With three meets during our first year, Virtualmeet.net has now matured enough to kick into higher gear. This is a proposal for meets to be held in 2008 and constitutes what I think is a minimum level of service (three full meets and two bench meets a year) with one little extra (a deadlift only meet). Hopefully, a positive side-effect of more meets is also better judge availability as most lifters will probably not be doing all meets, thus creating more opportunities to sign up as a judge for those who feel ready for it.

This proposal should be taken as a starting point for further discussion. If you are considering competing in 2008, please post any suggestions you may have below. Based on received feedback, the meet schedule will be finalized on November 1st, 2007.

2008 VIRTUALMEET.NET MEET SCHEDULE PROPOSAL

Powerlifting, March 7-9th

Bench Press and Military Bench Press, May 16-18th

Powerlifting, July 25-27th

Deadlift, September 5-7th

Weightlifting, October 3-5th

Bench Press and Military Bench Press, November 7-9th

Powerlifting, December 5-7th

[ EDIT: Added a weightlifting meet. ]

I'm not very good at suggesting things, but wouldn't it be better to have a push/pull meet instead of a push/push meet?

So instead of having Bench Press/Military Bench Press having a Bench Press/Deadlift or Military Bench Press/Deadlift meet.

I could be way off though as the Military Bench Press should be much less than the Bench Press and should be doable in the same meet I suppose.

Oh well, just throwing out ideas.  The dates and all look really good.

I'm not very good at suggesting things, but wouldn't it be better to have a push/pull meet instead of a push/push meet?

I see your point, I should have made this clearer. Those are not push-push meets but two separate meets held on the same weekend. Besides providing a choice, this has the hidden agenda of trying to ensure judge availability; presumably, most would do either meet leaving those capable of it free to judge in the other. At this stage, what will make or break this project is judge availability; we are now ramping up the number of meets drastically, and I want to play it safe until we are clear off the ground. But I also quite like the idea of a weekend bench fest.

This may of course have the impact of lessening participation in the Military Bench Press, especially for those outside Northern Europe who are not familiar with Military Bench meets (will be posting more background info on this, but here is a first quick look), but on the other hand this is a harsh way of testing interest. Of course, there is no point in maintaining meets for a lift nobody is really interested in; consider 2008 a test run.

I did not want to risk putting in more meets than we can sustain in 2008, hence the lack of a push-pull this year. If many of you want a push-pull in 2008, I'll definitively find a way to put one in though; otherwise a push-pull will happen in early 2009. Again, all suggestions are warmly welcome!

Ok, I see now.  Thanks for clearing that up.  I actually like the idea of having the Military Bench Press meet.  It makes things a little more interesting than just a regular flat bench and who can arch the highest.

I actually like the idea of having the Military Bench Press meet.  It makes things a little more interesting than just a regular flat bench and who can arch the highest.

Yes, plus I'm willing to bet that a little dedicated Military Bench work is awesome for improving starting strength in the RAW bench.

Based on received feedback, the meet schedule will be finalized on November 1st, 2007.

The meet schedule has now been finalized with the addition of our first weightlifting meet. For more information, please read this announcement.