To give myself some credit, I do think that my major criticisms still stand, and I did say that the USAPL had an opportunity to do something interesting, not that they necessarily would. But yeah, on the whole, my instincts were ultimately wrong.
What I did not anticipate primarily are the following: how poorly organized and meaningless the USAPL Pro Series would be, how poor the USAPL's overall messaging and communication would be, and how much buzz and excitement the Sheffield would provoke. Sheffield really seemed to mark the turning point for the IPF's reputation.
I haven't been as plugged into the powerlifting zeitgeist, nor have I looked at membership data since writing this article, but it seems that the USAPL does still seem to be the predominant fed for most lifters in the US due to meet availability and frequency and moderately competitive benchmarks for regional/national level meets. PA is still primarily most interesting for those using it as a stepping stone into the IPF, which is still at this point a slim minority for obvious reasons, and Article 14 will continue to be a double-edged sword for the IPF: simultaneously acting as an anti-competitive cage for its most prominent lifters while serving as repellent for those not looking to be locked into a single fed who have no shot at going to Worlds, anyways.
This did NOT age well
To give myself some credit, I do think that my major criticisms still stand, and I did say that the USAPL had an opportunity to do something interesting, not that they necessarily would. But yeah, on the whole, my instincts were ultimately wrong.
What I did not anticipate primarily are the following: how poorly organized and meaningless the USAPL Pro Series would be, how poor the USAPL's overall messaging and communication would be, and how much buzz and excitement the Sheffield would provoke. Sheffield really seemed to mark the turning point for the IPF's reputation.
I haven't been as plugged into the powerlifting zeitgeist, nor have I looked at membership data since writing this article, but it seems that the USAPL does still seem to be the predominant fed for most lifters in the US due to meet availability and frequency and moderately competitive benchmarks for regional/national level meets. PA is still primarily most interesting for those using it as a stepping stone into the IPF, which is still at this point a slim minority for obvious reasons, and Article 14 will continue to be a double-edged sword for the IPF: simultaneously acting as an anti-competitive cage for its most prominent lifters while serving as repellent for those not looking to be locked into a single fed who have no shot at going to Worlds, anyways.