I organized and directed a bench meet at a gym called Fitness Today in Atlanta back in February of 1992. I had never worked a meet before, only competed in them. We signed up about 40 entries, and created my own weight classes to even out the distribution of awards. As far as rules went, I allowed touch and go, but put on a brief clinic with my recruited judges to ensure that they understood the rules and were ready to enforce them.
Essentially the rules were USPF, but with the T&G and NO BENCH SHIRTS added.
It was a fun meet. I think I charged $10 for entry, and trophies were given to the top 3 in each class. Everyone seemed happy, and the benches ranged from 65 to 425 lbs, which was done by a 188 lb guy who was on loan from a halfway house. We had a 130 lb wrestler who had never competed who put up a 300 bench, and my training partner did a 350 at 175 paused (he always paused every rep, and claimed he couldn't bench T&G).
One of the more interesting entries was when the gym bench monkey, a 240 lb spandex ripped-T braggart who claimed a 405 bench with his ass way up in the air and bouncing off his chest with a little buddy help, saw him barely bench 325 under the stricter rules of my meet.
The coolest thing was that the gym let me do the meet, and never asked me for a penny. I convinced them it would be good pub for them, and they let me use all their equipment, solicit their members, and use their gym space for the event. They didn't even ask for any insurance protection, though I played it smart and obtained a policy.
This would NEVER happen today.
Fun times. I might host a BP/DL meet sometime soon in Atlanta, just for shits and giggles, or at least a smoker.
