Danny has inspired me.
Friendly competition is a good thing, so I propose an official set of power rankings.
Here's my question though, do we go by raw total or raw total/body weight?
Thoughts/ideas welcomed.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
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Oh? I thought you said you weren't a powerlifter.
ReplyDeleteIf we do this, we should rank by raw total. Let's not quibble too much about body weight here. We can add body weights next to the total to clarify things if need be.
I think youre referencing Shanker circa May/June. Or as Danny would say, "Shanker doing stupid stuff."
ReplyDeleteThe way they compared lifters of varying weights at the meet was with the Wilks formula,
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilks_Coefficient
"The Wilks Coefficient or Wilks Formula is a coefficient that can be used to measure the strength of a powerlifter against other powerlifters despite different weights."
Calculator: http://www.marylandpowerlifting.com/wilks.asp
I don't know much about it other than that they used it at the meet.
The "MIT power rankings" was (part of) a joke. I don't see any reason to create such tables. There is nothing glorious in being at the top of this table (it's not powerlifting watch), and obviously nothing glorious in not being at the top.
ReplyDeleteWilks is a statistical regression invented by Robert Wilks on the IPF committee. His original motivation was to get some kind of cross-weight comparison metric to justify changing the weight classes to make things more competitive. The formula they had been using was for olympic lifters and didn't apply well to powerlifting.
ReplyDeleteOnce he had finished his regression and weight class proposal, the political climate in the IPF had shifted so people no longer wanted to change the weight classes. Thus his main reason for developing the formula was moot, but people still use it. It is kind of silly because powerlifting has changed significantly as a sport since then with the introduction of all kinds of gear, and a new formula should probably be developed. Wilks has gone on record saying he should have just made an "educated guess" for the weight classes and gotten it done when he had the chance.