Starting up at collegiate lifting team, any suggestions? Options

[xahliftinracerx]

I'm starting up a collegiate lifting team at Ithaca College in upstate NY. The club plans so far are this: there will be no team practices (at least
for now) because of the way peoples' schedules are it would never work out, plus having too many people lifting at the same time is hard. Therefore, there is going to be a buddy system where each person will have a lifting partner, or 2, and they will follow a similar routine. Towards the end of the semester, there will be a informal competition at the fitness center among the club. This will get people prepared for what a real competition feel will be like. Then, next fall there will be another
competition at the fitness center among the club, and that will determine the 11 people that will be on the team going to regionals and nationals. From there, we may have team practices either at my home gym, Cerrache (football gym), or just the fitness center, once a week. We will have several fundraisers which will help pay for the trips to nationals and regionals (although some money will come out of our own pocket, depending on the price). Individuals can qualify for the World Team USA at nationals if they do well enough, however, this price for this will come out of their own pocket or they will have to do their own fundraising as I have done in the past for my trips to worlds (that is generally what everyone on the world team does).

So any suggestions on top of what I have so far?

[byronsru24]

I think it sounds pretty good man. When I was in college, we tried doing something simliar with a "team" also. The problem was MOST people did it because they just wanted to "look cool" lifting with us and the bands, chains, boards, etc. With the exception of me, and a few other training partners, NO ONE wanted to compete, or really take it seriously.

One bench day we had 9 people show up. Talk about taking 2.5hrs to complete a workout. But on squat/dl days we had 3 people show up. Lots of people came and went, but very few stuck around for the long hall.

As far as fundraisers go.....you might consider filling out the paperwork to have the team become an "official club sport" on the university. Then you'll get funding from the university every year. It will take a year or so for all the paperwork to go through, but that should give you $500 a semester minimum. We also held an annual push/pull meet at school, which turned out to be an awesome fundraiser. ALL college kids love to talk about how much they can bench. Last fall we had close to 40 benchers....not bad at all for a non-sanctioned meet. this is a little video of what we put together. We got Gene Rychlak to come and be the head judge. Since your in upstate NY maybe one of the Metal Militia guys might consider comming:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfGAoNoeJHw

I'd say if people are really serious to compete, that would be where you'd find out. Jillian (the girl lifting in that video) is now competing in the USAPL and has already totalled elite without gear at her last meet. I think we raised upwards of $500 at that meet, and it wasn't really that hard to put together.

Any other ??'s feel free to PM me man.

Good luck

Brian

[xahliftinracerx]

I am going to have it be an actual club. It isn't going to be that much paperwork. Most of it is already done in fact. All I have to do is submit the application, get an advisor, and then have everyone fill out the participation form online, and have the officers fill out a quiz online, and then it'll be done.

Thank you for the help. I am having the groups of 2-4 setup for the purpose of having a solid amount of people working together. This will prevent the 9 people working out thing.

I may see about getting a metal militia guy to come. that is a great idea.

As far as the meets, there is an intramural competition twice a year which is free so that wouldn't work out. Thats why im just having the 2 team meets to determine spots for the competition team.

[TNDeadlifter]

Andrew, I think that is a great idea. It just takes one or a few guys that really beleive in it to keep it going. Good to see that you have taken your stellar high school lifting on to the next level. What USAPL meets do you have coming up in the future and how is your training going?

I really don't have any more ideas to help your team. It sounds like you have a very well thought out plan. Just keep everyone focused and on't be discrouaqged if you don't have a lot of numbers at first.

[Matt76]

yeah we had a pl team at our college as club sport. Hell we got like 2500 a year and we only had a handful that competed. Talk about a sweeet ass deal

[werner800]

When I started the powerlifting team at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 2000, I also started the team with the intention of no team practices. As a result, the 20+ lifters who intially signed up for the group had dwindled to 3 lifters (including myself) by the next semester.

At that point, I decided that I would offer team practices and serve as the coach. From then on, we rapidly grew in size and talent. Another thing that I should note is that while you and I may be passionate about powerlifting, most who join the team will do so simply as a hobby. At the Collegiate level, even the best teams and coaches can't convince more than 50% of the members to train during semester breaks and holidays. Many on your team will share your passion and commitment....many will not. Accept that fact, offer your knowledge, and the team will grow.

Now, in our 8th year, we have 40+ competitive lifters on our team. Not everyone's schedules allow them to train at the same time, but we still have official team practices 4 days per week at 5pm.

Also, most schools will require you to write a club constitution. If your school requires this, drop me an email, and I will send you a copy of ours that you can copy. Collegiate Nationals is as exciting and competitive as the sport gets and I hope to see Ithaca at future meets.

Travis Werner
werner800@cox.net
http://www.angelfire.com/theforce/ragincajuns/index.html

This post has been edited by werner800: Feb 4 2008, 07:14 PM