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Re: Jason, how is the USAPL going to clean up
Posted By: Jason Burnell In Response To: Re: Jason, how is the USAPL going to clean up (Larry "Iron" Smith)
Date: Thursday, 17 November 2005, at 9:03 p.m.
Larry a clarification, if you will. When you said the meets were less friendly and somewhat hostile were you referring to the meet directors, the meet staff, the referees, or the lifters at the meet?
I'm trying to get a sense of what part of the experience turned you off.
As I ask this a couple of things come to mind:
Having seen a few state chairs come and go, I think Lance Slaughter is the best one I've seen here since I've been lifting. His dedication to the organization, our lifters and the state is incredible. He's been to every meet in the state since he became chair, hosted our first National meet since 93, has increased the number of refs and has helped really up the quality of our meets. HOWEVER, a few of my buddies took an instant dislike to Lance.
They thought he was bossy and unfriendly. What I noticed is this: On meet day, he has a number of tasks to do and snaps into What Rob and I call Lance Mode - he's like robo-meet director - business mode and tries to get things done and done right. He doesn't schmooze because time is at a premium between weigh ins, getting openers into the computer, gear check etc. (He has loosened up a bit now that we've done a lot of meets together but loosen up and Lance are relative). He's not rude but he's well....uh... how can I asy it.. on task.
On the other hand, and this might be hard to believe, I'm the schmoozer of the group. I'll shoot the breeze a bit and chat with folks.No really, I can get a bit talky. In that regard we complement each other.
It took a while for them to get to know Lance and realize he's ok and he has a sense of humor. At one meet, they were working the table and giving Lance a hard time while he was judging. They got to see him in a different mode and realized I wasn't full of crap when I said he was an ok guy.
However, had they not seen that side of Lance their only impression would have been different.
The other thing that comes to mind is this. Ever since we went to the cards, the referee calls are like a code. Ok, a 1 is depth or pause but you get a 3 and you have no idea what the heck you did wrong. I never have liked those cards. In the 60 seconds you have to get your next attempt in, it's about impossible to get your straps off, get your wraps off and then try to get an idea of what the "3" was for.
In other feds, you can just ask the refs right then. At our local state meets we still do that but the pace makes it difficult and even moreso at National meets. That in and of itself lends an impersonal air to the proceedings.
One other thing I've noticed is that at APF meets there is always music, generally loud music. The emcee exhorts the crowd to yell and scream which makes it exciting for some. USAPL meets tend to tone that down a bit, quieting the music so the bar load and announcer can be heard. I prefer it that way. I find, with a few songs being the exception that loud music is annoying and I prefer silence to yelling although once the bar is out of the racks I stop hearing most things.
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