Everyone's a National Champion!

Simple way round this is to have a promoter hold the champion of champions,maybe at an event like the Europa super show.Proof positive you are a fed national or international champ gains you entry.Rules set by the promoter

Through passion,I gain strength.

heres what we need: 1 federation - raw and mutli ply offered. teen division 14-19, open division, masters division 50+. 5 weight divisions - under 132, 132-165, 165-198, 198-242, over 242. all divisions would be tested.

if this were to be a reality, we would only have around 60 national champs. imagine that!!

Yeah, it's kind of comic- but I don't see any harm in it.

I personally think the amount of time wasted figuring this out, and then the amount of time I spent going through the calculations myself to make sure they were correct was a complete waste. I'd really like to have that 2 and a half minutes of my life back.

Same subject -- different name -- this same old argument is getting old -- give it up -- it is what it is

1995(I think) or '96 Nasa Novice Nationals 220 lifetime drug free... biotches....lol

Oh hell, what a joke that was.

I will not fear the hammer, I will not fear the hammer !

I've gotten a few records and realize the current state of affairs...I benchmark myself off of the rankings (PL Watch, and Plifting USA)...Seems to be a more objective way of finding out where you are. Seems a little ambiguous in your research as well...What's the definition of a National Champ. He or she has won a National Meet in his or her division? A record holder? I still think because of all the federations and divisions, one can only benchmark themselves through the rankings...And still I've seen a powerlifter with a raw total of 1840 juxtaposed to a single ply lifter with a total of 1845 in Plifting USA...I don't think they are comparable

So, thanks to the multitude of divisions that exist today, there is a National title for each and every one of us if we just pay our entry fee and hit three token lifts. "

You make it sound too easy. Some of us, even the way it is now, it took some time to get a record or achieve a title. There's really nothing token about it. But I do see the whole of your argument to be true. I remember one meet I could have won the division by just throwing up anything...I was the only one in that division, but I didn't throw up token lifts, I competed against the guys at a higher and lower weight class below me.

Bench America was a cross federation national championship.....

I wish there was more of the same kind of contest every year and also for the 3 lift.

If you could win that it was quite a feat.

I agree, that'd be great for powerlifting. Records and champions in one place, all of the best lifters competing against each other. The TV contracts would come back, and you'd know how you really compared against other lifters. I'd also be curious to know what weight classes Wilks originally proposed (was on this site a few days ago...).

Answer me this. In 2009 I plan on competeing in three feds. Nasa, Raw, and Wnpf. I will attend a state, national and Worlds for each fed. If I totaled elite in all three feds and lifted in there open classes only. IF i would finish first in each fed also would that make me a national and World champion???? Your opinions please.

A champion within that federation.

who cares about what place u get at what meet as long as you lift more than your previous meet.

You mean I'm not the only National Champ out there??LMFAO

Raw Unity meet is the champion of champions meet for RAW.

Just add a single and multi ply meet like that and your true national champions will be crowned there as well.

I almost forgot. has that hammer fallen yet?
Just more hot air out of that fat ass son of a bitch

I think the IPA pro-am is the closest for multi-ply. USAPL nationals is the closest single-ply.

There aren't really that many national champs either. Not all of those divisions are entered at each nationals. You have some nationals where there's only 15-20 lifters.

There were 400 World Champions at the last AAU meet I attended in Las Vegas.

?

The people that win these titles
USAPL Bench Nats
will have truly earned something. What an amazing collection of benching talent!!

A subject like this contributes to so many federations.
Just stop and start looking at some of the responces. Bench America (tested) of course the most of the best lifters were not their! (or they just came off long enough to be tested!) Raw Unity, well just look at all those huge totals!!!!! Best lifters still not present!!! And on and on!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lots of lifters + to many opinions = Lots of Federations!!!!!!!!!!

Can't change it, and you'll never get some lifters to cross Federation lines!!!!!!!!!!!

Just another wasted thread, and wasted time!

If you're a National Champ, and want to see how you stack up, try a repete performance in all the federations!!!!

Of course OPEN CLASS ONLY!!!! Who gives a s**t about age classes!!!!!!!

I would think if you can go across the board in several different organizations and abide by their rules and still do some great lifting, a person could say something. In other words, whether you show up for NASA or APA or IPA, but you consistently are in the top of your class...

I would say a lot of people care about age classes. I would agree that sub-masters is probably not necessary, but a large majority of 16 year olds and 60 year olds would prefer to compete against lifters close to their ages. Age classes are not the problem. Since we have just started the Summer Olympics, I would like to present track and field as an example. There is a Junior World Championship every year and a Masters World Championship held as part of the World Masters Games. Rankings for Masters Track are often kept for 5 year age increments, and a formula has been developed to compare performances at various ages. The key difference is that there is only ONE junior world champion, one [open] world champion, one 40-45 champ, etc. No reasonable person ever questions the prestige of a gold medal at one of these events. Of course, track and field has several orders of magnitude more competitors and fans (=revenue) world wide than powerlifting, but I believe this example illustrates that age classes in of themselves do not dilute the prestige of a championship. The fact that there are >20 open world champions every year? That certainly does dilute things. However, given the large number of people that would have to cooperate to change this issue, I think it is just the way it is. This is an amateur sport for almost all of us--we are hobbyist that enjoy competing against ourselves and seeing how we stack up against other lifters. This is just not worth losing sleep over. If and only if this does bother you, then let your wallet do the talking. Do not lift in or volunteer at tiny regional meets that are labelled "world championship." Stick to one fed (the one that you realistically feels best promotes unity in the sport). Become a meet director for that fed so there are more regional meets for that fed.

Does everybody have to be a National Champion to be valued in this sport????The fact that there is only 30,000 card carrying members in the U.S. says something right there...Not many people are willing to compete and train in this sport. You ask them, what about the squat, they say, "HUH!" They use the squat rack as a chin-up and gymnastic device; all kinds of monkey spectaculars are performed on that rack except what it is meant for!! They won't deadlift to save their A$$$$. All they do is work out their arms and bench press...My hat goes off to the true powerlifters, whether they are national champions are not!!! At least they have the guts to lay it on the line on the platform, and train their body parts unlike others, AKA LEGS!!! Don't knock yourself if you're not a National Champion, you are still a rare breed in the United States. Take a look at the guys across gyms in America who bounce the bar off their chest and raise their ass to the moon, and then get up and howl and smile like they really did something...

I think is kinda like boxing is. You have many champions, but most have a general idea of who is the real Champion.

Just like boxing, you also have a guy who will be champion of more than one federation, which helps his claim as Champion.

But weightlifting/powerlifting is even easier to estimate who is champ. That is because you can directly compare numbers.

In the Raw divisions you can compare pretty much all lifts with the exception of the raw divisions with knee wraps. All raw divisions are roughly the same (wrist wraps, knee sleeves, or just belt) with lil difference when it comes down to it. Although knee wrap raw divisions will have much higher squat numbers and totals because of it (and really should not be "raw" because of this lack of the ability to compare totals).

The same goes for single ply divisions. Now I know judging can vary, but that is not just fed to fed, but also from place to place. It is common knowledge up in Canada that some provinces within the same CPU fed will judge differently.

Judging is always going to be slightly different in every sport (watch the Olympics for that). That is human nature. But if we can narrow down the definition of raw (no wraps or sleeves) and hold off on the crazy unlimited gear, we will have some numbers to compare.

Then it will not matter if you are a national champion, you will have your numbers compared. The guy with the highest numbers will be considered champion.

I AGREE!!!!!
To many lifters with opinions! Someday half of these lifters will start their Federations....LOL!

Example-just a few years ago before some of the raw feds made their own rules/definitions about what raw should and would be. Most every lifter considered raw no suit, no briefs, and no shirt!!!

My, my how a few individuals making up their own definitions has really F**ked up powerlifting!

You can not fix it! So don't strain your little brains!!!

Give back your own titles and tell your own federation to resign. Stop trying to tell others they are no good just to make yourself feel better. We all have the right to do as we please and your opinion of us don't mean sh@@. This subjest as also been beat to death so stop complaining like a little girl.

The open division is the only division that counts. Open division national champions are just that national champions. Master divisions don't count in my opinion.

Todd I gues now all the federations out there need to ask you who they can make a National Champion. Whats funny is that a lot of Masters are strong then the young bucks. Maybe this is why you dont want to reconize them.

You are intitled to your opinion but just remember
that no one cares what you think anyone more then you care about there opinion, and the ones at the top of the federations will make the rules not you. There is a very good reason for that, the ones at the tp cares about all the people in its federation where you only care about your own self.

Seems like I just wrote a whole article that addressed this in PL USA.

You're right. There are a lot of Masters that are stronger, That's why they are usually found competing in the OPEN DIVISION!!!!! Jesse Kellum for example!

The point here is that no matter how much someone bitches and complains, Feds are not going to shut down, and the only way to keep a Federation going is to cater to the NOVIST LIFTER!!!

That's why there are so many National Champs!

Mr. Anonymous, you have misunderstood me. What I am trying to say is that there are way too many divisions. For example, I have won 9 master's national championships (and I'm not really that good with my torn rotator cuff) and completed in 10 different federations over my career. But it is the 3 open division national championships which I have been lucky enough to win that I really count as championships. Often times in my master's class I don't even have a competitor. It is hard to think of that as a national championship.

I do think we care about what each other thinks because we are here reading the board and posting replies. I'm ok with other's opinion, even if it differs from mine.

I do wish, however, that more people with convictions who want to express their opinions here would do so as not anonymous.