I left specifically for how Priscilla treated me as a national referee. The day after I competed at Raw Nationals last year (in the morning I might add after an evening prime time), she made it difficult for me to check in, get my credentials, and she even almost refused to let me in the warmup room because of a missing sticker. This was less than 12 hours after I competed. That is how they regularly treat pros who actively contribute as referees. Like we are inferior and stupid. I said that day that I would never referee at a meet she was at ever again. Powerlifting America has been the complete opposite for me as both an athlete and referee. As a whole, they treat everyone with respect and kindness and I wish I had switched sooner. I have a lot of respect for others within USAPL and I cherish those friendships, but I could not do it anymore after that. Among quite a few other things that motivated me to switch, that was the breaking point for me.
Like all pro or high level sports - the USAPL was the most interesting and engaging by the masses when the pros/celebrities were focused on consistently. Hyping up the head to head battles, being able to have your (usually measly) total be directly compared to your idols at nats…. Made the USAPL the best it’s ever been.
The local lifters appeal of being in the same fed as their favorite lifters shouldn’t be underestimated and I think we’ll only in a few years look back and talk about how fast USAPL collapsed.
Ive been in PLing for about 10 years, generally on a local level. I think i can try to bridge the gap between how you and other pros feel, and how some of the old guard in PLing admin feel. First off, totally get switching and i fuck that loyalty shit. Thats silly. But to me the key here is your statement that the work you do and content you create is adding more value to PLing than volunteering at a local meet. Yes, it almost certainly does. But PLing only exists because of passionate people volunteering their time and energy, not because its their business, career, or high level athletic endevour, but because they want to altruistically or out of a sense of duty, contribute to the sport and community. So yes, content creators bringing more eyeballs to the sport adds a lot of value, but its a byproduct of them doing whats best for themselves. And thats the disconnect, the sport NEEDS passionate people who volunteer and create the community as the backbone, and thats where i think a lot of PLing content creators can improve and be better influences because this isnt like other sports where fans are just consumers. This sport requires people to deposit after theyve withdrawn to keep going and people look to the top level voices and athletes as role models.
I genuinely 100% agree with this. And I think that is where some of my regret with my original tone came from. I guess some of my thoughts there do go back to the money in the first place and that investing in delivering a high level exciting product hopefully brings in more money all around and ideally creates more opportunities to pay people to spot/load/ref/etc. What it seems like now is USAPL is abandoning the top end in favor of the people who are not really pushing at the top end and really limiting the ability for there to be money at all levels. Obviously, powerlifting is very far off from professional sports that can actually pay refs salaries and things like that. But pursuing the avenues of growth might make some of that a little more accessible. For what it's worth, I'm outside of the money in most of these meets. I don't expect to be paid from competing because there are better people that beat me most of the time. But I do think people like me bring value to everyone and can hopefully result in less reliance on volunteers and more ability for more people to get paid in the first place.
I was happy to see some money going towards masters. I wish most federations would actually show some care towards their asters. Many are the ones contributing to the federation over a long time frame. Most federations (including IPF) treat them as a cash/resourcing cow but provide little for them.
I guess a big part of my argument here is that the money that is now potentially available for masters payouts is only there because of the growth that came from raw open. Not masters, bench, equipped stuff. And as USAPL pushes out the people growing the raw open aspect, there will be less growth for masters to see anyway and it could move in the wrong direction. So it might be good right now for masters bench lifters to feel recognized, I might end up meaning less money all around for everyone.
Bottom line is USAPL is a business and brand. If they wanted to keep their pros then they should be catering to keep them, not the other way around. I loved your stories about that situation and didn't think you needed to phrase it any differently. Can't wait to see you back on the platform!
I just wanted to clarify that I wasn’t diminishing the efforts that a lot of people have here and just that I disagree with the vision for the future. Plenty of hardworking people have made for a great experience to this point and I wanted to be clear where my frustrations were directed.
I'm a masters lifter and I swapped to PA because there's no competition in the USAPL coupled with the disaster that was Raw Nationals last year. For the highest level meet offered, I've seen local level events ran better than Nationals in Memphis.
I disagree with your approach here. You should have called this video “the decision” and do a 2 hour long video ending with “I’m taking my talents to Powerlifting America”
For me, an average lifter, USAPL appeals more due to the sheer number of meets and availability. Meets are so infrequent and not local in PA there’s really no appeal for me to compete there as I would never qualify for IPF level meets anyways. It seems PAs focus is just on the top level lifters, which is a tiny fraction of overall population.
And that really has been why I have stuck around and encouraged most others to do the same. But I think I have doubts on the growth there. As more top people move over, and encourage others to do the same, that infrastructure should grow. Currently I do agree that the average lifter has way more options within the USAPL. But I’m hoping that changes as time goes on.
Powerlifting America is doing a big meet in New England this July, I agree Powerlifting America needs more local meets but we have to sign up for the ones that are happening.
@@SinnedNogara So for me that's still roughly about 3 hours away (Southern RI). That's the only one in New England for the rest of this year. So would really have to look to New Jersey as the next logical location. Just no infrastructure currently and most of those joining now don't seem interested in reffing, directing meets, etc. They just want a pathway to the IPF. Again this can all change like David outlines here, but I think that's a long ways off.
Funny, I did a usapl meet in 2005 and it was refereed by Larry Mailie and Johnny Graham. Some guys from Alaska were openly criticising Larry back then. Lo and behold 20 years later these same two guys are still in charge of the organization.
I've been dealing with a similar injury for about 7 months now, sharp and sudden shooting pain right at lockout of squats and deadlift. At some point even tempoing two reds was too much. My coach Melnard De Leon and I have been hard at work though and it seems like we're almost at a point where I'm fully back. Well, squat I'm already hitting PRs actually. Pulls are still work in progress. Luckily hacksquats and back extensions seem to have been preserving and even building my strength pretty well.
I’m glad you are almost through it. Definitely a frustrating thing. But it does seem like I can train machine lower body stuff like hacks and pendulum squats pretty hard and likely is also why my squat is doing just fine despite not being all that healthy. Just can’t do any real hinge work.
Hearing the way you're describing your injury, it seems like this is EXACTLY the injury i had a year ago. Couldn't hinge very well. Single leg deadlifts and very light conventional pulls helped me out a ton. No pain now at all. I'm not sure how important the symmetry work is tho, what's the rationale behind it? curious to know
I’ve been trying to decide if I want to compete in USPA or USAPL when I start competing. From what I’ve heard from different USAPL lifters/seen in their rules, it’ll likely be USPA I also got to meet one of the head guys at USPA at the Arnold and he was incredibly nice/humble.
It feels like everyone is jumping ship and just following each other. Not to diminish the points you made about leaving. But just at a 10,000 ft view, everyone was singing USAPL's praises and how the IPF sucks and then suddenly Sheffield $$$ and everyone is like "well, you know...".
But I actually think that is exactly my point. The USAPL had the competition and was offering money to high level lifters and people were pumped about the pro series at first. Then the USAPL absolutely fumbled to Pro Series and everything so bad. And at the same time SBD was offering money and competition. So as the USAPL was moving in the wrong direction, collectively people moved towards where the growth and competition clearly was/is.
@@BrazosValleyStrengthThe Pro Series was a disaster. Just trying to figure out the mechanics took way too much effort, let alone finding its place within the overall State/National/International competition. Then there was the Raw Nats registration debacle and it was downhill from there.
Is your hamstring tendino the kind that makes your have increasing disconformt the longer you sit on a chair? Its the one i have and it just never goes away, but the pain is probably 2/10
I will say for the humility bit. I do think there is a stark difference between arrogance and confidence. For example, someone like Russ basically saying anything cant really be considered arrogant (at least in the context of his achievments in PL) because he is quite literally one of the best to do it. But what I'd say is arrogance when you dont back up what you say. The best example of this that comes to mind immediately is Rich Cho (Pug). Him saying he is the best/going to be the best and talking shit is what Id consider to be arrogance because he never was really in a position to make such claims. So when top lifters do or say things that they dont have evidence to suggest they are/can do something, thats when it comes off as arrogance to me. Im sure there is some self actualization/manifestation that is behind why certain athletes do that. But to me thats just lame tbh (just an opinion. No shade)
I’d honestly say that’s more on the fans of people like that who take it seriously. Shit talk in sports is also good. Athletes having high levels of self belief and getting a rise from their opponents is good. It’s also good for the sport to have people care about story lines. But if someone consistently fails to live up to the hype then I think that’s on the fans who create hype in the first place. I’m pretty much a fan of all shit talk in sports and I think we all want to see personalities. I have a lot of lifters I root against because I don’t like their vibe. But I still watch.
Jawon breaks one of the most esteemed records in the history of powerlifting. USAPL's social media response: .................
If it was a Jenn Thompson bench press we would have probably seen 3 posts by now from them though.
I left specifically for how Priscilla treated me as a national referee. The day after I competed at Raw Nationals last year (in the morning I might add after an evening prime time), she made it difficult for me to check in, get my credentials, and she even almost refused to let me in the warmup room because of a missing sticker. This was less than 12 hours after I competed. That is how they regularly treat pros who actively contribute as referees. Like we are inferior and stupid. I said that day that I would never referee at a meet she was at ever again.
Powerlifting America has been the complete opposite for me as both an athlete and referee. As a whole, they treat everyone with respect and kindness and I wish I had switched sooner. I have a lot of respect for others within USAPL and I cherish those friendships, but I could not do it anymore after that. Among quite a few other things that motivated me to switch, that was the breaking point for me.
I appreciate you sharing your experience here and I’m glad to hear things are looking better over in PA on both fronts.
@@BrazosValleyStrength I’m pretty confident and optimistic about the future of Powerlifting America as of now. We’re lucky to have you!
Sorry you felt you were treated poorly. Good luck with your lifting.
Like all pro or high level sports - the USAPL was the most interesting and engaging by the masses when the pros/celebrities were focused on consistently. Hyping up the head to head battles, being able to have your (usually measly) total be directly compared to your idols at nats…. Made the USAPL the best it’s ever been.
Great stuff, happy that I could help!
Onward, David!
The local lifters appeal of being in the same fed as their favorite lifters shouldn’t be underestimated and I think we’ll only in a few years look back and talk about how fast USAPL collapsed.
Ive been in PLing for about 10 years, generally on a local level. I think i can try to bridge the gap between how you and other pros feel, and how some of the old guard in PLing admin feel. First off, totally get switching and i fuck that loyalty shit. Thats silly. But to me the key here is your statement that the work you do and content you create is adding more value to PLing than volunteering at a local meet. Yes, it almost certainly does. But PLing only exists because of passionate people volunteering their time and energy, not because its their business, career, or high level athletic endevour, but because they want to altruistically or out of a sense of duty, contribute to the sport and community. So yes, content creators bringing more eyeballs to the sport adds a lot of value, but its a byproduct of them doing whats best for themselves. And thats the disconnect, the sport NEEDS passionate people who volunteer and create the community as the backbone, and thats where i think a lot of PLing content creators can improve and be better influences because this isnt like other sports where fans are just consumers. This sport requires people to deposit after theyve withdrawn to keep going and people look to the top level voices and athletes as role models.
I genuinely 100% agree with this. And I think that is where some of my regret with my original tone came from. I guess some of my thoughts there do go back to the money in the first place and that investing in delivering a high level exciting product hopefully brings in more money all around and ideally creates more opportunities to pay people to spot/load/ref/etc.
What it seems like now is USAPL is abandoning the top end in favor of the people who are not really pushing at the top end and really limiting the ability for there to be money at all levels. Obviously, powerlifting is very far off from professional sports that can actually pay refs salaries and things like that. But pursuing the avenues of growth might make some of that a little more accessible.
For what it's worth, I'm outside of the money in most of these meets. I don't expect to be paid from competing because there are better people that beat me most of the time. But I do think people like me bring value to everyone and can hopefully result in less reliance on volunteers and more ability for more people to get paid in the first place.
I was happy to see some money going towards masters. I wish most federations would actually show some care towards their asters. Many are the ones contributing to the federation over a long time frame. Most federations (including IPF) treat them as a cash/resourcing cow but provide little for them.
I guess a big part of my argument here is that the money that is now potentially available for masters payouts is only there because of the growth that came from raw open. Not masters, bench, equipped stuff. And as USAPL pushes out the people growing the raw open aspect, there will be less growth for masters to see anyway and it could move in the wrong direction. So it might be good right now for masters bench lifters to feel recognized, I might end up meaning less money all around for everyone.
Bottom line is USAPL is a business and brand. If they wanted to keep their pros then they should be catering to keep them, not the other way around. I loved your stories about that situation and didn't think you needed to phrase it any differently. Can't wait to see you back on the platform!
I just wanted to clarify that I wasn’t diminishing the efforts that a lot of people have here and just that I disagree with the vision for the future. Plenty of hardworking people have made for a great experience to this point and I wanted to be clear where my frustrations were directed.
Sugar Shane Maloney from stl?
I'm a masters lifter and I swapped to PA because there's no competition in the USAPL coupled with the disaster that was Raw Nationals last year. For the highest level meet offered, I've seen local level events ran better than Nationals in Memphis.
If PA ever holds a Nationals in Memphis I will also leave them right away. Never going there again.
I disagree with your approach here. You should have called this video “the decision” and do a 2 hour long video ending with “I’m taking my talents to Powerlifting America”
For me, an average lifter, USAPL appeals more due to the sheer number of meets and availability. Meets are so infrequent and not local in PA there’s really no appeal for me to compete there as I would never qualify for IPF level meets anyways. It seems PAs focus is just on the top level lifters, which is a tiny fraction of overall population.
And that really has been why I have stuck around and encouraged most others to do the same. But I think I have doubts on the growth there. As more top people move over, and encourage others to do the same, that infrastructure should grow. Currently I do agree that the average lifter has way more options within the USAPL. But I’m hoping that changes as time goes on.
Powerlifting America is doing a big meet in New England this July, I agree Powerlifting America needs more local meets but we have to sign up for the ones that are happening.
@@SinnedNogara So for me that's still roughly about 3 hours away (Southern RI). That's the only one in New England for the rest of this year. So would really have to look to New Jersey as the next logical location. Just no infrastructure currently and most of those joining now don't seem interested in reffing, directing meets, etc. They just want a pathway to the IPF. Again this can all change like David outlines here, but I think that's a long ways off.
Can't fault the thought process
Larry Malle is single handedly turning USAPL into NASA
It’s your livelihood. Chase the money, chase the competition. Go where you are wanted. Shouldn’t have an argument against that.
Funny, I did a usapl meet in 2005 and it was refereed by Larry Mailie and Johnny Graham. Some guys from Alaska were openly criticising Larry back then. Lo and behold 20 years later these same two guys are still in charge of the organization.
I've been dealing with a similar injury for about 7 months now, sharp and sudden shooting pain right at lockout of squats and deadlift. At some point even tempoing two reds was too much. My coach Melnard De Leon and I have been hard at work though and it seems like we're almost at a point where I'm fully back. Well, squat I'm already hitting PRs actually. Pulls are still work in progress. Luckily hacksquats and back extensions seem to have been preserving and even building my strength pretty well.
I’m glad you are almost through it. Definitely a frustrating thing. But it does seem like I can train machine lower body stuff like hacks and pendulum squats pretty hard and likely is also why my squat is doing just fine despite not being all that healthy. Just can’t do any real hinge work.
I liked this a lot . Glad to have you back david
I understand what you’re saying. As a Masters lifter though, one of the attractions to USA Powerlifting is there are more National Masters meets.
Hearing the way you're describing your injury, it seems like this is EXACTLY the injury i had a year ago. Couldn't hinge very well.
Single leg deadlifts and very light conventional pulls helped me out a ton.
No pain now at all. I'm not sure how important the symmetry work is tho, what's the rationale behind it? curious to know
Red avancus 😮
I’ve been trying to decide if I want to compete in USPA or USAPL when I start competing.
From what I’ve heard from different USAPL lifters/seen in their rules, it’ll likely be USPA
I also got to meet one of the head guys at USPA at the Arnold and he was incredibly nice/humble.
USPA as in United States Powerlifting Association? or PA
Can’t wait to see athlete David in PA 🔥
It feels like everyone is jumping ship and just following each other. Not to diminish the points you made about leaving. But just at a 10,000 ft view, everyone was singing USAPL's praises and how the IPF sucks and then suddenly Sheffield $$$ and everyone is like "well, you know...".
But I actually think that is exactly my point. The USAPL had the competition and was offering money to high level lifters and people were pumped about the pro series at first. Then the USAPL absolutely fumbled to Pro Series and everything so bad. And at the same time SBD was offering money and competition. So as the USAPL was moving in the wrong direction, collectively people moved towards where the growth and competition clearly was/is.
@@BrazosValleyStrengthThe Pro Series was a disaster. Just trying to figure out the mechanics took way too much effort, let alone finding its place within the overall State/National/International competition.
Then there was the Raw Nats registration debacle and it was downhill from there.
Is your hamstring tendino the kind that makes your have increasing disconformt the longer you sit on a chair? Its the one i have and it just never goes away, but the pain is probably 2/10
🫡🫡🫡
I will say for the humility bit. I do think there is a stark difference between arrogance and confidence. For example, someone like Russ basically saying anything cant really be considered arrogant (at least in the context of his achievments in PL) because he is quite literally one of the best to do it. But what I'd say is arrogance when you dont back up what you say. The best example of this that comes to mind immediately is Rich Cho (Pug). Him saying he is the best/going to be the best and talking shit is what Id consider to be arrogance because he never was really in a position to make such claims. So when top lifters do or say things that they dont have evidence to suggest they are/can do something, thats when it comes off as arrogance to me.
Im sure there is some self actualization/manifestation that is behind why certain athletes do that. But to me thats just lame tbh (just an opinion. No shade)
I’d honestly say that’s more on the fans of people like that who take it seriously. Shit talk in sports is also good. Athletes having high levels of self belief and getting a rise from their opponents is good. It’s also good for the sport to have people care about story lines.
But if someone consistently fails to live up to the hype then I think that’s on the fans who create hype in the first place. I’m pretty much a fan of all shit talk in sports and I think we all want to see personalities. I have a lot of lifters I root against because I don’t like their vibe. But I still watch.
Drugs?
Tell me you are dumb without telling me
All of them, always, forever
@@hakarl_ lol skittles
@@BrazosValleyStrength I’ll see u soon