Written by: Coach Nikki Stock, MS, LMT, CSCS, Barbell Club Director
To see our upcoming weightlifting meets, click here
Your first Olympic weightlifting meet can be intimidating, but with a good coach OR some research on your own, you can prepare yourself to have a great experience with a good performance! I wrote this blog as a reference for our current and future meet participants as well as any lifter or coach out there who is new to weightlifting meets. After reading this blog you should be able to “go with the flow” and have a great time at your next meet! I have linked other resources throughout to get even more thorough information.
Understanding the registration process:
WHAT DO I NEED TO COMPETE?
There are a few things you’ll want to have before you click “Register:”
Your USAW membership number (or whatever federation membership number that becomes relevant in the future)
Most sanctioned weightlifting meets are currently sanctioned by USA Weightlifting (as of early 2023 the only officially accepted federation in the US that affiliates with the IWF). We have begun to host an “unsanctioned” session at the end of our sanctioned meets on the same day to provide a low-cost option for people just getting into weightlifting. I will explain what that means later.
If you are not a current USAW member and need to be, click here to go to their website and sign up.
Your Entry Total (IN KILOGRAMS, NOT POUNDS!)
Before I even dive into what this is, your TLDR (too long, didn’t read) is: I suggest just adding your openers together. Your “openers” are the weights you want to start with for snatch and clean & jerk. If you want your first snatch attempt to be 50kg and your first clean & jerk attempt to be 80kg, just enter your entry total as 130kg. Read the rest of this section to understand more about what this is and why you need to be accurate.
Weightlifting is an international sport and we use the Metric System, not SI. Don’t report your lifts or your bodyweight in pounds. Don’t even say the word pounds. If you ask someone “what is that in pounds?” they will look at you like the French look at people who don’t speak French. Kidding, sort of. You can say pounds but go ahead and practice your conversions on your own, haha.
People get so confused about Entry Total. We have even had someone enter their goal clean and jerk only and ended up in a session around much lighter and less experienced lifters, causing a huge delay in the meet. Don’t make this mistake.
Your entry total is an estimation of what your total might be, or what you hope it to be. There is strategy involved in this choice especially at higher level meets. Inflating your entry total can put you in a more competitive session with better lifters and intimidate your competition. Underreporting your entry total can lure your competition into a false sense of security. Some people also want the ego-boost of lifting the best in their session (this is sill and short-sighted but hey, I don’t get my self-worth from my numbers).
The most important thing to remember when submitting your entry total is the “20 kilo rule.” This rule prevents huge overestimations of an athlete’s total. Your “Openers” must sum to be within 20 kilograms of your entry total. For example, if you enter 200kg as your entry total, you cannot open with 70kg on snatch and 100kg on clean & jerk because this only sums to 170kg, when they would need to sum to at least 180kg. For more on Openers, read the “Weigh Ins” section below.
Your Division
There are 4 divisions, but 2 have multiple categories:
Youth; 17 years old or younger
To account for differences in growth and capabilities, the Youth division is grouped by age: 13 and under (referred to as U13), 14-15, and 16-17 years old.
Junior; 15-20 years old
Senior; 15 and older
Masters; 35 and older
To account for the natural strength decrease as you age, Masters categories are broken into 5 year groups: 35-39, 40-44, etc. up to 75+ for women and 85+ for men
Confused? Youth and junior-aged athletes can compete higher if desired (basically if they’re competitive they can “play up” like some kids can in team sports. Master’s athletes can compete in the Senior/”Open” division if they wish, and some do if they remain competitive enough.
Your Competition Age
This never fails to trip people up. In weightlifting, your competition age IS NOT your current age. It is the age you will be on December 31st of the current year. So your competition age doesn’t change on your birthday. If you turn 16 on July 8th, 2023, your competition age on January 1st, 2023 is already 16. This can change what divisions you can register for; you would not be able to register for the 14-15 age group any longer.
Understand Your Weight Class
I ask “predicted” weight class on our meet registration forms so I can get an idea of the demographics - this can factor in with how we do medals for bigger meets.
Your weight class is also in kilograms, and the full list of weight classes for all divisions can be found here. Use that list to decide what weight class you want to compete in.
If this is your first meet, we recommend not trying to “cut” weight more than a couple pounds. It can add a lot of stress to the competition so most of our first time athletes will just compete in whatever weight class they end up in the day of the meet
If you want to cut, this article is what I base my methods off of
It is worth noting that weight cutting measures are highly discouraged for youth athletes
To be in your weight class, you have to weigh in exactly at or under the weight class. For example, to compete in the women’s 71kg weight class, you have to weigh at or between 64.1kg and 71kg. If you weigh 64kg you will be in the 64kg weight class.
What Do I Need to Compete:
If you plan to compete in a sanctioned session, here are the required items:
A singlet
Our current favorite brand is Virus Intl. They are pricey, but are very high quality and not see-through. Note: we are not sponsored and do not receive commissions.
Close-toed shoes
A current USAW membership
If you have found an unsanctioned meet to compete in:
Great! No singlet or membership required unless the meet director/host requires it.
Pay attention to any specifications the host is implementing. They can run things however they want.
The Day of the Meet:
WEIGH-INS:
Weigh-ins take place 2 hours prior to your session start time and last exactly 1 hour. Any deviation from this in a sanctioned event is technically a violation of the rules.
At a local meet, they will often just have lifters line up at will and weigh people in first come, first serve. At higher-level, or stricter meets, they will call you by “lot number.” This is usually a randomly-generated number that sorts lifters and it’s the luck of the draw.
When you are called to weigh in, you will step on the scale, confirm your USAW number (if applicable), and then be asked your “Openers.” These are what you want your first snatch and first clean & jerk to be. You can change these for “free” up until your session starts. You can change these after the session starts but it will cost you a “change.” Going into the details of how a meet is run is outside the scope of this blog, so if you are going to be “running cards” for athletes for the first time, you will definitely want to read this.
If you are going to be wearing a belt when you lift, it needs to be 12cm or LESS, and this is often inspected during weigh-ins
YOUTHS: a parent or guardian MUST be with you IN the room during weigh-ins AND you MUST already be in your singlet. This is to comply with SafeSport regulations and is for EVERYONE’S protection. The weigh-in official is also supposed to be the same gender as the athlete.
ADULTS: technically you can weigh-in in a singlet or less. Yes, some people need to disrobe to make weight.
WARM UPS:
There will be an area with platforms, bars, and plates for the competitors to use to warm up. Basic etiquette in this area: share, take turns, and be helpful. It’s customary for coaches to help each other load, and coordinate to make sure athletes get equal share of the bar. It is absolutely shameful for coaches to attempt to usurp resources and time.
We were at an American Open meet back in the day where a coach and athlete who kicked another athlete off a warm up platform so they could have one to themselves. This was in a C or D session - aka, no one in that session was winning anything. We welcomed that athlete over to ours but that meant we had 3 athletes on a platform when it could have been 2 and 2. Don’t be that guy.
Keep your belongings consolidated. Many gyms do not have a ton of space. Be self-aware.
There should be a screen to view the lifter order so you and your coach can get a good idea of where you will fall in the line up. This will dictate how fast or slow and how soon to start your warm up
People typically aim for 3 minutes between warm up sets. We estimate about 60 seconds per lift, so this is where math comes in to determine when to take what warm up attempts so you can have a nice ramp up to your time to shine.
Careful attention must be paid by you or your coach to see how lifters before you actually end up moving. Sometimes people take large jumps and that can reduce the amount of attempts ahead of you. This is the fun game we play!
COMPETITION TIME:
The weight on the bar is never decreased, so the lifter order is determined by who has declared what weight; lightest to heaviest.
You’ll want to take your last warm up lift 2-4 minutes before you think you’ll be called to take your first attempt (in my opinion)
When it’s your turn, your name will be called and your 60-second timer will start. You have 60 seconds to pull the bar off the floor. You do not have to complete the lift before the 60 seconds is up.
Once you complete a snatch or jerk, you must come to a complete stop and HOLD the bar in the finish position until the center referee gives you the down signal. At a local meet it is usually just the center judge saying “DOWN” and moving their arm. At more high-tech or national meets, there is a buzzer and a light that indicates the down signal. Dropping the bar early is a “no-lift.”
3 referees/judges in front of you will give white or red “lights” (white = good lift, red = no lift). 2 or more reds is a “no lift” and obviously, 2 or more whites is a good lift.
Referees are looking for quite a few things to determine the decision, but the main points are whether you locked your elbows fully by the time you reached the “bottom” of the snatch or jerk, and if you maintained straight elbows throughout the recovery until the center judge gives the down signal. Pressing the elbows straight late or multiple times is called a “press-out.” For other faults and rules, read the IWF Rulebook linked below.
After the attempt you or your coach needs to notify the Marshall (the person in charge of the lifter cards at the scoretable) what your next declared weight should be within 30 seconds.
You have two more changes available after your declared weight. You can make those changes up until you have 30 seconds left on your clock (as long as you declared something before)
This is an extremely brief overview, so to get a better understanding of how to “run your own cards,” you can find the relevant section in the IWF Rulebook.
AWARDS
Awards at a local meet are determined by the meet director and can be done any way they choose.
At a national meet, medals are awarded to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place athletes in each weight class for snatch, clean & jerk, and total.
At a local meet it is rare that any weight class in a division fills up, so many gyms (us included) do not offer that many medals. We prefer awarding 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place medals to the Best Lifter by Sinclair coefficient (based on body weight) for each of the 4 divisions for each gender, when we have sufficient participation.
RESULTS AND RANKINGS
For a sanctioned meet, results are supposed to be uploaded to the USAW system (currently Sport80/BARS) within 1 week of the meet. Then your results can be searched and compared to other athletes across the country
For people with ambitions to compete nationally or even internationally, these results are the first step. For example, the North American Open is one of the National meets you can compete in, and they require a certain total to qualify. They increase almost yearly as weightlifting grows. These “Qualifying Totals” can be found here.
I hope you found this blog helpful to understand the intricate workings of a weightlifting meet. It can be an anxiety-ridden moment, but once you take the leap, it’s addicting. For any questions, email us at bowlinggreenbarbellclub@gmail.com. To see our upcoming meets, click here
