Earlier this afternoon, it was announced on the APF Facebook page that the APF would now have a knee wrap/sleeve division. In recent past, the raw category did not allow either for raw competitions.
J.R. Bolger, the South Dakota Co-Chairman said, “We now have the Classic Raw division which will allow wraps/sleeves. This goes into effect immediately. This is ONLY allowed an APF National basis. This does not apply to any WPC meets.”
This is rather big news, and shows that powerlifting is growing and meet directors and federation officials are listening to what the lifters want to see (at least with the APF).
It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the future, and if the WPC will adapt as well to bring a raw with knee wraps/sleeves to the world stage.
I personally think this is great to see as the sport adapts, but I’m curious as to what will happen with the raw division without sleeves/wraps. Wearing sleeves in the APF now is going to be more of a disadvantage due to the support of knee wraps, so some lifters that enjoy competing in sleeves may go elsewhere for more of an even playing field.
Something that I have no seen mentioned yet, has been specifics on the wraps allowed. I’m not sure of the limitations in wrap length, so this is something you would certainly want to inquire about to the meet director or APF if you opt to compete in the APF here soon with knee wraps.
While many Facebook comments also went the other direction stating how change is bad and adding more division further divides the sport, this is of course personal opinion. Regardless, the APF made a decision based upon what the lifters wanted to see, and they went through with it. There will clearly be new APF records that will be going up, but the old raw rankings will still stand. Just remember if you want to get to WPC Worlds raw, you’re still going to have to leave your sleeves/wraps at home (for now).
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