Virtualmeet.net

All discussion related to the powerlifting meet on 25-27 July 2008 is warmly welcome here.

Sign-up for the meet here. (http://virtualmeet.net/community/forum/meet-talk/214/0/)

Chris, most excellent, welcome!  :) I moved your post to the meet registration thread (http://virtualmeet.net/community/forum/meet-talk/214/0/) to make it easier to keep track of whose doing what.

So far we have one lifter and one judge in for this one. Not a bad start!

Six lifters and one judge are in so far. If anyone else is still contemplating lifting in this meet, you have 25 hours left to sign up. :)

The sign-up deadline has passed, no more lifter sign-ups will be accepted for this meet. The lifters will be updated with all the info they need to proceed by early next week via e-mail.

Good luck to the seven of you who signed up! :)

All of you who are lifting in this meet have now been sent an e-mail with further instructions. Any and all questions are warmly welcome! :)

Meet weekend is rapidly approaching! This is the first meet where all lifters represent the USA (http://virtualmeet.net/community/forum/meet-talk/214/msg1297/#msg1297). Six lifters made it to the starting line; unfortunately, Anthony (http://virtualmeet.net/flex87/) had to pull out due to an injury.

We are still missing one judge, but as usual we will have one come judging time.

Good luck everyone! Remember to read the rules (http://virtualmeet.net/meets/rules/), especially the parts about clothing, videotaping angles and don't forget the newspaper. :)

I'm happy to announce that Joseph Reiter (http://virtualmeet.net/ghostreiter/) has stepped in as the third judge. This is his second meet as a judge, he also judged the March 2008 Powerlifting meet (http://virtualmeet.net/meets/200803pl/).

Thanks Joe!

The Friday and Saturday lifters have submitted their clips. Those of you lifting today Sunday, have a great one! :)

Good luck, everyone! Cheers and screams from this corner of the universe.(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/mightyone/virutalmeetmightkatnet.jpg)

Is there an FTP option? I'm trying to attach to email, and the files are too big.

You should have received an e-mail with the information on how to upload the video clips on July 7th. I just resent it, if you don't get it and it's not in your spam filter let me know.

Hope you had a good meet, love the shirt.  ;D

All lifters have submitted their lifts. The meet will now be prepared for judging. Stay tuned! :)

Update: the meet will be submitted to the judges sometime tomorrow Sunday.

This meet ended up coinciding with our family moving into a new apartment. Since there were some issues that needed manual intervention I was unfortunately unable to get the meet submitted in the midst of painting-packing-moving frenzy. We have now properly landed at our new address, although we are still immersed in a sea of boxes... ;D

The meet is now with the judges. As usual, they are expected to finish their judging within one week from now. You can follow the judging progress in the box above the forum. As soon as the judging has been completed the results will be released, rankings updated and so on.

Can't wait to see how this one goes... :)

Two judges have already done their thing, 67% done now.

...and we are done! The results will be published within the next 24 hours give or take. As usual, I will send out an e-mail to notify everyone when the meet is live.

BIG THANKS to Chris Cooper (http://virtualmeet.net/catalystfitness/) and Joseph Reiter (http://virtualmeet.net/ghostreiter/) for the judging. Fun as it may be, we should not forget that the judges chip in with their time to allow everyone else to compete... no judges, no meets. So thanks guys!

Unfortunately, I just noticed that five judge calls from one judge in squat round 2 are missing. This is most likely due to a bug in the judging interface that slipped in before this meet. I have set up a temporary page for the judge to manually re-review these lifts and send me the calls. When I get the answers, I can move forward with releasing the meet. Naturally, I will fix this bug for the next meet so we don't end up with the same issue then.

Hang on and sorry for the hickup.

I got the missing calls. Everything looks set for releasing the meet tonight. :)

The meet has been released! (http://virtualmeet.net/meets/200807pl/) The rankings, lifter stats etc. will be updated tomorrow.

Thanks to all lifters who took part in this exciting meet, that, among other things, saw Kat Ricker (http://virtualmeet.net/mightykat/) become the first woman to complete a virtual powerlifting meet and a tight struggle for the deadlift record between Ron Villani (http://virtualmeet.net/ironman50/) and Kevin Boone (http://virtualmeet.net/coachboone/). It was also a joy to see more new faces in these meets, hope all of you felt like you got what you expected out of the experience... and then some!

The registration for the September 5-7th Deadlift-only meet will open as soon as this meet has been concluded.

Hi all - great effort by all lifters.  There were a few clips (especially in the squat) that I had to watch up to a dozen times before making a call.  One thing I learned as a judge: it's wise to wear contrasting clothing pieces on the top and bottom of your body.  In a few videos, a lifter wearing all-dark clothing was very tough to judge on depth.  Especially if the lighting is poor, make sure the judge can see where the crease of your hip is!  I'll know myself for the next full meet now, so thanks, Kris, for giving me the opportunity to judge!  I always learn something when I'm judging!
PS Sign me up as a competitor in the DL - only meet!

Excellent points Chris!

Despite using the angles recommended in the rules, the hip or knees so essential for a reliable depth gauge are all too easily obstructed by the rack. We should add clearer instructions to check for this to the rules (http://virtualmeet.net/docs/virtualmeet_rules_en.pdf) and checklist (http://virtualmeet.net/docs/meet_checklist.pdf). The best way to ensure that the lifts are judgable is to tape a test lift and adjust as needed. In most cases, the judges are able to make an informed decision, but we have had some lifts in past meets that have been flagged as "not judgeable" by one or more judges. Perhaps we should not hesitate to use that call a bit more often? It sucks to drop out of a meet due to bad videotaping angles, but in the end that would result in lifters putting in extra effort to get a good angle.

Still, the reality is that getting a perfect angle is not always possible due to cramped spaces and/or obstructing equipment. Lifters and judges will just have to do their best under the circumstances, but not at the expense of passing lifts where it is impossible to tell what's what.

A recommendation to wear contrasting colors is also something to consider, but enforcing such a rule would be over the top in my opinion.

That said, the video submissions have been getting better and better meet by meet so things are actually looking quite good on this front now.  :)

The meet has been fully released now with the rankings (http://virtualmeet.net/rankings/), statistics (front page (http://virtualmeet.net/) and meet page (http://virtualmeet.net/meets/)) and lifter home pages updated (including the linkable tracker images (http://virtualmeet.net/community/forum/announcements/227/0/) which show your best lifts).

Ron Villani (http://virtualmeet.net/ironman50/) really made a splash on the rankings taking first place on the total, bench press and deadlift. Kevin Boone (http://virtualmeet.net/coachboone/) hoisted the biggest deadlift of the day (254kg/560lbs) by narrowly outlifting Ron and put Matt Reed's previous record behind him. Ron, being a masters lifter aged 50, still grabbed it with a comfortable five point lead. Speaking of which, Brian Long (http://virtualmeet.net/blong/) posted a huge 20.4 kg/45 lbs improvement on his deadlift over the March meet (http://virtualmeet.net/meets/200803pl/) with impressive improvements in squat poundages and depth too clocking in second in the meet. If you have the time Brian, I would be curious to hear what kind of deadlift / meet prep program you did for this one.

Let's not forget that next meet is deadlift only...  ;)

I have been training using Westside principles for about a year. But after the July meet I switched to a Sheiko routine in training for a local meet. I just can't seem to get any big gains on my bench with Westside. See what Sheiko can do.

I was a little disappointed actually in my final squat and deadlift numbers as my last attempts were rejected by 2 of the judges. I really wanted that 400 lb. on the squat! I will make some adjustments and these numbers will be there next time. Anyways thanks for a great website and fun place to display the hard work that all powerlifters put in.

Ron Villani put up some big numbers, what is some bench training tips?

Brian, If there is a particular tip you want to know about my bench press training or any other training, please ask away. I'll be glad to help.          Ron Villani

Ron, do you follow the widely popular speed and max effort days when training? I am having trouble developing that all important back arch (due to the fact that I am not as flexible as I should be) that I believe is needed for big benching. Any advice/tricks to developing the arch? What excercises do you feel develop/carry over to raw benching gains?

Sorry for so many questions but my bench has increased 10 pounds in 5 months and I am going stir crazy to unlock this puzzle! 

Brian, I,ll be glad to answer all your questions about my training. Please go to the community forum page, Powerlifting training. Thanks.  Ron

hey all,
let me say that I am seriuosly impressed with the physical power and the heart of all involved in the lifting of virtualmeet.net.  You all have my utmost respect. good job!

Just signed up here.  Nice job by all competitors.  I thought the judging was strict, but fair. 


I hope to do the full meet at the first of December.

Trey, welcome to Virtualmeet.net! :) Looking forward to seeing your in the December meet, best of luck with your meet prep.