11 Dec Trophy Hunter

By: Jonathan Byrd

What are you scared of? You do know it is a competition, right?

How many times have you been to a powerlifting meet and there is nobody in your class? There are five guys in your weight class but they all enter different divisions.

[wa-wps]

I mean I get it, powerlifting is often a sport that you push yourself against your own personal goals and achievements, but the lack of competition is only hurting the sport. There are tons of issues in this sport, but this one as lifters we can control.

First, as lifters we have to stop the trophy hunt bullshit. What good is it to win a class if nobody was even competing against you? Having too many federations to count, why have so many divisions too?

If you really want to be humbled, enter the open division and find out where you really stand. Is there a reason to enter the Submaster division other than to dodge competition and win a trophy? Try to grow a pair and go compete with the big boys. If you don’t get a trophy, you can say you competed against some big names instead of winning a trophy in a class of just one competitor. It’s kind of like getting a “good job” ribbon just for showing up, is it really worth it?

So here is my idea, let’s do away with all these stupid divisions and compete against yourself and each other. I know it is up to the meet promoter chooses what to offer, but no one forces you to enter them.

I believe if we had a Teenage, Open, and Masters class it would help the sport grow and make the competition more fun. Watering down the competition and offering so many different divisions makes winning less fulfilling. When someone says they are a national champion, unless you say you are the ” ‘xyz’ federation ‘division’ national champion” it means nothing. Even then if you’re going up against one other person, is there really any honor in that? If you really like the shiny trophies, at least enter the open division first to see how you do. You might surprise yourself and do much better than you anticipated.

This would give you a confidence boost and a reason to train harder. This article is not to belittle lifters who are not at the top of their class, or to scare new lifters from trying out the sport.

This article is intended to open the eyes of people who enter multiple divisions just so they can say they won a class. I know of a couple of top-level lifters who do this and it’s a cheap way to win and it means nothing. If we all decided to enter the open division, it would improve the quality of the sport and could actually help our sport grow.

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Jonathan Byrd

Jonathan Byrd is a competitive powerlifter, with over 16 years of training experience. Byrd has been ranked nationally for the past 6 years under multiple categories. His total has ranked as high as second nationally in the 275 class. He currently has a best total of 2500lbs. Best individual lifts include a 1040lb squat, a 750lb bench press, and 735lb deadlift. His 1040lb squat ranks him 26th all-time squats at the 308 class. Jonathan currently trains out of Team Samson Gym in Jacksonville, FL. Before powerlifting Jonathan was a college athlete at Methodist University as both an all-conference football player and track athlete. Following graduation he played four years of arena football in various leagues.

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