At the 2017 Worlds, raw world records couldn’t be set. However, this year and every year after, they can be set. The raw world records will be updated at the end of the 2018 regular lifting season in August of 2018.

There will be many divisions and their respective weight classes that won’t be occupied with a record. But at the World championships in 2018 you will be able to set a world record in any division and weight class if your lift is high enough or just by showing up if your division and weight class is vacant.

Then again in 2019 in August at the end of the regular meet lifting season, the highest records from the state and International meets will be the new world raw records. So, for raw world records the only two times records will be updated is at the worlds and in August at the end of the regular lifting season. Potentially, if your raw lift is high enough you will have the capability to set a raw world record at every WABDL meet you just won’t get your certificate or get credit for it until August.

All world records in single and double-ply can be set at any WABDL meet. The raw records are so new that there would be thousands set at every year for the first three or four years. Some have suggested there be a qualifying standard for every raw record. In a sense the “standard” is being set by the lifters during the year with the highest records becoming the bench mark. For a variety of reasons, I have ruled out setting an arbitrary standard, and the way I have explained it is the way it will be.