Opinion Piece Equipped Powerlifting and What is 'Real' Strength

unit94 said:Marc how would you go about getting multi-ply lifters to start using less equipment? It seems like a pretty difficult task.

slimsim said:I had a conversation with a guy in the gym tonight who told me he was thinking about doing powerlifting. He said he'd squatted "5 plates and a 5 for 5" (ie. 230kg). When I quizzed him about depth he was adamant that he went to parallel and that he was a good squatter.

This is the same guy who I observed several times over the course of a few weeks doing squats to this depth.........and that's being generous

http://www.shape.com/sites/shape.com/files/imagecache/lists_li...
(fitty used for illustrative purposes only.....honest!)

Anyway, my point is, that he, like most general weight training individuals have no idea what "depth" is on a squat, let alone the difference a squat/bench/deadlift suit make. I think they see a s**t load of weight being moved and are impressed whether it's raw or not. I think it's only once you develop a personal preference for a type of lifting that another type becomes less impressive.

As a weightlifter I do not see even most raw low-bar powerlifting squats as being impressive compared to a high bar ass to grass olympic style squat due to the superior range of motion and general athleticism shown in an olympic squat. Does that make me right, nope, it's just my personal preference.

As long as the general public don't see a sport in turmoil then I don't think it matters whether there is 1 discipline or 10, people will simply gravitate to what they enjoy. I'm sure there are numerous sports which are similarly fragmented but we simply don't know about them.

Take clay pigeon shooting for example..... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay_pigeon_shooting

7 types of trap shooting!!! They are probably having this exact same argument on their equivalent of Sugden right now.

IrishMarc said:
It's probably an impossible task .
They are so insular in their behaviour they are almost like a cult of strength athletes who don't want to hear any deriding opinions. Youtube has shown that calling them out doesn't do any good because then your just a hater.
Maybe challenging them to put up to their claims of being the "strongest" in the world and making them compete with non multiply lifters in a common rule set??
It's definitely a horribly difficult task but it could do enormous amounts of good for the sport.
Unequipped looks set to be the future of the sport just look at the popularity of it versus equipped lifting it just will take a while for it to permeate other spheres of influence.
Chad Waterbury, The liddlebridges et al show that there are people in the heart lands of multiply lifting who are questioning the status quo it just might take some time...

unit94 said:
Raw does seem to be the popular thing currently. In 15 years there might be alot less multiply lifters as the old guard retire and younger guys aren't coming through to take there place, time will tell I guess.

AdamC said:
Or a lot of the younger lifters who came into the sport raw may have moved up to equipped lifting
Maybe part of the reason why raw seems more popular is that theres a lot of new blood into the sport lately, who haven't been exposed to equipped lifting yet
I still don't understand why so many of the raw brigade are constantly slagging off equipped lifters and in some cases demanding that equipped be abolished and only their way should be allowed
I've competed both raw and single ply and plan on competing in multiply also in the future, and quite frankly i prefer equipped lifting to raw, its my personal preference just like every other lifter is entitled to their own preferences
no-one is better or right because of their preferences and IMO rather then all this bickering about raw equipped multiply etc the sport would be better off if people put their efforts into promoting the sport and trying to get new blood into it regardless of what equipment choices they make
i also think people forget that equipment has pretty much always been in the sport and always will be
i think a bigger issue in the sport than equipment is the extremely poor and substandard judging we see in some federations

AdamC said:
Or a lot of the younger lifters who came into the sport raw may have moved up to equipped lifting
Maybe part of the reason why raw seems more popular is that theres a lot of new blood into the sport lately, who haven't been exposed to equipped lifting yet
I still don't understand why so many of the raw brigade are constantly slagging off equipped lifters and in some cases demanding that equipped be abolished and only their way should be allowed
I've competed both raw and single ply and plan on competing in multiply also in the future, and quite frankly i prefer equipped lifting to raw, its my personal preference just like every other lifter is entitled to their own preferences
no-one is better or right because of their preferences and IMO rather then all this bickering about raw equipped multiply etc the sport would be better off if people put their efforts into promoting the sport and trying to get new blood into it regardless of what equipment choices they make
i also think people forget that equipment has pretty much always been in the sport and always will be
i think a bigger issue in the sport than equipment is the extremely poor and substandard judging we see in some federations

LeedsMiniPower said:For me I like how raw lifting means more to Joe Public and they can relate to it. Other than that I don't really agree with any of your points.

You mention cost for example, go get into Motorcross, Cycling, Sailing etc it will cost a damn site more.

Equipped lifting is a skill in itself and takes a certain mindset to go through the pain etc.

IMO the public prefer to see equipped lifting and the big weights that are shifted.

And this all comes from a "raw" lifter!!

Also doesn't a belt count as equipment?

LeedsMiniPower said:Cost doesn't equal prohibitive? More people are into cycling/racing than powerlifting. (Not getting picky but imo cost doesn't come into a hobby/passion,if you want to do it you will)

force10 said:IrishMark I think your just abit disgruntled because you have a s**t Raw total and you cant afford any deent equipment