Running A Powerlifting Meet (Part 2)
How to do it right
In Part 1 we talked about Dates, Rules, Registration, and Human Resources. Now, let’s talk about Schedules and Warmup.
Schedule
It is absolutely vital to announce the meet schedule in advance. Weigh-in times and flight times as early as possible. That’s because cutting weight for a class and knowing what they powerlifters need to lift is extremely important during the peak week. If they do not know these things they cannot prepare properly, and that will hardly make them appreciate your organization skills.
Breaks during the event should also be defined beforehand. There is nothing worse than an unexpected break when athletes are already warmed up. This shouldn’t happen. Ever!
In case it does happen, it has to be done as early as possible and it should be announced through all available channels so that every single lifter in the event knows what’s happening. In addition to that, every athlete should be told where to look for anything new concerning the event. A social media page, a responsible person during the meet should be available and up to date at all times.
Warmup Area
A meet is defined by how good the warmup area is. Athletes get extremely grumpy if they get shitty equipment, not enough of it, or everything is cramped into a small, unventilated place.
Space is important. Having enough fresh air is important. Not being forced to breathe down someone else’s butt is extremely important. The number of people in the warmup area should be tightly controlled. If the area is small, smaller flights can help with that. But having a dedicated person who controls who gets into the area would solve a lot of problems that I usually see in the meets. For example, having a rule of no more than 1–2 coaches for a team and a handler for each of the athletes would dramatically reduce the people in the warmup area.
Oh and if you want to prevent athletes running around, give them the damn score screen with flight order! I can’t believe this is something that meet organizers still do not understand. Athletes need to see when they go to the platform, regardless of what the announcer says. They also need to know opponent numbers. If you have one screen and it’s for the audience only, what do you expect will happen? A projector screen is desirable but a tv/monitor is also acceptable. As long as there’s something!
Extra things that help are providing enough big trash bins and water that are regularly checked upon. It gets hot and messy after a while. And no one wants to walk around in trash or run around to find some water. These are small things but they do help with the overall experience.
Lastly, something that’s get missed a lot is the isolation of the warmup area. The most important aspect of this is to make sure it does not bleed into the competition. It happens all the time for some reason! At first, everything is fine, but as the meet progresses, somehow the warmup edges its way into the main area. Make sure you isolate it and keep it that way (that’s why you have a technical referee). There should be only a small entrance and exit to the platform and it should be tightly controlled. A viewer should not be able to see what’s going in the backstage — it’s distracting and not always a pleasant view.
Warmup Equipment
3 to 4 warmup platforms are a must if you are expecting up to 15 powerlifters in a single flight. Best if the warmup equipment is the same as the competition, but that’s not always possible. If that’s the case, you need to make sure the differences are negligible. One fatal mistake would be to have bench width/heights that are different from the competition platform.
Next, having plates of different diameters and extreme thickness is a big no-no if the meet has Deadlifts in it. Plates that are off by 5–10% of their original weight is not acceptable under ANY circumstances. Yes, those Standard Barbell plates look cool and all, but holy damn they are inaccurate. Stop using them in meets! Enough of fractional plates is also a must. Especially when women are competing. Having the right warmup weight on the bar in, for example, Benchpress is of vital importance. Imagine trying to prepare for your 1st attempt of 40 kg when there is only one pair of 1.25kg plates available for a total of 12 competitors. What’s worse, imagine meet is run in KG, but the weights in the warm-up area are in LBS! Any warmup plan an athlete had, goes out of the window. And no, doing the math on a calculator does not help because LBS plates are fundamentally different in actual weights.
Moving on to bars. Again, they should match what is used on the competition platform. This is especially important for Deadlift bars. If someone is forced to warm up with a Power bar and has to use a Deadlift bar, well, what do you expect will happen? Or, imagine you have to use a Deadlift bar for Squats? Yes, it happened to me, just recently. These are the things that you remember forever and not as happy memories…
Lastly, it is always appreciated if you provide chalk for both the warmup area and before stepping to the platform. Just make sure no one can spill it. Nothing worse than a floor full of chalk.
