Topic: No More BDWT classes!!

[Tom Sherwood]

I wish they would give medals for top 3 snatches and cj's like the worlds.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

I wish they would give medals for top 3 snatches and cj's like the worlds.

THAT I can certainly agree with, along with going back to our original ten weight classes for men.

[John Way]

Dave Chiu, I spoke to the IWF and they are banning all your lfters from the Olympics, now you can can enjoy your own little games lol   

[Jim Hooper]

Little would please me more than to see a couple more "tiers" in the light and middleweight clases (there is just too much space between, say, 152 lbs and 170 lbs, as anybody who is a "tweener" and has tried to gain 10 lbs of muscle knows) and, especially, a 120 or 125 type class where big, athletic, linebacker type athletes like Botev, Chigishev, Casey, etc. would naturally fit in.  That would produce the heaviest, and yet still most athletic and skillful, lifting in the sport.  What is the logic of having guys who are in that range lift against these behemoth 300+ pounders like Chemerkin and Rezazadeh?    Hell, have 12 classes.  Fewer classes are hard on athletes and easy on the sportocrats who run things -- that's the only reason we have so few, I think. 

[Dave Chiu]

Yes, 1 kg of bdwt IS huge...

Just think of what that 1.1 qt of liquid cost to lose...

... or how much you'd have to "eliminate" to total more than two pkgs of hot dogs!!

We all know that training and talent (and gender) make a bigger difference than bdwt, but if you make all other things equal (which they NEVER are between separate individuals), then sure, one guy who's heavier and as well trained LIFTS MORE THAN HIMSELF if lighter.

I wish someone would admit how well Vardanyan's 400 @ 82.5 proves my point -- he out-totalled the NEXT TWO HIGHER CLASSES (OK Rigert bombed, but still...), and only got ONE Gold?!?!

The OG will NEVER add more classes -- THEY HAVE CAPPED OUR SPORT'S MEDAL TOTAL and will not budge on that (that's why some men's classes were dropped to add the women) -- I say get more recognition for the very best by going w/ a system that is MORE MATHEMATICALLY VALID.

The classes are too close when winners in one can medal in the next up.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

Dave,

Nothing is more mathematically valid than bodyweight classes or the GS. Read your original post and it even recognizes this fact:

There will be 3 golds in SN (best % of bdwt, best margin over bdwt, and most absolute), the same for C&J, and Total golds for combinations of % and margin, and margin and absolute.

At the same time you rail against bodyweight classes, you recognize the importance of bodyweight. But, your math would be more complex, more difficult for the audience to understand, and less accurate than either bodyweight classes or the GS.

[Dave Chiu]

Chris --

% and Margin are the most impressive way to refer to lifts like:

"Double her bodyweight!!"

"More than 200 lbs over his bodyweight!!"

... etc.

The most interesting historic event in O-lifting since VA's breaking the 500 "barrier", was arguably the first 3x bdwt by that guy who beat NS to the punch (even if I don't recall his name, I recall WHAT HE DID).

The most significant event in recent decades of US lifting was probably MR's first US woman to lift over dbl bdwt.

Just think -- if you want to chart your progress, wouldn't you be more motivated to have goals not just at round kg and lb numbers, but also major %'s and Margins?

People understand % and Margin the way they never will w/ other clever formulae (can you believe spellcheck doesn't accept that, but does allow "formulas").

Actually, I haven't heard a succinct explanation of GS -- is it like SF, based on how well you did compared to your bdwt -- a curve derived from the range of WR's?

The bdwt classes are cool -- if unfairly weighted twd a small segment of the demographic bell curve -- but I say there's a better way that our sport has proven itself (uh, press-out rule?) too brick-brained to consider.

My other big sport is Rowing -- they also suffer from having VERY close-minded stubbornness about improvements -- they rejected an improvement analogous to Clap Skates.

There must be something about being an amazingly cool sport that makes adherents think they have to dogmatize...

(in general, not accusing anyone of being close-minded JUST for disagreeing w/ my opinions...)

Dave

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

Dave,

Weightlifting ability does not increase in a linear fashion with bodyweight, hence the inherent error in those measures. They may be appealing for momentary statistical announcements but they do not create a fair basis on which to base a competition. Its physics. If you wish to read more about the golden standard, just enter it in the search engine. I certainly have talked about it plenty and cited it as well as provided a calculator you can play with under references.