Update from the server: 17 lifters now seem fully uploaded or are almost done. So far 4 lifters have asked to confirm their upload, but presumably we'll be at that stage with the lot in just a bit. Unless something unexpected turns up, we should have this with the judges very late GMT time Tuesday or Wednesday. The good part is that we will have the show on the road without having to find any outstanding judges.

Stay tuned and thanks a lot already know to everyone who took part. Looks like we're in for an interesting meet in many ways.

Update from the server: 17 lifters now seem fully uploaded or are almost done. So far 4 lifters have asked to confirm their upload, but presumably we'll be at that stage with the lot in just a bit. Unless something unexpected turns up, we should have this with the judges very late GMT time Tuesday or Wednesday. The good part is that we will have the show on the road without having to find any outstanding judges.

Stay tuned and thanks a lot already know to everyone who took part. Looks like we're in for an interesting meet in many ways.

<dances from foot to foot, looking nervous> I eagerly await the outcome.

I am still missing the lifter info files for a bunch of lifters so I am as of yet unable to push this to the judges. I've sent off an e-mail to check on the situation, will update as soon as I know more. Sorry for the delay.

Update: the outstanding lifter info files will start dropping in later today. Due to the time zone difference, that means that I can start preparing the meet for the judges about this time tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Unfortunately, this meet will be delayed further. I got most of the outstanding lifter info about an hour ago, but am still missing the info for one lifter. As it is now nearly 2am, I am calling it a day and will retry again tomorrow evening GMT time. Thanks for your patience.

Ok, the meet is now with the judges. They are each facing 157 attempts and have the usual seven days from today (Monday November 30th) to finish the judging. You can keep track of progress in the box above the forums. Thanks to the judges in advance.

Update: Alberto, who is currently stationed with the Navy in Djibouti, has been set up for offline judging with downloaded video and an Excel sheet after issues with the firewall and network speed made use of the judging interface impossible. After he is done, he will e-mail me the spreadsheet and I will insert his calls into the database. This means two things: 1) his judging is not reflected in the progress meter above the forum and 2) if he needs more time to complete this he shall have it. Handling almost 160 video clips manually is a whole different affair than using the web based judging interface, thanks in advance to Alberto for putting in the extra effort.

The judging deadline is tomorrow which ideally means the meet could be pushed out the normal Tuesday or Wednesday (only a week behind the original schedule due to earlier mentioned delays in getting all the needed material from all participants). Alberto and Måns have both submitted their calls, so the meet is now 66% done. The counter only says 33% of course since Alberto had to do his judging offline.

I haven't gotten a status update from our third judge yet though. I should know more tomorrow.

The judging was completed some 12 hours ago. I'll start the meet release process today, but as I still need to import Alberto's calls into the database manually I don't expect to finish in one evening. So expect the meet out on Tuesday or Wednesday. Update to follow.

Thanks to all judges!

As seen previously seen on Facebook and Twitter... THE MEET RESULTS ARE OUT!

As you can see if you take a peek at the rankings, there was some stellar lifting that really made a splash there.

On the flip side, several attempts were turned down because of lacking video (squats filmed from behind are REALLY hard to judge and explicitly advised against in the rules, on the bench we really need to see the feet too...) and some due to bad attire (long pants, gloves, towels behind belts...). As stressed in the upload instructions sent to the lifters and the meet checklist: please take extra care to get familiar with the recommended videotaping angles in the rules AND try out the angles before the meet. I realize that we still have work to do to make this info more accessible, but at this stage of the game there is little excuse not to have read the rules before doing a meet.

With all its ups and downs, another good effort by all involved. Extra thanks goes out to judge Alberto Caraballo for not hesitating to take his judging manual with an Excel sheet instead of the judging interface after bumping into both local bandwidth and firewall issues.

Let the discussion begin.

Sending out thanks to the judges for their effort in viewing all our videos and a big thanks to the site providers for giving us a convenient venue in which to compete.

Looking forward to February's Deadlift Meet.

I had a question on one of the terms used on the failed lifts for some of the other lifters:

What does "no_judge" mean?  I didn't see it defined in the judgement definitions...

What does "no_judge" mean?  I didn't see it defined in the judgement definitions...

Good observation Wade! I will add it to the explanations tomorrow.

This is the call for the following scenario described in the rules:

1. It is at the judges discretion to turn down a lift when the video details are too lacking to allow for an accurate and fair ruling.

So besides PASS and FAIL, a judge can also call CANNOT JUDGE if he is of the opinion that he cannot fairly judge the lift (see the judging interface thread for a screenshot).

This situation typically occurs when

• key bodyparts are not seen in the video (e.g., you cannot tell if the feet stayed put during a bench press if they are not in the clip)
• key bodyparts are visually obstructed (e.g., in some attempts in this meet, the crease of the hip was obstructed by the rack making it really hard to assess depth)
• the video quality is too low to make sense of
• the videotaping angle is so bad that you cannot with reasonable certainty make a call (the squat is especially vulnerable to this, for example filming a squat from a high position makes it very hard to assess depth even if you can see the top of the knee and the hip crease well... hence the recommendation to film from knee level).

Even if the video is bad, the judges do have the option of calling the lift if they are reasonable sure they can make an informed decision. This is most common if the lift is bad. For example, if the lifter had an inadequate pause on the bench it doesn't really matter that we don't know whether he also slid all over the place with his feet or not as we only need to see one fault not all of them.

Of course, the only way to ensure that we can keep judging strict is to be able to judge in the first place, otherwise this will degenerate quickly. I encourage judges to turn down a lift when they think the video does not cut it rather than taking a guess. Lifters who bomb out due to this (which is never fun) tend to learn quickly and come back with stellar clips.

The bottom line is that it pays off to read the videotaping instructions, try out the angles before beginning the meet and to always keep in mind this section from the videotaping section of the rules:

5. The lifter AND the barbell must be fully visible for the whole duration of the lift (unracking to racking). Small deviations are acceptable - such as those caused by the equipment (eg. a rack post obstructing part of the lifter), when the gym is too cramped for a clear shot (eg. a piece of gym equipment partially in the way) or when the tip of the bar is briefly not visible - as long as the jugde(s) has enough information to judge on. Extra attention should be given to keeping possible spotters and bystanders clear of the camera.

Did this clear it up? Questions are warmly welcome as are thoughts and constructive criticism.

It does indeed.  Thanks for the comprehensive explanation.

Is it a good idea to video the plates on the bar to the confirm the posted weight for the judges?

Is it a good idea to video the plates on the bar to the confirm the posted weight for the judges?

In general, I like the idea. If you look at old meets, you will see that there are many lifters who do this even though it is not required.

That said, I think it could prove more hassle than it's worth, as it requires moving the camera close to the weights then resetting it to properly film the attempt in the same clip. This is not an issue if you have an assistant, but for those lifting alone it would not be as easy and could lead to bad clips as they don't have much opportunity to ensure that the camera is back at the correct angle. It would also make each attempt much longer, so for those watching a full meet it's probably nicer to cut right into the action instead (tangentially, it would also increase bandwidth and storage costs for the video as I suspect they would nearly double in length from this practice).

Finally, I would also argue that we can do without introducing another way of bombing out, eg. forgetting to film the weights.

So while I really like this practice, I think we're better off not requiring it. There will always be ways of cheating and while making it harder to fake the weight, it wouldn't be terribly hard to put in a pair of fake plates in there that would be really hard to spot on video. Eventually, we will probably see some rotten apple enter the barrel, but that won't spoil the fun for the majority of us pushing our records forward.

That's my .02 cents. What do you think?