Sure, wrap their knees. What the hell. Can't be any worse than it already will be. And the boys coach should also have them leave their knees wrapped for the whole meet. What the hell.
Member
Wrapping Knees
I am taking a group of girls to a powerlifting meet (High school-geared). They have squat suits and all that jazz, I know all the other competitors will have their knees wrapped. I am not a huge fan of high school powerlifting in general, but it is what I am assigned to coach.
Do you think that I should wrap their knees?
Secondly, the boys coach has his lifters wear their squat suits for the entire meet. I have never heard of that...opinion?
TMPHBITEU
Sure, wrap their knees. What the hell. Can't be any worse than it already will be. And the boys coach should also have them leave their knees wrapped for the whole meet. What the hell.
Member
You reluctantly coach a sport...? My mind is blown. Poor kids.
Callador
Since it is geared powerlifting, you should wrap their knees for competition. You would be leaving pounds off their total if you didn't.Originally Posted by d12
This doesn't mean you have to train with the squat suit and knee wraps the whole time. You could have off season blocks where you just do raw powerlifting. Eventually you could throw some knee wraps in there. After that throw on the squat suit, straps down. And finally, do the whole shabang. Plenty of old school geared lifters trained like this.
As for keeping the squat suit on the whole time, are they deadlifting in it? I know they are a bitch to get on/off (I have worn some gear to try it out), and I am assuming they use bench shirts too. Normally you would take it off to get ready for benching. Then you could throw on that suit again or a different DL suit. Some people actually pull more on their DL raw using a conventional stance, so you could look into that too. It would be one less piece of gear to buy.
TMPHBITEU
Mine is not. As a condition of continued employment, the man is required to take kids to a competition for which they are not prepared and which the organizers do not conduct properly, because his head coach tells him he has to. His reluctance seems very straightforward to me. Perhaps you have never been to a high school PL meet.
These kids may only have 4-8 weeks to "train" for this "meet."
The boys "coach" doesn't know any of this. You guys fail to understand the problems here.As for keeping the squat suit on the whole time, are they deadlifting in it? I know they are a bitch to get on/off (I have worn some gear to try it out), and I am assuming they use bench shirts too. Normally you would take it off to get ready for benching. Then you could throw on that suit again or a different DL suit. Some people actually pull more on their DL raw using a conventional stance, so you could look into that too. It would be one less piece of gear to buy.
Callador
I wasn't aware of the 4-8 week piece of it. Then yes, they need to be training in wraps. I am assuming it is something like a USAPL high school meet?
And yes I agree, the coaches pretty much suck. I've seen some horrendous coaching around raw and geared powerlifting. That is why I love this forum. It isn't strictly powerlifting based, but it is about mechanical efficiency and staying safe. :-)
TMPHBITEU
Each state usually has a high school powerlifting association. Texas is a nightmare. A fucking NIGHTMARE.
Member
I should clarify:
I don't reluctantly coach the sport. I reluctantly have to enter my girls in meets under the jurisdiction of Texas High School Powerlifting. It is insanity. I love coaching the girls lifting, and we have a great time...they're getting awfully strong and many of them out lift an incredibly large percentage of the boys.
No, I do not wrap their knees currently. They have been following the Starting Strength module and we have been lifting without aide. They have lifting shoes and belts, that's what we workout in. However, THSPA is a geared association so we have the squat suits, bench shirts, ect for them to compete with and I was asking if wrapping their knees would be THAT much more useful, because I have never wrapped my knees so I am admitting my ignorance on the topic of knee wrapping.
I bought them singlets yesterday afternoon to wear for the other two lifts out of my own budget because I have spoken to three other SSC on top of asking this forum about staying in a squat suit and thought it would be a hell of a lot better to bite the bullet and buy singlets.
My girls have been lifting since October.
I have been ridiculed fairly often on my approach (SS) to lifting because it isn't popular in high school powerlifting. We also pull conventionally which has caused quite a stir in the field house.
However, I have had zero injuries thus far (knock on wood) and my girls are getting progressively stronger, so I call it a win.
They also really like getting strong and want to stick with it after the "season".
So, that being said: I have access to people who know how to wrap knees, so will it help the girls enough to make it worth it?
It isn't ALL dangerous and terrible...but yeah, it's pretty bad. People are really confused as to why my girls look down, why we pull conventional, and why I don't have my girls throw their elbows forward at the bottom of the squat.
There are a lot of high school coaches that should be looked into for child abuse, because ultimately that's what coaching that puts kids at risk is.
So again, I did not say I reluctantly coach the sport, asshole. I said that I am not a huge fan of high school powerlifting. The association is a fucking mess.
Callador
When is there next meet? Thanks for the additional info. If they are still running SS, I would keep doing that for right now. If I were in your position, I would throw wraps in on an intermediate template. On the Intensity day, you can do your top set or two with wraps. They are actually pretty easy to learn, especially if you wrap yourself. Right out of the gate most people will see a 20-30# boost on their squats. You can get more than that of course, but it does take a little practice.
As for the powerlifting gear, if you know nothing about it, you may want to pass on it. Yes, you will probably lose more often that not, but the programming would have to be something a little different outside your comfort zone. For instance, I have seen young folks throw on a shirt. But because they can't bench a lot anyways, the shirt is too tight for them to touch their chest with a reasonable amount of weight. But if you throw on enough weight to get the bar to touch, then they can't lock it out, even with the help of a shirt.
If you have enough time, you could slowly start phasing in equipment on the intensity day. Start with wraps, then add the suit, straps down, and then finally near the competition, have them compete in full gear. But I would honestly see if you can find someone reputable in the area to help you with this. Geared lifting is a different animal altogether. Wraps or different, and many feds allow you to use them in their raw categories (that is how I compete actually). And like I said, you can learn enough in a day to get something out of them. Over time, you can get more. And the nice thing is you could follow a general intermediate template to do it.
Member
Their meet is next Friday. I have introduced squat suits but that has been the only introduction to PL gear so far...I appreciate the information. It looks like even without the suits we will be sitting in the top five in our region, which is interesting. It is mostly because our deadlift is above our squat...and the other girls cannot pull near what they squat. Cannot cheat that old deadlift...
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