USAPL Changing their ways...?

[Worf]

USA Powerlifting Launches Four New Lifting Categories in 2021

USA Powerlifting Launches Four New Lifting Categories in 2021 We are proud to announce that after much planning across the Executive Committee, Technical Committee, and…

www.usapowerlifting.com

This obviously leaves more questions than answers.

Raw with wraps is a long time overdue. I think USAPL is starting to take the hint. There’s a literal plethora of federations and raw with wraps is extremely popular, why they haven’t offered it before boggles my mind. I think that’s pretty cool for them to offer para bench. Almost honorable IMO. Not enough options for disabled bench competing.
-Now on to the other two, lolz.
How the fuck are they gona judge a partially disabled lifter with the same “standards” ? Do they mean letting someone with a prosthetic limb cut their depth higher? They pretty much red light any squat that’s not 2-3” below parallel every meet except local unknown comps.So Who the fuck knows.
-LGBT athletes? Do they really need their own division? Pretty sure they already compete why do they need their own group, sounds like bs to me. Sounds like they’re trying to appeal to trans people and not outright say it, well how are girls with dicks and synthetic testosterone flowing through their blood going to pass the Drug testing?

Discuss

 

[Eman]

LGBT athletes? Do they really need their own division? Pretty sure they already compete why do they need their own group, sounds like bs to me. Sounds like they’re trying to appeal to trans people and not outright say it, well how are girls with dicks and synthetic testosterone flowing through their blood going to pass the Drug testing?

They're not appealing to trans people at all... They're appealing to female athletes that are competing against a biological male athlete that identifies as female. As a matter of fact, I'd be surprised if trans athletes will be be thrilled with the decision... Not an easy subject to navigate but this seems as close to ideal as I can think of.

I'm not really familiar with USAPL standards on drugs with regard to TRT patients but, I assume the standards will be relatively similar.

 

[Worf]

They're not appealing to trans people at all... They're appealing to female athletes that are competing against a biological male athlete that identifies as female. As a matter of fact, I'd be surprised if trans athletes will be be thrilled with the decision... Not an easy subject to navigate but this seems as close to ideal as I can think of.

I'm not really familiar with USAPL standards on drugs with regard to TRT patients but, I assume the standards will be relatively similar.

Complicated explanation but yes I’d have to agree. I had not looked at it from that angle. Women probably not real happy about competing against a dude who decides they’re a female and also wants to powerlift. Pretty fucked up to Female lifters. There are no TUE (therapeutic use exemptions) in the USAPL.
Since that’s the case maybe this is a chess not checkers thing for the USAPL. Since regardless of biological identity and natural hormones, for most of the trans people they’re on hormones. If not they’re just cross dressing. That being said , I’d be willing to bet they all fail a drug test since they would have to be on hormones, be it test or estro or whatever else. Fail all the trans gender swap folks with drug testing and suspend them from the federation for 3 years.
It would end up being a cross dress division

 

[Eman]

Complicated explanation but yes I’d have to agree. I had not looked at it from that angle. Women probably not real happy about competing against a dude who decides they’re a female and also wants to powerlift. Pretty fucked up to Female lifters. There are no TUE (therapeutic use exemptions) in the USAPL.
Since that’s the case maybe this is a chess not checkers thing for the USAPL. Since regardless of biological identity and natural hormones, for most of the trans people they’re on hormones. If not they’re just cross dressing. That being said , I’d be willing to bet they all fail a drug test since they would have to be on hormones, be it test or estro or whatever else. Fail all the trans gender swap folks with drug testing and suspend them from the federation for 3 years.
It would end up being a cross dress division

Trans people don't necessarily have to be on hormones to be trans - some never go on hormones but that doesn't mean they're cross dressers.

Hormones are definitely something the federation will need to address at some point, the issue will not go away if they don't and, frankly, they'll need to address therapeutic use exemptions as well at some point too... Or maybe they're prepared to die on that metaphorical hill.

The best outcome with this is unrelated to the hormone issue though, it's the issue with biological males being unable to compete against biological females. Biological females competing against bio males is kind of a moot point... There was never really an issue there, they may find the new policy ideal for their situation. I have no idea how many trans athletes there are but, statistically, this is going to be an unavoidably small division of people... Trans people are already a small percentage of the population, trans competitive powerlifters in this specific federation must be extraordinarily small.

 

[Test_Subject]

Nobody will ever convince me that someone with the frame of a man who competes against biological women doesn't have a major advantage. Even if their testosterone levels are tanked by hormone blockers, they still have the frame and bone density of a man to aid them.

I think that having trans divisions is probably the most logical solution. I feel for the trans people who want to compete, but at the same time it's not fair to the biological women who have trained so hard to get where they are.

 

[Eman]

Nobody will ever convince me that someone with the frame of a man who competes against biological women doesn't have a major advantage

I don't think that's ever really been disputed, has it? Pretty clear cut facts.

 

[Test_Subject]

I don't think that's ever really been disputed, has it? Pretty clear cut facts.

Unfortunately, yes. A lot of the trans athletes themselves seem to be under the impression that their identity is the only thing that matters. Joe Rogan got lit up on social media for saying that trans women had an advantage over biological women. It was hardly a controversial thing to say in my mind, but there was a shit-storm over it.

The biggest problem is that trans activists tend to dismiss any discussion on the matter as "transphobic" so it's hard to have an objective look at the science without people losing their minds over it.

The fact that there's never any controversy over female-to-male transgendered people competing with biological men, despite the fact that they're literally injecting testosterone really says it all.

 

[Eman]

Unfortunately, yes. A lot of the trans athletes themselves seem to be under the impression that their identity is the only thing that matters. Joe Rogan got lit up on social media for saying that trans women had an advantage over biological women. It was hardly a controversial thing to say in my mind, but there was a shit-storm over it.

The biggest problem is that trans activists tend to dismiss any discussion on the matter as "transphobic" so it's hard to have an objective look at the science without people losing their minds over it.

The fact that there's never any controversy over female-to-male transgendered people competing with biological men, despite the fact that they're literally injecting testosterone really says it all.

Yeah I definitely agree that any discussion can quickly turn to transphobia accusations.

Joe had a researcher on in a subsequent podcast to the one you're referring to... I can't remember her name but she has spent a substantial portion of her career researching transexual behavior and I guess life trajectory is the best way I could describe it? Her research was heavily based in early childhood trans cases where kids identified as trans and had sex reassignment done at any level. I can understand why the trans community may want to "fight" for a child's right to change genders because they're basing their opinion on their perspective... However, her research clearly showed that children later came to regret the decision in their 20's. They later came to identify as homosexual instead of trans or had other reasons that ultimately brought them to the conclusion that it had been a mistake.

She has really dedicated her career to helping the trans community and she's instead been labeled transphobic when she's ready just relied on the data and brought it to the forefront and possibly utilize the data to create policy that prevents kids from making a big mistake. It's very disheartening... I may not have enough of the information but it was disappointing to see her side of it.

 

[Worf]

So about them knee Wraps , lol

 

[Eman]

So about them knee Wraps , lol

I think the trans people just wear them like normal?

Lol

 

[Test_Subject]

So about them knee Wraps , lol

Oh yes, the knee wraps.

I love the idea of a raw wrapped category.

 

[grey]

I think the trans people just wear them like normal?

That was well turned.

 

[Millard]

They're not appealing to trans people at all... They're appealing to female athletes that are competing against a biological male athlete that identifies as female.

Biological females competing against bio males is kind of a moot point... There was never really an issue there, they may find the new policy ideal for their situation.

Yes, an FTM men's category would probably find support. But it looks like the new USPL category is for BOTH FTM and MTF which means its essentially just a MTF category.

 

[Eman]

Yes, an FTM men's category would probably find support. But it looks like the new USPL category is for BOTH FTM and MTF which means its essentially just a MTF category.

Lol, FFS... One step forward and two steps back much? That fed can't make any decisions without a tsunami of eye rolls from the members... I'm curious to see what kind of response they get on social media, there are quite a few progressive and outspoken members of that fed.

 

[jJjburton]

Oh yes, the knee wraps.

I love the idea of a raw wrapped category.

What is raw but wrapped? What does that include?

 

[Test_Subject]

What is raw but wrapped? What does that include?

USAPL used to only allow knee sleeves in their "raw" competitions but they're adding a new raw category that allows knee wraps. Wraps will generally let you move a bit more weight than sleeves because they're more elastic and allow a lot more compression in the lower portion of your squat.

 

[Worf]

What is raw but wrapped? What does that include?

Previously USAPL only allowed one wraps in their equipment divisions, aka Single ply. So from the verbiage knee wraps would fall into the equip or “open” category of USAPL. So no raw with wraps at “Raw Nationals “. The rest of the powerlifting would consider knee wraps as a sub category of raw or “raw with wraps”. Some of this classification varies from to fed . For instance in RPS, knee sleeves and wraps are considered “Raw Modern”, “raw classic “ is no knee coverage or naked knee. In the USPA “classic raw” is raw with knee wraps, and raw allows knee sleeves under 7mm thick. Then the difference in max allowed length of knee wraps is another story.
It’s a fucking terminology circus in my opinion

 

[Test_Subject]

It’s a fucking terminology circus in my opinion

No kidding. I guess you could argue that the different regulations are what give each federation its appeal, but it's a shit-show to keep track of.

 

[NovaFlex]

USA Powerlifting Launches Four New Lifting Categories in 2021

USA Powerlifting Launches Four New Lifting Categories in 2021 We are proud to announce that after much planning across the Executive Committee, Technical Committee, and…

www.usapowerlifting.com

This obviously leaves more questions than answers.

Raw with wraps is a long time overdue. I think USAPL is starting to take the hint. There’s a literal plethora of federations and raw with wraps is extremely popular, why they haven’t offered it before boggles my mind. I think that’s pretty cool for them to offer para bench. Almost honorable IMO. Not enough options for disabled bench competing.
-Now on to the other two, lolz.
How the fuck are they gona judge a partially disabled lifter with the same “standards” ? Do they mean letting someone with a prosthetic limb cut their depth higher? They pretty much red light any squat that’s not 2-3” below parallel every meet except local unknown comps.So Who the fuck knows.
-LGBT athletes? Do they really need their own division? Pretty sure they already compete why do they need their own group, sounds like bs to me. Sounds like they’re trying to appeal to trans people and not outright say it, well how are girls with dicks and synthetic testosterone flowing through their blood going to pass the Drug testing?

Discuss

Imagine Rob Kearney competing in a LGBTQ only strongman comp?? WTF lol.
The other changes are pretty cool, but that’s ridiculous.