Arm wrestling is a popular sport which involves two participants for a trial of strength. In this attempt, both the participants try to pin each other's arm down on a flat surface to win the game.
Both the opponents tend to place their arm on a surface with their elbows bent. The sport is being played since centuries, but officially it came into play in the 1950s. The main motive of arm wrestling is to test the strength of an individual.
The sport takes a great deal of skill to become a successful arm wrestler along with psychological tactics. There are three main arm-wrestling techniques: "top-roll," "hook" and "press." Based on various factors, including the body size, specific areas of strength and intuition about an opponent's strategy, competitors try various tactics during the game.
Objective
The main objective behind arm wrestling is to pin the opponent's hand onto the table touchpad. It is only achieved by a combination of strength, practice and skills. Although being a strength sport, it is highly psychological. In the international levels, such as during the World Arm Wrestling Championships, the competitors try to win for their national team by scoring the maximum score overall.
History of Arm Wrestling
The history of arm wrestling can be traced back to ancient Egypt, as numerous wall paintings in Egyptian caves depicted the origin of arm wrestling around 2000 BC years ago. The modern sport of arm wrestling is based on a Native American game.
The sport was prevalent in the middle age among children, as well as teenagers. It was a regular sport for high school and college student. A journalist, Bill Soberanes founded the sport of arm wrestling in the year of 1952 at the Gilardi's Saloon in Petaluma, California.
Soon, the tournaments were hosted on even bigger platforms and auditoriums of Petaluma. It was later renamed as the World Wristwrestling Championship because of its immense publicity and public demand. The championship was also telecasted on televised on the ABC's Wide World of Sports in 1969 and became an annual event on the program for the next 16 years.
In the later years, the World Armsport Federation (WAF) was founded with the United States, Canada, Brazil, and India as the first four members. It's the universally recognized global governing body of professional arm wrestling, which comprises of 80 member countries.
Bob O'Leary founded the American Arm wrestling Association, now known as the American Armsport Association (AAA) during the 1960s. By now, it has 56 member associations across the country.
Allen Fisher is one of the most successful and pioneer arm wrestlers who have won 27 World Championships. He is also among the oldest multiple world champions in the world. Another popular name is John Brzenk, who holds the Guinness Book of World Record title the "Greatest Armwrestler of All-time" with more than 60 plus titles under his name. Another top-notch arm wrestler is Heidi Andersson from Sweden who has won eleven World Championships in a span of 11 years from 1999 to 2014.
Other pioneer wrestlers include Alexey Voyeda, Zaur Tskhadadze, Ion Oncescu, Devon Larratt and Jerry Cadorette.
Variants
Standup Arm-Wrestling
Both the players tend to stand on the ground and bow down to the surface while trying to knock down each other's hand on the table.
Sit-down Arm-Wrestling
Both the players get seated and face each other while trying to knock down each other's hand.
