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Robert Keller
IPF Cat I Referee
Member, IPF Tech.Comm.
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Technical Article - Powerlines #31
Dear valued members of USA Powerlifting:
Greetings - I hope this commentary finds everyone well! As of the writing of this article, we are nearly complete with our major national championship calendar of events for 2006, and we are now heading into the international calendar for this fall. As such, I wish all of our "drug-free" athletes that will be attending the Women/Men's Sub-junior/Junior, Masters and Open World Championships great success. With the recent suspension of the Ukraine and Russian Federations, USA Powerlifting looks to do very well this year at the upcoming world championships.
Now, onto my comments for this issue of Powerlines:
USA Powerlifting Technical Committee
To address the member and administration concerns regarding the standards of officiating and to assist our contest directors in promoting better championships at the local, national and international level, a technical committee of senior officials has been assembled for USA Powerlifting. Moreover, a technical committee homepage is nearly complete and will be posted as an informational resource to answer member questions, and/or to assist a meet director with technical, scoring and/or doping control questions with directing a championship. Please use it as a resource. Information and contact information, will be found here: http://www.usapowerlifting.com/committees/technical/index.shtml
PJ Couvillion
At the NGB this year, I was appointed, by the USAPL EC, to take over the technical reins for PJ. All I can say is that I am honored to fill the shoes of one of my mentors. Despite the change, PJ remains a valuable asset to our organization. Also, he shall remain an honorary member of the USAPL Technical Committee, and we thank him for his many years of service to our organization.
Maintaining Standards of Officiating
Officiating is a continued learning process. Maintaining the highest possible standards and remaining consistent with our calls on the platform, calls for preparation time before each championship, by reviewing the IPF technical rules and if necessary, their respective interpretations. The better a referee is prepared to take on the tasks of officiating at a championship, the better the standards will be come meet day. This, also, includes being open to constructive criticism and [working collaboratively with fellow officials], as a team, during the contest, along with a helpful review once the event is complete.
Key and important, as another step to improve the standards of our officiating, recently at our Men's Nationals in Miami, I teamed our newly certified national level referees, with our senior level international referees, to reinforce the previous training and testing process they went through. The comments and feedback from these national level officials as well as lifters was positive in nature. All referees, to include myself, will go through a [shared and collaborative] peer appraisal and assessment by a senior level referee for the purpose of providing feedback to improve our skills.
Proposed IPF Rule Changes
Recently, to the credit to the members of USA Powerlifting, there has been both positive and constructive dialogue on the Unofficial USA Powerlifting Forum, moderated by both Brad Madvig and Rick Fowler, concerning the proposed IPF proposed rules changes. I would ask for continued dialogue regarding these proposed changes, so that as an organization, we may form policy that is consistent [to include all safety measures] with the desires of our membership base. In my opinion, this was one if not thee best threads whereby the member "voiced" their respective opinions, which, to me, shall produce constructive feedback to the IPF EC and TC, which by the way, I shall definitely communicate, via the USAPL EC. Key and important in constructive dialogue, via the forum, it is always best o concentrate on process error, rather than position.
IPF Referees
As of this month, I am very proud to announce that USA Powerlifting now has more certified and registered IPF referees than any member federation within the IPF. One of the mandates that I set for myself as the interim chair, was to have more IPF referees available at our national championships, to certify IPF world records here in the United States, and to a large degree, we have succeeded.
On this note, I would like to congratulate Mr. Dan Gaudreau for passing his IPF Category II examination at the USAPL Collegiate Nationals. I performed his practical examination and Dan was right on target. Days later he was sitting in the chair at the IPF World Masters Bench Press in Miami, and one month later officiated at the IPF World Open Bench Press Championships in Hungary. He is welcome addition to our corps of IPZF referees. I would also like to welcome Mr. Buddy Duke back into the fold. Buddy was recertified as an IPF Category II referee, after two solid 10 hr. days of clinic recertification, with me, at the USAPL Quest American Invitational in Georgia.
Buddy has nearly 35 years vested in the sport of powerlifting and will be an asset to our organization. Finally, congratulations are in order for Jack Marcus who recently passed his Category I examination. Jack served as the Technical Secretary for the NAPF Championships in Dorado, Puerto Rico and did an outstanding job, as he has done with all of the national championships he has worked this past year -- My sincere congratulations!
Doping Control Acknowledgement Forms
A motion was passed at the NGB this year, coming from Don Wilson [State Chair - Pennsylvania], to provide our drug-testing officials with Doping Acknowledgement Forms, will be implemented for our athletes to sign, when they are contacted for drug-testing at a championship. Once the forms become available, it will be mandatory that if an athlete is selected for drug-testing, they will be issued a form to sign acknowledging that they have, in fact, been contacted for the doping control process and where and when to report. This will resolve any discussion any questions as to whether someone was, in fact, contacted for testing.
Code of Conduct
As of July 01, 2006, attached to each membership application coming from the national office, will be a copy of the USA Powerlifting Code of Conduct for each member to review and more importantly know and understand. The USAPL Code of Conduct is patterned after the USOC Code of Conduct, so as to address the concerns of our members on maintaining high standards of conduct as a member of USA Powerlifting. It is extremely well written and can be found on our national homepage. It can be viewed here: http://www.usapowerlifting.com/aboutus/code_conduct.shtml
Please take a moment to read it, and coaches' print it off and have your lifter's review it as well - Thank you!
Jury Responsibilities
All officials, if you are assigned to the Jury to oversee the direction of a particular session at a championship, it is very important that you stay alert and focused on the lifting at hand. Recently, at a championship that I attended, one of the jury members was discovered reading the Sunday paper, and in some cases predisposed with matters not concerning the championship. This is not acceptable. As a reminder, cell phones should be turned off and food not eaten at the jury table. These can become distractions.
As a kind and gentle reminder, if you are fielding a complaint from a coach and/or lifter on a particular call, ensure that one official fields the complaint, and the other two watch the platform. At a recent championship, all three officials fielded a complaint, and completely missed the following attempt, which fielded another protest. As a result, the lifter was awarded another attempt, based on the fact that no one from the jury was watching the platform lifting.
USAPL National/American Records
Gina Stapleton has assumed the position of records keeper for USA Powerlifting. At this point, all I can say is that she is doing her very best to catch up on record claims that have not been posted for whatever reason. As she becomes acclimated to her new duties, and plays catch, I would request that everyone to remain patient with the posting of their records.
To assist Gina with this ardent task, I would kindly request that all technical secretaries, at future national championships, appoint either a state or national referee with the sole responsibility to record any and all national/American records at the championship. The records "official" will be posted either on the scoring table or with the jury. At this year's nationals, I posted Gina at the Jury table and it worked marvelously well. On a final note, Gina has done a remarkable job in updating the records and my compliments to her.
Closing Remarks
To close, member feedback and questions are always welcome. We are striving to make our championships better. If you have an idea to improve the federation or our respective championships, myself and the officials of USA Powerlifting are always willing to listen -- with continued improvement of our standards comes better performances by our athletes.
In the meantime, PRs to everyone!
Thank you,
Robert Keller
Chairman
USA Powerlifting Technical Committee
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