What makes a great armwrestler?

What makes a great armwrestler?

 


Undoubtedly armwrestling is exploding right now. Globally more armwrestling videos are being consumed than ever before. Armwrestling is creating internet celebrities like Schoolboy, Khaled and Devon Larratt almost every week and more and more grass roots armwrestling is popping up every day.

It is most certainly an exceptional time for the growth of the sport and with this time there is a drastic increase in the need for good quality guidance and coaching. So what makes a great armwrestler?

To the newcomer, this sport appears simply to be all about strength. It is easy for a newcomer to fall victim to the assumption that the bigger man, the one who appears stronger will always be superior. The truth is, this is far from reality.

Armwrestling is about three major factors. The first, as identified by most newcomers is muscular strength. Muscular strength is the engine room behind the movements, the obvious and visible factor is a hugely developed forearm, wrist and hand. Muscular strength in these areas is a big factor. However it is only one of three factors.

The second is connective tissue conditioning. This factor largely goes unseen by the newcomer. Without having been through years of developing the conditioning it is very easy to not notice how significant a factor it really is. In particular, elbow conditioning and brachialus conditioning are very significant factors. For an elite armwrestller, these tendons and ligaments compliment their muscular strength and allow a very unnatural force to be imparted into their opponents. This factor alone is the major reason why a 70kg armwrestler can simply toy with a 100kg bodybuilder, despite the bodybuilder having superior muscular strength.

The third and final factor is skill. Make no mistake, armwrestling is a combative sport. Competitors face each other directly. They do not compete by lifting an object or a machine, it is human vs human which immediately brings in endless variables. Understanding the biomechanics of the intracate movements of the sport allow far more efficient applications of force and separate novices from amateurs from pros and from elites.

Combined, it takes all three of these factors to reach pro level and beyond.

Names like Khaled are a great example of enourmous muscular strength in all the right areas. If Khaled develops the next two factors to the same degree he has his strength he has the potential to be a world champion.

Other names like Jordan Davis aka Skinny Guy, has less of the muscular development, but endless amounts of connective tissue conditioning and skill, and because of this has baffled many giant muscular novices.

At the end of the day, for the newcomer it is important to give equal dedication to all three factors when pursuing the sport. In fact channels like mine at Ryan Blue Bowen or The Voice of Armwrestling or Lethal Arm Assassin Network or Neil Pickup's Supernatural Strength Show are the absolute go to places to learn the art of armwrestling completely. All of these channels dive deep into training, and techniques and give invaluable insights.

In fact on my very own channel Lachlan Adair and I offer a dedicated armwrestling coaching service which is designed to completely guide the novice armwrestler all the way to pro standards. Sign up here 

End of the day, armwrestling is a complex sport and the amount of genuine dedication it takes to becomes a pro and beyond is equivalent to any other strength and combat sport. It takes years of consistent training and thousands of hours of dedicated thought.





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