USAWA

By Eric Todd

Newcomer of the year-runner-up-Everett Todd

The designation for newcomer of the year reads as such “This award goes to an individual who in new to the USAWA or has become involved again. It doesn’t have to go to someone in their first year of being involved in the USAWA.”

My son, Everett is in his first year of competing.  He has competed at all of the postal meets since he has been involved, the “Lift for Leroy” record day, and the Old Time Strongman Championship.  It was most likely his participation rate as well as his performance in the Old Time Strongman meet that got him the votes needed for his runner-up status.  He placed third in that meet, outperforming 2 former champions including his old pop.  Well deserved, and a huge congrats to Everett Todd!

By Eric Todd

I would assume that by now most of our readers have read Dan Wagman’s article about the absurdity of the wording change for the bench press rule.  While I do take exception with the use of the word absurd, as it seems condescending to those individuals whose only purpose at that time was to do right by the rule, Dan is on to something.   The new wording maintaining that the hamstrings must stay in contact with the bench makes the lift undoable for some, which was no one’s intention.  As soon as I read the article, I headed to the basement to see if I could complete the lift as it was written, and alas, I could not even come close.

So, how do we go about making this right?  We did not want to go a full year with a faulty rule in our rulebook.  According to Dan, if we do not amend this “one of two things will happen: 1) meet refs will see that adhering to this rule is impossible for many lifters and will ignore it; 2) lifters like me will simply not perform the bench press and its variations.”  Neither of those results is desirable.  In looking at our bylaws, Article 6a reads as follows: “The Annual Meeting of the USAWA will be held in conjunction with the National Championships, unless the executive board, by majority vote, decides otherwise.”  So, this executive board decided by unanimous vote to reconvene the national meeting virtually with all of the voting members who were present at the meeting in June.  These members voted unanimously to correct the wording of this rule.

The corrected rule will read as follows:

The lifter will take a position on the bench with both upper back and buttocks in contact with the bench. The lifter will grip the bar with the palms of both hands facing away from the lifter’s face. The width of the grip must not be more than 32 inches (81 centimeters) between the index fingers. No open grip or thumbless grip is allowed. The bar may be handed to the lifter by a spotter from the support stands, but it must be held motionless momentarily at arm’s length prior to being lowered by the lifter to a motionless position on the chest. The feet must be flat on the floor and not braced against the bench during the lift.   The use of plates, blocks, or any similar device under the lifter’s feet is permitted in an effort to achieve firm footing.  Any width of feet placement is allowed. No heel or toe rising is allowed during the lift. Once the bar is motionless and under control on the chest, the lifter will receive a command from an official to press. The bar must not be any lower than the base of the pectoral muscle when on the chest. The bar will then be pressed to a position in which the arms are fully extended. During the ascent, the bar may be pressed unevenly, but must not be lowered in any manner. However, the final straightening of the arms must be completely simultaneous. During the ascent, the position of the body on the bench must not change. This includes keeping the buttocks and the head in contact with the bench, and not having any change in hand position on the bar. Once the bar is fully pressed and motionless, the lifter will receive a command from an official to end the lift. The lifter may have assistance by spotters in returning the bar to the support stands.

The only change to the original rule is the addition of the underlined sentence. As you can see, the part requiring hamstrings has been omitted.  You can also see that we not only added that plates are allowable, but that anything else used for a similar purpose is allowable.  Hopefully that way we don’t hear from members as to how ludicrous it is that we did not include pallets, shoeboxes, or stacks of old vinyl records into the rule, as not everyone has blocks, or plates enough to lift and place their feet on.  Since that part of the rule is just in an effort to level the playing field for shorter lifters, the spirit of the rule would dictate whatever article available to allow for that would be acceptable, whether it is blocks, plates, or old, rusty frying pans.

I realize that this procedure was rather unorthodox, but within the rules, and merely done as a way to correct a mistake made by your secretary.  I am going to use my inexperience as my excuse here and can only promise to do a better job of having my ducks in a row in the future.

By Eric M. Todd, Esq

Executive Board member, Beth Skwarecki presents the Leadership of the year award to Denny Habecker.

According to the section of our website called “Past USAWA Awards,” Each year the USAWA nominates and selects individuals for special awards.  These awards are given on behalf of the USAWA for outstanding merit in several categories.”  One of these categories is the Leadership award.  One of the great things about these awards is that they are voted on by our membership.

This year’s leadership award goes to our president Denny Habecker.  Denny is an absolute stalwart in all-round at the national and international level.  He has served as our president for about 15 years.  Denny has been at every national meet since 1995 as a competitor and/or official, having won the overall national championship twice.  He frequently competes on the international stage as well.  Denny promoted our World championship in 2021.  He hosted the presidential cup, and served as our postal chairman, running all four quarterly postals. I cannot tell you how many times he has driven from Pennsylvania to God’s country to support my meets.  Well deserved, and a huge congrats to our leadership award winner, Denny Habecker!

The runner up in the leadership goes to your humble author, and Secretary/Treasurer.

Executive Board member, Beth Skwarecki presents the leadership-runner up award to Eric Todd

By Dan Wagman, Ph.D., C.S.C.S.

IPF World Bench Press Champions and world record setters Dan Gaudreau (l) and Dan Wagman (r) would receive red lights for the new USAWA hamstring violation.

That requirement is absurd because for many lifters it’s nearly impossible to have the hamstrings remain in contact with the bench while performing a technically proficient bench press.

For lifters with long legs, or a bench with less height, loaders would have to place the bench on blocks…

of different block heights would be required to accommodate this new rule. Also, what if the bench length is such that a tall lifter can only place his/her head or hamstrings on the bench at the same time? Of course, for lifters with long legs, or a bench with less height, loaders would have to place the bench on blocks to accommodate the hamstring-bench-contact requirement. Frankly, “absurd” is an understatement. So, what started out as a very simple edit to the existing bench press rule ended up diverting from international norms and has turned one of the most basic tests of maximal strength into a nightmare for many lifters. How does something like this happen? With the exception of omitting the plates and blocks allowance the original USAWA rule was perfectly aligned with international standards. So perhaps the more important question is: how does the organization correct this atrocity and do so before the next meet that will contest a version of the bench press which could be any Record Day and specifically the Postal Series National Championship at the end of the year? If the organization does not make corrections, one of two things will happen: 1) meet refs will see that adhering to this rule is impossible for many lifters and will ignore it; 2) lifters like me will simply not perform the bench press and its variations. Neither choice enhances USAWA’s credibility as a strength sport.

Turning perfect bench presses into red lights. Different views of the same hamstring violation.

By Dan Wagman and RJ Jackson

Back in 2016 we wrote an article titled All-Round Weightlifting’s Greatest Lifters. In that article we set out to answer a simple question: Who has set the greatest number of records in the most lifts? In all-round weightlifting this is an important question to answer as in the United States this sport contests a total of 244 different lifts if you count one-armed lifts left and right and finger lifts with each finger and thumbs as separate lifts. However, a fundamental change in how competitions are run requires us to enter a new era in answering that question.

STANDARDIZATION

For the sports scientist, the concept of standardization constitutes perhaps the most fundamental concept in sport. And of course every athlete needs to consider their sport’s level of standardization as paramount to fairness. While being such an important concept for organized sport to adhere to, standardization is rather elementary. Take USAWA’s Rulebook; it outlines not only the rules of performance for each lift but also clarifies what barbell standards should be adhered to, what sort of clothing is allowed, what sort of lifting equipment is allowed, how competitions are run, etc. Obviously, you cannot have fair competition unless everybody adheres to the same standards.

USAWA came up with a fantastic concept called Record Day competitions.

As it relates to holding meets and setting records, USAWA came up with a fantastic concept called Record Day competitions. These meets would often be held after a regular competition, on a Sunday after a normal Saturday meet, or as stand-alone meets. The sole purpose of these meets was to allow lifters to go through the record list and establish new records—and there was no limit as to how many records a lifter could set. As a result, and over many years, dedicated and strong lifters could amass hundreds of records that beginning in 2009 became recognized in the Century Club. But then the standards changed. In 2016 a new rule was approved that limits the number of lifts each competitor can set records in to only five. The standards have changed and therefore lifters no longer enjoy the same record-breaking opportunities as in years past. We have, therefore, entered a new era in which we must account for the change in standards, which your authors have done.

THE NEW ERA

In our analysis we employed USAWA’s Record List of June, 2022. In order to account for the new 5-lift Record Day limit we removed all records prior to 2017. Next we counted only one record per lift for each competitor. The reason for doing so lies within the incongruence in the rules that allows Junior and Master lifters to set two records (age group and overall) while the Senior age group, those aged 20 to 39, can only set an overall record that must exceed the record set in all other age groups. So, basically we evened the playing field best as we could in establishing who the greatest all-round lifters are in this new era.

THE GREATEST

The greatest lifter in this new era of all-round lifting in the United States is an immensely dedicated and talented lifter—Dean Ross. Despite the change in Record Day standards he amassed new records in 106 different lifts.

The greatest lifter in this new era of all-round lifting…is an immensely dedicated and talented lifter—Dean Ross.

 

Dean’s record-breaking career started in 2005 at the Dino Challenge where he competed as a Masters lifter. And we must note that in this new era of all-round records, Dean is the first to break the 100-records mark.

Contrast Dean to the leader in the Women’s division, Phoebe Todd. Phoebe’s first records appear in 2019 as a 13-year old and since then she has established records in 42 different lifts. In taking a closer look at Phoebe’s records, we have concluded that she’s a true all-rounder as her records span a wide range of lifts.

Phoebe’s first records appear in 2019 as a 13-year old and since then she has established records in 42 different lifts.

Calling her a specialist who racks up records only in her favorite movements is not an accurate way to describe this up-and-comer in all-round weightlifting. We applaud Dean and Phoebe and look forward to seeing them continue with their record-breaking efforts.

TOP 5 MEN AND WOMEN

Men

1. Dean Ross — 106

2. LaVerne Myers — 96

3. Al Myers — 89

4. Denny Habecker — 87

5. Chad Ullom — 65

Women

1. Phoebe Todd — 42

2. RJ Jackson — 33

3. Janet Thompson — 30

4. Elizabeth Skwarecki — 28

5. Amorkor Ollennuking — 21

When it comes to determining overall strength, all-round weightlifting reigns supreme among strength sports. And not only that, but you have to be dedicated for many, many years and be willing to often times learn totally new movements to excel in this sport. We challenge you to step out of your comfort zone to take on the challenge of attempting to become an All-Round Great.