Oh, and I realised what rubs me the wrong way about the IPF. It isn’t the dickishness of the organisers (well, not completely); nor the lifters’ attitude towards other lifters (seems to be they feel PED use is a problem, but I respect that opinion although I don’t agree); but that fact that most IPF lifters simply aren’t lifting as much as lifters in other feds far as I can tell (outliers/elite lifters not included). Why bother if you don’t move as much as you possibly can?
What brought it home to me was a mate at the gym, who I just found out signed up to the Australian IPF affiliate. He asked me why I lift in GPC when in his words, I’d be so competitive in PA. Seriously!? Why the holy fucking hell would I want to lift in a fed where I’m competitive at my current level!? For fuck’s sake, how shit does the level of competition have to be that I’d be competitive now? Why would I waste my time there?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m proud of what I’ve achieved in under three years, but there is no way in hell that level should be competitive beyond maybe getting a podium finish at a small meet. Give me another three years, and then I’ll be competitive.
EDIT
I went and checked Powerlifting Australia vs GPC Australia national records. For equivalent weight classes (give or take a kilo because IPF is slightly different) GPC records have anywhere between 40 and 80+ kg on PA records. That’s from the 148 through to the 275s. That’s the TOP lifters in each fed, not the run of the mill people. Then I looked at random results from open comps in the 204 lbs classes. In all bar one I’d have had a podium, and I’d even have had a podium in the class above in one. Then I checked their gradings/qualifying totals. Currently, I could qualify for Oceania/Commonwealth titles now (required total at 204 is 1243 lbs) because that’s a total I KNOW I can hit walking out, in sleeves, on a stiff bar. Hell, I could probably qualify for the 231s (1330 lbs).
Yes, I know GPC allows wraps, uses specialty bars, has a 24 hour weigh in etc. But, those open results I looked at had guys in the 204s hitting shit I can do on a stiff bar, in sleeves, walking my squats out and I ain’t no competitive 198/204 yet. Not to mention the qualifying totals I saw…
My question is, if someone is a top dog in PA and sees the GPC records, why aren’t they wondering how they’d stack up under those conditions that supposedly make everything so much easier? Surely they’d blitz the competition if they were lifting under the same conditions, wouldn’t they?
I don’t even know why this annoys me to be honest. I guess I simply don’t understand the mindset. I want to lift where the strongest people lift. I might not be competitive, but at least I know every ranking spot I climb really means something. How can you value holding a record that in another fed would only just qualify you for nationals? Who cares that the conditions are apparently easier? How could you not want to show how much better you are?
Maybe they just like being big fish in a small pond.
Come to think of it, I know why these standards annoy me (on top of what I said before the edit): they’re too fucking low for a fed that touts itself as the peak, holier than thou, only true PL fed.