President's Message

April 1, 2004

Defining a Strategy so Everyone Wins
      (or, Do We as Powerlifters "Eat Our Young").

This topic is one that is likely to be controversial, and may be easily taken the wrong way. Nonetheless, it is one that we should examine very carefully. It makes a difference in terms of how people, both inside our sport and outside it perceive us. My thoughts are based on my time in the sport, and more recently on the reports of people who have left lifting.

Understanding and Retaining Our Lifter Base

One of the programs we are currently engaged in is contacting people whose memberships expired last year and who didn't renew. Their comments have been very instructive. While there are is a small minority who leave unhappy, my comments are also based on the frustrations of volunteers who "burn out" and lifters who move on for other reasons. The sentiments reflected on the negative side are partly drawn from the feedback of those outside powerlifting who have asked what we are doing to ourselves.

When you think of why people start lifting, there are probably a variety of reasons. They may range from the desire to get in better shape, to find a pursuit that they can continue to exercise their competitive drive in, and may include the opportunity to be a part of a group of fun people. At the national level, one of the reasons that people keep coming back year after year is the chance to be part of a group of positive, fun people. The friends that we make at meets stay friends year after year. One of the best parts of going to a national meet is seeing people that you haven't seen since the previous year and "catching up" on what they have been doing, how their training is going, how their family is, the job, etc.

The factors above are the positives. They are what draw us to powerlifting. But we lose people every year for a variety of reasons too. Some will be difficult to get back, for a host of reasons, and some move on in their lives, and don't have time or energy to devote to competing at a high level. Our phone contacts suggest that a significant percentage of our lifters sustain injuries that keep them from competing for an extended period, or end their careers. While all of us are aware that lifting heavy weights carries with it some liability, we have never been able to put a number on it before, or to even try. What we are learning is that a significant percentage of "non-returning members," approximately 10% don't continue because of major injuries. That may be more than 100 in any given year. We will know better when we complete this project, likely sometime in May or early June, but we can tell that it is a significant number already.

When we think of the roles that we define for our lifters and officials, they are really very narrow in scope: you lift, referee, or promote meets. There are other jobs that you can do, such as being a spotter/loader or other meet assistant, but these are not such that a person devotes him or herself to the task, or develops an identity as a "helper." So, we lose members who aren't able to lift, referee, or promote meets. This is, I believe is a terrible waste of talent and commitment to our organization. To retain supporters, we need to find meaningful roles for them, and find some intrinsic reward for them to stay with us, like a thank you from the lifters, or maybe the opportunity to "hang out" with us during the meet. Think about it. How many of you can remember who the platform manager or scorekeeper was at your last meet? And they are some of the most important people in making a meet happen.

Building New Programs

How do we commission new projects? That is a question that bears some looking at as well, but maybe a look around first. We can all acknowledge that powerlifting is a small sport. If you count every possible lifter, supporter, etc. in the country, there are probably not more than 15,000 "powerlifters" in all federations. This makes us a pretty small pie, if you will. How it is sliced at any given time depends on a variety of factors, including (but certainly not limited to): meet availability, a person's time and physical health, MONEY to travel, goals for higher level competition, and what I call "atmospherics." Atmospherics are factors such as attitude toward the organization, it's mission, experiences with the people involved, and acceptance of the rules to be followed. It looks like the most powerful of all of these is meet availability. We know that most people compete within 150 miles of their residence. That makes having meets in every locale probably the most important factor in our growth. Younger lifters, in particular don't tend to travel to compete as much as older lifters.

Powerlifting has been static in terms of growth for an extended period of time. The predominant federations in the 70's and 80's had approaching 10,000 members. If you consider the smaller organizations that existed during those times, the 15,000 powerlifters I mentioned above was probably in the ballpark.

I would put to you that in any system that lacks significant growth tensions exist among those involved. What does that mean to us? It means that each new pursuit is met with a perception that something must give to start something new. Growth in one component is seen as taking away from another. A new program means that an existing one must suffer or be decommissioned. Growth of one group is seen as a threat to another. In short, we pirate from our own programs to grow others. We must not find ourselves falling into this pattern if we are to continue to advance.

So, to answer how we too often start new programs, we look around and see where we can take resources and target those resources for our own. The flaw in all of this is that many in lifting, and those outside perceive us as in a constant struggle with ourselves. And to some degree, they are right.

How do we change this perception? There are a number of steps that we can consider. The first of these is to have a coherent plan. If we want to develop a particular program, to do so should be consistent with the goals of the organization and the sport as a whole. That really means that everyone is not running off in their own direction. If consensus is that we should proceed in a given direction, then resources should be identified. But we must be careful not to pirate another, functioning program to grow our own. Those involved in that will resent it, especially if it is paying dividends to those involved.

We must walk a fine line in looking beyond our successes, and our successful lifters and programs. This can be stated more simply in the old adage, "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." While we definitely want every eligible powerlifter to join USA Powerlifting, there are reasons why they haven't. We would like them to lift on our platform, but in inviting them, we must be careful not to diminish the accomplishments of those who do. Comparing our lifters and their performances to those who lift under different conditions is not fair to us, or to them. No one wins under those circumstances. We may get out-totaled, they could get "yes, but…." responses. Neither makes for warm relationships.

Support Within

We must be supportive of those who are traveling our direction. We are more similar within this group of 15,000 powerlifters, with some inherent similarities despite our obvious philosophical and technical differences. When I am training, I would much rather get a spot from another powerlifter than a marathoner, for obvious reasons. But the same thing applies to talking about training. I have much more in common with another powerlifter than a baseball player. By the same token, their success doesn't detract from mine. Their knowledge doesn't impeach mine. To the degree that we are well organized, supportive of our fellow powerlifters, and genuinely proud of our athletes and accomplishments, we will grow.

LJM
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