Topic: A Few Ideas To Make Weightlifting More Popular In America

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

Hmmmm....I don't think there are any rules against rock and roll, alcohol, or gambling. I know they served alcohol at the meets I competed in over in Europe, though that was some time ago. Setting up the gambling shouldn't be tough, through Las Vegas....

One thing I should clarify- of course, we will still need refs and I love them all! But, I don't like subjective rules. Even if one ref is consistent, or even if all refs are consistent, they aren't consistent with each other! The press-out and bar oscillation rules are sometimes enforced, sometimes not, and often (always?) enforced differently from one session to the next and one meet to the next. I know Dr. Herrick supports abolishing the press-out rule but he mentioned he gets little support in that regard from other refs. The elbow touch rule is fine except you have refs calling it because they think they saw it and not because they definitely saw it, and they can just be wrong. Who cares if there is an elbow touch? In my view, the refs should only be enforcing rules so obvious that the refs are almost completely unnecessary because the lifts will be so obviously good or bad. Perhaps thats one reason that most refs don't like the idea(s)....

[Nick Albert]

i do agree. every judge is different and not all are 100% consistant. and all judges do need to only call what are DEFINATELY seen.

Charles Paiva told me about a time at one of the olympic festivals when they judges called him on his elbows touching but it was really just from his skin colored singlet.

I also believe that Arnold himself would be big publicity for olympic lifting. He is a governer now so im sure he can get some cash flow in usaw and it would be on news stations, radio stations, tv. everywhere and arnold is a good icon for young kids.

[Jim Hooper]

Oh, you have stuck a pin in my interest node with this one . . .

Four more things that are doable and that might, along with many more, elevate Olympic lifting from the deepest dank depths of obscurity in which it now unjustly lies:

Invite every strength, football, wrestling, track, and gymnastics coach within 60 miles to your meet meet and give them VIP seating and free admission.  Scholastic sports coaches are the key to the kingdom:  If they learn about and see Olympic lifting, many of them will be persuaded to get it into their schools' athletic training programs, and you are then off to the races.  It is the one, only, and singular way to increase the talent pool in American weightlifting.  Little private clubs with a handful of kids are never going to amount to a big enough net to capture more than a small fraction of the talent pool that is out there.  Once you get real Olympic lifting  and coaching going in a school, it sells itself, and they will come.  One year ago, my son's high school had zero Olympic lifters.  In fact, had zero people who knew what it was.  10 months later, we have 20 kids lifting year round and three who medaled in the JOs and are on track to qualify for SchoolAge Nationals next year.   One is snatching above bodyweight already.   If you build it, they will come.  Credit our head wrestling coach, who saw the benefits for his athletes and opened the door to get the program going.  There is probably no 5-A wrestling or football program in the country that does not have at least some kids who are capable of national level competition if only they had access to the sport and a couple of years training.   We have in this country probably every woman who was born to win a medal in WL the 2016 Olympics in this country right now --  and probably every one of them is in gymnastics or playing softball.  The coaches of the sports that attract powerful, tough, hardworking, athletic kids are the key to the kingdom.  Show them the way . . . give me your "quick but too small" noseguards, your girls whose quads got too big for the parallel bars, your linebackers with great 10 yard speed but who only run 4.9 40's, your wrestlers not quite good enough for Div 1 . . . get them into lifting while their primary sport is something else, and then keep them in it when they turn 17 and finish their senior seasons.  A couple thousand of those kinds of athletes  in our mix -- that is, a few thousand Casey Burgeners and Jackie Berubes and Kendrick Farrises into the sport with a good base and ready to hit it hard at 17 or 18 . . . you follow.

Invite the media.   In this country, if you have an idea you want people to be persuaded by -- buy my product, give to my cause, vote for me, do X to lose weight, join our organization, etc. -- but little or no media exposure, you aren't going to persuade anybody to do anything.   Nothing nefarious about that:  its simply that people are bombarded with information and choices of how to spend their time and money, and if you aren't on their radar screen, you won't be one of their choices, period, paragraph.  If you have a state championship meet, at least ask the local TV and print sports reporters to come check it out.  I have yet to meet somebody who has seen lifters snatch or jerk big weights that is not impressed.  But I almost never encounter anyone outside the sport who has the foggiest clue what it is or even what it involves.   If you ask, they may not come, but if you don't ask, they certainly won't come.  If they come, give them a 10-minute primer on the sport, what the lifts are, how the competition works, and any special competitors present.  National caliber lifters, amazing masters, schoolage, and women athletes, and lots of others are special people, doing special things, that society does not expect them to do -- reporters love that stuff.  Point their nose at what is interesting about the meet.  If they come, make a big deal of it, and thank them in front of the crowed for covering the event.  20 seconds of footage on the evening sports casts even a couple of times a year in even a few major media markets would probably significantly increase the lifting population in this country.   A weightlifting competition with some good lifters inherently will include way more impressive feats than anything that happens on a high school football field, but, hell, who could possibly know that?  99+% of the population thinks "weightlifting" means bodybuilding or powerlifting.

We need to have big, visible, attempt boards in view of everybody present, so people can see what is going on and where the competition stands at any point.   At too many meets, everybody is just watching "their" lifter.  Its way more interesting for spectators if they can see that Jill's third attempt is not just "weight X," but that it will put her in the lead, or in the medal range, or whatever the case may be.  It can be anything from a big chalkboard (if there are a small number of competitors) to an image projected from a computer or overhead projector (for larger sessions).   The more you give the crowd to look at, the better.

"Walk out" music for lifters who want it.  A 15-20 second blast of whatever they want to play, at their option.  We do it in wrestling meets and in PR attempts in training all the time.  The athletes love it and get psyched, the crowd digs it, etc.  With laptops today, it is real, real easy to accomplish -- point and click when the lifter is called to the bar.  Stepping up to snatch in silence is fine, but for some athletes, stepping up to snatch with the opening bars of Led Zep's Rock and Roll or Ozzie's Iron Man or Nickelback's Animals or Wagner's Flight of the Valkyries is worth at least another 2.5, I mean 3, kilos.   Nothing in the rules against it, and nobody that doesn't want it has to do it.

[Matt Denslinger]

"Walk out" music for lifters who want it. A 15-20 second blast of whatever they want to play, at their option. We do it in wrestling meets and in PR attempts in training all the time. The athletes love it and get psyched, the crowd digs it, etc. With laptops today, it is real, real easy to accomplish -- point and click when the lifter is called to the bar. Stepping up to snatch in silence is fine, but for some athletes, stepping up to snatch with the opening bars of Led Zep's Rock and Roll or Ozzie's Iron Man or Nickelback's Animals or Wagner's Flight of the Valkyries is worth at least another 2.5, I mean 3, kilos. Nothing in the rules against it, and nobody that doesn't want it has to do it.

Less muscle tension is better when lifting. You need that inbetween when it comes to arousal to perform the best.

[Paul LeDrew]

Thought this wasa good idea.

The Alberta Weightlifting Association made this and its going to air for a while:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15cE-DjQn3Y

[Jack Dluzen]

WELL , chris, i think the full  body  suit is  kinda limp wristed ,  well all be known as (MEN IN TIGHTS!)    uuhhh the thought of that phrase  has  a double edge sword !  as for a  venue did you hear anything about  las vegas having a new sporting complex and having meets there as was posted on here a few months ago?  vegas would be a great  venue with so much to offer !

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

as for a venue did you hear anything about las vegas having a new sporting complex and having meets there as was posted on here a few months ago? vegas would be a great venue with so much to offer !

Here is the link:
http://weightliftingexchange.com/smf/index.php?topic=1913.0

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

Well, Congress has outlawed many forms of online gambling, so that blows that idea (still possible but far more difficult and expensive). Here is a link for more information on that in case anyone is interested: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/13/AR2006101300147.html

Other than Jim Hooper, does anyone have ideas to improve the popularity of weightlifting in America or are most of the community content to stand pat with the state of the sport as is?

Thanks