Syndicated Strength Alliance BRASIL

ANF´s VICE-PRESIDENT PASSES

2011-04-08T08:20:00.001-07:00

Luiz Henrique Cruz, born in Rio de Janeiro and living in Vitoria, ES, Brazil, passed away in April 6, 2011. Luiz Henrique was ANFs vice-president, FCBB’s president and FCF’s president. Sports leader since 1999, Luiz Henrique was international referee in bodybuilding by the IFBB Sudamerica and member of the referee committee of the CBCM. He was CREF1/ES representative and CREF1/ES parliament coordinator. Luiz Henrique was also a bench press athlete, with regional, national and international titles. His generous, entrepreneurial and dedicated spirit is irreplaceable and will be greatly missed by friends and co-workers.

ANF: Aliança Nacional da Força (strength sports national organization); FCBB: Federação Capixaba de Body Building (bodybuilding state organization); FCF: Federação Capixaba da Força (powerlifting state organization); CBCM: Confederação Brasileira de Culturismo e Musculação (bodybuilding national organization); CREF (official Physical Education accreditation organism).

Founding a new culture

2011-03-19T20:33:00.000-07:00

The first two years were altogether frustrating: there was no way anybody would actually understand the concept of an organization not based on power games and struggle over the faded reflection of Olympic gold. I almost gave up.
Brazil has been with the SSA for 3 years already. In the second year, 2009, we managed to found our national organization, the National Strength Alliance (Aliança Nacional da Força, ANF). Nothing happened because of the reasons above. We did organize a few meets, but through the GPC. The GPC is a very nice organization, easier to understand and digest in the local context.
Brazil is a complicated country, deeply divided by equally difficult trends: on the one hand you have the IPF national organization, which is 35 years old in Brazil, is financially stable and exerts substantial control over athletes through the mechanisms involved in a government assistance program called the “athlete fellowship”. On the other hand you have a sort of "everything goes" type of meet, embraced by different local organizations, some of which don't exist anymore.
Athletes were left “orphan”: those who were not willing to go back, or to go to the national IPF organization and those who had nowhere to go. Many of these "orphans" came to us, with a lot of preconceptions that range from attitude to powerlifting rules (or, rather, lack of rules).
As some organizations faded away, others gained the right, before the Ministry of Sports, to grant the athlete fellowship like the IPF BR-branch. The war over athletes got uglier, fueled by a complicated politics involving the government assistance program. The ANF lost many of its early supporters, who admitted that the money involved in the program as too relevant (about US$800,00/month).
The National Strength Alliance (ANF) was too young to claim that right. I must also admit that I was not willing to participate in this dispute. It seemed tantamount to being unethical. We now have “come of age” both to claim the government athlete assistance and other public support grants. What will become of us now depends on these factors as well. It would be naïve of me to simply turn my back on government support in the name of “peace in powerlifting”. There must be another way to peace that does not involve sacrificing the athlete community.
It was my decision to back up a little in 2011 and hold less meets. We are much closer to substantial support, but I believe we need to be cautious. Also, we – and by “we” I mean myself and a varying number of supporters – all have our jobs and commitments. We can’t afford much more.
The news is that we are presently organizing VERY small meets, no medals or trophies, no actual cost, but done properly: sound rules, good referees and good lifting. Which doesn’t mean heavy lifting.
A new culture depends on new minds – not necessarily those involved during so many years in the complicated issues I mentioned above. I have the support of the local Crossfit chapter – good friends. We’ll hold meets there – small, decent, friendly meets.
This is our new “experiment”: how many people are willing to admit that powerlifting is a marginal sport in the good sense, in the sense that it constitutes something that requires years of training for proper appreciation and therefore will hardly become popular? And, therefore, chose to have fun rather than chase an imaginary glory and wealth (where from, I wonder)? We will see, this year.
Marilia

bench shirt

2010-01-25T06:35:00.000-08:00

I had a great day in my bench shirt yesterday. This year will be a good year.

First meet

2010-01-22T16:26:00.000-08:00

We here at SSA headquarters are very excited about seeing video and some big numbers from the first meet. I think this is awesome and can't wait to compete there myself someday.

Ask Brazil! Pergunte ao Brasil

2010-01-20T07:03:00.001-08:00

Ask any question you want about Brazilian Powerlifting and/or the SSA chapter.

Pergunte o que quiser sobre o Powerlifting Brasileiro e/ou a sessão brasileira da SSA.

Pergunte à SSA International (Ask SSA - International)

2010-01-20T07:00:00.000-08:00

Faça aqui sua pergunta à SSA Internacional - qualquer um pode perguntar.

Ask your question to SSA International here - anyone can ask.

Welcome Brasil

2010-01-19T10:10:00.001-08:00

The SSA welcomes Brasil to our family.

Zane McCaslin

Introdução – Introduction

2010-01-19T05:29:00.000-08:00

Este é um blog bi-lingue. THIS IS A BILINGUAL BLOG.

Este é o blog da sessão brasileira da SYNDICATED STRENGTH ALLIANCE (SSA), uma entidade de organização de powerlifting fundada nos Estados Unidos. O objetivo é promover a interação direta entre os representantes e responsáveis nos Estados Unidos e os ativistas brasileiros. Dentro do espírito da entidade, podemos todos nos comunicar horizontalmente, sem líderes e poderosos mediando este diálogo. Os representantes brasileiros se organizam na ALIANÇA NACIONAL DA FORÇA (ANF), criada em junho de 2009.

Neste espaço, podem ser feitas perguntas, comentários e trocadas experiências entre aliados de todos os países. Embora tendo poucos recursos humanos, tentaremos sempre providenciar a tradução rápida dos posts de um lado a outro. Se os posts forem longos, pedimos um pouco de paciência. Também estimulamos aqueles brasileiros que possam postar diretamente em inglês, que o façam: não é necessário que seja um texto impecável ou super correto.

This is the SYNDICATED STRENGTH ALLIANCE Brazilian Chapter blog. The SSA is a powerlifting organization founded in the United States and presently expanding its activities to other countries. Our goal here is to promote direct interaction between American representatives and Brazilian activists. According to the SSA spirit, we can all communicate horizontally, with no leaders and power-invested individuals mediating this dialogue. The Brazilian Chapter is organized as the Aliança Nacional da Força, ANF (National Strength Alliance).

In this space, questions, comments and experience may be exchanged between allies from all countries. Although we still struggle with human resources issues, we will always try to provide fast translation of posts from one side to the other. For longer posts, we ask you to have a little patience. We also stimulate those Brazilians that can post their comments directly in English to do so. It is not necessary that the text is impeccable or super-correct.