He’s defending the judging and saying it was just one bad squat, but there were worse squats at that meet and if you look at his training videos, all his squats leading up to this meet were high. Maybe I sound like an asshole, but I’m just calling it how I see it.
And for idiots who say stuff like “yeah but could you even unrack that”, well some guys can and have squatted slightly less with better depth.
That’s an interesting statement. Who is responsible for him squatting high in training though? When he broke the record the last time at the US open last year he proved that he is capable of squatting to depth, it looks like he figured judging would be loose at this meet so he trained accordingly.
Great, should have been easy for the judges to call.
There’s lots of reasons why he could have been squatting high in training. He could have been nursing an injury, he could get better carryover from squatting high, just like plenty of people T&G their benches or Eric Spoto cutting the ROM from his bench training.
Or maybe he took a calculated risk, I don’t know and it doesn’t really matter. Rules are there for athletes to follow and judges to enforce. If the judges don’t enforce things, it is on them otherwise where does it end? We’re not going to allow lifters to call their bad lift, good after a meet if they clearly hit depth.
I know a few guys who have gone to the head judge after a passed squat and had them turn it into a bad lift because they knew it was bullshit their squat got passed.
Not saying you have to do that, just stating a fact that some people do.
Definitely evidence of the sport getting weird, haha. As I wrote above, just more symptoms of people not playing to win anymore.
Like, think of the last time you saw a professional football team ask to have a bad call in their favor overturned. Or a baseball player. Or anyone in any sport where you’re actually competing to beat someone. Heck, even in strongman, you don’t ever see a dude turning down a gift. If nothing else, we all know it’s gonna come back around the other way.
On a side note, I quoted you to Brandon Smitley the other day and he absolutely loved it. ( about making powerlifting about winning again )
the Millers ( RPS ) do a great job with meets and make sure to have payouts for the winners, so that’s always a good thing to encourage winning. I don’t care who you are, 1k for a hobby on the weekend isn’t a bad incentive.
I really do agree with this and @T3hPwnisher. Powerlifting is a sport, and sports are about winning. Winning by breaking the rules is still winning until you get caught.
As gestures go, what Andrew Herbert did about being listed as an ATWR and how he did it has little he can be chided for. On the flip side, I dont blame or think less of Hoff for getting away with what he apparently got away with. Both seem to me to have done what they are comfortable with doing.
All I will say about it is that when it comes to winning, I think Hoff understands it better than Herbert.
Feels like a missed opportunity. Herbert should have used this as an opportunity to call out judging standards and ask Record Breakers to up their game.
These things should be self policing, shitty judging should mean lifts are denigrated in the community, so people don’t want to go to that meet anymore. Shouldn’t mean people start attacking lifters who had their lifts white lighted. As others have said, it’s a sport annd it’s 100% on the judges if shit passes.
