The premise
It can be difficult for volunteer organizations to maintain traditions over an extended period of time especially if there are no built in mechanisms to insure that longstanding practices are sustained. This is especially true if the by-laws of the group do not have a historian who can keep the membership apprised of annual events and traditions.
Local Weightlifting Committees can easily fall into this pattern. For the most part weightlifting is a young adult sport, and the participants will fill committee positions. When their time as active athletes begins to subside, a new generation takes over. If there is no process to maintain traditions, some events may fall by the wayside.
My history with the LWC
The first meet I ever attended was as a spectator and it was the 1962 Los Angeles Weightlifting Championships which was really that period’s equivalent of the LWC championships. I was amazed, blown away, and eventually addicted.
In those days there weren’t so many competitions and the best known local meets were the Philly Open, the Cincinnati Open and the Los Angeles Championships. Whether by design or coincidence all three were conducted on the same weekend. The best lifters from the regions surrounding those three venues usually made their seasonal debuts at those events and it was not uncommon to have state or even national or world records established at them. Of course there was no mass communication media available as there are today, so we fans had to wait for the results to be published in Strength & Health or Iron Man Lifting News. Really very exciting times.
The Demise
Unfortunately the last time the SPLWC (Southern Pacific Local Weightlifting Committee) championships were held was in 2014. Two political terms had come and gone with two different boards of directors and with no institutional memory, the concept of the LWC championships was ignored, and the competition was not held. There is still some prestige involved in being declared the best lifter in the southern half of the most populous state in the nation. For four years no championships were determined for half the state.
2018
2018 marked the election of another board. This time the leadership of the LWC was won by Chris Amenta, one of my former athletes. Before officially taking over the reins, Chris consulted with me as to what I felt might be needed to make the LWC more functional for the lifters. I pointed out that at one time we had a natural run-up from the LWC championships followed by what was then called the Southern California Championships (that included lifters from Los Angeles and San Diego), to the State Championships and then the Nationals. Each event had progressively higher qualifying totals and held the interest of the weightlifting community over an extended period of time.
Chris has taken the first step and led the LWC in putting on the first Championships in 5 years this past Saturday.
The Event
Sometimes leadership requires some bold steps and this LWC championships represented some of those steps. It was held outdoors (We can do that in SoCal in November), at an interesting collaborative workspace structure called the Eureka Hub. No one had ever held a weightlifting meet there but it was halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego, the two main population centers of Southern California Weightlifting. There were some logistical problems and the meet was long, but it was certainly a worthy effort of Resurrection.
Shortcomings
Since this was a revived tradition, Chris decided to eliminate qualifying totals in order to generate maximum participation. This resulted in a field of 183 which made for a long day and a cumbersome task of getting everyone moving through smoothly. A new equipment manufacturer (Neon) agreed to provide the barbells for sixteen warm-up platforms and the two competition sets. The new, unfamiliar bars provided some adjusting but nothing major. The most disconcerting aspect was that the competition platforms were placed on grass and there was a slight upward pitch. This created some adjustment problems in the bottom position.
The Takeaways
As a coach, I really consider the imperfections at a meet to provide a learning opportunity for my athletes. If everything is not perfect and my athletes have to make adjustments, it will make them more adaptable should they encounter minor predicaments at higher level competitions. The angle of the sun and the direction of the wind are just two factors that outdoor events provide. A non-level pitch to the platform is another predicament that must be solved.
I coached in my first international event in 1977 and since that time I’ve encountered a number of snafus taking place at the highest levels. I’ve seen platforms break apart at world championships, buses late for weigh-ins and any number of other shortcomings that required adjustments by our athletes. The competitive ones do so with little tribulation.
Thank you to Chris and the Committee for reviving the tradition and for providing an opportunity for my athletes to develop their adaptability. I’m sure that next year will be even better.