Are USAPL 2025 qualifying totals too high? | One Good Question

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Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to Friday's
episode, where we take one question,

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one topic from y'all. If you
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in there, but there's a tab where

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you can ask us questions. Today
we're on the hot topic of I guess

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powerlifting federations, which is always going
on, but in particular, the USAPL

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has been under the heat the microscope
for the last couple of weeks here one

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because they opened nationals to qualifying totals
that may or may not happen in the

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future, and it was first come, first served, like always, whether

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it's planned or not. Then it
seemed like they opened or set a personal

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invite to pros. I don't know
if that's because of the arguments that were

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happening on how they moved about this, or if it was already planned that

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way. But on top of that, to add the sandwich the cherry on

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top, they put out their new
qualifying totals for twenty twenty five and I'm

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a little bit behind an information Again, we're not CNN News I don't have

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all the data and stats. We're
not a powerlifting reporting podcast, but obviously

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it's in our blood, So I
don't know what the twenty twenty four qualifying

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totals are last time I checked.
I obviously just like get a decent comparison

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of my strength over the years versus
the qualifying total, and that's how I

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kind of justify how they're moving in
the past. You know, twenty ten

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to twenty fifteen, raw USAPL Nationals
was very very small, started graining a

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lot of attraction in fourteen fifteen sixteen
with the likes of Omar esof Johnny Candido

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and Barbara Gay and a bunch of
people started showing some love to some raw

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natural powerlifting, and then the use
of APL exploded with many other people contributing.

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But at the time, you know, I could total with like a

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push pull and qualify easily, and
I was decently strong, you know,

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looking at some of the totals at
the time, I probably finished in the

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top five for many years. But
obviously this sport expanded, the talent pool

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got bigger, people streamlined their training, took a more serious and now people

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are crazy strong everywhere. You know, there's ninety kilo kids squatting eight hundred

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pounds, which at the time was
untested two seventy five level squads. You

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know, so the game has come
very far in the last fifteen years,

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but now the qualifying totals. So
this year's the argument was that they're letting

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anybody in this meet right the barn
doors open. You don't even have to

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have your total. You just have
to get up before you get in.

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The to Nationals that you could apply, get into the meat, then qualify,

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then get in, which is a
pipe dream for a lot of people.

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You know a lot of people who
knows who got into the meat that

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aren't even close to the total or
will hit it. And then it seemed

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to fast forward to I might be
wrong. I haven't had a chance to

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look at the data because I literally
saw the new QTS this morning before we

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podcasted, so I didn't get to
check the data. Loosely, but on

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a whim, I think the ninety
kilo qualifying total is like a top ten

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total at Nationals last year in twenty
twenty three. I might be wrong there,

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but a seventeen thirty total in the
ninety kilogram is insanely strong, might

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even be top five, I don't. I don't know. So that seems

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to obviously go from floodgates open to
building a damn you know, for a

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drought freaking hoover damn. Yeah,
what I'm I'm just looking at it at

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a post for Pete Spence. The
little thing that was done comparing the twenty

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twenty three qualifying totals and the twenty
twenty five qualifying totals, and the percentage

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changed that he is showing here is
between three percent and seventeen percent increase.

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Yeah, he has such a huge
difference. Three percent, all right,

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that makes sense. Yeah, and
that's like low weight class women. Yeah,

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seventeen percent for any weight class,
Yeah, seventy six and I guess

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that's that is six and a half
for women at seventeen percent increase. Yeah,

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seventeen percent is probably not crazy aggressive
if they want to make USAPO national

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smaller. But seventeen percent, yeah, maybe that's just maybe I'm behind in

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my data because it seemed bigger than
that, Like seventeen thirty at ninety kilos

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is so insanely strong. Yeah,
So then the ninety is a nine percent

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increase for the men's nineties. Yeah, oh then, yeah, it's not

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as big as I thought then,
because I knew it was like in the

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sixteens, fifteens. I mean,
people are just getting stronger. I guess

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then maybe my outrage is unjustified.
I mean it is stronger, and I

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know people are getting weird with it. Seventeen I mean seventeen pounds increase or

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seventeen percent increase is pretty drastic.
You know that audit obviously just cuts out.

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It automatically cuts out seventeen percent,
right unless unless though bottom half gets

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seventeen percent stronger in a year,
you're cutting out seventeen percent of people competing

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in nationals. And maybe that is
their goal. Maybe I know they're trying

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to up their pro series. I
know they're trying to make regionals more important,

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so maybe this is just a step
in that direction. So maybe overall

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it is a good thing. Seventeen
fifty eight is the nineties nineties. Yeah,

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that's fucking strong man, that's very
very high. Yeah, that's strong.

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So yeah, if that is the
goal, which I don't mind.

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I think nationals, and we've talked
about on millions of podcasts over the time,

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was too open door. Yeah,
like it should mean something. When

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you're a national level, it's thirty, twelve hundred and fifte hundred people.

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Yeah, so if they want to
make that even more competitive than that,

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I would say, fucking up at
fifty percent. Only get the top ten

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or twenty people there. If you're
supposed to be a national it's like the

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Olympia, right, If you made
it to the Olympia as a bodybuilder,

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you're the guy. You're top fifteen
in the world, you're one of the

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best. Yeah, it should mean
something to go to nationals, and then

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you just have to work on using
your resources and making regional meets cooler and

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more important. Also, it's the
follow up. Yeah. I think however,

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though, when you're cutting down the
number of lifters, you're probably also

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cutting into the number of people who
are going to pay us see it,

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you know, potentially. Yeah,
I think it's a balance, right.

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Yeah, if you cut, in
my opinion, if you cut seventeen percent,

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you're doing exactly what you said.
You're just cutting away people to come

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watch. But then I think if
you cut enough and you make it the

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super Bowl, now you're making it
more important. Yeah, well, then

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maybe make it a pay per view
event. Because you know what I mean,

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only so many people are gonna come
maybe maybe for sure, But then

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I think you then then it should
be competitive enough that it's more entertaining to

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watch. Right Now, Nationals isn't
that fun to watch until the prime time,

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right because all these people are just
from all over the map, Like

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you said, like two thousand people
compete that weekend. But if you make

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it very consolidated and it is the
best of the best of the best going

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head to head, now, yeah, it might be more online viewers than

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in person, but then you can
use your resources differently. You don't have

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to rent out a huge auditorium.
You could rent out a cool little venue,

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right, so you still have a
thousand people watching in person and then

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more online because you put more resources
into X y Z. And obviously the

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financial part makes it all a little
bit more difficult. But if you up

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the regionals importance resources, the look
the meat itself, how well it's run,

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you can make the money there and
use some of those resources for hopefully

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Nationals being important. I mean,
that's what this like. The amount of

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money that goes into the Super Bowl
isn't always just made at the Super Bowl,

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you know, it's made throughout the
season. You know, they use

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the resources and the money and the
hype in the marketing to build up the

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super Bowl like the straight you know, profit loss on just the super Bowl.

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I mean, the super Bowl is
obviously a bad, not the best

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analogy because it's the event of the
fucking world. But you'd imagine the NFL

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as a whole looks at the profit
and loss from the entire playoffs, not

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just the super Bowl. I guess
see what I'm getting at. Well,

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I guess too. It depends on
what kind of sport you think you have,

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because you don't have to Let let's
look at the World Strongest Man.

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You don't have to personally know those
people. You just have to be a

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fan of the sport and how and
how it plays out. Whereas a big

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national powerlifting meat, if you want
a lot of people to attend, you

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have to have a lot of people
participating powerliftings, always in their friends or

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whatever, and only the very top
people are going to have fans who come

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there just to see them. Yeah, and that is going to be a

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more limited number. Powerlifting has just
always been that way. The only people

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that watch powerlifting have competed in powerlifting, yeah, probably ninety eight percent,

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where there's tons of people that enjoy
watching strongmen that have never lifted a stone

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in their life, right, Basketball, same thing, Baseball, football obviously

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been that way. Maybe you played
when you were younger or whatever, but

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a lot of people enjoy those sports
that aren't active in that sport, where

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the vast majority of people that watch
a powerlifting meet in person or online are

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currently competing in the sport. It's
just that way, and I do agree,

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and so the balance is fine.
But if you want to, you

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know, escalate what it means to
be a national lifter, I guess this

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is step one, but it has
to have the follow up of being more

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special to be there, whether that's
money, whether that's opportunity. And then

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you have to have the other branches
of the tournament, whether it be a

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state meet to a regional meet to
a national meat means something and have and

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have something real. I mean even
state meets they've been a joke forever,

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Like, they have to be well
planned, they have to be built,

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they have to feel special, have
a qualifier for that. They don't have

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a qualifier for regionals. They don't. So you have to build and we've

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said this literally since we podcast for
twenty goddamn years, that you have to

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have some kind of That's what CrossFit
did so great. Yeah, you did

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a cool online one that was hard
and you had to qualify. Everybody could

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do anybody can do, but you
got to be like top one hundred and

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two hundred. Now you go to
regionals. Now you have to be top

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ten. Then you go to the
games, and you gotta obviously be podium

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to win money. Like all that
makes so much sense. Every other fucking

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support of the planet does it.
Obviously, that's even the college football which

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would never built that way, even
went to that model because it just makes

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so much more sense to have a
real tournament style. So if they want

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to do something like that, and
then they obviously have the money, they

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obviously have the participants for now until
Powerlifting America comes across and starts whooping your

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ass, which may happen so they
I know it's hard to organize these things,

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but this isn't territory that's never been
done. Sports have been done forever,

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individual sports, wrestling, track and
field have been done forever, and

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they've made way more sleek ways to
get there. So you gotta get your

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act together quick because the competition in
the natural powerlifting world is growing with powerlifting

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America. So I don't care one
way or the other. I don't.

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I wish the sport was less split, and it probably is less split than

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it used to be. Right.
We used to have twenty federations that were

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semi legit, and now we have
like three. Yeah, there are definitely

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Yeah, so that's kind of cool, I guess in the broad scope of

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things, but we still need to
tighten that up in my opinion. No,

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I agree, But basically we're talking
about a fundamental restructuring of the way

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top level powerlifting competition runs. And
are they prepared for that? I don't

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know. Yeah, I don't know
either because don't know because like I see

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them that I mean, unless this
regional structure builds out the way you know

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they would, they want to them
taking in significantly less money and they're already

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not doing much for for athletes.
Yeah, they do nothing for the athlete.

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Yeah, there's nothing done, there's
no opportunity, there's no marketing to

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build it up. They've done a
little bit better over the last year,

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but I mean that's what Why is
the UFC. The UFC because Dana White's

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the best marketer in the world.
He's the best character builder in the world.

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He's the best superstar builder in the
world. NFL and NBA and MLB

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are really good at it, but
UFC is literally the only reason. And

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I think he learned from Vince McMahon. Yeah, Vince bicmahon watching, Yeah,

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superstar builder, even though he's he
just down to a giant. Yeah

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he's in the hot suit, but
but yeah, he's talented at marketing.

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And that's all it is. And
so if and again, it's not like

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these things have never been done anywhere, right, we have, you have

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models to follow after, and very
sports is out there. For sure,

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every fucking sport MMA, jiu jitsu
is doing better at it the powerlifting,

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and jiu jitsu is probably the best
connection to powerlifting we have in terms of

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a sport being so niche a lot
of people that watch jiu jitsu do jiu

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jitsu. Yeah, I mean,
there's ways to do it. And I

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don't know what that organization because I've
never died to dove into the politics of

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the USAPL and I never will and
I don't care. But I don't know

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how they're organized, but someone should
try to get their shit together because yeah,

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again, Powerlift America's coming strong.
It seems like with their talent pool

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moving over. Yeah, with a
talent pool, they I don't think that

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they have anything like the infrastructure now
because they don't even have qualifying totals.

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Yeah, you just have to compete
in Powerlifting America to go to QTS.

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But that'll switch quick. And I
don't know who to run in that world

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either, but I'm I'm assuming they're
they're they're preparing for the storm because they're

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going to get a lot more people
in their meets in twenty twenty five.

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Yeah, I mean, there's got
to be some kind of changing of the

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guard at some point within the the
power structure of the of the USAPL and

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and probably what they should do,
if they're being fair, is to say,

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the best thing for our for athletes
in our sport is to be able

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to compete on a national level,
and we're not going to provide that the

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same way that an IPF affiliate.
They just don't and just and either become

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just a bunch of regionals or or
just step out all together and seed it

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to powerless doing America. That sounds
very drastic in people who are you know

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you s APL diehards are not going
to like that message, but I think

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that I think it's inevitable. I
think there's very few real USAPL diehards.

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They'll act like it, but like
people that act that, we have been

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in the sport for three years.
Yeah, you know, so yeah,

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changing the guard may happen, may
not. We'll see what happens. We

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may be there, may not.
I think I've be signed up. I

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think it's in Utah. So yeah, maybe we'll see you there, and

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maybe we won't. And we will
see what happens over the next couple of

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years, but it will be interesting. Ladies and gentlemen. New episode Wednesday

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and Friday. Share this with your
friends, shared on Instagram, Twitter.

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It always helps, and we'll see
you in Discord good company, Discord dot

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00:13:48.159 --> 00:13:52.639
com, Threus dot co for all
your apparel needs. I'm selling Mike and

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I mean I am. I can't
even speak right now. I am at

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the Jim mcdan and all the social
media. This show is fifty percent of

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00:13:58.559 --> 00:14:01.159
facts. For percent is a word
in the fifties number thirty percent facts.

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This is Speaker, Speaker Prime Podcast
and association with the Art Media on the

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Obscure Celebrity Network. And we'll talk
to you next time.