, you have to make sure you explain what rules the meet is run on. Different federations have different rules and that is important for any serious powerlifter. Drug tested? Power bar or Deadlift bar for deadlift? Toes only allowed on Benchpress or not? Wraps or Sleeves?
To take it further, you should also consider carefully whether you want to implement all the rules in your main federation rulebook. A simple example is the strict equipment requirements (IPF). If you just started or most meets in your area do not require to have approved gear brands, then what sense does it make to force people to re-buy their equipment just to compete in your meet? Not only that, not everyone can afford to gear up with, say SBD equipment. Sure, a few quality meets later you can start to enforce the rules, but not when you just joined the game. It doesn’t make sense.
The same goes for bars, racks, and weights. If you decide to use a deadlift bar, make sure it’s a bar that’s more popular, more accessible. For example, a Texas Deadlift Bar is a completely different beast compared to Rogue Deadlift Bar. Racks, if you want to use monolift, but no one else in the area has such a thing, is that the best idea? As a rule of thumb, scout out what is the state of powerlifting in where you plan to host the meet and try to accommodate lifter expectations.
Registration
Whenever possible, you should avoid imposing a maximum lifter limit. Generally, the more, the merrier. Unless it’s like 200+ lifters. Sure, venue, time and human resources can be an issue. But that’s why you collect participation fees. In an event that you are sure you will have more lifters than you can handle, having a certain limit is fine, but then you have to decide whether you go on a first come first serve basis or some other means (like strength level). The first one is easy and you don’t know what quality of lifters you will get. The second one is not fair to weaker lifters, but then again your meet will have stronger people competing. Both of these methods have trade-offs. In my opinion, not limiting is the best option, but you need to be serious about the organization and proceeding of the meet.
Moving on, you should decide the participation fee. The idea is to make sure you don’t go broke (although, a negative balance, in the end, is to be expected at first) and not have a crappy meet with plastic medals. Take into account venue cost, handlers, judges, prizes and do the math. Compare to nearby meets and adjust if necessary. No one wants to pay exorbitant amounts just for the registration. Powerlifting is not a rich sport and even going to a meet can cost a lot of money. But if making it super cheap makes the meet horrible, I’d rather pay more and have a higher quality one.
Human Resources
Usually the biggest problem in the meets. Not enough handlers, not enough judges. Bad handlers are dangerous to the lifters, bad judges make everyone angry. At the very least you should have 7 judges (3 for platform + 3 for jury + 1 technical) and 5 spotters that could rotate on every flight. If you can’t get enough volunteers, you have other options, such as payments for the work or if you have team prizes — a requirement for the team to have one judge for the meet or lose 1 team member points in the total tally. Offering to waive participation fees for spotters is also a good option. For example, if they compete on Day 1, the can spot on Day 2. Or they could be given a free pass on the next meet. Of course, such things as announcers, scorekeepers are also important and they can’t work indefinitely, so having a pair of each is a must.
To put it simply, there are ways to resolve human resources issues if one puts their mind to it. The other problem is quality. Bad spotters, at best, mean lost lift attempt, at worst — potential life-threatening events. They must be taught how to load the weight and how to spot a lifter, not hindering their lift but making sure they will be safe if they fail the lift.
Judges also need to be trained. And certified if possible. There is nothing worse than losing because of a bad judge call. Learning all the details of the rules both in theory and practice is a must. Squat depth, benchpress pause, deadlift lockout are the main issues with powerlifting judging and should be seriously analyzed and understood by every judge on the platform.
