Overview

This document will guide you through setting up and running a USAW-sanctioned weightlifting meet, providing helpful tools and documents for running your meet. Each step will link out to the owlcms documentation, but this is not a comprehensive guide. We recommend at least browsing through the full documentation to become familiar with the available features and functionality.

Looking for help running a meet? Check out our Weightlifting Services to take advantage of our expertise and state-of-the-art equipment.

Quick Start Kit

Any steps outlined in this document that are included in the quick start kit will be highlighted just like this.

Whether you're a first time user or an owlcms guru, our Quick Start Kit will get you ready for your next meet faster than ever.

  1. Download the file.
  2. Navigate to "Prepare Competition"
  3. Click the "Import Database" button.
  4. Upload the quick start file.
Download Quick Start Kit

Importing the quick start file will overwrite all settings and changes you've made in owlcms. This is intended to be the very first step you take in setting up your meet.

Local Files

The local documents are already loaded in the Quick Start Kit.

A lot of the customization in owlcms is managed through a set of local files. This includes document templates; style definitions for screens like the attempt board, scoreboards, and video overlays; age groups and weight classes; etc. We maintain a set of local files geared toward USAW meets, including all of the templates used at USAW national meets.

  1. Download the local files.
  2. Navigate to "Prepare Competition" -> "Language and System Settings".
  3. Follow the instructions in Selecting Which Templates are Shown to upload the zip.
  4. Check the box to show only local templates.
Download Local Files

Age Groups and Categories

The USAW age groups are already loaded in the Quick Start Kit. Simply adjust the active age groups as necessary.

Before you load the athletes into owlcms, you must define which age groups and categories are being contested. Before and during the competition, you only want to activate the age groups and weight classes that are eligible for medals.

When the age groups file has been loaded, all age groups and weight classes defined by USAW will be present, but only some of the age groups will be active. Make sure you activate or deactivate each age group based on your competition.

  1. Navigate to "Prepare Competition" -> "Define Age Groups and Categories".
  2. Select the "AgeGroups-USAW.xlsx" option in the dropdown at the top.
  3. Click the "Load Predefined Definition" button.
  4. Adjust the active age groups as necessary for your competition.

Registration

Athletes and sessions are entered through a registration spreadsheet. If your registration was done through BARS, you can use our registration conversion tool to convert it to an owlcms registration file.

Convert Registration File

Records

owlcms provides records management, allowing multiple sets of records to be tracked and displayed. All local competitions are eligible to set new WSO records, so we are actively working to provide record files for each WSO.

Download WSO Records

Medals

As soon as each session finishes, you can check which medals are ready to be awarded. The medals report will contain the medals for all categories that have just finished. You can set whether medals are earned for each lift or only the total on the Competition Rules settings page.

  1. Navigate to "Results" -> "Session Results".
  2. Select the session that just finished.
  3. Click the "Medals" button.

Prior to the competition, you can produce a medal schedule to determine when medals for each category can be awarded. This will look at which categories are competing in each session and determine the last session for each category. Since some athletes may not show up or change weight class at weigh-in, it is possible that the medal schedule can change during competition. For this reason, it is useful to compare the session's medal results to the pre-competition medal schedule to identify any categories that might have been missed in the medal reports. If this happens, just go back to the last session that contained the missed category and print the medal results again.

  1. Navigate to "Results".
  2. Click the "Medal Schedule" button.

Best Lifter

If you're awarding best lifter, the final package will contain overall rankings based on various scoring systems. If you're awarding best lifter in various age groups, you can filter the results by championship, age group, and category before producing the final package.

  1. Navgiate to "Results" -> "Competition Results".
  2. Optionally filter the athletes using the dropdowns.
  3. Click the "Final Results Package" button.

The final results package can be produced at any time during the competition and will include all athletes that have competed so far.

BARS Results

At the end of the competition, owlcms can produce a BARS-compatible results spreadsheet. Results for BARS should contain the most specific category each athlete is eligible for, even if that category was not contested, so you must reassign the categories for the athletes.

We recommend exporting the database at the end of the competition, before reassigning categories to generate the BARS results.

  1. Navigate to "Prepare Compeition" -> "Define Age Groups and Categories".
  2. Select "AgeGroups-BARS-Results.xlsx" from the dropdown.
  3. Click the "Load Predefined Definition" button.
  4. Click the "Confirm" button in the dialog that pops up.
  5. Navigate to "Results" -> "Competition Results".
  6. Click the "Registration Category Results" button.
  7. Select the "USAW-BARS-Results.xlsx" option.
  8. Click the "Download" button.
  9. Open the downloaded file and follow the instructions in the yellow box.

Referee Devices

Take the next step in improving the quality of your weightlifting meets with Blue Owl devices for referees, a timekeeper, and a down signal. These are the same devices used at USAW national meets.

Check Out Blue Owl Devices