Fuck Your Coefficient
This is a Weight-Class Sport
While I understand what coefficients exist to do, and why meets use them for best lifter; I think the popularity of them has had overwhelmingly negative consequences for the sport and the development of the athletes within it. Powerlifting, like fighting, is a weight-class sport. Coefficients are ultimately temporary.
If you don’t know how coefficients actually work, the way they are made is by accounting for all the ATWRs in various weight classes and creating a multiplier or formula to try and weight your total against your bodyweight, equipment level, and sometimes your age. From this, a flaw should be obvious- the all time world records change, sometimes frequently! So far, no coefficient actively changes in real time to reflect this, thus why we get a new one every few years. Right now it is DOTs, but it used to be Wilks, and before that others. The other thing is due to the depth of competition in different genders, weight classes, and equipment divisions at the time; every coefficient will slightly favor one group or another. As much as the weight classes (in my opinion) are sensible jumps; there is not an even spread of lifters from class to class.
For example, in 2023, 9166 men competed raw and/or wraps in the 242 class; as opposed to only 1096 women in the same equipment division/class. At 165 raw and/or wraps, there was 10171 men and 6456 women in 2023. All data is from OpenPowerlifting. The point of this is to show that there is less depth to female competition, even within the same weight classes/equipment divisions.
This is not a slight to women- but it is merely an explanation as to why their DOTs scores always seem comparatively higher. The highest female DOTs score of all time is Kristy Hawkins’ 711.19, which amounted to not even a 10x bodyweight total in wraps. However, the highest men’s DOTs is John Haack’s 661.52 which came from a 2254 sleeved total at 198. Respectively, these are both some of the greatest performances of all time for each gender. So why is there such a difference, if the coefficients are supposedly able to account for gender? The answer is the coefficient is not updated frequently enough to adequately account for where the sport is, nor does it account for the depth of competition across divisions/classes/genders.
On top of this, coefficients simply cannot account for what it takes to reach the true human tissue limit weights. Andrew Lock talked about this on his table talk- people use smaller lifters’ ATWRs to excuse deviation in form. A lighter lifter hitting a respective ATWR is not the same strain on the body as Vlad Alhazov’s 1157lb wrapped squat. The body can withstand some knee cave at 400lbs on the bar, it cannot with 1100+lbs.
To Lock’s point, I raise a similar train of thought. When Jimmy Kolb benched 1401lbs, he broke a bench. The first meet he attempted it at, the plates filled the bar to the point where his side handoff guys had no sleeve left to grab and the bar began to not whip but oscillate and he couldn’t safely bring the bar down. These weights require a new level of problem solving lighter lifters do not ever have to worry about, and his follies lead to innovation that makes lifting even better for people below his level. There is no amount of math that can account for such abstract issues.
If we consider what coefficients are really trying to do, I think it becomes apparent it is a fool’s errand. They are trying to compare lifters across different categories, and the unfortunate reality is that will always be a fun conversation but impossible to concretely do. Every weight class, equipment division, age group, and gender will have unique challenges for the weights said categories allow them to handle. The farther apart you get, the more speculative such comparisons become.
Outside of my logical gripes with coefficients, I also think they misguide younger/newer lifters into staying in the wrong weight classes. Many I know are scared to gain weight because they think their coefficient will go down and they will be “less competitive.” They forget to account for the fact that if they put on more muscle, they will lift more weight! Mass moves mass.
So what is the solution? Well, unfortunately it would not be fiscally feasible to award every weight class a cash prize- so I understand why meet directors rely on coefficients for best lifter. It is sad, but I see no better solution. I do like what the ABS Powerlifting Series is doing with “Biggest Total Wins” meets, but they will not ultimately be few and far between (and obviously leave no room for smaller lifters). For individual lifters, I truly think the best course of action is to chase ranks within a weight class. You can see this anytime on OpenPowerlifting, and ultimately you can pursue the ATWRs listed there per class/division/gender. In a perfect world, all weight classes would be equally competitive and meets would payout winners of classes and ignore coefficients entirely. Unfortunately that world is not the one we live in.