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? Its not an exclusive club, its 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 whats 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 theyre dissuaded from lifting because they have to work a little harder to make it to that level, then theyre not going to contribute anything to our pool of potential international lifters anyway and honestly, thats 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 doesnt motivate you, youre 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 doesnt 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. Its 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? Thats like a little leaguer being upset that he cant 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. Theres another viewpoint not being espoused much, so Ill 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 weve seen the past few years!! What a wonderful thing that would be. USAWs current solution seems a bit anti-Adam Smith, comparing things to economics. Sure therell 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: dont. Youll 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 whos ever been involved that I wont even bother to explain. Your saying that we coaches shouldnt be worried about logistics could only be said by someone who doesnt 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 - thats fine. Thats how it should be. Just like in any other sport - you dont get to go to the highest level of competition just because you participate and think its 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 dont 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 cant 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 dont 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 dont 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, Ill 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. Thats 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 dont enjoy watching the sport of weightlifting, they shouldnt watch it, just like I dont watch football or baseball because I dont 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 weve already seen. And as Ive 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 dont 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, thats a minor reduction at best, particularly considering the low entry fees and high cost of running such a meet, net much less). I would say, in fact, its 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 Ive 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 youre 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.
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 22:00:40 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015