The author passing his Category II referee exam in 2019!
Welcome to the first blog post in what I hope to make a series - Competitive Powerlifting 101. This series will focus on how meet day coaches (or handlers) can make the most of the rules of powerlifting in order to get the best result for their lifters. What I’m talking about here is specific to the International Powerlifting Federation (other federations will have their own rules) and probably won’t apply unless you’re lifting or coaching at a very high level. If you’re not familiar with the technical rules, you can see them here. (They’re provided in many languages, but the normative version is the English version.) There’s been some bad opinions floating around the internet lately about this one, so I thought I’d take the time to clear up any misconceptions.
First - what is a jury? If you’ve never been to a big powerlifting meet before, you might never have seen one before. At Open Worlds (or the World Games) the jury consists of five referees; otherwise the jury is three referees. At the world championships those referees must be Category 1, but at regional championships (or nationals etc) the jury consists of the highest ranking referees present. The jury can do three important things with respect to the competition.
Remove a referee or other official they deem to be incompetent (by majority vote)
Give a lifter an additional attempt at a lift (at their discretion)
Overturn a 2-1 referee decision (by unanimous decision for a 3-person jury, or majority vote for a 5-person jury.)
It’s the last point we’re going to focus on here today.
What is an appeal?
Only in extreme circumstances when there has been an obvious or blatant mistake in the refereeing will the Jury in consultation with the referees, by unanimous jury vote with (3) Member Jury or with Majority vote with (5) Member Jury may reverse the decision. Only 2 to 1 referees’ decision can be considered by the Jury
Jury, Rule 9
In a separate location, it says this.
In the event of a complaint being made against a lifting member or official of an opposing team, the written complaint shall be accompanied by the cash sum of Euro 75 or its equivalent in any currency. Should the Jury in its verdict consider that the complaint is of a frivolous or mischievous nature, then the whole or any portion of the sum may be retained and donated to the IPF at the discretion of the Jury.
Miscellaneous Rules, Rule 13
I find Misc Rule 13 a little vague, but by the way it’s applied at worlds, it seems it applies any time you appeal a lift made by a lifter from another country. By the last sentence, I gather that so long as you’re not a dick and only appeal legitimately borderline referee decisions (and not EVERY SINGLE DECISION) you should usually get your cash back, even if the jury don’t agree with your appeal.
Referee Gang from NZPF National Champs in 2020.
So mechanically, there’s two cases here.
Case 1: 2 Red Lights, 1 White Light
Your lifter fails a lift 2-1
You go to the jury, and point out an “obvious or blatant refereeing mistake”
The jury considers it, and they turn your failed lift into a good lift instead
Case 2: 1 Red Light, 2 White Lights
An opposing lifter succeeds on a lift 2-1
You go to the jury and hand them 75 Euros in cash
You point out an “obvious or blatant refereeing mistake”
The jury considers it, and turns the opposing lifter’s good lift into a bad one instead
You get your cash back
When Should You Appeal A Decision?
So how does this work? The simple answer is any time there’s a blatant and obvious refereeing mistake. To be slightly less pithy - when there’s a borderline referee decision that will affect the standing of your lifter in a material way. What that means to you is probably a discussion for you and your lifter to have before the meet. Appealing to the jury can cost you 75 Euros, it can annoy the referees, and sure won’t make you friends with the other lifters (especially if you manage to turn their good lift into a bad one), but it’s the only direct way a game day coach can affect the outcome of a powerlifting meet. Given that trade off, you need to make sure it’s worth it to you and your athlete to appeal. If you think it’s a tactic you might pursue, you’ll probably want to have 75 euro (or the equivalent) on hand for your bond.
Personally, I save this for when it’s going to make the difference of moving up the podium or making a qualifying total for something - successfully getting 5 kg added to your squat, or taken off the opposing lifter’s, can make all the difference when it comes down to the end of the day. I probably wouldn’t do this in the case when my lifter wasn’t within spitting distance of the lifters who would be affected!
Of course, not every meet has a jury. If you’re in a small local meet, or even some regional or national championships, appealing the lift won’t even be an option. You can still appeal to the head referee in that case, but all they can do is offer an additional attempt to your lifter to try again, which may or may not be worthwhile for you.
This has been a brief look into appealing decisions to the jury for competitive powerlifting - one of the best levers a coach has in a powerlifting meet, but one that doesn’t come up very often. I hope you’ve found that helpful, and I’d love to know any times you’ve successfully appealed a decision to the jury. I’d also love to know any aspects of competitive powerlifting you’d like a deeper look at.