TYR WZA x PFAA

November 14, 2023

PARTNERSHIP

Hand in hand with the PFAA, the TYR Wodapalooza is taking an intentional step to further the community of fitness athletes. By agreeing to a list of standard ways to enhance the competition experience, the aim is to provide ample, safe opportunities for athletes to showcase their abilities on the competition floor.

The hope is to build upon this partnership, to support the growth of the sport, and that other competitions, of diverse sizes and types, will follow suit.

See below the various areas in which WZA is collaborating with the PFAA

Objective of The TYR Wodapalooza (WZA) Miami

First and foremost, Wodapalooza is meant to be a fun competition, coupled with a legitimate and fair test of fitness. As our primary objective, the fun is meant to extend to the competitors themselves and to the fans watching on-site and at home.
Our objective is to provide all athletes, from the best in the world, to the 99%, with an elite-level competition experience that both accurately ranks them against a field of similar athletes.

Communication

WZA agrees to communicate clearly and transparently with athletes leading up to the competition via both email and an athlete communications channel (i.e. Slack) to be announced closer to the competition.
Communications to athletes will include information, updates, and any competition-related changes that may occur.
WZA agrees to provide answers to questions via the following channels:
- Email
- Official Athlete Handbook
- FAQ Page
- Website
- In-person, within the athlete relations areas
WZA provides the following information to athletes 30 days prior to the competition
- Total # of workouts & total # of times taking the competition floor
- Time to arrive for the weekend check-in
- Scoring details & point breakdown
- Which athletes will be required to swim
- Swag details

Division Standards

WZA confirms that the workouts match what’s required as per the division standards

Briefings

WZA agrees to provide workout briefings for all competing athletes, with frequency and method based on the appropriate division
Community Divisions
- Will receive a comprehensive virtual briefing on all workouts prior to the competition weekend
- Pre-workout briefings by a head judge prior to each workout of the competition weekend
Adaptive Divisions
- Will receive a virtual briefing prior to the competition weekend as well as in-person, on-site briefings during the competition weekend.
Elite Divisions
- To have in-person, on-site workout briefings prior to each competition day, in which coaches will be invited to attend Pre-workout briefings by a head judge prior to each workout of the competition weekend

Registration

WZA agrees to create a smooth and comprehensive registration process for all divisions prior to the start of on-site competition.
WZA agrees to effectively communicate all dates/times and requirements of registration in advance to all participating athletes.

Schedule

WZA agrees to create a clear schedule and make athletes aware of that schedule as soon as it is appropriate.

Programming

Confidentiality
- WZA agrees to carefully guard the details of all programming.
- A micro group of individuals who are mission-critical to the execution of the competition will be made aware of workouts. Each of those individuals is bound by an NDA and will be explained the importance of confidentiality in programming.
- WZA’s testing teams are only aware of individual workouts and we place them through dummy workouts so that even they do not know the specifics of the final workouts.
Workout Release
- WZA agrees to have a detailed schedule for workout releases.
- WZA agrees to publicize a release schedule and hold to that schedule.
- WZA agrees to workout releases being a combination of written and video descriptions of all workouts with participating athletes being briefed more in-depth during their respective athlete briefings.
- Workout elements will not change after the announcements/briefings unless weather or safety concerns force a change, and will be effectively communicated.
Movement & Judging
- WZA agrees that all movements selected, and their subsequent movement standards, are clear and simple.
- WZA agrees to communicate movement standards in writing and via briefs.
- WZA agrees to create clear consequences for not following standards.
- WZA will not implement any net-new movements into competition.

Elite Coaches

WZA agrees to provide Elite Division coaches a designated area at each stage where they will be able to view their athletes during the workout.

Prize Purse Payout

WZA agrees to a 90-day post-event athlete payout schedule for all prize monies earned.
This agreement is subject to each athlete providing accurate required financial documents.
Athletes who provide incorrect information or do not return paperwork in a timely manner may not be paid within this window.

PFAA Liaisons

TYR WODAPALOOZA agrees to allow a PFAA athlete liaison to have full access to the competition.
WZA agrees that full access is to include attendance at all athlete briefings, Athlete HQ, warm-up area, judges briefings, and scoring areas. It does not include access to workout details prior to their public disclosure.

TYR WODAPALOOZA agrees to the following in reference to Judges & Movement Standards

Make its best efforts to provide consistent judging across all lanes and all workouts, regardless of athlete or division.
Appoint qualified and impartial judges who are knowledgeable about the rules and movement standards of the sport.
Provide both virtual and on-site training for all competition judges. All judges will be briefed and trained in depth on all workouts and will enforce identical movement standards across lanes and across heats.
Provide our judging volunteers with performance reviews that allow the head judge and team leads to provide in-the-moment feedback to judges during the competition weekend.
Compile detailed records of judges’ performances over a competition, to positively influence future judge selections and assignments.
For max lifting events, the athlete will always be responsible for loading their own barbell in order to diminish the possibility that a judge could make a loading mistake that could cost an athlete valuable points in the competition. This does not include barbell ladder-style events, in which pre-loaded barbells are utilized.
Encourage Head Judges to enter a lane and provide judging assistance in situations where a lane judge may have a challenge.

TYR WODAPALOOZA agrees to the following regarding appeals

Have a clear and simple policy regarding appeals as laid out in the Official Rulebook.
- Agrees to allow athletes to appeal specific no-reps and will define what those are, by event.
Athletes may appeal another athlete’s score.
- WZA agrees this will not count towards the athlete’s allotted appeals.
- The WZA appeal team will fully look into the matter with the utmost concern, and determine whether a scoring adjustment is required for the competition leaderboard to be accurate and fair for the field of competitors.
Coaches can file an appeal on behalf of their athlete without their athlete’s involvement.
Individual athletes may file two total appeals per competition.

Safety and Medical Services

Prioritize the safety of participants, spectators, and officials. Have medical personnel and first aid facilities on-site to address any injuries or emergencies.
Common movement problems. WZA agrees to do its very best to follow all PFAA-provided guidelines regarding common movement problems.
Injury removal plan. WZA will implement a concise injury removal plan that will be communicated in writing, via the WZA rulebook prior to the start of competition. While this will seek to address potential scenarios, undoubtedly, unforeseen situations will come up. In this situation, the Director of Medical will implement the very best solution to ensure, first and foremost, the immediate safety of the affected athlete and others, and secondly, to maintain a fair competition environment.
Weather Contingency Plans: Due to its completely outdoor nature, WZA will prepare a clear plan in case competition is faced with rain or other unsafe weather conditions to maintain a safe environment. WZA agrees to be judicious in activating any contingency plan for the sake of safety, while maintaining a fair competition environment by ensuring all athletes within a division perform the same variety of an event.
Volume – While programming, WZA will be conscientious of volume in the form of number of events, number of repetitions in an event, intensity required in an event, and repeated movement patterns across multiple events, to protect the physical safety of athletes.

TYR WODAPALOOA agrees to the following regarding Equipment and Facilities

Enforce specific attire requirements as laid out in the official Rulebook. PFAA produced visual aids will be printed and posted in the warmup areas and athlete control will be trained to monitor athlete attire prior to athletes taking the competition floor.
Specialty athlete equipment. If requiring athletes to perform a movement that would benefit an athlete by the use of a specialty piece of equipment (i.e. a beaded rope for cross-overs,) WZA agrees to provide said equipment to all athletes to avoid an unfair advantage.
Equipment equity. All pull-up bars and rings will be set at heights in which taller athletes can perform movements without dragging their feet at full arm extension, and shorter athletes will be provided access to two 6” risers to reach implements in a similar fashion.
An equitable setup of the competition floor that ensures all athletes cover an equal distance in each event, except in the event of a group start event.
Maintain consistent lanes on each of our competition stages that are free of elevation changes, slanted surfaces, etc.
Provide all athletes equal preparation time of at least 2 hours if/when a new movement is announced for those athletes to have appropriate time to attempt to master the movement prior to competition.
Keep all heats consistent once a workout has been briefed. This consistency means that no changes will be made to the workout after the first heat of athletes has completed the workout even if it is found that athletes have an advantage that was not expected.
Provide consistent warm-up access across all heats. This access includes a minimum of 25 minutes and access to the same equipment so that no heat has an advantage. See below for additional detail regarding warm ups.
Have all athletes assigned to a lane for every workout unless that workout has a mass start.
Measure every distance athletes travel both in testing and prior to the start of the on-site competition to ensure that athletes will travel equal distances and to confirm times caps are appropriate.
rovide uniform spacing on all competition floors for all workouts. This uniform spacing will provide each athlete has a safe amount of room for them, their equipment, and their judge and provides the judge with an appropriate angle to be able to see the entirety of the athlete’s movements.

TYR WODAPALOOZA agrees to the following regarding Scoring and Timing:

Implement an effective scoring and timing system that is accurate and easily understood by participants, officials, and spectators.
Leverage PFAA-provided scoring tables that are appropriate for the # of athletes competing. These are found here.
Score each test by an appropriate weighting system that ensures no test is given more “weight” than another.
Provide a simple method of determining a tie-break for athletes on time-capped workouts. This method will create a clear way to count each repetition of a workout such that each athlete is appropriately compensated for their work completed.
If a workout contains cuts and/or is bracketed all tests within that workout will be identical in nature.
Allow injured and withdrawn athletes to retain all earned points and be ranked accordingly on the leaderboard.
Have a clear and understandable minimum work requirements (“MWR”) policy and provide said policy to all competing athletes prior to the start of the competition.
Make no cuts to the competition field after the start of the competition.
Only aggregate like scores. For example, pounds from one lift to pounds from another lift, finishing time from one interval to finishing time from another interval, or reps from one AMRAP to reps from another AMRAP to determine a total score.
Not allow a winner-take-all final event.
Keep a points table of 100-point events or 50-point events for the entirety of the competition.
Create a protocol for scoring false starts and we agree to make all athletes aware of this scoring policy prior to the start of competition.

TYR WODAPALOOZA agrees to the following regarding athlete warmup:

Limit the amount of time between warm-up and workout as much as possible. Due to the setup and area between the warm-up area and the competition stage, this timing is roughly 25 minutes. We agree to shorten this time frame if and when at all possible and will make athletes aware of their call times to corral during their athlete briefings.
Provide a smaller, secondary warm-up area for athletes to utilize at the stage during their corral to stay warm in the event of a 1 rep max event.
Provide identical or similar equipment in the warm-up area as will be utilized on the competition floor for athletes to warm up within the warm-up area.
Provide adequate equipment for the warm-up area that will allow all heats of athletes to warm up effectively for all workouts during the competition weekend.
Provide all heats with equal and adequate time to warm up so that no heat has an advantage over other heats. The time allotted in the warm-up area will be a minimum of 25 minutes.
Provide all athletes equal access to new equipment if a new piece of equipment is introduced for use in competition.