USAWA

By Dan Wagman

(This is another installment of proposals that Dan has submitted to the Executive board for consideration to be presented at the national meeting)

Send queries to Wagman2022Agenda@icloud.com 

(e-mail address active until Juli 1, 2022)

7. INCREASING INTEREST IN ALL-ROUND LIFTING

An important recent Forum topic revolved around how to increase interest in all-round lifting. One participant recognized that our sport is “on life support.” This Forum discussion yielded many options the organization could adopt in an effort to create greater interest in our sport and the organization’s membership base. These ideas follow and the membership is encouraged to discuss these points and to establish a method by which to proceed.

In General

• Talk to ex-members and ask them to answer these questions with complete honesty: Why are you no longer a member? Why don’t you compete anymore? What would it take to get you to become a member again?
• In competitions have USAWA lifts that are more main-stream, e.g., chin-ups, pull-ups, rack lifts, bp…
• De-emphasize weird and dangerous lifts.
• Rewrite rules for lifts that don’t conform to the accepted norm, e.g., curls, bench dip, French curl, etc.
• Ask people active on FB, Instagram, etc., to help in advertising the sport and competitions.
• Have some themed meets around PL, WL, Strongman, etc., while adding a few all-round lifts in order to draw in those sport’s competitors.
• Live-stream meets and eventually monetize that allowing for reinvestment in USAWA.
• Hold and livestream virtual meets and eventually monetize that allowing for reinvestment in USAWA.
• Use Postals as an entry-free intro in to all-round and advertise the meets in all online social media.
• Offer certificates for class winners, have awards, t-shirts, etc., for all meets.
• Include rep lifts.
• Link Forum to FB and other social media, vice versa.
• Have greater variety of lifts; certain lifts seem to repeat themselves frequently at Nationals, Postals, Worlds, etc.
• Use social networking more effectively; advertise meets on other FB pages with nice posters like IAWA-UK creates.

 

Organizational

• Appoint a Director of Development and ask for help in implementation of growth projects.
• Develop talking points and strategy that all can use and implement in recruiting new members.
• Pay a professional to advise on growth strategies, how to most effectively use social media, etc.
• Add Paypal to website and FB for easy and immediate membership via phones.
• Remove membership list from website as the low number of members reflects poorly on USAWA.
• Entry fee for all meets, portion of meet director’s earnings to go to USAWA for reinvestment.
• Eliminate age formulas. Young lifters can’t win, so why would they compete? Who can comprehend why an older lifter who was out-totaled by 100’s of pounds ends up winning competition? Besides, exercise science research demonstrates that age does not impact strength until the mid-60’s. Observed age effects are therefore due to other variables such as injury, poor training practices, etc.
• Place records on website as pulldowns because PDF and Excel too difficult to access via phone; see USAPL (https://usapl.liftingdatabase.com/records), Grip Sport (https://www.gripsport.org/lists.htm).
• Make the Forum more user-friendly; Iron Mind’s Forum (https://www.ironmind-forum.com) could be a template though there are others.
• Develop instructional videos of lifts w/ rules of performance and place on USAWA YouTube Channel.

By Eric Todd

First point of order, a huge hats off and thanks to our records director, John Strangeway for doing a seemingly thankless job.  Our record list is pretty extensive with so many lifts, so a big kudos for him for taking on this huge undertaking.

So, I took this opportunity to update our century club.  The Century Club is for members who have achieved at least 100 records.  The Women’s Century club remains pretty much the same, with RJ Jackson out in front, and a total of 4 women being represented. The first thing that struck me in the men’s division is that Al Myers quietly slipped into the 6 century club, amassing over 600 records.  This body of work spans around 20 years.  He is creeping up on our president, Denny Habecker, who is the only other lifter in USAWA history to have over 600 records.  We had a number of major movers in the men’s division.  I jumped up 30 records, but not a single spot in the rankings.  Abe Smith jumped up 26 records in the list, and also jumped from number 28 to number 22 in the rankings.  Barry Pensyl increased by 24 records and improved from number 21 to 17 in the rankings.  Bill Clark’s recent return to the USAWA saw him add 20 records to our list and move a spot in our rankings from number 12 to number 11. Stalwart LaVerne Myers jumped up 19 records, and one spot in the rankings.  Young Aiden Habecker added 13 records to our list.

I also dove in to see if we have any lifters in danger of joining the list lift they persevere through a few more competitions. In the women’s division, Armorkor Ollennuking has 98 records, only 2 away from the century club.  A few years ago, she re-emerged to compete at Clark’s.  If she shows up one more time, I will bet she will go over.  Young Phoebe Todd is at 84 records.  If she sticks with it, she may go over by the end of 2022.  Misty Fritz is at 83 records, but she has not been in action since 2008.

The charge in the men’s division is led by 2 Clark’s gym team members.  Dave DeForest and Dave Emslie have both amassed 89 records in our organization.  Not far behind is Dan Wagman with 84 records.  All would be worthy additions once they achieve that 100 record mark.

By Dan Wagman

(This is a continuation of the series of suggestions by Dan Wagman that may be discussed at the national meeting after passing the Executive Board)

6. AMENDMENTS TO OR REPEAL OF THE 5-LIFT RECORD DAY LIMIT

Recent discussions on the Forum included one member stating, “I liked record days and then we went to this 5 record limit. I don’t understand why and [sic] organization that has so many lifts and so many open slots (no records have been set) would do that. I used to host record days, but when that rule was put in I saw no reason to go to the trouble.”

An additional consideration is that USAWA extolls the athletic accomplishments of lifters with 100+ records via the Century Club. At a time when Record Days had no lift limit, it made sense to highlight lifters with hundreds of records. Once the 5-lift limit on Record Days was implemented, having a Century Club is nonsensical as a lifter can’t live long enough to garner hundreds of records.

Also to consider is that a 5-lift limit for a Record Day is superfluous as the Rulebook has always allowed the meet director to select the number of lifts. Moreover, USAWA continues to hold meets—just not Record Days—with lifts exceeding the 5-lift limit, rendering that limit arbitrary. It is therefore proposed to amend or repeal the 5-lift Record Day limit. The following concepts are presented for consideration:

 

1. Keep the 5-lift Record Day limit but…
2. eliminate the Century Club list or retire it and start over;
3. if USAWA keeps the current Record Day limit for the main argument stated on the Forum, i.e., helping out the Records Director, then the number of lifts per ordinary meet would also need to be limited to 5 otherwise that argument is rendered nonsensical;

• eliminate the 5-year jump for Masters and increase it to 10-year jumps as that would significantly reduce the Records Director’s efforts (the current records list would be retired, not eliminated, and USAWA would start the list over).

1. Establish a compromise
2. See what some of the largest numbers of Record Day records were in the past and limit Record Days to half of that.
3. Limit the number of Record Days per year instead of the number of record lifts.
4. Repeal the 5-lift Record Day limit and help out the Records Director
5. Split the records list in to different categories that different people would be responsible for or;
6. Split up the number of lifters any one record recorder would be responsible for from a given meet. In implementing the above concept the Records Director would oversee USAWA’s “Records Division” with “Records Recorders” compiling the list.

By Eric Todd

This article goes out as a HUGE congrats to one of the USAWA’s most decorated members.  Frank Ciavattone has been nominated for induction in the National wrestling Hall of Fame for the Humanitarian Award! Frank is already a member of the USAWA Hall of fame, as well as a 2015 inductee in the Massachusetts Wrestling Hall of Fame.  He is very deserving of this induction, and I am honored to be writing a letter of recommendation to the committee.

Frank took 3rd in the state championship in 1973.  His list of accomplishments in lifting is almost overwhelming.  He was the first American to lift the storied Dinnie Stones, having accomplished this feat, unassisted, in 1996.  He holds many records in the IAWA, and over 300 in the USAWA.  He was chosen as lifter of the month twice, once in September of 2014 and again in June of 2019.  He has been lifting in the USAWA almost since its inception, and has won many national titles in that time.  In 1998 he won the overall award for best master lifter at nationals.  In 2012, Frank was awarded with the Grand Best Lifter of the USAWA over its 25 year existence.  In 2019, he was awarded with the IAWA Presidential Award of Merit. He has been featured in both the Guinness Book of World Records and Ripley’s Believe it or Not for his exceptional neck lifting abilities.

Frank has not only stood out as a lifter, but has contributed as a leader as well.  He is the leader of Frank’s Barbell Club, which has won Best Club three times and has been runner-up once as well.  He has served as Vice President and as an at large Executive Board member.  He has been awarded the Courage Award three times.  Frank was awarded the Sportsmanship award in 2015, and the Leadership award in 2016.  He has hosted many National and World meets.

Frank’s nomination no doubt was submitted in part because of his success on the wrestling mat and in the weightlifting arena; however, it goes much further than that.  Frank has successfully battled cancer five times since 1979.  While battling, he was able to send six kids who were battling cancer themselves to the Make a wish Foundation.  Kids and family have always been at the center of Frank’s heart, and I believe a driving force in all of the tremendous amount of success he has had over the years.  If you get the chance, give big Frank a shout out for this amazing accolade.

By Dan Wagman

 

(This is a continuation of the series of suggestions by Dan Wagman that may be discussed at the national meeting after passing the Executive Board)

Send queries to Wagman2022Agenda@icloud.com (e-mail address active until Juli 1, 2022)

5. INCLUSION OF SENIOR DIVISION IN THE RECORDS LIST

The Rulebook recognizes the following age groups for males and females (§II.3): Junior (and their subgroups), Senior, Open, and Master (plus their subgroups). Records are kept, however, only in the following age groups (§V.9): Junior and Master and their respective subgroups and also “overall records…in all weight classes, which includes the best weight class lift of all age groups.”

This places Senior competitors at a severe disadvantage over all other age groups because they can only receive credit for an overall record—the greatest weight ever lifted in a particular lift—and no record for their age category whatsoever, i.e., 20-39 years old. All other age group lifters, however, can not only set a record within their age group, but also a second one for an overall record if their strength is sufficient. This has been termed by some “double-dipping” the records.

It seems inherently unfair, illogical, arbitrary, and capricious that all lifters in all age groups can set records in their respective age category (and double-dip) except a lifter aged 20-39. (The person who elects to compete in the Open Division is exempt from this argument because he/she freely elects to do so over selecting any other age category which they would naturally automatically belong to based on their current age.)

The life-blood of any organization is the next generation. The next generation does not only include Juniors but also people aged 20-39 years. In not recognizing their feats of strength via age-group records they are not only unfairly discriminated against, but it also begs the question as to why a person in the Senior age group would even compete if all he/she can accomplish is placing in a competition—unless he/she is so strong as to establish a “greatest weight ever lifted” record. This does not serve the organization well as Senior lifters have less incentive to compete in this sport as compared to other strength sports.

 

It is therefore proposed to include the Senior age group in the records list. No grandfathering in to this category is permitted.

 

Argument Against

This topic was discussed on the Forum. While all participants agreed that the omission of Senior age group records was unfair, a major concern was the additional work the Records Director might incur. While it is difficult to predict how much more work adding the Senior age group would actually entail, this would be easily addressed by placing another individual in charge of the Senior age group records (see 6.C.i.-ii. below).