What All-Around Lifting Is About

By Christopher Lestan

As I fly home from my very first Worlds I can’t help but think of what I just experienced from the competition. To start off, the event was wonderfully organized. The banquet was great, and the lifting was so much fun. However, there is more to express. The emotions are hard to describe. I feel happiness, confidence, joy, appreciation, and gratitude. Its as if I just saw the greatest movie of all time and left the theater with such a bag of emotions that I just need to put them down on a piece of paper. Tell the world what I am feeling.

If there is one thing I am completely convinced with its that I finally realized what the USAWA, IAWA, and just All-Around lifting is about.

My mentor Frank who introduced me to this sport!

My mentor Frank who introduced me to this sport!

When I first joined the USAWA I was probably like most in the federation when they first join, for I had a background in a sport or strength discipline. I was a powerlifter who only competed to win, and that’s it. I didn’t care about the people who I competed with because I didn’t know them, and they felt the same way about me. Powerlifting at the end of the day is an individual sport where competitors go in with one goal in mind and that is to win. Very similarly when I entered the USAWA that was my mindset too. I wanted to come in and win in my first meet. When my first All-Around meet I placed 2nd in the overall lifters score. However, I didn’t feel defeated. I felt something I never have felt before at a Powerlifting meet….. happiness. I didn’t get happiness from the personal bests that I got in the lifts, or the medal that I got after. It was the people. I basically lifted, competed, and socialized. The last word is where I knew this federation was different. I socialized… I laughed… I talked about lifting, life, family, goals with people I have just met.

That is where we segway into the next part of this blog. This weekend’s Championship! I have never experienced such openness at a lifting competition. When I walked into the venue for the first time on Friday I was greeted with such friendly faces. It was amazing. On Saturday what I experienced at my first USAWA meet was soon the same here. I was socializing with fellow lifters about life, their passions, how they got into All-Around lifting, making jokes, and laughing. During all this conversation I still managed to hit personal bests in most of my lifts. Then after I would be cheering on my fellow lifters to make their lifts and break world records! It’s insane. You will not find this in Powerlifting, for when I made it to the national level meets fellow lifters would become less and less friendly. They would see you as your enemy. They wouldn’t talk to you, or even look at you. To me this is strange.

Stevie Shanks! First time meeting him and what an great guy. Always supporting other lifters!

Stevie Shanks! First time meeting him and what a great guy. Always supporting other lifters!

As lifters, we all came from a very similar place of why we wanted to compete. TO IMPROVE OURSELVES. To gain confidence and in the process make relationships that will last forever. Am I still a competitive person. Yes, I will not deny that. However, I will never let that get in the way of never making a relationship with someone who has similar goals as me. I never felt the need to be aggressive with lifters, or be rude to them to gain the upper hand.

Lastly, All-Around lifting is about challenging yourself to do things you never thought possible. These lifts are very unorthodox, yet there is a beauty and humbleness about them. I am absolutely terrible at anything in which hook grip would allow more weight to be lifted. Therefore, I respect any lifter who can take the pain of the hook grip. It’s the ability to understand your weaknesses that make this sport amazing. Thus, the courage to enter a competition in which you have a very small idea of what you are able to lift is huge!

This weekend will be in my memories for the rest of my life. I will remember the laughs, jokes, the new friends I made, and the personal bests in lifts, and the courage to make risks in lifts I have very little experience. This is what makes All-Around lifting special. This is what makes this sport so great!

 

3rd Quarter Postal

By Denny Habecker

MEET RESULTS –

USAWA 3RD QUARTER POSTAL MEET

The results of the 3rd Quarter Postal have been tabulated. We had 11 men and 5 women take part, with Al Myers leading the men and R.J. Jackson leading the women.

RESULTS:

3rd Quarter Postal Meet
July 1st through September 30th, 2019

Meet Director – Denny Habecker

Lifers with Certified Officials:
Al Myers – Laverne Myers
John Douglas – Laverne Myers
Dean Ross – Laverne Myers
Laverne Myers – Al Myers
Eric Todd – Lance Foster- John Strangeway
John Strangeway- Eric Todd – Lance Foster
Chris Todd  – Eric Todd-Lance Foster- John Strangeway
Lance Foster – Eric Todd- John Strangeway
Phoebe Todd – Eric Todd-Lance Foster-John Strangeway
Denny Habecker- Barry Pensyl
Barry Pensyl – Denny Habecker
Aidan Habecker – Denny Habecker
Crystal Diggs- R.J. Jackson

Lifters with Non-Certified Officials:
R.J. Jackson
Sylvia Stockall
Lynda Burns

The Lifts- Pullover and Press, Curl-2 Dumbbells, Cheat, Continental to Belt

MEN’S DIVISION

Al  Myers             –  53  – 232   – 230 – 150 – 360 – 740  – 695.71

Eric Todd             –  44  – 256   – 345 – 170 – 310 – 825  – 679.30

John Strangeway  – 41   – 210  – 244  – 150 – 345 – 739  – 655.78

Denny Habecker   – 76  – 183   – 165  –  80  – 220 – 465  – 645.32

Barry Pensyl         – 71  – 150   – 127  – 80   – 206 – 413  – 607.10

John Douglas       – 55   – 308   – 220  – 150 – 352 – 722  – 600.50

Laverne Myers     – 75   – 229   – 100  – 110 – 220  – 430  – 521.45

Chris Todd          – 40   – 270   – 244   – 145 – 265  – 654 – 504.58

Dean Ross          – 76   – 240   – 130   – 90   – 180  – 400 – 479.57

Aidan Habecker   – 16  – 206   – 132    – 80   – 209  – 421 – 407.58

Lance Foster       – 53  – 345   – 0       – 100  – 265  – 365 – 238.24

WOMEN’S DIVISION

R.J. Jackson        57   – 106   – 100  –   70    – 125  – 295 – 483.82

Sylvia Stockall    61    – 140   – 75    –  90     – 135  – 300 – 408.52

Lynda Burns       44   – 175    – 78     – 80     – 145  – 303 – 307.42

Crystal Diggs     32   – 165     – 43     – 60     – 95   – 198  – 198.33

Phoebe Todd      9    – 84       – 0       – 20     – 65   – 85    – 197.54

 

World Championships

PRESS RELEASE

The 2019 International All Round Weightlifting Association (IAWA) World Championships occurred on October 5th & 6th in Abilene, Kansas.  Lifters from all over the World came to compete in this All Round Weightlifting Championships. Several lifters attended from England, as well a lifter from Ireland and a lifter from Australia. Local Abilene resident Al Myers served as the meet promoter for this Championships.  Every year IAWA hosts a World Championships which features the best All Round Weightlifters in the organization. The location of this Championships rotates among all of the affiliated organizations.  Last year the IAWA World Championships were held in Eastbourne, England.  Several All Round lifts were contested over the two days.  The lifts were the Reverse Curl, Snatch from Hang, One Hand Clean and Jerk, Thumbless Deadlift, Pullover and Push, Continental to the Belt, and the 2″ Bar Straddle Lift. The overall women’s best lifter was Elizabeth Skwarecki from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.   The overall men’s best lifter was Steve Sherwood, from England.  Two local Abilene men competed in this event, LaVerne Myers and Brandon Rein. Both were crowned World Champions in their respective age and bodyweight classes.  The next IAWA Championship will be the Gold Cup, which will occur in 1 month in Perth, Australia.

Group picture from the 2019 IAWA World Championships

Group picture from the 2019 IAWA World Championships

MEET RESULTS:

World Champs 2019 Day1    World Champs 2019 Day2     World Champs 2019 Both Days

Ciavattone Award

By Al Myers

Al Myers receiving the Ciavattone Award from Frank Ciavattone at the 2019 IAWA Worlds.

Al Myers receiving the Ciavattone Award from Frank Ciavattone at the 2019 IAWA Worlds.

One of the highlights from the IAWA Awards Banquet was the presentation of the Ciavattone Award, presented by Frank Ciavattone.  I was extremely honored to have received this award, and it came as a total surprise to me.  It has been many years since the Ciavattone Award has been presented to anyone, but it is an award that I remembered from the “early days” of our organization.  Also,  Steve and Karen Gardner from England received the Ciavattone Award at the banquet – the first time it has been awarded to someone outside of the USAWA.  Steve and Karen are well deserving of this honor.  Both of them have had great influence on the USAWA even though they are IAWA-UK members.  Steve has announced at many, many IAWA events in the states through the years.  His leadership at these competitions are a big part why these meets were so successful.  Karen does so much work for IAWA “behind the scenes”.  I want to point out the reason we have so many pictures on Facebook of these past World Championships are because of her!  That’s a big job at meets to take photos while also competing.  I very much appreciate everything Karen does for us.

Steve and Karen Gardner receiving the Ciavattone Award from Frank Ciavattone at the 2019 IAWA Worlds.

Steve and Karen Gardner receiving the Ciavattone Award from Frank Ciavattone at the 2019 IAWA Worlds.

I would like to take today to explain the history of the Ciavattone Award.  This Award is very much dedicated to the memory of Frank’s parents and the influence they had on him, as well as the support they have given to IAWA/USAWA throughout the years. That’s what made receiving this Award so special to me.  My parents have also been tremendously supportive of me in my lifting pursuits thru the years, and I know I have not thanked them enough for this.  I could not have promoted this past Worlds to the success it had without their help.  This is a hard blog for me to write, finding the right words to truly express the significance of the Ciavattone Award.   I have asked Frank to help me  – and the following is part of an email he sent me.  It is a heartfelt message from him, and describes the Ciavattone Award much better than I ever could.

It’s about a lot of things! It started after my Dad passed after he had numerous operations in his 63 years on earth. When he passed this 300lb man went down to 80lbs. And yes NO ARMS OR NO LEGS!  Due to Burgess Disease which attacks the circulatory system. 

He was a true STRONGMAN who never never would let you feel sorry for him. Over the years many of the great men/lifters like Bill Clark, Art Montini, Steve Gardner, Steve Angell, Howard Prechtel, John Vernacchio, Denny Haybecker and the list goes on! All these heroes of mine all met my Dad! As each of them met him and walked away they all had a tear in their eye. It was at this time I knew our sport was no doubt the Greatest Sport! He spent 2+ Years in Korea! Do to his experience of operating a huge “Steam Shovel” Power Shovel he spent a good part of the war on the 38th Parallel and with 100,000 of thousands of casualties (deaths). You can figure out what his job was! I have all the pictures! 
 
On a brighter note we basically were poor but my parents always gave us a wonderful Christmas! But guess who was Santa Claus for the kids even less fortunate than us. You guessed it my Dad! Every Christmas that I can remember my Dad would leave the house for as long as it took and delivered toys to around 100 families! As I got of age I was part of it! A feeling I will never forget!
 
During the Vietnam War from 1962 to 1973 he organized the funeral for any Marine that got killed in action from our County. Also opened our house up for the 38 different Marines who needed a father son relationship before returning to their family. Some lived with us for months! My Mom was there as their mother at those tough times! My Mother came from the same mold! She had her own battles except not being in the war. She took care of my Dad from his first amputation to his passing and not once complained or put him in a Nursing Home! And it doesn’t take a smart person to realize how much she did for him! While fighting Cancer herself! She had Cancer in 6 different areas. Up until her passing July 4th this year she continued her strength, courage and leadership while coping losing a grandson and one of her daughters but also mothered my other 3 sisters and brother plus myself as we all battled Cancer! Through her strength we are survivors!
They both were the TRUE meaning of COURAGE! While all this they showed LEADERSHIP by opening their home to all, especially the USAWA & IAWA LIFTERS. They LOVED all the lifters from here USA or abroad! They made sure they had a place to sleep and plenty to eat! A truly mutual respect by all! NEVER one complaint and always total respect! At the meets my Dad would Referee even without limbs and my Mom would make sure all were fed even if she came from Radiation or other treatments! This kind of covers what the CIAVATTONE AWARD is about! I could write a book on all they have done Humanity! 
I think you will agree it covers:
1. Leadership 
2. Loyal to the sport of All-ROUND LIFTING WORLD WIDE
3. And the main theme! “COURAGE “ “365 DAYS A YEAR”
I want to thank Frank for sharing these personal thoughts of his with us.  It had to be a difficult thing to do, as he reflected on the true meaning of the Ciavattone Award. I know I speak for all of us when I say that Frank himself also exemplifies the qualities listed above. The past Ciavattone Award recipients are as follows:
USAWA:
Howard Prechtel
Noi Phumachiano
Bill Clark
John Vernachio
Denny Haybecker
Dennis Mitchell
Dale Friez
Rex Monahan
Al Myers
IAWA:
Steve Gardner
Karen Gardner
I plan to keep the Ciavattone Award recipients listed in our history archive on the website so this important award is always remembered. I hope Frank continues presenting the Ciavattone Award in the future to those he feels deserving.  I have received many awards during my days of lifting, but receiving this one means more to me than the others.  I only have two of my lifting awards hanging in my personal office – my USAWA Hall of Fame Award and the Ciavattone Award. That’s how important it is to me.

Shanks Lift

By Al Myers

Stevie Shanks lifting 330 kilograms in the Shanks Lift.

Stevie Shanks lifting 330 kilograms in the Shanks Lift.

At the AGM of IAWA a new official IAWA was accepted by the membership – the Shanks Lift.  This lift was originally proposed last year by Stevie Shanks of Ireland to honor his father, the great Dinnie Stone lifter Jack Shanks.  The IAWA Technical Committee reviewed this lift during this past year, and now, it has become an official lift!

At the Awards banquet following the IAWA World Championships, Stevie became the first IAWA lifter to perform the Shanks Lift.  He lifted an outstanding 330 kilograms!  I was very impressed, considering he did this after two strenuous days of lifting in the World Championships.  I am sure the Shanks Lift will be tried by many IAWA lifters and it will become a very popular lift. The entire crowd who witnessed this first Shanks Lift will never forget watching Stevie hoisting up the weight – as it was a very moving experience.  I will present the official rules on the Shanks Lift very soon in an upcoming blog.

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