Busan, Korea - The new one-kilo rule in weightlifting has inspired more than just comments about how it would affect competition strategy: It inspired Uesaka to take a radical approach in designing the new small plates - they screw onto the outside of the collar.

 
The new small plates screw on the outside of the re-designed Uesaka collar, making them easier to see. IronMind® | Randall J. Strossen, Ph.D. photo.
 

The new plates (0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 kg) have new colors now, too, paralleling the colors of their big brothers, so they follow the color pattern of the 5-, 10-, 15- and 20-kg plates.

Sam Coffa, Chairman of the IWF Technical Committee, told IronMind® that the new collar has been accepted by the IWF. The new 1.5-kg plate has also received IWF approval, "although it's not compulsory," Coffa explained, since the same weight could be loaded by using a traditional-style 1.0 and a 0.5 kg plate.

The smallest of these plates, weighing 0.5 kg, was very hard to see when it was inside the collar, Uesaka observed, so they created a system for putting it on the outside of the collar.

Tadamasa Uesaka told IronMind® that his company has patented their design, and this means that if other barbell companies would like to use this system, they will have to pay Uesaka a fee.