[NOTE: the first meet, February Deadlift, is final and will not change. Lifters can start preparing.]

Here is the long overdue proposal for the 2011 meet schedule. Feedback is welcome (please post below) until Friday, January 21st at 10PM GMT, after that the schedule will be fixed. NOTE: the first meet, February Deadlift, is final and will not change. Lifters can start preparing. The date of the 2011 Gathering is also final, we already have one attendee with flights booked and I am planning my vacations around this date. As in 2009 (photos, original thread), the Gathering will be held at Toffe's Gym with the opportunity to compete in the Powerlifting event held that same week.

All meets in 2011 will follow the changes we implemented in late 2010 to make the meets more lifter/life friendly: each meet runs from Tuesday to Sunday and meet registrations will be accepted for the duration of the meet.

The final meet schedule will also be accompanied by an update of the rules which will formalize some of the things we have agreed on in the past, including starting to allow singlets for the Weightlifting meets.

Finally, some comments about the schedule: Despite some meets having had quite a low number of attendees in 2010, I have decided that Virtualmeet will continue to support powerlifters, weightlifters and bench pressers by making sure each group have meets available at regular intervals throughout the year (with the usual hat tip to those who do meets across the spectrum). It would of course be great to see more attendance, especially weightlifting is still very much a niche event, so everyone is warmly encouraged to spread the good word.

You will also notice that the 2011 schedule does not contain any specialty meets (Challenge meets and whatnot). This does not mean that we won't see any specialty meets being arranged, on the contrary I have some hopes that we will. But my hope is that they will be arranged by interested parties on the Virtualmeet platform, hence they are not included in the official meet schedule. These are still very much open cards to which I hope we will return a bit later in the year.

2011 Meet Schedule Proposal

February 22-27: Deadlift (the date is final)
March 8-13: Bench Press
March 15-20: Weightlifting
April 5-10: Powerlifting
May 23-29: Military Bench for reps
June 7-12: Weightlifting
July 5-10: Powerlifting + THE GATHERING 2011 (9-10 July at Toffe's Gym, Vaasa, Finland)
August 23-28: Bench Press
September 13-18: Weightlifting
October 4-9: Powerlifting
November 22-27: Military bench max

Please post your thoughts below.

Glad to see there's a deadlift meet. Schedule looks good to me.

I think it looks good too.

Cool! A deadlift meet!
A little extra incentive to work on my stalled DL.

Will definitely spread the word.

I like the WL slots, June and September give me a hope of lifting outside.

I know I say this every year, but that's a lot of benching. Why is the squat not given its own meet Kris?

Kat, Ginger and Warren: thanks for the feedback! Appreciated.

I know I say this every year, but that's a lot of benching.

I know you do and last year you really opened my eyes to how much benching is really going on here. And like last year, I say you have a very valid point there.

But like last year, this really boils down to Virtualmeet currently supporting three different disciplines: powerlifting, weightlifting and bench pressing. Unfortunate or not, as bench pressing is also part of powerlifting this by necessity leads to a lot of benching opportunities for powerlifters. But from the perspective of those who, by choice or necessity, only bench their meet year consists of precisely four meets. I see two regular bench meets as a kind of service minimum and as we also support military benching in both its rep and max varieties this adds up to the usual four meets.

So yeah, that is indeed a lot of benching, but I don't see how it could be much different unless we either agree to no longer support benching as an independent discipline or add more meets. While the number of dedicated benchers, much like weightlifters, are still few, I personally see it as a gesture of loyalty to not stop service for any group just because they have yet to gain critical mass. If this was a business venture things could look different, but at the moment arranging these meets cost little more than fixed server costs and my time... and that's time I am willing to spend for a few happy faces and the belief that we still have a lot of untapped potential ahead of us. Increasing the number of meets is not really an option either until we have enough lifters to fill them.

Why is the squat not given its own meet Kris?

This flows from the above. I decided that we'll have room for one specialty meet this year, and for me deadlifting was the obvious answer as it provides a one-time chance to try to hit a big dead without having to pre-fatigue by squatting first and because this meet has also been popular every time it has been arranged. A squat only meet could have been an alternative, but I suspect it would not turn out as popular.

So ultimately it boils down to us currently having what I think are the minimum number of meets for benching and weightlifting together with what I think is a reasonable number of meets for our most popular discipline (powerlifting). I am hence reluctant to deduct any meets, but if convinced that there is reasonable interest in a squat only meet I would obviously be happy to add one (shout below please ). But really, as soon as we have enough lifters I'd love nothing more than see to it that we offer a wide array of meet opportunities including single lift events.

Did this make sense?

Push-pull meets are pretty popular.  One could compete in one or both lifts, simply indicating whether they are bench-only or deadlift-only or "full meet."

Still have a hankering to see an Xfit meet as well (Standing press, Squat and deadlift)

As long as I'm wishing, I'd like to see an old-style Olympic Weightlifting meet that includes the press too.

The idea of allowing lifters to do only one or two lifts in a full powerlifting meet is a bit too radical to implement without flinching, but I'm definitively going to be thinking about the implications and pros/cons. I've honestly never even contemplated doing anything like that, thanks for shaking up the idea pool!

We've done push-pull, but last year we ditched it in favor of deadlift only.

The traditional three-lift Oly meet is also an excellent idea that could spruce it up for the weightlifters. Is anyone here in favor of replacing one of the WL meets with it or even to add it in as a fourth meet? And what about the same question for a Crossfit meet replacing one of the powerlifting meets? Both of these events add interesting twists while still being reasonably close to the usual thing, the question is mostly how valuable the bread and butter events are in comparison.

Thanks for the excellent suggestions Wade.

A three-lift Oly meet? Hmmm, it's interesting, and I'd probably do it. As I understand it, the press was ditched because of the danger and injury. Ever seen one of the old photos or vids where a guy loses it? Scary. I don't know where that falls in the scheme of things for VM. One thing to think about is whether this would somehow affect how you tabulate records in terms of totals, and whether this would affect scoring vs. conventional lifts. But yeah, I'd probably do it if we offered it. I don't think we should replace one of the meets that's on the schedule already, tho.

One thing to think about is whether this would somehow affect how you tabulate records in terms of totals, and whether this would affect scoring vs. conventional lifts.

It would not go into the rankings at all since it is a specialty meet, but the total would probably be scored by the usual formula (Siff). I don't really want to maintain rankings for meets that are not offered regularly, so this is always one of the main issues with replacing a bread and butter meet with a specialty one. The same goes for the Crossfit meet of course. If we ever start offering either of these meets regularly the rankings would of course run from the first meet.

A three-lift Oly meet? Hmmm, it's interesting, and I'd probably do it. As I understand it, the press was ditched because of the danger and injury. Ever seen one of the old photos or vids where a guy loses it? Scary. I don't know where that falls in the scheme of things for VM. One thing to think about is whether this would somehow affect how you tabulate records in terms of totals, and whether this would affect scoring vs. conventional lifts. But yeah, I'd probably do it if we offered it. I don't think we should replace one of the meets that's on the schedule already, tho.

Actually, the press was dropped from competition because for some inexplicable reason, judges found it hard to judge whether knee bending was occurring with the layback style.  In a video meet, that would be no problem.  You can play that sucker over and over to catch any would-be perpetrators of illicit knee-bending.

That Alexiev/Redding vid of two 500+lb world-record presses back to back drives me crazy because Alexiev so obviously cheated and Redding did not - but Alexiev won.  That couldn't happen in this venue because we gots built-in instant replay.

Actually, the press was dropped from competition because for some inexplicable reason, judges found it hard to judge whether knee bending was occurring with the layback style.  In a video meet, that would be no problem.  You can play that sucker over and over to catch any would-be perpetrators of illicit knee-bending.

That Alexiev/Redding vid of two 500+lb world-record presses back to back drives me crazy because Alexiev so obviously cheated and Redding did not - but Alexiev won.  That couldn't happen in this venue because we gots built-in instant replay.

Ah, thanks Wade. Does it sound like fun to you?

I can live with this schedule. I also want try at least one of the weightlifting meets and I am looking forward to the Gathering.   

Maybe next year could see a Squat only event?

Maybe next year could see a Squat only event?

Maybe indeed, Warren would definitively have deserved it for bringing in a fresh angle on the meet schedule. Or if numbers start soaring this year we can always put one in later... Looking forward to seeing you again at the Gathering.

I found your site a month or two ago and have checked your site every few days for the 2011 schedule ever since.

I think il join right in with the Deadlift meet next month. It coincides perfectly with my current training cycle. I was hoping to hit 500 lb for the first time that week anyway, so it should be fun.

I'm going to read and re-read all of the rules and make sure I do everything right.

Jeremy, a warm welcome to Virtualmeet! Always nice to see new faces.

Key to a good first meet is to do what you are doing (really reading the rules), most of the bomb outs in first meet are due to not doing just that. After meet registration (which will open about a week out from the meet), you will also receive an e-mail with the details on how to upload your clips and last minute reminders. In the meantime, if you have any questions big or small, don't hesitate to PM me here on the forum or e-mail me at kris@virtualmeet.net.

Here's to a good first meet experience and a solid deadlift PR!