It is. That's why "hip joint below top of knee" is the right way to do it. None of this "parallel" bull****, it's just too ambiguous and hard to judge. IMO, If the top of your thigh at your hip joint was not below the top of your knee, it wasn't a full squat, and it didn't count, period. If there's any question at all, then you should have gone a few millimeters deeper and it wasn't a full squat and it didn't count, period. If you were wearing anything other than normal gym clothes, and
maybe a belt, then it didn't count, period. If it was done with anything other than standard free weights and a rack (no monolift), then it didn't count, period. If anyone
touched you or the weight anytime between when you descended and when you stood back up, then it didn't count, period.
I'm tired of seeing **** like this called a "squat":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUrhOWcby3U Don't even get me started on the bench. Powerlifting was such a cool sport, but the gear and cognitive dissonance have ruined it. People are claiming totally ridiculous numbers, by cheating and ****ty judging, and it discredits the sport and the lifters. It's just like story of the Emperor's New Clothes, everyone in the room knows it's ridiculous, but nobody wants to say it out loud. Powerlifting has become a joke for the most part.
I still think the raw, (belt is OK for safety, straps are OK if grip is a limitation, because you never need to hold onto a 400 lb + bar outside of a gym) conventional (not sumo) deadlift is the best all-around test of strength. Technique isn't a big factor, it's a pretty fair test (unless you have t-rex or orangutan length arms) and there's not really any way to cheat (except for hitching) so none of this garbage like Flyer is pulling, with people claiming 400+ lb "squats" when they're really quarter-squatting, and can't even pull 315 off the floor.
Sorry Flyer, but the "squat" you posted was a joke, I don't think it was even a quarter squat. If your claimed 180 kg "squat" was only slightly lower, than it still wasn't even close to a full squat, it probably wasn't even a half squat. That's why your "squat" is 40 kg higher than your deadlift. I hope you didn't "squat" that high for the entire Smolov cycle, because if you did then you wasted 13 weeks of training. If you would like to disprove this by squatting 180 kg under the above criteria and posting a side-view video, I'd love to see it and will retract my statement. Otherwise please edit your sig, because it's ridiculous.