Growth of members

[Anonymous]

Growth of members

[KCSTRONGMAN]

Fact is, that whole knee sleeve issue is part of what I love about the governing body for all-round. they listened to the membership. I hope no one takes my essay as being critical of the USAWA. I really enjoy lifting in it. And I am really hoping to be to lift in the nationals and heavy lift this year.
ET

I'm the lyrical Jesse James

[Anonymous]

I actually agree with you. But I was dissapointed.

[Chad Ullom]

Great article ET. This is just my opinion. I think one of our obstacles is one of the great things about all around lifting. Our vast array of lifts. I think it takes an individual or a group very interested in this to kick something off. We have a ton of lifts! Without a veteran USAWA lifter helping you along the way, how do get started? Our rule book is great, but if you haven’t seen a lift done, it would be really hard to figure many of them out. would a youtube library of lifts help? I also think we are spread out so it makes traveling to meets a challenge and expensive. It’s a great question, I hope we can get more people interested.

[KCSTRONGMAN]

I agree-back when I started there was a national postal series that I started. I think I made it through 1 leg, because I understood those lifts. When I got to the next leg, there were 2-3 lifts I did not understand, so I did not complete it.

I'm the lyrical Jesse James

[61pwcc]

Except for Strongman, I’ve had to ‘find my way’ with Powerlifting,Olympic Lifting, Highland Games and All-Round Lifting. Yeah, there’s a ton of Powerlifting in Maine but, I didn’t want the suits or the steroids. By not doing those two things I wasn’t considered ‘seriously committed’. I feel those who do those two should be ‘seriously committed’!
Strongman and Highland Games are the only ones I would/could do in Maine. I’ve now stopped doing AAU Powerlifting meets and do the AAPF/APF meets even though they are not tested nor raw(at the time) just because the meets are local. We haven’t had an Olympic Lifting meet here in Maine since 1987!?!? Connecticut is where I usually compete in Olympic Lifting.
My first USAWA meet was the Heavy Lift Championships in York,Pa. That was my first because it was my closest. It was also the first time doing ANY of the Heavy Lifts. Meets at Frank Ciavattone’s house are three hours away which is the closest to me.
Most people in the gym who get the Bodybuilding magazines know about the Power and Olympic Lifts and can do them on some level. Strongman events have been seen on T.V. Depending on whether or not you go to the Scottish festivals you may or may not have seen the folks running around throwing things while wearing kilts. Yes, I’ve gone on quite a bit to show that I am a committed lifter. Even WITHOUT a family member,co-worker or friend involved with these sports I sought them out. I am NOT the norm. Most will not do what I’ve done to ‘get into a sport’.
So what do we do to grow?? Or maybe better to say, how do we appeal to folks young,old and in between to join? First things first, when I joined the USAWA, I thought there HAD to be some video library of the lifts to be sure. A rule book is helpful but, training videos and even better, contest footage showing passed AND failed lifts would educate best. This is exactly why I began putting up videos of my lifts for whatever meet I was getting ready: to educate those who may compete and to possibly generate interest in the meet/USAWA to non members. If the prompter of a USAWA meet asked me to put up examples of the lifts for the upcoming meet I would do so whether I was going to that meet or not. Maybe if meet promoters assumed not everyone was sure of the lifts and posted video examples, that would help generate interest.
Where are we aiming our meets? If I was aiming a meet towards my strongman group’s abilities, then I would have a Fulton Clean & Jerk, Jefferson Lift, Anderson Squat, One Arm Deadlift. Aiming at a Crossfit group: Kelly Snatch, Arthur Lift, Full Gardner, One Arm Clean & Bent Press. Since here in Maine, Olympic lifting is on life support at best, I may be able to get away with an olde school five lift Olympic meet…if the interest is there.
We would also do well to help train athletes. You got to admit, no one brings as much ammo to the training table as an All-Rounder. A Powerlifter is going to train an athlete from their perspective of a three lift world. The Olympic lifter will do the same coming from a two lift world. Neither are going to deviate far from their competitive lifts. Strongman is a bit harder to use as a training tool unless you have the equipment and the space. Highland events will have to pretty much be done outside and a place to throw is not always easy to find AND set up. This puts us in a great position. We don’t have a ‘loyalty’ to a set of lifts. Most of our lifts DO NOT require special equipment or space. With such a selection of lifts we should be experts at helping athlete uncover and fix weaknesses. As it has done for Olympic Lifting and Powerlifting, training kids with a certain style of lifting usually sees them competing in that same style later on down the road because that’s what is FAMILIAR to them. More thoughts later on.

[dwagman]

ET, thanks for a very eloquently written blog. I think that there are going to be some people who most certainly will view it as being critical of the organization. But I wouldn’t worry about that, after all, if it weren’t for critical thinking—and subsequent action—we’d be bowing to Queen Elizabeth.

Anyway, I often wondered why the popularity of the 90’s hasn’t been sustained—or expanded upon—in USAWA. I do believe that you make a good point regarding how this sport pushes lifters out of their comfort zone and many, if not most people, aren’t willing to go there. Still, I feel that the organization could grow with some pro-active thinking and a progressive approach. And although the closeness that we currently experience with the competitions is undoubtedly wonderful, it doesn’t logically follow that by increasing membership and more competitors at meets this will disappear. And anecdotally speaking, I competed in 4 different IPF world championships with over 35 different nations present and the camaraderie was beyond description.

I feel that as a first step, we need to throw ideas out there and perhaps develop a committee of a few individuals who will be tasked with putting the most salient ones into a document to be presented at nationals for a vote. I would be willing to volunteer, as I’m sure you would, too, ET. Here are a few ideas:

1. Remove the age allowance from the formula as it lacks in validity.
2. All meets must have an entry fee so that the organization can develop a financial basis to offer more, advertise, etc.
3. Allow lifters to enter several divisions (e.g., Open and age category); each division has an entry fee, develop additional divisions in an effort to increase what the organization offers the membership and to generate more revenue.
4. Advertise all meets; I’ll offer this for free in JOPP’s free eNewsletter, there are also other places to do this economically. Developing meet flyers would also be a good idea; members could download it from the USAWA site and distribute/post ’em in their gym, on their Facebook pages, etc.
5. Publish meet results beyond the USAWA website.

What’s on y’alls minds? Keep those ideas going and let’s get something together for a vote at nationals.

-d

—
Dan

For Body Intellect Brochure click here: https://www.icloud.com/keynote/0fcsokZWooW_1B1uZmL1AI5fA#BI-DW

Those who are enamored of practice without science
are like a pilot who goes onto a ship without rudder or
compass and never has any certainty to where he is going.
Leonardo Da Vinci; 1452-1519

[KCSTRONGMAN]

I know last year I advertised my meet on te KCSTRONGMAN forum as well as the marunde muscle forum. I attracted exactly zero lifters who were not already USAWA members. I have had people express interest, but when it comes to ponying up and competing, it dont happen. I am still hoping to get more lifters for my meet in Oct, but if we dont, we will run with what we got.

Anyhow, I certainly didnt want to come accross as critical. I think Denny, Al and co are doing a tremendous job. But I do feel there are things we all can be doing to promote our sport.

That being said, does that cat still write meet reports for Milo? It was Les something or another. I never met him or know anything about him other than he wrote all-round meet writeups for milo. STRONG mag used to have the occasional all-round meet in it. Are there any other print publications that it would make sense to promote in?

I'm the lyrical Jesse James

[KCSTRONGMAN]

it doesn’t logically follow that by increasing membership and more competitors at meets this will disappear

I think that being a tested or would possibly help prevent that

I'm the lyrical Jesse James

[Al Myers]

Thom has been writing meet write-ups in MILO for the past few years. I’ve written for MILO promoting the USAWA, as well as Tim Piper, and Roger Davis from England. They place our meet schedule in the mag as well, along with website contact info. I feel we have had “more than our share” of coverage in MILO – yet the publicity hasn’t really helped meet attendance.

We are saying all this – but it is possible that the IAWA Worlds in England may have more competitors than ever before this coming weekend. It is looking to be a 2 platform meet. Al

[KCSTRONGMAN]

That is great news. I hope that at some point I can get to a point where I can travel to one of these World meets that is outside the usa.

I'm the lyrical Jesse James

[Thom Van Vleck]

I think this is what Dan was saying…but the first thing I would do is throw out factoring age. Just have the age groups and leave it at that. It’s not that I mind getting beat by an 80 years old man….the system is arbitrary or I believe Dan said lacks validity. And it does. I threw in a Highland Games one time where they use a percentage for each year for the masters class. I lost the Weight Over Bar when I threw 18ft and a 68 year old guy threw 13ft. First of all, you can’t make that spectator friendly…second of all, I had NO IDEA he won until the factored formula in AFTER the event was OVER. As a matter of fact, the two guys who finished behind me were surprised as well.

But please don’t take any of this as criticism. Just an opinion. I don’t want to throw out the baby with the bath. There will always be things to disagree on and there are MANY things with the USAWA that I like!

Thom Van Vleck
Jackson Weightlifting Club
Highland Games athlete and sometimes All-Rounder

[61pwcc]

have they’re day in the sun. I have neither the ego nor the inclination to care where I place due to an age ‘correction’. Let the open class where the most is lifted/thrown be the top dogs in EVERY way. Masters not competing in the open class should be content to do the best they can with their contemporaries. A scoring system in a lifting/throwing event that has to be explained looks pretty silly. Who threw/lifted the most? There’s your winner. I think an All-Round meet for new spectators will already be confusing enough with lifts many have never seen or heard. Why add to the confusion? We need to make All-Round lifting interesting, approachable and straightforward.

[dwagman]

Al, I very much like your historical review of the founding USAWA principles. I also like how you likened the founding fathers, principles, and Constitution of the U.S.A. to those of USAWA.

In that comparison it’s important to realize that as the Constitution of our country was ratified, there was no Bill of Rights—the first 10 Amendments. That became part of the Constitution about 2 years later. Then in 1795 the 11th Amendment to the Constitution was added and at present there are 27 Amendments, the last one ratified in 1992. Also to consider is that the Constitution allows for adding, changing, and eliminating Amendments.

The point is that the U.S. Constitution allows for change and USAWA should not only hear the concerns the membership expresses, but also embrace and adopt ideas that would allow the organization to grow. I don’t think any of us would like living in a country where there was slavery and women weren’t allowed to vote. I welcome change in USAWA that would allow it to grow. This is a great sport that deserves more attention and competitiveness.

I’m getting ready to go OTG (off the grid) to explore the mountains, canyons, and deserts of the West; my home will be my Range Rover, my companion will be my dog, my security will be provided by Mr. Colt. I don’t want anybody to interpret my silence as anything other than simply not being able to log on.

Hope you guys can hammer out some cool ideas and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens.

-d

—
Dan

For Body Intellect Brochure click here: https://www.icloud.com/keynote/0fcsokZWooW_1B1uZmL1AI5fA#BI-DW

Those who are enamored of practice without science
are like a pilot who goes onto a ship without rudder or
compass and never has any certainty to where he is going.
Leonardo Da Vinci; 1452-1519

[KCSTRONGMAN]

Great article Al. I enjoyed reading it. It is important to remmeber where we came from to help make sense of where we are going.

I believ that 95% of the reason we struggle to increase membership is the pussified nature of today’s lifter. All-round is not for the “metro-sexual”.

I do feel that the formula is what drives those strong, tough natured lifters away. It is hard to stomach beating somebody so badly, only to lose after the fact for something that was arbitrarily devised.
ET

I'm the lyrical Jesse James

[Al Myers]

Dan – There have been some changes to our bylaws thru the years, but nothing that would cause concern to IAWA regarding big issues. Eliminating formulas in the USAWA is a BIG ISSUE as all IAWA competitions use them.

Have a great time “off the grid” – enjoy yourself and come back refreshed!!!

ET – I understand your pain here (I’ve been there), but your time will come that you will see the brighter side of the formula adjustments!!! haha

[Mike Pringle]

I was thinking about how we could get USAWA more exposure and wondered what it would take to have some type of competition or exhibition at the Arnold Expo. I know they have many different sporting events at this convention besides bodybuilding and thousands and thousands of people attend. Just throwing it out there as an idea.

[dbunch]

Just a thought, could it be that USAWA is just destined to be a small organization because it is such a unique organization? If you think about it The USAWA is about unique lift, many are very difficult and/or require specialized equipment. When I say special equipment I’m thinking of stuff that most USAWA members would consider Standard fare such as the 2in. or Fulton bar, loadable dumbbells, and, V-bars. Most of this just can’t be found in the average commercial or home. Let’s not even talk about equipment needed for heavy lifts.

I completely guessing here but I would say that the vast majority of the USAWA membership either train at home gym that they have built over the years or they belong to one of the very rare public or semipublic gyms that actually have access to this type of equipment.

I think the average lifter who was to run across the USAWA would find the lifts interesting and may even try a few but I think their interest would soon wane for the reasons mentioned above.

[KCSTRONGMAN]

Excellent points Dan. And I agree with you. I have no problem staying a small org. I just worry about our memberhsip dying off (with our mediam age being around 455) and not having new members become involved.

I'm the lyrical Jesse James

[61pwcc]

Ruth, I think that’s great. I think getting the word out there is necessary. How can people know we exist if we don’t tell them??

[Denny Habecker]

I don’t know the answer to getting more people involved. I have put up posters all over town [ all local high schools, YMCA, local gyms and many businesses]advertising a meet between teams from England, Scotland and the USA and got maybe 10 people coming to watch. I have tried to get many guys at gyms where I trained to try the All-round lifts or to come to a meet with no or little success. One problem is the distance that must be traveled to compete if I don’t hold the meet myself. A lot of people don’t have the time or money to travel great distances to meets. Also a lot of people are reluctant to try anything new.

[Al Myers]

Denny,

You are exactly right. Most lifters don’t have the opportunity to be able to travel to meets.

I remember when I started in the Highland Games – it was MUCH smaller and there were lots less throwers nation wide. At the time there was only one game in Kansas (in KC, and the athletics at the time were not well organized). I would go ever year to the KC games and see a new crop of throwers each year there, which was only a handful. Most were guys who showed up to watch, and since walkons were taken, these guys would sign up and throw for the day. However, when you can’t travel and you have only ONE LOCAL games to go to each year it is hard to keep motivated and to train for only that one game. It wasn’t until Steve Scott started hosting his Community Center games, the Mac games started, as well as the Wakenny games, that throwers started “sticking around”. The base of Kansas throwers could have lots of throwing opportunities and never leave the state.

Al

[Anonymous]

I know for myself, I really enjoy USAWA meets. I hope to be able to do some of the national meets one day. But I cannot justify spending the money when the meets are too far away. I was very disappointed when I didn’t do the IAWA worlds last year when they were in Salina, but 2 of the lifts I simply cannot do and I am not the kind of person to just do token lifts. I am hoping to do the USAWA nationals next year since it is only like 5 hours away, but that is also dependent on what the lifts are, yep I am the guy that says I won’t do a meet if the lifts don’t suit me.

Jesse

[dwagman]

In Jesse sharing his thoughts and how he approaches his decision-making about competing or not, an important issue is brought to the forefront of this discussion…why, exactly, do people not compete, why do they drop their membership, what meets are they most likely to compete in/not to compete in, etc., etc., etc.

While Denny shared his experience with advertising meets, that only applies to his area and his approach. It would be a mistake to generalize that across the board and to give up. So perhaps as a first step, an effort should be made to understand past and present members’ thoughts on competing and not competing. Then the efforts to grow the organization could be more targeted.

Unfortunately, I haven’t seen much discussed here on how to grow the Org. That saddens me because I think there is truth to, I think it was Dan(?), who said that if there’s no new people coming into the organization, it’ll just die out.

-d

—
Dan

For Body Intellect Brochure click here: https://www.icloud.com/keynote/0fcsokZWooW_1B1uZmL1AI5fA#BI-DW

Those who are enamored of practice without science
are like a pilot who goes onto a ship without rudder or
compass and never has any certainty to where he is going.
Leonardo Da Vinci; 1452-1519

[Author]

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