World Team Postal Meet

[Al Myers]

World Team Postal Meet

[KCSTRONGMAN]

I am with you on this Al. Having to use only 1 official can only help the sport grow. By requiring 3, they are only limiting the amount of competitions. I also agree that 3 is ideal, and every effort should be made for 3 at your bigger comps.
ET

I'm the lyrical Jesse James

[Thom Van Vleck]

Ok, this is NOT intended to rock the boat. I’m just trying to brainstorm here and when you have a brain like mine that’s usually a light rain more than a monsoon. What’s the saying, “Don’t pee on me and tell me it’s raining”.

At any rate, my “opinion” is that records be allowed only at regular meets where at least two officials are present (2 for 2 or 2 of 3) and that one official be allowed at postal meets but no records be allowed. The Straight Weight Challenge made me wonder about the disparity in some of the lifting relative to what I know all these men can do. I wondered if it had to do with a differential in the judging. For example, I judged the JWC team and I think I may have been more lenient than the Dino Gym judges, and the converse on the push press. Now, I think it might be OK to say that judges who have passed the test AND have judged the number of meets to be grandfathered in as a judge could possibly be a sole judge. But hey, we got enough to worry about…..let’s go lift.

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

[Al Myers]

Good points Thom. Some things are for certain in officiating: no two meets are officiated exactly the same, questionable lifts get passed and good lifts get turned down, some lifters may get preferential treatment for a variety of reasons, and even the same official will “change” in regards to his ability as an official over time. Whether this involves only one official judging a meet or a team of three – it really makes no difference.

As for changing USAWA records to requiring three, it would be impractical to do now since we have been setting records with one for four years now. Al

[Thom Van Vleck]

I know that at my meet, John push pressed 300 (he can easily push jerk 350) and out of habit he lifted his feet just ever so slightly (he disagreed..hahaha)and two other judges might have been so focused on his pressout they may have missed it. I was looking for it because I know his habits.

Just my opinion, Al….take it easy!

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

[Al Myers]

Thom – I don’t question your ability as an official AT ALL! You are a great official (thats why I have asked you so many times to officiate)! You are like me, a lifter’s official, who want things judged according to the rules, but giving the benefit to the lifter if the infraction is questionable. We have both red-lighted each other before, but because it was the right thing to do and not because we WANTED to see the other one fail. Al the Dinoman – who’s always taking it easy.

[Thom Van Vleck]

You redlight me??? haha

I remember redlighting you one time and getting a “stern look”. HAHA

I KNOW you don’t question me, I just meant that I was hard on John because I KNEW his habits and had it been a three official meet the other two might have not caught it and passed it because it was just a fraction of an inch. Had I not been looking right at his feet the whole time I might have missed it had I been focused on, say, his press out for uneven lockout or something like that.

I am NOT going to move to add officials, or anything of the sort. I just know three sets of eyes can watch for more than on set, or one and a half in my case since I’m part blind in one eye (but I was looking at you with my good eye the time I red lighted you!!! HAHA).

BTW. You ever notice how neither of us can give up on having the last word!!!!

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

[Al Myers]

How many times have you watched a professional sporting event on TV and the officials seem not to agree on a call? Lots – and these guys are THE BEST and still see things different all the time, and now with instant replay it seems even worse. It is unreasonable to expect officials in All-Round Weightlifting to be of the caliber of professional officials who are “selected” for being the best. Most of us just do the best we can.

You always hear things like the officiating in our sport is more lenient now than it used to be. I don’t believe this at all anymore after watching hours upon hours of old videotapes from all-round meets from the 80’s and 90’s. Some meets the judging was “looser”, while it others it was “tighter”. Overall, seemed about the same as today. So, just like those stories you hear from your parents about how hard they had it growing up compared to you (I had to walk 10 miles in the snow to school, and all uphill) , and the stories you tell you kids about how easy they got it nowadays compared to you (What? No Cell phones? Did you have any friends? – typical teenage responses to these kind of comments), truthfully, things change but really are not that much different.

Al And Thom, the last word means you have won the argument.

[Thom Van Vleck]

I think the best point trumps the last post! Now, if you happen to have both….like me…HAHA

At any rate, I was watching a show last night on the rubic’s Cube (of which I was champ in my high school with a best solve time of 58 seconds, I could average under 2 minutes).

I guess it’s caught on again and they were interviewing a guy that was champ in 1982. He said, “In my day, you had one Geek for every town and they were pretty much isolated with their weird quirks and ideas….now they can connect on the internet and form their own town of 1000’s of geeks and make what they do seem normal. I thought of the USAWA! HAHA

That guy also had another funny comment. They asked him how to get good on the cube and he said, “Have no friends and practice 10 hours a day…that’s how I became champ”.

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

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