Powerlifting Peter Pan Syndrome
Don't be fooled by do-nothings just because they're old and broken!
Peter Pan Syndrome is defined as such:
“Peter Pan syndrome is a pop-psychology term used to describe an adult who is socially immature. It is a metaphor, based on the concept of not growing up and being trapped in childhood.”
I’m sure we all can think of a few people who fit the bill in the real world (Disney adults come to mind).
However, powerlifting has its own subset of the same kind of person. There are certain now old and run down lifters that were never what they thought they could have been for one reason or another. However, with the internet; it is now much easier to call bullshit on their egos.
I have run into quite a few of them in my short time in the sport, and once I recognized the signs I knew I had to warn my peers.
The most obvious one is the “my way or the highway” approach to giving advice. This is one of the most obvious ways to sport a charlatan in all aspects of fitness. While there is “wrong,” there is never a singular “right.” They are older- therefore anything you say (no matter who you learned it from) is incorrect. This is not to say all older lifters are not worth listening to, not by a long shot! But you must know it is possible to be old and wrong; or at the very least stuck in now outdated ways.
Another thing you will notice is the difference in tone talking to you versus when a very talented lifter is around. Almost instantly, they will turn into a dickrider and throw you by the wayside.
The final way to spot these individuals is clinging on to what is long past. Listen, I understand it is hard to let go of what you have dedicated a significant portion of your life to, and that is not something I am here to attack! What I will attack, however, is clinging on not to enjoy the sport; but to spread nothing but negativity. Let’s break down some of the common phrases of the curmudgeons:
“Today’s lifters are soft!”- There are just a significantly higher amount of hobbyists than there were because the sport has grown from social media. Not everyone is willing to be broke and broken to do this, and that’s perfectly fine. They are getting what they want out of their experience of the sport, just as you did. There are still people going the distance, and they are the ones winning.
“My generation had much stronger lifters!”- Maybe. Or maybe not. What cannot be debated is numbers keep going up, and modern raw numbers (especially in the deadlift) are cresting gear numbers from the days of yore. I understand equipment and rules have changed, but does it fucking matter? The sport is moving forward no matter how you slice it.
“Judging is such a mess nowadays!”- Usually in reference to high squats. Newsflash: there has always been less-than-pristine meets. Look at all the old videos of super soft handoffs paired with a 4xl singlet with stickum on the ass in the denim days. There is just more videos of subpar lifting today because everyone has a camera on them at all times. Back in the day, there wasn’t YouTube. At most you got a picture of a squat in a PowerliftingUSA; which could be from any point in the lift! If a tree falls in the woods and nobody is around to hear it- it still makes noise. Just because there isn’t as many videos of high squatting back in the day doesn’t mean it didn’t happen!
“I’d have a record if I had (insert new piece of gear here)!”- If it existed, everyone would have it; not just you. You would’ve likely been just as good or bad as you were. The cream always rises to the top.
“Everyone cares about social media too much!”- Usually said in the form of a post on social media. I should not have to spell out the irony in this.
“Nobody knows their history!”- This one is actually very true. I fully second it and think many should invest some time learning about how the sport got to where it is and some of the phenomenal lifters of past eras. However, usually this is actually a veiled ego trip. People complain that lifters today don’t know their history, or their view of the sport’s history.
What these Peter Pans of the sport miss out on is that their frustrations of not being listened to come because people can see through them now. We can check OpenPowerlifting and see a) exactly how well they stack up against all of the sport’s history and b) exactly how good they were when they competed. We can also see how broken they end up- which is usually a very real representation of following their methods. People can differentiate between “I fucked up so don’t do what I did” and “This is what I did and you need to listen to me because I’m right.”
It’s almost like the “I benched 405 when I was your age” line. Normally, this is impossible to prove as high school weight rooms were not recorded to any degree. But in powerlifting all sanctioned comps are indexed now, you cannot get away with things in the same manner.
The other thing they miss is once you interact with a true great, of modern or past eras; you quickly learn how different of a kind of person they are. I have never been talked down to by truly good lifters- but I have been shit on relentlessly by B and C tier guys; at meets, behind my back, in my DMs, etc.
While I won’t name names- an example is such: one time an older lifter posted about how boards are bullshit. I reached out and asked what they meant. They told me full range triples in the shirt are key. At the time, I was in an SDP, which I knew they benched in; so I asked what they did to preserve the shirt. To which, they told me “if you were serious you’d have 2-3 shirts.” At the time, I was cutting my teeth making $100 month at a financial services internship. I confided my situation to them, and they basically told me I didn’t want it bad enough.
Needless to say, I was a little pissed. I checked OpenPowerlifting, and his bench wasn’t even in the top 200 for his weight class! I bit my tongue, but it certainly shattered the illusion he had built up in that conversation.
On the other hand, where I will name names, the literal greatest bencher of all time (Jimmy Kolb) has never talked to me in even half as demeaning of a tone. If the king can not only just show decency, but downright be kind; why can’t the others?
Thankfully, I can wholeheartedly say these people are few and far between. I write this not as a hit piece on anyone in particular- but as a warning to my peers. Don’t let Peter Pan push you around!