Just about every bloke, and every woman who fancies herself as no pushover, has settled a test of strength the arm wrestle way.
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But there’s so much more than brawn to the hand-holding tussle that goes on in any fair dinkum Aussie pub.
Shannon Michels, 33, has never had an arm wrestle on a night out – he takes it much more seriously.
The Illawarra former martial artist has learnt the hard way that good technique is what will take him to the next level in the fast-growing sport.
‘’I’ve done martial arts for years, I’ve been a bouncer for 11 years but I’ve never arm wrestled in a pub once,’’ he said.
’’My interest started when I saw videos on Facebook, I saw a guy arm wrestler called The Stop Sign in America and he was funny to watch. I thought this kind of looks like a proper sport.
So Michels googled ‘’arm wrestling in Australia’’ and found the state team in North Rocks.
‘’At first everyone was impressed by my strength but my technique was garbage,’’ he explains of his early attempts against some serious competitors in Sydney.
‘’I pulled down some heavyweights just based on strength, but in my first competitions I was annihilated, I just wasn’t ready. And I soon found out The Stop Sign was a nobody in the arm wrestling scene,’’ he joked.
Michels is one of the newest competitors that put their skills to the test at the December 3 Australian Arm Wrestling Federation’s National titles in Melbourne.
He’s been training eight months and considers himself obsessed.
’’I travel two hours to get there to train each fortnight with Sydney guys. I wanted to be competitive, I wanted to take it seriously from my second training session.’’
He got his own specialist table and put together a local team that’s always looking for more members.
‘’There are 50 really dedicated competitors in the country at the moment. Probably ten of those have been going it long term to compete internationally.
‘’I want to compete internationally.’’
Michels trains twice a week with his Illawarra team and does resistance training six times a week on top of his training in Sydney.
He urges anyone interested in a ‘’strength-based sport with one-on-one intense competition’’ should consider arm wrestling.
If you’re interested in arm wrestling and joining the illawarra crew visit the Illawarra Armwrestling Facebook page @ https://www.facebook.com/illawarraarmwrestling/